hey folk. Well I finally did my first Tracked armor piece and also my first Heavy Artillery. These pics are just before painting.

The M35 Prime Mover is the AFV 1/35 kit. I downloaded a review and build by Terry Ashley of PMMS which he did for JB Wholesalers and web address is http://www.jbwholesalers.com.au/reviews/afvclub/afv35s08.htm
this was of immense help in modifying this kit to make it accurate. I did not do all of the things Terry did but I did do the main ones which were the engine deck and rear exhaust. I wish to thank Stormbringer (Pete) for kindly supplying me with a Tamiya M4A2 engine deck and exaust from his spares box.

The Long Tom once again is the AFV 1/35 kit. I built this OOB and while I did have a few minor issues with it, it went togeather well. I built this in the travelling position and made the cover from milliput. This was still wet when I took the pics so I have still to attach the tie down ropes

As this is my first trackie beasty I would like you guys to pull it to pieces and tell me what is wrong and how I can improve on my next piece of Armor.

Thanks
Cliff


the Long Tom with Tarp


the M35 Prime Mover


the modified engine deck


the resin windscreen frame supplied with the M35 kit. I have to replace the wiper blade which broke off


the resin front towing attachment


this is a resin rear towing hook supplied with the kit and it has the tow bar from the Long Tom fitted as well so you can join the Long Tom to the M35. Once I have painted both I will glue this piece to the front of the trailer.

So there we are folk. I finally did it and flipped over to do something different.

My thanks must also go to Wewillhold (Steve Keegan) who sent me the Long Tom kit as a gift from one friend to another. Thanks Mate

Looks fine Cliff. I've built both of these straight from the box (didn't know about the engine deck etc then!) and they're good kits. I think that you have the front tow mounting block a little crooked (too much XXXX?) and I'd have mounted the spare wheels a little lower on the sides so that they didn't protrude above deck level, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your's are wrong.

See - said you wouldn't need medication, it isn't that painfull making tracky things instead of trucks!

They both look really good Cliff, I can't see anything that needs correcting. Well except for it to be a trackie thing it needs tracks hehe :-)
Looking forward to seeing them finished

You can take that to the bank sir!!!!



Signed
Roo jr.

Its always good to see people broaden their horizens... btw those look great so far as always.. can't wait to see the finished works.

Cliff, Looking really good from here. The clevises on either side of the forward resin towing attachment (5th picture down) look like they have some seams that may need to be dealt with but other than great build.


Shaun

I'm in shock.......

Roo has gone cookoo. Great Long Tom and Prime Mover

Thanks for the replies guys.

Dave the spare wheels are sitting high as that is where the instructions showed them to be. But as you say I don't think it really matters all that much.

Cheers
Cliff

Looking good so far MrRoo. Bet you're looking forward to work on tracks.

Wonderful voyage to the trackie side,Cliff.
According to a picture in Crismon's Tracked Vehicle book,pg 287,the spares are at least as high up as you have them.
Also I can see a hint of a trailer airbrake connection near the clamp to the front tow pintle.A thing to add,or show shot off!
Are you going to put a clear "glass in the resin windshield?If there isnt one in it by now,a small "swipe " of gloss black in the periscope behind it will be in order.
Well done Cliff!
MMhmm (++) (++)

I don't think Cliff's gone too far off his rocker (sorry, bad pun). It'd take a Tiger I to suprise me. This is really just an armored truck on tracks. Its OD and its pulling something, right up your alley. Either way, it looks great.

I especially like the cover on the Long Tom. Why is there a windscreen for the driver, when he has a hatch? And why doesn't the asst. driver have one?

Great to see you around. Show us when it gets done.

Jeff

Howdy Roo,

Mighty nice looking truck...oops!....er, I mean't "Prime Mover" there Cliff. But what's all this hubub about "... Roo has flipped....." stuff anyway??........personally I think you're takin' the 'mickie' out of us by building a "Prime Mover" in the first place, which can be a truck or a 'tracked' thingie..........

It's funny you chose to build this particular vehicle, seeing as I just recently posted a photo of it in another thread.
And I must agree with TankCarl regarding the placement of the replacement roadwheels.
Here's the pic to support our good 'Roo's placement......



