BlrwestSiR

Nice progress there Rob. She'll need some nose weight to keep her from being a tail sitter. When I did mine, I left the resin cockpit bulkhead loose and added the the nose weight behind it into the joined fuselage. I can't remember how many pennies I used though. Carl

Nice mod there Hubert. That was one of the things I didn't like about my Hobby Zone organizer and why I went with the Arttystation one. Carl

Here's both sets of tracks done and the paint touched up. I then installed the tracks onto the lower hull. I placed the drive and idler sprockets into place on the tracks and then mounted the subassembly to the hull. The remaining lower track was then added. Here she is with both tracks installed. A dry run with the upper hull in place.

Here's the track sets all finished. The lower run of track is added after they're installed onto the tank. Once the glue set, I removed the tracks from the jig. I then carefully pried them open a bit to remove the idler and drive sprocket. This way I can now do the touchups . I then started on the other side.

It's definitely world's easier than the old school tracks. I think the worst still are Sherman tracks.

I'm with John. Try and get the parts you need to swap out. If not, use Tamiya lacquer thinner to strip the paint. It won't hurt the plastic. I've had to do that several times, even on clear parts without a problem. You will most likely need to polish some residue off though but some rubbing compound will take of it. Carl

I think Martin's voting for the Corsair. Me, I like the Corsair a lot but I never see any A-6s get built so that'll be my pick. Carl

No kits or anything model related but I did get some woodworking accessories. This should come in handy when it's time to build my display case.

Onto the time consuming bit of the build. I painted the track parts in XF-84 Dark iron mixed with a bit of hull red. I then clipped them from the sprues and cleaned up the attachment points. Fairly straightforward except for on the longer lengths where some of the attachment points are between the track pins. Then I started the assembly on the track guide. The guide even has a couple notches on it so you know where to place the longer single piece runs.

Thanks Rob! The kit is moving along very nicely. Definitely great for breaking in a new bench and certainly a great first armour kit for someone who hasn't built one before. Carl

Nice pics Martin. Are there any 22/24s still flying?

Poker anyone? The road wheels only needed a quick cleanup of the sprue attachment point. No mould seams. Not sure how they pulled that off but it saved more time. I then got the wheels onto the hull. Here's the idler and drive sprockets. The tracks are link and length. As I mentioned earlier, there's no ejector pin marks on them either. To assemble the tracks, you use the same alignment jig for the axles. The drive and idler sprockets are slipped onto it and then you add the tracks.

Thanks Phil! It's more the kit than anything.

The kit IP looks a bit sparse. Maybe check out one of the Yahu ones too?

Looks good Harv. I think the hard edges are a good match to the pics posted. Carl

Jeroen, so far, it's been a fun build. There's very few ejector pin marks to clean up. In fact, none of the track links have any so those should go quickly. Yup, can't have too many.

Thanks! Here's the paint I'm using for the green: It's AK Real Color RC 047.

Grabbed a quick break and hit the rest of the road wheels and lower hull with Dunkelgelb. One nice thing about some of the late war tanks is the lack of rubber rims. Saves on masking and painting.

The new bench needs a new build. So I took this out of the stash. It's going to be OOB, which should hopefully make it straight forward. We shall see... The kit looks fairly uncomplicated with a minimum of PE bits, those mostly relegated to the engine screens. So first step was the bogie arms. The arms are keyed to make sure they go in the right spot. Takom gives you a jig to make sure the arms are all aligned and you don't get a wobbly tank. I got the rest of the arms on as well as the rear idler arm and the drive housing. I then started painting the road wheels. So things are moving along nicely.

Looking good there Harv. We've got rain for the next few days too. Carl

Really nice looking build Ernie. Might just have to get one. Carl

Ernie's getting Buffed! And I thought my idea of the paper model B-52 in 1/33 was crazy.

I like the individual instruments. That way you don't have to worry about matching the panel colour to the rest of the cockpit. I'm glad to see this back on your bench. Carl

I'm wondering if it's a running change they're making because they not in the instructions that way either.

Oddly, on the Symphony set the tool organizer also has slotted openings and not just holes. Here's the holder from the Symphony, note the slots on the right side. This it the Opera module that's otherwise identical. I hadn't noticed the difference at first. It want until I started putting my tools away that it came to my attention. The slot is handy for razor saws and larger files. The shipping was definitely not cheap but it arrived in less then a week. I would have preferred the free surface shipping but our cat was creating a but too much havoc on the bench and add in my boys working on it too I felt it was the best option.