M_Sinclair

Nice to see another B5 fan here. Good work.

Finished one of my shelf queens! My wife got me this kit as a Christmas present back in 2019. A few months later and it was all ready for paint. The cockpit and pilot were painted and installed. Windows were masked and the whole thing was primed and it seemed like it was all going at a pretty quick pace. And then it sat on my shelf for just under three years as I periodically debated how to paint it and looked at hundreds of photos for inspiration. In early February 2023 I decided that one recent idea was a good one and worth trying. I was inspired by Ukraine's heroic defense of their country and especially in the early days of the war, it felt broadly reminiscent of the Rebels in Star Wars battling the Galactic Empire. After looking at several ground and air vehicles used by the Ukrainian's, I felt the ground attack UAF SU-25's with their weathered and worn "clover" camo would look great on an X-wing. Initially my plan was this would be a straight forward painting project. But once I settled on making an X-wing inspired by SU-25's I thought it would be fun to add some SU-25 like details to the X-wing to make it a little more unique. I added several antenna's as seen on SU-25's to the fuselage top and bottom. SU-25's have a prominent sensor on the front of the nose. T-70 X-wings have a spot perfect for one on the upper surface of the nose so I cut out a spot for one and used three different coloured sequins to replicate the sensor itself. Two of the sequins were placed at different angles so that if you look at it at different angles, different sequins catch the light to add some pop to the nose sensor. The two long pitot tubes in the nose were initially scratchbuilt by me. But right as I was finishing up painting the model I caved and bought the gorgeous 1/72 SU-25 pitot tubes from Master Model. I was proud of my attempt but the Master Model pitot tubes were on another level. SU-25's have a large sensor at the base of the tail so I made up something similar entirely from styrene. I extended the boom for my tail sensors as it seemed like it would make more sense to have it located past the engines for better scanning. I was also going to utilize the cockpit and pilot as is but decided to repaint both as I felt I could do better. I also took this opportunity to add a Ukrainian flag to the cockpit combing which is something I have seen some Ukrainian Mig-29's do. The flag was lead foil that was folded and unfolded to give it some nice wrinkles. Re painting the cockpit and pilot of course meant removing the original canopy which was glued on fairly well and was damaged in the removal process. Thankfully Bandai is generous enough to provide two canopies in the kit so it wasn't an issue. In the three or so years the model sat on the shelf I managed to lose one of the laser canon barrel ends so I made new ones from styrene rod that I hollowed with a fine drill bit. I did the same to make new torpedo tubes. I think that's about it for mods. One final note. I did not use one single decal anywhere on this model. Everything you see was painted on. Well enough rambling, lets get to photos. 20230401-MJS_6059 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6086 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6072 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6066 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6067 by _m_sinclair Back in 2016 I built the same kit but in Poe Dameron's colours so I thought it would be fun to pose them together on the same kind of base. Though this time I had acquired from a friend some clear acrylic rod which I felt was a nice upgrade over the brass tube I used originally to support the model. 20230401-MJS_6053 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6143 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6144 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6099 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6106 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6117 by _m_sinclair 20230401-MJS_6121 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6180 by _m_sinclair I should add, the blue spirals on the opposing laser canons were inspired by Luke Skywalker's Red 5 which had similar markings. I figured a nod to maybe the most famous X-wing pilot would be fun and especially so as Mark Hamill has been a wonderful supporter of Ukraine during these dark times. 20230402-MJS_6187 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6188 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6194 by _m_sinclair I did a terrible job on my first attempt at painting the nose numbers. I think originally it was Blue 62. But I saw on several UAF SU-25's that old numbers were often painted over and changed over the years so I did the same with mine. My second attempt went much better though even then, plenty of touch ups were needed. 20230402-MJS_6252 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6258 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr 20230402-MJS_6262 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6267 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6268 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6285 by _m_sinclair I wasn't sure how much of my R6 astromech would be visible once installed, so I detail painted his entire body too. Not that any of it is visible now. Oh well. 20230402-MJS_6293 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6301 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6302 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6303 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6304 by _m_sinclair The Bandai kit comes with wing lights molded into the surface. I shaved them off with an x-acto and replaced them with clear resin lights from an old CMK set I bought years and years ago. 20230402-MJS_6305 by _m_sinclair Like the rest of the model, my R6 astromech was entirely painted by me. No decals. I also added his little protuding sensor by his eye. This was also made from styrene. 20230402-MJS_6313 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6331 by _m_sinclair 20230402-MJS_6334 by _m_sinclair Apologies for the photo spam but I'm honestly pretty proud of how it turned out. And it feels so good to get one of my few shelf queens done! Once I got back into it this past February it took just under two months to complete. Thanks for looking. -Matt

Super cool Andy! And very well done! Can't say I've ever seen a bust of "Tim" before. Did you have to print and clean up yourself? My fingers are crossed the saga with your house is finished or close to it. -matt

