Rui S
The stowage & ducks paintjob turn out excellent

Tom Ballhoff
Wow, the paintjob is amazing

Lenny Li
Apologise for the absence. All painting and weathering have been completed. I have been struggling with the water resin since last week. It has come back to me as a total failure and ruined the base as a result. I have to rebuild the whole base again from scratches this week.

Major mistakes I made:
1. Didn't tape the edge well, leaving gaps that the resin leaks everywhere.

2. I applied a thin layer of AK water trying to 'seal' the bottom before pouring the resin. However even though I gave it 24 hours, it was not completed dry. I left the base outside of the house overnight but probably because it was too cold (It's winter here in Sydney ) it was still not fully cured.

3. When I poured the water resin onto the uncured AK water, which is an acrylic product, the AK water becomes silky white substance floating in the resin.

4. I poured to much resin in one go. It's quite obvious that the top layer got set and dried quickly. But the bottom layer is still wet and sticky after over a week now.

5. Since I poured too much resin, the heat that generates from the process makes lots of big bubbles inside the resin, which couldn't be removed at all as the top layer has hardened.

As a result, the water feature is a total failure, which successfully screwed up my base.

Anyway, lesson learned, working on the 2nd version now...

Lenny Li
The lucky part is that the rail tracks and the buffer stop are still intact. I can carefully cut them out from the old base and relocate to the new one. And no I was still sensible enough not to glue the ducks and all accessories yet.

But I still need to redo the landscaping, turf, vegetation etc.

Rui S
Can't you just cut the water zone, from the rest of the base?

Xerxes
Interesting idea. Wartung for the final result

Lenny Li
Hi Rui, it could be a solution but unfortunately the leaking resin has ruined the whole base. The resin stained the wooden side panels and made them curved - another lesson: do not attach the panels unless everything is ready. It's better to start all over again.

I cut the railway out yesterday and re-positioned it on the new base. Also created some vegetation and turf after watching some Woodland Scenics tutorials. I am quite expecting the look of the new base actually.

Lenny Li
OK I just uploaded 2 pictures just to show the aftermath I made.

Treehugger
Nice seeing other people build this, somewhat expensive kits. I got seriously screwed over when I got the Hobby Boss' German Dora railway cannon in 1:72, and after that I seriously am reconsidering every potential purhcase if being more costly than what I am willing to pay for.

Lenny Li
Hi my friend. I agree this kit is not cheap. Overall quality was great. there are some lack of details in the engine. Also the rear control panel was missing by Trumpeter somehow. Otherwise all good.

I am not familiar with 72 scale but I feel sorry for you. I saw somewhere said that 72 Dora gun was great...

Spanjaard
beautiful job Lenny Li

brianireland
That's quite impressive!

Alex
Nicely done! It looks a bit like Trumpeter did some sloppy research, I wonder why there are so many warning signs when the tubes say "inert". Also the space in "hazardous" looks a bit strange. Still, a impressive truck.

Lenny Li
Good question Alex. I think the warning signs are for the propellant instead of the warhead? Anyway I actually screwed up the decals - I forgot to paint a layer of gloss before applying them. When I realised the silvering it's already too late...

The major issue is with the rear deck. When I checked the real pictures there are many cables connecting to a control panel just underneath the launchers. Somehow Trumpeter missed the whole thing. I am not capable to modify anything myself just I just leave them as they are. It would be much better if more details can be made to the rear though.

Thomas Kirschbaum
very nice work!

Rui S
Nicely done model

Treehugger
Haha no the Dora in 1:72 is rubbish. Like 75% fictional or something like that, or worse even (to give you an idea). I already started making new drawings on it based on lots of photos. Clearly Hobby Boss didn't have any proper drawings because of the gross errors, or they maybe did not have remotely enough time to research the subject in detail.

James C
Very impressive work once again Lenny

Lenny Li
A very smooth and pleasant build. Good distraction from the ww2 heavy weathering.

jhull123
Wow! Great result and great photos, too!

