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Every Vally Shall Be Exalted - The Valentine Tank Family Vol.1 - Finished


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9 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Your wheels are, as you say, very "punchy" but they certainly look great, and will presumably get toned down a bit with mud/dust later. I like the cardboard tip - long live drybrushing!

 

It has always been my intention to spray paint some dust over the thing. Dust rather than mud as I'm setting this one down in the Syrian Desert. Originally I intended to mute the contrasts and blend everything together to make it look 'real' but now I'm not so sure that is my goal. Now I want to make it look 'good' as defined by B Boatface Esq. Perhaps the dust will be rather vivid!

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I've been working on the turret floor today. The majority of the ammo is held between the perforated rings (B) and the smaller perforated arc (A) sections. You'll see that the construction of both of the ammo holders is very flimsy with only the butt joints and the small pips on the stanchions making contact. I expected the shells to do most of the work but they are a loose fit in the holes so the holders must stand up for themselves.

 

This whole thing will only be visible from above, either through the small turret hatch or when the turret is removed for a better view, so there's no problem using some reinforcing plasticard.

 

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Two pieces at the ends help the arc but a further piece was added at the back when it almost fell apart once the cocktail sticks were removed.

 

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I used three pre-curved pieces of very thin plastic sheet on the large ring, making sure that they would be in places which wouldn't foul on the interior, which is a very close fit.

 

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There you go. Six invisible lash-ups, hardly noticeable even when you are looking for them and the turret floor is as firm as, er. It's as rigid as, er. Well it's a delight to handle now anyway.

 

The diamond-shaped ammo bin, with a lid that only covers half of it seems to be the ready use ammo and also the gunner's seat. There is no ammunition provided for that, which is rather odd and the shells provided don't fit. I may have to make a few more.

 

 

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Setting the stowage aside, I turned to the 2 pounder shells. I drilled holes in the ends. You may be wondering why? 

 

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There were a lot of shells and therefore a lot of ends. I also drilled holes in the ends of the machine gun ammo boxes. You have probably guessed why by now.

 

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It's an ammunition forest. "Aimed shots, laddie! That stuff don't grow in trees you know!" I have some very shiny brass paint and in the Grand Opera style of this build we will assume that the crew fill their free time polishing the brass. It will look like a jewelry box in there!

 

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With my mate Marmite MiniArt (love it or hate it.) you get a lot of pieces. After a certain point in the build it seems that you add piece after piece and the model never gets any bigger. The only way to know that you are winning is to keep an eye on the parts remaining. I think I'm about down to the equivalent of an Airfix ambulance now, or maybe two of them. Whatever, I have seen the light! It's not the end of the tunnel yet, more the faint reflection of daylight on the curving, slimy walls of the crumbing Victorian brickwork, but at least I know I'm going to finish one day soon. I darned well should, I started on the 26th of May!

 

p.s. Please don't do the joke about the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train. It's much too far past its 'cliché by' date.

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It's not an oncoming train.

Its a big mirror some jokers blocked the tunnel with!

Love the tyres.

I usually use a bit of rag when drybrushing, And b***ger what they say. I like the effect it gives.

Tom

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1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Three days without modelmaking of any kind 😱!! Not a mojo problem, just life getting in the way for a while. Yeah, suddenly I have one. A life I mean. 😉

Same here, i managed to do some modeling on the Tiger this afternoon but real life things are getting in the way a lot these days. 

 

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Back on the job tonight, I've been doing some bits and pieces of turret stuff.

 

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First thing was discovering a small disaster that I carried out a couple of days ago. Look at the trapezoidal ready use ammo bin B32.

 

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I remember having trouble working out the orientation. There's only a square locating pin underneath so that was no help. I couldn't see how it was supposed to go and was distracted by the strange half lid B29 (which is the Commander's seat, not the gunner's by the way.) Anyway, as you see, I've now got it firmly stuck down 90 degrees wrong. And it will interfere with the proper locations of the Besa MG ammunition boxes! Ping it! There's no chance of getting it off again afer three days of setting time so I'll live with it, adjusting the ammo cans to suit.

 

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I made some ammunition to go into the bin. I rolled it with a scalpel to make the cut leaving a circle in the centre to stand for the primer. I believe that the three legged primer protectors would have been removed when the shells were transferred from the larger racks into the bin. (And I had no idea how to make them!)

 

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Since my bin is in the wrong place I've decided to call it a local mod to improve the life of the commander enabling the crew to fit a comfy chair scrounged from some battlefield wreck. Who's to say it never happened?

 

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The inside of the mantlet is developing well. There are a lot of very small parts, some of which I am ignoring, and they have tiny attachment point so I'm having to go slowly and carefully here. A better man than I would paint the Besa before fitting it but I'd rather get the assembly of the whole piece out of the way before I paint. Note that the functional trunnions have been cut away.

 

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The fit of the turret halves isn't very good so I decided to build it without the guns. This will make tidying the joint easier and then the fragile guns assembly, sans trunnions, can be slid into place from the inside and glued.

 

Slow work on small pieces but it has passed the evening very pleasantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Five days without an update (or progress) = excuses time. 

 

It's a pitiful one. When I did the full strip and overhaul of the airbrush I noticed that the needle seals are shot. It's physical damage which probably happened either when I installed them last time or removed them for the cleaning. Either way, I decided to replace them before using the airbrush again and incurring another clean out of the air valve end. And that put a stop to painting the ammunition , and provided me with no reason at all not to work on with the other components. It did stop me though. To be fair to myself, there are other things going on that aren't model related at all. Darned real life, if only we could do without it. That's a joke actually. In fact I'm too busy being happy to do much modelling right now. 💖

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55 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Five days without an update (or progress) = excuses time. 