Thanks guys! I have questioned my sanity once or twice on this build. The two parts of this build I was initially most intimidated by were the white wash and the planned conversion of the tank commander. Well the white wash is done and now, so is the tank commander. So the tank commander is from the really great Tamiya US Tank Crew Set (35347). The figure is terrific but I wanted to have him posed as if he had just been looking through his binoculars prior to moving out. So I had to make a new right arm using wire and I grabbed a hand that would be appropriate from my spares box. Likely an old Dragon item. 20220516_211830-01 The arm started to be shaped with my 20 year old box of Milliput. And since the figure was meant to be wearing the distinct US tanker helmet, he didn't have any ears molded on his head. In the only photo I have of Lt Col Abrams in WWII, he was wearing a steel pot helmet. The helmet and binoculars came from Miniart's US Weapons and Equipment set (35334). I sculpted new ears and a little hair from Milliput. This is my first attempt at a major figure conversion so this was all new territroy for me. I made my own sculpting tools by shaping a couple toothpicks to different shaped points and then hardening them with some thin CA. They worked really well and I'm sure I'll be using them again in the future! 20220517_174416-01 20220517_203203-01 Sculpting his sleeve was definitely trickier then I expected. Hats off to the talented figure sculptors out there! Though while it was tricky to try and get the wrinkles to look somewhat natural, it was also pretty fun! The green putty for his sleeves and other details is not Greenstuff, but rather AK's version of the exact same product. For sculpting smaller details, AK's greenpower is wonderful to use. And it was in stock at my local hobby shop when I needed it! 20220519_183457-01 Along with adding details that were removed by the conversion process, I also wanted to enhance details like the various seams on the jacket. They are pretty heavy handed, but again, this is my first time doing this sort of thing. I also sculpted a triangle to represent his Armoured Forces embroidered patch. 20220521_200538-01 The leather strap on his helmet was enhanced with some thinly cut Tamiya masking tape. 20220521_201035-01 20220521_201153-01 20220521_201240-01 20220521_201626-01 Some Tamiya paint for a primer. Sculpting looks pretty rough at this stage. But wow check out how detailed that face is from Tamiya! 20220521_214107-01 Leather strap for his sidearm was again cleaned up with some Tamiya tape. 20220521_215520-01 After many hours of painting, I'm calling him done. I tried to implement what I've been learning from watching figure painters on YouTube like Squidmar. Again, this is breaking new ground for me but I'm very excited by the possibilities of exploring both sculpting and more advanced figure painting techniques. I think I must have painted his face about four times to get it to this point which to me felt, satisfactory. The patch on his shoulder was finished off with a great 4th AD decal by Alliance Modelworks. 20220528_212750-01 20220528_215233-01 20220528_204640-01 Tankers got pretty dirty maintaining their machines so I tried to weather his jacket appropriately. 20220528_204549-01 20220528_212856-01 I couldn't help but briefly add the .50cal for a photo. 20220528_213222-01 20220528_205010-02 So that's what I've been up to the last few weeks. Till next time. -Matt

Tracks are on and weathering has begun. 20220515_113401 A combination of real dirt and various pigments were used to create the mud/dirt on the lower parts of the hull and running gear. Excess dirt was removed with a stiff brush where needed. The pigments were mixed to further vary tones and application was both wet and dry. What you see is the result of many layers. The inside faces of the track teeth were painted with AK 3rd Gen AK11212 Gun Metal while a pencil was used on the return rollers, road wheel sides and idlers to indicate worn metal. 20220515_113615 The tracks are mostly free of mud as this tank would have been going through snow fairly frequently at the time I am trying to depict it. 20220515_113636 The weathering of the lower areas was done almost entirely before the tracks were installed for ease of access. 20220515_121218 The upper surfaces of the hull and turret have also seen weathering with pigments and real dirt. 20220515_113431 -Matt

I was planning to add this detail. But while I do have many reference photos of 76mm armed Shermans, only two had the strip of bare metal you mentioned. All the other period photos I have show Shermans with 76mm guns painted entirely in olive drab with no strip of bare metal. Add to that the paint guide in the kit and the box art show this Sherman not to have that feature. So since the bulk of my reference showed that feature to be far less common then I initially expected, I chose to omit it. -Matt

