belugawhaleman

The egg planes are probably a fun build.......and cute, but I kind of draw the line at Meng's offering of a cute Titanic..... Kind of in bad taste in my opinion as , in my opinion , major maritime disasters...... Aren't that fun.

Thanks for the review. I remember seeing these vehicles in the 'States as a kid in the 70's.....they were a favorite of mine.

Very nice!

Today, from Tamiya came their British Self-Propelled Anti-Tank Gun Archer (35356). This vehicle is based on the Valentine tank chassis and uses the 17 pounder gun. The odd thing about this tank destoyer is that the gun faces the rear of the vehicle. The vehicle is driven from a position just opposite the breach of the gun; the driver viewing from a small hatch. The kit is similar to Tamiya's Valentine kit sharing some parts. In the photo you can see the driver peering out of his driver's hatch at what is actually the front of the vehicle. Anyway, it looks like a great kit. Until recently, it's been out of stock at all my usual places. This was ordered from Tower Hobbies.

A shot of the re-textured area of the turret. I stippled Mr. Surfacer on with a brush... I wonder if this can be done with a sponge? Might work better.

Cockpit looks nice John.

A little more progress.....built up the fenders...they are not permanently glued on yet. I added back a little texture on the turret with Mr. Surfacer after sanding a seam (not seen in photos). Next will be building up the link & length tracks. After that I'll see if I can add them to the kit with the fenders in place. In that case, I'll add them last after painting them separately..... Otherwise, things will be a little tricky....I'll have to add the fenders last. Anyway, We'll see..

I've got to hand it to you......I wouldn't even attempt to do this😀

Looking forward to the Ehrhardt from CSM as well. Definitely on my list.

Decided to do the turret tonight......no big problems. Features nice cast texture. Not a fan of the kit's cannon... Two pieces ; the barrel and a muzzle cap. I decided to use it anyway. Again, I'm liking this kit.

I also have one of CSM Lancias. I am admittedly a little intimidated by the CSM kits. How is the fit? Yours is looking great BTW. Glad to see you're building this kit and I'll follow your progress.

Nice work. The suspension on the Tamiya kit went together well...and lines up well. I did place one part on back wards.....but caught it in time.

I've started this Tamiya Valentine Mk.II/IV yesterday. I posted on What's on your workbench but I'll put the rest of my build here. Yesterday I started on the lower hull and finished the suspension last night. Today did the road wheels ,sprockets, idler wheels , and some minor details. I can say the kit is a good one. It goes together well with excellent fit. Like I said in my earlier post..a small amount of Mr. Surfacer was used to fill minor gaps...very small gaps. This tank had an interesting suspension and drive train that I think the kit really captures well. I'll be building this kit out of sequence; I'll build the turret and fenders, then return to the tracks. So far an interesting build. I was surprised to see that this tank has its brake drums on the outside of its drive sprockets......to save space? Anyway, here are some pics.

Some engines of the era were dual-ignitioned , then each of the inserts would have Spark plugs, but this would be more common in aicraft engines .

It's actually four cylindered. There are eight screwed-in inserts on the en-bloc cylinder head. Each covers an engine valve. And four have places for spark plugs.

Been working on Tamiya's 1/35 Valentine Mk. II/IV today. Not much to show. I plan to do a Soviet tank without the side skirts and brownish-green paint. Did some work on the lower hull. The fit is pretty good. I used a couple dabs of Mr. Surfacer to fill some tiny gaps here and there. It's a cool model of a strange little tank. I thought I'd do something British for a change. I was not aware that some models, including this one, used American engines and transmissions.

Didn't know there was a 1/48 version. I built the classic Monogram kit years....and years ago. It came out nice I remember. It might give this one a try. Please do a build log on this one!

Sad to hear. My condolences to the royal family and British people. A very great loss... She will be missed.

Interesting subject for your build.....will be viewing!

Moments ago another arrival; and yes, it's Tamiya. From overnight shipping marvels Tower Hobbies came Tamiya's U.S. Medium tank M26 Pershing T26E3 (35254). A favorite of mine, I always thought the Pershing was a good- looking tank. I built the 1/16 rc version by Tamiya years ago... It still sits languishing in a cabinet in my old bedroom at my mother's house. Anyway, while not a recent release, ( 2002) this kit it's still said to be a decent one. This is the one that Tamiya put the working suspension on....but never did so again. They must have thought that was a dead end modeling-wise. The barrel will probably be replaced by a Aber one as the kit's barrel is a multi-piece one. I have a pair of Gaspatch .50 M2 guns that are nice and one may be used on this kit.

Not quite, there's still a bunch more Tamiya kits to go before I hit that mark. Their Archer kit, M40, and of course, their yet to be released Comet😀

Thanks . The paint schemes look a little complicated on this kit though. They both look hard edged not sprayed and it looks like I'll have to make masks of some sort. I heard the Swiss used these tanks after the war for some time.

Had to pick up a package at the post office today.... It needed a signature and I wasn't home yesterday. A minor annoyance. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was my order from Hobbyeasy in Hong Kong. Another Tamiya kit; their Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Mittlere Produktion.(35285) I've been looking for this kit for some time......always out of stock. Sometimes the more pricey boxing with the Aber extras included can be found but I didn't want too spend that much. Again, it's a Panzer 38(t) based vehicle...... So it's a small kit, but I like the looks of this odd-looking tank destroyer. The kit has a choice of vinyl or styrene link & length tracks. It looks pretty good and will go together well being a Tamiya kit.

Interesting subject well executed!

Looking forward to the Tamiya release of the Comet as i have more Cuban themed decals for one. Nice work on your Comet. I couldn't find the Bronco kit in stock anywhere.