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Modeller Build Logs
M-12 155mm GMC |
| By Hans Haase |
| Started: | Mar 1, 2007 | | Updated: | Sep 2, 2007 |
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The M-12 is, in allied terms, a somewhat rare vehicle. 100 of these self propelled artillery pieces were built in 1942 and 1943 for the purpose of training and were based on M3 medium tank chassis, with the then-standard M1917/M1918M1 155mm gun of French design.
As the actual invasion of Europe got closer, it was decided that the standard 105mm M7 self-propelled howitzer may be too small for dealing with stronger fixed emplacements, and a number of M-12's were modernized and upgraded for combat use. These became the largest self-propelled US artillery deployed in Europe and saw heavy use throughout the European campaign.
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| Finished | Sep 2, 2007 |
After all the work, I opted not to really dirty the vehicle up, and went with a mildly dusty look. Since I had already given the washes in the last chapter, I finished up the weathering with a light airbrush dusting of a few earthy colors.
Overall, the vehicle got a dusting of Tamiya Buff and Deck... more |
| An extra weld seam... | Aug 19, 2007 |
I had done this bit a while back, but wasn't able to photograph it well until after painting was progressed along.
When the M12's were rebuilt in preparation for use in Europe, they had the starboard side door covered over with an extra compartment. This means that you need to put a weld... more |
| Stowage Added and More Weathering | Aug 16, 2007 |
| No vehicle looks "right" without the various bits and pieces that the crew would have left in it. So here you can see the ammo done last chapter, and the difference that the straps and yellow details made. You can also see the propellant tubes on the floor behind the gun, and also behind the ammo racks.... more |
| 155mm Ammo | Aug 13, 2007 |
Unfortunately I didn't have a full set of ammo to go with the build, I only had enough for 5 rounds and 5 propellant tubes. The propellant tubes got some lightened OD, and the ammo itself straight OD from the jar, which ended up a bit darker than the vehicle itself.
I wasn't able to track... more |
| Tracks | Aug 2, 2007 |
| Nothing too special here, but the devil is in the details. The vehicle I decided to model features a set of metal chevron tracks, which I conveniently had sitting in a DML Sherman III kit. These are the DS soft-styrene type, which means they are glueable using normal plastic cement. You just need... more |
| Adding the Stars | Jul 30, 2007 |
| I had picked out a few vehicles that I considered building, trying to avoid using the kit decals. For some reason, I never have good luck with Academy decals. They tend to either silver up very badly, or break apart into little pieces. So I decided I don't want to risk this build with bad decals,... more |
| Second color coat | Jul 26, 2007 |
Here is the paintjob a bit further along. As mentioned, I sprayed the kit on top of the brown with a very highly thinned Tamiya OD green. Probably a ratio of 10:1 or so, at around 10psi.
It takes a lot of coats to get good coverage, so if you use this method be prepared to do a lot of spraying.... more |
| Base Colour | Jul 23, 2007 |
| So, here she is in the base color. I've been experimenting lately with various styles of pre-shading, and have been steering toward a layered color approach. Every time I try it, things get a little bit better. I'm finding it's all about the proper ratio of thinner, but also the correct... more |
| Ready for Paint! | Jul 17, 2007 |
And here it is, shown sitting together ready for paint. The main gun isn't attached yet, nor is the side door. I also won't be adding a few parts till later such as the drive sprockets, idler wheels, engine mesh or stowage.
The side hatch was a bit of a fabrication of mine to be honest.... more |
| 155mm Gun: Part 2 | Jul 14, 2007 |
After the difficulty of working in the aluminum barrel, the rest of this segment went pretty easy. I chose the Eduard parts over the Verlinden, except for the hinges between the two halves of the gun shield. Eduard has them in two pieces, which won't offer enough support to keep it all together.
