Stikpusher Scale Defense Industries

[Stikpusher]

Like my good friend here Mark Duke Maddog, I am going to start an all subject build thread here to keep on rolling with whatever my ongoing project(s) will be. I’m gonna lead off with this one

My latest resurrection project from the Shelf of Doom… I started this for a So.Cal AMPS Panzer IV GB about 10 years ago

I was going to replace the kit tracks with some AM tracks and eventually settled on some Modelkasten indy links

Since I wanted to do a DAK Panzer I decided to replace the crew figures with a set from Verlinden and the kit decals are replaced by a set from Bison

I got most of the basic assembly finished, but then hit a snag when I tried to fit the AM tracks to the kit sprockets. The sprockets were too wide as engineered. So I put it onto the shelf of doom after getting this much completed

So yesterday I decided to pull this one off the shelf and tackled the reason for the stop first. I cut the sprockets in half, sanded away some of the middle section until they would fit the MK tracks, then glued them back together.

Then a test fit onto the lower hull

This won’t be my main project, but I will be chipping away at it for the next while until it is finished.

[Stikpusher]

In addition to my Panzer IV, I will be working on this “Child of Doom”.

I would guestimate that I started this one at least 14-15 years ago if not longer, and stalled out due to some warpage where the lower forward fuselage meets the bottom part of the wing. Before that point I had finished the cockpit and engine.

I’m converting this to a P-47C using an AM resin cowling from Cutting Edge

I’m planning on building USAAF ace Robert Johnson’s P-47C “Half Pint”, in which he nearly was shot down during one of his early combat missions…

This particular Jug never flew again after that mission, but Johnson did and eventually became the first USAAF pilot in the ETO to break Eddie Rickenbacker’s 26 kills score, and also one of the top scoring USAAF aces in the ETO with 28 kills before rotating back stateside at the end of his combat tour. 

I’ll be using this set of decals

So after all that preamble, fast forward to the past couple of days, as I resumed work. Yesterday I airbrushed on a coat of primer onto the resin cowling

Then after looking at several color and B&W photos of the fuselage spine under the canopy hood, I decided to go with OD under there and repainted that area, in addition to painting black under where the windscreen will go

Today I glued the cockpit tub in place

Next update in a day or two…

[Stikpusher]

Last night I glued the wings in place

And here is the gap on the lower fuselage at the lower wing

But… it’s Hasegawa… I don’t want to hear anyone talking smack about the fit on Monogram kits… but no worries, I attacked the problem with strip styrene shims to fill that gap…

Some Tamiya Extra Thin to get them in place, then I trimmed them up and sanded them down a bit

Then an application of Mr Surfacer that’s going to dry overnight 

More to come in a day or two…