bigfoot

This one’s gonna be brown 😁

I’ll take those odds! There was indeed, I’m sure you could squeeze one of those in alongside that lovely whaling boat of yours. Well, we’ve slipped anchor here and started the run in. Being a Tamiya kit it falls together, lower hull built up in one session. I need to check on the drive fittings for this one. Another session and I did a little bit of metal work. I’m well out of practice with the old soldering iron so not the neatest job on the wading stack and needs a bit of a clean up yet.

Very nicely done Simon, great finish.

That is looking great Tom, I like the colour you’ve come out with. I’m about to start on of these for a group build so I’m following your build and taking notes.

An oldie but a goodie. I’ll pull up a seat too if you don’t mind.

This is my entry for the group build. Yes, I know it doesn’t float or swim but it is operated by the Royal Marines. And it will be fitted with wading stacks so it can get its feet wet. This is going to be part of my long term big project to model a lot of the vehicles/units that were part of the sword beach initial landings on D Day. Markings will be part of ‘W’ troop, 5th independent RM armoured support battery. All of the vehicles of the RMASG supposedly had names, only the command Sherman ‘Warspite’ is known of W troop so this will be an educated guess. The tanks were all named after Royal Navy vessels active during the Second World War of a certain size (destroyer?) and above so I think I’m going to name this one after ‘Wolfhound’, a W-class destroyer. Build will be the venerable Tamiya kit with after market tracks, PE grills and Aber PE wading stacks.

That is coming along very nicely Stuart. The resin additions really add to the setting and the PE work on that .50 is lovely.

Looking good George. That alpine figure should fit nicely in there.

Interesting subject and a big gun for a small car. Nice work on the insides so far.

Thanks Cliff, glad to have you stop by.

I’ll join in with this GB if I may, although I’m going to go with a tank! It’ll be one of the Royal Marines armoured support group centaurs used on D Day, hope that is allowed.

Thanks Robert, bit hard to navigate that sight but eventually found something that gives me an idea for it. Not had a lot of time recently until the last couple of days. All the interior parts are now built and I’ve even got a layer of paint on now. Gecko calls out the interior to be silver which was the norm for British vehicle interiors until about 1943 before switching to white. I went with white, correct or not, as I think it will look better than silver and easier to weather. I used AK real colours insignia white for that slightly off white look. Next stop detail painting and weathering then assembly.

Looking really good with the markings on.

The RFM one by a country mile.

Outstanding work, love the used and weathered look you’ve achieved on both.

They do, I’ve got one of their PTO composite Shermans, the first I think they released with the new indy tracks. You get a small bag of track links designed to around the sprockets and then a large number of regular ones. I’ve not tried assembling them yet but I’ll get some pictures later. I’ve just seen dragon are rereleasing their M4A2 PTO kit but with indy tracks, 3D printed light guards and duckbills and a metal barrel.

That looks great Bertie, odd little thing that it is. Nice scratch building. You’ve flown through this thing, plenty of time for another!

Thanks for the comments and the luck, going to need it I think to get this finished for the end of the GB. The next steps are the suspension which look extremely fiddly. I might bite the bullet and get some 3D printed alternatives.

Some of the plastic parts are tricky as well (see below). I know you’ve built some miniart kits so you’re probably going to be alright with some of the fiddly bits and dubious connections. Thanks MD, it’s definitely coming along. Slowly. 😁 So an hour and a half at the bench last night and what have I got to show for it? A few tiny radio bits, that what! Doesn’t look much but it was a good lot of work. Each microphone is two parts, the earphones on the headsets are only and they expect you to join them to a small spine on the end of the head band smaller than a gnat’s you know what. The canvas shade shade on the left is made of the four sides that butt joint to each other with the backpiece that doesn’t fit snugly. I needed two pairs of hands to get it square and together whilst I glued it. The PE bits were the easy part here. Gecko don’t give you any guidance on wiring up the headsets and microphones so if anyone has some good pictures of the radio sets and where they plug into, please share!

Looking good so far, nice work on the springs.

Thanks for the comments both. Thanks John, sanity intact but think my eyesight might have suffered. I felt like my eyes were pointing in different directions after I had done all that!

I have a soft spot for the pakwagon, that would get my vote Darryl. Whilst not a big fan of German half tracks there is something about the big cannon on the back that appeals, particularly in a late war three tone camo. Will be following along whichever you go for!

There’s not an awful lot of information about them and only a few pictures. I believe they were only used by the inns of court recce regiment, attached to 11th armoured in NWE, something of a field mod. On the subject of PE, after some time at the bench over the weekend there was a lot of PE involved. Most of the interior detail is now added and ready for a touch of paint before further assembly. Most ejector pin marks are in hidden places although there are two on each side wall which, although tucked in corners, will be visible when built so they got filled with some Mr Putty. Lots of PE straps going on 9 separate pieces of PE in the battery holder alone! The only PE parts lost to the carpet monster were two legs for the control panel on the right side, each a hairs width and 4 bends required in each! Panel just got spaced with some PC off cuts instead. Insides have now all had a coat of primer and ready for some paint before I close it up.

The MkIII* was in use all the way to pretty much the war’s end, although they were few and far between. There are records of them being used (and lost) at least as far as Feb 45. I’m building one based on that period that I’ve found records for. The suspension can be a bit tricky, there is a good guide to doing it in the ITA building Churchills book that makes it significantly easier.

Yes, I’ve seen that and was tempted to get some of the 3D printed suspension units someone was offering but think I’ll just stick with the out the box. Cheers Ed, I was hoping for a quick build with such a small vehicle but don’t think that’ll be the case!