Thanks guys! Yeah I think it will look even better once the weathering can start to tie it all together. The Sherman was set aside for a little while as I wanted to get my Tamiya Spitfire done. You can see it here if you wish. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235109789-tamiya-148-spitfire-mkia-k9906/ But back to armour. I've begun watching the excellent YouTube channel Night Shift and one of the things he does over there is periodically using real dirt/grass for weathering. This is something I've done long ago but felt it would be fun to try again. So this past weekend I went to a local park with some containers I picked up from Dollorama and collected whatever I thought might come in handy. The dirt was left to dry in the sun for a couple days but should be ready to use now. 20220508_130139-01 I know I said the white wash was done but the more I looked at it, the more I felt it would benefit from a little more attention. So I sprayed on one final coat of hairspray down the hull sides and sprayed on a little more of my custom dirty white wash paint but just in a few areas, focusing on where I felt I had removed too much. Then I felt it was ok to remove the masking from the various vision blocks. I then applied via paint brush some very heavily thinned white wash mixed from varying amounts of Vallejo 71.001 white and 71.119 white grey. The ratio of the two was constantly changed as well as almost constantly tweaking the opacity. As soon as a few areas of paint was brushed on I would then immediately clean my brush, get it nice and damp and use that to blend and work around the fresh paint. Once the blending was done I could then use a toothpick to chip and scratch the fresh paint. This technique was really fun and easy to do. 20220508_125657-01 20220508_125647-01 20220508_125808-01 20220508_125823-01 I didn't like how much white wash had been removed in the previous round of chipping so I this time around I tried to make much finer chips/scratches and really focus on areas the crew might cause the paint to wear. Some chipping was also done with some small sponges and olive drab but most of that wound up being covered up or reduced with more brush painted white wash. Along with all that, I painted and installed the two piece brass .30cal bow machine gun from Master (item GM-35-004). 20220508_125942-01 I had planned to use the kit supplied tow cable from Meng but after cutting it to length following the measurement provided in the instructions I found it was several centimeters too short. I purchased a replacement tow cable from Eureka and it looks great on the tank. I think I made the new tow cable slightly too long this time but I can always cover the end on the deck with stowage. The tow cable clamp that secures it to the rear deck is molded to the kit supplied tow cable end so I made a new one from some styrene and stretched sprue. The cable was painted Vallejo heavy charcoal 72.155 and then drybrushed with Vallejo medium gunship grey 71.097 along with a tiny bit of dark rust applied to the tow cable here and there. Looking at period reference photos of Shermans there was definitely some variety in how the cables were stowed, in particular how they were stowed at the front of the tanks. And while most cables were fairly straight I did see some that had some interesting bends and curves to them. Maybe these were tow cables that had been used? 20220508_125705-01 20220508_125749-01 I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. -Matt

