A9 and Churchill

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The whole concept of a Blitzbuild is a little bit mad!   Completing a model within twenty-four hours?!?!?

 

Building two is even worse.  

 

I will be building the Churchill and A9 Cruiser tanks from the Plastic Soldier Company....

 

 

 

These kits are nice but quite simplified.  Here is the Churchill.

 

 

 

The A9 has two upper hull parts; one with sand skirts and one without.

 

 

 

And here we go...   hold on tight, rider!

 

 

[Hockeyboy76]

Nice to see you Enzo. Good luck with your kits. 

[NorwegianWood]

Nice choice of kits. Are you going for 2 finished ones or all 5 ?

[SleeperService]

Now Enzo is here it really is a GB. Nice choices Sir. They look like pretty decent models TBH. I'm sure we've all worked with worse. Good luck.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Starting with the Churchill.  I'm going to make a s;ight change to the build.  The crew of this vehicle have removed the front mud guards - something that happened quite a bit.  The kit allows you to build it with the guards removed. You have to remove the front portion of the inner guard.  There is an engraved line provided but unfortunately it isn't in the right place.  I just referred to the detail on the part and sliced off what I thought was right.   Original part on the right, modified one on the left.

 

 

Having so few parts, the kit builds up pretty quickly.  It has alternative parts to allow a choice between Mk.III AVRE, Mk.IV, Mk.V and Mk.VI.  This will be a Mk.IV.  I have added some ballast to the hull just to make it feel better.

 

 

 

It was then primed with grey car primer and sprayed with Hataka SCC15 Dark Green.  Then I hit a snag.  The paint does not spray well and refuses to dry.  I wiped it all off and gave the model a coat of Lifecolor UA091 which is just a smidge lighter.

 

 

tracks have been painted with Vallejo Panzer Aces 304 track primer.  I've also done a bit of weathering using Flory grime wash.

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Now the A9.

 

Once again it builds up quickly.  The turret has a piece of plastic card added to represent the hatch as the kit parts don't fit the whole.  After I took this photo, I realised that the hatch parts are supposed to stand proud!  The plastic card has now gone.  The auxiliary turrets on the hull don't fit well and their mounting holes need to be trimmed, but to be fair the instructions do warn of this.

 

 

 

Once again it was primed with grey car primer and then a coat of Lifecolor UA531 was sprayed on to represent Light Stone.

 

 

I removed the upper hull and masked it.

 

 

The two greys are Lifecolor UA525 and UA227.

 

 

 

And now I'm hungry! 

 

 

[NorwegianWood]

Looking really good. I like the little tanks 

[PlaStix]

Fantastic work with those tanks! And speedy too! 

Kind regards,

Stix

 

[Hockeyboy76]

They look great. Love the colours on the A9. 

[SleeperService]

That's stunning work and so fast! I'm in awe. FWIW I think the Green looks pretty good, it's easy to go too dark with it. The moulded detail is most impressive.

Paint issues seem to be common this time. I hope that's the end of them for you.

[AdrianMF]

Love em both!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[BIG X]

7 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Now the A9.

 

Once again it builds up quickly.  The turret has a piece of plastic card added to represent the hatch as the kit parts don't fit the whole.  After I took this photo, I realised that the hatch parts are supposed to stand proud!  The plastic card has now gone.  The auxiliary turrets on the hull don't fit well and their mounting holes need to be trimmed, but to be fair the instructions do warn of this.

 

Hi Enzo - I appreciate your rather busy with the Blitz - but if I could ask a quick question...

 

Those weights look pretty neat - what are they and where did you get them???

[Enzo the Magnificent]

15 hours ago, BIG X said:

Those weights look pretty neat - what are they and where did you get them???

@BIG X

 

They are simply stick on weights to balance the wheels of motorbikes.  I bought them from evilbay.  The ones in the picture are 10g but there are 5g and 2.5g weights available, which are more convenient to use.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-x-5g-120g-Motorcycle-Adhesive-Wheel-Balance-Weight-Strips-1st-CLASS-POST/391481756977?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

[Enzo the Magnificent]

My ywo are now finishes!    

 

Not much to see photo-wise.  Today has just involved the application of decals, weathering and painting & applying all the fiddly bits. 

 

 

Here they are in cruel close-up...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Valkyrie]

Super impressive! I want to do armour and a spitfire squadron and eat bacon omelettes and drink Czech beer. This has been such fun, I wish I had joined in. No bank holiday in Scotland and spitfire shop was shut today or I would have....well done everyone so far

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Well if there is enough demand, we may do it again over Christmas.

[PlaStix]

They are brilliant Enzo - very well done! I do like the idea of a Christmas Blitzbuild too! 

Kind regards,

Stix

[NorwegianWood]

The two tanks came out very fine. Congrats on a beautiful BlitzBuild.

[Valkyrie]

1 hour ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Well if there is enough demand, we may do it again over Christmas.

Yessss! Please! 

[BIG X]

1 hour ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Well if there is enough demand, we may do it again over Christmas.

YEH!!!!!!  You might actually get me looking forward to Christmas

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Just now, BIG X said:

YEH!!!!!!  You might actually get me looking forward to Christmas

 

Steady on there!  

[Hockeyboy76]

Christmas build. Oh yes. 

[Mrs PlaStix]

Fantastic quality work, so good and so quick... Will have to pick out something special for Christmas (subtle hint to Stix....) Thanks for organising this build, I'm really enjoying it 

[SleeperService]

Maybe over Christmas but as I work in retail distribution it may be tricky. I'd certainly like to.

[stevej60]

Superb pair Enzo.Put me down for Christmas if it's on!