justaspitcrazy!

Hi guys, a few more pics of the turret... Everything looks REALLY green in these shots but thats because i toyed around with the colour saturation in order to pick out the pigments slightly better. Have done a bit more last night so as soon as i take some more shots i'll post them up. Cheers, Ben.

Hi all. A little more progress for you. The turret is almost done now. The whole model was gloss coated and then decals were put on with the aid of microset/sol. It then received a Dark Mig wash all over. I just brushed it on liberally then removed the excess with cotton wool buds (q tips for the yanks) soaked in enamel thinners. I followed this with a matte varnish using Testors dullcoat and then gave everything a heavyish drybrushing using a very light colored green acrylic paint by citadel. To tie everything together I gave the whole thing a coat of Mig filter (Green for allied green). The Camo net was painted with Tamiya olive drab jagsdf then highlighted with the same citadel pale green. I then picked out a few of the hessian strips with citadel tallarn sand and gave the whole net a dark Mig wash. Then on to the pigment work. I concentrated Mig European dust pigments on the top of the turret roof and in all the recesses and weld beads. having worked them in with a small wedge brush I took a small soft round brush moistened in Mig pigment fixers and dabbed the brush on to the surface allowing it to soak and wick into the pigments. Once this dries it gives a lovely impression of accumulated dust and can be reworked to your taste using the same method as many times as you wish until you seal it with varnish. I then did a small amount of streaking using AK interactive's Kursk earth enamel paint. I just painted random lines down the vertical faces and allowed them 5 minutes to dry. then taking a soft flat brush moistened with enamel thinners just brushed lightly downwards on the Kursk paint until the color blended and streaked to my tastes. These aren't the best photos but this is where i'm at so far. I'll post more up soon. There's a lot more streaking etc to be done yet so I'll get cracking and post some more up soon. Hope you all like her so far. As ever, cheers for following along! Ben.

Hi Chris, Cheers for the comments. I've been making progress and she's received a MIG dark wash to add some shading. Next is a drybrushing, then filter and decals and then onto the pigments and grime. Really enjoying myself at the mo! Cheers for following along Ben.

Progress! Everything has gone green! First couple of coats of Tamiya RAF dark green and I've also wrapped the barrel in my interpretation of a hessian camo net. Next stages are MIG washes, followed by pigment work, AK grime and fuel stains. I love weathering and this is starting to move ahead at a decent pace now. Here's where I'm at at the mo any way... This is the stuff for the net. That's all for now folks. As I said this is my favorite part of the hobby so really keen to crack on! Cheers all. Ben.

Hello Chris. To be honest mate I find it a pain either way. Mostly find it harder to paint separately though as you spend time and effort painting and weathering both the tank and the stowage then have to sand back the paint in order to get a surface for glue to bind to and then obviously you run the risk of the glue (C/A) in this case of misting or bleeding over the surrounding paint job. So with that in mind EVERYTHING, lol, will go green at first and then I'll brush paint the details from there. I learned a lot of slow painting tricks from my war gaming days so spending hours brush painting 1 thing is something I'm used to. Of course though, as you say it's all "horses for courses" so everyone has their own methods. That's the beauty of the hobby though, some poor sod else where has made mistakes for you to learn from! As ever, cheers for following along. Ben.

Hi chaps! Sorry for taking so long to get this one back on track as it were. Lots going on at home plus work and then i got distracted by other builds too but i'm back to the firefly now! At this point general construction is complete, with the exception of the tracks which i will be doing seperately. Theres a fair amount of detail gone into this one now so i'm hoping that with good painting and weathering i can really lift it. As you can see i've lashed everything down using the spare rope you get in Tamiyas cromwell kit, completed the etch work and added the tools etc. Some of the tools had ejector pin marks but they were simple enough to fill and i had to sand of a couple of the moulded on fittings for these. Here's where I'm at then... And then everything got a coat of Halfords grey primer. This gives a really nice Matte slightly grainy finish which i think is great for AFV's. And that, as they say, is that. For the time being anyway. Plan is to get a lick of green paint on it before this Thursday when i go away to Normandy for 4 days, so i'll post up progress Wednesday night if there is any. One thing i'm quite chuffed about is how the grey primer has highlighted the reduction in effect of the poor cast texture of the hull. Looks like that plastic weald bath did the trick just nicely! Any way, those of you still following thanks for sticking with me! On the home stretch now. cheers, Ben.

The production line has restarted. Watch this space

Gorgeous work, I've enjoyed following this one!

Can't understand why you're being so hard on yourself! That canopy is like a kit on its own and it's a top job you've done.

No problem at all Chris. I was getting pretty conscious of the fact i hadn't posted for a while and i anticipated somebody sooner or later asking for updates. More to come soon hopefully. Cheers again, Ben.

Hi Chris, Nothing since last update mate. Got caught up making indy links for a challenger 2 I'm doing. Currently have 7 builds on the go and kids birthdays are this month and next as well as Cosford airshow followed by a 4 day trip to Normandy so it's all/is going to be a bit hectic here! Don't panic though I'll be working my way back round to the Sherman soon enough. I'm just slapping together a 1/48 Hawker Typhoon as a break from tanks so as soon as that's done I'll crack on. Cheers Ben.