Thanks a lot everyone! -Matt

Two things I'd like to say right off the bat. One, I did not do this kit justice. And two, wow this is the best engineered and best detailed aircraft kit I have personally ever built. It is a jewel. The cockpit alone is crammed full of detail and has plenty of options depending on which specific Mk.Ia Spitfire you choose to build from the kit. There are several parts and panels you can wait until the model is entirely finished before installing, the fit is that good. 20220501-MJS_5346 20220501-MJS_5389 20220501-MJS_5374 While this kit is incredibly good, it did prove to be a bear of a build but that was no fault of Tamiya. 20220501-MJS_5440 The first issue I had concerned the seat harness. I built and painted the photoetched harness supplied by Tamiya and was really proud of how well it was looking. All I had left to do to complete the cockpit assembly was glue the finished harness onto the painted seat. Unfortunately as I was pressing the harness down onto the seat I accidentally flinched and caused the super glue to smear over the seat. The harness was now glued to the wrong spot and there was a big smear of glue on the seat. To fix my clumsy mistake I had to remove the harness supplied by Tamiya which naturally ruined it. And then the seat could be stripped of the excess glue and then repainted. With the Tamiya harness now ruined I needed a replacement. I purchased a sutton harness from HGW. The detail was good but definitely trickier to assemble than the Tamiya item. And while the HGW belt material does have some flex, it is still a pretty delicate item. I was being very careful trying to assemble the harness but it tore along the series of laser cut holes. I really don't know how I could have been more careful to avoid this happening. I messaged HGW and they offered to send a free replacement right away so I was pretty happy with their response. Unfortunately after a few months, nothing had arrived. I eventually chose to purchase a second harness from HGW and very frustratingly, it tore in the exact same place again. I decided to try and repair the torn harness. I glued the harness to some very thin metal foil. This would be thin enough to hide and retain some flexibility. Once the cockpit was finally done the rest of the construction went incredibly easily. Again, the fit of the parts was near perfect and only the bare minimum of seam filling was needed along the top of the engine cowl. I did lose some of the fastener detail while sanding which I replaced with some 0.88mm diameter rod which I then hollowed out with a 0.4mm drill. 20220501-MJS_5259 The pitot tubes are very delicate on the early Mk.Ia Spitfires. This is nicely represented by Tamiya but I felt I could do better so I sliced off the pitot tubes and replaced them with some stretched sprue. 20220501-MJS_5286 Other modifications I made were repositioning the rudder and elevators. The tail wheel was also turned to the right and a thin steel wire inserted into the tail wheel strut to maintain its strength after the modification. Lost rivet detail on the tail strut was replaced with Archer 3D printed rivets. The solid plastic tail light was cut off the rudder and replaced with clear stretched sprue that was shaped with sanding sticks and then cut to length. 20220501-MJS_5274 My goal with this build was to represent an aircraft that had only acquired a few hours of flying time on it so I figured my best bet was to study some recently restored Spitfires. The exhausts showed a lot of interesting subtle tones and colours which I tried to represent here. The kit exhausts have excellent detail and shape but are molded solid. It was challenging due to the shape but I used an exacto blade to very carefully hollow out the exhaust pipes. 20220501-MJS_5269 Looking at references, the exhaust residue colour is close to Tamiya buff or deck tan which was airbrushed on then complimented with some pigments. 20220501-MJS_5304 The wheel down indicators, external gun sight and small nut on the tip of the spinner were all made from stretched sprue of varying thicknesses and shaped as needed. I even used very thin stretched sprue to make brake lines mounted to the main gear legs. 20220501-MJS_5340 After the struggle that was the seat harness, everything was pretty smooth sailing until I got to painting which proved to be an even bigger headache. The Spitfire was built over the course of the last two and a bit years so some of my memories are a little vague. I began by priming the model and spraying Vallejo Aluminum on the lower surfaces. The aluminum was masked off and I began painting the upper surfaces. The masking was then removed and big sections of aluminum paint went with it. All the external paint was stripped, and I chose a different aluminum but again, I had large sections of the paint come off. My third attempt to paint the Spitfire started by painting the upper surfaces but when that masking was removed, more paint came off. 20220501-MJS_5324 The fourth and final attempt was thankfully uneventful. The previous paint had been stripped and the model cleaned thoroughly with alcohol and primed with Tamiya grey. This was allowed to sit for a solid month before tackling the aluminum which this time was Vallejo silver 77.724. The upper surfaces were painted Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth but that looked a touch too dark so I went over it with Vallejo Dark Earth 71.323. Blutack was used to mask the camo pattern and Tamiya XF-81 Dark Green 2 mixed with a small amount of XF-67 NATO Green went on. The blutack came off with no problem and I could finally move onto the gloss coat. 20220501-MJS_5453 That whole painting saga actually took place over a span of about six months or so as each failure was rather demoralizing. And with covid in full swing at the time, it's not like there were any model shows to take it too. I would normally have spent a fair bit of time post shading but again, this is meant to look like a pretty new airframe so that would have been inappropriate. I honestly can't remember if I forgot to clean the model of dust prior to painting (the model had sat for a few weeks after its final coat of primer but it was covered) or if the top colours weren't thinned enough as certain areas came out with a rather rough finish. After so many earlier failed attempts at painting I really wasn't in the mood to try painting the model AGAIN. I said to myself screw it and chose to simply press on. I just wanted this thing to be done. 20220501-MJS_5458 I used Pledge (formerly Future) clear gloss to prep for decals. I must admit, after all the issues with the seat harness and painting I had been borderline throwing the model away several times. I decided at this point, even with its flaws I just wanted the model to be done so I could move on. I sprayed one rather heavy coat of Pledge, let it dry and began applying decals. Admittedly, this was a mistake as the surface was really not glossy enough for the decals which is why you will notice a fair amount of silvering. I had initially planned to only use the small decals included and airbrush on the larger markings using custom vinyl masks. But I was still rather paranoid about masks potentially lifting off paint so I chose to only use decals for the markings. 20220501-MJS_5472 With a crudely repaired seat harness, rough camo paint and silvered decals, it was time to start the final weathering and assembly. A dark grey wash was applied to a few inspection doors and the panel lines that outlined the flaps and flight controls but that was it. I wanted to keep the panel lines subtle. 20220501-MJS_5488 Oil paints and pigments were used to simulate a small amount dirt and grime from flight and ground crews walking along the wing roots. Again, trying to keep the aircraft looking pretty new. 20220501-MJS_5490 The model was placed on fine sand paper and the sand paper gently moved back and forth to flatten the bottom of the tires. Later I managed to lose the light that sits just behind the antenna mast while trying to install it. Thankfully I saved the leftover clear sprue from a Spitfire build from well over a decade ago which still had that piece I had lost so chock up another win for the spares box. 20220501-MJS_5491 The only other adventure I had involved the windscreen. When I removed the masking from the windscreen I saw to my displeasure that at some point the masking I used to protect the inside of the windscreen had lifted just enough to allow some paint in. It was pretty prominent but to be honest since the model was already a disappointment (again, that's on me, not Tamiya) I wasn't going to fix it. But after a few days it started to really bother me and I decided that even though the model was virtually done I elected to remove the original windscreen and replace it with the second one included in the Tamiya kit. The new windscreen was quickly faired in with some milliput and the windscreen once again masked and painted. I should add that while using water to help smooth out the milliput around the replacement windscreen some of that putty water began to stain the paint. I rushed the model to the sink and washed it off. Unfortunately washing the model caused some of the Tamiya clear flat to come off which is why you see some silvering in some odd areas like over the roundels on the wings. It was one adventure after another! 20220501-MJS_5506 Let's see, what else. I removed the molded on door release handle and made a new one from styrene. And I had scratchbuilt the handle mechanism you see inside Spitfire canopies to slide it open and closed. Turns out while it looked the right size when I was making it, but turned out to be fractionally too big and wouldn't fit when the canopy was installed in the open position. Oh well. 20220501-MJS_5520 20220501-MJS_5528 Based on footage I have seen of Spitfires from the time on YouTube, they seemed to operate from grass field runways but were maintained on concrete aprons. To replicate this I lightly weathered the tires with some old medium brown looking pigment from Mig. Then I took a cotton swab and ran it along the middle of the tire to show where the dirt had been worn off when the aircraft was moved across the concrete apron. 20220501-MJS_5529 I had planned to add the three antenna wires to the model but after such a problematic build I just wanted the model done. So I simply omitted them. 20220501-MJS_5536 There were other problems that cropped up and a few other mods I made but I covered the main ones. Not sure if what I wrote made any sense, it was tricky trying to write the key points down only after the model was done and after so much time had passed since I had begun building it. 20220501-MJS_5538 So what I initially thought would be a quick build back in June of 2019 would wind up being one hell of a roller coaster and I didn't finish it until the end of April 2022. And while it did come close to being chucked in the garbage several times, I'm glad I chose not too. I can't stress how much I learned building this model. From all sorts of problem solving to my first real attempts at scratchbuilding several small parts, even though they didn't all make it onto the model. And despite all the flaws (most obvious being all that silvering) I'm honestly surprised it turned out as goods as it did! 20220501-MJS_5540 Now that the Spitfire has been finally completed I will get back to the M4 Sherman "Thunderbolt VI" I have going in the armour section. Thanks for looking. -Matt

