Gun trucks

Steven Van Dyck
The chassis of this truck needs some sanding and filling up ejector marks before I can move on to the cab. Ultimately this should result in a dio of two vehicles moving on a bridge.

Steven Van Dyck
I improved the fender undersides and worked on the cabin interior. The doors are partially reworked.

Steven Van Dyck
The instrument panel, glove compartiment, radiator cooler and fuel tank top were all enhanced. The last pics show a dry-fit on the frame.

Steven Van Dyck
The tool rack and the mudguards are made out of the Eduard PE. FIts well if you dry-fit it, and this makes the construction less heavy.

Steven Van Dyck
The Griffon barrels are fixed to the AFV breeches. Flame suppressors can not be attached because of the integral end of the Griffon barrels conflicting with the suppressor mount, but they were not always used. The gun cradle had lots of sinkholes and pin holes to be filled with CA. I ordered a resin figure for the truck driver, US "Mech Mule" Driver (Bravo-6 B6-35079, 1:35).

Maarten Henderieckx
mooi recht geplakt die lopen

Steven Van Dyck
Bedankt, Maarten.

AFV has omitted the entire Maxson M20 trailer used as a base for the M45 quad .50 system. I had to scratch this without dimensional plans, but with enough reference material. I used the instructions for the 1/72 kit as a scale reference and scratched the trailer from styrene parts and Albion tubes. Now I will have to check how much ammo space this will leave me in the loading bay.

Steven Van Dyck
The RB resin wheel set has been dry-fitted, as far as possible because of the weak front wheel connection. even with the extra trailer in the back, the ammo will fit in, but I worked on the undeep crate joints.

Steven Van Dyck
The driver for the truck has arrived, but he will have to be slightly modified to fit to the steering wheel. The resin for both vehicles and all figures is now cleaned up.

Neuling
Top detailwork! Looking forward ...........

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Neuling! I hope the result will be as good as your dio. Today a review of the Mechanical Mule driver, it will be used as the M35 driver instead and therefore he will be pulling the steering wheel. I will change the arms, I consider the only bad point for this figure because you have to work on the contact with the body to avoid a wrong position of the hands. I also started the M151 kit with some additional back detail.

Steven Van Dyck
I added all the PE from the M151 add-on. It all fits nicely, but a back plate for Wolfman is not provided, strangely. This plate is very evident in the only existing Wolfman pic, so why base the set on this particular vehicle? And why fix the spare wheel on another position? Why don't I get a mount for the M60, as it is apparently only in the Academy M151? I also added extra armour to Nancy, like it is visible on some pictures.

Steven Van Dyck
My paint order came through, so all is now in black primer and ready for Tamiya Olive Drab.

Maarten Henderieckx
goed bezig

Steven Van Dyck
Bedankt, Maarten! jij ook in je Sopwith-topic!

In the mean time, the figures are built and they and the quad 50 are painted black. 2 elements I had to scratch after all. The Mutt steering wheel looked too modern and the hinges for the doors were cast in a way that made it impossible to remove them by cutting. As I was not going to sand them free like I presumed they had to get liberated, I decided to make them out of sheet plastic. Now I can finally get to painting all in the morning.

Rui S
Very nce detail and scratch work 👍

Steven Van Dyck
hanks, Rui. The truck is painted Tamiya Olive Drab. For the wheels I made a paper mask. The seats were not so realistic in plastic, so I added a wine bottle metal sheet. This looks more like leather. The flatbed was soon fixed to the frame, but the cabin was a lot harder to position. The problem are the fenders that do not align well with the hood. I hope this is solid tomorrow.

Steven Van Dyck
Both vehicles are painted now and ready for gloss. I made the pintle mount for the .50 in the M35 cabin and also an extra splintershield visible on one photo. Wolfman turned more grey than black. I hope this is an illusion from the matt effect. Also, today I heared of this new product: M151 Gun Trucks (Echelon Fine Details D356281, 1:35)

Steven Van Dyck
Decals for Wolfman and Nancy are almost finished. The Wolfman ones are great to apply, but the truck decals were a disaster. Each of those broke at least thrice. I also discovered an error in the petals of the flower decals, this will have to be corrected with paint.

Steven Van Dyck
I corrected the decals for Nancy with my airbrush. I also modified the color of part of the ammo crates with masking. Comparing with a real crate, there had to be added stencils. Also, the tool rack has been tilted and the tools strapped on with PE. The figures have their dress painted.

Steven Van Dyck
I did some face painting and fixed the ammo crates in the truck. It had to be rearranged because of the slightly decreased loading space after the addition of the side armor. I also seriously consider to add my Italeri Huey "Mekong Raider" to the scene, if I can find a way to smuggle it in. I already ordered a Big Ed for it.

