Work in Progress / Kit Bashing Summer 2024

[ripley]

Thought I'ld start a new thread as the last one I had hasn't been updated for over 2 years .  Here's a couple of ideas on how to get some extra milage out of the GAZ AA/AAA truck . I've built 2 , your bog standard AAA and one with the resin box body
 



 I then purchased the quad Maxim mg mount and dropped in the cargo bed of the truck


 I had a few seated resin Russians in the paint que and decided to add them to my truck as well


How did I manage to mount both the quad mgs and the troops to the same truck you ask ? Easy , I just mounted them on a drop in floor ( plastic siding material cut to size )


But what to do with the left over pieces from the box body kit ? I built a trailer

 Quite an easy kit bash really , I just looked at some of the pickup truck body trailers a lot of the local farmers have and copied it in plastic


1st remove drive train and plastic between the side rails


2nd  bend side rails together to create tongue , add axle, wheels , tow ring , and whatever bits and pieces that take your fancy . I glued some fuel drums and a tarped stack of boxes trying to not overload the "1 ton " capacity of the trailer .

[ripley]

A really great kit to get various game play options with very little work is the T-26 kit

 I went for the plan jane T-26 1933 version , adding various tools and a partial turret interior with gun breach and ammo racks , quite visible  with the hatches open .


 After picking up some reference books and checking out the left over kit parts I realized I could make the upper hull removable to give me the option of building other types . I decided I would cast the driver's visor to glue it to each upper hull instead of glueing it to the single lower hull .  I  pushed the visor into modelling clay a half dozen times and poured resin . A real easy way to make parts that only need detail on one side . .When hard , these were sanded to needed thickness .  Here's the versions I can use in my army








Since I was using the earlier style fender supports ( parts 14,15,16,17 ) I didn't end up using the later 1938 style turret . It might end up used as a bunker turret .  Here are the various pieces for this tank , the resin driver's visor in red . The 45mm gun and flame gun mantle ( blue ) are removable as they can be used in the same turret


All in all a great little kit . Only negatives out of the box are lack of tools ,  and a lot of pictures show a stowage box on both fenders , the kit gives you one .  Probably easy to cast it in resin or craft out of plastic sheet , I didn't bother as my hulls have enough bits added to them . Tools should be easy to scratch up or find in parts box , the screw jack is a HO scale model train part .