Unkempt

I printed them onto decal paper; I think I got it from here, but I'm sure other suppliers are available.

A bit of progress: A reminder of why I don't normally do tanks - so many wheels... The main body, with all its many, many suspension bits (minus one piston that the floor monster ate): That back end doesn't work for my plans; there's a flat plate at the back with a winch mechanism, so the sloped bit has to go. That's the basic shape I want, and probably most of the kit I'm going to use. I've given the wheels a coat of Humbrol aluminium, but I'm leaving them off for now, while I start on the top. I've got to build up a flat top before I put the superstructure on it, and attach the... mudguards? Whatever you call those mudguard-like things that go over tank tracks. I've made a bit of a start on that; I built a loosely attached balsa frame inside the hull: ... and I've glued that to some plastic card. The main structure's going on that. That's where I am at the moment. Still to do: build that up, then there's the front (with 'cockpits'), turret, rear with winch, detailing and painting, not necessarily in that order. Oh, and the bloody tracks at some point. Bah, tracks.

I thought of that and need to find one, but I think it'll be a bit big. Worth a try, though. She got me This One at a discount 'cos she works there. They're smaller than the old A4 editions, about A5, but they're beautifully printed.

I've been on a bit of a Tintin binge lately; my girlfriend bought me the complete book set for my birthday, I did a Revell Arado as the plane from 'The Shooting Star' and I'll probably even get around to seeing that film at some point. But the main point here is that when I was reading 'Explorers on the Moon' for the first time in about thirty years, I thought, 'Ooo. That's a nice tank.' NASA has a little golf cart made of tinfoil and string; Tintin takes a tank. To the moon. Why? Don't care, that's just the sort of guy he is. There's no kit of this tank in any scale that I could find, but it's a fairly straightforward, boxy shape that should be doable with plastic card. Obviously I needed something for the bottom half; looking through a bunch of tank pictures I thought a Centurion would be pretty close, but I couldn't find anything suitable at the local Modelzone. They did have this, though: It's the right sort of proportions, it's got the right number of roadwheels and, most importantly, it's got this: - which is nice. Lots of bits inside: Pity I'll only use about half of them. So, the basic plan is: -Use the bottom half of the Pershing for the suspension -Use some plastic card to blank off the top and build the superstructure and turret -Build some detailing bits (winch, hooks, ladders etc.) out of card/spare parts/anything that comes to hand And finally, worry about those transparent plastic domes when I get to them. No idea how I'm going to do that at the moment. Building will begin sometime this week, and hopefully finish before February. I'm not going for any kind of super-accuracy here, it's based on a comic after all, I'm just going for something that's recognisably the tank from the story.

Any room for one more? I've got a plan for my next model which would fit in quite nicely here.

Very neat. Is that the same kit as the Olimp Models one?

Thanks for all that guys! So, smoke grenades. Are those basically the same thing as these things on the front here? Maybe I can do something with those. I think I'll leave the brackets just on the one side, as it looks like that's a genuine possibility. And thanks for the kind words about the paint job - the graffiti's a custom decal that I photoshopped up, but it took about five tries to get it looking like that rather than a blurry mass of wrinkles. I'm pretty happy with it now. Bonus other side pic: edit: you know, I've got no idea what any of that graffiti actually says...

I'm trying to model a specific M113 APC that kept turning up in the recent Egyptian shenanigans. Hopefully someone here knows more about them than I do... 1. Those triangular brackets - are they removable? They're clearly visible in this photo, but I've got others (unfortunately less clear) where they don't seem to appear. Could they have been removed between one day and the next? 2. What the heck are these things? Grenade launchers or something? Anyway, I don't seem to have them in my kit, so are there any plans/really good photos of them somewhere on the net? 3. What colour are the insides of hatches? I thought they'd be the same colour as the interior, but I found one pic showing the driver's hatch and it looks to match the exterior colour. Are they all like that? I'm mainly wondering about the big rectangular one on top and the rear door. Thanks to anyone who can answer any of those. Here's a pic of progress so far:

Well, I joined up, so I might as well post something... Anyone else ever play the 'Crimson Skies' game? It's an alternative history set in 1930s America with all sorts of lovely airships and cool-looking planes, including the Hughes Devastator. Mine's mostly made out of a 1/72 Hawker Sea Fury going the wrong way. They're parasite fighters that use the airships as carriers, hence the (rather overscale) hook arrangement on the top. Anyway, pics:

I'm making the same thing, and yours looks a lot nicer than mine. Couple of silly questions, if I may - first, on the rear float support struts (part 22) the inner thin struts have locating pins at the top. I cant see any holes in the fuselage for them - have I managed to paint over the holes or were they not there in the first place? And second, you painted those instrument dials? With a brush? ...how? edit: forget that first one, I've just seen I should have drilled them out about 6 pages before in the instructions. Why would they do that.