Maddog Manufacturing Open for 2024

[Jmarc]

AHHHHHHHHHH RIGHT , your back ..This time my favorite was THE BEAR, the BEAR ,have I said the BEAR and of course ..the 32 or 36 rocker arms... keep them coming never have anought !

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc! The Bear is indeed coming along nicely.

 

The bogies on the Ratte will be done slowly but steadily....

[Jmarc]

CCCCCCCCCOOL, keep it up .. Slower it better my wife say..but  never have anough ....GO,GO,GOOOOOOOOOO

[Mark Deliduka]

It's been a pretty good couple weeks and so we have enough for a new tour. This one will be a bit shorter but there is still lots to see. So, make your way to the trams and all aboard!

 

In our first stop in the Hangar, we have a number of projects moving forward, including another troublesome model like the Concorde, but that is further in. First we have progress on this Israeli S-199. We completed the wing assembly which consisted of ten parts and dry ft that sub-assembly to the fuselage:

 

 

Since it fit so well, we added the cockpit from underneath; after adding the instrument panel first, and then cemented everything in place. The canopy was added here too:

 

 

Since masking the canopy was so difficult, even on the plane, it was removed and paper towel was used to mask the interior so that the base color could be applied. It was then glossed for decals after the paint had dried:

 

 

Finally here in the last bay we have the troublesome B-66 Destroyer. After multiple spraying, sanding, stripping, spraying etc. I finally decided to just move on. The silver coat was good enough so it was polished and decals were applied:

 

 

That is it for this short tour of the Hangar, now on to the Shipyards where small progress was done in our workshops building the weapons for the PT-15 MTB. Here is the second of the 20mm guns for this boat; the first had been built before:

 

 

We also completed the torpedo tubes (mostly); one part went missing. I intend to build these with one set of tubes closed and the other set of tubes open and ready to fire:

 

 

 

That is all we have here for now. On to the Motor Pool where we've been working on a number of projects that need to be finished.

 

 

In this first bay of the Motor Pool,  we have the British Achilles tank destroyer. This will be the first one of these I ever built. It's a UM kit so another tough fight here. First the running gear was installed:

 

 

The kit included photo etch strips to bend into shape and cemented to the top of these bogies. Naturally, as with all UM kits of Shermans and Sherman variants, these photo etch parts go AWOL no matter how hard I try to keep them from disappearing! So this time I wasn't waiting to find them; I have too many UM Shermans sitting incomplete because I'm waiting to find these parts! I figured I'd try plastic styrene strip. It was more difficult that I expected but I forged ahead, starting with getting a basic bend done and then cementing them to the bogies:

 

 

When these were dry, they were bent over and the other ends cemented down. Once they held, I added the upper run of track to push them down:

 

 

You can see they look very misshapen, not at all like they were supposed to be. But they are ON, and with enough paint and weathering, they will be darn near impossible to see. Hey it was an experiment that partially succeeded, I don't know if I'll try it again, but the opening there is possible. While that sat and simmered, the turret was completed with all but the ready ammunition:

 

 

By then, the tracks were dry enough so I completed the track runs for both sides:

 

 

All that is really needed now is the oversized bolts to be added to the turret and upper hull and this is ready for paint:

 

 

In the next bay we have the Egyptian Su-100 assault gun. This kit provided resin parts to replicate a vehicle used by the Egyptians, so they were added to this. The full run of tracks were added as well:

 

 

It's amazing; this model is from the same company as the Shermans and yet it goes together so much better than any of their Sherman kits! Anyway, this was got it's tan base coat and later a gloss coat to ready it for decals:

 

 

Following this is the Syrian StuG III completed and ready for paint after I added the track runs to this:

 

 

Because of all that photo etch, this was primed with a black primer to hopefully seal all that Zimm so the brass color doesn't shine through and that the base paint holds:

 

 

Sinister looking vehicle right? Where's that Haunted Tank?!!

 

Base paint went on well and looks great so far I think. Then the gloss was applied for the decals:

 

 

Now I wish I knew how to build the spacial monut they made for the Italian SAFAT machine gun that they mounted on this. All the pics are too far away, fuzzy or both to get a clear view, and any search attempts to find it went every which way but where I wanted it to go.

