Egyptian Sherman

This is the latest DRAGON kit in the "Six Day War" series.  It is coincidental that I was going to scrap build this when I found the picture on line, then I saw that Dragon was issuing the kit.


It seems that the French had put their AMX-13 turret on these old Shermans (M4A4), changing from 76mm to 90mm guns. As you can see they added more armor plates to the hull sides.


Though this was probably done to various M4 Sherman types, the lower engine (back end) differs from the exhaust configurations I found in my research.


I did make some minor corrections as the kit did not include the correct parts for mounting the spare track links horizontally across the front hull plate.


I also added the canvas cover under the front  turret mount. I am not entirely sure the Egyptians maintained all the tools on the tank, but I put them on anyway as well as some additional stowage.



Vince B.  4-22-18

Tamiya Stug III in 1/48 scale

I am really liking these 1/48 scale Tamiya kits.  Some of the early ones like this Stug came with a cast metal hull.  The lower hull plastic parts need to be secured with cyocr..... (super glue).  The upper hull is secured to the lower hull with two screws which are hidden under the hatches. The tracks are length and link with the built in sag on the upper runs. Not necessary if you use the side skirts (Sechwan?) Schurzen.



Black dog makes great resin stowage sets.  There is usually enough to spread over two kits so I have been coordinating these around the other German 1/48 scale kits.



The details on these kits is as good and fit as well as with the Tamiya 1/35 scale kits. Surprisingly, I started on this one at the san Antonio show, bought it from Eric.  Should have bought the others before Kern and Moon got to them.


I was able to complete the lower hull separate from the upper hull. Once completed, I set the lower hull into the base groundwork and screwed it down.  Afterward I screwed the upper hull to the lower hull and glued in the hatch plates.

Vince B 4-17-18

Egyptian T-55A

This is the T-55A in 1/35 scale by Tamiya in Egyptian colors circa 1967. I put a metal barrel on and the Fruimodel tracks.

Here are some more shots....

Ukrainian T-84M OPLOT

This is the Ukrainian T-84M OPLOT in 1/35 scale by Trumpeter. It is a modernized version of the Ukrainian T-84, which is itself an upgrade of the Soviet era T-80U.

The detail on this kit is pretty good, however the instructions are in many places too vague. There are some fit problems and some parts that are not included in the instructions at all. But at the end of it all, it came looking pretty decent.

I muddied her up with some products from Vallejo and the camo job was freehand.

"Still Standing 1946" in 1/35 scale.

OK.  Here is my biggest combo. Not a happy meal but this MAY have been Hamburg in 1946.
I had to find a place to fit it in a case as it is 12" tall.



These are the Takom, Maus and Zwilling kits set on Dioramas Plus, Base and Building ruin sets, as well as some Tamiya Figures and other accessories.

I also used the laser cut broken windows and inserted that into some old frames which I broke down to match.


The Zwilling kit fits perfectly in lieu of the Maus Turret mount. Since I used the Maus Test version, I didn't waste an actual turret.

Vince B.  4-3-18

Wanting to build something for our club's 2nd Banana contest in February, I looked way back in my stash and found the old 1/35th Trumpeter Centauro kit.  I bought it at a show many moons ago with grandiose plans of a diorama at a check point during a training operation in the Italian countryside.  Needless to say it kept getting pushed back in the closet until I forgot I even had it.  With a little research I turned up an operation the Italian Army participated in called PRIMA PARTHICA in 2014.  Basically the Italians sent 15 of these Centauro's to guard some dams near Mosul, Iraq.

The kit is built pretty much straight from the box.  After a coat of Tamiya grey primer I used Ammo by Mig acrylic paints for the base colors.   I free handed the camo pattern with my Iwata airbrush and toned down the interface points with a filter made from grey enamals

I roughed up the rubber tires with a Scotch-Brite pad and then dry brushed them with Life Colors Tire Black and Mig's Earth acrylics.  I tried to muddy them up a bit with pastels and white glue mixed together.

I added stowage from an old Custom Dioramics set, antenna from stretch spruce, and some Coke and MRE boxes from Mathos Accessories.

I used the tried and true method of a black oil wash and highlighted with a dry brushing of all the raised surfaces.

