Merry Christmas to all in 2007. Next week be sure to share with us what you received under the tree!!!

This brings us to the last SNFF before Christmas. Guess wha my subject matter is? Yep the Sherman.

I have a couple of crew members now, and am about to start to weather the tank. Here is the last look at fresh paint.

YHR:

The loader looks like on of the other crewmen just poured hot coffee down the back of his shorts (or did something more rude that isn't postable)

Is it my imagination, or does your commander look like the Cuban commander from 'Red Dawn' ? Want me to post a pic of him, cause I have the movie on DVD. Think its the moustache...

and don't take the comments wrong... very well done, wish I could do figs half that well... and I have ~way~ too many in storage to do myself! (Tamiya, Verlinden and a few Kirin)

Did some more work on my Stug 3B today. almost ready for paint. Actually i have detailed more since these pics were taken. I have also copied some hinges for the missing ones on the rear deck and for the transmission covers on the front. The drivers vision port has been added as have the shrouded headlights. I will be giving this Stug Wittmans markings.

Leo, how do you make your own hinges?

Everything Looks great!!

I actually got about 2 hours of heavily interrupted time to work on the tank today. No pictures.

First thing I did was make the driveshaft hole bigger to accomdate an 8x14 bearing on each side of the hull. First one went nice, then I decided to encase the bearing in styrene for more strength and support in the hole. Worked perfect for the first side, then they came home!

In the middle of enlarging the hole on the right with the dremel sanding bit when the kids starting banging into the table. Ooopskk! Now the hole looks like an egg! Fit the gearbox and while I'm measuring the new hole my wife wants to tell me what was going on at the mall. Cut the new hole and didn't realize that the gearbox wasn't seated properly so now there's another oblong cut on top! ARRRGGGHHH!!!! I chased everyone away and started making some styrene to fill the gaps. That went well and now it's functional, watertight and done! Permanently installed the gearboxes with new wiring, cleaned off the old covers and glued them on after applying a little more grease.

These gearboxes turned within 14 rpms of each other before, now the high mount gearbox has a lot of resistance to turn it. Go figure! I ran it direct to a battery for 30 minutes while I worked on the convoy light.

Murphy's Law got the convoy light. There are 3 LEDs glued together and connected in series. Well only 2 of the 3 LEDs work! Too bad, it's going together anyway! Soldered everything together, shrinkwrapped and painted Blue, the LEDs are blue too. Looks fine with 2.

Merry Christmas!

I use Aves Apoxie sculpt and press it on to the model. Using baby powder as a release i let the aves sit on the model until it hardens. Pop it off and you have a good hinge copy. Then put some powder on the aves mold and press more aves into it. Remove, let cure and BANG good detail hinge copy.

YHR, Sherman VC looks good. You should install periscopes in the TC and driver/BOG hatches to complete it. The loader looks like he chambered the wrong thing in the 17 pounder. [:@]

Still a lo-o-ong way to go---but here's a couple pictures of the "kitbashed" ZIS-5v 3Ton Russian WW2 Cargo Truck I mentioned in reply to Swathy's query about making "static" Transport for the Battlefoeld:

Hi,

New updates.
Put on some decals and done some weathering and painting. I didn’t like the “glossy” area between the turret numbers. So I tried to fix that…the result can be seen in the second pic. I’m too embarrassed to tell you how that happened.. Well, I decided to paint the numbers by my self. You have to judge if it went well.

Regards Jake

Hi Jakeand

Nice looking Tiger. Those darn shiney press on decals are the first things guys upgrade. The painted on numbers look great. 1/16 is large enough for you to do stencils, and even hand paint lettering. Nice Job and thanks for contributing.

I like your picture composure as well

Thx YHR,

Well, this is my first tank and my first try with a paintbrush, so I think the result was better than I expected.

Next step will be adjustable idler wheels and bearings for the drive shafts. A great THX to the forum members for many ideas and solutions for this matter.

Will also test my new gearboxes, more pics and details later.

Regards Jake

Looks like we are going to start seeing some good stuff from you!!!. Let us know what you are cooking up. Never too many chefs!!!!