NIK122

I think this is what Classy hobby based their kit on. A mixture of the two vehicles. My apologies if this thread could be somewhere else. I am a confirmed novice!

So I was just looking at the box art on the Classy Hobby model and it comes with T16 tracks. Is this incorrect then? The photo I found which I think the kit is based on seems the same. Are the differences subtle?

'whilst waiting for the Stuart GB to start', I don't suppose this will be the Classy Hobby 1/16 Stuart GB!? A group build maybe John?

You're a brave man Paul. Congratulations on managing some pretty drastic.......butchery, at such a late stage! It's certainly an improvement. Thanks for the words of encouragement regarding the G4😎

Good afternoon and welcome back. It's been a while but not without progress. I've come close to giving up on this project as every time I feel that I have reached a turning point there is yet another issue. I'm at the point where I'd just like to get it over the finishing line without being too precious about the results. I've a 1/16 kit that I'd dearly like to move on to but the deal is if the current build isn't in the bin then there's no room for two on the bench. Looking at my previous thread, at the time of posting, it was the dashboard that was flicking the bird at me. As you can see it's OK in the raw apart from two glaring issues. The holes on the edge of each glove box!☹️ Why oh why?! The holes were plugged with sprue that I attempted to sculpt the raised line of the glove box onto to fix the problem. Under paint they are.........OK, but I didn't really care anymore. It was a case of 'It'll do' as messing around with it anymore was going to make a bad situation worse. And finished with all the alterations. The bank of switches on the bottom left are for all the numerous lights on the car. The gauge to the right of the switches is the power brake canister indicator. For showing brake pressure. The photo etch bracket is for the knob (to be added) that allows fuel to flow to the main and reserve tanks. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the dash before installing it so here is a shot of it in position. At great expense I purchased a set of aftermarket decals for the dash from Peddinghaus-decals that weren't worth the paper they were printed on. Online the detail looked good but in reality they were worse than the kit offerings so be warned. The kit decals are very basic but clear. I was going to use a set of WW1 aviation dials as an alternative but the sizes weren't any good. In the process of adding a pin wash to the metal areas of the dash the overall luster of the paint was lost so it's much darker than I would have liked. Once again beyond caring! What a sorry state of affairs! Not a great photo as I've zoomed in so much. Pedals added and the Luger holsters just under the dash. They should be in a more ergonomic position but as I didn't have the foresight to build out the inside wall to the same thickness as the door this was the only way they would fit. You see what I mean about every step of the way of this kit being littered with tears of frustration?!😭😵 Moving on! The windshield next. So! The wipers are over scale and in the wrong position so they had to go. Not before sourcing some photo etch aftermarket replacements from Spotmodel.com. The wipers should be evenly spaced L/R and not off set like below. And after alterations. I've added the wiper motors from the spares box. They are in fact the ends of the launchers from a 1/48 Apache kit. 0.3 brass rods to represent the rods that operate the wipers. A point of note is that the windscreen itself is thick and doesn't fit into the frame at the top L/R corners (of course) and needed thinning for a better but far from satisfactory fit. The sun visors will hide a lot of this fitment issue but once again the model is making rude gestures at me!😬 And with some paint. The wing mirrors are punched discs of tin foil. I used a leather hole punch for this and then edged them with an ultra thin slice of aluminum tube. At this point I'm thinking that the build has driven me over the edge of reason!😵 As the plan is to display the hood open to show off the engine, on the 'to do' list has been scratch building the spare wheel mount and drilling out one of the 3D printed wheels to represent this. I made this with a compass cutter and sanded the edges back to leave the lugs. And on the car. The wheel was drilled out with a 12mm HHS bit used as a twist drill and then the same process was used from the front with a 10mm bit. The wheels with some paint and weathering. I've added a dark brown Tamiya wash around the wheels since as they looked too stark. Whilst working on the spare wheel and mount it became apparent that the kit was missing the running board reserve fuel tank. This only appears on the drivers side of the car in it's early edition. It also appears to be a completely different shape to the triangular tanks on the later models of the G4. It's more akin to the shape of a toaster as seen below just behind the spare wheel. The proportions and details are complete conjecture. Once again with some paint and a little weathering. And finally for now the spare fuel tanks have been added. I glued the license plate on first with its fabric cover applied, using masking tape, only to realize that the flat metal strap that it is attached to was too high. This resulted in the whole frame being picked apart and remade. 'There was much rejoicing'! The Jerry cans are 3D printed offerings from Battleground Models. The straps are Tamiya tape and the buckles from spare photo etch. The front of the model is jacked up as there is so much weight in it that until it is glued to its base I am worried that the front axel will get damaged. Well that is it for now. Hopefully it won't be another couple of months without something to show. I'm currently working on the base which is pre static grass as we speak. Thanks for looking and bon weekend!