I made the base from a piece of wood from Hobby lobby.  I put a border around it and mixed up some Woodland Scenics Smooth It.  This product dries to an almost concrete color on its own, but I elected to paint the seams a littler darker for contrast.  After it was dry (about 2 hrs) I etched in a hexagon pattern.  I printed off a name plate and unit insignia on a color printer and glued them to scrap pieces of balsa I had.  Once glued, I hit them with a gloss clear coat.

For an older kit, I was happy with the fit and final look of the machine.  This is the 1st kit I finished this year and I spent about 40 hrs total on the  effort.  It felt longer, probably I spent too much time on the base and fusing with the stowage.

I'm looking forward to the next club contest.  Proto-Types and Paper Panzers.

Thanks for looking - George

PZKPFW MKV Ausf A PANTHER

This is the 1/35 Tamiya Panther Ausf A done in the Hinterhalt - Tarnung (ambush camoflage) scheme. I find this to be the most interesting camo scheme of WWII. There are a couple of variations to this scheme, and I chose to go with the dotted pattern of Olive green and Dark Yellow over the base color and the Olive Green and Red Brown splotches. It is intended to emulate the sun shining through foliage. 

 This is also my favorite AFV of WWII. Here she is from the left.

And another shot from the right. Enjoyed building this again after so many years.

T-30 U.S. Heavy Tank

This is one of those monster Tank Prototypes being developed at the end of WWII to combat the King Tiger etc. I believe a handful were built and tested.  This is the Takom kit. Very nicely detailed from my perspective.


There were of course some fidley bits which required tweezers and patience. Though I am pretty happy with it, I believe our club Target expert can find the flaws in my work.


For me the greatest challenge is the basic Olive Drab, what color is it really?  From various photos it changes with the light.  Also It is difficult to bring some depth to a single color, so I washed and weathered it to bring out more details.


I have an open question regarding what looks like a large view port alongside the barrel. Is it a scope with a lens?



The kit comes with 3 variations of the mantlet and barrels.  I selected the Short one which I believe made it the T-30 version rather than the T-34. In case you cant tell, that turret rear end was huge.

That completes the 5th ARMOR model this year so far,








Vince B. 2-28-18

Fist of War by ModelCollect

Yes, this is one of the new series of 1/72 scale German Sci Fi Tanks from Model Collect. These are cool and based on actual German Armor with a twist.

I only added a few detail parts and some resin Stowage from Black Dog. There are lots of great details built inside the pose able leg structures.



I didn't realize until I was building it that there was another turret beneath the hull.  Once I looked at the other kits of the same series, I see that they are all based on the same lower structure with different upper turrets as the only discerning feature.


I have a few more of these to do and some aren't available yet. In case you haven't noticed, I am in a winter scene rut. In reality I hate snow.

Vince B. 2-26-18

Wirbelwind

This is the Tamiya 1/48 scale Wirbelwind kit. It came with the steel cast lower hull. Nice easy build. The figures were OK as well.




I added some resin stowage from BlackDog. Really detailed stuff.
I combined it with accessories from the Tamiya figure set.





Vince B   Feb 21-2018

This is the MENG Merkava IIID Late LIC. This is my first Meng kit and while I found the quality to be high, there are a lot of fiddly bits on this one. And in some places the instructions were not very clear. I got some aftermarket stuff for this kit i.e. crew equipment, tow cables, and metal tracks. I also experimented heavily with pastels. There are no washes on this and 100% of the weathering is done with regular pastels. I really did the way this vehicle looks so she makes a great subject to model. I will DEFINITELY be doing an IDF diorama later this year so stay tuned.

NVA T-54b

This my first post, so bear with me.

The model featured in this spread is the Takom T-54b done up in NVA (North Vietnamese Army) colors. I decided to put her on a base with some groundwork as I have not done a diorama in quite some time and was trying to get a feel for it again. This was my second Takom kit and I was impressed with the quality of the molds an the amount of detail. I will definitely be looking into another Takom kit in the future after I clear out my backlog. Enjoy!

King Tiger

This is the basic MENG King Tiger kit.  There is a full interior add on supplement and the basic kit is set up for this. Unless you plan on doing an exploded view, the interior supplement would be a waste.



Everything fits well as expected from MENG. The tracks are length and link. There are photo etch screens for the engine vents.



My paint was a combination of Testors and Humbrol enamels. Gloss coated several times with J & J (formerly Future) floor wax.  Several washes of oils and dullcoated.



I added some personal equipment hanging from the spare track links.