Ryland Craze

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

Main painting is complete, done with the airbrush. The paints are combination of Vallejo and Tamiya. I did not have RAF Dark Earth, so I mixed that one up myself.
 
Now for a gloss coat in preparation for decals. 

Thank you Edward and all the likes. Encouragement is always appreciated. I did not really like the look of the clear plastic behind the windows. For the most part, they were invisible. I took some Testors canopy and window maker glue using a small brush and gave them a coat. I like this look much better. 

We are moving right along folks. Thank you for the thumbs up! I am working on the quarter gallery and stern lights. A few smudges gluing the clear to the frames but we will call them salt stains. 

Port side coppering finished😁. Not the best pictures - I'll try to get some better ones when I get to the next stages.


In the meantime I've made up a little jig to help assemble the gun carriages. Looking at this in close-up I can see the laser-cut components need a bit more tidying up!
 

 
Derek
 

I finally assembled the keel and the deadwood fore and aft. I simulated a build up stern deadwood by cutting grooves into the wood and highlighting them in pencil. Next up is to bevel the top edges of the keel to form the rabbet and then glue on the rising wood.

Now I have to rat myself out about the juvenile delinquent days of my youth.
 
When I was young, the schools I went to still had the older desks with the included ink wells. It was also before medications were prescribed with locking or threaded "childproof" caps. When our science teacher showed us the reaction of vinegar and baking soda, we instantly conjured up a use for the mixture. At home we would fill a pill bottle a little over half full of vinegar and roll up some baking soda using our binder paper.  Then when no one was looking we would quickly put the baking soda, "pill" into the bottle, quickly snap the lid back into place, and place it in the ink well of a desk. If the baking soda had been wrapped pretty well it would take some time for the paper to soak through allowing hopefully for someone to arrive and sit in the desk. At any rate sooner or later, occupied or not, the bottle would "blow" spraying the contents, usually about ceiling height and scaring everyone who was unaware in all of the surrounding desks. It would normally make only a relatively small mess that consisted mostly of a small mess on the ceiling that would disappear when it dried. But then someone had to wreck all of the fun, that was mostly ignored by the teachers for what it was, and started putting ink in the vinegar. That of course started staining people's clothing and the ceiling and because of the more serious penalties, brought the "Fun" to a halt. Looking back I suppose it could have also sprayed vinegar in someone's eyes or hit them with the flying cap but for some reason that never happened. It was definitely another age. I am also pretty certain the Statute Of Limitations has ran out and I am somewhat safe. 

I think I may have mis-worded my statement yet again. There may not be an issue with using break fluid, or with using Chlorine to strip model paint. BUT if you combine the two compounds it is certain that you will not be happy with the results. 
 
Our bomb squad showed us a live demo back in my academy days and believe me it was IMPRESSIVE! 
 
I think our demo used larger doses with much larger results but here is an idea of what happened just by mixing the two. The goo left over could very well be your model, or even worse your modeling location. 

Ok, now for scratch building the Skid lift loadout.
 
The original issue equipment for the M8A1 HST was a 30 Kw generator set that was designated the M-18. It was loaded using the 3 ton hydraulic skid lift mounted into the rear deck of the T-48 Skysweeper body by attaching four cable straps to the four corners of the load and the double swivel hooks on the lifts arms... (see previous images as to configuration of the lift) the operation was by hydraulic ram attached to the left side arm, pivoting on a torque tube to the right side arm that was attached parallel to the left arm. Extension and retraction of the ram caused the arms to move outwards rotating around the torque tube to move the load rearwards off the deck and onto the ground for unloading, Loading was the opposite. A very simple system the load didn't even need to be tied down as while on the tractor the lift cables were never detached....
 
First thing we need to do is build the lifting cables.... 
 
For this I'm using .015 jewelry wire known as Tiger Tail wire which is a stainless steel four strand twisted wire which looks the part very well... I'm also using 2mm pieces of the insulation from twisted pair telephone wire to simulate the ferrules used to close the loops on each end....
Beginning my attempt to dress out the pallet lift....
The materials....

Almost looks like we are going to tie flies.... in the upper center you see the pieces of tiger tail wire for the cables and pushed onto the pin in the center, you can see the eight pieces of insulating jacket being used for the ferrules... (just a note: my camera does not take very tight close ups very well, so many of the pics are going to be blurry, but you should be able to get the concept of what I'm doing from them, my apologies, and I will try to describe what is going on in detail to make the process clear Feel free to ask any questions that might arise)
 

2mm long pieces of phone line insulation, what you see here is the pieces being stretched to twice their normal size using the dressmakers pin as a mandrel this is to expand them so you can put two wires through to close the loops. Once pulled off they will slowly shrink back to their normal size. They have been on that pin for 36 hours they should have some memory, but I will still have to work fast before they shrink down to normal size....
 


