SPA Modeler

I have progress to report. I have assembled everything except the Ma Deuce, and I haven't decided what I'll do about it. I may use it as is, replace it with an AM part, or perhaps just wrap it up in "canvas". A couple nights ago, I decided to blank off the bottoms of the sponsons. That hollow cavity just bugged me, whether it can be seen or not! So I cut some Evergreen sheet and made a bottom for it.

I had already broken one of the hinges for the commander's hatch, and so had set it aside, with the broken part and the intact hinge taped to it. When I got ready to try some preshading, I found that I had lost the intact hinge. Typical for this modeler...I didn't spend much time looking for it-I had vacuumed in there since then I think. I had to laminate some Evergreen sheet to get the thickness I needed and then it took a couple tries before I scratched out a suitable replacement hinge. Painted, it looks good enough.

I don't think I preshaded anything on the other two tanksI built years ago. I doubt I had heard of it then. But in the interest of tryin' sumthin' new, I gave it a go. I used Testor's square bottle flat black and tried to give all the recesses a coat. I may not have done it heavily enough though. I had intended to spray the vinyl tracks flat black and forgot those today. I'll find some rattle-can black to give them a shot. Then, I'm anxious to try out a new color I bought. It's Humbrol enamel in "track color". Looks interesting anyway!

I took some pics to show a little progress. Not much to see really, but proof that I'm making headway with this one. Final paint will be the dark OD, Humbrol 66, mentioned above by Carlos.

A shot of the underside, showing the sponson bottoms before any preshading:



The "new" hinge:



The new lifting rings on the glacis plate, with the lights and guards:



Two fuel cans and the bustle rear:



Lift rings and turret, before preshade:



The right (SB) side before shading:



And the Port side in the same state:



And now some pics of some of the preshading:

















And, that's all for now folks! Thanks for your interest and I look forward to posting further progress soon!

I think it looks great!

LyleW wrote:I think it looks great!

What Lyle said....

Thanks Lyle and Tom! Much obliged dudes!!

Looking real good Gary. I like how each of your modifications improves the kit big time. And a very nice fix on the lost hatch hinge. That’s the great thing about armor. Lost parts can often be replaced with scratch built ones quite easily.

Stikpusher wrote:Looking real good Gary. I like how each of your modifications improves the kit big time. And a very nice fix on the lost hatch hinge. That’s the great thing about armor. Lost parts can often be replaced with scratch built ones quite easily.

Thank you Carlos! I sure appreciate your comments. You are so right about modeling armor! The very roughness of the nature of armored vehicles does allow us much more leeway in dealing with mistakes and glitches. Certainly much better in that regard than aircraft.

I see I missed the locating "divots" for a few of the handholds on the turret. Dang. Should've been more careful with those; I was just tickled that I hadn't lost any of the twelve...I had to crawl the under-table area with a spotlight to find a couple of them!

And I do think I'll blank off those big openings on the hull bottom. I know the bottom won't be seen unless I show it, but I can see light coming through the driver's hatch with them there. I'll just glue some patches over the holes and after some dark paint under there, she'll be apples!

Thanks for your comments my friends!

Sounds like a good plan for the bottom of the hull openings . Do you have any plans for the open driver periscopes?

Looking good Gary.

Stikpusher wrote:Sounds like a good plan for the bottom of the hull openings . Do you have any plans for the open driver periscopes?

Yeah, I think that will work. I'm thinking about filling them with Future or Micro Kristal Klear, try to make them look like glass. Carlos, would those periscope lenses be clear or were they tinted?

keavdog wrote:Looking good Gary.

Thanks John! Much appreciated!