I am doing my first photo etch detail set. (Eduard's for Dragon's Hummel) On the one hand I would like to thank everyone for the inspiration and it is not near as hard as I was lead to believe. On the other hand, I think I must be going blind. Some of those parts a ridiculously tiny... I'll post some pics.

Right now I am working on a flak tower that will have a 20mm gun. It is made of balsa & bass wood. I aquired an old set of plans produced by Magus. I am 90% done with construction.

Here is a pic of the Hmmel with PE in progress. Not really a scratchbuild or conversion, I know. It is however my first attempt at PE. For some reason I thought PE was some kind of black art that only master modellers ever attempted. Heck, I'm having a great time...

I would love to see a pic of the flak tower...

I just built the rear light guard for my Sherman,bedrolls for afore mentioned vehicle an d ariels for it and my marder Towing cables for both, ground work and barb wire fence,and one tree all from scrap material. one Mdf building is coming next. #:-)

I scratchbuild the gun truck box's to fit in the back of the M-35A1 or2 AFV Club kits. I build any known version for over 500 different Gun Trucks. Will also fit Th M-923/25 series trucks for those that convert the cab to M-54 series.

I have been working on for the past 1 1/2 years is a scratch built full interior of the Panzer IV J in 1/72nd scale! I will hopefully have photos soon. #:-) #:-)

Since I'm currently stuck in Iraq, i'm just scratching, not much buidling though. HOWEVER...Before I went wheels up I had drawn up my plans for some sci-fi stuff. Basically one each of the 1/12 ESCI cockpits (F104/F16) wrapped into a futuristic hover tank. Complete with engine panels removed and other items on display. It will be docked in a maintenance bay so the possibilities here are endless. Have some armitures for some sculptures completed as well and some composite drawings of scuptures yet to come. Pretty basic at this point, but getting more defined as I find time. Somebody call the Iraqis and tell them that "Major combat operations are over". I think somebody forgot to tell them as they continue to throw RPG's at us... lol Hope to see you all soon. "Q"

I'm slowly building a M916A2 out of a old Monogram snap tite frieghtliner,I scratched built fram, wench, fenders and almost everthing else. Now to get the wheels casted right
Vince

Hi! Guys, I am buliding AH1W Cobra, with alot of help from you guys,
trying to depict this Cobra from A.R.C. :-
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/401-500/walk438_Cobra_Smith/15.jpg
the extra stuff that on the heli would be scratchbuilt.

Just finished converting and scratch building some small arms for a SWAT dio. An Italeri HUMMV will also need converting for it. Almost finished with the M163 Verlinden conversion. That will hopefully soon be converted to IDF Machbet (If I can find more info on the linkages for the Stinger pod).

I have been working on a soviet BTT1, the revcovery version on the jsu122/152 chassis. When I first saw this I thought wow, this looks unusual. I could find virtually no reference material on it but decided to go ahead with the project anyway (converting a Dragon 152 kit).

I posted a request on ML to see if anyone had any info on these vehicles and by the end of the day I was in email conversation with 3 other people who are also building one of these vehicles! The fun part of this though is that because there is so little info on these we are sharing all our work, photos, inf etc almost like a long distance build between us. This is one of the reasons why I love this hobby.

Give it a few month and we will see a flood of BTT's hitting the galleries!

Lee

hi guys... i just bought a Monogram M29C Weasel at Ebay.. after a long absence in modelling.. i was not sure what to build... so after careful thinking and convincing myself .. I thought of giving this kit some detailing ... but my main problem is reference and comments on this kits,,,,,,, is there a lot of conversions and modifications for this kits ...HELP!!!

I am scratch building another Vietnam era fuel tanker and tractor combo.

I've just joined the TD campaign/group build so I'm going to build a Fiat AR 59 (Jeep look-alike type of vehicle) equipped with a 106mm recoiless gun. The AR 59 will be 100%scratchbuilt and the gun will be the one from the Dragon's "Mule" with slight modifications...
Ciao

Well gathering up more info to build a 2nd B-26k Invader with the CE set. Surgery to be involved with the Monogram kit. Here is the 1st build with the Paragon set completed 3 years ago.



With new info provided the 2nd one should be more accurat.

Thanks for viewing.
Fly Navy

Well - I have a problem now - I've just begin with 1/48 Hobbycraft-Signum Curtiss H75N Thai Hawk - and I discovered that engine cowling as well as undercarriage are completly out of shape. I post a question on FSM forum about possibility of resin replacements but there are now answer till today. I guess, there are no resin (or other) replacement, so I'm nearly decided to scrachtbuild undercarriage at least - and there is my question. What do you suggest to use as a material to scratch ? I don't think wood is just good enough, and I have no idea what to use instead. Could anyone help ? Aleksander

Hi Mate. It depends on what size the parts are. For smaller strut sizes use copper or brass wire of the right diameter. For larger parts carve/shape them out of plastic sheet.
Also you can use the original kit parts like tyres instead of building them from scratch.

Currently I am scratchbuilding a 1:72 scale OIF aavp7a1 with full interior. Its about 40% done and I will post pictures as soon as I get something finished. #:-)
Kyle

Currently using two 1/35th scale mortar kits along with some surgery to come up with a T27 81mm mortar used in very limited numbers by US AB forces during WWII.

Cute little bugger it'll be too. #:-)

If anyone out there has any info on this mortar, I could sure use your help!

Howdy all,

Just read thru this thread (a couple of my favourite subjects, scratchbuilding & 'variants') and love the projects you guys have going on!
I've got a few on my desk as well. To name just a couple of them.
Because of my love for anything 'variant', and to get over my aversion to building Sherm's, I've taken on a very interesting variation on the Sherman. It's a little known mine roller Sherman called 'LuLu'. It has two massive rollers out front to port and starboard, and an additional trailing (somewhat smaller) roller to the rear, and in the center of the track of the front two.
(I'll try to post a pic in this post)

I've also been toying with the idea of a 'Sno-Cat' style HEMTT truck. This conversion will be based on the Italeri M-977 kit. It will turn the standard HEMTT frame into a resonable facimile of the Mk.48 articulated-frame HEMTT truck used by the Marine Corp. Interesting combo, I know. But after all the R&D time I've invested in the concept, I just want to see if I can do it!
Something else I've been considering, is the new Humvee 5th wheel-style configuration I've recently discovered (thanks in part to the savvy members on this site ). It essentially is a Humvee with the rear comaprtment sporting a 5th wheel trailer mount, and a trailer mounted to the rear (wish I couild find a pic). Now that Tamiya's come out with their superb Hummer, I think I'll try some 'kit-bashing'.

There are quite a few other projects on the modeling desk (who doesn't have), but I'll save those for another time.

Tread.

O.K. gang....many apologies for the thread 'bogarting'. And I still didn't get it right!

Anyway, above are two images of the 'LuLu' I spoke of, albiet in 'thumbs' only (can't get the hang of this photoposting'thing')

Tread.

I see the photos just fine Tread - just small!

Gunnie