To be honest mate, I didn't really hear him complaining....

Cheers mate. Yeah twice in 3 weeks! It's not even close, 3.5 hour drive but when you've been once and seeing as your ticket becomes an annual pass it's rude not to make the most of it! Add on to that my younger brothers a tanker based on Bovington camp with the house hold cavalry then it becomes an even more worth while trip. Of course these beauties are a major draw too....

Hi all. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Life got in the way for a bit! Since my last post I've been down to Bovington twice and taken some good reference shots of the firefly they have, even though it's a Vc it was still nice to get a good hands on look at one. Anyway I've been slowly cracking on and have made a fair amount of progress. All that's really left to do is add the various tools, bend and fit the light guards and a few other bits of etch here and there and of course the tracks. You'll notice I've ripped off the rear fenders, I haven't seen many fireflies with them so they've gone. The rear idlers were ridiculous! They just don't locate at all. The holes in the wheel are far too big and the axels are far too thin. Not only that there is a locating peg on the end of each axel which had to be chopped off as it didn't locate into anything and if left on would have misaligned the idlers outwards by about 2mm so the track fit would have been diabolical. On a different note I'd really like to add a .50 Cal to the commanders cupola but the kit doesn't have one and I'm not sure if they were common anyway. Any thoughts? Any way, progress so far. Etch has been a doddle as I have bought a small shop hold and fold which I can't recommend enough! Not a fan of the bucket in this one, it's massive! don't think I'll include it. It's from the Tamiya jerry can set and is supposed to be 1/35th but looks huge in comparison to crew in the same scale. I know RB models do some nice ones so maybe I'll opt for one of them. Lots of stowage on the front to hide the massive albeit filled gap between the transmission casing and the hull. The plank is a cut down coffee stirrer from McDonalds which I dropped in a muddy puddle to give it that battered grubby look. Complete waste of time as it'll be painted over fairly soon! but at least I know in future the technique looks authentic. The plank in close up. I had to make the brackets my self from scrap plastic. No Biggy really. That's all for now folks. Will keep you all posted with progress.

erm, I don't think master class quite covers it! I was tempted with one of these but having viewed your work in progress I think I'll give it a miss, there's no way I'd get it looking that good! Trés magnifique!

excellent work so far! Your detail painting is spot on. I have one of these in my stash that I aim to get on the bench fairly soon. I'll be doing her "bombed up" as in the box art over Libya so for that reason I bought a resin Damocles pod from French company L'Arsenal.com as it's not included in the kit and was carried in place of the sensor you pointed out earlier in order to guide the Paveway's. L'Arsenal are well worth a look for aftermarket stuff, both resin and etch because being a French company they specialize in French subjects. The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft by all standards (much more pleasing to the eye than our Typhoons) and you're really doing her justice. Trés bon! Ben.

Don't worry Will, didn't take it that way at all Yeah I think that's what I'll be doing next to be honest. I'll do a Vc I think as I've always preferred the slab sided look of it. Cheers, Ben.

Cheers Will, To be honest mate I genuinely think it's down to the part. I test fitted again and again and it fits perfectly very where else except on the bolt plate. I'd love to take a replacement off you mate but to be honest my chosen glue is plastic weld which really does what it says on the tin so I'd need to do some pretty drastic clean up if I were to hack the diff off at this stage! lol Those are some really useful photo's by the way. I hadn't realized how smooth the join on the bolt plate should be to the hull and diff. I've got some ninja filling to do I think.... I'm most gutted about the tow cable really. lovely cable but no ends! Ben.

Hello all! Right! etch and other goodies have turned up so I can resume posting again! Had a couple of sessions over the last 2 nights and have made a small amount of headway. 1st off some shots of the aftermarket stuff. Etch is from ET models and I have to say I'm really impressed. you get a lot for your money including a nice tow cable which i'd love to use but unfortunately this old kit doesn't come with the towing eyes! Next up is the resin stowage from Value Gear which is easily the best resin I've ever seen. Absolutely no clean up, no casting blocks, sink holes or poor castings just 100% flawless crisp detailing. See for yourselves.... So to start off after looking at some photos and doing a fair amount of reading I decided to add the cheek applique armour based on the fact the turret in the kit doesn't have the cast in piece found on some fireflies. I also at this point added the front fenders and test fitted the hull. Sad to say the fit in this area is also naff. There's a huge gap between the transmission housing and the hull join and all around underneath there are various steps and gaps dotted around. I'll tackle these at a later date with filler etc but the front will be mostly hidden behind stowage and spare track links so I reckon I'll get away without having to tidy it up too much. Be warned, there are also a lot of ejector pin marks on the underside of the fenders. Next up I added the small vents on the back with there PE grills. Fit wasn't great but it's the kit etch so enough said! lastly I tackled the rear of the tank, adding the exhausts and filters. One thing I could see coming due to the lack of parts in this area was the fact that there was a huge void looking up into the inside of the hull where there should be a mesh screen and deflector. The kit would just have the exhaust tips protruding from the hole. Even though you're not likely to see this due to the lip of the rear hull and the storage box on the back I decided it wasn't good enough and detailed it up a bit using some mesh I had spare from Tamiya's Cromwell. I just measured it up and cut it to shape. I'll make a frame for it to complete the look but this is it for now.... And a final shot of the filters.. That's it so far really. It really isn't the best kit in the world but that's going on the fact this is only my 3rd tank and the other 2 have been Tamiya kits which fell together. That said I'm confident that the etch and stowage plus decent painting will make it all look the part when it's finished. More to come soon folks, cheers Ben.

