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

[clive_t]

6 minutes ago, Hewy said:

 Like it, That first photo clive, very arty, the patina on your table too is also worth a mention

Glynn

LOL thanks Glynn, that cutting mat has earned quite a few battle scars from several projects over the past few years Can't bring myself to replace it though!

[Hewy]

Dont blame you clive, sentimental possessions and all that, you cant pay for memories that mats have given us over the years, plus I'm tight

[Kris B]

There will be a finish soon. What did you make the periscope of?

[clive_t]

29 minutes ago, Kris B said:

There will be a finish soon. What did you make the periscope of?

The periscope is just the standard part from the kit with a small piece of clear acetate on both sides. Works fine!

[clive_t]

A bit of progress today, around the headlamps and the commander's hatch.

 

For the headlamps, I thought I would try and make them look like they had glass. Firstly, get rid of the superfluous plastic:

 

 

Then paint the reflector with a bit of silver:

 

 

Then finally, a blob of 'Mod-podge', which although it looks white when wet, will dry clear:

 

 

Whilst that was drying, I had a look at the commander's hatch. Firstly I made something to represent the periscope - although this is normally hidden, because I am modelling the hatch in the open position, it will be visible. A couple of bits of scrap styrene sheet and a bit of sprue from the Panda tracks:

 

 

On the other hatch door I added the hatch locking mechanism - a simple affair, it must be said:

 

 

Not the best quality photo I admit, but I can tell you that the rotating bar is a small sliver of thin styrene sheet, while the pivot bolt was borrowed from the kit-supplied front fender. The locking mechanism was made from 2 small pieces of PE bent to shape.

 

Finally for now, a bit of metallic colour was applied to the hatch doors:

 

 

The customary white stippling and sandy wash will be for another time, but another couple of baby steps have been taken today!

 

Thanks for watching!

[Bullbasket]

It's the little details, I think, that make a model stand out, and these items will help to do that.

 

John.

[Gremlin56]

Nice job on the headlights and periscope Clive

[FrancisGL]

Good work with Little thingies..., cheers Clive

[clive_t]

On 28/07/2017 at 8:46 AM, Bullbasket said:

It's the little details, I think, that make a model stand out, and these items will help to do that.

 

John.

 

12 hours ago, Gremlin56 said:

Nice job on the headlights and periscope Clive

 

9 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Good work with Little thingies..., cheers Clive

 

Thanks all, the headlights have turned out rather well now that the Mod-Podge has fully cured.

 

Today has been spent mopping up more of the bits and pieces:

 

 

You might notice, at the rear of the vehicle, the rear fender has quietly made an appearance. A better shot:

 

 

The commander's hatch doors have now been given the now standard interior decor treatment (as has the driver's hatch):

 

 

I also took the opportunity to fill a gap at the front of the hull:

 

 

I then made up the Bren gun from the Bronco AFV set, but added my own mono-pod for deployment in the commander's hatch:

 

 

A bit of paint and a 'mud' wash to pick out the details, and it started to look the part:

 

 

I also managed to create a new figure for the eventual diorama, viewable on the 'figure' thread here

 

Thanks for watching!

[Ozzy]

Those headlights have turned out nicely.

[clive_t]

On 29/07/2017 at 8:40 PM, Ozzy said:

Those headlights have turned out nicely.

Thanks Ozzy!

 

A bit of a delay since my last update, real life intervening as it often does...

 

Most of yesterday was taken up with making up PE items, e.g. the stowage boxes. I've had problems in the recent past with bits of PE dropping off - thankfully not into the tender care of the Carpet Monster, but there is only so much luck to be enjoyed in that respect.  With that in mind, I determined to give the stowage boxes a fighting chance of remaining attached to their host - I glued in a couple of shims made from the inevitable scrap styrene into the bottom edges:

 

 

Once done, I could then fit the lid, the hinges and the securing catches with their chains:

 

 

Another issue with the Academy moulded boxes was brought to light during my investigations into which side to put the hinges: inboard, or outboard. All the reference pics I have which show them, have the hinges on the inboard side, i.e. nearest the middle of the vehicle, whereas the Academy stowage box sides have the hinges moulded on the outboard side. Given the PE lid has the hinge part on it, I was able to secure it in the way shown in the reference pics.

 

With that bit complete, I was then able to stick on the 8 securing tabs which are intended to secure the box to the vehicle:

 

 

Hopefully the presence of the styrene shims will mean that these are purely cosmetic.

 

It was then a relatively simple case of 'rinse and repeat' for the smaller stowage box:

 

 

There was really only time for a couple of extra items. The other rear fender:

 

 

... and the securing mechanism for the gunner's hatch in the hull roof:

 

 

It doesn't look like much in the way of progress I admit, but some of those PE parts are really crazy small!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

 

[Ozzy]

Those stowage boxes look stunning Clive, did you use an magnifation device?

[clive_t]

13 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Those stowage boxes look stunning Clive, did you use an magnifation device?

Thanks Ozzy, yes I'm afraid that these days my head-mounted magnifier is a vital asset! 

[FrancisGL]

Those boxes are super cool, I love those chains falling, very real, although very small, of course ...

Cheers Clive 

[Kris B]

As mentioned before, those boxes are excellent. 

[Hewy]

Good work on the pe  clive,  not easy even magnified 

Glynn

[Bullbasket]

I know that PE can be a right royal PITA at times, but it does give a model character. It's all looking good.

 

John.

[clive_t]

On 8/5/2017 at 7:13 PM, FrancisGL said:

Those boxes are super cool, I love those chains falling, very real, although very small, of course ...

Cheers Clive 

 

On 8/5/2017 at 8:51 PM, Kris B said:

As mentioned before, those boxes are excellent. 

