foxy Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 (edited) Yep your right Mike, Chester is maybe to long for a person who has much to do and cannot spare the time,(work). But when you have the time,'its well worth it' for anyone Interested in armour. Nice going and watching with Interest :popcorn: Edited September 29, 2012 by foxy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngloSaxon Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 (edited) Not the greatest photographer but here are some shots I took last weekend if they are of any help: http://s44.photobuck...an/A39Tortoise/ Mike. Edited September 29, 2012 by AngloSaxon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Shaw Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 You`re doing a nice job there, Mike. I think i will have to get one of these, some time. Malc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted September 30, 2012 Author Share Posted September 30, 2012 Thanks Malcolm I've been beavering away in the background. The commander's cupola has been done, and still rotates, which is nice The mantlet was a piece of cake to assemble, and again still rotates, as does the bow mounted Besa MG, which I've replaced by an RB productions brass barrel instead. I'll do the same with the twin mount in the MG turret, but have had to order some more in, as I only had the one in stock The barrel was also quite an easy build, as the main barrel is one solid piece of styrene. The mould seams were cleaned up by scraping with a concave curved blade, then sanded back with a flex-i-file bow sander. Finally, I polished it up with some sanding sponges and we were done. The flash-hider fits beautifully, and if you smother the inside with liquid glue, then squeeze the two halves together, you will end up with a nice seam that is a piece of cake to clean up. Remember to put the large circular weight/mantlet protector on before you glue on the flash-hider though, as it won't fit on later The main gun is only pushed into place at the moment, which is why it looks a little floppy. It pushes in tightly up against the mantlet when glued in. I've also liberated the tracks from the wheels now they're set up, and will prime them shortly. I knocked up this set of Miniart British Tank Crew in winter gear, which Dan (dads203) and I thought would look good in/on this lumbering beast to give it a sense of scale. I'll use some or all of them to decorate the various hatches, although the pipe smoker may be difficult to integrate, so might get left out. I filled the seams with some Vallejo putty using the fine applicator and wiping off the excess, then gave them a test primer coat of white, which comes in handy when you paint the face, giving a nice light base to work with. it should be fun to paint them all up... it's something I don't look forward to and usually end up avoiding I'm building up the exhaust and various other parts now, and hope to have the main build done fairly soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 Now thats looking good Mike. Like the tracks Those figures are very nice and painted up will make this epic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Fingers crossed on the figures. I've not painted any 1:35 figures since I was a teenager Progress is slow, but there are a lot of small sub-assemblies to clean up and build. Six towing shackles to far, and once of them must have close to 10 parts in it. The gun and upper hull are now glued in, and the travel-lock has been added. It's quite an impressive piece of engineering, as if you glue it carefully, it will be a working item, with a movable lock and retention pin on the other side. All the hatches are open at the moment with a view to crewing it up, but one or more may end up closed depending on how well the figure painting goes Please excuse the dust - I've been moving my screens around and that seems to have kicked up a lot I'm waiting for my eBay order of Besa MGs to come through now so I can finish up the MG turret, which is hiding behind a hatch cover wearing a coat of putty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 nice work Mike... will wait for you to paint your figures then nick all the good tips... having said that - my first attempt of oil over ename was a disaster - trying oil over acrylic next (been reading Armorama and other forums for tips) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Oil over enamel doesn't work... did it melt the enamel? Oil over acrylic if you're going to go that way, but I'm too impatient to use oils, so use acrylics... saying that, I'm not exactly that experienced these days. See how it turns & then judge, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Oil over enamel doesn't work... did it melt the enamel? Oil over acrylic if you're going to go that way, but I'm too impatient to use oils, so use acrylics... saying that, I'm not exactly that experienced these days. See how it turns & then judge, eh? water-mixable oils so the enamel was ok... but think that is part of the problem - the oil pigment is just nto fine enough... anyway will try it again having cleaned the figure (just using the tanker from the Tamiya PzII for testing (have the 4 DAK infantry but tried them as straight enamel - if i can get iol working will clean them off & start aagin.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swordfish fairey Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Geez that looks good Mike, I see the original beast quite a lot, as I am often to be found at Bovington wandering around,( it's me age you know).........Smudge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thanks Smudge Rob - you have to choose your oils carefully, as the quality of your finish depends (to an extent) on the finesse of the pigment grind. The finer the pigment has been ground, the better. I'm no expert, but have heard that from experts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 yeah W&N is the brand of choice over on Armoroama ;-).... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I've never had a problem painting artist oil paint over enamals, provided you let the enamal paint dry for a couple of days before over painting with oil paints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahross Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Yes, I like this very much. It will be great to see this finished Mike. I looked for one at Euro but couldn't find anyone stocking it which is a shame. Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Tanks Ross... geddit? I have to say - I'm really enjoying the build too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 I forgot to mention that I lost 5 of the smoke discharger barrels during construction - they're a bit easily knocked off the sprues because of the tiny sprue gates. I found them all amazingly enough using deductive reasoning as to where I'd knocked the box over, but subsequently lost one when it pinged off into the ether never to be seen again. There are no spares, so I chucked a piece of sprue into my Dremel, and carved a new one using my Mission Models micro-chisel, drilling out the end with a pin vice and then cutting it to length. Delicate work, but I'm rather pleased with the outcome - you'd have to look VERY carefully to see which one it was. I'm not telling, but if anyone guesses correctly, I'll send them a gift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahross Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 All I am saying is... Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 We'll file it under "all's well that ends well" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderland Models Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Really looking forward to getting my hands on this kit (well 4 of them), but I have to wait for they come into the UK. All going well they should be here in a week or two. Might have to scratch build the side hatch so that I can do mine as production models, the one at bovinton this is based on is the prototype. The only difference was the addition of the hatch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Oooh... have you got any pictures of the hatch perchance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigsty Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Yes, I like this very much. It will be great to see this finished Mike. I looked for one at Euro but couldn't find anyone stocking it which is a shame. Meng are sponsoring one of the halls at Telford this year, so I'm hoping they'll be bringing lots of lovely stock to knock out at a discount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 You just shouldn't have said that Sean... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderland Models Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Oooh... have you got any pictures of the hatch perchance? There's pictires of the Accurate Armour build on my blog. Once my Meng kits come in, I'll take a cast of the hatch and make some resin copies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 where would I find your blog chap? It's not Iain posting is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fog99uk Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 where would I find your blog chap? It's not Iain posting is it? It is I! If it's about tanks and other ground vehicles it's usually me. If it's aircraft it's usually Roddy. Iain usually gets one of us to post product news, facebook competitions, etc as well and rarely posts himself. I forgot to paste in the link to my blog. It's here - http://fog99uk.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A39%20Tortoise If you do a google image search for A39 Tortoise, most of the images of the model are from my blog, or at least they were before the Meng kit came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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