Great job on your figures. I’m about to paint my very first figure in a day or two and can only hope to do as well.
Hello everybody!
Sorry it has taken me so long to answer your comments…
@RealG - I’m glad you like my figs and also that you agree with my theory here!
@mrb865 - thanks a lot! It’s been a log time I hope your figs are painted and lookin’ good! Is there a chance to see them here on the forums?
I’m working further on the interior and the figures - I hope when I have this sorted out, the rest of the model will go much easier. For now the going is pretty rough, because the references are so scarce.
I started to build the twin M2 mount and here I got lucky because I managed to find a manual for it:
It’s a valuable document - such mount was also used on later PBRs and Swift boats. I would like to ask some of you, who have a scribd account to download it as pdf and post it here - that could really help.
After studying that manual it got clear that Gecko didn’t read it because of how they got some of the decals wrong - OK, it happens. Luckily the corrections aren’t very hard to do. So I started working:
Nice PE parts that come in the kit, but the assembly isn’t really fun. My advice - don’t attempt to keep the elevation movable - this might drive you mad and in the end the ammo chutes attached to the actual guns are not flexible anyway - so one saves a lot of aggravation by just choosing some arbitrary elevation angle (something close to zero) and sticking to it - glue is involveds so it’s a kind of a pun, I guess?
The base - in the real thing the gunner sat on a strap across the arc of the rear armor and had two integral boxes for 500 belted rounds each. So they were much bigger than your standard ammo box and that’s what Gecko imagined those were - so, no.
This is after painting and dry fit:
And my problem is this: For small traverse adjustments there is a crank, but for major and quick shifts the gunner has to nudge that mount - and for that he needs a substantial platform. What Gecko has you build there is not only very tricky to assemble, but also pretty ridiculous looking. First thing it has a small ladder for mounting the mount from the front - which is the worst direction, because of these ammo boxes being in the way. Also, the height of that platform doesn’t gel with the period photos - because of how much the gunner sticks out. So now I have some serios doubts… What to do??? I will probably do some “science fiction” and I don’t like that. But I also can’t really leave the space empty, with the gunner’s feet hanging in the air…
So that would be it for my first world problems… Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
Paweł
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