Despite your problems she’s looking good Alan. [Y]
And yeah I’ve thought about picking up the newer AFV Club kit, but I did buy the Bronco one so I HAVE to build it someday.
Sorry about the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks. I had to take a bit of a break from this kit. Every time you think it maybe be going good - nope. Nothing is easy in this kit. Take, for example, the tracks. They cleaned up nicely, went together with a nice snap, and it appeared they would be stable and workable. Nope. The system used is fairly flimsy and unlinks with only slight pressure making putting them on a nightmare. So, they had to be glued together which kind of defeats the purpose of linked tracks. At this point rubber band tracks would be preferred.
Don’t even get me going on the fenders and side skirts. It is simply one thin edge of plastic against another - no alignment or glue points. Sigh. What engineer thought this was a good idea?
Progress so far:
The hull, tracks and fenders have been put together. At this point I wasn’t going to put on the side skirts as most of the pictures I’ve seen lacked them, plus I wanted to show off the tracks which I thought would be nice.
I also removed the photo etch bucket in the back and repositioned it. It was uneven and driving me crazy. In the process the delicate photo etch got a little bent - war damage I’m saying.
At this point, it was apparent the tracks were a nightmare and had to be glued. It’s still a tricky job.
Not the best of jobs. They are a bit wavy, but hopefully it will be masked by the fenders.
I made the decision to use the side skirts to mask the upper tracks. They were time consuming to put together since it was literally a tiny edge of plastic against the other.
To make that join more robust, I used sprue dissolved in Tamiya Extra-Thin to add some plastic for stability.
That’s it for now. On to the turret. Can it get any worst?
Thanks for all the encouragement.
I feel your pain! I didn’t worry about putting the sand shields on either. As you said, most photos show them removed.
As for the turret: The gun breech and shields don’t have a lot of definite glue points either just like the fenders. Lots of tiny, delicate parts for the outside surface of the turret. I lost at least one part that’s supposed to be there and I lost part F15 for the .50 Cal mount. I never could figure out where part E38 went on the hatch edge of the turret.
Keep at it. I’m sure you can get it done. I’m actually pretty happy with the way mine turned out after paint and decals.
Hi AlanF, Good problem solving and thanks for your tips and step-by-step pictures.
Those tweezers have a lot of character and look like they seen many builds.
She looks awesome so far.
Yeah, I wouldn’t worry too much about the shields- looking though Jim Mesko’s ‘Armor in Korea’ and didn’t see them fitted on most M24s, M26s, or M46s past the very early stages of the war.
And I bought the Korean War tiger face version- as if building the thing wasn’t enough work do I want to do all that masking too??? [:XX]
I’ve made a little bit more progress. I needed to put on a coat of primer before attaching the fender/skirts since I wouldn’t be able to get at the tracks otherwise. It really doesn’t look all that bad with a nice black primer coat!
Yes, you are correct. The turret and gun assembly is a mess of unclear instructions. Take the sub-assembly #23. How do you really attach those parts? Looking ahead doesn’t give a clear indication since the left side is never shown. If you do this as a sub-assembly - good luck getting everything aligned. The solution is to ignore this step and actually assemble it with the main gun. (Good advice for most of the sub-assembly instructions so far.)
Doing so allows you to see how the parts are positioned and gives you addition support and attachment points that the sub-assembly lacked. There are lots of small parts but it is looking good. I still need to do a bit of cleanup and re-alignment but so far I’m happy with it.
´
Note:
If you are going through the cost of printing a nice instruction booklet, at least spend some time actually making good instructions. Show the parts assembled and from various angles. I really have no idea how to attach the tools, the instructions are so vague but they did go into a lot of detail on the photo etch parts the hold the tools on, not so much as to how to actually place them and no pictures/drawing showing them placed. Grrrhhhh….
LOL. Yup, they have seen better days but nothing that some sandpaper, to keep them sharp, can’t fix. I should break down and buy some new ones.
