bull-nut

I have a Tamiya 1/48 M8 HMC in the stash. If that fits as it uses an M3/5 hull, then sign me up.

I'll take a stab at this one, I've had a 1/48 M3 medium scratch build (with some 3d printing) on my mind for a while now, and this seems as good a time as any!

@Margaret Clarke: Private Message sent @Bigglesworth: I agree, thank you

As a regular builder of 48th scale armour, I can vouch for the tamiya range. They build up nice and quickly, and they are big enough that I can actually see what I am doing without a visor most of the time, without going overboard on either dimensions or parts count Edit: For those people after a challenge. Don't forget that Hobbyboss have a range of 1/48 T34s with full interior. It has been said that they are downscale versions of someone e else's 16th scale offering, but they do make an impressive model, especially if you can pose them in such a way as to make the interior easily visible.

Could have sworn I'd put myself down for this. Tamiya 1/48 SU122 with tank riders for me.

XA896 was assigned to 230OCU at RAF Waddington, where Mrs Bullnut's Grandfather was her Crew chief. In 1964, she was passed to Bristols for use as a flying testbed for the Bristol Siddeley BS.100/9 vectored-thrust turbofan engine, fitted with Plenum Chamber Burning, for the Hawker-Siddeley P.1154 VSTOL fighter project for the RAF and FAA, She was scrapped at Filton in 1966, just about 2km from where we now live. A strange coincidence given that Mrs Bullnut grew up on Humberside. Image below from vickersvaliant.com shows XA896 in overall HIghspeed Silver, though by the time she was at Filton, I think she was wearing Antiflash White

Count me in on this one please. Living just a short distance from BAC's Filton site, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't enter something. I have an Airfix Blenheim 1 and F2.b in the stash

Tamiya 1/48 Ausf. J with scratch build schurzen, RB models bow MG barrel and Tamiya figures. Thanks to all.

I sprayed a dust coat of Tamiya Buff in a random manner over the whole model, followed by an overall flat coat. I followed this by adding some branches to a number of points around the hull and turret. These were made from dried plant stems, to which I added Woodland scenic light green coarse turf, and burnt grass fine turf, adhered with spray adhesive and sealed with Humbrol matt varnish rattle can. As a final touch, I added a loader figure to the open hatches, after painting the Waffenfarbe with citadel acrylics. And for completeness, here's a shot of the model with the crew and accessories in place. I'll call this finished. No base as yet, I don't have time before the end of the GB, so that will be put down for a later project. More pics in the Gallery thread. Thanks to @PlaStix and @vppelt68 for hosting, and to all who commented.

More progress, The schurzen got its coat of XF60, blotches were masked the same way as the hull, I painted one replacement panel with a branching pattern in red-brown for a little visual interest. You may also notice that one of the panels is now separate, I noticed during a trial fit that it would interfere with the ammo loading, so I figured the crew would have removed the offending panel for the duration. The hull and turret has been given some light sponge chipping and some fresh scratches with an HB pencil. Unfortunately they don't show very well in the pics, but I assure you they are there. The exhaust got some black pigments over the aperture, while the muzzle brake was sponged with black paint, which again doesn't show up very well. Also the open schurzen doors were added using the molded hinges from the kit parts and small drops of CA glue. taking care to get them the correct way around. I'm fairly sure I got it right. Finally for today, I muddied up the hull side, lower glacis, road wheels, and rear of the track run with a thinned mix of Citadel Stirland Mud texture paint, static grass and some sand and earth pigments. Matt coat and dust next I think

Hmmm. I could have sworn I'd signed up for this. Never mind, count me in please with something clanky and boxy in SCC2

Sorry about the double post here, but I promise it's worth it. Today was spent painting in ancillary details, including the on vehicle tools, Vallejo german grey for the bare metal, citadel Rhinox Hide for the Bakelite handles and MG34 stock. I also hang most of the turret schurzen panels, leaving out the left side hinged sections, more on those later. The interior of the turret and hatches, and the fabric wad on the end of the cleaning rods, received a coat of Ushabti Bone, while the wooden tool handles and jacking block got Tallarn Sand followed by a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. You will notice that I also mounted the turret MG, and hull front spare track stowage. Also, I forgot to mention yesterday, that the hull MG was mounted, though I used an RB models brass piece, rather than the delicate plastic kit part. I may yet get another and replace the pintle mount barrel at a later date. The exhaust silencer got a coat of Model Mates normal shade Rust effect, I'll add soot later. I also put a fourth crewman together to hang out of the side hatch, and painted the ammo crates in XF60, followed by an overall wash sepia wash. Finally to those schurzen doors, I cut blanks from 1/4mm plasticard, added the flange to the front section with a thin strip of the same, and then added the interior catches with a combination of thin strip, and parts shaved from the kit parts. The catches don't show up too well in this pic, it'll look clearer with paint on. These need priming ready for paint, and I need to get some mud on the hull sides so that I can get the tracks on at some point. The spare track will soon get a touch of the same rust medium as the silencer, just a lot less liberally.

