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

PZKPFW 38(T)

 

This is Tamiya's updated Pzkpfw 38(t) in 1/35 scale. When the Germans took over Czechoslovakia in 1938, they realized that the Czechs had developed a vehicle that was superior to the Panzer I and II. So, they appropriated the design of the 38(t) and ramped up production. Certainly these vehicles were obsolete by mid war, but many of them continued to serve into 1945. And this is why I choose the tri-color camoflauge as German Grey was going to be a bit too lack luster given my mood.

Assembly was pretty straight forward with only one piece of photo etch included in the kit.

I used a piece of steel wire for the antenna, and the tracks are from Fruilmodel.

I used the Mission Models Dunkelgelb which is supposed to match the German RAL swatch number during the war. It has a slightly different tint than the traditional Tamiya Dark Yellow, but I do like it. I also used Tamiya Red Brown and Olive Green for the other two colors.

The stowage set is from Value Gear and some pieces from the kit. I had to do some work to get the Fruil tracks to fit as they were slightly too wide, but I made it work.

I used pigments to make the muffler nice and crusty, as well as for the dust and some of the mud and dirt on the tracks. I ordered the decals from Star Decals as they are specifically for late war vehicles. I took a file to the tracks for that burnished appearance. The Fruil tracks worked really well for this model and gave the results I was looking for.

I enjoyed building this kit, and for the record, I always wanted to build one of these. Now it's done and I hope it can stand up to the quality models that those in this club produce 

Be well.

Panzerlok BR57 mit Kanonen und Flakwagen

 Try to say that three times fast. These are both Hobby Boss kits. As with the others I have built, these fit together like Tamiya kits. The detail is great and seems accurate from what I can tell from books and photos. Even the tracks are well detailed.

I added some minor details which can hardly be seen between the cars. I added the brake line hoses. 

The camo pattern is free hand airbrushed with Floquil Lacquers and Model Master Enamels. I used several layers of washes and pin washes with some drybrushing to bring out the details. 

I really enjoyed this project as it allowed me to combine two kits seamlessly.  though each of the three cars were painted separately. The rail set is mounted to two planks of hardwood flooring.

 

Vince B. 6-29-22

Green Knight

 This is an unknown 1/35 resin knock off from China. Not sure of the origination. Resin was a bit brittle and these kits do not come with assembly instructions.

The detail of the resin was great and begged for layers of paint, washes and drybrushing. All with enamels and oils to start with. I wanted the underlying suit to stand out from the metalic armor. I used layers of floor wax and green food coloring over some oil washes in the recesses.

The final layer of gloss green was done with Crystal Cleer and food coloring.

The base was from junk parts, just painted, washed and dry brybrushed. I wanted to make it look like an abandoned piece of machinery.

Vince B. 6-26-22