Cyber Hobby's Israeli M-50 Super Sherman

Another one in my way too large stash of started kits, that is now moved on -- to Finished!!  This is the IDF M-50 Super Sherman, in 1/35th scale, as it fought on the Golan Heights in the Six Day war of 1967.  It is painted with Vallejo paints, dark sand as the base coat with pale sand to lighten it

Box art, the tank in its black undercoat, and the paints used.

I added Star decals, but you can barely see the white lettering on the base coat.  Guess next time I will have to select the lettering with the black outlines..

The big gun almost staring right at you!

You can see the turret marking better on this one!

Elephant

1/48 scale Tamiya kit, super fit, especially the length and link tracks. Very impressed with the details.  The main gun allows full movement vertically and laterally.

The drive sprockets have polycaps making it easy to align the single track links with the lengths.

The only add on was a stretch sprue antenna.

I had fun with the camo pattern using the putty masking and airbrushing.

 

Vince B  5-10-20

BMP-3F

Back when all of us met at the Lone Star Flight Museum for a group build around the 'real things', we met a young Air Force officer that trained drone pilots for actual missions, everywhere and any where.  LTC Chris Remy told us stories about how his young pilots were having to make split second decisions on whether a vehicle was friend or foe.  He was organizing a group of modelers to build the real thing so he could display them at the flight center to help as an aid in identification.  He then came to one of our meetings and talked about his job and project.  And then he even supplied the kits for us to build!

I chose the Trumpeter BMP-3F.  I found some after-market decals of BMPs from UAE and Indonesia.  I selected one of the UAE vehicles that was part of the Saudi led coalition that went into Yemen in 2015 to stem the tide of that country's civil war.  I matched the colors to be Polly Scale US Desert Storm Sand and MIG-071 Khake as best I could from the the color palat provided with the decals.

As you scroll thru our blog, you will find several more vehicles built for the Drone Viz Recce Project Display at Ellington JRB, Houston.

Thanks, Chris!

M151 MUTT w TOW

I would think that all MUTTS have TOEs.... 😏  OK Thats a Paul punn.

This is the simple Tamiya kit that everyone has or had. Great fit of course.  There are so many versions of the JEEP used for various strategic functions.

This version mounted a single TOW launcher instead of an M60 machine gun.

The kit came with 2 versions of decals and options to fit.  Last time I built the regular ARMY version, but this time I wanted to include the snorkel equipment for the Marine Corps.

I did some minor detailing adding the wires and cables for the TOW controller and radio.

Vince B.  5-1-20

MENG MAGACH 6B 8th PART

MAGACH 6B BUILD

PART 8

So, it's done. I have completed the track assembly, painting and weathering. The base color is the Vallejo IDF Sinai Grey. I painted the front tow cables Tamiya Gunmetal before I mounted them to the hull. Once they were painted, I was able to mount them with the pins provided in the kit. Each tow cable set was a separate piece and perfectly molded in platic. The tracks were spray painted Testors Flat Black and then over sprayed with Tamiya Gun Metal. The hull was given a gloss coat, a pin wash with Tamiya Black Panel Liner. The dull coat was done with Vallejo Matt Varnish. Just a note here. Typically I use the Testors Lusterless Flat from a rattle can, but I notice it has a tendency to make anything it covers, darker then it normally would be. I decided to try the Vallejo Matt Varnish on my last model and was quite pleased that it didn't change the tone of the underlying base coat. Based on this experience I was happy to utilize it again on this model.

After the dull coat was applied, I began weathering the machine guns and some of the other edges on the turret with Uschi metalizer powder. The model was dusted primarily with Vallejo Desert Sand Pigment Powder. I also added Vallejo Natural Sienna in selected areas. The tracks were gone over with the Vallejo Desert sand and the Vallejo Natural Sienna in two different layers, based on photos of the real vehicle these colors were a very good match. After the layers of dust were applied, I went back and did some of the panel lines with Tamiya Brown Panel Liner over the dust layer I have applied. I also did this on the wheels which also had the dust layers applied. This gives a really nice affect as it (I think) it gives a more natural look.

The antennas were painted with Vallejo Ivory and tied back with EZ-line (which is a great product). I used the Tamiya Soot weathering product on the exhaust diffusers, and also on the main gun muzzle cap.

Currently, I am still awaiting the arrival of the crew and I have to work out a base for it, but I am pleased at how she came out.

To sum it all up, this is a nice kit. It has some small issues but nothing that could ever be considered a show stopper. This is a very interesting piece and is visually appealing from any angle. If you are a fan if IDF armor this would be a great addition to your collection.

Cheers.

WL

View from the front

Turret close up

View from the left side

View from the right

View from the top

From the rear

Romfell Armored Car

The Romfell was an armored car developed by two Austrian army officers in 1915. Only one was built and it saw little action. Originally built on a Mercedes passenger car chassis, it was later rebuilt on a captured Fiat truck chassis.

The kit is by Copper State Models in Latvia, their second armored car kit. Detail and fit of the parts is good (any errors you see in the photos are my fault) except for the fender sides in front on the rear wheels. They are too thick and I had to sand them down to properly fit in place. Paint is Vellejo & Tamiya acrylics with oil wash and some dust added around the bottom using Tamiya Weathering Master powder.