Incredible work. Wow. -Matt

Nice Stuka! -Matt

Beautiful Beau! -Matt

You really have a way of nailing the look and feel of ships (and droids) in the Star Wars universe. Those steaks down the sides of the engine are just ~chef's kiss~ wonderful. Bravo Andy. -matt

Magnificent! -matt

Thanks! For the last couple weeks I've been working on one aspect of the model that I was both excited for and quite nervous about. The heavily worn white wash. Primarily the work has been carried out with the hair spray technique. My initial plan was to do hair spray and then paint about two or three times then start working with a brush to make finer adjustments. The great thing about using hair spray and Tamiya paints is you can start work on the next layer or even chipping as soon as the previous coat is dry to the touch. The downside is that since its so dang easy to do I couldn't help but keep doing layer after layer after layer. Continuously trying to tweak and fine tune things in the hope I'd get it all looking exactly how I'd like. I think about 6 layers in I probably liked the worn white wash the most. But, I continued. Thinking the next layer of paint and hairspray would be the one to get it spot on. I think I must have done about nine or so layers of hair spray and paint by this point. Interspersed between my non stop hair spray and chipping sessions I also applied some highly thinned Vallejo white and off white applied with a fine brush for what some like to call mapping or rendering. Sometimes the hardest thing to know is when to stop. And I think I would have been happier with my white wash if I had stopped trying to "fix" it much earlier. 20220416_154853 I think about half way through the white wash layers I also touched up the olive drab in a few select places with a fine airbrush. Just in places I felt the OD should be more prominent. Those areas were the top surfaces of the turret and the top corners of the glacis. 20220416_154908 If this was any other model I likely would have just stripped the paint off and started over entirely. I've done it many times before and I'm sure it'll happen again. But that would mean redoing the art work on the hull sides and likely damaging the tools on the rear deck, so paint stripping was out of the question. The main gun however, I really didn't like how it looked anymore and I could easily repaint it. So I did. I sanded it and repainted the OD including both darker and lighter shades as I did before. Then I restricted myself to only two rounds of hair spray and chipped paint. The highly thinned Vallejo white and off white mapping was reapplied via brush and here we are. 20220416_155238 Funny thing is, I actually spent several days practicing my white wash process on a scrap model and felt pretty confident when I finally decided to tackle the Sherman. What is it they say about the best laid plans? 20220416_155623 The olive drab on the rear deck was looking kinda dull after all the work spent on the white wash so I pumped up the contrast by airbrushing some highly faded OD. Great thing about using an airbrush that can do pretty fine work is I didn't have to mask anything. 20220416_155657 20220416_155936 Some white wash drips were applied with a brush under the rear of the turret and along the front of the transmission cover. 20220416_155950 While I'm not thrilled with how the heavily worn white wash looks, I think it's ok. Every model is a learning experience and this one is no exception. And as the artwork next to my work bench says (a quote from Adam Savage's book) "perfect is the enemy of done". 20220416_160307 -matt

Crest really got a lot of character from these subtle treatments. And glad to hear that things are starting to return to normal for ya. -matt

Great to see you managing to squeeze in some model work during the chaos. The Crest's signature stripes look spot on. -Matt

Thank you all very much! Been busy with spring cleaning round home but got a little work done that seemed like a good idea. There's still a bit of work to do on the Sherman so I don't want to glue the delicate .50cal onto the turret until right at the end. So what to do with it in the mean time? And how do I keep from damaging it? I mean, again. I made a little protective box from styrene I had on hand. The lid is simply a friction fit. 20220403_170055 There are also a couple posts to limit how much the gun can rotate. 20220403_170111 A simple build but an important one. -Matt