Personally I don't see why they're mounted so high. Seems to me they'd get in the way both physically and visually.............

Tread.

Keep up the good work sir.

pretty coolwork cliff. maybe now its the time to drag u to figgies .now that ure flipped

In the weight of other evidence, I'm more than happy to withdraw my comment re. the spare bogie wheels. They do look odd up there, but it's obviously the correct position.
What next, a diorama setting for the M35 & gun?LOL (just kidding - one step at a time!)

Thanks for all your comments guys.

This one when finished I will make a base for. Just something simple to fix it down for easier carrying so nothing gets damaged as it is a long model when fitted togeather.

Cliff
Great job so far Will you be using the kit tracks?

Roo:

Well, I usually allow slack for building a gun & prime mover -- at least one has wheels. But beware of the dark side, keep your standards up

You know the M35 isn't really the PM for the 155, right ? But that's OK, it's definitely better than the resin kits. Because you built the 155 OOB, you have the very post-war 5-spoke wheels, yet the M35 is, I think, just an interim WW2 thing, so somewhat of an anachronism. If you do another 155 (you can never do just one of them), look into the Masters Production resin kit to go with it -- fixes the wheels, gives some really neccessary detail, and even an M2 Limber.

See my Gallery, Incoming Campaign, for some 155 shots.

Because you have made the gun cover, you've masked a lot of the 155 kit shortfalls -- in particular the trail travel lock setup. I have four suggestions to kick it up a notch.

-- The kit instructions are in error for the T-Bolt, which is shown attached to the body & trails of the limber. This is only correct if the limber is unhooked from the gun. When hooked up, the T-Bolt actually locks theTrails to the Trail Clamp on the Limber. I think you can see in my pix where I lopped it off & reglued the top part of the T-Bolt atop the Trail Clamp (I also did up the underneath, but it isn't all that visible).

-- Again, see my pix -- add a short section of wire rope on the limber where the T-Bolt kinda was to represent the (kit's) missing Trail Clamp Lift Sling.

-- Run a pair of brake lines from the M35 back over the Limber to those two big lumps about 1/3 of the way back on the inside of the trails. Again, see my pix for wires & the springy holder for same on the Limber. I have no idea where AFV got "lumps" for air brake connections, but if you haven't gone too far, trim those lumps way down.

-- Again, eyeball my pix -- you can add a few clips & chains from the PE parts bin to pins & bolts on the Limber.

Hope this helps & just keep saying to yourself -- "I'm OK as long as I don't do a turret with a barrel sticking out" .... If that doesn't work, just think how really booorrrring they are ... :-) :-)


BTW: I would LOVE to have a tutorial on how you made that cover -- I'm the old tissue & white glue type & terrible at it !!!!


John

John it was always my intention to do these two OOB as far as possible. I fixed the main faults on the prime mover (the engine deck) but this is as far as I am willing to go with it. I added the Milliput tarp because I wanted something that did look a little different. Apart from that and putting the two on a base togeather I have no plans to do anymore apart from add tarp ropes and paint them. And by the way I will not do another Long Tom unless someone wants to pay me for doing it.

The tarp was easy to make. Just mix a suitable amount of milliput putty. Put talc powder on bench and a glass bottle and use the bottle as a rolling pin. The talc is to stop the milliput sticking to the bench.

once rolled out thin then cut to shape and size. Lay over model and press to the shape you want. Clean up with water and allow to dry. Approx 3 hours at normal room temp.

Paint as normal.

Cheers
Cliff

PS> still 4 tanks and two carrier versions to do over the next 12 months or so. Some of these I will add a lot of detail too but not these two.

Roo, Roo, Roo, my good friend Roo. I had no idea it had gotten this bad. I knew it was a neuro-muscular thing but I thought that just meant it kept your brain from comunicating with your muscles. But to find out now that you are going nuts too? This is just too much. To find out you did something that wasn't a truck, and not even Australian, so sad. I am afraid you have completely lost your mind. What our pshychologists refer to as "whackadoo." I hope this is not permanent and that you will back to your old truck building self soon. You have my deepest sympathies. Nice stuff btw. Can't wait to see it painted.