Steven Van Dyck
After the dust has settled on the wheels, I fixed the tyres to the chassis on both vehicles. I added Resicast lenses to the Mutt. I also opened up a Huey kit that will be featuring on this diorama, plus two CMK figures and a Big Ed set.

Steven Van Dyck
A small start to the Huey interior, I redesigned the cabin back wall. Now the instrument panel is covered in Edaurd PE.

Steven Van Dyck
The diorama has now substantiated around an old aluminium picture frame I painted green. The Huey will be 2 cm lower than the vehicles. There will be a few dams around it, as it has ditched in a rice field. Nearby on the other side of the road will be a hut.

Steven Van Dyck
The Eduard interior for the Huey is quite a nice fit and hugely improves the detail level of the kit. I kept some things as a dry-fit to be able to paint the seats separately. Some things I changed to the assembly: I removed the plastic seat sides that were in my opinion superfluous if you use the PE cover parts in stead. I also glued the large skeleton parts to the nose first rather than on the cockpit floor, as this is an important fit.

Steven Van Dyck
The helicopter interior is taking great shape with this Eduard upgrade. The pedals have a distinctive Bell logo on them and the instrument panel is improved a bit. The diorama is now prepared to get painted. The tracks were applied with the rubber tyres I didn't use.

Steven Van Dyck
The dio is now painted and treated with pigments. The pigments are dry-brushed on the sand-crusted plaster, softening the texture. Green areas will be cultivated, blue will be wetland.

Dominik Weitzer
now i'm exciting how the endresult will look.

Steven Van Dyck
It will be more evident when the plants are all installed. Today I did a large part of that. I first scratched two large trees out of real tree roots found in a debris area in the garden. I added some railroad modeling green sponge material. I also wanted some banana trees, an endemic species in Vietnam. I used small dried tree leafs and pine tree branches. The leafs were connected tot the branch with wire, camouflaged with putty. Then a few greens and browns were added. At last, the trees were inserted in the base. I only have to finish the larger trees, I feel I should cover the sponge with small leaves, but I need plenty. I like how the banana trees turned out, though the stem is rather like a palm tree. The clear water product for the rice paddy is shown in the last picture. I wonder if I can add Still Water over it, once it has dried. It will be difficult to add more gel after the rice is planted.

Steven Van Dyck
The chopper is built up unto the rotorhead, so I placed it on the dio to have an impression how it will end up.

Steven Van Dyck
The chopper interior is primed in black. I added some PE grates and the ammo belt for the 40mm.

Treehugger
In photo 231 (drilling hole for photo etch), how did you drill out the plastic? Did you drill out a lot of holes tightly and then drag the drill bit from hole to hole removing the rest of the plastic? Or did you use a knife?

Steven Van Dyck
I drilled some holes until there was space for other tools to cut away the piece. I use the Mastertools saw but I must also have used a knife, because at one side I had a little gash in the plastic. It is just visible under the large hole. One difference with the kit is that the PE mesh has a riveted side, so I could leave a support strip under that.

Steven Van Dyck
Some extra figures from Verlinden will be added, and I sprayed the interior for the Huey in grey.

Steven Van Dyck
Does anyone know where these wheels are from? They were sold to me as M706 Commando, but I found 6 of them and they rather look like a VAB 6x6 hub without mud holes. [img1]

Steven Van Dyck
I painted the seatbelts RLM 65 and weathered the cockpit. Then, some assembling was possible.

Steven Van Dyck
To show off the engine, the cowling interior had to be scratched from a brass plate. I tried to add the riveting in alufoil but this is not 100% smoothly attached. But the visible side is a lot better now.

Augie
God damn.. thats good, only slightly missing on the curve but christ its detailed as it is!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Augie. Between the teaser pic and the last dry-fit I redressed that curve, the plastic strips could take that.

Steven Van Dyck
The chromate green has been painted on the interior engine faces. Now a wash and some detail will finish it.

Steven Van Dyck
The Huey is getting closed off, but it doesn't yield lightly. I also had to remove the visor on the right dashboard, it impeded the windhield mounting.

Steven Van Dyck
I didn't have the only chopper in the garden, but mine was getting a good load of Eduard particles. These needed various types of holes in the fuselage to be set. Some of them had to be relocated after some reference checking.

Dominik Weitzer
Wow - i'm impressed about the selfmade maintenance flap on the engine

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Dominik! I hope I can get it painted well, this foil is sometimes hard for paint to hold on to. Today I finished the 40mm grenade thrower and the landing skis.

