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Bradley25mm

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Everything posted by Bradley25mm

  1. At four hours, I’d still be cutting and sanding parts😂. Way to go. Chris
  2. Thanks Michael. I’ve noticed several diorama bases constructed with this, that have cracked, or shrunken. That’s the one thing I want to try and eliminate. “Cracks”. I guess I could go back and put Tamiya putty where the cracks are before I paint the base coat. I’m thinking of building a very shallow box to put the Celluclay in. Thanks again for the reply. Chris
  3. This is my first time using Celluclay. Up until now, I’ve used pre-mixed sanded grout to simulate dirt. It dries quickly, and dries rockhard . The only drawn back to it, is you cannot add a lot of it to a base. Adds a lot of weight. If anyone has any advice on using CelluClay, I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Chris
  4. Fantastic build. Love that finish.
  5. Absolutely beautiful work David. My favorite German aircraft. Thanks for sharing this one. Chris
  6. Looking good Carlos. All those little details you’ve added make a good model look ALOT better. Can’t wait to see the update. What year is that kit? Chris
  7. Thanks for your service Carlos. Sounds like you had a very interesting military career. The first tracked vehicle I drove was a M113 at Ft. Knox. Scared the living crap out of my instructor. Good times indeed. I look forward to seeing your work. Chris
  8. 👍😂. It’s all fun and games until you throw track in the worst possible area . I threw track in Hohenfels Germany during an ARTEP. A very well traveled trail that several armored vehicles were using. It had been raining for a couple of days. Thanks for the reply Carlos. What was your MOS? I was a 19D. (Cavalry Scout) Chris
  9. Thanks for the reply Carlos. I’m really glad I bought them. I can’t wait to get the tank built to put them on . I think I paid about $21 for the kit. Well worth the price I think. Tension is maintained on the track by a cylinder attached to the idler wheel assembly. This cylinder, that looks more like a shock absorber, and has a grease gun fitting on it. To maintain proper tension, you attach your grease gun to this fitting, and start pumping. As you pump, you can see the track become taught. You don’t want the track really tight. All this will do is reduce the service life of the track. Each track section does have rubber bushings that surround the track pin. Over time, these bushings wear out. When this happens, you need to apply tension more often. If left unchecked, you can actually bend the track pin inside the bushing housings. Eventually the track, or track sections have to be replaced because of too much slack. If enough slack is present, you take a chance on “ throwing track“. (Track comes off partially or completely). This has a higher chance of occurring when a sharp turn is made, on uneven terrain. If that happens, you and your crew have to “break track” (Take the track apart) and reassemble it. If you lucky, your on somewhat level ground, and it’s dry. Most of the time, this is not the case. There’s nothing worse than throwing track in the pouring down rain, in the middle of a muddy field. Not so much fun. (But a good workout). To make matters worse, your now a sitting duck, unable to move, until the track has been broken, and reassembled. Thanks again for the reply. Can’t wait to see your tank finished! Chris
  10. Hope that everyone is doing well. I wanted to pass this along to the group. I've not dealt with individual track links before. This kit was recommended to me by one of the staff members at my hobby store. They are the most realistic I've seen. Once the construction is completed, you have a very articulate, and realistic set of tracks. One thing that I look for is natural sag between the return rollers. These tracks have no issues delivering in that area. The kit comes with 4 jigs to make sure everything lines up as it should. The instructions state that no glue is needed. I chose to use Loc Tite superglue to glue the rear track pads down, and to attach the track center guides. I separated, and cleaned up, each of the the parts, prior to putting them in their labeled paint lids. The only parts that I left on their sprues, were the drift pin assemblies. Step 1. Put left and right track pads in jig. Step 2. Insert drift pin assembly. Step 3. Apply a small amount of superglue to each of the holes. 4. Insert rear track pad in the jig. 5. Apply a small amount of superglue to the bottom of each center guide, and insert it into the center holes. 6. Remove track assembly from jig, and cut off remaining sprue. 7. Join completed track sections together. This did take some time. After building 2-3 sections to get the hang of it, I started an assembly line using all 4 jigs. This expedited the process exponentially.I look forward to building these again for another kit. My hats off the Ryefield. Great product!!! Chris
  11. All Back at it. The Sherman that is going to be built as the "Fury" tank, came with the wrong type track. I've not built track by individual links before. After pulling up the You Tube video for these bad boys, I'm excited to get started. There was quite a bit of gear to paint for two tanks. The logs turned out better than I thought they would. The MRE boxes (Cardboard) were interesting to assemble. All of the crew-serve weapons were painted with Master Model Gun metal(lacquer, not enamel) After they dried, I dry brushed silver to accent wear. Had a lot of decals to apply to put on all the ammo boxes. It was worth it in the end. I've switched over to mostly acrylic paints now. I wish I would have some time ago. I love working with them. I've been able to get some good results. I've illustrated below, the process I use each and every time I paint with them. Step 1. Primer, Step 2. Paint color. Step 3. Apply the color wash you want. (In my case, I use either brown, or black). Let them dry completely. Step 4. Take a q-tip,soaking one tip, in mineral spirits, roll it between your fingers to remove excess. Wipe the painted part, removing the wash from the high areas. Let dry. Step 5. Dry brush the highlighted areas with the color of your choice. For me, I use silver enamel to highlight metal items, and artist oils (Winsor & Newton Naples yellow hue) for cloth items. Hope this helps someone. Chris