@PlaStix: Delays owing to real life again, easy enough finding time to work on the model, less so time to update this thread. Masks came off of the hull and turret giving this result, I then touched in the spare wheel tyres with Citadel Stormvermin fur: Turret schurzen got the same treatment and tactical number decals snugged down with Decalfix: Running gear tyres were painted with the same Citadel acrylic as the spares, while all of the track links and spares got a mix of Dark Iron and Flat Brown I then turned to the side schurzen. after toying with the idea of scratching together some mesh examples, I settled for the traditional solid panels. Cut from 1/4mm plasticard, I overlapped them on some double sided tape and glued the seams with Tamiya Extra Thin. The edges are a little uneven, but I'll put it down to rushed production at the factory. I then fitted the kit rails to the back side of the plates I still need to fit the stays to the back of the plates, that'll be tomorrows job and then they'll be ready for paint. Finally for now, I put together a few crewmembers and some AP rounds and crates from Tamiya's vehicle maintenance set The uniform coveralls/headgear are painted with Vallejo German grey, with a Nuln Oil wash over the top, the rest have been painted with a variety of acrylics.

Rather productive day was had today, quite apart from the DIY. Hobby stuff began with spraying all of the upper sections with XF58 Olive Green I then used blu-tac blobs to mask off the green patches. I have now sprayed XF60 over all remaining surfaces and running gear. That's drying so more pics tomorrow.

Lovely result ss. Well done.

Lovely work so far, looking forward to seeing more progress. Be careful though, these 1/48 kits can get addictive

@PlaStix Thank you. Yes, it's a lovely kit, but then I'm yet to find a 1/48 vehicle from big T that doesn't go together well. Shame about the sponson gaps, though with the skirts and tracks on, I don't suppose much will be visible under there, even if someone does go looking. It's not like it's a Sherman, is it?. Busy emptying the eldest sprogs bedroom to decorate at the moment, but I hope to break out the airbrush in a few hours. Edit: So busy clearing the room and typing this that I a: forgot to hit the post button, and b: missed the postie with the RB barrel for the bow MG. sorted now 👍

Thanks @PlaStix, I notice that you have this kit on the go as well, it's looking good so far. So rather a lot later than planned, real life has been getting in the way again, but I have managed to get a reasonable amount of progress done over several short sessions this month. Say what you will about Tamiya's 1/48 AFV's, they do go together quickly, the following has taken only a little more that 4 hours work in total. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Just to show that this meets the 25% rule, Work began by constructing the wheels and sprockets, as normal, and then moved onto the front and rear hull plates. these, along with the suspension components, were attached to the metal hull with common CA glue, This was followed by sliding on the wheels and gluing them and the tracks together into separate sub-assemblies from the hull, during which time the carpet monster tried its hardest to eat several of the road wheels, to the point where I actually built up one of the hull mounted spares and drilled it for the axle, before the beast gave it up! Work then proceeded with the upper hull, no issues here, standard Tamiya fair, however I do have an RB replacement MG34 barrel on the way to replace the bow MG. The kit part looks a little fragile for my tastes. The upper and lower hulls are just sitting together at this point, for the purposes of the photo. The turret came next of course, and I have opted to model the left side hatches open, this will later be occupied by a crewmen taking part in ammunition replenishment, likewise the corresponding Shurtzen doors will be modelled open (I may have to scratch replacements for the kit parts from thin sheet), hence why the turret Shurtzen panels are still separate. The observant among you will notice that the hull Shurtzen rails are absent, though the hangers are in place. This will be remedied later this week when I build up the overlapping hull plates, though I am torn between using solid sheet, or fine mesh for these. Anyway, all of the above sub-assemblies are now in a primer coat that is drying, so I hope to get some base colour on them tomorrow.

