badger

Nice job - they are a fair bit of work to get to look this nice. One of the BW kits I always wanted but never got to order before they closed down.

In terms of bits and pieces have a look at Dan Taylor Modelworks and Friendship Models (Wee Friends) if you haven't come across these before. Can highly recommend both. All the best Ben

Thank you - shall be ordering some as have a similar scheme for my 1/72 Airfix Gladiator to do 👍

Beautiful finish - whats the silver paint you've used as it works a treat? Kind regards Ben

Ive been modelling 30+ years and would be well chuffed if mine came out like that! Well done!

Great progress John!! Should really get back to my 1/35th version, especially as I've now treated it to a Miniart IDF dozer blade from Creative Models black friday sale. All the best Ben

Fantastic work as usual! I really admire the neatness and precision of your scratchbuilding. I have an inkling the box on the rear fender is an infantry telephone, but could be completely wrong. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the turret. All the best Ben

I think you'd be ok with a german fuel can as I remember reading somewhere the IDF ones were made by the same supplier that made the WW2 German ones.

I'd vote for the Tamiya Cromwell - I've mostly built one and it was a cracking build straight from the box.

Hi John Stellar work as usual - really enjoying this build, but then the T-55 is one of my favourite tanks. May I recommend these for replacement tracks: https://www.gashans.com/produkt/t-55-omsh-tracks-2/ I have a set of their 1/72 T55 tracks and they are superb. Need to pick some more up at some point. All the best Ben

I have the Scammell recovery and its a nice looking kit. Must stress I haven't built it yet. A member on here (TeeELL) 3d printed me some replacement wheels for a very resonable price. He's a bit of a Scammell fan, so if you purchase the kit drop him a message and I'm sure he'll be able to sort you out a set. Regards Ben

I have a couple of their softskins vehicles but haven't built them yet. The 1/72 Scammell doesn't look bad but let down by poorly detailed wheels. Luckily I have been able to replace these with some 3d printed ones I found online. The 1/76 LRDG ford I have looks pretty rough - the wheels are particularly horrible and don't even seem round. Hope this helps Ben

Looking great John - really impressed with all your scratch built additions.

@TeeELL Great news - I'd certainly be interested in a set as been following this with a lot of interest

Nice photos and very useful - thanks for sharing. Very strange as its quite common over here and regularly turns up at shows in the second hand kit piles. It's a shame parcel post to the US is so expensive as there are plenty on UK ebay for about £12. Sadly there hasn't been any progress on this for a while as I've been ill for the last week or so and by the time I've got in from work I'm exhausted. It's half term next week so my students are off and I've got a couple of days holiday so hopefully I'll be able to get back to this. In the meantime I ordered what I thought was a set of the Tank resin SAS figures from ebay, but when they arrived I'm pretty convinced they are recasts. Quite annoyed as the listing used the box top photos and seemed pretty legitimate. They also weren't cheap so thought I was getting the real thing. Opened a dispute and got a refund from ebay and got to keep the figures so I'll use them but won't show them in this WIP. I also picked up a set of the old Italeri "Modern" battle gear, mostly for the sand channels as they are better than the Tamiya ones, but also some of the water cans will come in useful as Legend only provide metal fuel cans and I wanted to add some of the early green plastic water ones as well. As an aside if anyone knows what the tank ammo is from this set please let me know as I can't find any details on it. More soon (I hope) Ben

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out as have just managed to get a set of model alliance decals so slowly gathering all the parts for my build.

Bronco do a British AFV accessory sprue which has one, plus a selection of kit and weapons https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234885093792?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=u_uokPfjRde&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=gKCxPngSRVK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY I picked one up for my Stuart

Have also been working on a display base using an old deep photo frame I found in my local charity shop. I'll take some photos of this once the lacquer has dried.

Thanks for sharing @Kingsman. I was leaning towards a more subtle shade so nice to have confirmed. Some of the restored ones do look a bit too "barbie" to my eye. Not a lot of visible progress recently as been doing some fiddly time consuming bits. The interior of the engine bay has been roughly sprayed black and the lower panel trimmed from the grille and added back in place. This has a skimming of filler which will need sanding back when its dried. To facilitate this I have removed the front bumper temporarily. Once thats done then I can add the layered photo etch grille which will need shimming so it sits at the correct depth. Not looking forward to this as I probably should have done it before adding the bonnet! I've also been starting to look at the rather complicated rear weapons mount. This needed the top trimming to get the new parts to line up which was a bit fiddly. Have also trimmed away the lower supports as these were simple rods on the real thing, not the triangles Tamiya have moulded. Toying with using Dragon GMPGs as these are better moulded than either the Tamiya or Legend ones. They'll need a bit of converting back to the L7A1 version with the wooden stock but it seems doable using Tamiya bits. Sadly the Legend ones are not well moulded and the barrels in particular are pretty poor. Have also been continuing to clean up the various items of resin stowage as most of these will get painted seperately. More soon.

Thank you kindly- there's a fair bit more etch and resin still to come.

I have a fair bit of their stuff and quality can vary. Wheels and tracks are a bit of a weak spot. My biggest issue is I have yet to build any of their kits that gives you everything - most seem to miss or ignore an important part or two. For example the M60A2 conversion misses a huge fitment that goes under the rear plate and is very noticable. I started building their Candian Leopard C2 in the recent groupbuild and stalled as it doesn't include things like the FN Mag cupola machine gun, growser stowage and cleaning rod bags - all very noticable items. All in all - not bad as a starting point but be prepared to do some work. All the best Ben

Welcome aboard! Sadly this is most definately not a cheap build any more. The resin set cost me 4 times what the kit did!! Having said that, it is very extensive and a great enhancement for the kit. A bit more progress tonight. Got the fronts of the wings on, and have carved away the old grille to replace with the Legend layered etch and resin piece. Need to spray a bit of black in the engine first though to disguise the fact there isn't actually an engine. Added the front bumper and the passenger seat base which has had the seat removed ready for a resin replacement. Folded up and attached the cargo bed stowage trays and finally I fitted the rear number plate which I had to remove twice as it was skewed, so it now has a "realistic" crease in it. More soon.

No need to lurk - plenty of space left, although I'd bring some snacks.

Thanks Roger - first one in so you get the choice of seats. Make sure you pick a comfy one - could be a long journey!! Thanks John. Been wanting to do this for a while and have slowly been gathering the bits and bobs. The Legend set is expensive but very comprehensive and very well cast. May not use every single piece of the stowage, as I've got an idea of how I want this to look. Plenty of other kits in the stash I can use any spare bits on. Managed to grab an hour this afternoon and have finished the suspension and got the large resin stowage rack cleaned up and fitted. Also manged to fit the adapters for the resin wheels which will be painted seperately. Sadly managed to get a bit of glue on the front steering so it no longer operates, but at least it set in a decent position so doesn't really matter. More soon Ben

Hi All Check out Scorpion Military Models as they do a whole range of detail and add ons for the Scorpion and Scimitar. https://www.scorpion-miniature-models.co.uk I used them for bits for my Gulf War Scorpion and can throughly recommend.