Time to ditch the wingy things and armour up! First AFV WIP - Academy M3 Grant 1:35

[Bullbasket]

3 minutes ago, clive_t said:

That's typical of my luck! Ah well, I shall continue regardless... thanks for the heads up though, I'll be interested to read of any reviews of it when people get around to making them.

Don't worry about it Clive. I built the Academy a few years ago, but I'll definitely be getting one of these. Got to use up all of those decal somehow. I'll also get a Lee as well to do as a British Far East version.

 

John.

[clive_t]

How do people rate Takom kits generally, are they good value for money? What is the mould quality like?

[clive_t]

A bit more progress this evening, but not with the turret. Some time ago, I found some picture references showing some kind of 'bridge' flooring between the turret basket and the left side access door, which appears to be hinged so that the 2 flaps fold up to allow access to various bits and pieces underneath. Not only that, but the floor is the same 'anti-slip' pattern as in the floor of the turret basket and the top of the ammo locker. So I took a cast of the top of the ammo locker, on the basis that it was roughly the size of the flooring I needed to make:

 

 

The detail was slightly smudged - my ham-fistedness in trying to get a deep enough impression in the silicone rubber material - but it looked ok.

 

A bit of Milliput was pressed into the mould, and 24 hours later was good to come out:

 

 

This evening, I  cut a suitable-sized piece from that part of the casting where the raised detail was least smudged, and stuck it to a supporting framework made from more off-cuts of styrene sheet:

 

 

A quick dry-fit of the bridge floor showed it was a little high, but not too bad:

 

 

Once the glue has had a chance to go off properly, I'll reduce the height a little so that it's flush with the bottom edge of the access hatch. Then I can get it all painted up as per the rest of the interior.

 

[robw_uk]

excellent work... the Takom one has caught my eye - going off some of their other kits I have seen reviewed I think it will be on my wish list

[clive_t]

On 28/06/2017 at 8:41 PM, robw_uk said:

excellent work... the Takom one has caught my eye - going off some of their other kits I have seen reviewed I think it will be on my wish list

Thanks Rob, Yes I have a feeling that one of those will be dropping into my stash pile at some stage in the not-too-distant future!

 

Another 'bits-n-pieces' day today, including the Bronco comms unit. First, some painting of various small parts - the open pistol ports for the turret, the bridge floor I made on Wednesday, and the two parts of the radio set:

 

 

Interestingly, the Bronco AFV set has a couple of Bren guns included, and very nicely detailed they are too. I have a mind to have one of those mounted in the turret for defence against air attack. I have a couple of reference photos, including one of the bracket that was fitted to the commanders cupola to allow the Bren to be deployed in this way.

 

The pistol port interiors and the bridge flooring were then stencilled with white, and washed with a sepia wash as per the rest of the interior:

 

 

The bridge floor was then fixed in place inside the hull:

 

 

For the radio set, I found some other images which show a shelf at the back of the turret for the radio to sit on, and some kind of container for stowing cables etc mounted underneath the shelf. A couple of bits of styrene sheet and some scrap PE brass did for that:

 

 

 

This Shelf and stowage assembly was then painted as before, and glued in to the back of the lower half of the turret shell:

 

 

The radio set was painted grey as per several reference photos:

 

 

The protective bars on the front of the unit are represented in the kit by a tidy bit of PE - very nicely done indeed:

 

 

Obviously some very careful bending was the order of the day, before spray priming:

 

 

The grille was then painted black (as per some colour reference pics) and fitted to the unit which I'd already painted some details on. Some wire was also added to represent an extra cable. A quick dry-fit to the new shelf in the turret space:

 

 

And before you ask yes the top half of the turret still fits . Plus, you can see the radio set through the commanders hatch:

 

 

So all in all, still lots to do but I am pleased with the progress made today.

 

Thanks for watching!

 

 

 

 

 

[Kris B]

Nicely done, I am glad that you bought this Bronco set and I think it was worth it. 