Steven Van Dyck
I placed the front clearparts, not without issues because I spilled some Tamiya Extra Thin under my fingertip. i had to polish for over an hour to correct that. In the kit is missing the frame to support the nose turret. This I scratched out of some copper wire.

Steven Van Dyck
The Eduard mask is applied to the canopy. The PE is added to the Mighty Mouse launchers. Today I realised that maybe MRC confounded some rocket launcher types. I can't find a picture of this type of launcher with the warheads protruding outside of the tube. If that is an error, all the front ends will have to be replaced with metal tubes.

Steven Van Dyck
The rotor is assembled and dry-fitted. I want to show it damaged, hence the teaser, but the damage will be differently applied. The pilot's doors got some Eduard hinges, that have to be applied very precisely. Because I want to show the doors open, this is not such a problem.

Steven Van Dyck
I replaced one of the rotor blades with a scrach laminated panel, so it would react normally if I bent and slashed it. I also built the two resin pilots.

Steven Van Dyck
The Huey is painted Tamiya Olive Drab.

Steven Van Dyck
Today, the decals were applied wit no damage at all, but even with Daco Sol on them they don't fully adapt to the rivety surface. I may have to remove some decalfilm.

Steven Van Dyck
I removed the triangular decals and the film between the tail lettering stencils. This left a lot of primer damage, worsening while I was respraying the triangles. Some parts I had to redo twice because of this. I also painted the roof black and white. Everything was finished with some post-shading, for the yellow RLM04 I used very thin red shadow. The rotor is reproduced with the trim vane on it. I think I succeeded in repairing most of the damage so I can move on to the weathering stage.

Steven Van Dyck
A filter for allied tanks and a dry-brushing with Vallejo Field Grey make Huey less dull. Then, Vallejo Matt Polyurethane varnish removes the shine and light up the model again. Cracks have appeared in the door windows. For once I don't mind, this chopper has gone down anyway, but it's not a first with Tamiya clearparts.

Steven Van Dyck
A pit is made for the landing skis to let the Huey sink in a bit. I first prepared the field to make some crops, but this would have been too time-consuming for the water gel to harden. So I just smeared a mix of AK Transparent gel and Swamp Mud over it, followed by short grass fibers and then the Huey was pushed in. The excess grass will be removed later. The other fields are filled with Swamp gel and prepared like I had imagined for the larger field, just without the drilling. A Historex stork is added from the spare box, luckily it already had some primer. Reference pics are from centaursinvietnam.or../ihistoryEqAir3.html .

Steven Van Dyck
The other vehicles are fixed to the base. The truck I pinned down, the jeep I only glued. Then, the Huey is further detailed at the front side. The doors should have been workable, but glue creeped in the lower hinges and they were fixed, offering a good internal view.

Steven Van Dyck
The M60 guns get some attention from Eduard. I'm also adding a Tamiya bike I scored somewhere, with some Aber PE I scored on top of it. The wheels are going to look a lot better, but the bike will look a bit dilapidated when I'm through with it.

Steven Van Dyck
The bike got a bit grainy from priming, but I will be adding rust too, so it should be no problem.

Steven Van Dyck
The Vietnamese bike is now painted, so I'll be able to move on soon.

Spanjaard
amazing as usual

Neuling
👍

Dominik Weitzer
super work!

Steven Van Dyck
It took a while to recommence on this dio, but now I'm set on finishing this. But the quad 50 has some fitting problems, like the gunner's feet and the position of the magazines. I compared to the old construction in an M16 half-track and tried to change the width of the gun supports. I also added a lot of vegetation from Noch and painted this green.

Steven Van Dyck
The gunners are added to the truck and I also inserted pieces of Eart Metal shiny fret into the rear view mirrors. It's a bit of a rough filing job to make the hard metal fit into the mirrir casing, that was hollowed out for the purpose, and I managed ro scratch the metal part for the large mirror, but it still shines. The heli main rotor axle was cut out to not move according to the rotor sway. The tail rotor center appeared to be bare metal, but the tape took some paint from the inside.

Jean-Michel Tilquin
Nice work again Steven

Guy Rump
Great build 👍

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, guys! I now added some framework to the gas engine of the Huey.

Steven Van Dyck
This dio is finished now, after some small additions to the figures. I'm still planning to make some close-ups with flash, so can see the faces.

Steven Van Dyck
... and some extra pics.

Rui S
Well done Dio and nice figure painting too👍

Neuling
Great dio! 👍 The photos don´t quite do justice to this formidable work.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Rui and Neuling! Now I hope it will get to some competition tables next year... I thought it wouldn't get ready for KMK with its Vietnam theme, but it was now postponed for the second time, so I guess it might work out.

Bobby Thumbs
Excellent work Steven