U.S. Self-Propelled 155mm Gun M40
These "workable" tracks from AFV Club have a problem: their pins are not thick enough to hold the end connectors so they kept falling off. I had to devise a new strategy
So I decided to paint them while on the sprue; the paint will create the necessary thickness and friction for the pins to hold (at least temporarily)
Now the tracks resist a little bit better; it was also easier to paint them this way; too bad I noticed too late those ugly casting marks but oh well, I guess some dirt (and the wheels) will cover them)
They fit on the Tamiya sprocket but it took a little bit of force to convince them 🙂
These are the easiest HVSS suspensions I had to build so far!
Painted, added decals, added some of the figures for the photo. No weathering so far (only some minor streaking). Will have to dust it a little bit later on
Comments
8 January 2018, 09:16
Dan MThank you guys!
The kit is a typical Tamiya kit. Easy to build, good details, a full crew, plenty of ammo projectiles (including decals to mark them). Those HVSS suspensions are so easy to build you gotta marvel at Tamiya's engineering.
As bad things I had to replace the string with a proper metal wire and of course the vinyl tracks. They're not bad but Tamiya makes them a little bit inaccurate as the their T80 track guide-horns are molded as a solid block which is not correct.
23 June 2018, 23:55
Martin OostromNice job Dan. Setup is really cool with the opened breach and the next shell being brought up. Very nice paintjob as well. 👍
24 June 2018, 07:41
Dan MThank you Martin!
@James, while the AFV club is cheaper than Tamiya and is just as detailed it has a couple of flaws:
1. The AFV barrel has the wrong length
2. The vinyl tracks included are only good for the for the Zebra mission prototype (WW2 not Korea). If you want to make a Korean vehicle (and most of the markings in the AFV kit are for this setup) you might want to change the tracks as well
Personally I would have went for the AFV kit as I replaced the tracks anyway if Tamiya would have not included the whole crew. For me this was an important aspect.
Also Tamiya only includes Korean markings.
24 June 2018, 08:59