I wrote to him recently. He's fine but is busy and he is trying to get back to posting as soon as he can. -Matt

Here is part three of this latest update. Back to the never ending M2 project. The receiver has been painted up in a very dark grey and the new barrel installed. My spares box came to the rescue again as back in the mid 2000's I had bought a few .50cal barrels. The one here is an item from Adlers Nest and the photoetch barrel handle is from the Armorscale M2 barrel set. Each section of barrel was airbrushed a different shade of grey. Once the Tamiya paint had a day to dry I used a cotton swab to gently burnish the barrel as looking at references showed it can have a bit of a sheen to it compared to the rest of the gun. A standard pencil was used to add metallic highlights and depict wear. At this stage I also got ready to reinstall the retainer pins and chains which had popped off during earlier disassembly and paint stripping. It was at this stage I noticed the pins don't connect directly to the chain. There is a small almost "T" shaped clip the connects the chain to the retaining pins. You can see in this photo my first attempts to recreate said clips. Not bad but a bit too chunky for the scale. Also that lovely little front sight I was so proud of? It is very fragile and without noticing at first, I had managed to knock it off. So I got to build the front sight all over again. Which like before, took a few tries to get right. 20220323_151417 Going through old spare power cables I had lying around I cut some open and found some very delicate wire. After many tries I was able to make two even smaller clips to add to my M2 cradle. 20220323_153039 So during all this I knew I needed an ammo box to place my amazing little belt of turned brass and photoetched ammunition. I started off by making a few from the thinnest sheet styrene I have (0.25mm thick). But my ammunition was just too wide to fit. So I built another ammo box but this time using foil from an old wine bottle. This actually came out pretty good and the crazy thin (and slightly flexible) material meant my ammo just barely fit inside. But the more I looked at my references for WWII US ammo boxes the more I was dissatisfied with how plain jane my ammo boxes looked. I made attempts with scratchbuilding even more ammo boxes. These attempts I played with making my own embossed detail (which was interesting but only marginally successful) and adding layers of detail with spare photoetch material cut to shape. But that didn't look great and added too much thickness. I found online some lovely PE ammo boxes by Tetra. I placed an order and was quite impressed when they showed up. I stripped off the paint they came applied with and began to build up a box to see if the MG rounds would fit. They did not. I can't help but wonder if this Mission Models ammo is ever so slightly over size? I used a file to bring down the size of the brass rounds and that helped a little. But I could only take off so much brass before it would start to look odd. After plenty more experimenting (thankfully you get eight photo etch ammo boxes from Tetra as I used up four) I used a fine diamond file to reduce the wall thickness of the ammo box by about half. But even after filing down the rounds and the sides of the ammo box, the Mission Models ammo still refused to fit. I was kinda all in here so finding a solution was paramount. In the end I chose the let the ammo push out the sides of the ammo box just a little, as well the ammo inside the box sits at a slight angle. While it was disappointing to have to compromise, I still feel what I ended up with was far more visually interesting then if I had stuck with the stock parts from Meng. Here we see the M2 with the ammo box and ammo installed. 20220326_090357 Looks pretty cool eh? But wait we aren't done yet! Careful observation will note, the spade grips are broken off (my bad) and the charging handle is also gone (I'm clumsy). And the ammunition is at a weird angle going into the gun. I guess the rack for the ammo box was sitting ever so slightly too far forwards. Yeah this little sub assembly came to be a fair bit of work, probably consuming as much time as I spent on making those tracks earlier. Ok so gently remove the ammo belt. Pop off the ammo box and rack. Glue ammo, ammo box ands rack all together. Then install this sub subassembly back onto the machine guns cradle mount ensuring the ammo has a straighter path to the gun itself. Now to replace the broken parts. As luck would have it, back in the early 2000's I had bought the Academy US machine gun set which was full of plastic .50cals and associated parts. Including things like spade grips, triggers and charging handles! So here is how it looked with the ammo in the right place and the spade grips, charging handle and trigger from Academy installed. I also added a couple more tiny scratchbuilt details and all that was needed was to paint the handles to look like wood and add the bracket thingy that helps hold the ammo box in place. That bracket also came from the Eduard PE set I mentioned earlier. 20220326_190354 And here we have the completed machine gun. 20220329_194235 20220329_194501 20220329_194332 Overall despite it being WAY more work then I ever thought it would be, I'm pretty dang satisfied with how it came out. Far from perfect but I think it's a big improvement over the stock machine gun. This little sub assembly was very challenging and pushed my meager skills forward a fair bit. And for anyone who might be curious, this M2 .50cal sub assembly is now made up of I think around 57 parts. I hope some of what I wrote actually made sense. It was tricky to get the last few weeks of work out of my head and written down. Here's a little before and after. Before. received_1693573960983994 After. 20220329_194252 So assuming I don't damage anything, that whole saga is now behind us. To get everyone 100% up to date, I did manage to get some more work done on the rest of the tank as well during all that. Previously for the tools mounted to the hull, I shaved off and added thin wire as tie down points, or footman loops as they are sometimes called. Thing is I forgot to do that with the stowage rack on the rear of the hull. So the plastic tie down points were shaved off and sanded. Holes were drilled and small wire tie downs super glued in place. They aren't perfect but they will let me tie down the stowage I will add later on. Suffice to say this work meant touching up the olive drab. That was fine as I had to anyway after fixing some seams and after a bit of handling, the OD didn't look so hot in a few spots. I broke out my fine detail airbrush and in the end, went over most of the tank tweaking and fixing the Tamiya olive drab. After that, I rusted up the exhausts with a combination of paints and pigments. And areas of the running gear that should have worn bare metal, I brush painted some AK 3rd Gen AK11212 Gun Metal. 20220329_194836 Oh! And I painted the spare track blocks and the tubes under the stowage rack (gun cleaning tubes?). So that's it! You're all caught up! For real! And if you skimmed over most of these three parts I don't blame you! haha 20220329_194724 20220329_194622 20220329_194229 -Matt

