Moonpup's Nemesis!

[G Cooper]

Hi Laura.

It is really looking good. And I can totally understand about not using some of the parts. I really don't understand why the photo etch manufacturers continue to give us p.e. pieces that are flat to replace a part that is supposed to be round. But you did a great job on the back trailer. Now you should be able to get through the front one a little easier hopefully with the experience of the rear one.

Gary B)

 

[Cheyenne]

Beautiful pe work Laura !!!

Without rereading all four pages , and me not remembering if you mentioned it , ...... what's the paint scheme you've got picked out for this ?

 

[moon puppy]

Wow! I really like this Laura. the PE work is really really clean. This is going to paint up very nice.

What PE set is this? voyager?

BTW, you should see the stuff I left off the Halftrack. Often in the case of these levers and stuff the kit part is more defined than the flat PE. One thing I do though, say a lever that has a knob on the end, I will dip the end in some CA, then in some CA accelerator and alternate back and forth till it builds up into a nice round blob. You can even put a drop of paint on one of the dips, let it dry, then dip in CA again. Gives it a little depth.

 

[Kreighshoer]

thanks dudes! that keeps me motivated to start all this madness all over again for the second trailer!

gary - the brake lever replacement was just the handle and didn't convince me to be superior to the kit part, the winch lever would have had to be rebuilt completely and would have been working but what for? it would have been too flimsy so i gave the kit part a chance! the most dissapointing was the cleaning rod rack!

voyager want you to cut away all details from the rods to insert them into the new racks! way too dangerous! the better solution would have been to include enough resin rods to completely replace the kit offering! cutting all those without breaking them seems almost impossible to me!

here's a scan of the instructions to visualize:

glenn - i didn't mention the paint scheme yet but i have something special in mind! but surely no yellow!

bob - the voyager set! yes! i loved the set for the afv club 88 already and i would never use any else set for this gun! the only setback with this set is the gun shield! the original shield had a small gap between the side armor and the main shield what is not depicted in this set but with the lionroar offering!

 

[G Cooper]

Hi again Laura .

A tip you probably know about I will say anyways, as it might help someone else in the same situation.

Instead of trying to clean up all the gun cleaning rods, just cut the end off, and use plastic rod or brass tube if you have enough to replace all the lost length. If you use the plastic rod, you can drill out one end of each length to suggest the socket that the next piece threads into. Then build your photo etch construction and add the new rods with the bagged cleaning brush attatched.

But yours still looks real cool . And besides, the real focus is going to be the gun.

Gary B)

 

[TREEMENDUS]

Only just come accross this one

WOW Laura the PE looks amazing on this. It's a very clean build, I can't wait to see how this progresses. :cheer:

 

[StuG]

Fine building....

 

[Jenny Croft]

YOU GO GIRLFRIEND !!!!!

Jenny :kiss:

 

[bob letterman]

Laura,

Just found this! Sometimes you are just to hard on yourself! I make mistakes all the time, I am terrible about following instructions. The build looks Great!!! Nothing else matters. I'm anxious to see this finished!

Go Girl!

Bob

 

[Rudi Richardson]

Lovely work, Laura

Any more progress?

 

[Kreighshoer]

thanks everybody!

Rudi Richardson wrote:

Any more progress?

not yet! but tomorrow i'll have the forward trailer finished! promised!

 

[Kreighshoer]

well - both trailers are finished! i managed to repair my major fumble on the rear trailer - the one in the invisible spot! the reason? it simply annoyed me too much!

while building the front trailer i noticed some forgotten (overseen) parts and added those and i even figured out a part that voyager forgot to mention in the instructions but is essential on both trailers!

this time i also did the pe levers just to see how they would come out! i'm still not convinced about their look but ok, there's no way back!

on the front trailer i didn't add the cable drums! not that they would have been too difficult - building one took me 10 minutes - but simply out of the reason that this FlaK was attached to a tank hunter unit and thus had ground fighting as main purpose! so the crew dismounted those drums since no data transmission from the battery command for combined aa-fire was needed!

Technoir - Dying Star

everything's primed and drying by now then it's time for the black basecoat and the first tricky part of painting!

 

[moon puppy]

Looks like you've done your own brassworks improvements Laura. They look great.

 

[shawngehling]

Laura,
Looks really sweet, but I bet the armor that it's going to be
shooting at won't think so. hmy:
Shawn

 

[Kreighshoer]

bob, shawn - thanks!

we got paint and i have to say - i'm most unhappy with the shield and take into consideration to ceompletely repaint it!

it's only dryfitted in the pictures!

Dust Of Basement - Summer

 

[G Cooper]

Hi Laura :Hiay .

It is getting close. And those trailers came out very nice. For the gun shield, if you repaint it could you paint it first in the tan color then mask before you put the grey down? Also for the range charts have you tried just making some up yourself with either photo shop (if you have it) or "paint" off of your computer and print them up? Or even something I have done more than once is to search old catalogs or magazines to find what you are looking for. Then do a real cut and paste out of where ever you find one.

Gary B)

 

[Kreighshoer]

G Cooper wrote:

For the gun shield, if you repaint it could you paint it first in the tan color then mask before you put the grey down?

that's exactly the way i did the camo! the technique is of no problem, it's the outcome that really annoys me! the liquid masking was really bitchy!

regarding that range chart - i really hate the outcome! ok, one could say it was chalked on but still it looks as if a dog had pooped it on! printing out was not on my option list yet! either i try the printing or will eliminate the range chart completely!

well - i think i will give the shield a black overspray this afternoon!

 

[moon puppy]

Laura, can you mask the chart off with tape and cut it with a straight edge then paint it?

Out of ignorance I ask, were these range charts something the crews would draw up or something like a service plate?

The camo, is is suppose to be a hard line demark between the colors, if not I would use a putty mask instead.

 

[Kreighshoer]

i had masked the chart off with tape but had to paint the lines freehanded! my mistake was to take my smallest brush! ( ) the problem with a too small brush is that it cannot load enough paint to make a quick draw and thus i had to reload over and over again! perfect for f-wording up the paintjob!

it's history anyway!!!

codename: repaint!

much, much better now! now i'm happy with the shield! this time the preshading wasn't destroyed by me and with the different shade of grey it looks like fitted to a gun painted at another factory!

much better than the last try!

-> me happy again!

 

[Ken Abrams]

That camo looks sharp Laura, nice job.

For that range chart thingy on the backside, would it be plausible to use a freshly sharpened white colored pencil?

:hmmm

I have a couple of these big guns in my stash and hope to build one of them some day, perhaps with HobbyFans crew.