Moon Puppy's 75mm GMC M3 Halftrack

[shawngehling]

Bob (M/P)
In my best Jedi voice... :evil: :evil: :evil:
Come over to the dark side... You know you want to.
Give up those wingy thingies... :peace Armor is for you...

Seriously great job... Keep up the good work.
But you want to build armor not planes,
Repeat after me, I love to build armor not planes...
Say this 10 or 20 million times and you'll be ok... hmy:
Shawn

 

[tomwes]

Shawn, I think I have this right.....I want to blow up armor with planes, I want to blow up armor with planes :evil: :evil:


Tom

 

[moon puppy]

dukwhunter wrote:

Hi Bob ,
Great job on the M3 GMC . How was the fit overall ? What time period and markings do you plan on using for it ?


best regards
JOEY

Hey Joey, I guess it gets lost after 15 pages of playing around with some WIP mixed in but I'm doing the Darby's Rangers 75mm GMC M3 as researched by our bud Ken Abrams. Trying to be faithful to the real deal and without Ken's guidance this would never had gained any traction.

The Fit is good, no problems other than those brought on by my own mistakes. This is the second H/T I've build so I'm likely not a good judge over the quality of the kit. the first one really wasn't the Dragon kit, well it was to start with but as you can see..

the entire body was replaced with solder and some brass... :woohoo:

 

[Pavel Zabák]

He is MAAAAAAAAD -Brass- MAAAAAAN :woohoo:

Seriously Bob...it it perfect brass work(Don't understand for my mind )


Keep posting.

Cheers.
Pavel

 

[moon puppy]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm really pumped right now. First, if you paint tracks on the finish build my hat is off to you. I've determined that the tracks will be all but invisible under the layers of mud hiding the piss poor job I've done painting them.

But it gets better...

With Laura's rusting technique in mind, I've been harvesting rust for the last several weeks off the steel plate on my work bench. Storing it up in a glass jar like some voodoo witch doctor. Finally got to the point to use it. I primed the exhaust pipe yesterday with gloss black, replaced the end cap with 2.0mm brass pipe, I would LOVE to replace it all but the bending would be more than I can handle. Tonight I misted Alcad Steel, then jet exhaust and a real light dusting of stainless steel. Trying to give it some variations. Then I took the Liquitex Acrylic medium and mixed some rust that I was storing. Ran a brush full of it up and down the exhaust and BAM! nailed it! it was a little thick in some spots so I took some denatured alcohol for use as a thinner and spread it around some. That helped a lot. I think you're going to like the effect, will post pictures later.

 

[Iron Mike]

No pix??? hmy: OK, just leave us hanging! :laugh:

 

[moon puppy]

nope, no pictures...it's dark out there!

 

[Iron Mike]

OK, guess I'll just go to bed then!

 

[panzerace007]

moon puppy wrote:

dukwhunter wrote:

Hi Bob ,
Great job on the M3 GMC . How was the fit overall ? What time period and markings do you plan on using for it ?


best regards
JOEY

Hey Joey, I guess it gets lost after 15 pages of playing around with some WIP mixed in but I'm doing the Darby's Rangers 75mm GMC M3 as researched by our bud Ken Abrams. Trying to be faithful to the real deal and without Ken's guidance this would never had gained any traction.

The Fit is good, no problems other than those brought on by my own mistakes. This is the second H/T I've build so I'm likely not a good judge over the quality of the kit. the first one really wasn't the Dragon kit, well it was to start with but as you can see..

the entire body was replaced with solder and some brass... :woohoo:

MOONIE,

Seriously ! Awesome Job on the GMC ! That Body is Out Standing !! Great Job !

ERIK

 

[AndyFettes]

That front bumper is a disapointment, its plastic

 

[moon puppy]

Erik that was the M2A1 I did a couple of years ago. here's a link to it http://brittsbytes.com/halftrack/index.htm

Andy, I'll try to do better...

 

[panzerace007]

moon puppy wrote:

Erik that was the M2A1 I did a couple of years ago. here's a link to it http://brittsbytes.com/halftrack/index.htm

WOW MOONIE,

Off th Chain !! Awesome build. & Thanx for the Correction !

ERIK

 

[moon puppy]

well here's where we sit now. Playing with some lighting angles. got one of those Ott under the cabinet lights and was just holding it at angles. not sure about that yet.

The Whip antenna is just brass tube run thought my thumb and forefinger to create a nice smooth curve. I'll figure out something to tie it down, would rather have something rigid so I may be firing up the soldering iron for that.

I really should have thought those racks out ahead of time instead of cleaning them off while on the kit. Pretty stupid move. I could either go with the dings and make some rust marks and say I did it on purpose or cover it with stowage and tarps...

Forgot to install the pintle hook. I always do that, forget to put something on after starting panting...

All that work on the radio and it can barely be seen..

transfers on the fenders, not so good. May take a mulligan on that, we'll see.

Playing with pigments in the floorboard, started a little heavy but I found that mixing yellow and black pigments will give me an OD pigment!! (wonder where I learned that from? B) ) So I came back and applied some OD over the top of the over done muddy pigment that I couldn't get out of the floor, sort of neutralizing it.

I'm kinda stoked that you can't see the fire extinguisher mounted in it's mount. I thought I did a nice job on it, painted brass with a black and brass label on it..

Also did a pigment treatment on the seat cushions, trying to get the texture and faded coloring there. Lots more to do but it's in first gear now.

 

[Kreighshoer]

to me this looks fab!

the towing pintle still can be added, don't forget that you still have to do the weathering and that will cover a lot of afterwards painting!

and while we're at it ... you did it on purpose! it was exactly the effect you wanted to acchieve! that with the stowage bin!

 

[TREEMENDUS]

Looks great to me too Bob. I'd stick with the "dings", they look just how they should don't they? rust them up a bit and if you're still not happy with them then cover them with a tarp! :cheer:

 

[moon puppy]

Oh yeah, lots more layers of paint to go on, washes, dry brushing, pigments...waxing...?

Just waiting on Saul's rescue package to finish the decals before moving forward with the works.

DAngit! I meant to get a close up of the tailpipe so you can see the rust effect I tried with your technique Laura.

Thanks Ant, If need be, I came make all these comments about screwing up turn into "meticulously recreated" :woohoo:

 

[Tim A.]

Looks awesome Moon Puppy The build is great and I know the paint with match.

Btw that brass one looks fantastic too.

Tim

 

[Ken Abrams]

I am sooooo jealous of that rear view mirror...



You know, you could just jam some stowage in those racks, some ration boxes, bed rolls, personal gear and other assorted greeblies to hide the dings if you wanted. It's coming along nicely though, great to see it in green. Wait, OD isn't even green is it?

Keep it up brother, you're on the home stretch now.

 

[moon puppy]

I was just going to howl for you, is there a machine gun sticking up from the back on a couple of those shots?

Also it looks like the headlights are busted out, do they look like that in your high resolution pictures?

 

[Ken Abrams]

The headlight lenses are definitely busted out, good thing Dragon molded that little light bulb in there.



It looks like an MG in a canvas cover in the back. I don't think this kit came with the pedestal right? Get out the tube stock and flat card I guess, would have been better for us to talk about that before the paint done got slung eh?

:angry: