M8A1

The M8 kit is from Nitto and is quite old. It shows its age with thick parts and soft details but the parts fit was good. I replaced the moulded-on spare tracks on the cab roof. The tool rack on the front was really bad so I scratch built one to replace it. The engine screens were scratched from an HO scale bridge cat walk I found at a train store. The kit tracks are some of the worst I have seen as this was intended as a motorized toy, I replaced them with AFV Club M41 rubber band tracks, which are short so you need two sets, but the detail is very good and they accept CA glue very well. The ammo pallets on the back are the fine AFV ammo set. This particular set up was intended for the Skysweeper AA gun. The back loading crane was used to load and unload a large generator that ran the gun’s radar and electronics. But I thought it would work good for ammo as well. Hydraulic lines for the blade are made of solder. Stowage is a combination of AFV Club and spares bin. The kit supplied .50 cal was very crude so I replaces it with a spare from one of my Tamiya kits. Painted with model master Olive Drab. Then the lower portions were sprayed with a Model Master brown (which I cant find at the moment) to simulate road dust/dirt. Then a clear lacquer sealer for decals, followed by oil washes. This is one of the models mentioned in my forum question about the washes not drying. After setting for several hours in front of a heater and then another coat of lacquer it came out fine. Then I added pastels to dust it up.

This was my first commission build, and was a lot of fun, thanks Andrew!

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