One... more |
| 155mm gun: Part 1 | Jul 13, 2007 |
| The 155mm main gun was a bit of a pain in the butt, mostly because I opted for the aluminum barrel. All you get is the gun tube, as opposed to the Academy piece which has much of the recoil tracks molded in. This caused a bit of a problem, in that you can't really remove the plastic components... more |
| Hull, fast progress, almost done | Jul 12, 2007 |
| This section went much faster than I expected. Mostly due to the Eduard, Verlinden and Academy parts being pretty accurate for this part. So no real scratch-work was needed. I just proceeded along assembling the various parts from the different sets which I considered best. This area proceeded a... more |
| Suspension: Part 2 | Jul 11, 2007 |
As I mentioned earlier, Academy had a couple of big goofs in the m12 suspension that needed to be fixed, which don't really apply if using these parts elsewhere.
The other is the sponson supports, which are those odd bars that drop down off the sides of the upper hull. Many other websites I... more |
| Upper hull attached, and some more goodies.... | Jul 10, 2007 |
| Ok, this point is where I had a turnover of moods. I glued the upper hull in place, and decided to just cut my losses in the interior. I do have some extra photos of stuff I had done in there if anybody is interested, but I don't want to bore everybody with the wiring in the upper crew compartment... more |
| Engine Compartment | Jul 6, 2007 |
| Originally I had planned on having the hatches removed in the engine compartment. But a few things changed my mind on that. One is that the Verlinden PE mesh for the hatches is just terrible and unuseable compared to the Eduard. Another is that, I am worn out on this interior, and the engine compartment... more |
| Crew Compartment, finished | Jun 28, 2007 |
This project..... has become a chore. The constant need to rebuild and replace components due to totally incorrect aftermarket sets has taken what I thought would be a fun project, and turned it into actual work. However, the results are starting to make me feel better about all the effort.
This... more |
| Crew Compartment: Part 3 | May 13, 2007 |
Have you ever heard of the term "Mission Creep". I've heard it used both in the Military as well as business worlds, the basic concept is that as a project progresses, it grows in complexity. I am suffering from that, in a bad way.
This is the almost finished crew compartment, with the new... more |
| Suspension - Part 1 | May 10, 2007 |
As mentioned back at the beginning, the suspension in this kit is pretty well done straight from the box. However, there are a couple of issues that must be deal with for accuracy sake. One of the more obvious ones is the track skids.
Shown on the left is the part provided by Academy. Far too... more |
| Crew Compartment: Part 2 | Apr 28, 2007 |
| Remember how I said I suspected the Verlinden set to be wrong in a number of areas? Well, good research proves me 100% correct. I picked up an excellent reference from Easy One Productions, which is a PDF version of the original M12 Technical manual. Sometimes a tech manual is only marginally useful,... more |
| Nuts, Bolts and Plates | Apr 21, 2007 |
| Something that always nagged at me when I built "Bacchus" was that I never did add the interior bolt detail for the bogie units. The inside does have the nuts and bolts present, but at the time the interior was far too complex with too little visability to bother. But on the M12, the hatches are big... more |
| Crew Compartment: Part 1 | Apr 18, 2007 |
| While I wait for more info for the engine compartment and such, I was able to proceed with what was left of the "tray" that the interior sits on. The Verlinden transmission assembly gave only a minor improvement in detail over the Academy parts, but it does have a bit more detail. More important is... more |
| How long is a drivetrain? | Mar 6, 2007 |
| One thing I've learned dealing with aftermarket interiors, is how imporant it is to constantly test how everything fits together. In this case, I quickly realized that Verlinden made the engine slightly too big. To add further issues, they would have you build a box of thick walled resin that... more |
| Rounding up the Pieces | Mar 1, 2007 |
On todays Menu for the M-12 GMC build, we have the following.
The base kit will be the quite lovely Academy M-12 GMC in 1:35 scale. This is one of their finest kits based on the M3/M4 medium tank chassis, and suffers from very few glaring issues. Most needed corrections are simply due to the limitations... more |
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