Dragon 1/35 M4 Mortar Carrier

[Neil Merryweather]

Lol, well you guys certainly can drive a point into the ground, I'll give you that. Anything about the United States y'all DO like, or I reckon not.

P51, B17......:tongue-out3:

[RonGlass]

The hospitality, and the weather in the southern states.
Pete

Dunno about that classic Hospitality these days Pete, sad to say. Well rather, I speak as a non-Southerner having lived in the South most of my life since early 1970's. Along the coast here there are quite few people who have migrated to this part of the country. Hospitality and open-arms acceptance isn't a hallmark here as far as I can tell. Maybe I'm jaded though...

[stillp]

Well, I haven't been in the US since 2013 Ron, so I'll take your word for it!
Pete

[Dave Ward]

I've added the cab to the chassis & the front radiator shutters........ The rear body has the mortar ammo stowage added & the crew seats - not sure whether to add the windscreen next, or the rear body, have to have a trial fit to see which goes first.

Realised, looking at the piccies, that if I add the rear body, I'll have difficulty in fitting the driver in place..........
Dave

[adt70hk]

Coming on novelty Dave!

[RonGlass]

Well, I haven't been in the US since 2013 Ron, so I'll take your word for it!
Pete

I'm probably being unfair Pete, could be that it all depends upon where you are / were. Even with my job I travel a roughly 200-mile radius and there are different nuances in the locals from town to town, so I shouldn't be thinking in absolute terms.

[Guest]

As a newly qualified teacher in the 70s I well remember dealing with metric confusion. The child got it pretty quickly, the parents struggled and the grandparents often refused to believe it would ever catch on!

I remember a comment made by a friend of mine about twenty years ago: “Sure, euros are nice enough for daily shopping and that, but people will keep thinking in guilders for things like house prices.” Exactly nobody today says, “€250,000, that’s about ƒ550,000 … not a bad price for a house like that!”

[Dave Ward]

After a long hiatus - back to this - I realise that there really isn't too much left to do

I think the next pictures will be in the completed section. The tracks needs a real dark wash, they look too uniform and errr 'plastic'! I'll add the decals, such as they are & the tools & think about a wash or two - I don't think I'll do any weathering on this..................
Dave

[Niho]

[ATTACH]450485[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450487[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450484[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450486[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450488[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450490[/ATTACH][ATTACH]450489[/ATTACH]
The parts are very crisp, no sign of flash, or sinks. Quite a few ejector towers to remove. The parts date back to 2007, and are still very good, even by modern standards. I reckon the one-piece chassis wouldn't be done now, in favour of a flat back assembly - anything to get that parts count up

After a dose of primer, then a topcoat of Vallejo ModelAir Olive Drab, I painted all the rubber bits AK3 Tyre Black & the tracks AK3 Anthracite
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1173705[/ATTACH]

Then - the assembly! - Whichever way you assemble the tracks, they're going to be a bit of a tussle! You can see where bits go, but you have to flex those tracks alarmingly to get them to go over the roadwheels/return roller. Anyway, after a 30 minute wrestling match..........................
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1173706[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1173707[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1173708[/ATTACH]

OK, I've had to go round and touch up all those bits of paint that I scraped off during the extensive handling needed! I reckon that's the most difficult part of the model completed now. I'll have to paint the exhaust pipe, but that's the chassis ready to be put aside for later!
Dave

From my braillescale track building, all types etc i now sand down sprocket & idler locating pins/axles 40-50% on the outer face, ie fr/Rr most part of axle, it gives you some wiggle room/track length, tightness etc even some LnL tracks come up short, if even more extreme oval out the hole on sprocket or idler....., these are maintained 'tight' IRL from what I've read

[Dave Ward]

finished - here https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threa...mpleted.39289/