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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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| 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 to remember in this case, do NOT glue them until they are wrapped around the suspension first, because of that sponson support a couple chapters back.
For the painting, I used my pretty much standard approach here. I started off with a spray coating of Gunze "Burnt Iron" which gives a nice, dark metallic base. Not too shiny, not to black.
Then I mixed up a MIG pigment selection of standard rust with a touch of light rust and black. To this I added a few drops of future and a few drops of "dirty water" leftover from brush cleaning as an extra touch. However, don't mix it at all. Keep it splotchy, to give variations of the final result.
After this was well dried, I gave a very light hit of rub-n-buff silver. |
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