CDW

Our pooch celebrated his first birthday yesterday. He’s a ball of energy.

Nothing but respect for tank crews. Tough duty right there.

With the tracks painted, the wheels and track are placed back on the model. I've used some scrap pieces of foam to bring the top part of the tracks down onto the road wheels and give it the natural appearance of sag seen on real tracked vehicles. With this being said, it finishes the saga on tracks and will now move forward with adding the remaining details and weathering the model.

That's a very fine model with an excellent selection for markings. The aluminum finish is brilliant.

With the tracks painted, the wheels and track are placed back on the model. I've used some scrap pieces of foam to bring the top part of the tracks down onto the road wheels and give it the natural appearance of sag seen on real tracked vehicles. With this being said, it finishes the saga on tracks and will now move forward with adding the remaining details and weathering the model.

That's a very fine model with an excellent selection for markings. The aluminum finish is brilliant.

Thanks to OC for the comment, and to everyone else for looking in and hitting the like button.
 
I've completed the decals on the body parts.   It went quite well....sure there are a few wrinkles and a few places the decals tore and a little bit of silvering here and there but overall I am pleased with the way it went.   I was surprised that the long skinny stripe decals did not pose too much issue, though a couple of them did break apart.  But I was able to just nudge the two edges together.  The larger decals seemed a little more problematic, as there were more likely to be spots where the decal film did not want to release from the backing paper.  In a few cases I had to grab the decal with tweezers and delicately pull it off of the backing paper.
 
Below are a couple of pictures.  Excuse the masking tape, I am leaving that in place until after I do the clear coat, which I have not started yet.  Also, the upper cowl is just sitting on the main tub now.  Unfortunately it is slightly warped.  I think the kit intends you to not glue that in place so that it can be removed for better viewing of the cockpit but I may need to glue it down to have it sit nice on the tub.  That's probable not a big loss as there is not a lot to view in the cockpit.
 
I also started assembling the engine and gearbox.  I placed the front cowl, the body, the engine/gearbox and rear wing all next to each other on my table and was a bit surprised just how big this model is going to be.  I guess I should have thought about that before I started hoarding 1/12th or 1/16th scale car models bought off of ebay.    This is one of 9 that I have.  Oops.

Thanks as always for the comments and likes!
 
I have the front suspension structure 99% done now, shown below.  The fire extinguisher is toward the front of the car, the back bulkhead/frame fits against the main tub of the car.  The one part that I have not done is the hose from the fire extinguisher to the front bulkhead.  The kit supplies some black rubber/vinyl tube for that purpose.  I hope to obtain some of the metal, braided lines and use that in place of the vinyl hose.   Note also the bare wires on the front, representing the hydraulic lines for the brakes and clutch.  The three cylinders in front are the master cylinders.  I added those wires, they were not part of the kit.  I also added the black control wire from the bulkhead to the fire extinguisher.  The front cowl snaps on, so in theory, most of this stuff can be made visible by removing the cowl.
 
It cannot be seen in these photos, but I also added rods from the pedals to the opposite side of the master cylinders.  They can be seen if you look straight down through that square opening in the top.  I presume that is how this worked....the pedals acted as levers pushing rods into the cylinders to provide the pressure needed to brake or release the clutch.
 
I am also tempted to add a rectangular decal or two to the fire extinguisher, as it looks a bit bare as is.
 
With this, I am through step 26 out of 45 in the instructions.  The next step begins assembly of the engine.   I might also go back and resume putting decals on the main tub.  The gloss black paint there has been curing for a week or two and is no longer tacky at all.

 
 

After my vacations, finally an update. I tried to finish the P-38 and mainly did over the last days. The prop hubs with black and white parts gave me grieve and now I airbrushed them for the third time, very annoying. That's why they are not on the pics.

I carefully applied the decals, which behaved very well and on the aluminum, you can barely see carrier film. The white pinstripes around the black nose panels, where a bit difficult to master, but thankfully the thin strips were robust enough not to tear. The stencils are not complete, but I don't know, if I apply the rest. There were quite a lot of differences, between the Tamiya decal plan for the stencils and the ones I used from Bombshell. I used only warm water with some drops of detergent, because I didn't want to spoil my surfaces with aggressive solvents.

I painted the navigation and formation lights with clear colors, picked up some other details and then added the non weathered wheels only sprayed in one black shade, untypical for me.
I used the kit wheels, flattened with a sanding stick, because my Ultracast wheels didn't look too good and the Eduard masks wouldn't have fitted. 
The barrels are made of brass by Master and got a treatment with a patinating liquid, which give a matte brown black look, which I find very convincing.
 
