Graham Thompson's

French Armored Carrier 

Well, my first GB, my first tracked vehicle for years and my first time with plastic tracks instead of rubber bands.  I saw the Kit in this mornings visit to Hobby Craft for even more paint...  It looked so odd, I fell in love with it.  A surprising number of parts as you will see from the sprue shots yet the vehicle and kit are quite small.  Love the BBQ covers for the crews heads lol

Given that I have never done the plastic tracks before, I thought I would start with the smallest I could find, who wants an easy life???  

The markings are on the instruction sheet as two 'unknown' units.  I will have to try and find out more.

The kit even comes with a free pair of tweezers, what a bonus 

Got the running gear on and built the tilt-able stowage bin.  Just got the tracked trailer to put together and I will get them primed up ready for painting.  Some nice stowage accessories come with the kit so apologies for the pin marks in the bin but it will be full of kit.  Yes, lazy and unacceptable, I have slapped my own wrists quite firmly.

The hull plates in front of the crew hatches are clipped in for painting, they will hold well, as they have to be removed again for fitting the crew.

 

The drive sprocket.  I have read a review where it bemoaned the fact that the nut on the axel should be a castle nut for a split pin and suggests that careful cutting with a sharp blade could rectify this.  As the big axel nut is just over 1mm across, I don't think I will attempt this micro surgery!!!!

One question though.  The kit comes with a couple of oil drums, 4 parts each, but the call out and the box art shows these to be silver.  Does anyone know if this would in fact be correct or would they be a similar green to the vehicle, remembering that this would be pre French capitulation?

 

Well, here she is all ready for final cleaning up and priming.  Before I do prime it and am going to research a bit about the pros/cons of priming armour in grey or black.  I have heard that black priming works well with amour.  Any opinions?

There are 'fenders' for the trailer but I will add them later as it will make fitting the track a bit tricky.

 

I have sprayed it with Tamiya 51 as per call out but after a coat of clear, it is very, very dark.  This may be in part to it being sprayed over a primer of Nato Black so I hope I can get the post shading right to lift it into being green(er)

Had a small nightmare, when spraying, one of the hull top plates blew off.  Later when packing up, I couldn't find it.  I had thrown it out into the bin with the screwed up kitchen roll ....must take more care.

Just got to post shade, weather a bit so main parts can be completed and then it's the dreaded tracks........  Onwards and upwards.

 

She is now painted and weathered to look dusty and dirty rather than rust and muddy.  I may do a bit more weathering depending how it fits into the diorama/scenic base which, along with the boxes and oil drums etc (and the dreaded figures), are next.

Comments as always welcome, as I have not yet started the dio base, there is time to make changes.  Next pics will be the final reveal.  Hope it has not been too boring, sorry about the number of pics, as I get more experience, I will be able to judge it better.

 

Finally got round to completing this lovely little kit.  As it stood, it didn't show off so well so I made  basic scenic base to put it on to show it that little bit better (I hope!)

Truly OOB, I have even tried to make the scene re-create the box artwork. Tamiya paints used almost exclusively other than a touch of Citadel Gunmetal on the rifles.   All weathering done using Promodellers Wash, I quite like the way the light dirt gives a dusty finish to the boxes and oil drums, and a very small amount of the Tamiya Weathering Master sets (not quite got the hang of them yet).

 

Thanks

 

Paddy