Here are photos of the completed radar and the in process barrels.

Flakpanzer Gepard as of Sunday evening

Here is the Hull and turret after a weekend of glue.

This kit was originally done in 1978, so the placement of knock out pins has a lot to be desired.

The grill in the photo 2 has many knock out pins on the upper surface. Hence the gray/white putty dots.

I have primed the wheels and the chassis.

I'm a little disapointed in Tamiya in that this is a static model, but most of the mounting points for the hull to the chassis are still nuts and bolts, where the bolts are very visable. I would have thought they would have come up with a single sprue of replacement pieces that could have been glued and not be visiable.

Flakpanzer Gepard

This is a build log of the Tamiya 1/16 Flakpanzer Gepard

I will be posting in process photos as I proceed.

Painting with Chalk

This isnt exactly ARMOR but the technique can be used on any model. This technique was taught to me before there were bottled pigment dusts. It starts by scraping pastel chalks with an exacto blade into little cups or egg sorters.

Using a stiff short bristled brush, dab a little dust onto the area of the model you want to fade or add color to. The model should be well dullcoated to help hold the chalk dust. Scrub, yes, I said SCRUB the dust into the model. You can wipe away excess with a damp q-tip. You can see the shading on the panels.

After I had colored the panels, I realized that there was too much contrast so I dullcoated with my Testors laquer and added a drop of ligt gray to the mix. It sealed in the pastels as well as dulling out some of the color contrast.

Now think of how you can use this on your ARMOR for fading or shading.

Vince Barrale   8-10-11

Photo editing software?

We've talked a few times during meetings about which software to use when editing pictures.
Here's a link from a web page I really like and respect. The page shows five of the best ones and describes their features. Three of them are free!

I personally recommend "Paint.net". I've used it a long time ago and it was the best (free) application.
GIMP looks interesting too IMHO.
Here's the link:
Lifehacker: Five Best Image Editing Tools

Let's get your comments!

Sturmpanzer IV

This is the early Tamiya kit. Builds simple enough. You know I just cant do it out of the box. Found some great reference photos on line. There were several versions. I debated wheather to add the machine gun ball or even zimmerit.

At first I thought this vehicle was only used in Russia then found it in the streets of Italy. So you will see in the stowage a crate of wine bottles freshly corked.

As usual for me, I used Model Master Enamels to custom blend my color scheme through a Badger 150 airbrush. I applied several coats of the light tan color, then freehand airbrushed in the dark green. From there I dullcoated and proceeded to weather and stain with oil paints.

I preped the pinewood base with a coat of home supply spray paint so the wood did not absorb moisture from the sculpy / woodlands scenics mixture. I folded in tube artists acrylic dark brown paste, then folded in some dry foliage. I tighten the tank into the wet mud mixture with fine wire pulled through the base and twisted tight underneath.

Using thin strips of black electrical tape, I hung various crew items such as a sub machine gun with ammo pouch as well as canteens and dry stowage containers and bedrools.



Vince Barrale  7-10-11

M60: US Marines vs. IDF

In the past few years I have built two vesions of the M60 Tank. The US Marines version which was a Tamiya kit and the Blazer IDF version which was Italeri.

The first is the Tamiya, relatively out of the box with added sowage. I believe this scheme was from the early Desert Storm operation in Iraq.

The second is the Israeli modification of what I believe is the same tank but with different reactive armor. Other differences are in the barrel and the unique bussle rack which I had to scratchbuild. That was a lot of fun working from the museum photos I found. Other israeli modifications include the variety of machine guns on the hatches and mounted to the main gun mantlet, Grenade and smoke launchers on both sides of the main gun.

The Bussle rack was bulit with evergreen strips, rod and stretched sprue for the wrap around cables. More stowage was added including Israeli Food ration cartons.

Russian Twin-Barrel Howitzer ??? Interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7dfA9F0ys&feature=player_embedded

http://www.military-today.com/artillery/koalitsija_sv.htm

Techmod Panzer II Ausf L

I finally completed this kit. It wasnt the greatest build but it came out OK after a little fidling with parts. Instructions werent perfect and many parts didnt have an alignment point so some research was necessary. I didnt find much on the L.

As usual my glue formula of Tenax and MEK worked well on the plastic. This is the first kit where I was forced to use some photoetched parts. I am still getting used to that media as a major component and not just a replacement of a kit part. I added some various plastic and resin stowage to the  completed kit.

I painted with my standby mixtures of Model Master Enamals for a light blue gray base. I then Filtered  with dark oil mixture of black and burnt umber. This helped darken the tint. Added decals and hand painted thhe stowage. After several dull coats, I then heavily weathered the whole thing.  More dullcoating and final pinwashing. I set in a small base with a little groundwork mixing some plaster with Sculptamold, artist acrylic dork brown paint. While the muddy mixture was drying I pushed in the foliage and stones.

Vince Barrale

Don't know what to say about this one...

Read the article on Gizmodo:
http://gizmodo.com/5808842/an-overturned-army-tank-is-a-treadmill-for-olympic-athletes

here is the new army of one

dual 88?

can someone tell us what kind of gun is this one? and the purpose of the plataform....thanks

:-)

Game - World of Tanks

Interesting new game - Look at the preview, download and try the demo if you'd like :-)

Link:
World of Tanks

http://www.worldoftanks.com/

Saturday Build

This Saturday May 21, I am expecting a guest from the IPMS Modelmania show. He is interested in Sci-Fi. I will be reviewing his in process projects related to model lighting circuitry and fiber optics. I hope that I can pass on some tricks to help him out. Anyone is welcome to sit with us and maybe learn a little about using Fiber Optics and other lighting techniques. I will be starting my new project for the Comicpolooza event the end of the month at the GRB center.