 

That leads us to the last Syrian tank, the PzIV in the next bay. As you can see, about half of the tracks had been installed while I went looking for the same type to complete these track runs:

 

 

I wanted to replace those Godawful vynil tracks that came in this kit. Searching for the same type of track that was already on it resulted in enough to finish these track runs. The turret shurtzen went on as well:

 

 

Finally a base of tan was appplied and later the gloss for decals:

 

 

Last but not least, the Ratte had been creeping along as Rattes do, I now have four of 16 bogies completed:

 

 

And that completes our short tour for today. Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome!

 

 

 

 

[ghodges]

Nice progress Duke, as always!

You didn't say how you were trying to shape the plastic strips you showed but implied you weren't getting the results you wanted. I've found I can bend thin sheet strips like that around a paint brush handle. BUT, you don't just "bend" it.... you bend it to get a curvature started and then holding between your thumb and forefinger take the thinner end of the paint brush handle and using thumb pressure with the other hand PULL the handle along the length of the strip, causing it to curl tightly around the handle as you pull and (hopefully) imparting even greater curvature to the strip. It'll never curl up as tightly as the handle due to the "straight memory" of the plastic; but it might help you get tighter curls if needed. If you're doing this already... oh well. If not, hope this helps!

 

Gil 

[Ron Bell]

A while back, I obtained a couple of tin printers plates. (They were used before the days of Xerox, laser printers, etc.) They are thin sheets of a tin like metal about the size of a legal pad and can actually be cut with an Exacto, although it's the last thing that particular blade will ever do.  It's thin enough to be bent to just about any shape yet being metal is strong enough to hold that shape. Now, I know that you probably won't be able to find any of this stuff anymore (but if you do hoard all you can get.), but you can get very thin sheet brass and/or aluminum from K&S products. It may cost a bit more than plastic (or any PE product) but a little bit will last you a very long time if used for small parts such as your track return guides.

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Gil! I did something quite similar as you described. That was the best result I got; perhaps I didn't work it long enough.

Thank you Ron! Yes, some of that thin metal would help tremendously. I'll be on the lookout for it when I go shopping next.

[Jmarc]

AAAAAAAAAAAnother treat for the eye....Keep them coming !

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc!

[Jmarc]

Any time !

[Mark Deliduka]

Another couple weeks of work on the Hobby Room and at Hobby Days, and there's loads to show. It's time for another tour so all aboard the trams and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times. 

 

Our first stop again is the Hangar. Our first bay shows the work done on the P-38 gifted to me by a friend and fellow IPMS member. Basic assembly was fast for such an old kit:

 

 

It was found to be a tail sitter so we added weight to the nose, hit it with Gator's Grip Glue and left it to dry:

 

 

The landing gear was then added and when dry, tested. More weight was needed inside:

 

 

The shiny you see is from the accelerator used to speed the CA glue. After that dried, we shot a neutral grey on the bottom since we were also using that color in the Shipyards:

 

 

Time to let that cure for a bit and so moving on to the next bay, we have decals applied to the Israeli S-199. I chose the least colorful version because it was the only one of these birds to score two air-to-air kills in the 1956 War:

 

 

In the next two bays, we have the two Tu-16 Badgers. All the hatches were installed and the bottom color re-sprayed:

 

 

This was later masked off and the base color for the two were sprayed. First the Iraqi Badger:

 

 

Followed by the Egyptian Badger:

 

 

We went back to the Iraqi Badger and free handed the blotches with the airbrush:

 

 

While that was drying, we went back to the Egyptian Badger and started on the more complicated pattern. First, out came the Silly Putty and rolls were laid down to cover the base coat I wanted to remain. The second colkor was then sprayed on:

 

 

That color was then covered up with the Silly Putty:

 

 

....and the third color was sprayed on:

 

 

When all that was dry, the Silly Putty was removed and this is the result:

 

 

Both these Badger birds are ready for gloss coat and decals now.

 

The Bear also got some needed attention in the next bay. The bottom of the wings needed a "burnt iron" color applied to it and then a dark Sea Grey over everything not "burnt". So, we shot a dark metallic color on select areas and then masked them off to spray the sea grey. The lighter greys on the nose radome and select panels was also painted and then masked when dry. Then the Sea Grey was sprayed:

 

 

 

Now that all that is done, additional masking will be done so the final silver/alminum coat can be sprayed. Hopefully that will be soon. 

 

In this next bay is the start of a new aircraft model. It's an old Airfix 1/72 scale F-84F with Greek and Italian markings. This wil be an Italian bird for my Italian Air Force. The cockpit was done, just needs paint:

 

 

This final bay in the Hangar is another large model that I've been wanting to build for awhile, the Super G Constellation from Trans World Airlines. The cockit, wings and tail were all assembled:

 

 

That completes the Hangar portion of our tour, now on to the Shipyards....

