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Ned

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Everything posted by Ned

  1. I know Rob, but I just got to that point where I could tell that I was going to struggle to finish it. I spent a good hour with it sat in front of me, just working though what options I had and what was the most likely to end up with something complete. Unfinished business though I think. 1930's armour is definitely where my interest is.
  2. They are lovely kits. The fit of the parts has been perfect throughout. If I follow my plans through the IBG kit is 10 builds down the line, but I'd love to see how it compares, it's a full interior, looks a bit scary tbh. I do like the twin turret version, anything like that always appeals to me. Where will you get the turrets from?
  3. Thanks Terance. I realise now that a second set that I've bought for an IBG single turret 7TP are probably the wrong ones then. If they don't fit the sprockets I will know why Both track runs are now complete. The idler wheels and the bogies are also glued now. A bit more weathering on the lower hull sides, and then I'll get the tracks on once they're painted. Starting to feel like it might actually be finished one day now.
  4. My tracks have arrived! Very nice. They really do 'snap' together and I haven't had any break. A small bag of links with drilled out pins and a length of wire are included for closing the loop. I assembled most of one run during a boring conference call this afternoon. Either the '125 per side' is wrong or I miscounted, because it's a bit too long Don't worry, I haven't got the bogies the wrong way around, this is just a test fit. I'll glue them now that I have a length of track to line them up on. This is just the right amount of sag I think for a newly-delivered tank, so I hope I get a match on the other side. Nice detail on both sides, including hollow guide horns, and they're a good fit on the drive sprockets. Winner!
  5. Yesterday morning I went for a run when it was chucking it down with rain. I didn't enjoy it much at the time, but it was worth it for the feeling of satisfaction afterwards. Then in the afternoon I pinwashed the hull. I didn't enjoy it much at the time, but it was worth it for the feeling of satisfaction afterwards. At least I didn't get wet. It took all afternoon to do the hull. Sooo many rivets. But the difference between the pinwashed hull and the unpinwashed turret really shows the difference. Still no tracks
  6. Looking at it now in green primer, it's hard to work out what I've spent 2 months doing, but at least it's getting close to the end! One little gap to fill where the slot to locate the track guard shows up too much, and it's ready for more green paint. I hope that the QuickTracks turn up soon, or I'll have nothing to do. I've already had a peek at what is next on my build list.
  7. I spent ages looking for a piece of PE last night. This morning I found it, glued to my tweezers Just one last PE part to go, and I'll have it ready for priming. I'll ponder how to clamp it for bending while I run around Roundhay Park this lunchtime...
  8. I've never had a problem with enamel thinners lifting acrylic paint. I think that the secret is to wait about 10 years between coats.
  9. Nice work echen. Your Panzer III looks better than the 20 of mine that are still in boxes. The pinwash has worked around the hatches and cupola. It may have bled a bit but it looks better than without. Did you try removing the excess with a brush moistened in enamel thinner? I missed your build thread, well done for tacking anything in 1/72.
  10. Blimey, this almost makes me want to build one, it's so different! Slightly disappointed to not see another row of even smaller wheels along the top though. Or is that on the next page of the instructions?
  11. What a beast! Is that a flame thrower? CSM kits do look different, they have opened up a whole new area to explore.
  12. I don't regret my decision at all, but hiding all of my previous work means that I know have a build that I could've done in a weekend. Never mind. Early turret complete (including a narrow band of PE round the base that I have been dreading). This early turret has been the only part of the kit that needed a bit of fettling. I've had to fill and rescribe the edges of the armour plates. Hull complete bar PE brackets, lights and a few tools. Oh, and one bit of PE that I'm going to have to create a clamp for so that I can do a 'long bend'. I don't have a proper tool for doing that (do I look like Nightshift?). Running gear all painted a nice shade of green. 'Quicktracks' ordered (same company that does 'Quickwheel' painting masks) so we can see if they're any good. They're 3D printed, and supposedly just click together. We shall see!
  13. Wow! I've been away for a while, and the first thing I see coming back is this monster. It brings home how static WW1 was. PS. Your water trap needs emptying
  14. I've tried to keep working on this, I really have, but despite hours of work I still have sprues full of parts and sheets of PE to work through. It's turning into a bit of a plod, so after a good look at it this morning I've made a decision. It nearly got shelved, but what I'm going to do is close all of the hatches (just finished the hull interior too!) and go for the early all-green paint scheme and 3 pounder gun turret. Sealing the hatches means that I don't have to worry about masking off the interior, and the all-green paint means that I can just build the whole thing and paint it rather than fuss about basic build then paint then mask then paint then add the sticky-out parts afterwards. There's also less PE on the early version. Having it as it was when it was originally made and shipped to Finland for evaluation also fits in better with my chronological build plan. No tricky decals either. RESULT! I'm glad, progress had slowed to a trickle and the shelf of doom was beckoning. It's a super kit for anyone that likes a massive parts count and super detail, but it's a bit too much for me with my half-hours grabbed here and there. Here's a last peek at the interior: The hull parts fit together perfectly. The fit throughout has been excellent.
