Abandoned

 For the HAC Club February WINTER build, I created a scene to depict a broken down and abandoned ammunitions / supply trailer, rusted out and buried in ice and snow.

The trailer accessory kit is by Italeri. Not sure, but the dented oil barrel could be from Tamiya.

I used a variety of Ice and Snow products from Tamiya, Mod Podge, Green stuff etc. 

This is the first time I used a block of XPS insulation foam as a base. Worked out well. It takes less space than a wooden base and much lighter weight. 

I hope you all get chills looking at it. 

Vince B. 1-1-23   (Unique Scrap Built Models)

Polish PL-01 Prototype

 This is the TAKOM kit out of the box. Really simple construction and rather boring.  Al I could do to improve the build was to give it a special camo paint job and weather it as if it had been deployed.

I am happy with the outcome. The model is still out of the box.

The street / sidewalk are plaster casts from Dioramas Plus. 

For the multilevel camo pattern, I cut strips of masking tape into block patterns and between color applications connected the dots. There were 4 levels of tape mask.

Vince B. 1-1-23  (Unique Scrap Built Models)

Autocannone 3RO

 This is a 1/72 Italeri kit of an Autocannone consisting of a Lancia 3RO truck and a 90/53 anti-aircraft gun. The figures came with the kit, but are probably a bit oversized. (Six foot tall WWII Italians. I don't think so.) The shell crates were scratch built. Found the netting in one of my parts drawers.

The kit is basically a snap kit. The truck in made from styrene, but the figures and canon are soft plastic. the soft plastic does take paint well, though. I did prime evrything  with Tamiya rattle can lacquer.

Belgian Gendarmerie, Occupied Rheinland, 1919

 The armored car is a Belgian Minerva from Copper State Models. Excellent kit. The figures are also from Copper State. The vignette shows a Belgian Gendarmerie (Police) vehicle and its crew in the Rheinland of Germany in 1919.

The grass is static grass but did not go down as hoped for. I need to replace my useless, cheap, Amazon purchased static grass applicator with a better more expensive one. The grass did not stand up properly (if at all). Also, the color is a bit brighter than I had hoped for, but its what I had. Looks like a lawn.

There are also some small Eduard photoetch flowers in the grass, but they are barely visible in the photos.

Kugelpanzer Werks

 This was a fun project which took exactly 2 years.  I started with the Das Werk Kugelpanzer kit which includes 2 very simple assembly ball tanks. In reality, these one-man vehicles were intended for scouting. There were only 2 made as far as could be determined so I took some liberties with the markings and paint schemes. 

I added figures and equipment from MiniArt as well as other plastic and resin bits around the shop. You probably noticed the working shop lights. These were scrap built from styrene strips. They were mounted with brass tube and wired through some HO scale bridge Tressel. The floor was part of another Miniart street scene. The intent is that this back-alley extension to the plant was all that was available to make the Kugels.

I also scrap built the walls from foam board and the doors were cobbled from Gondola siding with some added details to make rolling doors on rail.  I downloaded some pics of drawings of the Kugels and shrunk them and printed off various sizes to be used around the shop.

The rail cat was entirely scrap built, mostly with evergreen strips and a gondola side as wooden top. I filled the open crates with straw, from cutting up twine, and imbedded some resin engine parts. 

I think the hand tools were from an Italeri field workshop.  I also scrap built some electrical boxes and cables using bits and copper wire. 

Overall, I am happy with the results

Vince B. 11-29-22

"Clear The Area"

 This is a 1/35 scale diorama based around a Meng kit of the IDF Namer. The battering ram is a resin & photoetch add-on kit from Desert Eagle Publications. Stowage is from an Italeri set and is tied down with thread. Black antenna is from Orange Hobby and white antennas are fiber optic line attached to resin spring bases, held in lowered position by EZ-Line.

 Figures are from Black Dog & Meng (3 each) and all their rifles are from Black Dog. The concrete block wall and debris are from MacOne Models. Tree is from Woodland Scenics and other vegitation from MiniNature. Desert sand is Velejo Earth Texture.

All painting was done with various acrylics. Weathering done with oil washes and Mig powders.

E75 Heavy Tank with 128MM Flak 40 Gun

 These 1/72 scale Fist of War, Modelcollect kits are great for experimenting and enhancing. The E-75 is a basic King Tiger. Length and link track, are OK, if you are careful.  Since there was no turret for the extra links, I made frontal amor out of them.

The 128mm Gun was more detailed, but needed some enhancement. I created the walk around structure from evergreen strips and shapes and some screen.  I then use my spare parts boxes to create the elevated rotation system. I also added some bits of brass tube to the barrel. 

  

Overall I achieved  the effect I was going for here as well as wear on the tank. I wanted to give the impression that the turret was somehow destroyed and replaced with an experimental replacement.

Vince B 8-25-22

 

Achilles Tank Destroyer

 This is a 1/72 scale kit of an Achilles tank destroyer in Canadian service during WWII. It is a styrene plastic kit with photoetch from ExtraTech in the Czech Republic. Stowage is from Black Dog, Value Gear, and the parts boxes of myself and Vince.

Lancia Autoblindo 1ZM

 This is a model of an Italian Lancia 1ZM armored car. The kit is 1/35th scale and is from Copper State Models. Very nice kit but it can be tricky getting all four wheels level. Although a WWI design, I built it to replicate a machine in use in Libya in 1931.

Weathering did not go as planned, but I think it cam eout OK in the end.

I did not notice the gravel buildup at the tires until after these photos were taken. I have since fixed this (I hope).

Sd.Kfz. 9 FAMO

 This is from the 1/72 scale Revell kit. Really nice. At 1/72 , it does require some tweezer work, but its worth it. 

I used various resin stowage from Black Dog and some Chinese knock offs to fill in. Also used some Preiser bits.

I did add some minor details such as the tow wench cable and fire extinguishers. 

 

Vince B. 8-21-22

Panther on Flatcar

 Both of these kits are OLD Dragon. As such they lack some details, especially on the Panther. This was before photoetch screens were available, so I made from screen. Anyway, they were mostly obscured with the stowage. I added various bits to indicate that the tank was loaded and shipped out in a hurry.

You can see that they neglected to run the Panther through the wash before loading as the dried mud has fallen off the tracks as it was loaded on the flatcar.

Note that several of the side skirts were hastily replaced but not painted. The camo was free hand airbrushed in layers. I performed both Sponge and brush chipping before final weathering.  Oil Washes were applied in layers with gloss coats in between.

Overall I am happy with the results of my add ons and effects of the weathering and wear on both the Panther and Flatcar. I believe that the rails and wood came out well along with the painting of the flatcar wood decking, mostly obscured by the tank and stowage.

Vince B. 8-17-22