[Bullbasket]

The Takom kit may be state of the art by comparison, but when you put a lot of effort into it (as you have), a good model can result from the Academy offering.

 

John.

[clive_t]

44 minutes ago, Kris B said:

Nicely done, I am glad that you bought this Bronco set and I think it was worth it. 

Thanks Kris, it looks like there are lots of useful little bits included, very nice moulding quality too.

 

12 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

The Takom kit may be state of the art by comparison, but when you put a lot of effort into it (as you have), a good model can result from the Academy offering.

 

John.

 

Thanks John, I am enjoying the adding of details, drawing inspiration from the many stellar builds on this forum

 

I have been looking at the turret again this evening, and wondering if the depression that I guess is where the 2-inch smoke bomb port would be, is meant to be filled in that way (i.e. in a similar vein to the front-facing 'static' machine guns because they were no longer in use) or if it should be open? I can't find any definite picture evidence either way.

 

Any advice in this matter would be most welcome!

 

[FrancisGL]

Very good work, especially with PE grids, look super-delicate, but still have been magnificent, and once on the radio, is a great set.

As Bullbasket says, Takom ... but I have seen kits that are state of art, that once they are finished, they look like something crude and unfinished, a complex toy, a missed opportunity, and on the other hand, Tamiya classics (great brand without a doubt), or another similar, that with some extras, or not, OOB, and skill, far exceed that supposed to be better ...

Even though, you should try some Takom kit that you like, when you get the chance, I'm already saving (they're expensive ... sigh), they are the best you can find...

Cheers Clive

[clive_t]

5 minutes ago, FrancisGL said:

Very good work, especially with PE grids, look super-delicate, but still have been magnificent, and once on the radio, is a great set.

As Bullbasket says, Takom ... but I have seen kits that are state of art, that once they are finished, they look like something crude and unfinished, a complex toy, a missed opportunity, and on the other hand, Tamiya classics (great brand without a doubt), or another similar, that with some extras, or not, OOB, and skill, far exceed that supposed to be better ...

Even though, you should try some Takom kit that you like, when you get the chance, I'm already saving (they're expensive ... sigh), they are the best you can find...

Cheers Clive

 

Thanks Francis, I have been looking through Takom's offerings hoping they did some kind of Sherman kit, but sadly I can't find any. Ah well, maybe one day soon!

[FrancisGL]

1 minute ago, clive_t said:

 

Thanks Francis, I have been looking through Takom's offerings hoping they did some kind of Sherman kit, but sadly I can't find any. Ah well, maybe one day soon!

 

Of course, you just have to see this M3 that has "got out of the sleeve" (as do the mages ... lol), cheers Clive

[Bullbasket]

32 minutes ago, clive_t said:

Thanks Francis, I have been looking through Takom's offerings hoping they did some kind of Sherman kit, but sadly I can't find any. Ah well, maybe one day soon!

Clive, if you want a top notch Sherman, look at the many that Tasca/Asuka produce. Rolls Royce of Shermans.

 

John.

[clive_t]

Thanks John I will certainly bear that in mind.

 

No progress to report today, however I have spent a bit of time poring over the instruction booklet, looking for the things I've still to do. The resulting to-do list is:

 

1. Complete 37mm gun assembly and incorporation into top half of turret

2. Commander's hatch

3. Side hatch doors

4. 75mm gunner's hatch

5. 75mm gun periscope 

6. Headlamps

7. Spare track links

8. Tools etc

 

Added to that, some further works:

9. Tracks

10. Pistol port interiors for pistol ports on side hatch doors

11. Stowage items

12. Bren gun + mounting bracket for commander's hatch

13. Control panel for the generator unit (situated between the turret basket and the hull side)

14. A representation of that part of the engine that would be visible through the grille

15. A ton of PE items!

 

Then finally:

16. Close up upper and lower parts of the hull.

17. Make and fit a shroud to  cover the 75mm gun mounting.

18. Paint, decals, weathering etc

 

And that's it... what could possibly go wrong! 

