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justaspitcrazy!

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About justaspitcrazy!

  • Birthday 19/09/1986

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Shropshire
  • Interests
    Predominantly historic AFV's but also a few flighty things.

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  1. Cheers Oddball some invaluable advice! I've got some of MIGS masking putty on the shelf so I'll be putting that to use i think as the scheme i'm going for seems a tad complex. By far the bit that makes me shudder most is the multi couloured wrap around the gun barrel. I do have a scrap Panther A on the shelf that i use a test bed so i reckon I'll practice on that first and see how we get on. I wanted to do mine in an ambush scheme really but the decals in the kit dont provide for one. Cheers, Ben.
  2. Stonking build so far mate, I don't see anything wrong with it from my perspective! Massively intrigued to know what the hell a "winky wanky" is! Cheers, Ben.
  3. Hi Mac. Cheers mate, that helps me get some sense of the order. If you fancy sharing then PM me on facebook mate and we can discuss. Cheers pal. Ben.
  4. Morning all. More to come soon hopefully. Been a bit hectic at home over the last week. Stilll need to make the other track run. I have built the figures and the tank is primed ready for paint. Genuinely apprehensive about painting, the three tone camo seems complex. Obviously it's yellow first but then what? I mean is it a layered process? Yellow then Brown followed by Green, or, Yellow then Green followed by Brown? ANY advice on the painting process would be greatly appreciated. Painting camo is not a strong suit! Cheers, Ben.
  5. Mac! Sorry I've only just got round to checking out your RFI. Mate you've done a superb job on her! Brush painted aswell! Really commendable stuff my friend. The Camo looks awesome and you've done a top job of the PE. I had a Tamiya Panther A before I started my G, decided it was a none starter as the kit I felt wasn't worth the effort. How wrong was I because you've made yours shine my friend. Thanks for sharing and welcome back to the hobby and to the forums. Ben.
  6. Haha! I had a feeling that's what I'd be doing, but who doesn't like a good convoluted conversation!? You've pretty much confirmed what i already think i know, however i thought that the panther plate was restricted only to the turret. I've seen blokes build the kit with the added armour plate painted in german 3 tone camo, can't imagine they'd have kept it that way, a tad risky i would have thought! OD all over sounds right with perhaps the black stripes.
  7. Busy night last night. Decided to tackle the tracks, god help me! Whilst they are small and quite fiddly they actually posed zero problems and went together really easily! I can 100% recommend them. I honestly believe them to be superior to Friuls, they're easier to construct, not as time consuming, no clean up and you have bolt head detail on the inside face and out side and they are a fraction of the price! So anyway, lets begin! Tools of the trade! For my own sanity i did them in blocks of 10... Each track first had to be drilled out to allow the pins to be inserted. Four holes to be drilled in total, 2 on top and 2 below. 0.6mm drill bit is the tool of choice. Easy does it though as this is where it gets easy to break them by adding too much pressure. I snapped 2 in total but you get 50 odd spare so alls well. Then it's a case of clicking them together (they still click as the middle of the tracks still have locating nipples as you dont drill all the way through the track) and then inserting the tiny pins which either click into place or just fit nice and snug. I had no loose pins at all throughout the entire length so the engineering is superb. So what you end up with is a surprisingly robust, flexible and fully working track length. Worth noting too that the fit around the drive sprocket is 100% perfect! And so you keep going, and pounding down the Ale until you come to a conclusion and Voila! 1 complete track run of 84 links ready to go! I seriously cannot recommend these boys enough. Call me masochistic but I actually enjoyed making them! Plus it meant i didn't have to sit with the wife watching bloody Big Brother! Same plan for tonight and then I'll construct the figures and then it's on to paint! Cheers all! Ben.
  8. Ok folks, So next project will be the HobbyBoss 1/35 T26e4 super Pershing pilot 1. What do we know about this machine? I know it was one of a kind and assigned to the 3rd armored. Ideally want to know markings etc, was it all painted or was the appliqué a different colour? I know some of it came from a panther and the other bits were boiler plate. General discussion really any info is useful. Cheers all, Ben.
