SoftScience

I spent most of this weekend outdoors and doing stuff with my wife, but got a few hours bench time too. I was able to wrap up assembly yesterday, and then had a marathon priming session tonight. That was followed by a marathon cleanup session after I managed to spill brush cleaner all over my desk... Anyway, here is the classroom photo of all the various components, partly disassembled and primed. I used Mr Surfacer 1500 thinned with a bit of MLT. Yikes. I should replace my spray booth filter

Thank you, guys. Two weeks in and I'm nearly ready for priming. I still need to add the radar antenna and some PE parts to the turret. The PE here will require some more complex bends, so I'm a little gunshy about it. I also felt like doing some painting last night, so I assembled and painted the Oerlikon barrels. I tried some filtering under the graphite burnish, but it doesn't look like what I was hoping for. I might keep things like this, though. Martin Kovacs, I am not! Incidentally, the turret parts fit pretty well. I did use some filler on the gun sponson thingies, and on the base of the targeting radar. I got really lucky.

Love the winter version! Any luck printing your barrels?

Have you used the Gunze buffable metallics before? If so, what did you think? I sprayed my mustang with some of the aluminum. It looks great, but four days later still rubs off on my fingers. I suppose I can seal it, but it'll kill the shine. But nevermind, back to the armor at hand.

Hi, Nick. Modeling on a sunny patio looks like a delight. If i might make a suggestion for your paint plan? Rather than using steel for the areas where you'll want to show wear, try using a blackish brown color as your base (you can mix Tamiya semi gloss black and red brown about 2:1 for good effect. Let cure, then spray everything with hairspray. Then apply your tamiya topcoats. Before they fully set, take an old kind of stiff brush, dip it in water and start working the water into the top coat. Scrubbing a bit, but not too hard, pulling the brus around in an effort to get the water into the hairspray layer and make very tiny bits of it melt and expose some of the brown black beneath. I find the effect a bit easier to pull off if I thin the undercoat with lacquer thinner (Mr. Leveling Thinner, or Tamiya's lacquer thinner), which makes it pretty robust. And then I use isopropyl to thin the topcoats, which makes them more susceptible to water. Sorry for the long windedness. It's simpler to do than to describe.

That was precisely what I was going to comment with.

Crap! Where did June come from so quickly? I'm running out of time on this, and had better get to priming. I got waylaid by trying to fill some gaps around the windscreen and the subsequent sanding and cleanup made me put the kit aside. I'll see if I can get something done

Wrong way around? Why? I think your approach will work great, because if you apply the light green in some thin gradual layers over the dark green, you'll can get some great shadow effects. That whole paint light to dark thing is geriatric aircraft modeler dogma.

And just like that, we've got some turret. There is A LOT left to do, but so far, no fit issues.

That turret alone is larger than some WWII era tanks in my collection

After watching the series finale of Ted Lasso, with my wife (very saccharine, but fun), I was able to finish the hull tonight (minus a few fragile details like the mirrors). I also added a bit more track. Tomorrow, I'll probably begin working on the turret. After Diases' comments, I'm a little apprehensive, but we shall see. Also, can anybody tell me what this little shield-shaped item is, that's on the back of leopard tanks?

Wow! That's a world of difference in the two cuts. Seems worth the price.

Those look like a massive pain! Good on you for powering through. Can you show a close up of the single blade nippers? I'm intrigued

So far, the fit had been okay, but I haven't started any of the turret parts. I'll make sure to be extra careful and dry fit everything. Thanks for the heads up. Besides black tracks, does your version have different markings options, in addition to the Ukrainian ones?

It is a VERY good kit. I think Takom has found a nice balance between nice details and buildability with this model. The hull is going together rapidly. I need to add some PE bits before I can move forward, and I need to run to the store and grab some CA to do that. So here is where we leave off for now. It's a nice warm day in DC today, so time to go do some fun outdoors stuff, now. I'll probably finish out the hull later this evening or tomorrow.

I can't even imagine what the concussion from a blast like that would be inside. Crew would probably be liquified on the spot.

Thanks for that detailed response. I really like the idea of using a smaller diameter preform to get a tighter grip. That is brilliant.

Those Soviet designs were nothing if not robust and long lasting (provided they weren't thrown into the meat grinder with wanton disregard for the lives of crew, which they usually were).

Thanks. They only released a handful. This, and a few versions of the Staghound. Both are very nice kits. I wish they had stayed in the 48 armor arena.

Wow! Was it mostly a bunker buster?

Looking at the photo of the PE mesh cylinders around the engine vents; what is your technique for closing the circle and attaching the PE grills while avoid getting a gluey mess in the mesh? Sorry, I'm having trouble finding a clearer way to phrase that question.

Can the warped guns be replaced with metal tubing?

First serious update After a session last night and this evening, I have the suspension parts built, as well as the wheels. Since the track is more or less "workable", i won't go my usual route of gluing it all on before painting, and instead will paint and weather the wheels and track off the tank. The suspension was far less complex than I thought it would be. Also, I tried Diases' suggestion using the track link pins still on the sprue, and it worked. Took about the same amount of time though. I'm at 20 links now!

I think I found the basis for my finish. https://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/imgs/lrg/gepard-flakpanzer_2.jpg[/img]

This is such a cool looking tank. I love that camo. I attempted this kit about a decade ago. I was a bit careless and applied too much glue to the tracks going around the sprocket, and it all kind of melted together. Go easy on the plastic.