M-32 Tank Recovery Vehicle - Italeri 1/35 (Part 2)

The work continued on the interior of the lower hull. 

The transmission cover was from the Italeri kit and covered with Vallejo putty, and hull was from Dragon.  The transmission bolts were punched from 0.015 styrene.

The early model air cleaners were made from brass shim stock and plastic.  The rear hatch handle was added and weld seams were added to the heavy duty the tow hitch.  The welds were made from stretch sprue soften with liquid cement.  

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Up next was fitting the rear deck to the upper resin hull.  It took a lot of trimming and shaping to get it to fit.  The rear deck was from the Italeri kit.  The additional filler caps from from the spare parts box.

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The direct vision blocks were scratch built from sheet styrene and were fitted to the vision ports.

Additional details were added to the upper hull.  The mortar bottom plate and the tow port hatch were from the Italeri kit, the lifting lugs were made from paper clips and the fenders are made from plastic.  The upper and lower hulls required trimming and a lot Tamiya putty to get a good fit.

Additional details were added to the front hull.

Next I worked on the rear deck tool boxes.  I didn't like the tops, so I made new ones from shim stock brass cut and folded to fit the top of the box provided in the kit.

Brackets and footman loops were added to the top and rear of the tool box for the pioneer tools.









The brackets for the spare road wheels were make from plastic and aluminum strips.  The plastic strips were glued together and attached the the road wheels using liquid cement.  The aluminum cross supports were super glued in place.  Four were made, 2 for the front of the turret and 2 for the rear fenders.

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M-32 Tank Recovery Vehicle - Italeri 1/35 (Part 1)

The Italeri M-32 is a older kit and needed some updates.  The large hatch hull was not common version and the turret dimensions were not accurate.  The upper hull was replaced with a Tank Work Shop M4A1 Direct Vision hull, and the lower hull was replaced with one from Dragon.  The transmission cover was from the kit.

I started with the lower hull and VVSS suspension.  The Italeri VVSS brackets lacked details and was replaced with brackets from Dragon.  They needed detailing too.  Bolt heads were added to the return skids and to the return arm rollers.  Grease fittings were added to the top of the bracket under the skid.  The skids were too thick and thinned by sanding and scraping.  Four mounting holes were drilled into the front of the bracket.  I used two types of road wheels - the spoked wheels are from the kit and the pressed spoked wheels are from Dragon.  These needed the 10 rivets around edge to be added.  Both road wheels had a mold seam line that needed to be removed.  To do this, they were mounted on a drill using a tooth pick and sanded smooth with 100 grit paper.

Since the M32 has an open top and the hatches were going to be open, the interior provided with the kit was sparse and needed to be detailed - no driving compartment was included and the turret and crew compartments had some basic details.

For the drivers compartment, a transmission, floor, dashboard, radio, and seats were added.  The transmission was casted from an M-10 kit.  The floor, dashboard, and seats were made from stryene and green epoxy putty.  The radio was from the spare parts box.  For the crew compartment, the machinist tools boxes, firewall, winch, and floors were added.

A basic winch was scratch built too.  Since the winch was going to be covered, not much detail was needed.  The floor was modified and the hatch was cut open.

  




The floor was primed and painted black.  The salt technique was used to weather the floor before it was painted white.  I think it gives a good effect for worn.

The turret was next.  The back of the turret was too narrow in the back by 0.3".  Thin wedges were made from 0.04" Styrene.  The wedges were glued to the existing turret. 

A paper template was made for the sides of the turret.  They were made from 0.04" styrene and glued to the turret.  I left the inner turret walls in place.  

The back plates were fitted, glued, and sanded.  The turret was bolted to the upper hull.  Bolt heads were added to the turret.  A paper template was used to make sure the bolts were evenly spaced.

Detail was added to the interior of the turret.  The rear pulley, hatch, and fold down seat were  missing - they were scratch built.  The mortar ready rounds, fire extinguisher, crew seats were added and detailed.

1/72 Revell - USAF F-104A

This is another older kit that I picked-up a garage sale.  The kit was missing a few parts including the exhaust nozzle and the wing tank mounts.

The cockpit, ejection seat, and the instrument panel were detailed.  Small disks were punched form 0.010 styrene sheets to form the dials and gauges.  Styrene was used to make the head rest and seat cushions.  Copper wire and metal foil was used to make the seat belts and the ejection handles.  They were primed with Tamiya gray and painted with Vallejo Acrylics.

The completed ejection seat.

The kit was a straight forward build.  Details were added to the wheel wells and the wing tank mounts were scratch built.

The canopy was polished and dipped in Future Acrylic Floor wax.  Then is was masked and painted.  The results look pretty good.

The engine nozzle was made from a plastic tube and styrene strips.

The decals were printed on a Alps printer.

Here is the finished model.

1/72 Airfix - F-86D

This is an older kit that I got a garage sale.  It was missing a few parts - cockpit, fuel tanks, landing gear, air intake, air brakes, and an exhaust nozzle.  I decided to use it as a test build for AK Interactive's Xtreme metal Paints.

I started by scratch building the cockpit details.  The ejection seat was detailed with brass shim stock and plastic.  Seat belts were added, along with handles and stick.  The instrument panel was made from plastic card stock and detailed with small plastic disks punched from .010 styrene.

The canopy was buffed and wet sanded and then dipped in Future Floor wax.  This was my first time using this technique and it worked out really well.  The engine exhaust was made from the spare parts box and plastic strips.  The rest of the model went together very quickly.  The seam along the fuselage was puttied and sanded smooth.

The model was masked and primed using Tamiya grey primer from a rattle can.

I wanted to test the Xtreme Metal paint finishes.  I first applied the paint directly to the primer,  I masked half the plane and put down a coat of aluminum.  I used dark and dura aluminum for different planes.  The paint is very thin and it takes several coats to get good coverage.  The paint dries very quickly.

On the other half of the model, I sprayed the satin black that was recommended by AK Interactive.  The black paint was also very thin.

Here is the model.  I couldn't really tell any difference between putting the Xtreme metal over the satin black or straight on to the Tamiya primer.  The panel with the dark and dura aluminum do stand out nicely.  The anti glare panel was paint with Testors flat olive drab and the nose was painted with flat black.

The model with the decals completed.  To set the decals, I over coated the completed model with Humbrol Satin.  This was a mistake. It left the model with an uneven pattern.

The decals were older and didn't set as well as I hoped.  The USAF has a clear outline on the wing.  I tried to use some acetone to dissolve the decal to minimize the effect, but is started lift the paint instead.

Here is the finished model.