Russian BA-20

This is my entry in the John Ford build, a DML BA-20 armored car. My first attempt at a worn white-wash paint scheme. Used hairspray under a 50-50 mix of Reaper white & Vallejo flat clear.

E-100 1/35 scale

The mystery on this one is that Trumpeter recently released this kit. If you have it, check to see what manufacturer is on the instructions.  The kit I had was from an old smoker with a lot of bagged kits which had been parted out. The instructions were torn, smoke stained and more, but they were identical to the new Trumpeter kit.

The parts were also interchangeable with the Trumpeter kit. The mystery is who actually molded and produced the model.  Since it was a prototype only,  in reality, I wanted to put it into combat so used some decals from an Elephant kit. Similar in purpose.

 I added a small stowage rack on the engine deck. I included piles of personal gear strapped to the spare tracks on the side of the superstructure.

 Since the super heavy track shields could not be removed completely by hand, the kit includes the support crane but I was not able to find any details on its operation. I drilled out the pulley, added chains and a winch wheel to the device and added a spreader bar with hooks to simulate the operation of the lift assist for shield removal.

Vince Barrale

Aug 22, 2015

The crazy story of the man who fought for Finland, the Nazis, and US Army Special Forces

Great story! I had to share it.

http://www.wearethemighty.com/larry-thorne-special-forces-2015-07

http://www.abroadintheyard.com/three-oaths-of-allegiance-soldier-fought-for-finland-nazi-germany-usa-killed-vietnam/

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/larry-thorne.htm

Enjoy.
Fred

Geschutzewagen

This is the nearly out of the box CyberHobby kit, Orange Box Dragon. Everything went together just like it should.

The only addition I made was the tarps strapped to the pioneer tools on the top.

Airbrushed freehand the camo pattern and weathered with oils as usual. Some final drybrushing of the great surface details.

Had to post these :-)

Great picture

1/35 scale KROTE

This will be one of my tributes to John Ford and probably the most favorite kit I found in his stash. I wasn't expecting to find a NITTO. This was an old 1980s German themed Sci Fi kit.  Well, being tired of seeing all of the neat looking German Sci Fi, I decided to turn the tables and make this a WWII U.S. scout vehicle.

 

 

 The original kit comes with a figure as 1/20 scale.   It would never even fit into this armored suit. The actual scale should be 1/35 so I outfitted the stowage to that scale instead.

Kit even provided parts and instructions for mounting a bulb in the spotlight and a motor for the cannon. Of course I took advantage of this and Yes the light and cannon operate from a home made circuit under the base.

Other options included actual springs and copper wiring. I added some additional detailing then painted up and weathered.

 

Vince B.  6-3-15

Voyage (of tanks) To The Bottom Of The Sea

I recently watched a program on divers looking for WWII ship wrecks off the coast of Ireland. One wreck they found was of a cargo ship delivering Sherman tanks to the UK. The sea floor was Covered in Shermans - quite spooky looking. You can watch a short video of the wreck Vimeo.

New Armata tanks (Russia)

http://englishrussia.com/2015/05/07/new-armata-tanks/

Desert Hound

This project started as the Bronco Staghound Mk1. 1/35 scale kit. Well.... That's not how it ended up. As you can see there is still some resemblance to the original Staghound, but the main gun an rockets are a little different.

  

 I have modified the turret, adding stowage, retractable missile launchers, missile stowage racks etc. etc. I have also modified the scale by posing a 1/48 scale figure resting on the turret.

 

Most of the add on armor was evergreen sheets and shapes. There were a lot of parts added from various German Armor and some office supplies.

 

Vince Barrale    4-14-15



Oops! Houston,we have a problem.

Armored vehicle causes traffic incident on 610

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-traffic/article/Military-style-tank-causes-causes-traffic-6161393.php#photo-7722331

Humvee in 1/35 scale

This is an out of the box Academy kit.

 

I managed to avoid adding any stowage or modifying to correct screw ups. I even inserted the windows one at a time with clear glue.