M4A3E8 Sherman

I started this  first of this year. Its the standard Hobby Lobby Tamiya shelf kit. This didn't fit as well as other Tamiya kits, but was OK.

I wanted to do a Loaded Sherman for some time and had the Legend Stowage set for this. I found photos of these tanks with field welded channel and angle iron baskets on the sides and turrets which were filled mostly with sandbags.  

These baskets were unpainted as they were quick add ons, crudely welded to the hulls. The Legend resin sections were not properly fitted.  I believe that the large sections had warped from the resin pull from the molds or from the initial casting. I had to backfill all of these with tissue paper to conform to the model.

Since I already had the model built and painted prior to fitting the Resin, I had to cut away much of the details such as the light and guards, machine gun, fenders etc. Then I had to re-prime and paint the resin after mounting onto the tank. So with all of the stowage on, ropes added, I had to hand paint each of the items. 

I used the washes to help blend all together. Dry brushing brought out all the details on the stowage and sandbags. I did some rubbing and chipping on what was left exposed on the hulls and used pigments with plaster in track areas. Its not too bad overall.

Vince B.  4-22-20

Well I finally finished something this year. this is the Trumpeter Challenger II with dozer blade. It is what I now consider a middle generation Trumpeter kit. fit is only fair and detail is somewhat crude. I've started on another Trumpeter kit, the Chinese Type 85-II that is solidly from Trumpeter's first generation kits. It's not much better than a toy but I thought it would make into something unique for the Drone recognition build down at Ellington field. I started the Challenger build at the clubs last couple of build-ins but finally finished it last week.

Cromwell Mk. IV

This is Tamiya's 1/35th scale Cromwell Ml. IV (British Cruiser Tank, Mk. VIII/A27M.  It will be my entry for out group buld, "Tanks Named after Generals" for the Nationals later this summer.

It is painted with Tamiya XF-61, dark green, another new shade of green for me.  (see my M-47 Patton in this blog about different shades of green!).

The instructions have a fun reading history on this actual tank and its division order of battle.  It was part of the 7th Armored Division, 22nd Armored Brg. (which landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944) 5th Royal Tank Regt., C Squadron.   This tank participated in Operation Goodwood, and Operation Bluecoat, the breakout from Normandy.  Usually a British Squadron of Cromwells would have 4 Cromwells, two with 90 mm guns and 2 with 75mm guns.  I chose the 90 mm version.

The box art, the paint and the Cromwell finished.

Here is Cromwell after painting XF-61, and ready for the finishing steps.

playing with filters in this photo, the green is, well, more GREEN!

More filter changes give the tank look a more earthy tone.  I am learning as I go here.

Coming at ya, pall!

MENG MAGACH 6B 7th Part

MAGACH 6B BUILD

PART 7

We pick up with completing the turret. I ordered a covered turret basket add on kit so I wouldn't have to wrestle with stowage. I wanted the Legends Production version but no one seems to have it stock, so I resorted to using the one Meng produces. So, completing the turret included building the commanders cupola, the loaders hatch, assembling the barrel, attaching the machine guns, attaching antennas, and finally the construction and installation of the covered turret basket.

The barrel was three pieces consisting of two halves and a muzzle cap. Given the thermal jacket details on the barrel I understand why this barrel could not have been slide molded, and therefore I was left with a seam on the barrel. The good news is that the seam was quite slight which made correcting the seam with putty very easy. To help me fill this seam I used Vallejo's plastic putty. I LOVE THIS STUFF! Why? Because the putty comes out of the bottle in a liquid state which made it very easy to apply. I use this putty whenever I can as it is the easiest applied putty product I have come across.

Meng include a .50cal machine gun belt that was long enough to use for all three machine guns. To use it one the 7.62mm machine guns, I just trimmed both ends of the bullets so thye would fit into the slots molded into the guns. The other neat thing, was that Meng had actually molded holes in the machine gun barrels, all except one. There were also three barrels to choose from the .50 cal. Based on my research of this vehicle, each barrel choice was accurately portrayed.

A word about the .50cal. The IDF has chose to mount a .50cal machine gun on the main gun mantlet for additional firepower. The kit came with all of the parts for this system except for the solenoids that trigger the weapon. I therefore had to improvise and I use two leftover smoke discharges from a another kit to duplicate these solenoids as best I could.

The hatches on the turret are workable so I am displaying them open since I will be inserting figures.

The covered turret basket isn't worth the price, but it is a nice add on feature. The holes for the grab irons did not quite match the extensions on the grab irons so you get them to line up as close as possible and keep it moving.

The next step was to prime the vehicle and apply some pre-shading.

Now that priming of the turret, hull and wheels are complete, the next step is painting the base color. For that color I will be using Vallejo IDF Sinai Grey. I am going to paint the wheels with Tamiya Rubber and then mask them with a circle template to apply the base color, this way I won't have to hand paint the rubber.

I have assembled the Fruilmodel tracks and they have been primed flat black from a Testor's rattle can. tomorrow I will paint the gun metal along with the tow cables (that will be mounted after the base color has been applied).

Getting close now and I am eager to complete this project.

Be safe out there.

Cheers,

WL