 

 

 

Here in the Shipyards, we have a good bit of progress to show. In this first slipway, the Japanese PT-15 got the torpedo tubes installed finally:

 

 

While installing them, we realized that the deck was flexing too much and the superstructure/cabins would not stay snapped in place. Some reinforcement was then needed so thick styrene sprue posts were cut to fit and glued into place to allow the deck to be more solid:

 

 

 

Later the two cannons were added, the cabin again is just dry fit:

 

 

Since a lot of the torpedo tubes and the guns were not painted, more grey paint was shot on this boat:

 

 

Moving on to the next slipway, the Shangi-La got the first part of the deck painted:

 

 

This was then masked off to spray the blue-grey color next:

 

The next color was shot and  left to dry:

 

 

Finally all masking was removed:

 

 

This deck was ready to be installed on the hull. Naturally it took a bit of persuasion:

 

 

That isn't all! We opened another slipway and laid the keel for this next model. It's the Revell 1/72 scale Sunseeker Predator 108 luxury cabin cruiser:

 

 

And the final slipway was opened to lay the keel for the Mirage 1/400 scale German Tarantul-class missile boat "Hiddensee":

 

 

This was quick and easy to build so it got to the paint stage very fast:

 

 

And that completes this section of our Shipyards tour, now on to the Motor Pool....

 

 

 

 

The Motor Pool tour today has a good bit to show as well. In this first bay, we had to improvise with the British Achilles since the photo-etch set disappeared. With the help of a Dragon Sherman kit, and some strip styrene, we got this vehicle ready for paint:

 

 

The next bay shows the Egyptian Su-100 with it's base coat of paint:

 

 

Decals were applied next:

 

 

Additional detail painting was done after that:

 

 

That one is about ready to be finished off. 

 

The next bay we have to see is this one with the Syrian Panzer IV. Decals had gone on this one as well:

 

 

This and the Egyptian Su-100 got washes but they didn't show up well in these photos. After the decals and wash had dried, here is my attempt to scratch build a mount for the 12.7mm machine gun:

 

 

Later on, I found a 12.7 mm gun in my parts box and on it went:

 

 

I have to admit that just looks so cool! 

 

In the next bay, decals went on the Syrian StuG III:

 

 

In this next bay, we started this Trumpeter 1/72 scale BTR-70, which will be made into a Syrian BTR. Assembly for this went fast:

 

 

That completes our portion of the tour in the Motor Pool. 

 

However, here in our miscellaneous assembly yard out back, we started a 1/24 scale Lindbergh 1910 Model T Ford. I've always wanted one of these and everyone should have a model of the first mass produced car ever:

 

 

 

And that completes the whole tour, thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Jmarc]

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWhat a treat !.... Thanks MARK  for the update and motivation !!!

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc and you're welcome!

[Mark Deliduka]

Wow, it's been almost a whole month since the last tour. It's time to bring out the trams and start loading up for the next tour. Quite a bit of work had been done so this might have to be broken up into two posts. So, all aboard fro the first part of this tour starting in the Hangar....

Here in this first bay we have the start of one of a few new projects. This is the cockpit for the Italeri 1/72 scale Australian UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter:

Later the rest of the cabin interior was added:

In the next bay over, another stated project that went so fast, it was already assembled till now! That is part of the reason I wanted this started; in trying to get rid of extra boxes, I'm looking for the fastest models to finish. This one fit the bill well. There were some gaps and seams that needed to be addressed so Tamiya putty was applied to this 172 scale Matchbox Yak 15:

These were sanded and smoothed out, and this is just about ready for paint:
'

The next bay has another of the larger aircraft I've been wanting to build. This is the ancient Italeri kit of the 1/72 scale B-58 Hustler. Cockpit and interior were built first:

While that was drying, we assembled the wings and engines:

When they had dried sufficiently, the engines were added to the wings:

In this next bay, we got the tail sections of the Constellation painted up:

That was all on that. More needs to be done on other things before we can move further on this model. Moving to the bay we have the Israeli S-199 that we lost a sprue for. So, out came a spare landing gear set from another Me-109 to be installed instead:

Later the sprue was found, but the landing gear had already dried and been painted. They were not replaced. However, this version of the S-199 did have the underwing cannons, so we were able to install those from the found sprue:

In this next bay we have the Canadian Otter getting the red paint on the wings and tail surfaces:

The white on the fuselage was masked off and the silver was sprayed on:

After all that dried, the two fuselage halves got the interior and windows added inside and then were cemented together:

That's all for that one now. In this last bay, we sprayed the final silver coat on the Bear:

Later all the masking came off and some serious touch up was needed:

Once everything was completely dried, we added the decals:

Finally the last things that needed to be done besides the fiddly end pieces were the propellers. After some time, we got them all painted and assembled:

 

 

That completes our tour of the Hangar, now on to the Shipyards......