Time for part two of my latest update. The completed belt of ammunition with copper painted bullets. Later on I would paint the tips of two bullets red to indicate tracer rounds which I believe is correct. Feel free to correct me if this is not the case. 20220313_161650 A direct comparison between my poorly painted Meng rounds and the little gems from Mission Models. Here you can also see the replacement photoetch ammo rack that is from the excellent old Eduard set TP504. At this point aside from changing out the ammo and associated bits, I did not plan on doing any more to the M2 itself. Earlier I had drilled out the front sight and added some retainer pins. That seemed like enough at the time... 20220313_162935 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Ok so judging by this next photo you would be right to think there was a slight change of plans! 20220316_182932 Well when I glued the original plastic barrel to the receiver I managed to let the barrel droop a very slight amount. A few times I gently applied pressure to raise the barrel but this only worked temporarily. And you guessed it, eventually it broke clean off. This was entirely my fault. So since I suddenly had a bunch more work to do on the M2 (and I wasn't happy with the all flat black paint job on the gun anyways) I decided I may as well strip the paint off and try again after repairs. I cut away and cleaned up where the vented barrel support had been in preparation for the replacement barrel. I also elected to add some small details with various shapes and sizes of styrene. While looking at photo references for the legendary weapon I noticed a very prominent horizontal slot for the bolt. The kit part shows this detail as solid plastic but since we are tumbling down the rabbit hole, lets improve that too. Since it was molded solid I used a small drill bit to remove most of the material. I then used a small photoetch steel saw and strips of thin sanding film to clean up the slot as best I could. It's not a perfect rectangular slot but looks way better now that you can see through the slot, just like the real thing. OK, what's next? Drill a hole to accept the replacement barrel. Next, test fit new barrel. Realize hole in receiver is too high. Plug hole with styrene rod, drill again. Test fit barrel again. That's more like it. You know what? I was pleased as punch to try out my new tiny drill bits by drilling out the front sight to make it hollow. But that's too easy and not as accurate as it could be. The real front sight is not a round hole, but a metal arch with a sight post. So I shaved off the original front sight, put down a small rectangle of styrene as a base for the sight. I drilled a super tiny hole into the sight base and insert a piece of stretched sprue that is many times thinner then I have ever worked with previously. A strip of foil from an old wine bottle was cut to shape and formed over an appropriately sized drill bit. This was glued to the sight base with some white glue and voila. I was pretty damn proud of myself for making this! Pleased keep in mind it took several attempts before I managed to build the new sight without breaking or losing any of the teeny tiny and very fragile parts. 20220316_190028 You will also see here I've installed the Eduard PE ammo box rack. 20220316_190035 Diverting away from the .50 cal for a moment, there was other work to be done. I had kept forgetting to deal with a few seams/gaps around the tank that needed rectifying. The lifting points on the rear of the hull had some gaps filled with Squadron white putty. 20220310_152928 And this piece here on the rear of the turret not only should not have a gap, but a rather chunky weld. My ancient box of Milliput came to the rescue. 20220310_152841 I also painted up and assembled the brass .30cal barrel from Master Model (item GM-35-004). I had damaged the hull .30cal that came with the kit so this little beauty has been called up for service. 20220318_155150 The barrel parts were painted slightly different shades of grey to help make them look a bit more interesting. The colour differences are more subtle when not under the direct glare of my bench lamp. 20220318_155312 OK that's part two done! Next I'll start working on part three of my latest update lol. I've been away from here but I've been busy at the bench! -Matt