Lenny Li
I completed this model at the same time as the Dragon M4 halftrack. I had high expectation for this model as it's quite unique in terms of subject. It also attracts me for it's full details in the back deck.

This kit from Bronco is OK, although there are always some issues with Bronco's over-engineering. I just can't appreciate the way the road wheels were designed. The connection points with the torsion bars are tiny and easy to break - what's the problem with a good-old poly caps??

Similar issues can be found on the way the turret connects to the body. The turret is connected with the body with an O ring part, which means you need to glue it to the upper body first BEFORE gluing the upper body to the lower body. To make things worse, you need to glue the ammo box ring BEFORE proceeding to glue the turret. If you want to paint these major parts separately like I do, you are not able to fix the turret to the body at the end as it's impossible to glue the O ring after sealing off the body.

Another problem would be the wire guard for the auxiliary power unit on the right side of the fender. Bronco breaks it into 8 small pieces. It's not clear how they connect each other on the manual and neither are shown on the box art or anywhere. I had to search some pictures on line to find out how to connect them. Also it's impossible to complete it in the assembling stage if you want to paint the APU separately, as the wire guard connects to both of the ammo box ring and the main body. I ended up breaking part of it but I just lost the motivation to fix it.

Anyway it always been a very interesting experience when building a Bronco kit. Hope you guys enjoy!

Nathan Dempsey
Wonderful result Lenny. It seems you've tamed this Bronco.

Neuling
Top job! Inspiring for me.

Spanjaard
excellent

Rui S
I agree, great work. Beautiful result

Lost_Erik
Oh yeah! Well done on the different construction too..Interesting notes

Tom M

first class work

Lenny Li
This project is a first time to me. Coming in 1/35 scale the size is tremendous comparing with the usual AFVs I've been building. Bit tricky just trying to handle such a big model longer than 40cm on my desk. Big salute to the Ship Gang!

One of the challenges met in the process is to get familiar with the maritime environment, which is quite distinctive from the land AFV's. Did quite a lot of research on the net to find pics of different things, such as seawalls, docks, landing ramps from ferries etc. Even learned how to tie sailor knots! Quite an interesting process and I have to admit that I've been enjoying that process.

Anyway, started next project now and let's see how it goes.

Rui S
I think the rope of the lowring loading bay, should show more strait tension. IMHO. Photo 24 Left side...

Lenny Li
Just added the M4 halftrack to the LCM today. The LCM was completed 12 months ago. It's quite interesting to compare my own work 12 months ago - I'd definitely repaint the LCM sometime in future with the same technique applied on the M4 today.

Lee Fogel
What a FABULOUS pair of builds!

Olivier
Quite an achievement ... Well done !

Neuling
I agree with Olivier.

Rui S
Very Nice duo

James C
Outstanding job on the chipping and weathering. Very convincing looking builds.

Lenny Li
Well this is a very personal subject.

Everything is so different in China. For example there are only 364 days in that country. The missing one, 4th June, obviously nothing ever happened on that particular day in history.

Rui S
Very Nice work, Lenny.
The bleeding bycicle says it all...

Spanjaard
really excellent job, and powerful message

Neuling
Good modeling. I was in Beijing in April 1989 and everything looked peaceful and relaxed ........

Lenny Li
Several layers of chipping and weathering. Quite pleasant experience working with this tiny dragon kit.

Rui S
Great work & weathering. Very Nice model

Alex Rodionov
Excellent weathering.

James C
Awesome work Lenny

Tom M

I can only agree with that

Neuling
Good result.

Lenny Li
Almost done... figures next...

Rui S
Looking good I think somehow they would fix the gun to the concrete. otherwise it would endup on the ground?
I like the details, the wooden planks holding the terraces and the bidon with water. Also the gun paint job. Very nice indeed

Neuling
Very nice dio with great attention for detail!

Lenny Li
A very interesting process. All the planning, learning, experimenting, I did enjoy it.

