Here is my latest. It is AFV Club’s new(ish) M40 SP Howitzer. I made a few additions and corrections. The biggest is that I lengthened the cradle on the gun by 8mm to fix AFV Club’s error. Apparently they used an 8" howitzer cradle as reference, which is shorter than the 155mm cradle. The inaccuracy is also present on their M59 (M1) Long Tom kit as well since it uses the same gun and cradle parts. Here is a thread at M-L that talks about the cradle length issue. You can see where I added the extra length. I used a couple spare Sherman road wheels as spacers.
I swapped out the kit tracks with a set of T-80 steel block track from Dragon. The ones that come in the kit are from late WWII. I also added correct decals since the ones in the kit are incomplete. I have depicted B 11 “Big Bruiser” from the 937th FA Bn “Arkansas Long Toms” assigned to the 8th Army in Korea in 1953.
I also added extra track blocks from AFV Club’s T-80 set to the front glacis and made retaining straps from left over PE frets.
Thanks guys. Yeah, this one took me a while. I have been kind of bogged down with my Master’s program and not motivated to do models. Hopefully, wih the new year, I can get back into the swing of things.
NICE BUILD. Ive got one in the stash just begging for some glue. What references did you use? Any other items I should be aware of when I build mine? How did you cut the gun so straight?
In addition to the above, I made a few other modifications such as cutting the tabs off the spade gussets, adding a fire extinguisher from the spares box, making the retaining straps on the spare track racks, adding barrel lift rings, lengthening the barrel, and swapping the tracks, it is OOB.
It is a great kit and I highly recommend it. No issues with building it at all. It comes with PE and rifled metal barrel as well.
Very carefully.[:D] I just went slow and kept it as straight as possible.
Woah! great work! After seeing how much you know about pretty much anything military related, Ive been wanting to see some of your work! Only two things I noticed. In the first picture, you can see a little of the clear part of the decal from the Star, although Im not great at decals either, so no big deal. Second, some of the rust seemed a bit monotone in my opinion. I know it varies a lot, and its however you like it, but most rust Ive seen has different shades and colors to it. Great work!
Thanks Ian. Yup, the camera brings up the decals. You can’t actually see them with the naked eye. Same on the rust/dirt colors. I think it is the lighting, but it tends to wash them out. There are actually 3 different browns that make the rust/dirt mix.
