king derelict

HI Ken Thanks for the information. It makes sense. Its still quite a nice kit. I did take the time to work on the chamfers between each panel and it makes a lot of difference. Your tip about taping the parts is good; it never occurred to me, I kind of barrelled into this without too much thought. Working on Flyhawk and Trumpeter kits has kept me in a sheltered environment. In retrospect it would have made far more sense to have painted the tracks and assembled them onto the lower hull and then built everything up on the lower hull and taped the corners. It would be easy to mask the running gear while painting the hull. I put a little filler on the hull and Io think it will come out fine when painted. Thanks Alan

IT must have been an interesting experience being inside one of those with all guns firing Alan

Thank you for the kind comment OC. It feels like progress at last. Alan

Thanks Craig No, I'm not going to drop this one and lose it in the rug😄 Alan

Hi Mike It does not cause clouding of the plexiglass / acrylic sheets like CA glue does. It dries completely clear in the joint. The only danger is if you spill some on the sheets. It will soften the sheet and if you try to wipe it off you will mar the surface. The best option is to leave it horizontal so it doesn't run and just let it evaporate. Alan

I wanted to build a big AFV as a counterpoint to the tiny Renaults. So a couple of days ago this arrived. The Curtis looks like a great model. I hope I can find the nerve to start it in the coming months. The current focus is the Emhar a7v. The internet blurb states In November 1916 the German War Ministry authorized the development of the A7V, which finally rolled out of the factory in January 1918. The first combat that the new tank saw was in March 1918 at St. Quentin. The first 5 tanks were armed with a 5.7cm Maxim-Nordenfeldt cannon, which had been produced several years earlier in Britain! 6 German MG 08 pattern heavy machine guns were also carried. The tank was powered by 2 Daimler 165-204 type 75 Kw petrol engines and had a top speed of 6 ½ mph with a range of 50 miles. The crew was 18 men but as many as 26 could be carried. There were 20 A7Vs produced Quite a contrast with the two man crew of the Renault. The kit has about 35 parts and is never going to be confused with a Flyhawk kit although the detil is quite nice and there is very little flash and few seams. The tracks and running gear are moulded as a single assembly but very little of them will be seen when built. The underside is a bit simplistic but who will look? The major annoyance with this model is the lack of positive locating features. The track assemblies just sit on the lower hull piece and its up to the modeller to decide where they are positioned. I lined up the rear drive wheel with the vestigial rear axle. The upper hull is made up of four skins which are chamfered as is the roof. The fit on mine was a bit marginal and even after a bit of filing I have a gap at the upper corner of the front The kit has a sprocket wheel at each end of the tracks which I think is an error and there should only be a sprocket at the rear (drive) end. Its more or less irrelevant because it will be all covered by the skirt of the upper hull but I did clean the teeth off the front wheel The six machine guns were added before building up the hull. They press into their locations and I didn't fancy trying that with the walls and roof assembled. I hollowed out the end of the main gun barrel and installed it. That uses up all the parts except the exhausts and these are only applicable to one of the four tanks that can be built from the kit. I want to build the Mephisto (#506 - the box art) which doesn't have them so it is now time to paint. I deviated from the instructions by building the upper hull on three sides and roof as a separate assembly so I could paint the track assemblies before final build. Possibly the hull would have been easier to build on the lower part. I think this one is going to be all about the painting. Thanks for stopping by Alan

The revised waterline makes me quite a bit happier so I have moved onto the light blue sections. The first element was masked up. I decided to break the painting into two parts to keep the masking a bit simpler. As usual with this build a it was a puzzle to lay out the camouflage on the hull. I used the IWM photos and a painting done by one of the crew along with the Campanula drawing in the Lambert / Brown book. I think I fell foul of the generic nature of the model because relative to a lot of the modified Flowers the kit has the forecastle extended ever further although it still seems to line up roughly with the funnel. Maybe I put the hull sections together in the wrong order 😄 So my initial plan of scaling off the photos and prints had to be modified a little especially at the sternwards section which is largely placed "by eye". The edges of the masks were sealed again; it seems to be effective. I switched to using a matte sealer now that the masks touch multiple colours. I used Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue and I think its a reasonable look. The masks were removed and after a pause for teh paint to harden I will mask the final sections. Compared to my usual 1/700 world the consumption of material for this is impressive. The ball of used tape is an example. I doubt if I used twelve inches for a 1/700 destroyer but that's the different between four inches and forty-eight inches. Thanks for looking in Alan

They are tough critics so its always good if they approve. Alan

Hi Mike Sorry for the slow reply; I've been a bit all over the place in the last few days. I used an acrylic cement to build the display case. Its a solvent that welds the parts together and has no adhesive properties in its own right so its easy to clean up - it just evaporates with no apparent residue. The only downside is it will mar the acrylic sheets if there is a drop accidently spilt on it. Like plastic cement. Its very low viscosity so its applied letting capillary action draw it into the joint. Joining pieces need to be well fitting as it can't cope with gaps. It can be applied by running a hypodermic full of the cement along the joint but I find it don't have enough control and I would rather run a paint brush along the seam and work a bit slower. Alan

Thank you Popeye; I think I'm getting better at masking up the subjects. Alan

Thank you Edward. These are great little kits, unusual and a lot of detail in a small build. Nice for between bigger projects. Alan

Thank you Patrick Alan

Thank you for the kind words Egilman. I've toned down the rust a little on the tracks. Alan

The seqts look really nice OC. Great detail Alan

The decals were added. I used a brown and a black wash to help the details. I used the rust brown overall for the tracks and used the Mig Oilbrushers Steel in very small amounts on the raised parts of the tracks and a few places where I though there might be wear like handles and hatches. I put a little light corrosion on the exhaust but otherwise left the hull alone. Egilman warns in earlier posts that these tanks were well maintained and kept very clean so I held back from any real weathering and damage. Thank you for the helpful comments and information. I find that due to overenthusiasm I have another box of two more FT17s so maybe I'll do a Polish one next. I hope everyone has a great weekend Alan

Patrick Thank you for posting the photo. Those are great models and really interesting subjects. The Saint Chamond is especially interesting. Its huge. Alan

Thank you Mark. The case will also keep fingers away from the PE mast arrays. Alan

Thank you for the kind comments OC. It was an enjoyable build and I like the sea base. She now resides on my book case; well lit and next to my reading spot. Alan

I added some rust around the bow area , anchor and anchor chains and I think that is the model complete. I used the Vallejo Foam Effect water texture sparingly on a few of the wave caps and the bow wave. I tried to avoid the temptation to go wild with the stuff. Its not really foamy more like a thick white paint. I used a cocktail stick to apply it. Than it was time to cat proof the whole thing and put it in its case I need to work more on sea scapes and dioramas in general but I really enjoy doing then. Thanks to everyone who contributed with tips and information. Thanks for looking in Alan

Well, I stared at this for a couple of days and looked at more photos of the real Flowers and decided that the hull red doesn't extend far enough up the hull at the midships and is a touch low at the bow. I re-masked the hull and I think this is better; its more in keeping with the photos I have checked against. I've painted the masking tape line with white to seal the tape down and once dry I can spray the hull red - again. Its probably easier than going the other way and trying to lower the height of the red paint. Thanks for looking Alan

Looks like a real sewn cloth seat belt. Terrific work Alan

Great looking figures Alan

I couldn't find a 1/73 Mark V but I did find this With a crew of 17 that might fit the bill. Alan

Thank you Patrick I found some Emhar Mark IVs that might work.

Wow; that has a whole lot more "presence" than my Renaults. Looks great; just the right amount of dust and grime. Alan