Here in the Shipyards, in this first slipway, we went back to an old shelf queen and shot a coat of grey over this landing craft:

While that was drying, we moved on to the next slipway to lay the keel for this British Hunt-class destroyer from Mirage in 1/700 scale:

This one assembled quite quickly, but now we have to deal with all this photo-etch that comes with it:

That can wait. We move on to the next slipway to see the German Tarantul class missile boat is now ready for paint:

In this next slipway, we have a kit that was given to me almost fully assembled of the newest Japanese helicopter carrying cruiser the Kaga. I recently read that she had been modified with a new bow to accommodate the F-35s they are getting from the US. So, based on photos I saw, I decided to try and add those mods to this one to see if I can make it as it appears today. So, into drydock it was towed and the following was done so far on the bow:

The sides still need to be done, but the basic shape is there. Now while I figure out how to finish that mod, we can move on to the next slipway here to see the Sunseeker Predator 108 masked off to get the next black color on the sides of the hull:

That was tough and confusing, but I think we got it right. I hope so because the black was then shot over it:

More to come on that soon... I hope.

In this slipway, the USS Enterprise got masked off and the lower hull shot with red:

Once that dried, the masking came off and this was ready to move on. Now to find the island that got lost so I can finish this:

In this last slipway, the USS Shangri-La got the lower hull masked and sprayed as well:

Because of the big hole, there was a lot of extra overspray that got in under the tape, so when this dried, we taped up the lower hull and re-shot the upper hull:

While that dried, the island for the Shangri-La was assembled.....

.... then painted and finished off:

That's all we got done on this. More to come soon....

 

Now to continue our tour of the Motor Pool in the next post.

[Mark Deliduka]

Now here in the Motor Pool, we have a good amount of work that got done. We'll start in this first bay where we got four Swedish Light tanks under construction. One of the things that slowed me down on this was the tracks; I wasn't eager to tackle these tiny things but once I got started, I found they were not so bad at all! In fact they were quite fun to do:

The Exacto blade is there for size reference. Remember I had to do that both sides four times!

Finally, all got assembled, yet this tank needed some extra filler since the hull front did not close up:

I didn't show all the tanks with their tracks, but here they are in this sequence of painting pics. I tried to keep them in order of M-38 to M-40L but they might be out of sequence...

Base coat of green went on first:

These were then camouflaged next:

Then the decals went on:

And that's how it's done assembly line style!

Moving on into this next bay we have the BTR-70 Late that I didn't know what army to build it for. Then I looked it up and decided to make it Syrian. So, base coat of sand color went on first:

Then the Silly Putty was applied to mask the sand color:

Next we shot the green on this:

After all that, I love peeling the Silly Putty off and seeing the final result:

We had even painted some of the other details too. Then a clearcoat and decals went on:

In this last bay, we started up a German Land Wasser Schlepper since it was a very fast and easy kit to do. First the lower hull was done, except for the propellers:

Twenty minutes later, we have this almost fully assembled vehicle:

The cab is removable for painting. This should be finished very soon.

Finally in our back work area, we re-visited another shelf queen that needed another coat of red after extensive cleanup. This is the 1/24 scale 1929 Coca Cola delivery van:

 

And that concludes our tour of Maddog Manufacturing for the day, or is it month now? Thank you all for looking in, and coming on this tour. Comments are always welcome.

[Jmarc]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFianly ,, I was getting worry... AAAAAAAAAAAH RIGHT , great stuff in there .. just can believe you did all those link by link track !..Keep it up !!

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean Marc! Here's more....

 

With a number of jobs coming up, my forum time will be extremely limited, so I figured it was time for another short tour of Maddog Manufacturing. All aboard the trams for this next tour!

