1/35 Bronco Bishop SPG - forum choice

[Dave Ward]

Primed & basecoated......................

I'll detail paint the rubber bits & assemble the wheels to the chassis, before starting the tedious task of the tracks - 101 links per side..........
Dave

 

[Mini Me]

Good progress Dave, How's the PC working?
Rick H.

 

[Dave Ward]

Rick,
PC is working OK, thanks & actually is quieter, as I cleaned the fans & grilles!
Dave

 

[papa 695]

Nice start Dave

 

[Graeme C.]

Good progress Dave, I have a black & white photo of the fighting compartment (I can post it if that's ok) and the interior looks a pale, possibly white colour.

 

[Dave Ward]

Graeme,
yes, please, post your picture - as I have said, pictures of the Bishop's interior are scarce!
Dave

 

[Graeme C.]

Here it is Dave, It's the only one I have found. For reference/discussion only.

 

[Dave Ward]

Thanks for that Graeme - I've never seen that before - even though that box mounting looks big, the Valentine was a small tank, so it looks a little cosy in there
Dave

 

[Graeme C.]

With a couple crew & a big gun, it would be rather cramped & difficult to work in when firing.

 

[Jakko]

I have seen that picture before. I’m trying to remember if there was an article about Bishop in Military Modelling at some point, which is likely where I would have seen it. I’ll see about finding it tomorrow, if I don’t forget

 

[MikeC]

Mike,
in this case, it's deciding where the interior finishes & where the fighting compartment starts, being a total rush job, I wonder if they didn't just paint it one colour - photo references for the internals of a Bishop are a little bit scarce
Dave

Dave,
Agreed, I was working from the Mike Starmer reference booklets.
Mike

 

[prichrd1]

Dave,

You may find this video of interest -

Youtube

It's a "World of Tanks" video - but at 39" to 1' 26" there is a short b/w video of an actual Bishop in action.
Later on at 2' 41" there are a series of "stills" and a few more at 3' 31".

HTH,
Paul.

 

[Jakko]

I looked it up, and I did indeed see the photo Graeme posted in Military Modelling — to be precise, Vol. 40, No. 14 (26 November 2010), on page 30. The caption for this picture points out:—

Note that while the turret interior is painted white, whereas [sic] the inner face of the doors is darker, i.e. still in SCC2.

…but doesn’t mention the hull interior colour, and neither does the rest of the article. This accompanies an article by Steve Zaloga about converting the MiniArt Valentine to a Bishop, and in that, he has painted the hull interior white — but there’s no mention even of that he has (other than a photo), let alone why he picked that colour, so this doesn’t help either.

 

[Dave Ward]

Jakko,
thanks for that! I think I'm going to paint the drivers' compartment silver, and the internal faces of the hull the same. The internal of the fighting compartment white, along with any gear fitted to fit the 25pdr. It's going to be a matter of what is visible, in the end!
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

Wheels assembled to the suspension - for some reason, the wheel inserts are keyed to fit in a particular orientation - why, I don't know. You can't see both sides of the wheels & there are no through holes to line up - either way, it makes them difficult to assemble.

Each track link has 3 sprue attachment points, but with a new scalpel blade, there's no cleanup needed. The only tricky bit is their size, big fingers don't help. They fit snugly together - I don't think you could call them 'working' tracks, but I think wrapping them round sprockets/idlers is going to be relatively easy. Photos show the Bishop with and without sand shields - I think generally those in North Africa had them fitted - those in Sicily had them removed, but it's difficult to be positive. This makes quite a difference - the sand shields hide the top run of the tracks, so a bit of tedious work can be saved!
Dave

 

[outrunner]

Looking good so far, are the track links snap together items?

Andy.

 

[Dave Ward]

Andy,
they do snap together, but not securely enough to do without TET - just sufficient to fit round the sprockets ( and track sag ).
Dave

 

[Steve Jones]

A little late to the party I'm afraid Dave. Looks a wonderful kit and I like what you have done to it. I agree with the interior paintwork scheme you are going for. It doesnt make a great difference but the white the British used was gloss so you may want to add a bit of gloss varnish to the white that you use or give it a gloss varnish finish once done. I have a few interior pictures for you. Please remember the colour photos are from someone adding the colour themselves rather than actually taking a colour photo so their intereptation should be taken with a pinch of salt. If you require any outside photos of the Bishop let me know.

 

[Dave Ward]

Steve,
thanks for the photos of the Bishop - some of them - especially the 3rd - have a really 'used'' look to them. if you did that on a model, you could be accused of overdoing it!
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

I really hit a wall over the weekend - I sat down several times at the bench, and couldn't raise any interest - I looked at the Bishop & I looked at my pair of Mittens, and just didn't feel like doing anything - a real fine time to lose the mojo!
At the moment, it's getting difficult to distinguish what day it is - I had to look up when Good Friday was ( 10th ), and holidays have no meaning in present circumstances.
Instead, I've been doing a little retail therapy - On ebay, I bought several books, none of which seem to be available as ebooks. Otherwise, I've ordered a couple of submarines - I feel that I must try & do a seascape, so I spent several hours researching models, then finding the best deal. I'll post them up when they arrive..............
Dave