Cheers Rob
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our pooch celebrated his first birthday yesterday. He’s a ball of energy.

The red arrow points to the mounting shaft for the idler wheel. This part can be rotated forward or back to add or release tension on the tracks. It's important to initially fit this part dry and only cement it into place after proper tension is put on the tracks after link assembly. The kit instructions do not point this out, it's just one of those things you learn through trial and error and/or careful thought and examination of the entire assembly.
 

With the straight sections of track glued in place and dried, the idler and drive wheel can be slid off to remove the entire track for painting. After painting, will slide everything back in place. 

The red arrow points to the mounting shaft for the idler wheel. This part can be rotated forward or back to add or release tension on the tracks. It's important to initially fit this part dry and only cement it into place after proper tension is put on the tracks after link assembly. The kit instructions do not point this out, it's just one of those things you learn through trial and error and/or careful thought and examination of the entire assembly.
 

With the straight sections of track glued in place and dried, the idler and drive wheel can be slid off to remove the entire track for painting. After painting, will slide everything back in place. 

The red arrow points to the mounting shaft for the idler wheel. This part can be rotated forward or back to add or release tension on the tracks. It's important to initially fit this part dry and only cement it into place after proper tension is put on the tracks after link assembly. The kit instructions do not point this out, it's just one of those things you learn through trial and error and/or careful thought and examination of the entire assembly.
 

With the straight sections of track glued in place and dried, the idler and drive wheel can be slid off to remove the entire track for painting. After painting, will slide everything back in place. 

Individual track links are generally a real pain in the rear to assemble and fit to the model. The following photos show the way I approach the task in individual steps. 
I first assemble the number of links necessary to carry the track around the idler wheel and first road wheel. I use Tamiya thin cement to put the links together then before they completely set up to dry, shape/form them around the idler and road wheel to conform to the shape. Use a large rubber band to hold the links in place while they set up.



Repeat the same process to shape a track section around the drive wheel and last road wheel. Again, use the rubber band to hold it in place while the glue sets up.

Assemble the links required to fill in the straight sections between the fore and aft sections completed previously.
 
This is how it looks when it's all finished.

It's important to NOT glue the wheels in place in the previous steps, as you will later remove the track and wheels so the track may be painted. Once painted, the wheels and track can then be glued in place.

The instructions call for 72 track links per side but that’s obviously too short. Extra links are provided and will probably need three more additional to allow for some sag between road wheels at the top. Maybe two will do it.

If you are an armor model builder, your best friend will be a circle template when it’s time to paint the wheels. A real pain without it.

Our pooch celebrated his first birthday yesterday. He’s a ball of energy.

The red arrow points to the mounting shaft for the idler wheel. This part can be rotated forward or back to add or release tension on the tracks. It's important to initially fit this part dry and only cement it into place after proper tension is put on the tracks after link assembly. The kit instructions do not point this out, it's just one of those things you learn through trial and error and/or careful thought and examination of the entire assembly.
 

With the straight sections of track glued in place and dried, the idler and drive wheel can be slid off to remove the entire track for painting. After painting, will slide everything back in place. 

Individual track links are generally a real pain in the rear to assemble and fit to the model. The following photos show the way I approach the task in individual steps. 
I first assemble the number of links necessary to carry the track around the idler wheel and first road wheel. I use Tamiya thin cement to put the links together then before they completely set up to dry, shape/form them around the idler and road wheel to conform to the shape. Use a large rubber band to hold the links in place while they set up.



Repeat the same process to shape a track section around the drive wheel and last road wheel. Again, use the rubber band to hold it in place while the glue sets up.

Assemble the links required to fill in the straight sections between the fore and aft sections completed previously.
 
This is how it looks when it's all finished.

It's important to NOT glue the wheels in place in the previous steps, as you will later remove the track and wheels so the track may be painted. Once painted, the wheels and track can then be glued in place.

The instructions call for 72 track links per side but that’s obviously too short. Extra links are provided and will probably need three more additional to allow for some sag between road wheels at the top. Maybe two will do it.

The red arrow points to the mounting shaft for the idler wheel. This part can be rotated forward or back to add or release tension on the tracks. It's important to initially fit this part dry and only cement it into place after proper tension is put on the tracks after link assembly. The kit instructions do not point this out, it's just one of those things you learn through trial and error and/or careful thought and examination of the entire assembly.