A34 Comet Mk I Type A - New Build

[Robert E Morey]

Fantastic work Stephen as always. You set the bar high with the PIII and continue to surprise us with great details, The textured plate looks great! Keep at it,
Best regards,
Bob

[David Gray]

I agree with bob , the texture on the plates looks super will look great when its finished

Dave

[Stephen White]

Thanks Bob and Dave. I'm taking a lead from Simon and putting some paint down before final assembly.

Firstly, some more texturing of the front and rear plates, followed by red primer. (Seeing the photos of the three Isle of Wight Comets disassembled made me realise it wasn't just the Germans who used red primer).









Then the base coat of SCC 15, for which I've used one of Mike Starmer's mix formulae, checked against his colour chip in his book on late war British colours:





Next the colour modulation coats. There are a few DVDs around describing the technique and some YouToob vids. It might seem a bit cartoonish at this stage but the aim is to use shading to set up contrasts between panels, representing the way light falls. It has to be done with a bit of restraint. At this stage, it looks over the top but once the filters and washes are on, it will tone down:











I finish the base coat wit Citadel semi-matt sealer, to protect the base coat and give a good key for weathering.

Regards

Stephen

[simon_manning]

greetings stephen, the color contrast between the plates looks good, it picks up each section, another dimension in paint is discovered, regards simon.

[Stephen White]

Some changes to the standard kit. Swopped the top filler plates between the inner and outer hulls so that the mounting lugs are concealed inside and made the missing centre section (although it will be hidden by the hull bins):





Replaced the steel rear filler plates with an ally piece of scale thickness and concealed mounting bracket:







Mounted the hull sides and re-drilled and tapped the fasteners to replace the larger than scale M3 hex heads with 7BA which are very close to scale:





Regards

Stephen

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Stephen
Just been through all the latest parts of your Comet build.
Very impresive,I like all the texture,paintwork and details you
have done,great stuff.
Made a note of the name of the sealer you use,that you have mentioned before,Citadel.
I kept forgetting the name,I want to try it instead of the Kleer.
Regards
Phil

[simon_manning]

hello stephen again, you take the trouble to post interesting as you go build photos, so i will take the effort to reply even though its been said before, amazing work, it reminds me of a metal crocodile sat there, watch it dose not fall off and bite your toe. best regards simon.

[Derek Attree]

Hi Stephen
This is a great build and I really hope I can get mine underway soon.
Still building the extension at home so models are on the back burner.
I have now received the motion pack so when I start I can get it rolling.

Derek

[Paul Morris]

Hi Stephen.

As everyone else has said the amount of detail and effort is outstanding and the same sort of thing I am hoping to get into next time I get to touch one of my own models.
Please keep up the great work and the posting {well said Simon} I must admit I always watch what is going on but don't always post!
Well done cheers Paul

[Stephen White]

It's really great to get some feedback, so thanks all. Never quite sure about the point at which wanting to share our great hobby crosses over into boring the pants off.

Come Friday, I'll have a real dilemma. Gill promises a certain delivery and I've got a group of veterans in Australia who have been enormously helpful with Centurion material. So - to keep going with the Comet or put it into the pending tray and start on my beaut aussie cent............. Nice problem to have but this is the first time I've had a build queue. Thank heavens I'm not in the market for more German WW2 AFVs - six months respite at least.

Then, if it's an M42 Duster, or a Churchill, or a WW1 Mk V or............

Whatever, I'll keep posting. And Simon, thanks for the painting and decorating inspiration. I"ve posted a couple of sources I've used on your JP thread.

Best regards.

Stephen

[Stephen White]

This is the final result for the hull sides - a lot of work but I'm happy with the result.







With the arrival of the Cent, Celerity will be put on hold for a while. I'll return to it from time to time but the pause will give me time to make up the Resicast Comet, which is super accurate as a pattern. Dr Stephen Pannell, whose father drove Celerity during the war, has done a huge amount of research into her and the pause will allow me to catch up with this but I will return to complete the job. Thanks for looking.

Regards

Stephen

[Steve Stuart]

Stephen
I am worried that your work room may end up looking a little like the Isle of Wight Tank Museum with your Comet in this state of completion...... I hope that it will not take too long.
All the best with the Centurion, and I look forward to your resumption of work on the Comet!
Steve

[Steve Stuart]

A full sized model of Celerity is at this year's War and Peace Show.

Celerity

Rest assured Stephen's model so far, is a more accurate representation ?
However it was great to see the Comet running!
Steve

[Derek Attree]

Hi Guys
As Steve says it was nice to see this rebuilt Comet running at the show.
This is one of the tanks from the Isle of Wight collection that is now in the
hands of the Dutch and has be done as celerity at the request of the relatives
of one of the surviving crew.
He was also there at the show yesterday.

The group had done some good research and had several other impresive machines at the show.

You can see more of this groups work at this address http://www.BAIV.nl.

I took a load of pictures at the show of this comet but have run out of Photo bucket space to
load them up...

It was also nice to meet up with Steve and his wife too

Regards

Derek

[Maarten Schutjes]

You can see more of the restauration progress at their facebookpage
https://www.facebook.com/BAIV-BV-103397 ... ts&fref=ts