It's been a bit hectic here recently - my wife has been waiting for an operation on her knee, and a date came up suddenly. That was then cancelled the day before, and a new appointment made. She's out now and hobbling about, so I've managed to make a little bit of progress on my second build for this GB - the Revell 1/72 Leopard 1 A5.
Box and sprue shots:
Now, Dave Ward has already built this, and I'd noted his excellent tip to ignore the instructions and build up the wheels and tracks before adding the side plates to the hull, for easier access to the tracks. Sad old git that I am, I then forgot, and glued the side plates on, as well as adding the end plate to the hull to make access even more difficult.
It's too cold to go in the garage to airbrush, so I brush-painted the wheels and sides with thinned Tamiya NATO green.
While that was drying I got on with the turret. The Leopard had add-on armour that stands proud of the main turret, which didn't fit too well, but a few clamps and rubber nads held it in place while a good dose of Extra Thin fixed the stand-off pillars to the turret sides.
I then added a blob of Mr Surfacer 500 to each joint to blend them in a bit.
After gluing the upper hull on, and adding some grilles, I couldn't put off the tracks any longer, so after brush painting them as instructed by Revell (70% Rust, 30% Iron - I had a car like that one!) I started to fiddle the individual links into place on the sprocket. Then disaster struck - I've lost a length of 6 track links part 15 on the instructions.
Now I'm used to small parts jumping out of the tweezers, but I'd put this part down on my workstation while I had a look at the corresponding part for the other end, but when I came back to it, it wasn't there! Not the end of the world if I can't find it, because as Dave pointed out you can't see the top run of track when the skirts go on, so I can pinch some links from there, but I'd rather not, so I'm taking a break now and will have another look in daylight.
So this is how far I've got with the tracks:
Sorry about the lousy photos.
Pete
Box and sprue shots:
Now, Dave Ward has already built this, and I'd noted his excellent tip to ignore the instructions and build up the wheels and tracks before adding the side plates to the hull, for easier access to the tracks. Sad old git that I am, I then forgot, and glued the side plates on, as well as adding the end plate to the hull to make access even more difficult.
It's too cold to go in the garage to airbrush, so I brush-painted the wheels and sides with thinned Tamiya NATO green.
While that was drying I got on with the turret. The Leopard had add-on armour that stands proud of the main turret, which didn't fit too well, but a few clamps and rubber nads held it in place while a good dose of Extra Thin fixed the stand-off pillars to the turret sides.
I then added a blob of Mr Surfacer 500 to each joint to blend them in a bit.
After gluing the upper hull on, and adding some grilles, I couldn't put off the tracks any longer, so after brush painting them as instructed by Revell (70% Rust, 30% Iron - I had a car like that one!) I started to fiddle the individual links into place on the sprocket. Then disaster struck - I've lost a length of 6 track links part 15 on the instructions.
Now I'm used to small parts jumping out of the tweezers, but I'd put this part down on my workstation while I had a look at the corresponding part for the other end, but when I came back to it, it wasn't there! Not the end of the world if I can't find it, because as Dave pointed out you can't see the top run of track when the skirts go on, so I can pinch some links from there, but I'd rather not, so I'm taking a break now and will have another look in daylight.
So this is how far I've got with the tracks:
Sorry about the lousy photos.
Pete