  12. Fantastic job Carlos. I really love the camo pattern on this one. Your attention to detail is admirable. Can’t wait to see your next build. Chris
  13. All,to Finally back at the work bench. I had to take some time off because of hand surgery. ALL IS GOOD NOW. I have not built many tank diorama's. I was able to get some honest feed back on the Siege of Bastogne diorama that I did a few weeks ago. Areas that I could improve on, and the overall layout of a good diorama that is not to busy. I've decided to condense this next one down to include two tanks, and two crew, meeting at a cross roads. The Tamiya kit is ready for paint and assembly. I need to start on the ASUKA Sherman some time next week The Bravo 6 FURY crew was painted with Tamiya paints. The only change to the figures were the addition of tanker helmets, straps for the goggles, and communication cords. Chris
  14. All, This one sat on my shelf for a few months unfinished. After repainting the head three times, I felt it would be a good idea to set it aside for awhile. The figure was painted with P3 paints, and tester enamels. To simulate melted snow on his helmet, I used Testors gloss coat. Still working on my figure painting skills. My hat goes off to you figure guys. Much respect. Chris
  15. A really cool subject. Very interesting paint scheme. Good job! Chris
  16. AMAZING!!!!. I love the effects on the metal panels. Congratulations on a very well executed project. Chris
  17. Thanks a lot Mark. Type59D, yes, it is a block of foam that I picked up from Walmart in their floral section. I wrap each block with blue painters tape to keep down the particles that come out of the block. They were extremely handy, and very cheap.
  18. Finally finished!. I have a few things left to do.(Make deeper tank tracks, and put more sag in the phone/power lines). This was my first time working with snow. If I could give anyone advice on attaching this stuff to your base, one word comes to mind. HAIRSPRAY!. With the advice from Ron Bell, I decided to give it a try. The Woodland Scenics cement works just fine. No issues using it. "I" prefer to use the hairspray, because I was able to get a thicker affect. (a total of 5,light applications of snow is what you see here)I also found out (By accident) that if you hold the can close to the loose snow, you can create some really cool chunks of snow. At the end of each application, I would mist the entire base from far away to lock everything down. I will say this, I've never had a diorama smell so good. The wheat, and saplings were purchased from Hobby Lobby. I took a razor knife, and stripped most of the dead foliage from the saplings. I was able to get help from my local club here in Louisville, for creating an accurate diorama. Thanks to Stu and Rich for all the technical help. Chris
  19. All that's left to do is add snow to the top of the tank, and build the base. The battle damage was obtained using a Dremel tool with a grinding bit. I used the same process to simulate a worn, chipped whitewash. (Hairspray applied over the camo pattern before the white was applied). After it dried, I sprayed the white as normal. After the white dried, I wet the area I was working on with water. I let it sit for about 3 minutes, then used a Q-tip to remove the whitewash. I ground the teeth off of both the inner and outer gear ring on the drive sprocket. I glued the track with a lot of slack, to each return roller. The mud from Vallejo is very easy to use, and realistic. The trees were a mix of Woodland scenics, and Timberline Scenery. The direction sign, and telephone poles are from MiniArt. I purchased EasyLine to simulate phone wires Chris
  20. Thank Gentlemen for the nice comments. Eric, Woodland scenic snow
  21. I've always wanted to do a winter diorama. This diorama will depict tanks on a road march, with the M-10 in the lead. The Panzerkampfwagen will be knocked out on the side of the road. The jeep will be by the Sherman tank, while the "higher-ups" go over battle plans on a map. I still have to do a white wash on the panzer IV. The jeep and driver are both Tamiya. The stowage on the jeep is a mix of Value Gear, and Verlinden. The Sherman is Tamiya. I applied a "hasty" camo scheme with a make-up sponge. Stowage was a mix of, Tamiya, Value Gear, and Verlinden. The trap cover was tissue paper soaked in Elmers glue. The figures are Tamiya, and Dragon. I used Hornet heads on three of the figures (Ones standing on the back deck). The M-10 and figures are Tamiya. Stowage was Value Gear. The tarp was tissue paper soaked with Elmers glue. For this white wash, I sprayed the enitre model with hairspray, to simulate chipped, worn whitewash. After the white paint dried, I took a Q-tip soaked with water to remove the white in spots. I normally don't do Armor. If anyone see's anything out of place, or incorrect, please let me know. Thanks Chris
  22. Oliver, Congratulations on your wonderful build making it on the cover of Finescale modeler. Great article, and additional pics that I have not seen before. Chris
  23. Another awesome Bill Dave. Love the lighting especially the marker lights. Looks like a lot of work but the results speak for themselves. Chris
  24. Mark, Congrats on reaching yet, another milestone. Like these builds. Chris
  25. Well there’s a kit you don’t see every day! Very interesting concept. Good work. Chris
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