The painting process on the Meng A39 Tortoise kit has started with a start being made on applying a Vallejo grey primer.
The cooler weather, the nature of the primer and the complexity of the parts to be painted means this will be a process spread over several days! That means cleaning the airbrush will be a regular occurrence too! Oh joy!
It is now time to think a bit more about the painting stages of the A39 Tortoise and it will be stages as there are complexities in being able to get to what will be difficult to access areas if the whole kit is put together and then painted. As I highlighted in previous posts the running wheels, drive wheels and tracks need to be painted separately. I cannot make the tracks until the wheels are in place and they need to be painted first so I think that makes the 'stages' process a bit clearer!
To ensure that the wheel mounts can be attached to the hull after painting I need to mask the gluing areas as paint will not stick once glue is applied! The WMD Stores had some nice Tamiya 2mm masking tape in stock - handy!
Careful application was slow and then I recalled that the WMD Stores also had some Maskol in stock - even more handy! Maskol is a rubberised paint that is applied to mask surfaces and once painted it can be stripped off just like masking tape.
It was certainly a quicker process! Now I can think about the paint!
As a cyclist there are always hazards to watch out for and in my years of riding I have had a few mishaps but luckily live to tell the tales! I also have a T shirt that states' The older I get the faster I was!' Well the older I get the more I watch out for hazards - its all part of the preservation of life philosophy - and at this time of year there are unusual hazards that I can face! Whilst those who cycle in urban areas have all sorts of hazards to watch out for the rural cyclist is also faced with hazards - just different! Trying to avoid the thorns from the hedge cutting going on is one of the hazards but there are others which urban cyclists are unlikely to face.
The sugar beet campaign - no idea why it is called a campaign - is under way a typically there are large trucks parked up at the sides of fields with a conveyor loader hurling 2kg beets into the trailer. I don't really fancy a beet on the head but that is the risk as you cycle pass!
Then the most unpredictable hazard - the loose livestock! You never know if the animal is going to run away or to you! At least sheep don't tend to bite!
So there you have it - the hazards that a rural cyclist faces! I still enjoy my rides though!
Well, I surprised myself in that the main parts of the A39 Tortoise are now together!
It is now at a stage where there are some parts that still need to be added such as the side skirts, towing cables, spare track links and fire extinguishers but these are best left off to paint separately. As I posted earlier in the build, the running gear still needs adding but again it needs to be painted separately before being put in place. And then of course there are the tracks which are individual links that need cutting off the sprue, cleaning and gluing together! Maybe I should not be surprised that there is still much to do!
More parts added to this beast of a machine!
A few other parts to the sides and front have also been fitted but those 6 large holes are for the spare track links which were carried on the side of the body. To make painting easier I will be adding those after the painting is done.
Right! back to the slow slog of adding all those small parts!
Out with Mrs. Woody for a drive out and some lunch as it was her birthday I could not help but appreciate the day not only for Mrs. W's special day but because despite being mid October it was a stunning day weatherwise!
What cloud there was had something special about it and which I can remember being taught about at school!
Dropping in on Wymondham Windmill I took, what for me is a good photo - well I think anyway! Love that mackerel sky which according to Google consists of multiple rows of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds in an undulating, rippling pattern resembling fish scales - just as I recall from my school days!
That cloud was still about as we ended up at Whissendine windmill.
There is that Mackerel Sky again.
gf
Slowly this kit comes together.
The towing points are massive in relation to any other I have dealt with on a model but I guess with a weight of 78 tons for the real tanks they had to be massive. The three on the front are finished.
The two on the back however do need to be finished and there are still more holes to be filled with parts! They will eventually!
For an assault gun, the A39 Tortoise had a fair amount of defensive armament including a small, rotating secondary machine gun turret mounted on the roof of its casemate superstructure, alongside a third machine gun mounted in the front hull plate. The crew of seven included two machine gunners to operate them. Unusual but the turret does make a nice model in its own right! There are about 30 parts to make this!
The turret also features a 6-barrel smoke discharger cluster (or smoke bomb launcher bank) directly attached to its side. Alongside this smoke grenade unit, the secondary turret houses twin 7.92mm BESA machine guns. Because this small turret is capable of 360-degree rotation, the attached smoke discharger unit could pop smoke screen cover in any direction the machine gunner or commander faced, adding vital tactical flexibility to an otherwise slow, 78-ton vehicle!
Why, as modellers do we do this? What's that Woody, you may ask, or maybe not! However, the answer is to put ourselves through all sorts of tiny manipulations involving magnification aids that then result in parts flying off over the floor requiring on the knee searching or failing to fit as planned as the glue melts the wrong part of the piece gluing it to your finger and all of this then adds significant quantities to the swear jar! The end result is this in the case of the MENG A39 Tortoise!
Great, Woody! What's so hard about that? Well maybe look at this...
Yes! This travel support for the gun barrel can be opened or closed and the locking bolt works!
It may have taken two hours to get this together and it will probably lie on the model unused until the landfill site takes delivery in years to come but I know it is constructed and works like the tool maker envisaged!
More small parts added to the A39 Tortoise although on a model like this the details seem to fade into the enormity of the vehicle!
Todays progress has seen various periscopes fitted to the upper part of the body along with various parts of towing eyes to the rear of the body as well as a few other unknown parts to the upper side of the main body.
It will eventually all go together ti make a great overall model but at the moment it feels a bit....well tortoise in progress!
