Here is another one I'm trying to finish. Brother-in-law shattered his leg in January and I got to go to Denver for 2 weeks to take care of him. Dragged this kit along to have something to do besides giving him pain medication. Got burned out on it and put it aside for about a month and finished construction yesterday.
Combination of lower hull and suspension/tracks for Dragon M51 and upper hull, tranny, and turret from Dragon M4 105. Had some difficulty mating the tranny to the lower hull. One from M51 was too narrow and from M4 was longer but fit hull...so there is a gap that needed filling between the 2. Upgrades are simple-very old recycled fenders from a kit my wife smashed years ago, scratchbuilt wading trunk, blanket rack, and aiming stakes/cleaning rod rack, and spare tracks. Everything else is pretty much out of both kits.
I am debating on weathering so give me some advice. It will be from 713th TB but fictional. I can go with it having mud camo or a little later with most of mud gone. Has anyone ever tried to brush on Tamiya over hairspray? Not sure if I spray it it will give me the texture of mud I'm looking for.
Another nice one, Jeff. You've successfully dealt with the usual Dragon troubles related to the diff cover, in that Dragon evolved their shapes and dimensions over time and none of them are a precise fit except on the kit they came with. I can't offer any insight over the weathering, as I don't use Tamiya, but let me throw this out there: Why use the hairspray at all? You might get the effect you want using a pigment slurry in water or alcohol, allowing you to scrub off what you don't want and use pigment fixer gently applied to keep the rest. A couple of iterations of that might get the worn look you are after.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Hmmm. That is a possibility. I am still a newbie with pigments and hairspray. Only hairspray ive done was on my M4A2 Emcha in build blog and it was like only the 2nd or 3rd time I used pigments.
Got some markings on my fictional 713th 105. I haven't added a dull coat yet so its still shiny. I hate how the camera makes all my flaws show up ginormously.
Looks good to me, Jeff. Picking up flaws is what cameras do, the issue is this: Is the flaw visible with the naked eye, and will it be masked by a flat finish and weathering? If it will disappear under that, I don't sweat it.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Thanks guys. I think most of them will be covered. I am usually a pretty heavy weatherer and just for info Greg, I think I am going to try the hairspray thingy...thinkit will give me the really washed off/almost gone camo bands I'm thinking about.
Just a few things left on this and its done. I ended up repainting it for various reasons and I like it much better. It was a fun build after I figured out how to mate the lower hull to upper hull and tranny.
Looks nice, Jeff! The finish looks nicely water-streaked, and Okinawa was alternately dusty and rainy so that's the effect you are looking for, I think. Might want to crud up the tracks and suspension a bit more with some caked-on mud, but you don't have to slather it in goo. The tank would get really muddy in wet conditions, but once the weather moderated or the tank moved onto a harder surface like a paved or graveled road, rain would begin to wash the mud away again. And, Okinawa being subtropical, when it did rain it rained pretty hard.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Believe it or not, but the road wheels and stuff have acrylic texture gel on them. It just doesn't so up too well with my crappy camera. I ended up stripping it from the earlier painted pics because the hairspray attempt with brushed on paint didn't work very well. Plus, I didn't like the color. I agree about the tracks-I stole them from a Tamiya M-51 I had finished laying around. Man, I got tired of gluing all those guide horns on the dragon ones.