This is a simple process, slip a insulation piece onto the wire and reinsert the wire end into the insulation piece forming a loop, pull the loop down to about 1/8th inch long and put a drop of superglue on the insulation. Then trim off the excess wire...
 

The instructions said to make them 24mm long, but this is for the kit part representing the load skid. On the part, the connection are on the ends and are raised above the skid, on the generator, the lifting lugs are on the sides, this necessitated making them a bit longer to compensate for the different location of the attachment point.... I went with 26mm so I pinned the first loop on a piece of balsa and placed a second pin 26mm away for forming the other end loop.

You arrive here by slipping a second piece of insulation onto the wire and letting it slide to the middle, form the loop the same as last time by feeding the wire back through the insulation piece, then place the pin through the loop into the balsa and push the insulation to the pin. then pull the loose end of the wire through the insulation piece until you arrive at a similar sized loop as the other end with the top of the loops tight to the pins. Then using a drop of superglue, affix the wire and insulation piece. I use instant superglue for this cause as soon as you let go the wire shifts in the insulation losing the length. once dry remove and clip off the excess wire....

The first completed cable hanging off the lift boom, at the bottom end is a single bra clasp loop with the ends rotated 90 degrees to form a decent looking clevis...  (even if it is a bit overscale, it looks the part)
 

All four of them completed and hanging from the lift arms, now to test them.....

In the loading position....

Using jewelry pins as temporary clevis pins....... (and the load is suspended just off the deck)

Half way up and it appears that the load will clear the deck, the one cable in the back appears to be a mm long.....

Fully loaded position, and it looks like the images of the actual cables I have... I would say success... Now these get set aside, (after adjusting the long cable) to wait for the generator...
 
coming up, building a US Army M-18 Generator......
 
EG
 
 

Finishing up the basic model kit......
 
Closeup..... Everything attached ready for details...

Track details, and yes, I'm very pleased with AFV Club tracks, they do a lot for the look....

Left Front, almost finished, all that is left for the basic vehicle is to dress out the pallet/generator lift and the body bows.

Right Front

Close-up of the Asuka .50 cal. Said to be the best injection molded M2HB around, looks pretty good in my estimation. Right up there with the resin and PE kits. (better than most) This is set "B" which is vehicle mounted machine guns, they do have a set "A" which are tripod mounted infantry weapons. Comes with two guns in the package and covers mounted .50 cals covering WWII through Vietnam, kit # 35-L9, well worth it in my opinion.... (and I need to touch up the barrel)

Right Rear, showing the 3 ton lift and pallet system. now the kit provides a length of thread to attach the four corners of the pallet to the lift's swivel hooks. Why go build a beautiful model and wreck it by tying knots with thread? Now in researching this I found that the previous build logs scattered around the internet show that the modelers decided that the best way to handle this was to substitute chain for the corner connections of the lift..... I have no doubt that at some point in time that chain was used in the field for this purpose but there are no photographic examples of this anywhere I could find.... (and no mention of it in the army tech manuals)
 
Research shows that what was issued and used were cables, half inch thick, with ferruled loops on the ends and clevis's to attach them to the load....

Notice the lift at the rear? cables.....
From the kit instructions....

Yep, cables and clevis's this is why the kit manufacturer gives you a length of thread... in the images you can make out the .5 inch, 1500lb test cable with ferruled loops on the ends and clevis's for connection to the pallet/generator. these are the only two pics of this I have and they come from the kits instructions. (which are obviously of a real vehicle) So how does one represent a 1/2" steel lift cable in 1/35th scale? I know WIRE!
 

In my stash of hardware I happen to have some tiger tail jewelry wire... Measures about .015 in diameter (half inch in 1/35 is about .014) and it is also a twisted wire made of stainless, it sure fits the part...
 
Next up, making the lift cables and testing their fit.....
 

Decals;
 
I build my armor at it's issue point, markings wise it will only have the registration numbers and national insignias at this point, unit markings were the purveyance of the field commanders and his designates. There wasn't a uniform method of marking until around '43 and that wasn't strictly adhered to, this is why you see different colors for the national insignias, (yellow and white predominated but there was also blue and red and orange colors used) and the unit designations were all over the map a combination of symbols and alpha-numeric designations. A real hodge podge.  This is why I prefer a simpler scheme and outside of dust and the occasional ding, no need for intense weathering. I know this isn't the norm for armor modeling where grit and grime is the rule, but it is what I like....
 
That being said, these vehicles didn't have much in the way of markings, even when they were in service..... Reg numbers and white stars were the norm.....