  9. Hi folks, Lots done over the last few nights. Resulting in the build phase being complete and ready for primer. haven't done the tracks yet, I'm trying to psyche myself up for that! So, Schurzen is done and had damage added.. Radio mast is fitted too... And finally the turret with it's etch and zim applied.. Commanders Cupola has some nice cast texture.. And a final look down the business end to finish the post.. And that's that. Ready for primer and the tracks. All the hatches are loose at the mo too, I wont be gluing them into place until I've found the positioning for the figures. Cheers all. Comments and criticism welcome. Ben. Cheers! Great to see you have made it on to the forum!
  10. Hi Oddball. You're bang on the money when you say we never stop learning. Each new build is a learning curve. Each new project involves new products, tools and techniques. These days I think it's really easy to produce top notch models. We really are spoiled for choice in terms of products and tools, compared to 10 or 15 years ago. "You're only as good as your tools" the saying goes I believe and I stand by that. I remember in my early teens brush painting a 1/72 Vulcan and how laborious the task was and how horrific it looked. When I'd finished I remember sitting and thinking dejectedly "that's the best I can do". If only I had the tools then that I have now I'm sure it would have been better, probably still terrible but better at least! Innovative times my friend!
  11. Cheers for comments so far chaps. I've decided to bin off (Not literally! They'll be useful for spares) the Bronco tracks. I've put a few together and most of them have had to be glued as the small locking nipples snapped off far too easily and they also took a strange lateral curve off to the left. So I opted in for a set of these instead and they really look the bees knees... The set comes with 2 bags of miniscule track pins. One bag for the outside of the tracks with bolt head detail and one set for the inside with a domed head. Exceptional detail for such small parts. To assemble, you either simply snap them together or you can drill out the pin holes and snap them together and push the pins into the holes for that extra level of detail. The tracks themselves are lovely too, no flash that I could see and also hollow guide horns. Time consuming and fiddly work with the pins but they should look really good on. Cheers, Ben.
  12. Having just been looking at some of my photos i can see quite a few areas where the Zim doesn't meet or has mistakes in general. Bit embarrassed! I'll go back over it I reckon!
  13. Morning all. Ok so after another evening at the bench i have got the hull to about 95% complete. All thats left are the wheels and the tow cables. Wheels will be tackled seperately for obvious reasons when it comes to painting and weathering so I'll tackle the tow cable first. I'll do a seperate post on the tow cable because the kit has accuracy issues in this department. Essentially it lacks the rear anchors seen on Early panther G's and instead would have it just sort of "floating". The Eduard etch goes some way towards sorting this, however, but only in terms of a late model G as it would have you anchor the cables with a clamp behind the rear intake. Anyway, I digress, I'll pick up on that in a future post. Here are things so far. Right side tool racks complete. Also I did the track hangers on the rear.. And that is that for now. More to come soon Ben.
  14. Lord above! I've been shadowing the build for a while but haven't commented as theres nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. Seriously though this is inspiring stuff, the finished article will be something serious to behold. Priceless too! That kind of workmanship just doesn't come easily. Have you thought about donating it? I'm sure the folks down at Bovington would give it pride of place, It is after all 100% museum quality! This post will go down in BM history I reckon. Best regards, Ben.
  15. Hello chaps, As promised, a small update from last night. The Bosch head lamp is now plumbed in. This was a simple task made difficult with poor tools, I really must invest in some good tweezers or needle nosed pliers. Anyway, the result nicely replicates the real thing I think. First shot. Bending the trunking to shape. Second shot. Fitted. There was the beginnings of the cable molded on to the mudguard originally, but, I was concerned that the wire wouldnt match up to this so I cut it away and drilled a small hole in the light to insert the wire directly into. This not only allowed the application to look seemless but gave the cable a more solid anchor for the CA. And the view of the cable entering the underside of the sponson (and the huge ejector pin marks on the underside of the mud guards. These will be filled with mud so not fussed about filling them at this stage). Last bit for last night was to start on the tools etc on the right hand side of the hull. This is the hardwood block with the PE added once the molded on brackets had been removed. Had to be careful here as the kit part had some nice subtle cast wood grain that I didnt want to loose so couldnt get away with just sanding the thing down. I instead carefully cut all the brackets away and sanded these areas very carefully. Once again that's all for now. Cheers all. Ben.
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