M31 Recovery Vehicle

[beefy66]

  

 

beefy

[Sgt.Squarehead]

13 hours ago, AndyRM101 said:

Shouldn't be long now before I can start getting some paint on it.

Now that's the bit I'm really looking forward to. 

[Andy Moore]

This is where I'm currently at. The crane is fixed to the turret, although the support arms are only temporarily pinned to the hull right now, so the turret and arms can be removed and painted separately to the hull. I'm also testing different stowage and figure options

 

 

This chap will eventually get a body and head (possibly even arms), but I've had to do a bit of hacking and resculpting on his legs first so he'll sit a little better on the hull. The figure's from Miniart but I've got some Hornet heads on the way to replace what you get in the box

 

 

The stowage on the back will be bedded in better with some tissue paper tarps. In between pushing Axis forces back, the crew where clearly doubling up as the Sicilian window cleaning service 

 

 

Andy

[Ozzy]

You're making a lovely job of her Andy.

[Portaler]

Awesome stuff Andy. As they say the devil is in the detail. And the details you are adding really convinces.

 

That copper rope looks great too !!

 

Love it !!

[Robert Stuart]

38 minutes ago, AndyRM101 said:

the crew where clearly doubling up as the Sicilian window cleaning service 

Andy, this is a great build.  I do like the bucket hanging on the ladder there, and hope that makes it to the final build

[Sgt.Squarehead]

+1 for the bucket! 

 

Got to get you and some Flyhawk 1/72 stuff together. 

[stevej60]

Some outstanding detailing Andy,great work.

[Threadbear]

Awesome looking M31 TRV. Excellent work

[Hewy]

Moving  along real nice andy

[wimbledon99]

I'm thoroughly intrigued - How do you paint this? Hair or Air? Watching with notebook in hand

[Bullbasket]

There's some seriously good modelling going on in this build. Like it.

 

John.

[Nigel Heath]

Looking great so far, nice details adding much interest.

[Richard E]

There's a fantastic build weathering canvas developing in this build

On ‎28‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 5:35 PM, Robert Stuart said:

Andy, this is a great build.  I do like the bucket hanging on the ladder there, and hope that makes it to the final build

No doubt Andy already has it in hand but I suspect the bucket needs a short loop of rope or cloth just to lash it to the ladder so its rightful owner can find it right where he left it when the tank stops moving.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Richard E

[Andy Moore]

20 hours ago, wimbledon99 said:

I'm thoroughly intrigued - How do you paint this? Hair or Air? Watching with notebook in hand

It'll be airbrushed for the most part. The black areas on the rear deck were just a preliminary undercoat before the stowage bins were added, as I might struggle to get into all the nooks and crannies when I do the main painting.

 

5 hours ago, Richard E said:

No doubt Andy already has it in hand but I suspect the bucket needs a short loop of rope or cloth just to lash it to the ladder so its rightful owner can find it right where he left it when the tank stops moving.

To be honest, I hadn't actually thought of that, but you're right, it does need something to hold it in place. There are some other bits of stowage that will be lashed on with rope at the end, so I'll add some to the bucket too.

 

 

I haven't got much done over the last few days, but I have decided to put the tracks on now, rather than at the end, like I did with the Russian M3. I normally prefer to leave tracks off until the end so I can weather the lower hull more easily. Doing the M3 that way was problematic though due to the ill-fitting link and length tracks. I was expecting the same issues here so I decided to glue the tracks on now, despite that hampering the painting/weathering later on.

 

I'd already built up the top runs with the supplied jig, and I glued the indi links straight onto the idler and sprocket. I gave all of them, and the lower hull and suspension, a coat of black, then glued them all in place.

 

 

I then built up the lower runs and, as expected, I ended up with the same gap, which is slightly less than one full link. The funny thing is, building up the runs as indicated in the instructions uses all the tracks sections that Takom supply on the main track sprue. There are however a couple of extra links included rather randomly on one of the other sprues, although they're not mentioned in the instructions. I do wonder if Takom found the track error on a test build and added the extra links as a remedy.

 

 

Either way, the extra link won't fit as it comes. I'll need to trim it down slightly, as also trim a little of the links either side of it until it will drop into place. Since it's on the bottom corner the skinny link shouldn't show. It didn't on the Lee anyway, and I did that the same way.