Cheers Chris. Still waiting on the etch to turn up (it's coming from China). As soon as it gets here then I'll crack on and post some updates. In the meantime though it's given me a chance to carry on working on a Cromwell tank and a willys jeep so plenty to keep me going! Cheers, Ben.

Got a lot done last night chaps. One of the criticisms aimed at the kit is the over done cast texture of the hybrid hull and transmission housing. It looks like dragon referenced a hulk that had sat rusting for 70 years. See images... As you can see it's really over the top so with reckless abandon I sought to rectify this by washing the entire area with Plastic Weld which acts in much the same way as extra thin plastic cement and this pretty much melted a lot of it away leaving a much more acceptable (not perfect) representation of cast metal as can be seen below. Not too bad I don't think considering I'd never done this before! Next up I tackled fitting the rear engine access plate and fitted the transmission housing to the lower hull and the fit in this area was very good. Then it was on to the VVS suspension. there were a lot of parts involved here but overall not much clean up and ejector pin marks were mostly in areas that wont be seen. Each bogie consists of 10 pieces which are then mounted onto the lower hull. the only thing to watch out for was the idler mounting/ axles, the fit was atrocious it was almost as if they were the wrong parts and a lot of sanding and fettling was needed to get them to fit, I'm yet to find out if this has an effect on the track fit but we shall see. offending rear idler mounts.. Break down of parts for the bogies Bogies complete and in situ Next area tackled was the upper rear hull, I added all the various plates and engine covers then fitted the turret for a quick test...and encountered a problem. The plate that covers the mesh screen rear of the turret sits too high, or the turret sits too low, either way this block traverse of the turret. not a big deal for me as ill be posing the gun offset but for those that want it eyes front as it were you're going to need to do some creative sanding or leave the cover off the grill. No problem when traversed slightly But try and face it forward and the turret just won't move passed, almost as though it's far too wide in diameter. Any way that brings me to the end of last nights antics other than a quick shot of the upper and lower hull sitting in situ and you'll also notice the drive sprocket mounts fitted, which fit nicely. Reluctant to carry on too much more as I'm waiting on the etch to turn up so that's all for now. More to come soon hopefully. Comments, questions and criticisms welcome as always chaps. Cheers, Ben.

They certainly are! I've used 2 before (oqf 75mm) on a churchill and a cromwell I did. About to settle in for another session so more to come soon. Ben.

Apparently they got better as they went along, sods law though that I picked the first one!

Hi all. Having recently purchased this kit at a very reasonable price i was chuffed to get it started. However..... it has some serious skeletons and after trying to find reviews/builds on tinterweb I came up a blank. So fear not! I will fill that gap with a build review of my own! What little info I could find on the kit didn't fill me with pleasure, the general opinion being poor fit, lacking accuracy, terrible instructions and weirdly pot luck on which sprues you got in the kit based on a couple of reboxings and updates. however i've seen some pictures of the finished kit by others and with effort and modelling panache it can be made into a lovely looking kit. So thats my aim for this one, something that looks like a Firefly and is nicely modelled, painted and weathered. So rivet counters and accuracy lawyers beware this one isnt for you! I couldnt give a monkeys about how high that turret bustle is or if that radio box is the right shape etc Any way, I've started the build and I can confirm it's a pig! more on that later. My plan is to build her buttoned up with the turret traversed slightly to one side as if taking aim. I will also be adding stowage, gubbins, flotasam and jetsam etc to her in order to hide some pretty awful casting texture and then to mount her on a nice base. In terms of aftermarket I intend to use a bit of PE and a new barrell from RB productions then we'll see where we go from there. ONWARDS! You get a small PE fret in the kit as well as individual track links although a lot of them are not required. Majority of the grumbles with this one are the wheels and suspension bogies. Basically a common theme seems to be that the bogies are missing the three bolts found at the bottom between the wheels and that the wheels them selves have no rear detail and are missing the inserts at the back to make them look complete. Not so in my case! It seems lady luck is on my side so far as i have some updated sprues! And so on with the build. Tools of the trade, obligatory can of Ale and the RB productions barrell which is gorgeous. Part B11 isnt needed if using the RB bareel as the nut which secures the barrell extends beyond this part and the assembly is solid enough. And finally with the gun in situ. That's all for now folks. will keep you updated as i go along. Ben