  15. While paint dries on the wheels and shell rack, I've tackled one of those steps on the instruction sheet that I've been putting off - shaving tiny bolt heads and nuts off the sprues and glueing them onto the suspension bogies. I've highlighted a few, but there's six suspension shackle nuts and another two on the clamp that holds the unit onto the axle. And there's four bogies in total. It does seem like overkill, but they do look good once they're on.
  16. Hello! I've had a silly-busy few weeks with work, migrating applications and databases onto that Cloud thing. No time at all for tanks, but I have racked-up a serious amount of overtime. What on earth can I spend it on? Back to it today, putting together the last piece of the interior before I seal it all up. I've cheated a bit and set the doors 'open' so that you can see what it is. Like a lot of early tanks, this one has plenty of wheels for me to be getting on with. I don't normally paint anything still on sprues, but made an exception for this lot. 48 wheels/rollers, all with rubber tyres.
  17. Hooray, Billy Two-Turrets. Left = Early, Right = Late. Can't decide. Early = more in keeping with my build plans, but it's boring all over green paint. Late = three colour camo, but the Finnish Swastika decals are right over where the vision ports are, and look a right old pain to apply.
  18. If you do have an association with these kits Terance, then I'd love to hear more about how they came about. Assembling them is a real pleasure, the effort put into their design is plain to see. The hull sides are on, just waiting for the glue to dry. So I'm working on getting a few subassemblies ready for primer. The ammunition racks are probably the most complicated PE that I've tackled, but they've gone together well: And one of the turrets is about to be glued together. I'm just thinking about the best way to go about it: One of the turrets? Yes, the kit includes two. Both of which were on the same tank at different stages in it's life. I think we had a recent GB that would've suited a build of both options.
  19. It's going together really well. I can't comment on the accuracy, but the level of detail is superb. They only seem to make variants of two Vickers tanks, which is a bit odd. Different export models of this Vickers 6-ton (8 of those), and the A4E12 amphibious light tank (3 of those). That's it - the entire Combat Armour Models (CAMs) range.
  20. I've been stupid busy working, building up to a whole weekend of work on Feb 9th/10th/11th that is already beginning to play on my mind in odd ways through dreams. I'm pretty sure that kettles and toasters don't need performance monitoring software agents installing on them, but my dreams tell me otherwise... Anyway. I told myself that if I couldn't get the engine plumbing sorted out this weekend, then I would just close it all up and not worry about it any more. But here it is - the most complicated cooling system known to man in 1/35 scale: At this point I don't really know how much will be visible. There's a dirty great radiator to go on top which will cover most of it. The kit does include a clear top cover, but it looks a bit naff to me. I'll see how it goes. The pipes are supposed to be 'copper', but all I had was 'brass' paint. Now that it's all in place I might copper it up a bit by adding some red to the mix. It's a plumbing nightmare. One nick to a pipe from a bit of shrapnel = no oil and a seized engine.
  21. Not much progress so far. I've been busy at work, and then the kit can be a bit daunting in the evenings. But the engine is almost complete, just the plug leads to finish off. There's a load of pipework and a radiator to go on, which didn't make any sense when I read that the engine was air-cooled. But then after reading more I realised that it's the oil system, not water. The engine is indeed air-cooled, and looks suspiciously like an aero engine tipped on its side. It's an odd design, but then again it's not that unlike my VW was 40 years later, with braided stainless hoses going to an external oil cooler. I couldn't resist painting the clutch plate, even though a flywheel cover will obscure it by the end of today.
  22. Well, I've had fun building an engine today. Over 30 parts so far, and it still isn't finished! There's even a flywheel and clutch plate, which is a first for me. I've drilled the engine out ready for plug leads and water/oil pipes, but I think it might be time for some paint. The faff of interior kits where you're forever swapping between building and painting is about to start
  23. I haven't really got started with this yet, I've just got too much work going on. All I've done is assemble the gearbox, engine block, and fill a few ejector marks on the hull sides. But I have found a nice build by (I assume) @f matthews https://www.track-link.com/forums/site_blogs/48692/flat that gives me something to aim for. I have noticed something odd though - there's a nice gearbox at the front of the hull, but no final drives, brakes, foot pedals, driveshafts or any other detail. CAM seem to have drawn a line at including only what you can see rather than provide a full interior. It doesn't matter to me (it'll make the build quicker at least) but it seems a bit cheeky. I have an IBG Polish 7TP in my stash that includes all of these parts that will never be seen again once the hull is glued.
  24. Right then, enough talk of T-18s and Panzer IIIs. On to the next one. This is 100% one of those where you open the box, look at the instructions, and then quietly put it all away for another year. Four (4!) sheets of PE, a 20-page instruction manual, useful tips for using wire to make a wiring harness, and row after row of bolt heads to shave off a sprue and glue onto the suspension bogies. Did I mention that I am short-sighted, long-sighted, have astigmatism, and glaucoma in one eye? lol. At least it doesn't have 'working' tracks. Finland bought tanks from Vickers rather than build their own, but they decided to up-gun them with captured Russian 45mm guns from T-26s. But the kit also includes an original turret to build the first evaluation tank 'VAE 546'. 4 paint schemes going from the wacky camouflage on the box to green/white to just plain green will let me make things as complicated as I choose. It looks to be a lovely kit though. I hope it goes together well and I can do it justice.
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