 

[clive_t]

Some more modest process this afternoon, and typically for me the first thing I do isn't even on the above to-do list! It should have been, though, to be fair. The front static machine gun ports were blanked from the outside, using Milliput and a couple of sizeable beads from my stash of water filter inards:

 

 

I also did another pistol port moulding from some left-over Milliput, but I won't bore you with a pic of that as it's just the same as I posted before.

 

I made a control panel for the generator unit, out of a small amount of Grey Stuff with some indentations from a drill bit, plus yet more water filter beads:

 

 

Once that's painted up it should look OK, as it will be visible through the open side access door.

 

Thanks for looking in

[Clogged]

Just recently come across your build log.  Dont usually look at AFV (maritime usually).  Very impressed with you work and the accompanying text and photos!

[clive_t]

Thanks Mr Clogged, very much appreciated.

 

Oddly enough prior to my starting this thread, I didn't frequent the AFV bit either, but I am certainly enjoying the experience greatly

[FrancisGL]

NIce progress Clive, cheers

[clive_t]

Thanks Francis

 

Some more progress over the past couple of days, albeit of the 'baby steps' variety:

 

The side doors had their pistol port slots drilled out:

 

 

... and the newly cast pistol port interiors were cut to size and fitted on the opposite side:

 

 

They still need to be glued and painted an appropriate colour. Apparently the side door interiors were painted a sand colour as opposed to the usual white, to act as camouflage in the event of them being open during the day. Makes a lot of sense!

 

A quick dry-fit to see how it would look in situ:

 

 

Finally for today, and having at last rediscovered the reference photo of the mounting bracket for the Bren gun anti-aircraft mount (and this time saved it to my Pinterest archive for this project), I made a start on making my own:

 

 

Ah well, it's progress of sorts!

 

As ever, thanks for your comments, and for watching!

 

 

 

 

[Kris B]

Clive, what's that on the third photo - hull on the front has a split? 

You care about details, good work. 

[clive_t]

28 minutes ago, Kris B said:

Clive, what's that on the third photo - hull on the front has a split? 

You care about details, good work. 

Thanks Kris, yes the split is just a join that needs filling, there are several others dotted around the hull, and I dare say when it comes to joining the upper and lower hull halves there will be yet more. No problem, I have filler to take care of those

[Murdo]

It gets better and better.

 

Fabulous skills shown here.

[Bullbasket]

Nice details Clive. It's always a beggar when you have to apply filler where there is surface detail that can be damaged with the sanding.

 

John.

[clive_t]

11 hours ago, Murdo said:

It gets better and better.

 

Fabulous skills shown here.

Thanks Murdo, much appreciated.

 

3 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Nice details Clive. It's always a beggar when you have to apply filler where there is surface detail that can be damaged with the sanding.

 

John.

Thanks John, I will have to be super careful when sanding, but at least in the case of lost rivet detail, I have a few beads left over from my stash of water filter guts.

 

One thing I noticed late last night - from a reference pic showing the side access door open on the right side (adjacent to the 75mm gun), the model door has the pistol port lever on the wrong side! Checking other similar archive pics from the IWM confirmed the problem. Looking like I have just added something to my to-do list: remove pistol port lever moulding and replace with something a bit better looking, in the correct position!

 

Obviously if I were modelling the side doors in the closed position it wouldn't matter so much, but I'm not so it does!

 

Ah well, better I find out now than after the thing is finished.

 

 

[Bullbasket]

It sounds like what I'm about to say doesn't apply as you've seen it in more than one picture, but sometimes, publishers print a photo the wrong way round, making things that should be on the left, seem to be on the right and vice versa. I even saw one photo where there was writing back to front, it was so obvious. Look for any serial numbers or casting number the wrong way round.

 

John.

[clive_t]

Thanks John, yes I thought that at first, however the 75mm gun was over the right sponson as expected in both the IWM photos so it had to be the correct way round. I also confirmed it by looking at some photos of the Bovington exhibit today.

 

Ah well, another 'opportunity' beckons!