Vince

Wounded Warrior program

The HAC is going to be collecting models for a donation to the Wounded Warrior program that Dick Montgomery, the head of the national IPMS, is heading up.  The donations go to the program which is located at the military hospitals/facilities in San Antonio.  He was at Modelmania and I did not have time to gather up some models to contribute, so I talked to him and got his address to mail kits to him.  We are aiming for the May meeting as the initial collection date and I will pack them up and mail whatever I collect that night the following week.  Depending on interest, we may continue collecting after that date.  Also, the club may make a cash donation (which he prefers due to shipping issues) so Dick can buy supplies.

 

Thanks,

Keith

HAC did great at Modelmania!

IPMS Houston held its annual Modelmania last Saturday, April 30.  The show was well attended and many, many quality models were on display.  Thanks to all of you who helped out.

Houston Armor Club members did quite well at Modelmania.  Here is a listing of our club’s members that won awards:

Vince Barralle 

Dave Bozarth

Ken Burke

Kevin Gallier

Steve Gruter

Tom Moon

Paul Sacco

Don Schulte

Congratulations to all of our HAC winners!! And all of the other winners.  It was a fun day, and we had some very high quality models on display!

Don Schulte

(I would love to see the winners posting photos of their hard work!) Fred

Trumpeter 88mm PaK 43

Built by Tom Moon for IPMS National reviews.

Book Review Building and Detailing Realistic Sherman Tanks

This is a review of James K. Wechsler's book: Building and Detailing Realistic Sherman Tanks Scale Modeler's How To.

The book is published by Fine Scale Modeler Books, Kalmbach Books.

Having become familiar with Mr. Wechsler's work through the internet and the pages of Fine Scale Modeler magazine, I was excited to hear he was putting out a how-to book on building the Sherman tank. Once the book became available on Amazon.com, I ordered it without hesitation. Having read it, I can only say now that I wish I had hesitated to add this book to my shopping cart. My only solace at this point is that I paid less than the cover price.

The book consists of 103 pages on glossy, high quality paper. Initially, the book is divided into roughly two equal halves. The first half, running 51 pages in length, details Mr. Wechsler's builds of four different Sherman tanks. The second half, 52 pages long, showcases a gallery of 48 different Sherman tanks previously built by Mr. Wechsler. This organization and content is my first major complaint about the book. I bought the book to learn about Mr. Wechsler's methods for building, painting, and weathering tank models. But, for my money, I got only half a book with thay type of information with the rest of the book taken up by photos of previously completed models. In a nutshell, that is not why I bought the book and not what is advertised by the title.

The heart of the book is found in the first half. This half is broken down into four separate chapters, each detailing the build of a different Sherman model.

(1) Perfect Starter Sherman. Here Mr. Wechsler builds Tasca's M4A1 Sherman Late Production kit (35012). He adds some resin pioneer tools from Formatons Models and Cyber-Hobby DS T48 tracks with extended end connectors (or duckbills as they were commonly known). As near as I can tell this set of tracks is now out-of-production. Due to the cost of a Tasca Sherman kit, I must quibble with Mr.Wechsler's definition of a starter model as well as his decision to include aftermarket parts, which a beginning modeler is unlikely to do.

(2) Aftermarket Parts Simplify a Complex Kit. In his second chapter, Mr. Wechsler builds Dragon's M51 ISherman Premium Edition kit (3539). He uses a slew of Tiger Model Designs Aftermarket resin parts.

(3) Maximum Details Improved Groundwork. In chapter 3, Mr. Wechsler builds a USMC M4A2 Sherman using Dragon's M4A2 Tarawa kit (6062). Once again, Mr. Wechsler uses numerous aftermarket parts, this time from Tiger Model Designs and Tank Workshop.

(4) For the Most Accurate Sherman Reach for a Resin Kit. In the final chapter, Mr. Wechsler builds a late war M4A3(76) with sandbag armor. Here, Mr. Wechsler used numerous aftermarket sets from Formations, Legend, and Panda Plastics. The finished model went on a very eleaborate base with several other vehicles, ruined buildings, and figures.

In each of these chapters, Mr. Wechsler produced very nice Sherman models and places them on increasingly complex bases. He also attempts to explain what he did in each build. This brings me to my second group of complaints about this book. First, there are not enough pictures of the model builds. As a result, I often found myself getting lost amongst all the verbiage that Mr. Wechsler resorts to in an effort to explain what he did. Unfortunately, I found myself continually thnking that this process he is trying to ecxplain through words could be shown very simply and clearly with a few more well-captioned photos. Second, gthe pictures that are in the four build chapters are too small and frequently taken from such a distance from the model that it is almost impossible to discern exactly what he did. This is especially true in the parts of the book discussing the painting and weathering of the tanks. To be totally candid, looking at many of those pictures, I could not tell the difference between the tank at point "A" in the process versus point "B." Don't be thrown off by the picture I have included with the review, that is a close-up taken with my digital camera and they reveal details not visible to me while I was reading the book. I think I am safe in saying that a consumer should not be forced to take digital photographs of the pictures in a how-to book to make out what is being done! Finally, I wish Mr. Wechsler had included the cost of the builds in each of the chapters. As a modeler on a budget, that is information I would like to know.

To say the least, I was disappointed by this book. I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone purchase this book because it just does not accomplish what the title announces it will do: show a modeler how to build and detail a realistic Sherman tank model.