Meng 1:35 A39 Tortoise

[BigWall]

Back to the bench! My next build will be Meng's 1:35 A39 Tortoise.

T 1 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I picked up 2 different photo etch kits to go along with it. It originally appeared, on the website I purchased them from, that they were slightly different. It turns out that they are not. The Voyager set has resin pieces for the smoke dischargers but that seems to be the only difference. Photo etch is my arch enemy in modeling, so having 2 sets will give me back up pieces when I screw something up if nothing else.

As the Tortoise never actually entered combat service, this will be a what if build. I want to make a vehicle that has been in use, with other Allied heavy fighting vehicles that never ended up actually being put into service, slogging it's way thru the Siegfried Line. I'll be painting this with a heavily worn snow camouflage white wash. I plan on doing more battle damage and scratch building with this than I have done in my past builds. The Goliath is intended to be captured German equipment being pressed into service by the Allies. I have to laugh and think that being blown up by a Goliath has to be a lot like being run over by a Zamboni. LOL!

I started off by building and painting the Goliath. It still needs more detailing and weathering.

T 2 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I have also started building the lower hull of the Tortoise. Frankly, my chemo damaged fingers have made an embarrassing mess of the road wheels. Luckily, they really won't be seen as they are hidden by the side skirts and tracks. But no pictures of this hot mess for now.

[KalebB]

Oh I'm very excited to follow along with this, the Tortoise is a very cool vehicle and seeing it in a winter style camouflage will be interesting and the Goliath is almost cute to look at

[digger303]

Much more conventional than the USA's T-28 and more likely to have been produced imho. They might have both been stuck at the first bridge they came to though.
Look forward to see what you do to this kit.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

A BIG fighting vehicle from UK, i hope you'll post some pictures of your build soon!

[BigWall]

Thanks for looking in everyone. This thing sure would have been huge and heavy.

Got a little bit accomplished so far. My plan is to build and weather the lower hull before adding on the upper hull. It's been a long time since I've built anything other than a Tamiya kit. This is my first Meng kit. The only "issues" so far have been lots of fine seam lines and a couple extractor marks. Nothing big.

The road wheels have been assembled and painted. I would recommend waiting to install the idlers until the rest of the road wheel assembly has been ... er ... assembled. Mine are grossly out of alignment but they won't really be seen once the tracks have been installed. The instructions don't say anything, but glue the road wheels and axles after the whole group has been assembled. They are left loosely put together so that everything can be fit together and aligned.

T 3 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I've assembled the rest of the lower hull and used Tamiya putty mixed with TET to blend in the cast texture. It's now primed and ready for paint. I've glued on the first 2 pieces of PE without any issues other than I need to learn how to get the pieces in place before the glue dries.

T 4 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[digger303]

[Quax]

Coming on well Mr Wall and dont worry about the rubber on the wheels they get knackered really easily especially on a monster this size!

Paul

[BigWall]

This will be my last update for awhile. I'm going back into the hospital for a month or so for a stem cell transplant. It will make me a chimera. My blood DNA will test as my sister while the rest of me will be my DNA. Time to start my life of crime I guess.

I've glued the road wheels to the hull. I painted the wheels with German grey and then painted the chunked out areas with NATO black. Both from Tamiya. It gives some visual contrast where the newer rubber has been exposed. I wish I had done a better job with the chunking but I learned more for the next time I do it I guess. The wheels really won't be seen after the side skirts have been installed and weathering is finished.

T6 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I also started work on the side skirts. I cut out the fold down flaps. I started the job with a razor knife and then remembered that I had a razor saw. The saw worked much cleaner, better and faster. I'll replace the plastic flap parts with brass so that I can do some damage and have some missing. The upper side skirt is how it comes in the kit and the lower one has the flaps removed. I left the hinges but may cut them off and make my own hinges.

T5 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I wanted to get further along, but this is where it sits. I'm bringing the individual link tracks to the hospital with me. Cutting them from the sprues and cleaning them up will give me something to do while I'm there. Hopefully I'll feel good enough when I get out to do some modeling until I feel up to going back to work. Until then, I'll be modeling vicariously through you all.

[digger303]

Some nice chunks removed form the road wheels.

Damn sorry to hear your going into hospital for a month BW. I don't know how your going to stand it, Id be bored and feed up after 3 days and those tracks won't take you long. I should have sent you 2 or 3 boxes of my Bronco tracks that would have filled the time and sent you blind.

