GHQ Models Forums

That is quite an impressive group of vehicles, Chris!

Pete, hope you like them.

Finished these today. Need to build up the Commonwealth Defense Forces, NC is getting aggressive having expressed intent to have an armored fore in Africa and/or the Middle East.

Posting this in its entirety….

Over the years I have collected turrets without barrels or part of the barrel.
In this case, 20+ M60A1 turrets that need styrene.

First batch to test my skill and proof of concept sample.




Replacement barrels are too long, will be cut down to size.






All turrets that have a complete styrene barrel will be receiving camo netting to hide the lack of a fume extractor.
I used StripStyrene, 219, .025” ROD, 0.64mm.

Nice work Chris! Those look good as new!

Mike, thank you.
We shall see how the process goes with paint and camo net.
That you.

Looks good Chris. How 'bout a little work with solder or brass wire to make CEV turrets, too.

PG, thank you, sir. Styrene cuts really easy with wire cutters. Easier than metal.

Well done Chris! That is the primary reason I use the basing styrene I do, to avoid the barrels being broken off.

But... You did a great job! Nice knowing we have alternatives in case that happens. Sadly in the past, I have ended up holding onto the vehicle offline and then to pitch it as I do not have a replacement barrel/turret. This is cool. Thank you.

Thank you GI,

I do not usually have barrel issues, even though I don’t base. These were eBay, convention flea market buys, etc. Many came with broken barrels. Turning lemons into lemonade.
Take care.

Nice work on those barrel repairs, Chris!

My plan to repair/replace barrels is to print a bunch of turrets and clip them. My son thinks the barrels by themselves wouldn't print well, but we will try. I want to put 120s on some M60A2s and MBT70s.

Camo netting on repair turrets with ‘new’ barrels.

Here is M60 with more netting rolled up at the stern of the turret.

Chris -- Good job on those barrels. I am always interested to see how others approach various refurb projects, as I have done a fair bit of refurb work over the years, and expect I will continue to do so as long as I have the time, patience and eyesight.

I am particularly impressed by the camo netting you draped over the barrels in the last pics. That came out looking very nice indeed. Can you share with us more detail on how you did this extra bit? It looks like an approach that can improve the look of a model even if there's no compelling need to hide the barrel.

Regarding approaches to replacing barrels, I have come to use nylon sprues that are used to attach tags (price tags, inventory control tags, etc.) to new clothes. For quite some time, every time I bought a new item of clothing, when I clipped the nylon sprue off I would toss it into a "hey save this stuff" bin for my hobby use. Now I have a rather expansive number of sprues in a variety of sizes, both in length and in diameter. Many of them have thicker parts and then kind of bottle-neck down to a thinner part, making them particularly useful for multi-part barrels or barrels with sleeves.


Here is a sprue that I used to replace a barrel on an IS-2 as part of a larger refurb of some of my older stock.


Here is it mounted in the turret of the IS-2. This is one of the original GHQ IS-2 castings, which I acquired in maybe about 1980 or so.


Here you see the tank with the new barrel along with some others still with their original barrels. I used a small blob of glue on the end of the nylon sprue to fashion something roughly like a muzzle brake.

The advantage I find with these is that, so far at least, I've never had to replace a refurbed barrel. They are bendable, and spring right back into shape. At least they do so far. I may become more humble in time depending on how well this approach bears up under repeated use.

-Mark

"Eland" 60s and 90s. Posted these a while back, but the post got stuck in moderation purgatory, so I'm reposting here and adding some new stuff below.


Hunters and Alouette IIIs.


Hunters, Alouette IIIs, and a Mirage (that last is quite ahistorical, there is a second one out of frame).

Thanks for looking.

German Stugs supported by infantry cautiously advance through a wheatfield near the Village of Ponyri, North Shoulder of the Kursk Salient in July, 1943. The figures and tanks are GHQ with some modifications made to the Stugs.