Bullbasket

Welcome aboard Stuart. As Dennis mentioned, there are a few hosting sites. If you look in Help and Support you'll find a couple of "idiots guides" to using Village Photos and Flikr. HTH's. John.

Very nice start with some good remedial work. I imagine that comparing the old Heller offering with the latest ones from Takom is a bit like a Trabant compared to a new Audi. I've got the old Heller AMX-30, plus the Meng kit of the same. They are worlds apart. John.

Appreciate your comments Stix. Thanks very much. John.

Thanks Dennis, Glynn. You're right about the variation in the colour. I tried Michael Mass's mix, although I had to substitute other greys because I didn't have the correct XF's, but it came out very green after adding the olive drab. The one that I used is nearer to the one given on the IDF Modelling site. Just a few more bits of detail painting and then some gloss varnish and decals. John.

I changed my mind with regards to the paint that I used, and decided to stick with the one that I always use and prefer, namely Tamiya. I have the Desert Eagle Publications book on the Magach 6B Gal by Michael Mass, and in it he builds a model of this variant using the Academy kit. His paint mix is XF25, XF62 and XF65 in a ratio of 6-3-1, but sadly, I don’t have two of those colours, so therefore I went for my own mix. XF55, XF57 and XF59 in equal amounts with a few drops of XF62. I was reasonably happy with the finish, and any discrepancies can be put down to the effect that the desert sun has upon these tanks. John.

That turned out really well Stix. Steve Zaloga did this in MM some years ago, only his was a conversion as the Hobbyboss kit wasn't around then, and I remember thinking at the time, that's one b****y great big gun. John.

Nicely done Dennis. John.

That's a lovely looking beast. Try Village Photos. John.

But it looks excellent. Nice one. John.

Just two words Simon. Poodle's and privates. John.

So have I, but I think Steve's is UK.

'Afternoon to you both. I tried yours Steve, and mine again just now with the same results, but yours Brian works OK. I PM'd Mike a couple of hours ago to let him know about it. Not having this problem on any other forum, just Help and Support. Weird!! John.

Each time that I've tried to access Steve's post regarding problems with Flikr, I get a Forbidden Error 403 message come up. Why? John.

Why does Michael Palin's character remind me so much of Jeremy Vine?

It's probably not much use to you now, but maybe those seams were on the real thing. I know it's a long shot but there are photos of Sherman road wheels that do show a seam running all the way around the circumference. Might be worth checking some photos. John.

Nicely done as always Stix. The weathering and the tools look really good. John.

Looking really good Lloyd. John.

Welcome aboard John. There are quite a few of us olden's on here, and I don' think that you'll be the only octogenarian on here. John.

Coming along nicely Roger. I like the finish that you've achieved on the pioneer tools. John.

Thanks Stix. Appreciate it. John.

Thanks everyone. I added the three canvas pieces made from pewter foil to the turret basket and sprayed everything with Halfords primer. Info that I have says that these tanks were finished in Sand Grey. I've got this from both AK and Vallejo, but the name is the only thing that they have in common. The Vallejo looks to be correct whereas the AK has got a definite green hue to it, so I'll go with the Vallejo. John.

Beautiful work Charles. Up to your usual standards. Nice one. John.

The turret went together quite easily, although once again, the attachment points are very vague. The main gun took a bit of cleaning up as it came in two halves and therefore needed the joint scraping and sanding. Hopefully it will have disappeared once the paint goes on. There is supposed to be a fire extinguisher on the turret roof, but I must have lost it, so I made one from scrap plastic. I left off the forward .50 Cal.MG as it isn't present on the box art, but the two 7.62mm MAG's were cleaned up and put aside for separate painting. The turret basket will be filled with various bits of kit and stores after painting. Another little peculiarity from Academy is the fact that they include markings to go on squares of canvas which hang on the sides and the rear of the basket, but no canvas! Obviously, you are expected to make your own. I'll do that using pewter foil. The two lengths of tow rope which are fixed around the rear of the turret will be painted and fixed in place when all other jobs are done, otherwise they would get in the way of the decals. Next up is the paint shop. Thanks for looking. John.

I assume that this STGB is still on? I might be missing something but it doesn't appear in Enzo's calendar for 2019. John.

Many thanks. There are other parts that I would have replaced with some scratch built bits, but being a group build, I'm constrained by time (I am a slow builder!!) John.