I’ve added the markings to the horns and drivers cab roof, touched up a couple of overspray spots, and bleed marks from adding the markings.

I also tried tidying up the tracks a bit, but that was a lost cause. The dies used for these tracks are so old and a bit warn, there are bad patches where the rubber has bled out the sides, which is really hard to remove. I got the worse of it off, but not very pretty. I also thinned down some Humbrol 113 “Rust” (not that it really looks like rust) and used this on the tracks. Once the tracks were dry, I gave them a gentle rub with a dry cloth to bring the natural track colour through the paint on the rivets and ridges which was a not too bad steel colour.

For the pics, click here

Thanks for following.

Today I got out into the shed to do the painting. Now.. I’m no expert, but I can say that using an over-inflated spare wheel as a propellant is NOT a great idea!! You find yourself constantly refilling the tyre with air. And, another thing I learned today was that if the wee hose inside the jar on a suction fed airbrush is not pointing the right way, then you don’t get paint. And lastly, you get what you pay for.. the wee rubber hose in the airbrush jar falls to bits easily when you go to turn it around on cheap air brushes (more in a future post).

I’ve also used Saúl “Sharkmouth” Garcia’s sewing method to join the tracks. It has allowed for a small gap when stretched in place, but I can hardly see it 

Next step.. PAINT.

Here’s the progress

In honor of our many hero’s that fought and died during all the wars that we have participated in, I am hoping to have this finished by ANZAC day (the 25th). I can’t guarantee that this will happen, but I really hope I can do this as my way of remembering our heroes.

That’s all for now

I’ll be painting this Khaki Drab (Humbrol 159), and adding markings as and when I can figure out what they are.. but at the very least, it’ll get the white/red/white on the front of the horns.

Anyhow.. here’s the progress

Now for some updates.

Firstly I started to build up the hull around the locating ring moulded into the side of the horns to find that there was no way the parts of the hull were going to meet up following this. I then had to remove the front end of the locating ring so I could get the front of the hull to meet up. Then.. when I got the angles of the hull correct, there was still a gap at the front where the upper and lower hulls meet, and when that gap was filled, there was then a huge overlap from the bottom plate.

Then I filled the holes that would have been used to hold the rear steering wheels from the Mk.I on the back end of the horns. I heated some Tamiya sprew and stretched it so it was about the right diameter, then snipped and glued it in the hole (You may be thinking that this is a lot of obvious blither, but this is really important as you will find later).

I have also completed blanking off the right hand sponson and mounted it to the horn. I then sanded the overlap at the front of the hull flush, and added a new towing hook thingy, and mounted the horns to the hull.

Now I started adding the additional stowage bins. There is a large one that follows the contours of the rear end of the horns and a bin placed on top of where the rearmost plate is on the hull. Now, you will remember that I mentioned filling in a hole that was used for the rear steering wheels, this carefully hidden hole is now hidden inside the rear most extension!! So all that work proved to be unnecessary lol.. oh well. Also, due to not measuring twice before cutting, I have made the back plate of the top stowage bin too big, so that will be rectified tomorrow.

That’s all for now.