'Cheers Nik, much appreciated. Coincidentally, I was wondering the other day what had happened with your three-pointed star G4 beauty?' I'm still working on it!🙄 Maybe these builds could become a competition to see who can spend the longest time building a model in recorded human history.🤪 Jokes aside, I'm finding the G4 a pig of a kit

Excellent 😎

Never put off what you can do tomorrow, tomorrow!🤔🤪 You know it would be a crime to not finish this build. No pressure! No, none at all!💪

An absolute work of art😎

Ok lets try a different tack. Has anyone got an M5A1 kit in 1/35 that comes with a tow cables? Could you find the time to photograph the cable end and add measurements for the loop and the length of the cable?, and post them here. Many thanks

A great build and finish. The weathering is just right. Nice one John 😎

Hi all. Does anyone know where you can get 1/16 Allied/US tow cables+ends?

The camo scheme is great! Dazzle pattern on a very hot day!?! 😎

More to follow shortly! To include, dashboard trauma's 🙄, amongst other things 😎........it will be finished!!!

I shall try Vallejo paints. Thanks for the recommendation 😎 Ooooooh matron!!!

Thanks John!

Bonkers good! Who needs model companies!?! Can you not print some 3D hinges for the hood!? Like you say, 'its a shame to cover up all the engine detail'. 😎

Good evening! Hopefully nearing the end of this one?!😌 I would have posted sooner but you know, life, painting trauma's...... I'd hoped to recreate the black leather effects that I'd achieved on my Famo build...........remember that one?!?! No me neither it would seem. Not entirely sure what I was doing differently but a change of tack eventually resolved the issues. So for anyone interested, my method for painting black leather is now- Tamiya flat black XF1 base coat. Humbrol #64 Light grey matt. Dry brushed on the edges and any raised areas likely to show more wear.(I find enamel paint a lot easier to dry brush than acrylic). Citadel Colour Contrast darkoath flesh. This works like a glaze. It was used straight from the pot and painted over the entire surface. It dries with a satin sheen that I found just the ticket. Also on a plus side there is no need to seal the enamel paint as you would need to with an oil wash. Depending on the light source the surface appears very dark, black to brown. Everything is dry fitted at this point to allow for weathering the floor and foot wells. I'm not sure that the colour is necessarily accurate but I think it's more interesting than just painting the interior a semi gloss black. The underside of the folding seat has been left without a brown wash. Moving on to the folded rag top. Like the seats in the car there is very little fine molded detail in the way of creases and folds. I've tried to add some creases to make the cover look a little more natural. Below illustrates the difference between the parts before and after. As you can see the collapsed frame part has a horrible slab attachment piece. The slab was sanded out and a piece of 0.5mm of evergreen was added to the top of the cover where the frames are attached to help with the look of it. As it was the frames finished flush with the cover and well, didn't look covered. Folds have been added with a Dremel. Working round the cover adding realistic folds was harder than I hoped and may have been easier if I'd applied a thin layer of something that could have been sculpted. You live and learn. Adding thinned Tamiya putty, then sanding it, helped tone it all down and look a little more realistic. Once happy with my efforts I added the piping on the seams with stretched sprue. The final touch, I hope, was adding the missing stays. The later G4's don't have them as the roof cover continues right to the end of the frames. Image below of an early G4's folded top. So a little more scratch building using 1mm evergreen rod and sheet, 0.5mm brass rod and a bit of sprue. The brass rod was flattened on the ends with pliers to make the handle shape. They're not perfect but better than nothing. And in place. Thanks for looking

