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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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| 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 and the clutch linkages. But, if you DO want to see, drop me an e-mail and I'll send them to you.
Here you can see one of the few exterior spots that Academy did a major goof in my opinion. Their method of constructing the differential housing was awkward, and left a difficult to fill gap under the bolt strip. I would have preferred the bolt strip to be part of the nose, instead of the upper hull, which would have made life easier.
Originally I was going to model a vehicle named Buccaneer, which had this whole area covered with sandbags. But then I found a set of Formations sirens and headlights, and I just had to use them. Such nice resin, highly recommended. I also had to fill in the big holes for the plastic headlight guards, and added the Eduard PE as you can see.
For the filler, this is Blue/Yellow Kneadatite, which is a two part putty that is more commonly used for scultpting. But I like the long amount of time you have to work with it, and I use it for a lot of things where other folks might use tube putties that start drying in just a couple minutes. The bad part is that this stuff needs to set almost for a full day.
I also opened up the viewports in the front hatches, and glued them in place. For some reason, I have found almost no photos of the crew opening these hatches, so I left them closed. All the others will be left opened. |
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