Stuart to T18 Howitzer Motor Carriage

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

My next conversion. Stuart to T18 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

The T18 Howitzer Motor Carriage was an American self-propelled gun. Its development started in September 1941 as a close-support vehicle using the M3 Stuart's chassis. A 75 mm howitzer was mounted on the right front of the vehicle. The gun mount was adapted from the M3 Grant. Two prototypes were produced by Firestone and then sent to the Aberdeen Proving Ground. However, they were unsatisfactory because of their high superstructure and nose weight. Because the Army disliked the high superstructure and nearly vertical armor, the T18 was abandoned in 1942, and soon started a new turreted project, the T41 75 mm HMC, also known as the Howitzer Motor Carriage M8.
Later, the prototypes were kept on display in the Aberdeen Proving Ground until they were destroyed in 1947.

Here are some pictures of this rare vehicle.









There is a resin conversion kit.



But I like to convert in plastic.

With these two kits:





I started of with building the Howitzer part that I needed for the build.
Only the barrel. And the Stuart up to the point where the rest would be scratch building.

This is the only part of the Howitzer that I used plus some scratch building.



This is Stuart minus the turret and machine gun implacement cut off and closed off with putty.



Then I started building the cast iron upper hull part with PS plate.







Because the cast part has rounded edges, that has to be simulated and can't be done just sanding the edges of the plate material.
Because that is too thin. So I built the 'edged' shape and reinforced the inside of the edges with angled strips. This way I could later on cut the outer edges of without the hull falling appart. I filled the remaining holes with putty.





When everything was dry, I cut away the edges where ever there would be a rounded edge later.









I then filled the edges with putty, to later sand back to rounded edges.





I put some extra tools on the back.



From spare parts and stretched sprue I constructed the details on the top.





From plate and leftovers I made the hatches and armer plate to be added later.



That's all for now folks.
Next up: Completed assembly and sanding of the super structure.

[Gauzer]

A nice unusual subject and all that putty and sanding..... madness

[privatepete]

Hi Hans, here comes another master piece I've just got a feeling, I don't envy you all that sanding

Pete

[hansolo]

Thanks guys. It's gonna be an outsanding build.

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

Tiny update here.
I filled the remaining holes and sanded the edges. Only thing left to building is adding the 2 machine guns.
Than it's of to the paint booth!





Till then...

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

Final build update. Painting.

First black.



Then preshading with white.



Base color green/



Some added highlights with a buff color.



Sealed with gloss coat to accommodate the later dark wash.



Next steps were:
Dark wash, detail painting, matt coat, yellow filter, brown wash, black wash, rust wash, graphite edges, oil stains.

The tracks:
Dark grey paint, earth pigments on the metal parts, 2 shades of rust, graphite edges, dry brush rubber edges.

These stages I didn't photograph separately.
But you can check out the final Pics here: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 46&t=20984

[jjab99]

Wow, superb results, well done

[hansolo]

Wow, superb results, well done

Thanks jjab.
Did you check out the final reveals too? http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 46&t=20984

[jjab99]

I'll do that right now