telepatu

Two green colors and one black later, removing the masking was exciting. Most parts were great, in some places the too thin black paint bled under the masks. Some touch ups needed here and there. I still don't like the rubber tracks, but I'll try to make them work anyway.

I added some weight inside the hull and started painting it using the Hataka paint set. Oddly enough some of the paints were "optimised for brush" and some "airbrush tested". Two of the greens were "Airbrush tested" and sprayed quite nicely even without thinning. The "Nato black" was optimised for brush so I thinned it with nearly 1:1. However, that caused the paint to become too thin. I sprayed the last layer straight from the bottle and it sprayed nicely as well.

Thanks, Martin. Priming revealed some places where touch ups are needed, but otherwise I'm liking the look of it. Br, Jani

Finally some progress during the last days. Working with the photo etch set was interesting, it really adds some nice detail. I have a small PE bending tool from RP Toolz, which helped a lot with bending the tiny bits. I'd say this is almost ready for priming. Most probably this will not be ready before the deadline, but I'll continue anyway. This has been fun group build, thanks for setting it up.

Some tiny update on the progress. I didn't feel like doing the wheels, so I jumped ahead a bit. The turret is coming along nicely, some imperfections in the muzzle break, which I patched with some carvings from the sprue. Not much progress in total, most probably this won't be finished before the deadline, but I'll try to keep it up.

Building the lower hull was surprisingly tedious work. There were few, if any location pins. After careful taping and gluing piece by piece the hull was finished. I added some additional support from sprue parts inside the hull.

I started the build from the lower hull, which was split into many pieces.

The kit contains some photo etched parts, they look nice. Plastic looks nice, not too many cleaning up required. The tracks look interesting. I might need to check the Trumpeter's track links.

This is the goal.

I have been thinking about participating in a group build for some time. Maybe it's finally time to take the plunge. I have a 2S1 Gvozdika from Skif in 1:35 scale. Finnish army acquired a bunch of used 2S1 Gvozdikas from former East Germany on 1992 and 1994. They are named "122 SpH 74" in the Finnish army. This howitzer has been on my to-do list for some time and now this Ukrainian GB seemed the right time to start. I have the Hataka paint set for modern Finnish Army, which will be put to test as well. The plan is to do pretty much an out of the box build.

Scalemates makes it even easier, the Ukrainian model companies are now highlighted with Ukrainian flag

I just found this GB, I'm trying to find some suitable projects. While browsing the Scalemates I found the "Brands" section, filtering by country "Ukraine" I get 122 results, that is quite a lot. Some companies have only a few items, but some have long lists of products.

I'm liking it so far, I've read 34% currently. I have the ebook from Kobo, those are easy to carry around when traveling. Um, when traveling was a thing :(

Well, actually I'm currently reading this 😄

I just finished Samurai! by Saburo Sakai and I'm currently reading this

I'd like to donate this kit to the raffle

Hi, could I enter as a recipient, please? I'll have a look at the stash for something to donate. Is 1:35 armor acceptable? Regards, Jani

Your models look stunning, great work! Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely try the clear coat after masks. Br, Jani

Thanks! I might try painting one thin layer with the blue grey / light gray to prevent the white going under the mask. I'll try now with white first and on the next model the other way around if this doesn't work. Br, Jani

Hi! May I ask advice from the wise? I currently building an older Revell F4F Wildcat. The decals looks pretty bad, so I thought I'll try painting them instead. Which order do you paint them? I'm thinking first painting the whole roundel with white and then adding the star and then spraying the blue color. Br, Jani

Merry Christmas everyone!