Yep! She looks the business. Very nicely done John. 😎

Beautiful!😎

Really nice work on the Speedo! 😎

Yep, it's looking really good. The turret is quite a futuristic shape, to my eye, despite it's age. It must have been really cramped inside!?

Great stuff John. The bin lids look excellent. I've not heard of pewter foil before. Is it rigid enough to make open lids etc?

I like your thinking and it's all in hand! I've got some maps, magazines and newspapers that I ordered a while back in 1/24. Cigarette boxes also. ICM have produced a figure set for this kit which includes an attaché case with one of the figures. I wouldn't include the figures as I don't think my painting skills are up to it but the case would be nice🤔 Thanks Pete

Good afternoon. Thank you to you all for the positive comments. It feels like it's been a while with not a lot to show but I've not been idle. After my last post I moved onto the interior which I'd hoped would be just a straight forward run to the end of this build.................😂. I don't want to say that I hate this kit as it's pushing me to dig deep and to come up with solutions that ordinarily wouldn't be thought about but good grief, none of it has been straight forward! OK, so enough moaning. The first of the corrections to tackle were the holsters on the door cards. The kit has a molded on holster on the L/R door cards in line with the second row of seats. Why these couldn't have been supplied as two separate pieces is beyond me. The problem is that their positioning is fantasy as far as I can tell using the reference that I have. The correct position of these holsters is under the dash on the side wall L/R of the driver and front passenger. They are designed to hold a Luger P-08 or a Walther P38. The holsters were removed with care leaving these horrible holes. So I was left with the choice of either filling these or remodeling them. I guess I could have carefully cut out the panel but the plastic is quite thick. In the end as these document pockets pull outwards on the real car I've gone for building them up to help give them a less 2D feel. I had a moment with slightly too much extra thin glue and plastic card hence the filler😌 And the other side. Whilst fixing this it became apparent that more of the document holders were missing throughout the car. This was an easy fix and helps add more interest to what is a pretty barren interior that lacks refined detail. To add some more interest I've decided to model the front passenger seat in the raised position. This was so that the wee man or whichever particular owner in question could stand easily whilst lording it over their adoring fans. A pair of scratch built brackets. The vertical flanges should be wider apart but it was too much of a squeeze to get the bracket to fit between the drivers and this seat. Seat base added with spare PE for the breather holes. In place minus brackets. Moving on to the interior floor. I've added the missing transmission tunnel? between the second row of seats. What has been bothering me about the interior apart from the lack of any sculpted detail on the seats is the floor. It's really bland and could have had some molded detail on it surely ICM!? The real car has what looks like finely ribbed, rubberized matts covering the entire floor. I spent hours wrestling with do I, don't I try and do something about it. What are you going to use to represent mats etc. Well in the end good old masking tape came to the rescue, I think? I tried a couple of brands and settled with the blue, waterproof type as the texture was finer. Ok so it doesn't have the fine ribs on it but I think it really helps with stopping the interior looking toy like. What do you guys think? I cut paper templates to check for fit before using them to cut out the masking tape. I've added thin strips of tape to the underside edges to represent the borders. As the very edges don't stick, they ride up slightly much like the real thing. The mat is painted with enamel paint and at the moment is far too shiney. I'll flatten this with matt varnish after weathering. The central foot wells. And the front section. This was by far the hardest but again using a paper template resolved any issues without too much stress. It's not very clear but the central section of the mat has a flap in it which I assume is for ease of maintenance? And under paint. The masking tape has lifted slightly but will be covered by the drivers seat. It kind of adds to the effect though I think. That's it for now and as ever comments and observations welcome and thanks for looking