You have my best thoughts and hopes for a successful outcome.

[RangerNeil]

First off - best of luck in hospital, I hope the treatment goes well.and you are out of hospital sooner than you expect!!

The chunking on those road wheels looks excellent to me. I'm going to have to try it next time I build some tracked armour.

[Tomcat64]

How did I miss this one - the Zamboni/Goliath cracked me up - just don't give the Canadians any ideas

Very best wishes for your hospital visit Joe & look forward to seeing you back at the bench again soon mate

[ForeverPlasticKits]

This kit is on my stach so i'm very interesting by your build, it's a huge kit for a huge armored vehicle, have fun building it!

[BigWall]

Thanks for the good thoughts everyone. I've only been in for a week now and am already over it. I want to go home

@digger303 - you always make me laugh. Thank you

@Tomcat64 - I guess if we see waves of Zambonis coming over the border, maybe they'll at least take out some of the low hanging fruit

@RangerNeil - Check out the tire chunking in this picture:

Chunked Rubber Tires by Big Wall, on Flickr

It was definitely a real thing. I've done better chunking before. I got lazy this time but it really won't be seen

@ForeverPlasticKits - It is a big kit, but other than the running gear, it's pretty simple.

[BigWall]

You know it's been too long since posting in your own build log when you have a hard time even finding it LOL!

A lot of the next steps in the build involve photo etch. I'm not up to that so I decided to do some new, for me, techniques on the bottom of the tank.

This is what I'm aiming for:

Capture by Big Wall, on Flickr

I decided to use salt chipping to achieve the look. It's something I haven't done before so I was interested in trying it out.

I started by trying to apply water to the surface with a brush. The water was just beading up on the surface so I switched to an airbrush using very little air pressure. It worked like a charm. I then sprinkled on regular processed salt and fresh ground sea salt for bigger chunks. Then I sprayed another light coat of water on the surface to make sure everything was stuck down well. Once that dried I felt that I had been too heavy handed with the salt. I wanted less primer showing through than the bare metal that was going to be applied next. I brushed that salt off and went with fewer grains of salt and none of the ground sea salt for the second attempt.

T7 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Here it is once the gray paint was applied and after another layer of salt was applied before spraying on the green.

T8 by Big Wall, on Flickr

The next picture shows the green paint applied.

T9 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I let that dry overnight and then started removing the salt. the layer under the green came off easily enough using stiff brushes but the layer under the gray wasn't coming off. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to brush water over the paint. This worked well and I just used a damp brush to wipe off the remaining salt after letting the water sit on the surface for just a bit. Here's the final result of my attempt.

T10 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Hopefully you can click on the picture and zoom in to see the smaller chips. I think I would have gone heavier on the salt for the primer chipping and less heavily for the salt for the metal chips if I were to do it again.

I also removed some seamlines from the casemate and the, for lack of better vocabulary, triangle on the front of the hull indicating that the experimental Tortoise wasn't really armored and a plaque on the back indicating the same thing. I touched up the texture with TET mixed with Tamiya putty.

T11 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Overall, I feel like it was a productive 24 hrs and hope that it is an indication that my brain is getting better. My next step will be painting some scratches and rust to the bottom.

[BigWall]

I had a few good modeling days and feel like I've made some progress. I want to finish the lower hull before mounting it to the upper so I don't tear off the PE as easily. I've done some more painting to the bottom and have started adding pigments. It was coming out nothing like I wanted it to, like the above picture, so I changed directions with it. There's more to come in this area.

T12 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I've also started painting and weathering the tracks. I read that a lot of British tank tracks were made of manganese, so I came up with a color that I thought closely matched the pictures I've seen of the tortoise at the British Tank Museum using Tamiya X31 titanium gold, XF68 NATO brown and some X21 flat base mixed in.

T15 by Big Wall, on Flickr

There is a rectangular piece that glues into the back of the upper hull. It left seams with a step and gaps around the edges. I sanded the seams smooth, filled them in with thinned down Tamiya putty and then remade the cast texture in the area.

T19 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[DRUMS01]

Good to see you recovering well; both yourself and the model..... You for your focus, energy, and the kit for your fixes along the way. This is going to be a beast in 1/35th. I'm sure glad I never had to change a track link or road wheel on this monster in real life. It kind of reminds me of an M88 Tank Recovery Vehicle with a big gun sticking out the front (smile).

Hang tough Joe as we are all there with you (in heart and mind).

