US Army M32B1 Tank Recovery Vehicle

[Jakko]

Thanks, not too much of him will be visible, so it’s not really a problem that his head seems a little on the large side. Now I just need to paint him, which isn’t my favourite passtime, really. Well, that, and build the bag that held the signal flags on the rear wall of the turret, and with that done I can paint the interior.

 

[minitnkr]

Very nice details.

 

[JR]

You always manage to find out so much on your builds , and then pack as much in as you can.
Always interesting to follow .

 

[Code no 10]

The detail of the interior detail mind-boggling. My utmost respect for such quality build!

 

[Jack L]

The detail of ‘if the clutch is engaged, there needs to be someone sat there’ is something that blows my mind. Unless building a diorama, would never have crossed my mind. Let alone thinking about what position the clutch is in.

 

[adt70hk]

Jakko,

Just had a catch-up and I think the others have summed up how I feel perfectly.

Keep up the great work.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Tim Marlow]

Excellent research and build as always. Very thorough Jakko

 

[Jakko]

Thanks, all

You always manage to find out so much on your builds , and then pack as much in as you can.

The background of the vehicles I build interests me, so that comes kind of naturally Doing that kind of research also helps in making the models more accurate, because if you know what certain bits are for and how they were used, you’re less likely to build them wrong, IMHO.

The detail of ‘if the clutch is engaged, there needs to be someone sat there’ is something that blows my mind. Unless building a diorama, would never have crossed my mind. Let alone thinking about what position the clutch is in.

It helps that someone gave me a scan of the tech manual for this vehicle, and that includes a chapter on how to operate the recovery equipment. The main part about the winch are section e and f on these pages:



Another chapter describes the lever positions:



TBH it took me a bit of going back and forth between them to work out which positions the clutch levers needed to be in

My idea is to have the winch cable be just detached from the roller assembly, with one or two figures standing on it as if they’ve just been installing the whole thing. That’s why there needs to be a driver in the seat, really: they wouldn’t be doing that without.

 

[stillp]

I still have trouble remembering to put a pilot in the seat of a plane that has the wheels up!
Pete

 

[JR]

Can never remember a Scammell or the Leyland being as complicated when using the winch.

 

[Jakko]

I still have trouble remembering to put a pilot in the seat of a plane that has the wheels up!

Not a problem:

Can never remember a Scammell or the Leyland being as complicated when using the winch.

I think it’s probably because the winch has a clutch of its own, but being installed in a tank means a second clutch is needed to prevent the tank moving when using the winch.

 

[Jakko]

Instead of a bag for the signal flags, later vehicles appear to have had holders for three separate flags, which I made from some aluminium strip. I also added the rear seat and the pulley underneath it (which had broken off earlier), below the flag holders. They’re on the left in the photo here:



After that, I brushed Mr. Surfacer 1000 on all the metal parts as a primer, then airbrushed the entire interior with Mr. Aqueous olive drab:



I had originally intended to paint the hull insides white with an OD floor and the turret interior OD as well, like tank destroyers had, but this appears to have been an unlikely combination on the M32. Early vehicles were usually completely white inside, it seems, and later ones all-over OD. As the kit represents a sort of mid-production vehicle, OD it is. Now it still needs shading, highlighting, detail painting and more before I can close it up and finally get to the exterior …

 

[minitnkr]

Top stuff Jakko.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko coming on very nicely.

 

[minitnkr]

Thinking of my PTO winch days, there were only PTO in/out, clutch & throttle controls. No fancy high/lo/reverse stuff. Always used thick leather gloves w/gauntlets when handling wire cable.

 

[Jakko]

Always used thick leather gloves w/gauntlets when handling wire cable.

You were clearly not in the US Army, then:

 

[Airborne01]

Most excellent to date Jakko!
Steve

 

[Jakko]

Thanks, I hope it continues Here is the interior with a black wash and a light olive drybrush to bring out the details:



I also painted the seats and mortar ammo tubes black, while I put some dark yellow on the fire extinguishers. They need to be red, but red over olive drab just gives a dark, muddy colour, so because dark yellow covers well, putting that on first should make the red go on much more easily later.

 

[Jim R]

Great looking interior. White or OD - sounds as if you could have gone with either. Red is difficult over certain colours, don't really know why as it doesn't seem particularly transparent.
Jim

 

[adt70hk]

That really is coming on very nicely indeed Jakko. Top notch work indeed!!

ATB.

Andrew