ChrisM's military movers : all 7 vehicles finished + figures

[planecrazyman61]

thats some production run for week 1 and they all look good are you going to be putting them on their bases

craig

[splash]

Fred or anyone else: if you are all looking in... could you advise on the recipe(s) you use for making a gloop for an alternative to filler... as the gaps I have are not enough for filler to hold in to, quite as well as I want, but I need something in there, , and tippex is not an answer so far either:

Hi Chris

I have started to use dissolved sprue in Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, just start with a half full bottle of glue and just add cut up sprue leave it to melt then add more until you get a smooth gloopy mixture.

The good thing is you can use the brush supplied in the bottle to apply the gloop, being molten plastic it bonds well and set hard in an hour or two if applied thin, it's great for filling matchbox panel lines and small holes or injector pin marks.

[fredk]

Thats a gand bit of modelling out-put there

My Gloopy Plastic Soup is just like splash's.
It started out as a Revell Contacta bottle with brush in the lid.
Goodness knows what glues are in it now, sometimes Humbrol Liquid Poly, EMA, cellulose thinners, the wee tubes that come on starter sets...all get chucked it when its top up time.
Plastic is bits of sprue, off cuts of plasticard, flash, whatever, is all sacrificed to the Big Bottle of Gloopy Soup.

Put it on thinly, if depth needs building up better a few thin layers than one thick one.

Its great to have a bottle of this on the bench but you could just make a small amount with glue and sprue in an aluminium bun dish.

[gbrwn56]

What a brilliant idea, thanks for sharing.

[chrism]

With grateful thanks for "the recipe" I set about making a brew today, and have managed in between a selection of other non-modelling related activities to "waste a lot of time" watching a little bottle with bits of sprue and glue in it slowly melt as I stir it up and keep repeating process.

Hopefully some more modelling will be done in a day or two. I am busy with other activities some of this weekend, but hope to get a bit if time to do a bit more. I would like to try and make a start with some paint on the bases.

[Stuart]

I must try my own 'gloop' at some point.

Good Progress thus far Chris - Those are all looking great!

[chrism]

Thanks SirT for looking in.

A bit more to share with you all. Attention has turned to the other two kits.

The wheels on the AVRE have been painting and put together.


The bases for the six of them have been assembled and cleaned up.


The seventh kit - the Jagdpanther. The sprues are missing a couple of items, but I have some exhausts and a main barrel piece from another kit which will be ok for substitutes, and can also find a piece of wall from something else that can be use in place of the missing piece of that.


Both of these two kits are now coming along nicely. The AVRE tracks are now fitted and the wheel assemblies and sides all glued together, while the Jagdpanther has gone together nicely and just needed a tad of filler.



So this is where I am, 14 days in, at the end of week 2.
This last photo shows progress on these last 4 kits (a few bits more have been done to the Comet and Panzer)
and the previous 3 are now all ready for decals, and waiting for these to catch up! hopefully in the next week.



There will be no further updates for a few days now. It is half-term and that means other activities take priority. So no chasing Fred

[DavidWomby]

You have my admiration for taking on so many wheels!!!!!

David

[splash]

I totally agree with David.

The wheels on the Matchbox Churchhill looks a much better design than the older Airfix design.

[ShaunW]

Wonderful, this is great stuff seeing a multiple build of these classic Matchbox vehicles. I have the Churchill AVRE in my stash and I remember the myriad of wheels from building the Airfix gun tank years ago.

[chrism]

Thanks David, Splash and Shaun, this Churchill assembly for the wheel sections is pretty stress free, compared to the Airfix one as in this one, the wheels are two single long pieces for each side and slot together well. Some of the newer variants from Dragon are excellent too and go together in an equally nice and modern (being new kits) way. It is only the Airfix one that is wheel crazy.

So since the last update a week ago, modelling has been on the back burner, a little with family commitments, but this week normality reigns again and I have had some time to myself:

A bit more on the jagdpanther and the AVRE




Then a bit of attention on the bases - first a coat of paint on them before I add some sand and gravel to these


the important item to remember with this tank - the weight - this weight stuff is from little cars/modelling tools and is the same stuff but cheaper than deluxe materials ...


then more wheels .... this time for the jagdpanther... thankfully that is the end of wheel painting for me for this Group build.


after a bit of sand on a few bases, it was time to see what they looked like with the vehicles on.


these are the other bases so far, and waiting for me to get some "grass and mud or rubbly type stuff" out to fix on these ones







the half-wheel has been submerged in among the sand:






the little skull has been added and bedded into the sand:




concrete dust has been added among the rubble.



Still a bit more weathering and detail to add on the bases, and the other 2 bases to sort out still; as well as quite a bit of work on the bridgelayer and jagdpanther to get them ready for decalling and finishing off. The earlier ones are still waiting for decals and finishing off.

Tomorrow I hope to make a start on the mud/grass etc for the other two, and sort out the AVRE which I want to base and set off on more than just the kit-base.

[splash]

Those base's are starting to look brilliant, out of all the Matchbox base's which one is your favourite?

[JohnRatzenberger]

The bases are looking great, should be lots of modeling tips for the rest of us when you get the opportunity.

[ShaunW]

Great stuff Chris. I have long preferred Matchbox's military vehicles over their Airfix rivals and one of the reasons in the bases. Some modellers may feel that adding ballast to AFV models is a bit bonkers as they don't generally tail sit! However, although the need for the internal counterweight is reasonably obvious with the AVRE otherwise the crane assembly is likely to pull the model onto its nose, tank models can benefit from some internal weight as is not uncommon for the model to be too light to "sit" on those olde worlde rubber tracks properly.

[chrism]

The instructions actually state to put an ounce of weight in at that end .. But I put a bit more than that in