Shortly after my last post, I began painting the M2 .50cal. I brush painted the ammo and was really unhappy with how it looked. In hindsight if I had airbrushed the brass it probably would have looked fine. But it was too late and I had unknowingly fallen down what became a nearly three week rabbit hole... With a decent paint job the Meng M2 would look great out of the box. But I just wasn't satisfied with my work. So, par for the course. received_1693573960983994 I remembered that back in (I think) 2004 I had purchased some incredible turned brass .50cal ammunition from Mission Models. It was still in my spares box as I was too intimidated to try assembling the included photoetch ammo belt links. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try and slay that dragon. Of course that would mean replacing the ammo can and ammo can rack but hey lets cross that bridge later. First, the ammo. I began by annealing all the ammo belt links and then cutting them from the photoetch fret. I used my x-acto and fine tweezers to form the belt links around a very fine drill bit. This took a bit of practice but thankfully I had lots to practice on. And I knew I only needed a handful for the ammo belt. Which is great cause several did ping off never to appear again. 20220312_225920 20220312_225917 Once the belt links were formed I airbushed some Tamiya flat black and I could begin assembly. I can't tell you how immensely satisfying it was to slide each round into the belt links. This was a very delicate process. 20220313_153726 I used a pencil to make some subtle highlights on the edge of each belt link. 20220313_153532 20220313_154339 Ok that's part one of this update. I'll be back with much, much more tomorrow. -Matt

Thanks Bertie. Well I haven't posted in a bit but I have been keeping busy with the Sherman. Honestly I spent most of this past week looking over my references to try and answer two questions about Sherman tools. One, did Sherman tools get a coat of OD paint at the factory? Two, what exactly was used to secure those tools to the tank? Webbing material? Leather straps? What kind of buckles? Considering over 49,000 Shermans were produced over many different versions it wouldn't surprise me if there was no one correct answer. By the end of the week I was getting frustrated at my lack of progress so I just made up my mind as best I could so I could get going again. If I'm wrong and my Shermans accuracy suffers, oh well. I did my best with the information I had on hand. During my hunt for answers and collecting references I managed to find a second photo of Thunderbolt VI. I immediately noticed a prominent detail my replica was missing. I could easily make out a wooden plank sitting across the transmission cover which was quite common on WWII era Shermans. Looking at what references I've been able to collect so far and it seemed that tank crews scavenged the wood used to help increase stowage capacity on the front of their tanks. Some tanks used wood that was quite thick. I also found a couple photos of tanks that appeared to use a couple of thinner planks of wood. The planks were just some styrene strip cut to size, textured with coarse sanding sticks and a knife. Some knots in the wood were drilled in. And based on one Sherman photo, I damaged the bottom of the planks. Painting wood grain began with a base of acrylic white grey with a touch of leather brown. Then once the acrylic was dry I streaked dark brown oil paint. The hairspray technique was used on the front plank and some chipped yellow and blue paint was added. 20220306_174532 20220306_174543 The wood grain on the tools was the same method I used for the planks, I simply varied the colours a bit. Two layers of hairspray was applied to the tools, then after drying I brushed on some Tamiya Olive Drab mixed with khaki. A damp brush activated the hairspray and I was able to get the look of well used tools that had once been painted olive drab at the factory. The straps were lead foil cut into strips and painted Tamiya khaki. The buckles were photoetch items from my spares box and painted dark grey. Most of the paint on the straps came off as I threaded them around the tools so a bit of touch up was needed once they were in place. A wash of dark brown oil paint was then added to the straps to tone down the khaki colour and simulate some shadows. 20220306_174612 20220306_174759 That's all for now. See ya next time. -Matt

Even though I knew you'd do an incredible job, I can't get over how awesome those engines are looking! -Matt

All good Longbow lol Feel free to stick around. Still have more work to do on the Sherman! Spent some time adding layers of colour to the tracks. As it's been some years since I've built a tracked vehicle it seemed like a good time to refresh myself with Michael Rinaldi's excellent book, Tank Art 2 Allied Armor. 20220223_180111 The tracks had been painted black a while ago so the paint was good and set and ready for some gentle handling. I broke out my wet palette (a phenomenal tool that's easy to make) and added a few drops of Vallejo leather brown and white grey. The wet palette keeps the paint (wait for it) wet! Along with extending the working time, you can use the wet palette to play with mixing the colours and adjusting how opaque they are. It's a tool commonly used for figure painting as it allows for wet blending but I think anyone who does brush painting could find it quite handy. The end connectors were painted one by one. As I went I kept altering the paints opacity, the ratio of leather brown to white grey and how wet the paint was. I wanted each end connector to look slightly different to the next and the wet palette makes this very easy and fun! I kept the paint fairly thin as I wanted some of the black base to show through. 20220223_180146 The paint dried quick so as soon as the end connectors had some colour as a foundation I could move on the fun part. Michael Rinaldi mentions that foam is a fantastic paint applicator for tracks and I can see why now! I added more paints to my wet palette and began mixing them in a few different ways and applying them sparingly by foam. I started going from lighter tones to darker. Then I just started going back and forth from light greys to reddish browns to very dark browns. Adding layer after layer. A very enjoyable process and super easy to do and control. I also dabbed some paint onto the track pads then wiped off the excess. It's quite possible that most or all of this will get covered with subsequent weathering. I expect I'll be doing more with paints, oils and pigments later on. But it's all about building up layers and I now have the tracks primed and ready for more. Even if all my work here gets covered, it was a fun and educational exercise. 20220223_180219 -Matt