Alan
I certainly agree with you about the instructions. They use all the fancy CAD generated drawings, but that doesn’t help when the rest of the instructions are poorly done.
What you did, building the #23 subassembly on the gun itself, is exactly how I did it too. I think it’s really the only way to locate the parts correctly.
I’ve made a lot of progress since my last update.
The side skirts have been applied and they actually fit well. The tools on the other hand are probably wrongly placed. The instructions were very unclear and there were no pictures of the final assembly. I think the shovel needs to be on top of all the other tools but this crew decided otherwise! I’m not sure what I am going to do for tie downs. I’m not using the PE but I might use thin strips of masking tape or just leave them.
Some other bits needed to be placed after the fenders and side skirts went on.
The upper half of the turret was assembled. There were 2 main issues here. The large hatch did not fit. I could have assembled it opened and bypass the fit problem (and I should have) but at this point I wanted it closed. I needed to slowly cut out the plastic between the hinges and test fit. It finally came together. The ammo box was another issue. What engineer thinks of making a small scale ammo box with SIX individual poorly molded sections and then wrap it in PE. Like that is going to fit ok? I did attempt it and, well, it wasn’t pretty. Fortunately I had a spare from another kit and it fit well.
The lower half of the turret went together fairly well. The main problem was with the gear/wheel assembly placement. There is no way it could be placed according to the instructions. I looked at some pictures online and placed it where i thought it should go. I had to modify it a bit later on since the top of the turret wouldn’t fit with it as placed here.
With that done, it was time for some more primer. I used Stynylrez Black for the outside and Stynylrez grey for the inside. (I need to buy some white.)
Now it was time to paint the inside of the turret white and weather it up. Online pictures were all over the place - white everywhere, black or white gun, grey floors, white floors, grey. I decided to try using some Tamiya Smoke over the gun to give it a “dirty/used” look. I also added some black dirt washes. You aren’t going to see much with the one open hatch but I liked the way it came out.
With the upper and lower turret halves assembled it was time for a final primer pass.
She is already for painting now and for all the struggles, she’s looking pretty good at this point.
As always, thanks for the views and comments.
Excuse Me ;
You said the back rack was off . Maybe it was the result of an in the field repair ? Looking good anyway . T.B.
Looks awesome Alan!
Love how the interior came out.
She is starting to actually look like a Chaffee! A nice coat of olive drab base with some lighter and darker shades added. It’s hard to see in the photos, but trust me, it looks pretty good. I’m not a fan of the black/white base coat with olive drab over it although people do get amazing results with it. I think I have more control by applying darker and lighter shades to the olive drab.
Now for some final painting and weathering. She is almost done.
Weathering and pesky field repairs can always help.
That interior work and base coat outside looks good.
She looks good in OD green!!!
Small nitpick, is the interior of the hatch supposed to be interior white? I though they were painted the same colour as the outer hull so as not to stand out for snipers. Someone else would know better than I though.
That sounds reasonable Gamera. It’s hard to find pictures of it. Most models do show it olive drab. There is one picture of a Chaffee near the bottom of the page and it is in white but it is a Greek tank (http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/US/M24_Chaffee.php ).
Does anyone know? If not, I’ll take your advice and make it olive drab.
Looks like you’re wrestling this one into compliance, Mike! Paint and construction all are looking great.
I agree with you too about that Black-White style. Seems like a lot of work to me. I go for the shading of base coat every time too. 
The end is near. The Chaffee was gloss coated, decaled and had a dark olive green “panel” and streak wash applied. It’s hard to see with all that gloss! The decals were not nice - thick and fairly resistance to softeners. The rear star has some damage when it was trying to conform to some of the raised detail but I’ll deal with that during the final weathering.
All that remains is a dull coat and final weathering. It’s so close to being done. I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish it before heading off for a 2 week vacation in Boston/CT in a few days. So it may be awhile before the final pics are posted.
Thanks for all the views and comments.