 

It's a pitiful one. When I did the full strip and overhaul of the airbrush I noticed that the needle seals are shot. It's physical damage which probably happened either when I installed them last time or removed them for the cleaning. Either way, I decided to replace them before using the airbrush again and incurring another clean out of the air valve end. And that put a stop to painting the ammunition , and provided me with no reason at all not to work on with the other components. It did stop me though. To be fair to myself, there are other things going on that aren't model related at all. Darned real life, if only we could do without it...Aaaaaagh! 😵

 

👍😉

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2 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

To be fair to myself, there are other things going on that aren't model related at all.

 

@Maddoxx77 and @Stef N. There's absolutely no need for those sad faces as I haven't really made myself clear. The 'moaning' bit. "darned real life..." was meant as a joke. In fact my real life away from the bench has been quite rather very extraordinarily good excellent brilliant lately. It might be October but I have Spring in my step and romance in my heart.

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I had some time for the AEC today.

 

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The shells and ammo boxes, which I'd intended to spray look good enough brush painted I reckon.

 

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It's beginning to look the part now. Of course there's a lot of small details for the outside yet to be done. It's difficult to know what's left as there are a lot of parts not used. The turret sprues seem to be from a tank with the option of the spring loaded Bren Gun for example. It's a pity that MiniArt don't list the unused parts, and that omission must lead to many similar parts being used incorrectly. 

 

 

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The armoured car GB kicks off on 29 October. I'd really like this AEC finished well before that so I'm setting a target of 22 October for the posting of the RFI. Three weeks should be ample but any deadline/goal/target will help keep me on the job. 😉 Nineteen days left then.

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1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

It's beginning to look the part now. Of course there's a lot of small details for the outside yet to be done. It's difficult to know what's left as there are a lot of parts not used. The turret sprues seem to be from a tank with the option of the spring loaded Bren Gun for example. It's a pity that MiniArt don't list the unused parts, and that omission must lead to many similar parts being used incorrectly. 

Cutting the last piece from a sprue always sends a nice little buzz of dopamine down the brain tubes, it's never the same when it has cursed bits left over. "Have I missed something?" "Where does that go?" "Did I use the wrong one?".

These MiniArt kits with loads of parts can be cruel.

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7 hours ago, psdavidson said:

Good luck :fingerscrossed:

 

You don't need luck with a face like mine.

 

 

 

                                                                            You need a very dark restaurant.

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11 hours ago, Maddoxx77 said:

Enjoy!!!!

 

I did, very much. It's a marvel how a first date at 65 is so much easier than at 15 and yet every bit as exciting. 😊

 

(I'll be back on the bench later today with the vigour and enthusiasm of that teenager!)

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11 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

I did, very much. It's a marvel how a first date at 65 is so much easier than at 15 and yet every bit as exciting. 😊

 

(I'll be back on the bench later today with the vigour and enthusiasm of that teenager!)

Great to hear you've enjoyed yourself with good company. I hope this will be the prelude to much more.

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11 minutes ago, Maddoxx77 said:

Great to hear you've enjoyed yourself with good company. I hope this will be the prelude to much more.

 

So do I. I am very optimistic and very happy indeed. Funny thing is, I didn't realise how lonely I was until I suddenly wasn't. Imagine voluntarily looking for a SWMBO. What will that do to my modelling output? 😁

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My airbrush seals have arrived in double quick time from Air-Craft.net. I like that company for many things but most of all for its honesty.

 

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I bought one of these needle seal fitting tools because the Air-craft website said that it wasn't really necessary but did make it a little easier to fit the seals, or words to that effect. Since I may have bust my seals 'managing without' I decided that a little easier would be worth the small cost of this thing. It looks jolly handy though I haven't actually done the job yet.

 

To be frank, I haven't done much modelmaking at all until today. I've been too busy writing poetry, cleaning the flat etc. However, today I re-embraced the multi part monster that is the AEC AC.

 

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Oh. My.  

 

That is the first time I saw a MiniArt short shot. It was only on one of these sand channels, the other one, on an identical sprue was fine. It's not a biggie because I intended to distress these components from the moment I realised what they were. (At first I thought they were side action snowploughs.) Anything used to get an eight ton truck out of holes is going to get battered and bent out of shape in short order.

 

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The sand channels hang from the sides of these stowage boxes. Is it just me or does this now look like a ground dwelling version of the Apache helicopter?

 

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There you go. It's supposed to be attached with two very thin PE straps, with buckles even. That would look very good I'm sure, but:

 

A. I don't like PE and

 

B. they would be so delicate that I'd break them off within hours.

 

I firmly glued the newly bent and broken channels to the side of the stowage boxes and will wrap them up in non-functional PE strapping at a later date. Good enough!

 

And that's all folks. 

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I've done some work tonight but my photo host isn't playing. It's just been assembly of bits and pieces, nothing much worth talking about. Apart from parts Ba 23/4. Have you seen them anywhere? Nr have I. They aren't small parts either but they have escaped completely. I found something in the spares box that will do the structural job of the back brake backplate even if it doesn't look the part (lol). 

 

EDIT - Photos!

 

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MiniArt detailing that I can manage without. No-one will know.

 

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My replacements. Good enough for underneath and behind the wheel 

 

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And the turret is also coming together nicely. I'll leave it removeable, having decided to glue the hull top into place. My interior wasn't good enough to stand full exposure.

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