I started the Academy M18 just before I found out about the Italeri Group Build (what a great GB, and what a great facilitator - Tigerman). I’ve been inching along making progress in the shadows of that effort (note the Hetzer in the background)
The top and bottom hulls are not yet attached, and no tracks yet either, but I wanted to display a few photos anyway. This is the first of four M18 kits I have (2 Academy, 2 AFV Club). Since I already attached the muzzle break, I’m forced into finishing this as a late production version. Comments and suggestions are of course welcome…just keep in mind that I just started this modeling stuff a few months ago and am still on the steep part of the learning curve.
Nice job so far! The details are very good on that kit. I made that one not so long ago and I enjoyed the build.
You seem to had less difficulty to put the light guards than me. Mine looks like misaligned pieces of plastic with a big blob of glue in the middle. I can see a slight misalignment but you did good considering the parts you had. That’s the only problem I recall with this kit.
What have you planned to do with it? In a dio or not? Will it be very dusty and weathered or just that subtile used look?
I plan on keeping this particular model fairly clean. Maybe a few weeks on patrol with no action, or maybe an urban control situation. The real reason is because I’m really bad at weathering still. I need another junk model to practice on. I was using this Walker Bulldog as my test piece until I accidently put a great looking camo pattern that was too good to cover up.
Your M36 to me is the Holy Grail. It takes the skill of an artist to pull off the work that you did.
You should take care of the mold line onthe Ma Deuce’s receiver body, that should be flat. There’s also a bit of mold line on the rod running back to front on th eturret betweenthe openings and on the stowed tripod. Other than that, you’re on your way to a good build.
Larry, it looks great so far. I got this baby in the stash. Other than the light-guards, any problems to be aware of? I heard you should use the link-and-lengths. What do you think?
Larry, don’t be discouraged about weathering. I don’t do heavily done ones, because I can’t and I don’t do dios.
Man, do you have a sharp eye. I had to go back and really look at the rod to see the mold line. What is a “Ma Deuce’s receiver body” ? What ever it is I’ll try to fix it. Thanks a lot for the constructive critique’, it is well taken.
That happend often to me: I realized there was mold lines once everything was painted and weathered. Now I’m very carefull when getting the parts off the sprue, I check if there is a mold line and I sand it.
Sorry about the Ma Deuce receiver comment. Ma Deuce is the slang name for the M2 .50 caliber machine gun.The receiver is the main body of the gun. The upper surface should be flat.
The light guards were insane, but I think I had the most difficulty with the inside of the open turret. There’s a sub-assembly with a little floor, a couple chairs and something that looks like an accelerator pedal. You put it all together and pray that it matches up with the connecting holes around the underside of the turret. It took me 2 or 3 tries to get it just right.
The other thing for me were the decisions to use the muzzle brake, and whether to leave the driver and co-driver hatches open or closed. After I committed to the muzzle brake, I saw a picture of an M18 from the 805th Battalion in Northen Italy, April 1945 that had great looking markings. But that one did not have the muzzle brake, and I didn’t want to do any “plastic surgery” to remove it. I’ll probably make that version with the AFV kit I have.
Regarding the track assembly, I’ll probably take the easy way out this time, unless a sudden flash of motivation strikes me at the last minute.
Hey, I like learning new things in the field of Tankology. It’s great that you share your knowledge in on this topic. I appreciate it and hope you continue doing so.
Thanks a lot M60A3. That is a great compliment. I’m not sure what led me to become interested in this back in July, but I’m glad I’ve picked up this hobby.
It completey escapes me how anyone can actually paint the human figures in the diaramas. The ones I’ve seen in this forum are superb. Is it cheating to buy “already built and painted” soldiers to place in a diarama? I know of course that it is, but it is a temptation [;)]
I know what you mean, I’ve succeeded a few time at it but I’ve screwed up a few of them also. I always try to make them and if they’re not good, I simply trow them in the spare box and maybe I’ll try later. Give it a try, just paint the main colors, then make a wash of a darker color to gives deepness and shadows and then do some drybrushing with a lighter color to highlight the clothes.
Or buy already painted figures, what you want is a good looking diorama and those figures are there for that. Go ahead.
If the dio will stay on your shelf, prepainted is fine. If you plan on taking it to a competition, you should do your own.
Figures are tough, but they are also very rewarding and may very well be the only segment that the general public can fully appreciate. The average person couldn’t tell a Tiger from a Sherman, but, while they may not know one uniform form the next, they know what humans look like and can immediately tell when a figure looks good.
