M-46 Patton, 6th Tank Battalion, 24th Infantry Division, Korea, 1951

william wise
great job George, glad to see your back at the bench, how was this kit im looking to get one and seeing yours built i really want to get one, nice job on the year of the tiger paint scheme

George Bacon
Thanks William. I thought it was a good kit; seemed to be pretty accurately detailed. The only things missing were the front fender braces (which are turnbuckles. The box art has them, as do the photos on the side of the box, but there was nothing in the box or in the instructions. I was told there's an "Orange Box" re-release out. It may be better, especially if it has DS plastic track runs (the rumor). The individual track links I had were a bear!

Wim van der Luijt
I can only say that that is one spectacular machine!

william wise
if thiers a orange box edition coming out i diffidently see one in my future then 🙂

George Bacon
Thanks Wim!

Hunter Cummins
How did you make the mud and how did you make the black stripes ?? But anyway superb build 🙂 I love it so much 🙂

james johnson
yeah George, welcome back! I guess the modeling season has begun for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere......looking forward to your builds 👍

George Bacon
Hunter: The mud is mineral soil (deep dug from my back yard, no organic matter), sifted through my wife's flour sifter (don't tell her), mixed to a slurry with white glue, and applied with a large-ish model paint brush (it's kind of fun to do!). After it dries, I paint it a little with an earth tone (airbrush; very thinned paint, "filter" style, which also provides a "dust" appearance to "missed" spots). The stripes (both black and white) are applied by habd (paint brush). The base coat is airbrushed Model Master Acrylic paints; stripes are Model Master Acrylic paint too, but thinned for good "flow".

Hunter Cummins
Thanks george very helpfrl 🙂 your secret is safe with me😉

Gerald
Very nice work 👍

Holger Kranich
Great result! Really an eyecatcher for the livingroom!!!

Brian Geiger
I really enjoyed seeing this at Saturday's meeting George. I would have liked to ask you more questions but someone else distracted me.

Your weathering on the yellow looks very convincing to me, especially around the handles and raised detail. It pops but is not bright or toy-like.

Your home-made mantlet cover looks great too. Did you have to add other mounting hardware for that?

You mentioned adding the turnbuckles, but what did you use? They look great!

As for DS tracks, I was thinking of the Orange Box kit 07 of the M26A1 Pershing. cyber-hobby.com/html/orange_box.htm Can't that be converted into an M46 since it was a different engine & maybe a few changes to the exhaust? (I'm not very informed on these variants.)

In any case, you've done an outstanding job on this old kit. I got mine out of the stash to review and was surprised to see how few of the tiger features were included in the decals. Great job again. Thanks for the inspiration!

Bill Spargo
Great photos of a beautifully built model George, gee you wouldnt want that coming at you!. Mud looks great too.

George Bacon
Thanks Brian and Bill. I greatly appreciate the comments and encouragement! Brian, the gun mantlet cover was added after the gun was fully installed on the turret. I cut a rectangle out of a plastic grocery bag; put a slit in the middle to get it over the barrel; and played with the fit to ensure it "draped" over the mantlet details, and was large enough to extend all around the mantlet. It also had to reach the point on the barrel where I wanted to attach it. Once satisfied with the fit, I super glued it around the barrel to "pin" it down, then started trimming, tucking, and super gluing around the mantlet edges starting at the top. That way, all the unwanted "excess" ended up at the bottom. Continued trimming and tucking all around. When the smoke cleared, I had a working cover! But that didn't last. I noticed some of the folds were too "tight" (like folded paper, not cloth), there was too much "excess" on the bottom, the attachment point at the barrel looked bad, and paint (acrylic) would crack off the whole thing. I fixed the barrel by gluing a strip of plastic bag (folded in half to make it thicker) around the barrel. Fixed the bottom "excess" by cutting it off and slathering super glue mixed with corn starch to blend it all together. At that point I noticed that a slurry of super-glue and corn starch could be dabbed along the ridges of "folds" to make them look more like cloth, not paper. Ended up covering the whole mantlet with super glue and future floor polish to fill gaps, smooth lines and hold paint (which the plastic bag will not do!).

George Bacon
By the way, the mantlet no longer "works" to allow gun elevation. 🙁

George Bacon
Brian, the turn buckles were made by super gluing two plastic strips off the end of a plastic rod (like building a little two-tined fork). The strips have been pre-measured to the length of turn buckle you want and are placed on the rod to overlap it a little. The strips are also parallel to each other (i.e. top and bottom of the rod). Once dry, another rod is glued to the other end of the strips (you now have a basic turn buckle in the form of two rods connected by two strips with a gap between the rods). Once again, I used a slurry of super glue mixed with corn starch to blend the connection points between the rods and the strips into a solid connection, and then file to a final "turn buckle shape". Reference pictures of large turn buckles help in the building process!

Brian Geiger
Thanks for the details George. And thanks for posting the in-progress shots too. Those are very helpful going along with your explanation. I should take a lesson from you and post some photos.

Sounds like you're getting a lot of use out of your super glue slurry. I like the forgiveness of Mr. Surfacer since you can later wipe it away with Mr. Color Thinner.

The improvements you made add a lot of finesse to the model.

So are you working on the Piranha now? Man, you're not wasting any time. That's awesome. Your Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) turned out fantastic. You don't see many of those, especially with the screen skirts. Superb! I look forward to seeing it in person.

Acki
Amazing job, George! Great details, perfect tools. The mantlet is very very good. Thanks for showing. Greetz Acki

Bill Spargo
Hey George, have you considered using toilet tissue paper for the same job? Perhaps coating with (PVA white glue for timber joining in Aus). I think it may have done the same result with less problems.

George Bacon
Bill, I tried using tissue paper (like is used for flying model airplanes) but had trouble with tearing. I was also thinking (naively) that the plastic bag would allow the gun to elevate 🙁 Think I will give the tissue another try, next time!

Bill Spargo
Hi George, tissue used on balsa models etc. is fine and designed to shrink and tighten when dope is applied. That is how the tissue gains its strength. Two types of tissue/towling to try... first paper hand towels, type used for wipping up spills and cleaning windows etc. This type is soft but firm and reasonable strength. Second toilet tissue paper, there are so many brands and grades of tissue paper ... suggest you get one that is soft but firm with a patern that is not too grainy. apply the wood working glue over the tissue.