Another paint-job for the Bulldog

[Jake79]

Been having fun with the Vallejo!

[tomhugill]

Lovely work there jake, chipping is spot on and getting a lovely depth in that green with all the streaking and fading

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

That looks great, puts my standard heng long one to shame,

regards john.

[ausf]

I agree with Tom, beautiful variation in the paint and 1/16 is big enough to allow actual depth with chipping.

Superb.

[Max-U52]

Bravo, Sir. Bravo!

I love the screens on the lights. Were you able to find photos of those in a field applied situation? I've seen photos of screens like that on actual Bulldogs, but they were always display tanks so I never knew if they were added to protect the display, or had been used in the field. Either way, you did a great job, Jake, and now I'm thinking of doing mine that way. Have you done anything with the lights themselves? I put LEDs in all four, then learned that's not right and of the four front headlights only two are actual headlights (I still don't know which two, inside or outside) and the other two are some fancy IR stuff or something. And the one that Heng Long puts the LED in isn't really a headlight, but something for night vision, or at least that's what I've been told. For all I know, I could be wrong about everything I just said! So what have you learned about the lights? Can you add to my pitiful knowledge on the topic? If you haven't done the lights yet I have these special LEDs I used on mine I can send you, and even across the Big Water such a small item is no problem, so I'll even cover shipping if you need them. I got them from SargentSeabass and have left overs, and he got them from some crazy battery operated strip thing he got on ebay.

Have you seen what I did to the front lights on mine? I know they're wrong, but with all four lit it reminds me of the headlights on a mid 60s Corvette Stingray.

Skip ahead to about 1:40 to see the lights.

phpBB [video]

Wait! They're right there in the preview picture! You don't even have to watch the video to see the lights. How cool is that?

[Max-U52]

And Jake, the effect you got with the jerry cans is great. I think I'll have to copy that, if ya don't mind.

Are you gonna correct the driver's view ports? And I have a ton of parts for this tank (like grab irons and all the other little bits and bobs) so if ya need anything, as long as I can get it in one of those padded mailer envelopes it's no problem and my parts box is your parts box, Bro.

Did you see that thread where the guy did the glass blocks in the cupola? I believe he did an M26 and a Sherman, but I think they're the same as the M41. I think he got Christian to laser cut the oval-shaped blocks for him. It looked pretty cool. I might even try it on mine.

[greengiant]

The inside headlights were for infra red drivers periscope. They show no visible light when turned on. Just remove the diodes, put lenses in the headlight housings and paint them a shiny very dark red to get the correct effect. The real ones are actually look black.
The small light that HL has to the left of the drivers side headlights is a blackout divers light. Couldn't find out when it was eliminated but the real ones put out such a small amount of light that I presume they were eliminated because they were hardly useful to the driver.

[Jake79]

Cheers Guys..

Hey Max, the screens I saw on a display tank a few years ago. I liked the look of them so made a few up last week before painting. I don't really use the Bulldog a great deal mate I was warming my hands up for painting my Kv this week as I haven't painted a tank for a few months or used Vallejo before. I love the look of the four lights tho on yours, would be great if you could send me a few just let me know the shipping cost and I'll pay you bud, thanks for the kind offer I filled the lights with milliput painted them a lightish grey then gave them a few coats of mig's crystal glass. A quicky job! a bit dodgy I know... I think they look good enough behind the screens. Never taken this tank to seriously or done any real research on it, more a fun tank for me..so the four lights would be cool I'm not concerned if it's correct or not.

[Max-U52]

OK, Jake, I dug out the LEDs, so PM an address where I should send them to. I think I did a video of the conversion so I'll look for it, but all I did was connect two LEDs together in parallel for each side, then hook the two pairs together in parallel, and connected them to the wires from the single stock headlight, which I just painted black and left in place. It's a tight fit, but it can be done.