[BigWall]

Good to see you recovering well; both yourself and the model..... You for your focus, energy, and the kit for your fixes along the way. This is going to be a beast in 1/35th. I'm sure glad I never had to change a track link or road wheel on this monster in real life. It kind of reminds me of an M88 Tank Recovery Vehicle with a big gun sticking out the front (smile).

Hang tough Joe as we are all there with you (in heart and mind).

Thanks you two.

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you back at the bench again Joe

The work you've put into the tracks looks superb - looking forward to seeing more progress on this beast.

[BigWall]

Great to see you back at the bench again Joe

The work you've put into the tracks looks superb - looking forward to seeing more progress on this beast.

Thanks Neil.

I did some more work on the one side of the tracks that I have assembled. I dry brushed some highlights and added some wet spots using clear gloss. They didn't come out too glossy due to the pigments absorbing the paint. I may go back and add more paint to some areas to make them glossy. That way I'll have wet, damp and dry areas. Hopefully, they show up well enough in the picture.

T20 by Big Wall, on Flickr

T21 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[RangerNeil]

I do like the way you've done those tracks!!! An excellent job.

[digger303]

Good to see you back.
I can see with each successive treatment those tracks are looking more like the real thing with each update.

[BigWall]

Good to see you back.
I can see with each successive treatment those tracks are looking more like the real thing with each update.

I do like the way you've done those tracks!!! An excellent job.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words.

I finally got the sheen of the wet sections of the track where I want them and had to see how they looked in place. Next up will be snow pigment stuck in the track.

T22 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I did a little more work to the Goliath as well. I figure that if we were going to reuse these in my imaginary universe, that we better add some allied markings to them. With as many as we piled up after D-Day, I thought we could use them as we crash through the Siegfried Line, which is where my "What If" build is taking place. The track rust isn't as orange in person as it is in the photo.

T23 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I'm thinking that this is where the Goliath will be placed once the time has arrived. This picture was taken before the one above thus the decals are still shiny. I've sprayed flat over them in the meantime.

T24 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I'm purposefully working on the more inconsequential areas of the build as my hands are shaking so bad it's hard to work. Fortunately, it's making me do some good detailing of the areas even if they will not be seen. It feels good to be getting some bench time in.

[BigWall]

This is the last picture of tracks. I promise.

T26 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[BigWall]

I've been jumping around a bit with what I've been working on. I've been doing more weathering on the Goliath and on the tracks for the other side of the tank.

I've never scratch built, or for that matter, modified a kit much. Today, I cut off the poorly molded grab handles and replaced them with copper wire. I'd recommend it as an easy first step into modifying a kit. I'd also recommend having something to bend the wire with, such as the tool below. It was cheap and works great.

T27 by Big Wall, on Flickr

T778 by Big Wall, on Flickr

A note on jumping around to different parts of the build. Thanks to @DRUMS01 (Ben and Jarod) for the lesson of "If you don't know where you're going with a build, you'll never get there." I have 3 single spaced pages of notes, organized by order of operation, for the build so far. It's really helping my forgetful brain keep on track and letting me choose what I'm able to work on at the time, depending on how I'm feeling.

[digger303]

Great bending tool
and those clamps are pretty handy. Will they be difficult to remove from the base ?

[BigWall]

Great bending tool
and those clamps are pretty handy. Will they be difficult to remove from the base ?

Good question and as I hadn't even opened the package I thought I'd check it out and get you a good answer. The clamps are spaced pretty high off of the base they are attached to. Using my Tamiya side cutters, I cut a clamp off near the base and then used them to cut up next to the clamp. The plastic(?), cut very easily and cleanly. A small amount of clean up with a sander left a very clean piece ready for the model. It seems like it will be easy to cut the bottom of the clamp, if needed, and carefully fit it over whatever you're trying to clamp down.

[digger303]

Great bending tool
and those clamps are pretty handy. Will they be difficult to remove from the base ?

Good question and as I hadn't even opened the package I thought I'd check it out and get you a good answer. The clamps are spaced pretty high off of the base they are attached to. Using my Tamiya side cutters, I cut a clamp off near the base and then used them to cut up next to the clamp. The plastic(?), cut very easily and cleanly. A small amount of clean up with a sander left a very clean piece ready for the model. It seems like it will be easy to cut the bottom of the clamp, if needed, and carefully fit it over whatever you're trying to clamp down.

Thanks that's good to know.