The Duke's Tribute Build.

[Duke Maddog]

This past year, I lost four good Forum friends; three of whom I wanted to meet in person. All were decorated veterans and overall outstanding modelers. Some of you may have known them from past Forums. They are:

Chad Lebo aka Zod
Cliff aka New Mex
Rich Durham
and Carl aka Shellback,

This is the model I am building as a tribute to them all. I chose this particular model because it is:

-> One of my all-time favorite tanks.

-> it fits in my SoCal AMPS chapter's Patton Group Build for the next West Coast IPMS Nationals.

and -> Carl himself did such an outstanding job on one of these models.


I can only hope to do as well.


Here is the kit:

Here is my progress on this model. All this work was done on both Hobby Days Friday and Saturday.

The first thing I did was to assemble the two drive sprockets and then match up all the roadwheels and assemble all the return rollers:

I'll paint the tires separately and add them before I install the roadwheels. I left everything on the sprue so I wouldn't lose them. That is a chronic problem I have...

Next was to add all these detail parts to the lower hull. I'm not quite sure exactly what they are, but they are all on there now:

After that, I added the return rollers to the upper hull, making this look like the wildest lowrider I have ever seen:

Letting that dry, I moved on to do the basic assembly on the turret:

Later on, I cemented the upper hull to the lower hull, adding the turret to this to see how it looked:

That does look really funky with the unfinished rear area. I just had to take this further by assembling the rear engine covers and louvers:

That's where I stopped in order to move forward on some of my other projects. You can see them in my usual thread.

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Jeeves]

You'll do them proud with this build Mark- cheers to you and to them! :drinks :salute

 

[moon puppy]

Nice tribute Mark, going to enjoy seeing you build in 1:35.

 

[sharkman]

Nice Mark!

That's a bit outside the usual for you!

 

[JamesOLeary]

What a fitting tribute!

I wasn't surprised by the subject, but I was surprised that you were building it in 1/35th scale. Since I really enjoy looking at your 1/72 scale models, I look forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Cheers,
James

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks for the great replies guys. They are most appreciated.

Yeah, 1/35th is a bit outside my usual builds but my SoCal AMPS club was trying to decide what 1/35th scale tank to do for the club's group build entry for the IPMS Nationals. Someone mentioned Pattons and so I spoke up and said; "If you decide on Pattons I will build one in 1/35th scale. It is one of my top three favorite tanks." That decided it, they chose Pattons. Then when two other Forums chose to honor fallen comrades in modeling; I saw this Patton build as an opportunity to honor them as well, especially since Carl himself had done a magnificent M-48 already.

James, I still will be building my small scale armor; feel free to look in on my latest progress in my Maddog Manufacturing thread.

 

[MrT]

 

[moon puppy]

If you decide on Pattons I will build one in 1/35th scale.

I'm sure a hush went over the room as the collective jaws dropped...

 

[Skinny_Mike]

 

[MM2CVS9]

EJ

 

[JSteinman]

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks guys! Still plugging along.

 

[Swordsman]

Looks Very Good there Mark .... I'll be looking in from time to time .... My life has been very complicated lately .... Your doing very well ... on such a large scale model. :captain

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Jerry and I'm thrilled to see you on the Forums again! Feel free to check out my other work and also what I finished. I look forward to seeing more of your work as well.

 

[errains]

Totally Awesome Idea and a Great Subject!!!
Sorry for coming late to the party but I'll be staying awhile... :drinks

 

[Duke Maddog]

No problem Eric! I'm thrilled to have you along. Thanks for the compliments!

 

[sprueman]

great work so far, nice thing you are doing to honor friends.

 

[Barney]

What a fitting tribute! I was initially shocked. MD building in 1/35? I figured that you had finally succumbed to the fumes... This build is starting out nicely! I will be following this one closely as I am in the process of building my first tank since 1968 (I know, procrastination!).

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Sprueman! It is only fitting. All of them were fantastic modelers and overall incredible people.

Thanks Barney! Yeah, a lot of guys were surprised but I wanted to participate in a SoCal AMPS Group Build. I was only going to do it with my own choice of model though and they chose well.

Since I hadn't had this thread watched, I almost totally forgot about it. Time to update it with my latest progress.

Basically, all I did was to add the fenders to the hull as well as most of the small detail parts. On the turret, I added the bustle rack and other detail parts as well:

I then added the storage boxes and other boxes to the fenders, as well as the barrel lock. Next I assembled the TC's cupola. Here it is dry-fit to the turret:

Finally, I added the gun barrel and mantlet with the cover. That is DS styrene so it is flexible. I now can paint this model and then assemble the searchlight before moving on again:

I wanted to have this painted last week but life got in the way. Hopefully this week I'll be able to get it done.


Stay tuned, more to come.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Looking good, Mark! I know it is a bit out of your comfort zone with it being 1/35, but if you are able to make 1/72 scale vehicles look awesome, I am sure you will make this look awesome, too. Plus the reason you are making this one is an honorable one.
Cheers,
James