M8 HMC |
| By Michael Bedard |
| Started: | Nov 14, 2007 | | Updated: | May 15, 2008 |
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I received the Tiger Model Designs M8 HMC on October 17, 2007 (a day after my birthday) from Saul Garcia. I was surprised to see how large a box the kit comes in considering the size of the vehicle. The box was packed with several resin cast parts, AFV Club styrene parts, a CD from Toadman, large instruction booklet plus an extra set of tracks and decals that Saul threw in for giggles. My first impression is the amount and quality of the resin castings. The instructions are more comprehensive than any other resin kit I have ever seen. Reading through the instructions one gets the feeling that the owner and master-builder have put together an extraordinary kit but apologize for it not being ‘perfect’. The booklet points out several areas that the initial build came across as points to be aware of when building the kit. Just the instructions alone are a marvel in the resin kit business. As I proceed with the BLOG I may come across points in construction or detail that others may want to be aware. Hopefully this BLOG will inspire others to purchase this extraordinary resin kit and/or help with their own build.
I won’t go through the history of the vehicle or review of the kit since Saul has already posted this on track-link. I will be using as reference for the build past articles in Military Modelling by Steve Zaloga and Cookie Seawell, Osprey books on the Stuart (along with Steve Zaloga’s Modeling book on the Stuart), Hunnicutt’s book on light tanks and my own reference photos of a local M5A1 Stuart and Aberdeen’s M8. I may post some of these references along in the BLOG.
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| Opening screens | May 15, 2008 |
| Prior to attaching the upper hull the screen areas are opened to use the Eduard screens provided. Having the area open makes the screens appear more 3-dimensional. First step is to drill holes in the corners to be opened. |
| Fixing the Turret Ring | May 10, 2008 |
| As mentioned earlier in the BLOG the copy of the kit I have seems to have a problem with the upper hull fitting against the radio and sponson ammo rack. To solve this problem first the ring to be removed is scribed at the end points using a chisel blade. |
| Exhaust | May 7, 2008 |
| I'm sure I checked several times but I seem not to be able to find in the TMD instructions about the placement of the exhaust pipes. The part is listed in the parts list. I would suggest placing the exhaust prior to attaching the upper hull. Sorry it is out of focus (I need to get a better camera... more |
| Fit Problems | May 4, 2008 |
| TMD makes note in their instructions about placing the radio closer to the edge to allow room for the spare .50 cal MG barrel seen in this picture. What I found was another fit problem pointed out here using the X-Acto knife. |
| Dashboard | Apr 30, 2008 |
| TMD uses the photo-etched dash and printed insturments for the dash board. My example didn't have the clear acetate so I brushed three coats of Future over the paper printed insturments to give a glass-like finish. |
| Fire Extinguishers | Apr 26, 2008 |
| There are two fire extinguishers for the lower hull. One is a hand-held unit and the other bottle is the fire suppression system. They were originally painted Vallejo red. I wanted to gloss them up a bit so a coat of Tamiya Clear Red was added. This was too glossy so a coat of Tamiya Flat Base/Clear... more |
| Adding Interior Rounds | Apr 22, 2008 |
| The build is getting to the point where final detail items are added to the interior hull. This picture shows the ready rounds, cardboard tubes and tubes with tops removed. The detail on the cardboard tubes is fantastic including the spiral laminated paper up the side. Tubes were painted Tamiya flat... more |
| Periscopes | Apr 17, 2008 |
| TMD casts their periscopes in clear resin. I'm experimenting trying to capture what the actual periscopes look and work like. Here I've used Alclad Chrome brush painted in the area that would have the mirrors installed. |
| Extra Detail | Apr 12, 2008 |
| Another nifty item that TMD includes in their M8 kit is some solder wire. This is great for adding extra plumbing details. Having some photos of the inside of a M5A1 that I took about 16 years ago really helped. Also the instructions have some TM photos that help. The CD that is included with the... more |
| Aammunition Racks | Apr 8, 2008 |
| TMD includes in their M8 kit both the interior and exterior Eduard M8 photo-etch sets. The biggest advantage of including this set is the instrument panel with the printed instruments. Most of the pieces in the Eduard set are mastered and cast up by TMD. One area that I did decide to use the Eduard... more |
| Painting Fabric | Apr 4, 2008 |
| One little item that reflects my interest in painting figures is how I approach painting cloth items on vehicles. This is in reference of the canteens stored inside U.S. vehicles in World War II. The canteens are small so I just use 3 basic colors for painting the covers. Picture 1 shows Vallejo US... more |
| Adding Pigments | Mar 31, 2008 |
| A final added bit of weathering is adding pigments to create built-up dust and grime. I use a small brush loaded with pigment then use a large soft brush to blend the pigment away from the corners (this is what the picture shows). I use Bragdon artist’s pigments available at most art supply stores (such... more |
| Interior - Step 2 | Feb 12, 2008 |
| I'm not sure if new tanks have as many grease, fuel and oil spills as old tanks but it is fun to create these effects in miniature. My experience with Sherman and M5A1 Stuart tanks is there seems to be a lot of 'mess' in these vehicles. Areas that have access hatches, fluid ports and... more |
| Weathering the Interior - Step 1 | Feb 6, 2008 |
| Using the transmission as an example the first step to weathering the interior is creating paint chips and scratches. For white I use Vallejo London Gray. After being inside Sherman tanks I believe this gives the best representation to this type of wear. I find a touch of distilled water helps the Vallejo... more |
| .50 cal Thompson | Dec 4, 2007 |
| One area I really enjoy is detailing small arms. The M8 had 2 .50 cal Thompson machine guns. I start after priming using Vallejo 846 Mahogany Brown as the base of the wooden parts of the gun. |
| Painting the Hull Interior | Dec 1, 2007 |
| The hull on the interior of the M8, from what I could glean from references, is painted white. TMD recommends semi-gloss white, which in reality is the color, used on actual World War II tank interiors. I find the gloss however in small scale creating a sensation of the model being ‘toy like’. I would... more |
| Painting the interior resin pieces | Nov 28, 2007 |
| This chapter shows all the parts for the interior that are painted white. As you can see there are a lot. This really adds to the detail of the kit. Some parts aren’t shown that still will be added and those are the Eduard photo-etch parts included in the kit. I will deal with those separately. For... more |
| Painting interior parts | Nov 25, 2007 |
| I started the build by cleaning up and removing from the carrier blocks the interior parts. There are a lot of resin parts for this kit so be careful with them. I first tried some doubled-stick carpet tape on a paint stir stick to hold the parts for painting. I quickly found out that the double stick... more |
| Looking at the Lower Hull | Nov 22, 2007 |
| Before getting to the actual build a little examination as to the accuracy and detail has been done. Starting with the lower hull the TMD M8 is spot on in dimensions according to the drawings in Steve Zaloga’s Stuart book by Osprey. In Zaloga’s book there is a 1/35th scale engineering drawing available... more |
| Removing pieces from carriers | Nov 18, 2007 |
| Probably the most unique aspects of building a resin kit is taking care of the resin parts on their carriers. Unlike a styrene injected plastic kit where just a sprue cutter will work it is advisable to have a variety of saws and clippers. Tiger Model Designs uses a type of resin that is quite different... more |
| Preparing resin pieces | Nov 14, 2007 |
| I have found in the past that resin kits more than any other kits need to be cleaned prior to building. Resin kits usually use release agents to remove the resin from the RTV molds. I find that using a large soft brush and Dawn dish soap will remove the release agents quite well. Picture 2 shows a caution... more |
