Paint update

Hello gang,

My apologizes for not posting soon, had a few "Life interruptus" moments since I last posted.

Anyways, here's were the paint stands.

I had to break down and buy a rattle can of  Model Master Olive drab to complete the hull.
It was taking too much time and I wasn't getting the coverage I wanted on the underside, running gear areas.

So here's some shots of that progress.

I had no challenges with the turret paint, coverage was good, but I still had to spray everything.

Now, I think I mentioned earlier that I live in a apartment complex and air brushing wasn't really a good idea because of the compressor noise and such. So, having said that, I was at a bit of a loss on how I was going to use a rattle can to complete the task. Hmmmm, how about I make a booth! But what do I have?

Well, here's what I came up with...................

Not bad if I do say so.......Redneck paint booth coming to a store near you.

Wow! Not bad! The paint booth was an old cat lounger frame and I used butcher string on the top so I could hang the parts to paint. A cardboard box was used for the backing. Quick and simple. 

Now, I let that dry, inside, for 12 hours/overnight and started weathering/texture of the kit today.

I used an "old school" way of texturing the Aux. Gen. exhaust pipes. (See photos below.)

White glue or liquid cement and baking soda/powder. 

This process you can find in Sheperd Paine's book, "Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles." Chapter 3, Weathering. 

Here's how it was done if you don't have the book as I mentioned in the above.

1. Brush on a small amount of white glue to area. Make sure you have little to no excess showing.

2. With same brush, lightly dip the brush into some baking soda or baking powder. Use a "junk" brush for this whole process.

3. Apply powder or soda to tow cables, exhaust, anything that in the real world would be exposed to the weather and would rust over time. 

4. Gently brush off area with clean brush to remove excess powder or soda before glue completely dries. 

5. Let dry. 10 to 30 minutes. The longer the better.

6. Semi dry brush on "rust" color, then dry brush "gun metal" color. Repeat this step if needed.

You might want to practice on any spare parts that you might have lying around, just to get the feel for it first.

Anyways, I still have the tracks to do. The rattle can run out before I could nail them. 

And so continues the paint. I hope this has been somewhat informative for everyone that has popped in so far.

Until next post............See ya in the funnies....................................

Got Paint?

Well, I've got some paint on the M103 now. 

Needs second coat on the turret and I've applied the first coat to the hull. 

For those of you that are curious on what brushes I'm using, well, their Horse hair and I'm using a number 4 and number 6 broad head brushes to paint with. 

Well, why are you hand brushing this beast? First, I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and using an airbrush is not an option. 

Now I know their are compressors out there that are made to run quietly, but I really don't have the cash right now to get one. Besides, I have more control and I can see were I've missed better than an airbrush. 

Well, what about brush lines? 

What about them? Brush lines add a personal touch to the kit, it says, "Hey, I did this!" And if done right other people won't be able to tell if you airbrushed the kit or not. 

Well, you be the judge. Here's some photo's.

And here's some of the hull.

Now, total paint time so far, about 2.5 hours. Hull: 2 hours with about another 1 hour to finish. Turret: Roughly 30 mins. for first coat, 30/45 mins. needed more for second coat. 

So total time for paint, after second coats, will be about 6-8 hours. This does not include drying time. 

My apologizes for not posting sooner everyone, I've had to move into a different room. 

Anyways, that all for now. 

See ya in the funnies...................................

Well, guess I'm not completely done.

Hello again.

It would seem I'm not completely finished with the build.
It needs some paint! LOL.

Anyways, I'll be doing the paint here in the next few days. I've got to take inventory of my paint stash and hope I've got enough.

Oh, by the way everyone, I don't use an airbrush when I paint these kit. I still hand paint every kit.

I'll post some of these works later.

Till then.

See ya in the funnies......................

Last Blog entry of the M103 build.

Hello again,

Well, this is last blog post for the M103 build.

Here's the updates:
First, Lets talk PE's. Step 5, section "G", rear deck.  All PE's are marked MA. Note MA8/MA4 and MA5/MA7 on the instruction sheet. These are very small and will be lost to the carpet monster if great care is not taken.

Please note also there are x2 MA5/MA7 that need to be installed.

Somehow I missed this. Builder error on that one.

I also placed the one I did install in the wrong place. Again, builder error. (See photo below.)

Note the placement of MA5/MA7 needs to be higher.
















Now we move on to the M2HB install. Part J17 is the M2HB .50 Cal. Machine gun. Note in the photo below the blue areas in the "after thought" window box. These are for the M2 when it is placed on a tripod mount and are not needed. When removing the pintle mount on the front of J17, take care in removing, there is a notch in the PE cradle that fits there and removing too much will make the M2 sit funny on the cradle.

In this photo below we see the M2HB sitting in the cradle. Ummm, whats wrong with this photo? The receiver cover isn't sitting correctly. A simple shave with take care of that.

Shaved the receiver down, fit fine now. (See below.)

Note for you M2HB guys, the charge handle is molded into the receiver cover, Part J23. So if this upsets the balance of nature in your world, replace it with an aftermarket M2HB. Challenge solved.

Anyways, all major construction is done. PE's are on. Guess this is were we part ways. But first, the final photo's.

I'd like to thank Jim Starkweather and Darren Baker at Armorama.com for giving me this chance to build this kit. While I've been doing the Blog here, I've been also posting this build at www.armorama.com.

Thanks for tuning in. Questions and comment can be posted here or at Armorama.com

See ya in the funnies.............................