Once the extra links are in place I'll spray them black as well then glue them on. As I said, it'll make the final painting and weathering harder, but since this is a Sicilian Operation Husky vehicle, I'll be going with a dusty look rather than any heavy weathering, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

In other news, they're breeding... run for the hills 

 

 

Andy

[Ozzy]

Nice going Andy, 

[Andy Moore]

So, while I've been getting the tracks sorted out, I've also been tinkering with the figure. The arms that were intended for the figure I'm using wouldn't fit due to where he's sitting on the tank. I've used the arms from one of the other figures in the set, although they needed some hacking and re-sculpting to get them to fit this body. I preferred the original ones, as they'd got rolled up sleeves and looked more casual, but the replacement ones will do.

 

The problem I've got at the moment is with the replacement Hornet head. It looks a little over-scale to the body, although in truth I suspect it's more a case of the body being slightly under-scale. The discrepancy isn't huge but it's noticeable to me, although it might be less so when it's painted. I could use the head that came with the figure set, but the detail isn't anywhere close to the resin one, plus I've bought the Hornet ones now and I hate buying stuff and not using it. I guess he'll just have to be Big Bonced Bob

 

 

 

 

Andy

[Bullbasket]

To the casual viewer, it looks fine. It's only if you stare at it that it looks slightly on the large side, but then, that could just be imagination. Stare at something for long enough and you can convince yourself of anything. If anything, it's probably the head gear doing it. Once painted, it probably won't notice.

 

John.

[Andy Moore]

9 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

If anything, it's probably the head gear doing it. Once painted, it probably won't notice.

Yes, I think you're probably right John. Hopefully he'll look okay once painted

 

Andy

[Robert Stuart]

A normal adult figure, standing upright, should be between 7 and 8 heads high.

To me, that figure looks about 6 1/2 heads high - i.e. he has a short body, or a large head

 

I hope he paints up well, but I fear he'll never look quite right

 

[Bullbasket]

9 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

To me, that figure looks about 6 1/2 heads high - i.e. he has a short body, or a large head

You just described a lot of the lads that I knew in the army.

 

John.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Pretty sure once you've worked your magic on the rest of the model, the size of Bob's head will be the last thing on anyones mind. 

 

So tell me more of this second hull.....I is intrigued! 

 

PS - Bob definitely has short legs, maybe you could give him height boosting surgery above & below the knee? 

 

[Andy Moore]

3 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Pretty sure once you've worked your magic on the rest of the model, the size of Bob's head will be the last thing on anyones mind. 

PS - Bob definitely has short legs, maybe you could give him height boosting surgery above & below the knee? 

2

The leg extension would probably help, but I've got him to fit pretty well to the hull so I didn't want to make any alterations to the pose. However, I think I've found a far simpler solution.

I'd picked the first head purely because I liked the look of it, and I hadn't really looked that closely at the other heads that came in the Hornet set. It occurred to me that the others might not all be the same size and, after a quick check, I found that two of the others were noticeably smaller so I've gone with one of those. It might still be a little too big but not as much as the first one

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

So tell me more of this second hull.....I is intrigued! 

Yes, that one was a little unexpected. As some will know, I do kit reviews on another site, and the review copies usually come straight from the manufacturers. I generally know what's being sent beforehand but sometimes something turns up out of the blue. I had a parcel delivered a couple of weeks ago, and I was expecting it to be the Miniart Flettner Kolibri, but it turned out to be from Takom and was another M31, so it looks like I'll be building two

 

I'm not doing all this work again though, so the review one will very definitely be OOB. It does mean I'll be able to do the OD/ black camo 'Invader' as well as 'Georgia' now though

 

 

I've finally finished the inside of the fake gun door as well. It's hard to tell exactly what was on the inside from the few photos that show it open, so I've just added some basic framing, a handle and simplified sliding latch, and the extinguisher

 

 

 

It'll only be slightly ajar anyway, so you won't see all that much

 

 

I've just ordered some AK olive drab from their real colour range which should be here in a couple of days, so hopefully I might get some paint on over the weekend

 

Andy

[Bullbasket]

Sorry to keep banging on about the figure size, but just to illustrate what I mean, we had an SDS rider who was no more than five feet 2 inches, and a linesman who was about six feet four. Now you are never going to see those sort of figures in a set, because someone one will say that they are not to scale. Tell that to their mums!!

 

John.

[Andy Moore]

12 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Now you are never going to see those sort of figures in a set, because someone one will say that they are not to scale. Tell that to their mums!!

Yes, you're absolutely right John. Most modelling tends to be fairly generic, and never really matches the variety and quirkiness you get in real life.

 

It's not just figures either. I've seen plenty of examples of unusual weathering or dirt accumulation on real vehicles that I would never try to reproduce on a model because people would see it as unrealistic.

 

Andy