On another board where I post we have a weekly picture posting day. We call it Sunday night Photo Fun or SNFF for short. This is a model railroad board(My other hobby) It is a free board and you are free to do whatever you want, but we found having a thread dedicated to pictures from modelers was an inspiring way to model. If I may be so bold as to attempt to start the first SNFF on the tank forum. If you have pictures you want to show off of your tank modeling just add them to this thread. This is not meant to be a judging contest, just some friendly inspiration for others. What it does is challenge you to be productive during the week so you have something to show on Sunday. I'll try this for a few Sundays and see who shows up to contribute. If it catches on great, if not, oh well.

I'll post a picture of the Tiger I am currently working on.





This is a Heng Long Tiger with a 1/18 scale commander added. Once I bought metal tracks I had lots of extra plastic links. So I scratch built some track fasteners and added extra track linkages to the side of the tank. The German Battle flag is made on my inkjet printer as are the decals. I've been told this is really a marine flag, but I saw a war photo of a tank flying this flag. Someone else confirmed that near the end of the war this flag did show up in other venues besides the Navy. I bought my first tank a couple of months ago, and the darn things are consuming me. Heng long should be giving a prize for producing a tank that although cheap, offers many "opportunites" for improvement.

Second photo is one of my Bulldog. I just added metal tracks and drive wheels this weekend. Figures are from [link=http://smalljoes.com/21stcentury_xd_xtreme_118figures.shtml]Smalljoes[/link]

on the way to the battlefield. My HL Tiger is first in line.

I know its not sunday but I got it done today and I don't think I'm going to be around tomarrow. I liked the look of a fenderless tank so I went for it. I kinda wanted it to look like something that was done in the field. I also tried to add some damage. Hope you like it. I am very pleased with it. I would like to know how to "bend" and cause indentations. my sodering iron just melts the plastic.
Thanks
Brock

Wow Rambeast. I love the bold look of a perishing without the fenders, but ya, the "field cuts" need to look more cut instead of melted :P

love the look but im not going to do that to mine.

Cuts?

Try a jewelers saw. It looks like one of those cheap hobby hacksaws, but the blade is thin... it needs the frame for tension cause even a fragment in an X-acto bends. If youjust want to add the look, use a hobby hacksaw blade and drag it up and doen the cut edge a few times like a file. If you don't own a hacksaw, look in the Dollar store for cheap hobby ones, or even just the blades, cause ya can stuff 'em, into X-axto knife handles (can post a pic if you like)

For softening the plastic to bend it, make a narrowing duct out of foil that looks like the fine suction nozzle on a vacuum (pie plate foil is perfect) With fine output, you can direct the heat where ya want it without actual contact. Test it out on a scrap or two first, as you may not need to be as close as you think. Empty soda-pop bottles make great test material.

WARNING: this 'duct' MAY overheat the dryer fast, so make the duct removable and use an old winter glove or oven mit cause it'll me HOT, or better yet make sure your dryer has a blow with low/no heat setting to cool the elements. I have both a cheap dryer and a proper heat gun, and use whichever depending on my needs.