Rui S
Great Dio Lenny. all those nice details. The water is great. Very nice figure painting too. Congrats

Lenny Li
Experimenting some new techniques - lightest colour first

Lenny Li
Minor update today: last layer of chipping done - darkest colour on top. Applied different filters to the reactive armor blocks. Hope everything can blend in after weathering.

I may repaint the rubber skirts in dark gray tomorrow just for colour differentiation.

Rui S
Loking good, rubber skirrts with diferente colour will help IMHO.

Lenny Li
Modern model, concept stage (not in actual service), light weathering. It will be a quicky

Frank Krüger
Super camouflage ... great job !!!! I am very excited to see how it goes on !!!!!!!!!!

Rui S
Yes, Looking good

Lenny Li
Thanks guys. I didn't spend much time on the weathering as it's a very new model. Just basic wash and some streaking marks and dusting. The tank is more like a promotional one for international buyers. Anyway quite a pleasant experience.

Christian W
This is awesome! Respect.

Lenny Li
My first attempt for a snow field! Bought some AK diorama products and followed their sample works on Youtube. Quite satisfied withe the result.

Made a mistake for the shells. The shells for the Wespe guns were loaded separately - projectiles - bags of charges - and last with metal cases. I just assumed they should be a full set and just glued the metal cases with the projectiles. Too late to fix it when a friend pointed it out later...

Next step will be the figures and the dog, figures crossed...

Christian W
I didn't see the ammunition issue. I think, you have to knw it well, to see, that they were seperated parts. Nevertheless: it looks great allover. Very very good.

Lenny Li
Thanks for Christian. Just started painting the figures. I've never learned how to paint them to be honest.

Matthew Stec
Great job

Lenny Li
I will take it as done. Added plenty of details at the end to make it more interesting. Figure painting took most of the time. Still not good at figures but I hope I've learned something new every time. I did learn some new tricks from watching Night Shift on Youtube. This time was how to paint exhaust pipes to make it very realistic. Anyway hope you guys enjoy!

Neuling
I do enjoy indeed. Top dio in every aspect!

Lenny Li
Thanks guys. Time to move on to the next project!

James C
Fantastic work Lenny

Rui S
Very nice work and dio

Scott Dutton
I always thought it looked better without the basket, but all APC need space for infantry gear so know why it's there. Thought Takom may have done mortar, peak turret and MCV variant as well as swingfire when they had the chassis, oh and a Abbot. Oh well, great work on yours

Scott Dutton
Really nice job on painting, restrained chipping and I love the timber effect on the shovels. Which scheme is it by the way, it's bright so wasn't thinking BAOR but unfamiliar with this one?

Lenny Li
H Scott. Thanks for the nice comments. To be honest I don't know much about the camouflage scheme. I just copied the box art as I think it looks nice. There are a few other schemes included in the manual, such as the distinctive Berlin scheme during the Cold War. But I think the box art scheme is quite unique anyway.

Lenny Li
Hi All, now it's done. It seems another piece of track for both sides would be better as the current tracks are a bit short. If you look more closely you'd notice a small gap exist around the rear bogie wheel. But I've already thrown away all tracks weeks ago...

Scott Dutton
Fair call, and the Berlin scheme scares the ... out of me

Thomas Kirschbaum
looks good!

Neuling
Top result! Many details in- and outside, beautiful painting and weathering. A good looking apc.

Grumbledier Guard
Nice job

Neuling
Looking forward .........

Scott Dutton
Me too, love videos of this beast

Konrad Limmer
Cool looking beast !

Rui S
Very Nice work on this model

Lenny Li
Well finally finished this beast. I am not quite sure how to weathering such a new vehicle. So I just did some very basic filtering, washing, and dusting. Not very satisfied with the final look but I will leave it as it is as I have been exhausted by this model. I will explain further below.

There is no doubt that RFM has done a great job for this kit. The building process is quite straight forward, even though some steps in the instructions are not quite clear. It can tell that RFM reused most of its M1 full interior series for the vehicle main body. Given the fact that this ABV is based on M1 chassis this is a logical and cost-effecitve decision.

