I know I need to dig up some of the missing parts but I'm moving forward with what I have. I have applied the pin wash, still needs to be cleaned up but that big step is done. After that I'll follow up with some chipping in a couple of different colors.
This bad boy has been sitting for at least 18 months on the back burner. Since it looks like ReaperCon 2021 might really happen I figured I better pull it out and get started so it has a chance of being ready for Labor Day weekend (Sep 2-5).
While I was fairly happy with the initial airbrush work at the time I am decidedly unhappy with it now. So back to the airbrush for some camo work. I essentially change the color of green I used and widen all the green and brown stripes so the dark yellow wasn't so glaring. I also cleaned up all the bad spots from the previous airbrush work. Which goes back to do it right the first time and you won't have to come back to it.
After looking at the pictures I realized that the crane is missing. I need to find out it and do a little work on that as well especially since I switched out the green!
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| The camo that was completed 18 months ago (or there about). The bright light over the airbrush booth tends to wash the colors out a bit. |
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| A new shade of green |
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| Widening the brown stripes |
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| At the end of the airbrush session. Note the missing crane which seems to have wandered off on its own. |
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| This session's colors. I may need to put in a paint order soon. |
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| Starting with the gun carriage, this is pretty straight forward. |
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| glued up and ready to go. |
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| I have opted to go with the tracks from Victoria Miniatures, rather than the kit supplied wheels. Again these are pretty straight forward and are conveniently labeled left and right on the back side. |
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| Some cleanup is required. The mold line goes right down the middle of the tracks. |
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| And of course on the bottom you will have to deal with the resin blocks. |
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| Ran into some issues with the left tread. Look at the bottom enter and you can see a whole link looks like its missing. This casting is probably bad enough that I could get a replacement, but I'm not going to bother with that, especially since I have had the tracks for at least 4 months now. Remember to check your resin parts right away in case this happens to you. |
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| From the bottom, its evident that this is definitely a miscast, the mold was filled enough or may have slipped slightly during the casting process. |
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| The ladder attached quite nicely, although I did have to shorten the locater pins on the ladder a bit. |
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| The tracks all ready the extra detailing that will come later. |
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| Back to the carriage the wheel/track axel. This is a single piece and because the pins for the wheels and/or tracks are so evenly spaced its easy to put on backwards. The center axle mounts into the tabs underneath the carriage, the other axle goes to the front of the carriage. |
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| Like this (looking from the bottom where the tabs are located) |
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| This is how it looks from the top |
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| In theory, all of this should just slip together now. Remember when you need to glue the tracks in place you will have to use super glue. The tracks are resin the gun carriage is, essentially, polystyrene (which means you should be using plastic model glue, not super glue for most of the construction). |
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| Whew, it all fits together quite nicely. Note that I have not glued the tracks on at this point. |
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| So directly above the axles is this stupid little gear, it drops into place and then that large plate is glue over it. It spins very nicely. In the context of the model its completely useless, so don't worry about getting glue on it, no one will ever know. In real life its part of the gun elevation system. |
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| Here I'm starting on the barrel assembly |
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| The hydraulics to the recoil. Note that the end cap needs a fair amount of filing and filling and its very visible on top of the gun. |
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| Getting it together, its a very large gun |
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| Putting together the breech block. the first piece is already glued in place to the barrel. The breech block needs to be attached to the door and since I'm going to have the door open, I'll need to fill in that very large hole in it. |
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| The front side of the breech block. I may scrape off the molded on handle, its very soft looking. |
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| I think these would be counterweights and what others have called "the Fin" for lack of a better term (and I'm sure there is one) I'll go with that. You will note that the curve on the Fin is smooth if this was a real artillery piece this would be geared, its part of the gun elevation system and would engage with the small gear from a couple of steps ago. I'll be modifing this piece to have a geared edge so that it at least looks right, although you may not be able to see it when the build is done. |
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| Getting ready to do a little gluing. At this point just the counterweights since I need to work on the Fin. |
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| These are the cable reels with cable molded on. |
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| And the reels glued in place. |
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| The components for the crane |
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| You can glue this piece but I didn't. I wanted a little bit of swing to it since the diorama will feature the gun being loaded. |
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| All glued up. |
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| The upper piece for the shell carrier is glued to the the ring. I have not glued the base plate on yet, I'm not sure what position I will need to have it in so I can make it swivel appropriately. |
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| Mounting up the gun. Again, this has not been glued into place yet as it will be receiving a bit of extra detail. |
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| Test fitting the platforms. Again no glue, my intent is to use the supports underneath the three planks and replace it with a metal walkway on both sides. |
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| A first look at the whole thing |
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| Adding a few of the crew |
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| This is what I have left to deal with. I won't be using the two plates in the lower right side of the picture. |
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| Still a long way to go at this point. |
