Chameleon

Another Scrap Built Sci-Fi Armor crossover. I really wanted to try a new type of camo. This was fun and I think I managed to pull it off.

I wanted the Chameleon to be able to blend into an urban rubble environment so I used battered brick backgrounds.

From the top it blends into the street. The cupola is painted up as a manhole cover when closed.

And of course it has lights.

I added some 48 scale figures to accentuate the vehicle size. It also has a detailed engine compartment.

Vince B.  9-10-18

Sturmgeschutz III

This is a Cyber Hobby kit. It had some photo etch which I had to use.  Enough about that.
The kit was OK, pretty typical Dragon with misdirection, parts trees from other kits with the same designations.

I needed something to start on while recovering from the surgery, so the basic build went together pretty well within a week. 

I had selected this kit from my supply shelves because I had a Legend Resin stowage set for it already and hadn't built a Stug III in a while. 

I prime coated it with various greens, then top coated with white.

 I used various chipping techniques with the base colors

Finally I washed the completed tank including all of the hand painted stowage in place.

 I went back and added highlights and some additional washes in recesses.

Sept 1, 2018    Vince B.

This is the Bandai M61A5 that I have mounted to a base. Just added some grass and bushes. She looks pretty neat in her 'new' environment.

This is the MENG T-10M in 1/35 scale. This was the last heavy tank fielded by the Soviet Union, going into service in 1952 and being retired until 1996.

 I built her straight out of the box with the exception of the Fruilmodel tracks and drilling a hole for the metal antenna.

 She has working suspension which I attempted to display here. Sorry the pics are so dark, I may retake these photos.

The diorama base is just a piece of wood that I spray painted black with a couple of pieces of styrene to contains the plaster. The plaster was put over some screen material which had small rocks underneath to produce some variable height terrain. Then I sprayed the whole thing with Woodland Scenics glue and applied the turf while it was wet. Once that dried I glued down some lichen and sprayed it with more Woodland Scenics glue and applied green turf to that as well. All I think she came out ok, it certainly was fun!

M20 Scout Car

This is the old Tamiya M20 Scout Car or Utility Vehicle.
Went together well.  If you are going to detail out the interior, you need to plan for completing all interior details including paint and weathering before assembling the upper hull.  That includes the driver figure. I ended up re-purposing him since I could not get him in afterward.


I had fun with the weathering and addition of the resin stowage items.

I actually used the kit tie down handles for wrapping the ropes.



Vince B. 7-30-18

KV Train (Hypothetical)

This was a fun build involving 3 kits.  The first of which was the Takom KV -5 that Jon Baker donated to the cause.  The second was an old Ironsides Flatcar kit with really bad plastic and resin details, followed by an old Dragon KV2 kit with the big turret.

I made armor side skirts from sheet plastic and strips.  The bolt head are doll house nails.  Drilled out all of the frames and super glued them in place.


I painted in a winter camo scheme.  Washed with oils and simulated some bad scrapes and wear spots with oils.  Burnt Umber for dirt with Indian Red for rust.  Layers of wash and rust provide the effect of longevity.


The rail car itself was painted with ModelMaster Gunmetal and Lacquer Metalizer. This was repeatedly washed with oils and dullcoated to provide the old and battered effect.


Vince B 7-2-18

Syrian T-55

Here is another one for our October club contest. This is a Tokom kit. Out of the box.
The only difference was using Star Decals for the 6 Day War era.


This had the tedious individual track links, but allowed for a much better sag fit on the Russian road wheels.

Also I applied the Jason Cameron technique of dabbing on the undercoat color with the rough out polishing pad.  It provided excellent wear and paint chipping. Since the tan colors were sprayed over the Russian Green, this worked out great.


Vince B. 6-14-18

Stuart Bunker

OK, what is this?  We have all see the German WWII bunkers with Panther or Panzer tank turrets. This is a US Stuart Tank Turret on a makeshift concrete bunker.

I had the leftover Takom MAUS V1 turret shell for the first prototype. Looked a lot like a concrete bunker. It didn't take much effort to find and fit some Tamiya tank parts to fill the opening.



Next it was about making it look feasible, so I scratch built a top hatch with some other spare parts. I think that ladder was a part from SPACE 1999 Eagle.  Anyway, you get the idea. Just leftovers.



After it was painted and weathered, I imbedded it into some sculptamold and covered with groundwork fluff. Not too bad for a quick fun build.

Vince B 6-8-18

'Secret Weapon'

I have been working on this one for about a year now.  This 'DUST Gunther' kit was one of John Ford's collection. As Sci Fi, it seemed totally unlike him, but it did depict German Armor.

 

The kit was OK, not great and the instructions were not entirely coordinated with the actual parts. These were limited run kits as part of some comic book series.



The Walking Panzer II was very articulated, making it tough to get set up as the joints were very loose.  I finally had to glue them as I made the final set up in the working gantry.

 

 

 

The gantry was composed of parts from an old Revell Oil Rig kit. Been using these parts for years. I wanted to do something more than just the kit.  I enhanced it with more details and decided to open some of the hatches and allow the unit to be in a service and re-arm mode. The figures were standard Tamiya service crew.

 

 

I also added a crane assembly from a Berge Tiger kit. I had to modify it to be electrically operated as the crank assembly was not reachable from the work gantry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added several work tables, tools and parts including a resin welding set.

 

 

The concrete pad was just sheet plastic that I scribed grooves in painted and weathered.

 

Vince B. June 3, 2018

Jagdpanzer IV 1/72 scale

This was a quick build. Not as easy as it used to be when I could still see 1/72 scale. ESCI kit, was very basic, not a lot of detail.

Tracks are Length and link. Its the individual links around the drive sprocket that get ya.



Pretty much out of the box. except for the tissue paper tarp and fiber optic antenna.

 

Vince B.  June 3, 2018

M24 Chaffee

This is the old Testors kit. Its really not bad if you take some time with it.

Most of the stowage was from the Legend resin set specifically for M24s.



I did several layers of washes and dry brushing with oils.



I did break some grab handles and replaced with wire.  Other than that, it worked out OK.

Vince B.   5-17-18

M61A5 Semovente

This is the M61A5 Semovente from Bandai. This is a 1.35 scale model of a tank from the Gundam SCIFI Anime.

This is the first Bandai kit I have assembled and I must say that it is a very finely engineered model indeed.

Daimler Mk II

This is the old Hasegawa Daimler Mk II British Armored car. I don't normally do British vehicles, but this was just a quick one between my other projects.  It is 1/72 scale so didn't take up much room on the work tables.
 

I did need to add some details such as antenna mounts and stowage and tools.

Vince B 5-7-18

Tamiya Israeli Tiran 5SH

As a Tamiya kit, I don't need to give you details of the build.  It fits great as expected. They call it a Tiran 5 though it is actually the captured Russian / Egyptian T55s Upgraded with the M60 105MM gun so it is a Tiran 5SH.



I added some stowage from a Legend bulk set for Israeli tanks. I like the larger legend sets of resin accessories because you have enough to spread over 2 or 3 kits.

As usual, I use a Metalic lacquer primer before I start with shades of enamel color.  Then with varying shades of heavy wash, I fill in the crevices.  After several dull coats, I dry brushed.



Old trophies make great bases. I have also found a variety of cutting boards at Big Lots which save a lot of time as well, no staining or sealing needed.



Vince B.  5-1-18