However there are a few areas I found confusing and not very user-friendly. For example it's very difficult to tell the correct side (inside/outside) for the road wheels as the instructions are not clear. I had to test fit the tracks onto the wheels to find the right side.

There is no fitting holes for the turret. The turret just sits on the vehicle body and can easily fall off when handling the model. Presumably this is a feature in the full interior M1 version which can be used to showoff the inside. But given the huge turret of the ABV, it's very inconvenient to adopt the same design, which makes accidents quite possible to happen.

The breaching charge boxes are one of the main features of this model. If you want to show off the boxes with the side panels movable to open/close, the hinges are too small and must be modified to reinforce. Same for both covers, the hinges are easy to fall off so better modify them as well.

You will spent huge amount of time building the mine claws. They are designed to be movable. But again some modifications are needed to make it happen as two fixed parts will stop the whole movement (except the middle one, which is still movable.

This is a big model so unavoidably a lot of handling is needed when working on it. But unfortunately many parts are very delicate and will easily fall off if you are not careful enough. It's a bit frustrated when accidents happen after most of the work is done and some big parts get loose and fall off on the ground....

Frank Krüger
Really amazing !!! Perfectly done !!! A piece of art !!!

Ingo F
Looks amazing!

Neuling
Top notch! Your efforts really paid off, Lenny.

Scott Dutton
Very impressive, well done for persevering

Brian Eberle
What great kit. Well done, too. She is a beast and greatly appreciated too. Extremely effective and able to keep pace with the armor task forces they support. Mine is on the shelf to build.

Lenny Li
Thanks for the nice comments guys. Personally I like to keep the 'rhythm' when building models. It's annoying when I got interrupted, especially such interruptions are caused by accidents that caused by some issues from the kits. Anyway that could be my personal preference but this kit would be more suitable for an experienced modeler.

Lenny Li
For some reason I was under the impression that Asuka has/had the best kits for the Sherman families. This is my first build for this brand and to be honest I am not very impressed.

1. Firstly the instructions are very messy. Parts from several spruces are needed in one step.

2. It's really difficult to follow the instructions as they are not shown in a logical way - you may need to go back to work on the rear after finishing the turret.

3. Illustrations in the manual are not clear, sometimes misleading. You will notice some parts shown installed in illustrations are not to be installed in later steps. For example you will see a full completed rear deck in the illustrations in early steps. If you don't read the whole manual thoroughly (like I did...), you'd end up with building those steps in an early stage, which will actually impact the later build if that makes sense.

4. Overall quality of the kit was quite normal. Lots of flashing need to clean, lots of holes need to expand. Over-engineering/ unnecessary breakdowns of details. Lots of pushing holes to fill.

5. Lots of spare parts for other Sherman models. It could be a good news for many but if you are not a super Sherman fan than it means all of these would be waste of money (remind you that this kit is not cheap).

As a summary I don't recommend this kit to beginners even people with middle skills. I will leave this model as it is. I may do the painting later but it won't happen after some time. At this stage my patience and interest in this kit have been used up in the building stage.

Lenny Li
Experimenting so called 'texture painting' technique in this model - multiple layers of chippings from dark to light shades. Quite happy with the outcome but it's quite labour intensive though.

Rui S
Beautiful work

Christian Lehmann
Very nice!

Neuling
I agree with Rui and Christian!

Lenny Li
Thanks guys. It's a new experience to me. I think this technique is best for ww2 or any other heavily weathered vehicles.

Zsolt Czegle
Awesome work!

Martin Dubovszki
That Recovery Vehicle looks amazing!

Ben M
This is great. My favorite part is the bucket.

Lenny Li
Thanks guys for the nice comments.

Brian Eberle
Nice work on the faded camouflage. Did you use a filter to achieve that? Oil or acrylics?

scalemates
sweet!

Matthew Stec
Great work!!

Nathan Dempsey
Beautiful finish

Jos Jansen
Very impressive...!

Ricardo Reis
Wow, great build!

Lenny Li
Thank you all. Hi Brian, I used acrylics for different shading + oil paint afterwards. The secret is to make the shades as light as possible when spraying.