Looking really nice so far and the detail on this molding is amazing. I bought the Academy version many years ago, as soon as it was released (still to be built). It appears this kit is light years above it, am I wrong?
Short Story; I was in the 3rd Sqdrn. 3rd Armored Cavalry, stationed at Ft. Bliss TX when the development of the Sgt. York was going on in the early 80’s (McGregor Test Area). I still remember some of the testing that we supported. During one test they were integrating it with the Armored Cavalry role ( like a ZSU-23-4 or Gepard would). Within 5 minutes of the demonstration it identified a friendly target drone as hostle, and it was not the first or last time that happened. As a matter of fact, one time when the system was turned on it systemically turned kind of back toward the spectator stand and made VIP’s and Ft. Bliss ADA brass scatter. It also had tracking problems often taking too long to identify a target before they were out of range. Later in one demonstration the ADA electronics portion of the turret appeared to break down. So what happened next you ask (?), they shot off all the flares / smoke grenades and went in reverse at high speed with a dead turret. Some of the Cav crews were not happy when the smoke and canisters bounced off thier vehicles. To make it worse, VIP’s from Washington flew into watch the demonstration and nobody was impressed. I believe from what I remember during the time of the development of the Sgt. York, it was kind of doomed early on when they chose to mix multiple off the shelf technologies. The compatibility issues delayed and extended its development along with greatly increasing its costs. I remember around 1985 the Secretary of Defense cancelled the project. I think the Gepard and ZSU proved that it was a good concept, but the politics and parts mix on a fixed budget doomed the Sgt. York project before it really started, and the rest they say is history.
Gamera - I might say that I even enjoyed building those tracks!
Ben - now that’s a cool story!
Can you tell me what the test vehicles were painted like? And were they prepared “extra pretty” for the presentations since the brass were lookin’ at 'em? I’m aiming to show such a presentation vehicle with my model.
I tried to reply to your thread twice but the forum deleted one before I could post it and the second one never updated (forum problems with Safari?)
In 1985 while at Ft. Bliss, there were two M247 Sgt. York vehicles that I saw. One was painted in the period desert camouflage (like our 3rd ACR vehicles). While the other was two tone. The chassis was in the desert scheme but the turret was part part Army Green on the front ammo covers and mast antenna and one road wheel on the left side (forgot which one though).
I was only at the range a couple different days, not the whole time, and not all day on those days either. I figured they pretty one was used for “show” while the other one could’ve been a “parts vehicle” in case they couldn’t get stuff into the range fast enough and that represented the multi color parts.
The support vehicles used in group testing were M60 A3 MBT’s along with some M113 Cav Scout vehicles. There were also some 2 1/2 ton trucks pulling water trailers to haul the support and range crews, a couple GMC Jimmy Army versions in desert cammo. If I remember correctly, one of those days they also tested beside a vulcan M113 and Chapparal (think sidewinders on a single person turret bolted in the back of a M548). There were even some POV’s entering control area, not on the test range.
Movin’ on with the turret! Takom has a quite strange build sequence in its instructions - they recommend to detail the top half of the turret and just then to put it on the lower half. For one all those details may get damaged in progress. the other thing is the top half has a slight tendency to warp, and this warp might get reinforced by glueing in all the hatches, reinforcements and so on. This is why I decided to first join the halves, do the filling and sanding, and just then to start detailing. To do this I first painted the parts that might be hard to do afterwards and then put it all together. Now my turret looks like this:
When I read your comment for the first time, I thought: “Nah, I’m way past the half now!”… But some weeks later I think you were quite close to the truth… So I’ve got most of the turret details on and it was a lot of fun. Here’s what it looks like now:
Now in the second photo you can see the “pocket” into which the tracking radar retracts. I want to paint this space before I fix the outer armor in place, otherwise the access to it will be really problematic. So this is what I’m concentrating on now, and when it’s painted then I’ll finish the construction.
Nice work on the turret. Sometimes those cramped places are a source of concern and need to be attended to. BTW did the tracks come with the kit, or are they AM? This is really looking good.
Hello TigerII! Thanks a lot for your comment and for your kind words.
Yes, those are the kit tracks and like I wrote I like them a lot. They are complicated and need attention to get right, but at the same time they are very well designed and made and in the end I enjoyed building them and I like the end result a lot.
Thanks a lot for your kind words, they mean a lot to me!
I’ve painted the “pocket” in order to move on with the construction. This was also a trial to see how the painting of MERDC will go. For this I used the “orange” Hataka paints - this was a “first” for me - and I can heartly recommend them.
This is how it looks right now:
So now I intend to finish building and start painting the whole thing. Thanks for looking and have a nice day
She’s coming along well Pawel! I like to just assemble the whole thing before painting but I know what you mean there about having to paint some parts before attaching others.
Thanks a lot for your comments and your support, I’m sorry to get back to you so late!
Gamera - right, I like to paint when everything is built, too, but sometimes this created spaces that would be unnecessarily hard to tackle afterwards, right?
And my next update is also about painting. Like Rob already wrote, on a real tank painting anything below the fenders doesn’t make much sense, but this is supposed to show a “presentation for generals” machine, so I painted a real-deal MERDC on the lower hull:
I have also painted the tracks and all those wheels:
The plan now is to add some shading and some minimal dust, then assemple the tracks and mask them off. Then I’ll be able to paint the top of the machine.
