NIK122

You've built a very nice model! Have you tried Flory washes for weathering? I find them very forgiving if you are worried about overdoing things.

Great stuff John. Following along with interest.

Thanks Stef. I did take a quick look and got fed up trying to find it.

Thanks Stuart. I don't half struggle taking half decent photos so I'm glad the dust shows

Good afternoon! Just a brief note to let anyone who is interested know that this build is now in the 'ready for inspection' part of the forum. I haven't started the SP40 to date as unless I'm mistaken the Churchill group build is imminant? Can anyone point me in the right direction for the start date for the group build as I can't find the information on the site anywhere. Many thanks

Finally finished this Crusader AA prototype from Italeri. The kits Bofors has been swapped out with one from ARVClub and the tracks are from Friulmodel. The figure is from Tamiya. An enjoyable build apart from the turret which needed reworking to get a good square fit. The vehicle sufferered many teething troubles mainly to do with the turret not being robust enough. Rollers were added to the underside of the turret to support its weight before the project was eventually abandonded. During trials the turret spent a lot of time in the travel locked position to try and minamise the damage to it. I hope the photos do the model justice. Some are taken outside and some inside which is why there is some colour variation. Thank you to everyone who followed the build and took the time to comment. Thanks for looking

An absolute brute of a Sherman with the massive gun barrel. It's turning into a very fine model John.

Some lovely detail. It's coming along nicely John 😎

Great stuff John. Can you not change the molded on clamps to match the others? It's a vast improvement in detail. By the way have you more than one Sherman thread on the go? I can't keep up!

Thanks Stef. It's not quite finished yet so stay tuned!....

Thanks John. I've enjoyed this build. It's all gone together pretty well. The kits Bofors is it's only real let down.

Good afternoon all! It's been a while but not without progress, so here goes. Following on from before with some paint on the Bofors. I added the iron sight (not the right shape but better than nothing) from the spares box and a wingnut from Bronco to the adjustable rest. The paint for the greens are the 'UK Bronze Green' set from Vallejo The lightest colour in the set has been used for the seat. The turret elements painted and ready for assembly. Off camera I had a disaster with assembling the turret sides. The front piece of the turret isn't the same width as the rear at the bottom. As you can see the base is 2mm wider. The mistake I made was to remove a 1mm strip, top to bottom on both sides. The width at the top of the piece was correct though so the angles were ruined. A deep breath and some plastic card and filler later the model was back on track. The foot plates have been replaced with plastic card as the kit parts were far too thick. The kit part for the flags and poles stowage is modeled as a canvas tube. The drawing of this that I have looks as though it is a metal tube which is what I've gone for. Some plastic rod was added to the top to represent the flag poles. Below the whole model has had a coat of paint added. The lower hull has been weathered and the tracks added. The tracks took four evenings in total to clean up and assemble. I found 120 links per side, I think, to get the look right. I also found the fit around the drive sprockets less than satisfactory. They kind of fit, just. Luckily it's hidden behind the mud guards. I'm jumping around a little here. I'd fitted the travel lock and found that it didn't really align with the gun barrel. It looks as though it should lock around the thickest part of the Bofors gun barrel vertically, but it doesn't really reach it. It's a pain really as I had wanted to display the model with the travel lock in position. During trials the weight of the turret caused it to deform and buckle on its mount so the cross country aspect of the trials were mainly performed with the travel lock applied. The solution was to add a suitable figure. Not needing any incouragement I went out and bought the Tamiya Churchill VII for the figures and well, I now have a choice of two Churchills for the group build, Yes I know, it's just awful! This seems to work pretty well? He's looking down as well so hopefully I can wing the face painting. The travel lock has been altered to look a little more functional. The alterations are speculative. Here's the painted chap. I seem to always pick rather jolly looking soldiers. He's chuckling to himself about the prize plumb who designed a travel lock that is only releasable from outside the turret. A criticism levelled at the real vehicle. I don't knw if I will use him on the model as I'm my own worst critic when it comes to painting figures. A simple base for the tank. VMS smart mud, 4mm static grass and fine silica sand. With some paint. And finally some shots of the tank to date. I'm still working on the weathering. It's a case of trying to give it a used, not used look as it's a test vehicle. Restraint is the watchword. I'd hoped to add a photoetch sight to the model from the AFV Bofors but nothing was suitable. The kit part has been sanded as thin as I dared. The model has had a brown Flory wash which I hope hasn't given it a rusty look as that really wasn't the intention. There is quite a difference in colour depending on the lighting. The antenna mount is from T-rex and they are very detailed and extremely fragile. Just looking at them causes them to break. The tracks need aligning. I'm using the same colours used for the base for the weathering to try and tie everything together. It still looks too clean maybe? Thanks for looking

Ingenious, indeed!😎

Lovely work on this. Tonnes of detail. 'One big issue is the cable reel is supposed to sit between the rear storage and off side storage on the turret. It doesn't fit! The kit says stick it on the rear body storage but I can't find any photos of it other than on the turret.'....... is it because of the orientation of the storage box on the turret corner!?

Nice job on the T34. For a first model tank it's excellent. Personally I like to get all the base colours down, seal with varnish, add decals and seal them with another coat of varnish and then start weathering. There is always the option with Russian tanks to use the decal sheet as a mask for the large numbers by carefully cutting them out and airbrushing them on. I use a pair of Anglepoise lamps with 100w white light, light bulbs. I avoid using warm light, light bulbs as they give off a yellow light and distort colours when painting. I think I paid about €50 in total. I'm tempted to get a third.