Me-109 Jagdflieger

you bet, sounds like it will look awesome!
BTW where did you get the hex rod from?
Jonathan

bigfiver69

I couldn't find any here in Toronto where I live and work, so I wound buying it off ebay... just search 'Plastruct hex rod' and you'll find some.

Shep

YHR

Plastruct has a great web page, and I order my stuff directly from them. They even have Nylon gears. Not suitable for 1/16 scale,((Not the ones I ordered anyway) but if you were going to RC a 1/35 scale tank they have some stuff you might be interested in.

Me-109 Jagdflieger

Thanks for the info,
Jonathan

bigfiver69

Hi everyone,

A little update on the Crusader 3. First of all, sorry it's taken so long to complete this, but looks like I'm track for paint by the middle of May.

Adding the rivets was a much larger job than I had anticipated. So far, I've added over 200 rivets (made of styrene hex rodm cut into little slices, and attached with CA). It looks awesome, but it is enormously time consuming. The distinctive stowage boxes were no easy task either.

Riveting should be all done by the weekend, and then I'll post some final pictures of the raw tank before it gets primed and painted.

Thanks all,
Shep

Panther G

Looks amazing. i wish somebody would make some Brit armor. Like a Comet or ValentineMKIX . The vals are very cool looking tanks especially the later MK's

bigfiver69

There are so many great British tanks that deserve to be done in this scale... The later Valentine, the Churchill, the Comet, The Crusader, The Matilda. I was thinking of scratchbuilding a Matilda, but that tank is just too curvy!


The good news is that at least with the upcoming release of the new Shermans and the potential of of a Grant, there will be some good opportunities to get some British armor rolling.

Panzerfaust77

What's wrong with the Valentine Mk1? :P

bigfiver69

The early Valentine was one fugly tank...

bigfiver69

Hi all. Here's a Crusader update.

It's going slowly, but I an soooooo close to paint, I can feel it. I have done all the rivets on the hull and turret, and I have all the stowage boxes on. As well, Ihave etched the panel lines on the rear decking, added the pull handles, and attached the gas tank on the back(this was a total cheat - I used one from the WSN T34.... too short, but I'll see if it feels more in scale when it's painted and weathers. If so, I'll build a new one.

The only things missing now are the lights and they're protective frames, and the air filters and hoses on the rear. Another week or so, and that should all be on. Oh I've got to add the snout of theBesa Machine Gun next to the canon.

I'm getting really excited about painting this tank. Not many of these careening around the 1/16 scale battlefields. Hopefully, someone will kit it out one day (I think Tamiya would make a killing on a full option Cru, but it'll never happen, sadly.)

So... let me know what you all think. Thanks for looking.

Shep

bigfiver69

Hi everyone,

Well, the build is complete, and I've got the Crusader primed and ready for paint. Took about about 6 months longer than I had thought!

Since the last update, I have finished the rivetting, added the lights and lightguards, enlarged the fuel tank and built the air filter boxes and hoses... there's still a little detail to the those that I might add on.

I know a lot of guys prime with a rust-coloured primer, but I used Tamiya fine primer spray (it's a lot like Mr. Surfacer) and it covers beautifully, and really evens out the surface... it covers up a LOT of little mistakes and flaws.

I'm going to let this sit for a week to cure up nice and hard, and then it's onto the desert paint scheme... please let me know what you all think.

Thanks,
Shep

kclank

inspiring!!!!

lthump

Absolutely Top notch, you have used your skills to come up with a one off that everone will drool over. It looks fantastic

bigfiver69

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It's been a long process - this is my first build in this scale - but seeing it all come together with the paint today made it all worthwhile.

On to paint the desert camo next weekend!

Shep

Dongskie

Outstanding!!

 

YHR

Great job to get something you don't see every day. I am sure you have inspired some HL or Tamiya design guy, and now we will see this mass produced. I would have picked this over a KV-1

Me-109 Jagdflieger

wow she looks great cant wait to see her finished

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

There is a simple law in modeling, If you scratchbuild it it will come..... Ihave many examples from my various clubs. It has happened to me three times in 1/35 scale. I've included a few pictures of Ron Bair's work from socal. Almost every vehicle he has scratchbuilt became am RCkit soon after. He's working on a Chafee now!

swathdiver

Outstanding! Great job on the details.

Imagine if the companies made all of these tanks? It'd be like buying a can of soup in the grocery store, which one to pick out of a 1000?

bigfiver69

Thanks again for the nods, fellas!

Iliken the 1/16th RC armor scene today to the 1/35th scale scene back in the early 1970s. There were a few kits, and a LOT of scratchbuidling... which demonstrated to the major manufacturers that there was a desire for variety, and variants. If you were around back in those days (I was pretty young, but my older brother was a BIG builder) there was an absolute explosion of kits between 1974 and 1978. Tamiya and Italeri led the way in 1/35th, and then the smaller manufacturers and aftermarket companies poured in. It was an exciting time for armour builders, and that appears to be going on with 1/16th armour now.

I was actually an aircraft guy, and I built and scratchbuilt a lot of 1/72 scale stuff. But it got really tiresome trying to work detail into models that small... part of the appeal of 1/16th is the size, and the fact that you don't need a magnifying light to see what you're building. My eyes are still okay(I'm 39) but the larger size was a real joy in terms of working up detail. It's also cool running the tanks and seeing them move in such a large scale.

I do hope that the scratchbuilding leads to more product development from the Heng Longs, Tamiyas, WSNs and Matorros of the world. There are so many huge gaps out there, they'll be years filling all the holes.

Once the paint goes on the Cru, it's straight into a scratchbuilt Hetzer. I was going to do a Panzer 38(t), but the Hetzer seems like a more manageable build..... and it just a wicked little tank. That is one tankI'm surprised has not been rumored for development... so many great variants can come off that chassis.

BTW... that Chaffee and that Puma are NICE!!!

Shep

ArmChairGeneral

Good work! I always liked the crusader, pls post a pic when its painted and complete.

bigfiver69

Well, I'm finally into the paint!

Here's the progress on the painting. In the first shot, I've masked the wheels and tracks with foil (easier than masking tape) and laid down the base coat of Tamiya desert yellow.

In the next two shots, I've airbrushed a thin line of dark gray into the corners, edges and panel lines.

In the next few shots, you can see where I then misted some more desert sand over the gray, to blend in the gray shadow lines. It's a great way to simulate oil deposits, build-up a wear. It shows okay in the pics, but it looks ridiculously cool in person.

So.... so far, so good. As you can see, I haven't done the wheels yet. Next steps after that are a dark wash, a drybrush of a lighter sand, and then some chips with a graphite pencil. Also need to add the number codes and tactical symbols.

I was going to freehand a dark brown disruptive camoflage pattern, but I just love the all-over sand of British desert vehicles.

Let me know what you think!

Shep

kclank

i could not be more impressed!.. excellent!!!!

tankman

Fantastic scratchbuild and a great paint job. Wish I had half your skills
Alan

BarkingSquirrel

Thats absolutely jaw dropping work. I could never do anything of such a high caliber as that.