Houston Armor Club (HAC)

Friday, April 15, 2016

GERMAN WWII IR Equipment

While doing research for my Panther F, I found a few things on the internet about German WWII Infrared equipment. I thought I'd share. Used on some of their assault rifles, machine guns, tanks and half tracks during WWII, I found this technology to be far ahead of it's time.(Infrarot-Scheinwerfer)

Combat Use -

Various units received IR Panthers including 116th Panzer Division (3rd company of 24th Panzer Regiment, Western Front, Summer of 1944), Sixth SS Panzer Army (Hungary, early 1945), Panzer Division Muncheberg and Clausewitz.One combat report is by a veteran of 1st SS Panzer Regiment of 1st SS Panzer Division "LSSAH", who states that few Panthers equipped with infrared night-vision devices possibly from 116th Panzer Division were used in 1944/45 during the Ardennes Offensive. In April of 1945, Panthers equipped with IR equipment (solution B) joined Panzer Division Clausewitz and in mid April near Uelzen destroyed entire platoon of British Comet cruiser tanks. Also on April 21st of 1945, same Panthers overran an American anti-tank position on the Weser-Elbe Canal.Most of those reports can’t be confirmed and are questionable.
(from Live Leak http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7be_1383250165)

Solution A - Commander only had an infrared telescopic sight and search light

Solution B- Commander, driver and gunner all had infrared telescopic sights and search lights.

The photo above shows a Panther Ausf. G equipped with the IR night-sighting device. Power for the unit was supplied by an auxiliary 400 watt generator with a built-in 12 volt battery. The technical specifications of the sight were:

Lamp power: 200 watts
Lamp diameter: 20cm
Focal length of sight: 9cm
Field of view: 30 degrees (approx.)
Magnifier: 5x

Targets could be aquired to roughly 400m, though the driver could not see more than 100m away. The range of the Panther viewer was therefore not considered adequate, so it was designed to be used in conjunction with the Uhu in groups of five tanks. (see image below)

The "Vampir" man-portable system for infantrymen was being used with Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifles.

Solution B being used on a 251 Halftrack (above and below)

Solution A example on an equipped museum Panther

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Norwegian Road Patrol

Friday, March 11, 2016

Type 95 Ha Go Japanese Tank

Newer release for Dragon. The kit went together OK except for some fidley bits of Photo Etch. The only real issue as the frailty of the gluable tracks and the poor fit. Needed to cut out links to make a proper fit.

The only Photo Etch parts I used were the screen over the muffler and mud scrapers under the fenders. That wasn't too bad to handle.

I used the new Fitness Putty, or similar Panzer Putty if you want to pay twice the price, to mask the color scheme in layers. The putty provided a semi hard edging.

I washed the tank in layers of oils, black and burnt umber combinations, then dot streaked with white. The nice rust effects were from the undiluted Burnt Umber.

The destroyed Palm Tree trunks were a special limited run resin cast set from an AMPS show in 2012.

Gun Truck

Yes, another hypothetical gun truck that could possibly work. Started with the Italeri Gun Truck kit. As usual, not enough fire power for me, so I up gunned it and up armored it.

So a combination of other kit parts, added weapons and stowage along with much Evergreen strips and shapes allowed for this dull kit to be battle ready.

The added armor plates were from a Trumpeter Rail Car kit. These were for German Machine Gun crews so the plates had sliding windows.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

T34 / 76 in 1/35 scale

Again, this is an old Tamiya kit with the motorization mounts in the lower hull. I had used this as a weathering demo in November for two clubs. This is another out of the box kit.

The original paint color was a light green Model Master enamel weathered with various levels of oil washes, glosses and dullcoats to provide a multi layered worn effect.

Rust shading was achieved with thinned out Burnt Umber oil paint.

Vince B. 12-27-15

KV II in 1/35 scale

This is the 1970s Tamiya kit with very basic detailing. It still had the motorized cut outs in the lower hull. This is very much out of the box.

The real fun with this was in doing it up in a winter scheme and rusting it a bit. I originally painted with Model Master Enamel light green, washed and weathered with oils, then over sprayed with the white wash. The final rusting was varying shades of Burnt Umber.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

LAV-150 Desert Patrol

This was a Hobby Boss kit, pretty much out of the box except for the added stowage. What I didn't like about the kit parts was that the entire detailed window frame was clear. I had to install with the model and paint.

A few months ago, Kevin gave another demo regarding the new masking putty available in many forms and consistencies. I have the densest version which is less tacky and doesn't actually droop when stretched. This allowed me to make very thin lines for a worm pattern. The base coat was of the original olive drab intended for the vehicle. It was too boring for me.

After completing the detail painting and weathering, I want back to carefully chrome in the window slits. Once that was dry, I painted in the tinted crystal clear.

Finally I added the groundwork and dusted up the lower chassis and tires with mixed pigments to match.

Vince B. Dec-13-15

Sunday, December 6, 2015

WWI Austin Mark IV Armored Car

This is the new 1/72 scale Austin Mark IV armored car kit from MasterBox. As built, it represents a vehicle used by the Russian army during WWI.

The model was built straight out of the box. It was painted with acrylics and weathered with oils. A very nice little kit.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Panzer III CyberHobby

This kit originally came with the flatcar, but I got it as a leftover from Tom a few years back. It is my first Panzer III in 1/35 scale. I built it out of the box, less the command antenna. I just noticed from the instructions, I must have added the tow hooks and cable.

There were some real issues I had with this kit. The sprues were cobbled together from older Dragon kits. The kit instructions indicated that you had to ream out ~1/4" of the turret hole on the upper hull to get the turret ring to fit. It was a lot of grinding, sanding to get this right.

There were also other instructions to cut or drill out other parts to make new ones fit in. Other places indicated having to measure out where some accessories should go in order to space them properly on the fenders.

This is the kit that used for the demo last week.

Vince B. Nov 21.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Wow!

I had to forward this :-)
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/amazing-photo-of-m1-abram-tanks-surrounded-in-a-force-f-1738268467

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Trumpeter 1/35 scale Triebwagen 51

This is one big kit. The upper hull is a single molded piece. Same for the lower hull. The interior is completely hollow except for the wheel assemblies. All of the hinges, hatches etc. are separate parts. I used Humbrol enamel paints, many layers of floor wax and dullcoats to weather with oils. Did some scrubbing with Mig powders and dry brushing.

This is not fiction. It really existed along with many other numbered armored rail cars produced by the Germans in WWII. Trumpeter has also begun producing some of the Russian counterpart rail vehicles.

The PZ IV Turrets are separate kits in themselves each with a detailed interior which you can barely see unless removing the turret.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Enroute to Baghdad

This is the Academy M1A1 Abrams (Iraq 2004).

The kit is pretty basic based on their early M1A1. As with most early kits the sponsons where filled and a few parts needed to be changed out, i.e. the Gunners Doghouse sight cover supplied was inaccurate. Commanders station needed improvement, MCD & APU units soft detail replaced them with those from a Tamiya kit.

Added styrene strip and bolt detail to top of side skirts as well as fender springs to the front and missing cables to smoke grenade launchers and MCD.

Crew figures came from Trumpeter/Tamiya as with stowage from the spare parts box. The roadway base came from "Phoenix Models" modern highway set.

I enjoyed building the kit for friends and to all those who like the big beasties.

David Bozarth

Sunday, August 30, 2015

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.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

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.