I have noticed many Pz IV H's in quarter-scale in this GB, but not found any J's yet, so having one in the stash, I figured I may as well resolve that apparent oversight. This is Tamiya's older moulding, with the die-cast lower hull. Just a placeholder post at the moment, work will commence once the Matilda has been finished over in KUTA XI

Sorry for the lack of updates, January seems to be busier than planned. I have however managed to get some detail painting done, using hairy sticks and a variety of acrylic colours, Mostly Citadel, with a little Vallejo, finished fitting the tracks and sprayed and mounted the tow cables over the right side of the hull. Sorry about the terrible lighting. Also, browsing the Australian Archive website, it seems that 2-4 AAR didn't fit the large track shields to the front of their Matildas, at least every pic I've found shows them not fitted, so I'll be leaving them off. However, in the archive, I found this image of BEAUGUEST IV Which seems to show simple squared off steel channel section welded to the engine deck louvres, presumably to support the steel mesh, so I'll be fitting them next. Lesson learned, more research needed in future. Decals design is underway, and I hope to get them printed today.

So it turns out that trying to get a build done in a short period of time, over the festive period, when you have young children in the house doesn't work too well, who would have guessed? Instead I will transfer my Matilda II to this GB and see if I can get it done by the end of the month. For reference, the original build thread is Here With the new year out of the way, and work calming down after the festive rush, I drilled out the hole in the mantlet too 2.5mm, and inserted a length of plastic tube to serve as the 3" Howitzer barrel, I think I got the length right, but it may be a little off. After priming with Army Painter Desert Yellow, I gave the top of the side armour panels a coat of Tamiya Red, This serves as the base colour of the fording lines, which I masked with narrow strips of Tamiya tape: The rest of the model, including the big, cast track guards, were sprayed with a Tamiya mix of SCC13, mix ratios courtesy of Mike Starmer. I also sprayed the resin track links with a mix of Tamiya Dark Iron and Brown in roughly 1-1. Assembly of the track runs has commenced, I'll try to get more done/updated tomorrow.

Thanks for the support all. Further research has revealed to me that 2/4 Armoured used steel mesh over the engine deck, to fend off magnetic mine/pole charge attacks,rather than PSP. A close look at period photos (I'll link them tomorrow) suggests that they used approximately 2" steel mesh, which works out at slightly bigger than 1mm mesh in this scale, so I'll be off to the store tomorrow to see what I can find. Also need to plan the support frame. No idea what it looked like, so if anyone has any pics of it they could point me to, I'd appreciate it enormously.

Ok, so maybe not tomorrow. Life got in the way again, as it has a habit of doing. Having said that, I am still surprised at how quickly these Tamiya 1/48 armour kits go together. A few hours work got me to this stage: Then on Monday morning, a little parcel arrived from the team at Parabelum. First time ordering from them, but I'm sure it wont be the last. Anyway, on went the first few bits of resin and I was so pleased with how well it was coming along, that I kept going, and knocked up the exhaust silencers. I still need to drill the ends of the pipes, I'll get to it this week hopefully. This bit will be staying off until the base coats are on, since getting paint in behind it is going to be difficult. That done, I cracked on, and with the hull griblies and turret built, it looks like this If you look carefully, you can see that I drilled the towing eyes. I'll have to raid the wire stash for some power cables sometime this week Next jobs, aside form the above, are to get some stowage onto the turret, and maybe some PSP on the hull sides. then it will be ready for primer and an initial coat of G3 on the inside surfaces. "Soft" stowage will wait until the end, as normal. Quick question, does anyone know if SCC7/"Jungle Green" is the correct colour for the hull?

Late to the field, but with a nice compact build that should be fairly quick. I'll be building an A12 Matilda II CS of the Australian 2/4 armoured. Based on this picture found with a quick web search; Box shot And sprue shot Not shown here, because it's still on the way from Parabellum, is the Gasoline Matilda Frog conversion kit that I will be raiding the turret collar, tracks and brush guards etc from. I also think I have RB models Besa barrels in the stash, if so I will be using one in this build as well. Work has commenced, more pics tomorrow.

Sorry, I know it's late, but would there be room for me in this GB please, I have an urge to build an Australian Matilda II on Bougainville or Tarakan.