Harry_the_Spider

Had notification that the Stalwart is on the way, but I'll want to add a couple of figures. Doesn't have to be a seated driver, just a couple of guys stood with / in / on it. Any thoughts?

sand

I’m building the C/D variant that offers the green over white Florida based anti submarine aircraft and the stone over grey used on a fund raising / moral tour. However, I’d like to do mine a bit “beaten up”. So, would the stone over grey without the map and scroll decals around the cockpit be representative of an aircraft used in the field?

They look a bit “odd”. Are they bucket type so that the pilot and co-pilot could sit on their parachutes, or are they lacking cushions/padding?

Thanks. The photos are a bit "washed out". The colour is much closer to the reference image at the top.

This was a bit of a funny one. I'd just finished a Trumpeter Challenger 2 that has 430 parts. 410 if which are too small to pick up without tweezers. So I went hunting in the stash for something different and there sat The Revell F-111 Raven, proudly boasting 63 parts. The tooling dates back to the 1980s and has a mixture of raised and recessed panel lines. Fit varies from sublime (undercarriage bay and compressor facing details) to the ridiculous (trip hazard fit just behind the cockpit and terrible intakes). The grey on grey stencils meant that they were all but invisible, so I left about 60 of them off. OOB. Eduard canopy masks. Tamiya and Vallejo paints. Various home brew washes for dirt. A bit of foam glued to the upper inside of the fuselage so that the wings can swing without showing a load of day light. I ignored the Revell paint guide and asked on here instead.

I can get the Hasegawa for not very much. Is it OK, or are others worth double the money?

Thanks. Black and Field Grey, with a wash of diluted Tamiya browns over the top to "dust" it.

*Well… 4 shades of grey I’m doing the Revell Raven and the colour call outs look a little dark to me. Does anyone know the Tamiya equivalent for the upper and lower surfaces? I can eyeball the rest once I have the two main ones.

Problems aren't too bad if you know about them upfront and head them off.

I'd done a bit of background research on this, so knew that it wasn't going to be "Tamiya smooth". From what I'd read the turret bins and gun mantlet didn't fit. So I did a bit of trial and error and found that the bins fit if you don't put the hinges in and that the mantlet sits about 4mm too far forwards leaving a massive gap, which can be resolved by cutting the lugs off, moving them 4mm forward and sticking them back on. Also, I couldn't get the plough or front armour to fit, so they have been left off. All pretty easy if you do it up front and I suspect an absolute pain in the behind if you have to do it later on. Finally there is flash. A lot of it. Brush painted with Tamiya acrylics, and weathered with pastels and home-brew washes. Anyway, this is how it turned out...

Finished. Linky

Being a bit of a tight-wad I was attracted to the £15 Tamiya Panther because a) It was £15 and b) it was £15. Anyway, it turned out like this. OOB other than plasti-card sponsons, the exhausts off a Jagdpanther, the barrel, bucket, cans and antenna and a couple of passengers. Other Panthers are available, but not for 15 quid. WIP here.

....thinking about it. As the guys on the rear deck look a little "agitated" the driver would probably be down in his hole and the commander wouldn't be up so high. I may promote the driver to the turret, with his head just poking out, and close the lower hatch.

Yes. That is exactly what I'm doing. Not managed to immolate myself or the kitchen so far, so I'll stick with it.

Pioneering gear, spare tracks and a bit of extra stowage on. Figure painting next. The driver and commander are a bit rubbish, so it may yet end up being "hatches closed".

Not got a lighter, and holding a small plastic bottle of accelerant in a gas flame could get me a Darwin Award nomination.

Just found this thread. Can confirm that holding the needle in a gas flame using a pair of pliers works a treat.

Maybe if I'd soaked the tracks in warm water first it would have been different. Dunno.

Minimal. Just a bit of soot and dust. Not a fan of covering them in mud. I've yet to add all of the pioneering kit and perhaps some stowage.

Well, I think I've got away with that. If I had to do it again I'd use a brass rod all the way through rather than the two plastic studs.

The pegs are holding the track down to the super glue on the tops of the wheels to show a bit of "sag". I've glued the bottom too to try and relieve the tension on the drive sprockets. The cocktail sticks are transmitting the load to the first axle, and it seems to be holding.

Plasticard sponsons and perch for the driver done. Spare exhausts from the Jagppanther added. Primer on. And then we get to the 40 ton elephant in the room... The tracks. They don't fit. They are so tight that they pulled the drive sprockets out. It was 5 minutes away from the bin or, at the very best, a particularly grisly diorama. Then some lateral thinking and applied violence / cocktail sticks seems to have saved it. Going to leave it for 10,000 years for the glue to set before I dare to pull them out.

A Panther? 1/35 (ish)? Tamiya? £15? What's not to like? I'm no expert on AFVs but I know that this one has it's limitations. First up, fill all of the holes. While I had the filler out I had a go at doing Zimmerit. Not sure if I'll do it on the model though. Also, there are big voids where the sponsons should be and the optics are just "hoops" that will need something inside them. So a bit of scratch building is needed.

A base coat of Field Grey, with RAF Dark Green 2 and another dark green over the top. Then some oil wash and a dry brushing of Flat Earth. Nothing scientific, I just went for it! All done inside 45 minutes. I did some heat damage on the exhaust cover and scorch marks on the fender near the flame thrower after seeing a picture of one that had burning residue on it.