 Its a pretty good kit for me to be able to get this good of a result without tampering with it. It was airbrushed with model master enamels and weathered with oils.

Vince Barrale 3/23/15

T-34 1943

This one's another one that has been in progress for some time.  It's the old and severely out-dated Tamiya kit that was begun more as a painting project than anything else.  I was trying some different effects with Vallejo acrylics. It's essentially just an old kit with some updated parts including an Eduard Zoom grill in back and some Tank Workshop (Tank Maker?) resin wheels that, as you can probably tell, still is a long way from being completed. The figure is Verlinden with some minor modifications.  I scuplted his jacket below the belt line to make him sit higher in the cupola.

I have "finished" my Sd Kfz 7/2 Halftrack with a 3.7cm Flak 43. Enjoy! Tom

Improvised Gun Truck

This is a 1/35 scale Gun Truck using the Italeri 'Big Foot' 5 ton cargo carrier. I added the hulk of the M113 APC with components of various manufacturers. Armor plating skirts were added to the M113 and the Truck Cab.

 

 No you haven't seen one like this before but it was theorized by combining concepts used from Vietnam all the way through current Iraq conflicts.

 Gun Trucks in various forms have been used since WWII, adding welded steel plates to jeeps, trucks and Half Tracks.

 The turret was scratch built around a 'Live Resin' Gatlin gun kit so this vehicle would be considered a modern field conglomeration, utilizing available scrap as illustrated with the corrugated steel tire shields.

The blast resistant windows are Crystal Clear with food coloring for tint. I also cut out several machine gun ports in the M113 hull and mounted a grenade launcher. This was a lot of fun to design over the past year and now it is done.

Vince B. Mar 5, 2015

Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf K - The Sequel

It's back and this time it's for real.... My last post on this old Dragon kit was more than a year ago - way back in January last year. I believe I stopped while working on some sort of rack to hold the crew boxes in place on the rear deck.  Well,  I managed to fashion that rear deck rack just a short time after I last posted about this project and then it sat undisturbed (again) until I decided to pick it up again and finally get it done.  As I said before, these first generation DML kits benefit from being spruced up here and there and still make decent representations of their subjects. The main advantage they have over the newer kits is their price.  The originals are frequently seen at shows or swap meets for pennies on the dollar and the Orange Box specials can also be found at discounted prices.

I picked it up, dusted it off, and started painting near the end of February this year.  Here are some in-progress pictures to prove I still do build a model now and then. Base coats are Tamiya, details and weathering are Vallejo, decals are Archer and Tamiya.  I'll post more when I finally get it finished.  Who knows...It may be another year before I get it done.

Fiat M13/40

This is an old Italeri kit. Pretty basic but the detail was good for such an old kit and the fit was OK. I added some Jerry Can racks from Dragon kit. I also added some tool boxes.

 

 Surprisingly, the decals were in good shape and went on well with the Future wax and some Solvaset.

 The groundwork was a combination of Celluclay and ground roughage from Hobby Lobby

Vince Barrale
2-1-15

Krupp Protze

This is a basic Tamiya kit. As always it went together well by following the instructions. After some online photo research I realized that there were a lot of details missing which may be in newer prime kits. Anyway, here was what I got out of it as it was.

There were some stowage items included with the kit as this truck was mostly a light cargo or troop transport. I added some items to help fill in the cargo area.

 There were several color schemes which were used including the basic Panzer Gray. I opted for the winter white wash scheme. To help set off that choice, I decided to muddy up the ground work a bit as it would have been used on the Russian Front. 

I used the basic celluclay with wood glue and acrylic brown liquid mix to make the mud base, then stuffed in some rock rubble and sprinkled plaster powder for the snow. I added some woodlands scenic water paste watered down to apply as melted snow and ice.

 

Vince Barrale

Jan 18

Korea's Black Panther Battle Tank Shoots Parachute Bombs

Interesting article. Great looking tank too :-)

http://gizmodo.com/koreas-black-panther-battle-tank-shoots-parachute-bombs-1676079831