Bolt Action - 1/56 scale Warlord Games M7, Priest - 105MM mobile gun platform

 Wow, long title huh?  I was having fun building the M36 Tank Destroyer (click here to see the M36), but my brother was building at the same time his Tiger II (see the post below that follows).  The Allies needed more offense.  Well, the Warlords M7 is a resin and metal model, and my first experience with this combo.

Count the parts - the big hull, the tracks, both resin.  The gun, gun parts, machine gun, gun ring, crew of three and tow hooks etc. - all metal.  So assembly is going to go quickly once I get all the details ready - like the tracks......

.......sure, I know that this is the bottom, but I needed to finish this before I continued, so I sawed off the resin mold connections (three on the bottom of each tread). and with the same xacto saw cut in the spaces between the treads. Fiddly, but the resin is soft enough that it does not resist significantly.  

Then I glued the tread assemblies to the hull with cyano and prepared a black wash with flat black enamel and some thinner.

After trimming off small flash, glued the gun parts together with cyano. and dry fit in the hull

I took it to the spray booth and it came out the way I hoped.  Most of the black wash is covered but it was good base and did not let the gray resin color show through.

The metal parts have been primed (the tow hooks were already glued to the hull before it went into the spray booth).

So out comes the Tamiya weathering.  I went with this very aggressively, adding water and mixing with Q-Tips and Micro Brush.  I applied the rust and black (soot) to the point that I did not need to do any painting in regards to weathering the the vehicle.  As you will see later the only paint used is on the machine gun and the ammo inside the hull.

Here is progress as the Tamiya is being applied.  

The 50 Cal machine gun is painted with a mix of silver and black just as I did on the M36, with the ammo can painted green.  It is a one piece casting and you have to be mindful that the barrel is thin and very malleable.  I carefully made sure it was perfectly straight before and after gluing to the machine gun ring.  The ring is then painted with the Olive enamel and glued to the hull.  The main gun is hand  painted with matching Olive enamel and sitting in it's mount.  More Tamiya weathering has been applied inside and on the spare treads etc.

This is the beginning of painting the crew - helmet and holster on the radio man.

Here is a view from the back showing more of the Tamiya application.  Now comes decals and final weathering.

Now to finish the crew.  I will be mixing paint for faces and hands and jackets and pants etc.  I am always apprehensive about crew painting, but it will get me ready for soldiers later on! 

 

So the crew has been painted and installed!  I think the boys are just OK.  I have to improve my technique(s) and find a decent flesh color mix.  I just don't seem to be able to get it right - always too pink or too dark etc., so I dirty up the faces and hands (not that they weren't dirty) to cover!  Tamiya soot was also applied with a micro brush to the creases in the jackets and pants (human weathering).  

As I said above, I mixed every color except the helmets (Olive).  If I do an M4, Sherman it will be from the 761st.  "The Black Panthers". They were part of Patton's 3rd Army and had a significant impact in the Battle of the Bulge.

I do have an M3 Lee coming and brother Bob can print LULUBELLE decals, although I may try hand painting - we'll see.