Junkyard Dog

[Kerick]

You’re right, I have to reengage my patience!
It’s just that I’ll be booked up most of the weekend so it’s grinding my gears right now. And find the proper light green paint. Flat black is no problem.

[Frank3k]

The paint and camo are looking perfect. Take your time!

[Kerick]

I’m anxious to install the tracks, road wheels and armor skirts. Finishing touch will be the guns, RWS and antennas. Then we will have the full effect.  :wacko:

[Buzzbomb]

Oh, this good.. really good 

[Kerick]

I’ve ordered paint from True North. They are recreating the Model Master line so this should cooperate with the first two colors. I’ll pass on any more organic chemistry catastrophes.

[ChalkLine]

This is amazing. Have you had any ideas for stowage or will you keep it slick?

[Kerick]

This is amazing. Have you had any ideas for stowage or will you keep it slick?

I’ve been thinking about where to put a stowage basket. Probably on the engine deck between the louvers. I cast two extra road wheels so I have to find a spot for those. Then there is the kit supplied tools and pieces of track. The top of the dog house is filled up. I haven’t seen any real world pictures of stuff hanging over the ERA panels so maybe it interferes with the function of the panels. Space is at a premium.
We are going away for the weekend plus appointments through Wednesday so maybe the paint will arrive and I can try some more painting by Thursday. I’m going to try a little weathering by spraying a dust coat of light grey or sand or the upper surfaces and something darker on the lower parts. Any suggestions in that regard are appreciated.

[Kerick]

Some more paint. A little flat black for the MERDC pattern. Needless to say I've had to improvise a bit but I'm following the M60 pattern as best I can. So, on to the pics!









It was soooo tempting to try and paint in the black with a brush. You may notice I tried it with olive drab in a couple spots and you could see the brush marks. Got out the silly putty after that and sprayed it on. Brushing would have been quicker but I think the spray turned out much better. I think the difference between the light and dark green stands out much more now. BTW, silly putty has worked out well on this build. Maybe it just gets along better with enamels than acrylics. Hard to say without a degree in chemical engineering. I also managed to mask around a couple of boo boos and covered them up. Next is the True North Interior Green that has not arrived in the mail yet. Soon I hope. I've been working on the tracks and I have one side in place. I hope the CA glue holds. I should add a couple of loops of thread just to be sure. It will be hidden by the skirts anyway. The RWS is just stuck on for now just for the pics. This thing will look so much different with all the fiddly bits attached!

[Buzzbomb]

Yowzaa !! This is really good 

[Kerick]

I got both tracks on! Progress without much swearing! I had some very thin steel wire I closed the joint with. That won’t come off ever. At least it’s hidden by the skirts. Some of the paint flaked off but not too much. They look like rubber band tracks but I don’t think we’ll ever see replacements.

[Old Wombat]

Damn! That's looking really good!

[ChalkLine]

Starting to feel a little over-awed here!

That's brilliant

[LemonJello]

That's a damn sexy camo pattern!

[Kerick]

MERDC designed it, I just interpreted it. Thanks my friends!

[Kerick]

Here's a pic or two of the tracks. Since this was taken I added a rod that passed through the hull and pushed the top run of track down to increase the tension. Looks better that way. I still need to tone down the silver and make the rust look a bit more believable.





I was attempting some touch up painting with a brush. Some turned out great and some has a different sheen that makes it obvious. The worst is on the skirts and that can be resprayed.

[Dr. YoKai]

 This is coming along very, very, nicely. The cammo is especially good.

[Kerick]

In case anyone is curious how far back into the junkyard I went.
Parts used so far include:
Trumpeter EE-T2 Osario
Academy Bradley hatches, periscopes and tail lights
AFV Cub Stryker hatches and RWS
Academy M9 dozer blade
Tamiya M48 headlights
Italeri M60 Blazer ERA for casting masters
Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog commanders periscope
Probably Tamiya Japanese tank front mudflaps
Lots of junk box parts
UV casting resin
Model Master and Testors enamel paints

[Buzzbomb]

Haven't been counting the sources.. but the all appear to be in the right places 

Consider me inspired 

[Claymore]

Looking great! 

[Kerick]

Send me your junk and I might just make something out of it!

[Kerick]

I'm trying to assemble a luggage rack for the engine deck as per the Israeli Puma. The last little bit of some grey Plastruc I beam and some other junk box stuff. Crazy how well the Plastruc part fits with the rest. I'll see how this goes and if I'm happy with it when finished and painted. As I have some repainting to do on the skirts this will get painted at the same time.

[Old Wombat]

Weird collection of bits there,

Hope it comes together for you (it's looking like it should at the moment).

[ChalkLine]

This is something I've struggled with. Are you going to use mesh? I've been trying to find some to print but oddly enough no one makes sheets of mesh as an .stl

[Kerick]

Try a fabric shop and get some wedding veil material. If you cut it diagonally it looks just like fence mesh or if you cut parallel then it looks like fish net. Perfect on tanks. There might be different size mesh available.

[Frank3k]

Tule (the wedding veil material) works well and comes in several sizes.

Printing a mesh with a resin printer would be difficult, depending on the mesh line diameter. For the finer meshes, each layer would be very delicate after it's printed.