New Tokyo, Samurai City

 The following was inspired by the movie 'Mortal Engines' so New Tokyo is not one of the Traction Citys in the movie. I was intrigued by the concept and decided a few years ago to create a similar effect, keeping in line with the Steam Punk theme. 

  

I started by planning out components from my scrap boxes. I purchased some 1/700 scale architectural structures and started cutting them up. All of the tank hulls, wheels and tracks were mismatched from leftovers and scraps, no actual kits were harmed in the making of this project. 

 

 And so it grew in size and configuration. Many of the interior details became obscured as the city grew. I began planning lighting to help bring to life and show some of the details.

 

Finally it was taking shape. After several re-configurations and fit and light tests, I decided on the final version. Up till this point it was all just experiment.

 
Next came the details to fill in the story and New Tokyo was developed as the Samurai City.

 
The separate modules needed to be designed to fit loosely together to take into account the future terrain groundwork. Wiring had to be planned and continuous fit tests with each improvement.

https://youtu.be/tfvowuLT3V0

And now it is finally done.

Vince B.  2-20-23

M2 Bradley

 This is the old Tamiya 1/35 scale kit with some interior details. I did ad some more interior stuff such as cables and other misc boxes and stuff on the ceiling as in the real thing, though most of it is improv.

I only added some stowage to the exterior with some tape straps for tie downs. 

Vince B. 1-29-23

Winterblitz 2023 Museum of the American GI.

 Just a few birds eye views of the show in the museum. This is the biggest ARMOR show in TX.

Abandoned

 For the HAC Club February WINTER build, I created a scene to depict a broken down and abandoned ammunitions / supply trailer, rusted out and buried in ice and snow.

The trailer accessory kit is by Italeri. Not sure, but the dented oil barrel could be from Tamiya.

I used a variety of Ice and Snow products from Tamiya, Mod Podge, Green stuff etc. 

This is the first time I used a block of XPS insulation foam as a base. Worked out well. It takes less space than a wooden base and much lighter weight. 

I hope you all get chills looking at it. 

Vince B. 1-1-23   (Unique Scrap Built Models)

Polish PL-01 Prototype

 This is the TAKOM kit out of the box. Really simple construction and rather boring.  Al I could do to improve the build was to give it a special camo paint job and weather it as if it had been deployed.

I am happy with the outcome. The model is still out of the box.

The street / sidewalk are plaster casts from Dioramas Plus. 

For the multilevel camo pattern, I cut strips of masking tape into block patterns and between color applications connected the dots. There were 4 levels of tape mask.

Vince B. 1-1-23  (Unique Scrap Built Models)

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.