Here in the Hangar, We have a number of things going on. After the huge planes were sent out for delivery to their respective air forces, I felt it was time to just work on a few smaller and easier kits. That brought me to these simple "Planes on a Stick". These are very old and have no interior to speak of, nor any landing gear; they were ideal for a simple start. Not to mention that they were both slightly started when I got them.

First is the Beechcraft Super 18. Assembly went fast, and some seams needed addressing:

Next was the Cessna 310; another fast and easy kit with no interior or landing gear. Thjis was a bit tougher due to the horrid yellow plastic it was molded in. It almost glowed!

In the next bay, we also started the Cessna 172 but only got the interior done:

For something different, we continued to work on this Australian UH60 Blackhawk, first painting the interior:

A quick test fit showed where attention was needed:

Once that was done, the fuselage was closed up:

Finally we opened this next bay again because the JRS-1 was calling, so we got started on the cockpit. This kit gave a photo-etch instrument panel and a film that goes behind it for the dials. It looks fantastic, but after this photo, it will never be seen again:

The kit also came with resin seats for the interior and naturally, I cut myself yet again trying to remove these from the pour blocks. You can see the faint red line on my finger, after I got the blood to stop flowing:

More sawing later and the rest of the seats in the main cabin were installed:

Finally, in this last bay, we got the interior of the B-58 Hustler painted up and installed inside one side of the fuselage. This later got closed up:

That concludes the Hangar portion of our tour. Not enough was done in the shipyards to justify touring them, so on to the Motor Pool:

 

Here in the Motor Pool, we finished u the construction of the German SdKfz-9 with the crane and now it is ready for paint:

In the next bay, we spent a lot of time on this next project. It has always been a dream to complete the T26-E4 Super Pershing with all the hydraulics and additional armor. So, I found the kit and some white styrene tubes and strips  and went to work.

First, the lower hull and suspension was built:

 

Then we built the basic turret:

All the wheels and sprockets were then added and allowed to dry:

width="800px" height="423px"https://modelersalliance.org/galleries/wip-us-army-t26-e4-super-pershing-iii-jpg.130743/full[/IMG]

Next were the tracks and naturally one of the roadwheels had to be a pain and not cooperate:

While all that was drying, we returned to the turret to work on all the added equipment that was installed on this tank. First, the added mantlet armor and 'ears' were cut out and built; I had to layer some of these since I had no thicker sheets or strips of styrene:

Next these were added to the front of the turret. I had to cut off and replace the muzzle brake in order to install the main plate because it was too big to fit through that center hole:

Later we started the mounts on the mantlet for the hydraulics:

I didn't have exact measurements here so al this was done by eye; flying by the seat of my pants. I had some photos  that helped a little as I was building these, but eventually, I came up with this for the hydraulics:

Sometime later I got them installed and the cover added. It is all quite crude, but it is done. I will be trying to refine this a bit later:

The last mod to the turret is the counterweight at the back that I built up:

Now except for refinements, this turret is done. Once I get the tracks and roadwheels to cooperate, I'll close up the hull and then start on the spaced armor on the front and other mods on the fuselage.

That concludes our short tour of the facilities for today. Thank you all for looking in comments are welcome. That being said, it might be quite a few days, or even a week or more to reply, due to the upcoming tight schedule I will be starting.

Thanks again to all.

 

[Jmarc]

Glad I bought my ticket in advance ..lol

Miam,miam,miam ....as usual !...

Do not worry , I'll be here awaiting !!!

 

Jmarc

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc!

[Jmarc]

On 6/13/2024 at 7:01 PM, Mark Deliduka said:

Thank you Jean-Marc!

WWWWWWWWWWWell deserve my friend.. hope the chars arrive safely !!

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc! Yes they did. Thank you for those as well.

[Mark Deliduka]

Happy fourth of July! It's time I finally started a new tour showing all the work we got done during the last half of June. So, all aboard the trams for the next tour of the facilities here and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times.