 

On 8/6/2017 at 5:57 AM, Hewy said:

Good work on the pe  clive,  not easy even magnified 

Glynn

 

On 8/6/2017 at 1:32 PM, Bullbasket said:

I know that PE can be a right royal PITA at times, but it does give a model character. It's all looking good.

 

John.

Thanks all, I very much appreciate your comments.

 

Some more progress today, again little dents being made in the remaining task list. The side door that needed its pistol port handle moving to the other side. I was going to make one from scrap PE, but I took a look at the moulded handle that I had carefully removed intact, and decided instead to modify that bit and use it:

 

 

That looked pretty good to me, so I decided to carefully cut the handle moulding on the other door - not that it needed to be relocated, but just to make it look less like a moulding and more like an actual handle:

 

 

Only one other thing was done on the tank - the towing cable, which was made from a short piece of multi-strand picture hanging wire. The end connectors were just the parts from the kit, drilled out slightly to receive the wire:

 

 

The rest of my free time this evening was taken up with some bits and pieces for the crew and the diorama - see the separate threads for those updates when I get round to it

 

Thanks for watching!

 

 

[clive_t]

More modest progress today and yesterday. Yet more PE - the side skirts went on yesterday:

 

 

A bit of a gap on the right side which needs to be filled or otherwise hidden in some way.

 

Then today I made a start on the rail that seems to have been used for hanging innumerable items of kit from. There are no fewer than 10 separate pieces of brass etch in this:

 

I still have the other one to do for the right side, but I am wondering if it's worth the trouble, as all the reference photos I've seen don't seem to have these rails on both sides! I imagine that in many cases, rather like the side skirts, they just fell off under the rigours of bucketing along at a break-neck 26mph over some very rough terrain!

 

Any thoughts or alternative views on this are most welcome!

 

[Bullbasket]

If you are going to hang whole load of stowage from them, then a lot of I won't be visible so maybe you could just make up the amount of rail that is uncovered and therefore visible. Use the rail from the kit for the rest.

 

John.

 

[clive_t]

On 8/10/2017 at 1:52 PM, Bullbasket said:

If you are going to hang whole load of stowage from them, then a lot of I won't be visible so maybe you could just make up the amount of rail that is uncovered and therefore visible. Use the rail from the kit for the rest.

 

John.

 

Thanks John, I think what stowage I'll have will be mostly 'slung' i.e. hanging under the rails - not that I have thought that far ahead for details!

 

So I've bitten the bullet and made up both rails:

 

 

These will be fitted to the hull in due course, however the amount I still have to do to the hull would put them at grave risk of being knocked off, bent, broken and generally not in a good state so I will defer that step to another time.

 

Continuing with the PE battles, I found myself on Friday trying to make up the wierd thing that appears in a couple of reference photos, mounted on the front of the turret just above the 37mm gun. I have a feeling it's a sextant, or something that helps in determining position:

 

 

 

I have to say, whoever designed the etch for the little gimbal thing, between the mounting frame and the disc, is an evil genius! It took me a good hour just to fold that bit into the desired shape. I would describe the experience as being not dissimilar to trying to get a very street-wise money spider into a head-lock without actually killing it - which, as everyone knows, is the dread harbinger of the most appalling luck. Having gone to the trouble of making the structure up, I am now of the opinion that the whole thing (in particular the disc and the mounting frame) is over-sized. I'm not sure I want to attempt to re-engineer it to a more realistic size, so I might quietly forget I made it, and instead point to the several reference photos where this item is plainly absent.

 

With that, today was mostly about fitting the fiddly bits to the rear of the hull. Given I will be fitting the tools etc after spraying (but before weathering), I fit the securing straps etc but left them 'open':

 

 

Once those were on, I was finally able to fit the stowage boxes I made a while back:

 

 

A couple of final bits for today - the door locking mechanisms for the side doors:

 

 

And the loop part, fixed to the hull - where the padlock will go to lock the door:

 

 

Thankfully, the etch fret provides many more such loops than are actually required! Suffice it to say that the Carpet Monster has claimed its customary percentage.

 

Thanks for watching!

 

[Hewy]

Coming along very  nicley indeed clive 

[Bullbasket]

Ah, the joys of photo etch! I take that you are using the Eduard sets for this build. Eduard is relatively simple. You want complicated, try an Aber set! Having several years experience in micro surgery helps.

It's looking good though, especially those two stowage bins.

 

John.

[Kris B]

I try to avoid PE as much as possible, but in your hands it is works perfect. 

[clive_t]

On 13/08/2017 at 7:26 AM, Hewy said:

Coming along very  nicley indeed clive 

Thanks Glynn, I am at that difficult stage of resisting the temptation to rush it to completion. I am worried about messing things up!

On 13/08/2017 at 8:24 AM, Bullbasket said:

Ah, the joys of photo etch! I take that you are using the Eduard sets for this build. Eduard is relatively simple. You want complicated, try an Aber set! Having several years experience in micro surgery helps.

It's looking good though, especially those two stowage bins.

 

John.

Thanks John, I don't think my sanity would survive anything more intricate than these Eduard sets. As it is, I am in danger of having to wear my magnifier permanently! I am already overdue for an eye test, I dread to think how much worse my vision has got in the last couple of years.

On 13/08/2017 at 9:00 AM, Kris B said:

I try to avoid PE as much as possible, but in your hands it is works perfect. 

Thanks Kris, I am quite pleased at how the various bits of folded brass have brought the model to life. I am hoping that it will look even better once I get some paint on the whole thing.

 

No progress today, sadly as I am in the middle of trying to rearrange my workspace so that I can have the spray booth on permanent standby. It's chaotic right now, but I hope to get back to making progress soon!