belugawhaleman

Some preliminary painting done.... Last night did up the wheels....lots of wheels. Had a little trouble last night ..while working on this I had a major drop in my blood sugar. Started sweating, shaking and suffered from confusion.... Scary! Got it sorted out soon however, and resumed work in about an hour...to my relief. Anyway, the tank hull was painted on Friday night. I had left the two front fender guards clipped in these sort of alligator clip things over the weekend.. And somehow, the vinyl protectors on the ends reacted with the paint...messing up the finish. I resprayed them , but one doesn't look right... The one seen on the tank in the picture. I may strip it and do it again. On the wheels.. I used a stencil on the smaller ones for the tires and hand brushed the tires on the larger ones. The color is an olive drab/ khaki mix, not sure if i got it right... it looks browner in person than in the pictures. Still got a lot to do. Got some needed paint arriving tomorrow. I added a picture of the offending alligator thing.

Glad to see this posted, as I need some #11 blades. Last time I purchased some blades with handles on Amazon. I was happy with the handles but found the blades tips Chipped easily. I'll have to go back and see what I purchased. Some useful info here.

Looks nice! I see what you mean about the headlight guards. I'll see what aftermarket options are available. According to the info in the kit the Israelis shortened the big French Gun by a whopping 1.5 meters .....leading to reduced performance by the gun.

Another Tamiya model came today; this time their Israeli Tank M51.(35323) These were modified cast hull M4A1 Shemans up-gunned with a shortened version of the 105mm gun from the French AMX-30 tank. These Shermans were also retrofitted with the later HVSS suspension, and a new Cummins diesel engine. The kit is a 2012 release. It has 3 marking options; two in light sand from 1967 and one dating from 1973 in a grayish-buff color. The kit looks nice...... But has "rubber band" tracks......although, honestly, they look pretty good. The cannon is molded in halves with a multi-piece muzzle brake. I found that using fine steel wool to finish the seams on these types Of barrels works very well by the way. The hull, turret, and other parts have a very nice cast texture.....looks good. I'm sure it will be an easy build.

Thanks, I'll check them out. I just placed an order with Hobby Easy again. I'm waiting for their "payment request" email to complete the purchase. Last time it took about a week to get my Hetzer from them.

From Royal Model came this spray masking stencil for doing tank wheels. It's marked No. 048 and it comes with a guide on the packaging on which numbered circles can be used for various listed tanks. This, with a similar set of circle stencils I purchased earlier by Tamiya will be useful. I've already found circles that I can use on the Valentine kit I'm currently working on.

Indeed! Who could ask more? The panzer IV ausf g is one of the kits I'm interested in having recently purchased the G. I haven't bought from plaza before, how are they?

Wow! Stunning camouflage!

Nice work Rob!

Had one of those as a kid , just like the one in your picture. Captured it in a neighbor's swimming pool pump house. Fed it night-crawlers. Brings back memories!

A little more progress.... Finished the other side tracks.......let the "Extra thin" cure on both sides before removing the tracks as complete units.. This will make painting much easier. Cool! I think these new Tamiya tracks are great......they look very nice! I'll place the track sides in separate bags until painting and final assembly.

Wow! Nice work.......really, seriously, did I say wow? Jeez, very nice!

Enjoyed your video. Very nice build! Also....I subscribed to your channel.

Oh wow, John! Nicely done! Thanks; Paul

VERY COOL, love it! Wonderfully interesting subject..... Those big Auto-Union racers... magical!

Yes, of course I agree. The Achilles kit is another Tamiya kit I've been looking at. It looks like an excellent kit, and the subject is kind of cool.....an Anglo-American hybrid.. Of sorts. Not sure, which kit I'll buy next...but it's on my list. I saw the Achilles at a local Ace Hardware for sale...but it was about $10.00 US higher than I can order It online...I'll probably order the Tamiya Sherman Israeli M51 I'm a big admirer of the Israeli State... Cool people. Not politically popular at the moment, but I hold steadfast. Anyway, I'm intrigued by AFV club kits .....their artillery, especially.

I had a carbine... Produced by Inland...mint condition previously owned by the Evanston police dept. Very fun gun to shoot.

Thanks Gary......looking forward to that. Especially decaling....love decals, very satisfying! It won't be the expertly weathered masterpiece that one comes to expect on this forum..but I'm sure it will be an attractive model...done in my own style. I like to think of my models as coffee table-top recognition models. I do like the color modulation thing----I want to start doing that. I have an excellent Iwata airbrush and there's no reason I couldn't do it....at least give it a try. Thanks; Paul

Well, I'd say do give the newer Tamiya kits consideration, they are great!. I rediscovered them about a year ago.....I thought all their kits were old. I love their new tracks and the fit and their excellent instructions. The kits include color plates of of the paint schemes that show multiple views of the subject. I've considered the Dragon kits... They look good. I have their Saladin kit.....but right away i found a mistake in the instructions involving placement of a periscope.....also the lack of inclusion of a turret mounted M1919 mg. I bought a replacement machine gun and will fabricate a mount. The Tamiya kits are...in most cases..reasonably priced and more available. I have a local supplier that gets the kits shipped to me the next day (usually) with shipping under $ 5.00 US. Also... Tamiya is an old company that I've been familiar with most of my life....It's Japanese... I've never been able to understand why the Chinese kits are so expensive with their labor costs. I know their kits are excellent.... I like Takom kits... But why are they always unavailable?. I'll eventually build the Saladin..and perhaps build more Dragon Kits.. But for now, I'm enjoying my Tamiya buying streak....it's fun. I plan to buy their US M40...and after seeing today a video on the Israeli Sherman M51 Sherman, I may buy Tamiya's kit of that. I also plan to build the Tamiya Comet when it comes out.

That's a technique im dying to try out, Rob, only with Silly putty, which I have loads of. I wonder, before applying, if the putty was rolled flat perhaps, if that would stop much of the flow that you describe. I may give this a try. Anyway, great job as i previously said. I'm following your work on your Lancia ....as I follow all your work as I have the same kit. Thanks; Paul

I was thinking the same, the figures are very nice. I've saved some ...but i also tossed some.....mostly the half-torso ones. I'll be saving these, along with those from my other German Tank-Destroyer kits. The Archer kit I got recently has some very nice figures.

Some more progress; been working on the tracks. I got one side done. I had some problems gluing together the tracks....there was a tiny gap i couldn't get together.... It turned out that there was a small chip of plastic between two teeth of the drive sprocket preventing the track to seat correctly on the sprocket. This prevented me getting the needed slack to join the ends. Removing that... Problem solved! The tracks Can be removed now as a complete unit from the tank making it possible to paint the wheels and track separately...... I put them on for the pictures. The front guard on the fender has not been glued on yet...it's there for the pics. Anyway, should be on the final approach soon with this kit.

Got this today; Tower Hobbies, failing in their usual next-day delivery, I got it a day later. Anyway, it's another Tamiya kit. The kit is their Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf.f Sd.Kfz.161 (35374). Released in 2020, this kit uses the lower tub and suspension units from some of Tamiya's earlier models but everything else is new and looks very nice. It features some nice link & length tracks with assembly jigs for the upper track lengths. There's also a new sprue with three figures that look pretty good. Some thread for towing cables and a length some copper wire is also included. Looks like a great kit. I'm still working on the Valentine tank right now so it will be a while before I get to another kit.

Looking great Rob!

I couldn't have said that better myself......... Or, did I ?