Our first stop as always is the Hangar. Here we have a few things happening, mostly some paint being sprayed before my window screen was removed. In this first bay, the Beechcraft Super 18 and the Cessna 310 both got base coats of white:

Gonna be some touch up there before decals are attempted. In this next bay, my Russian Yak 15 got the top coat of green on it:

Later when that was dry, decals went on along with the canopy:

Yes the decals silvered pretty badly, we punctured them with a fine Exacto blade tip and slathered them with Solvaset, eliminating all that. However, the film covering these is matte so they still appear to be silvered. If I shoot this with a dull coat, it all should blend in. Meanwhile, the canopy frame was painted and the final detail parts were added::

In the next bay over, we have the Otter finally being assembled. The wings and tail went on and the landing gear was installed. Yes the one tail piece is drooping, that was fixed later:

Moving on to the next bay, we got the fuselage of the JRS-1 all assembled as best we could. Later putty and sanding was done to smooth this out:

 In this final bay, we started another Matchbox kit of the Swedish Tunnen jet fighter. This was also given to me later after the Distressed Kit Auction. This was fast and easy to build as well, we got this far before I finally took pics:

Gotta love this canyons for panel lines! That concludes the Hangar portion of our tour, now on to the Shipyards.....

 

Here in the shipyards we upped our production a bit to see if we could get some of these launched. We had also started a couple that looked fast and easy, more or less.

In this first slipway we have one of our 1/72 scale motor boats under construction. After fighting the paint on the hull for too long, it is finally at least acceptable so the main decks were finally glued in place:

Later most of the interior was installed before the sprue holding the remaining interior parts disappeared:

That is where that is for now. Moving to the next slipway, we have the little Hunt class destroyer escort finally getting the railings and other photo-etch parts before paint:

This thing is 1/700 scale so the Exacto blade is there to show the size of this little thing. Later it got paint and decals, making it HMS Middleton:

In this next slipway, the hull of the Nitta Maru got paint on it:

Once that was dry, the decks and superstructure went on, followed by the stack. Additional painting was done as well:

Later on, decals went on:

The decals had been hit with Solvaset and naturally I messed up while touching up details:

I left that to be fixed later and started with all the masts and cranes, getting this far before moving on to other things:

Moving on to the next slipway, the USS Shangri-La got all the final details added. except the deck edge antennae. The Island was also cemented in place:

In doing the air wing and looking over the Regulus launch vehicles, I noticed that none were in firing position, so we took two and added a raised launch rail:

Afterward, we added all the decal markings to the deck. They didn't give enough of certain lengths so we improvised:

It may not be accurate but it works well enough for me:

And that concludes our tour of the Shipyards, now on to the Motor Pool....

 

Here in the Motor Pool, a lot has been happening. In the first bay, the M10 Achilles got decals. They may not be accurate, but I couldn't find anything that matched what I had in my decal spares box, so I chose what looked best and ran with it:

While on the subject of British vehicles; in this next bay we started on another British tank, the Challenger III. First was the lower hull:

The roadwheels and sprockets went on later:

While waiting for them to dry, we built the turret. Only the basic assembly was started:

The upper hull was worked on next, not much to do there, but here it is dry-fit on the lower hull:

Then the turret was added to the dry-fit upper hull:

Moving on to the next bay, we are finally are able to move forward on a shelf queen that was stalled because the main gun trunnion assembly was lost. Well, it turned up:

You can see from this dry fit in place, why this stalled:

The gun was finally installed into place:

We then dry fit this in place so the front superstructure panels could be added:

The shells were then added to the interior:

Things were moving along well until it was time to add the side walls. That's when we saw that the front panels were way off alignment, so off they came again:

Naturally during this whole attempt to fix the upper superstructure, all these decided to break off and try to fly:

I'll leave them off until the upper structure is finally assembled properly and then these will go back on.

Moving on to this last bay, we have the T26-E4 which got the front spaced armor installed on the front. Don't worry, that fingerprint disappeared:

Later we added the stowage rails on the rear deck that were added to this tank:

This was now ready for paint so a base of Olive Drab was sprayed:

This was shot outside and I didn't adjust the color when editing this but this next shot shows this tank after we modulated the base coat with a lighter OD green:

Finally we raided the decal spares box again and came up with some markings that most closely matched what I saw in ref pics. I also took some artistic license and added a star in the front so friendly forces wouldn't mistake that plate armor for the front of a Panther and I added the star in top of the turret for aircraft recognition. We also added the machine gun on top, the antenna, and repaired one of the stowage racks on the back:

And that completes our tour for this week (month?) I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you all for stopping in; comments are always welcome!

[Jmarc]

Hope you had a great 4th JULY day and enjoy the fire work !.. NNNNeat production , lots of odd ball and interesting projects you are working on these days .. Keep them coming ,never get anough !

  GO,GO,GOOOOOOOO

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc! Stay tuned, more to come.

[Jmarc]

SSSSSSSSSSurely will , snot to worry since I got lots of DrPepper and POP-CORN !