Basic stars and designation number, In my research I found from an army manual dated 1995! that had an image of what the national insignia's should be on an M8 HST......

An 18" star on each door, a 12" star on the front engine cover plate, and a 24" star on the roof over the drivers compartment. Now as you can see, my model has the spare tracks on the drivers roof so the star would be obscured and on images of the real thing when the tracks were there the roof star was omitted as we see here......


And the designation numbers on the side. "11A" has been observed on every M8HST that served in the field. Doesn't matter where it served it had the "11A" number on it's side below the air cleaner covers. It has to be a type designation of some kind but I have found no explanation for it. I replicated it using single digits decals... The number is feax, in actual usage the numbers ran from 500- 899 so 756 is a viable number and probably was actually assigned to a real vehicle. I've seen photos of these with numbers on both sides of "756" but this usage is completely fictitious. Above the number was usually a "US ARMY" or a "USA" I used the shorter version cause I had a decal for it that fit the space. This is what you would see on a basic issued vehicle before the unit numbers/symbols were applied in the field.
 
Tracks:
 
The most tedious part of the build, they come in individual links that snap together pivoting on the interior pins on each link. the links are plain, representing the cast steel plate that makes them up. The rubber road pads are separate pieces that need to be glued to each track link.....

One complete track, partially padded. Now most people use super glue to adhere the pads to the links, I found that SG is too brittle for the flexible vinyl pads and even after a short while they tend to fall off..... I chose Formula 560, the clear canopy glue to affix mine, it is white when applied, form fits to the parts and when dry is flexible and completely clear/invisible.....  I have yet to have a track pad fall off yet.....

On the upper left is one finished length of track and gluing up the final length of track pads....

Left side track mounted, now the way to mount these is to connect them all together and carefully hang them over the sprocket bogies, and road wheels using the rear idler wheel to tension the track as you slip the axel in.... It took me a couple of tries to get the right feel for it but when you do as you can see they fit beautifully, sag appropriately, and just look "right".......

And sitting on its tracks, you can see the distinct sag between the two middle return rollers just like the real thing... I like these tracks, a bit of a bore assembling, but terrific when complete, well worth the extra work... (especially as this is a custom application)

Almost completed body on the almost completed chassis, as you can see the glass is in place reels installed great looking tracks , you can even get the hint of a slight forward lean while sitting on the tracks, (it's natural stance with the dozer blade installed) more to come,  machine gun, antenna,  and possibly a tarp for the body bows.....
 
Final assembly and scratch building the M-18 Generator set coming up.....
 
EG
 

Paint has dried and cured, first a fitting to make sure everything is copacetic before I start on the details......
Still in subassemblies, fitted to make sure everything is straight and tight....

Right front view....

Left front view....

Closeup of bow & sprocket details....

Side details.....

Skid lift & rear hull details......

And a low angle left quarter street level view......
 
Next up, Decals and Tracks.....

Ok so heres the next installment.
 

Thank all of you for the nice comments. I finished some more items, a large shovel, a paintbrush, a colour tablet and a pencil. Didn‘t want to kitbash anything of this kit but the little shovels looked awful. Designed two new ones made of 0.5mm stainless steel sheet soldered to a 1mm wire with two handles made of castello I had in stock. Some more tools to build...
 

Well this was supposed to be light relief from the Cutty Sark I think I will be doing the Cutty as light relief from this. What an awful kit I thought sorting the mistakes my brother did on the Cutty was a challenge that was a walk in the park.
Anyway here is progress so far.

Not Grandpa's Kit.👍
 
Ron

Some other pics of the laser at work...

OK, today I have been laser cutting sheet samples, to how the quality for the underside has changed, and these are the results Pictured is 1mm and 2mm sample sheet, showing upper side and lower side. I am quite happy with this.
The sheets are not production sheets, but just test beds for a few changes to some stuff, to see how they look and to decide whether to keep in production files.

Chuck, check the ratios again. They're really weird the way they are written.
 
My instruction book actually says 6 : 0.25 : 0.5. I've never seen rations written with numbers less than 1 like that. In the first place, it's really hard to read, and even harder to measure "6:0.25:0.5".
 
So, I "Normallized" it by multiplying everything by 4. So, now it's 24:1:2 Same ratios, but easier to work with. 

Hi Chuck,
 
Another thing. I found that with the paper and acrylics in particular, if you brush it too much, it will look splotchy. I had the same problem. If you just brush the plank in one stroke, or minimum of strokes, it will look much more even. When painting the cargo deck, that's really hard to do after it's installed, which is why I don't like the look of mine. Good thing it's all pretty well hidden inside. 
 
After that, I was more careful with the painting and always painted in the direction of the imagined wood grain. I'm happier with the results now.