Bullbasket

Great all round job. Nice work. John.

Excellent model, and very well displayed. The figures are first class, in fact, a great job all round. John.

Many thanks Paul. Much appreciated. John.

That's the best kind. I like the look of concentration on his face while he cuts the parts from the sprue. A real modeller in the making. And remember, don't touch it until he's with you. You've been told!! John.

Thanks you very much. I appreciate it. John.

That worked, and welcome aboard. John.

Thanks for the comments. Yes the answer was in my display cabinet, all the time. Yes, so do I now. It made it a whole lot easier to weather. I wish that I had done it on my Sherman now. Thanks Roger. It's making a nice change from yet another Sherman. (I can't believe that I just said that!!) John.

Wow! That's fantastic. That really is a great dio Stix. This was posted before I joined, hence I've not seen it before. Clever use of the trees to hide the Tiffy's support. John.

Nice work with the pins. It gives the tracks a realistic sag. And the painting and weathering are first class. John.

Next step was a bit of a change for me. I thought that I would paint and weather the lower hull and running gear, before moving any further into the build. So once it was all primed with Halfords Acrylic Auto Grey primer, I then proceeded to spray everything with Mig's Portland Stone. Big mistake. I like these acrylics for detail painting, but I just can't get on with spraying them. So therefore I went with Plan B, which is what I should have done in the first place, Tamiya. Mike Starmer's mix for Tamiya, and this is as follows; 6 x XF2, 1 x XF1 and 1 x XF57. This was sprayed all over the wheels, sprockets, idlers and lower hull. Once dry, I brush painted Migs NATO Black over the tyres. A coat of gloss varnish, and it was ready for some weathering. I used Migs Streaking to spread all over the sides of the lower hull and the wheels, and once it had dried, I removed most of it with a damp (white spirit) brush. I didn't want to do too much in the way of weathering as I prefer to use pigments nearer the end of the build. Italeri have a very quaint old way of adding the road wheels. First, push the inner wheel onto the shaft. Next, add these very small plastic rings. Then, using the blade of a (very) hot screw driver, melt the stub of the shaft until it holds the wheel in place. Well, to me that was a bit Heath Robinson, so what I did was to follow the instructions up to adding the small plastic ring, and then I smothered the face of the inner wheel with Revell Contacta glue and pushed the outer wheel into place. I think that the idea was so that the wheels would revolve, but that wasn't something that I was interested in. The sprockets and idlers were also supposed to be done that way, but glue sufficed instead. Final job was to add the “hub caps”, paint them and then dirty them up a bit. I solved the problem of the spare tracks on the RH track guard. Steve Zaloga did a build of a 1/48th Battleaxe Crusader in an issue of Military Modelling, many years ago, and in it he stated that the frame work that appears on the kit, wasn't fitted to early Crusaders. It's a run of track held in place on top of the track guard by a bolted down bracket. He also stated that it could be found on either left or right side. I even fitted one to the early Mk.1 that I did, both in 1/35th and 1/48th. Memory is a wonderful thing.....when it works! The frame for the spare track links is moulded as part of the forward, RH track guard. So I removed this with a chisel blade, and then using an Olfa P Cutter, I scored the grooves into the track guard, finishing them off with a round file. Doesn't look very tidy, but the spare tracks will cover most of it. I'll be back with an update soon (he said hopefully). John.

Well done for assembling that one. It looks tiny. But it'll look a lot better on the model than a great lump of plastic. John.

You're right about it being detailed. It's looking good. John.

That's a really good looking little model. Looking forward to seeing it in paint. John.

I should watch out for those two. Nosy pair of beggars! Good progress Roger. John.

I'll fifth it. Oops! Sorry Ed. That sounds as though I'm relieving myself. Never had to tackle any of that stuff, but it's certainly looking the business. Nice work mate. John.

As can be expected. Many thanks for your comments Stix. Always appreciate your input. John.

That is looking nice and filthy MM. Great work. John.

If you have a Halfords near you, go and get an aerosol can of their Grey Auto Acrylic primer. Then you can paint them with what you want. John.

And we sank her!!!

One thing that I noticed with the etched set, is that they have put "feet" on the headlamp brush guards. If only all of the Etched brass manufacturers would do the same. It will make the bond so much stronger when gluing them in place. John.

Very nice Tiger Stix. Don't often see you in this scale in AFVs. John.

I like everything about this MD. The model and the figures are excellent, as too is the bridge and the water. First class modelling. John.

I told you that others would come to mind. City to City. Night Owl. Love Over Gold. Brothers in Arms. John.

I never got to see any off the really big groups when they were still touring, but I have seen a few times, The Illegal Eagles, and Australian Floyd. Both absolutely fabulous. A couple of other stand out performances were when we went to see acts that SWMBO wanted to see. One, at a venue in Brentwood, Essex, was Hot Chocolate. Errol Brown sure had a brilliant voice. And the other one was Elvis Presley. He was projected onto a screen and backed up on stage by his original orchestra, plus The Jordanaires. I have to say that it was very impressive. But as far a best and worst, well that would be the same group......Tangerine Dream. I've seen them many times, but for me the best performance was at the Shepherds Bush Empire, in 2014 for The Phaedra Farewell concert. Absolute TD classic. Not long after that, Edgar Froese died, and the group took on a different direction. I went to a concert in W. London somewhere to see them, and was so disappointed, that I told my son, who was with me, that that would be the last concert of theirs that I would attend. And it was. They changed the sounds of everything so much, that they were two thirds of the way through one of the tracks from Ricochet, before I recognised it. Sad. John.

That is a superb model. The detail that you've put into it is first class. Very nice work. John.