Armourfast 1/72 Panzer IV D ( part 1 )

1/72 Ace Rauppenslepper OST

1/72 Esci Fokker DVII

Airfix 1/72 Bf109 G6

My first 109. The kit has its inadequacies, notably no cockpit detail, but the decals are great. You get 3 options, I chose the Finnish version because of the shark mouth. I've just got hold of the 109 Tropical, which is excellent, and does contain a decent enough cockpit and bulkhead, which I had to scratch build for this version. You'll notice that the wheel sruts are too upright and should come down at an angle following on from the aircraft sides. I'll remember this for next time, and infact the correct angle is noted in the instructions of the Troipical version. Weathered again with Mig powders and vallejo steel.

Airfix 1/76 Universal Carrier - Suez - Part II

Just finished this one in the past few days. Decals are from the Bison set on the Suez crisis, of which I shall be using more in the coming months. I cut up some plastic rod into small equall bits a glued them onto the tracks as there was no profile whatsoever. Sand guards were made from tin foil and the bolt effect was acheived by pushing a blunt needle into the foil from the reverse side, and then putting on a wash and dry brushing afterwards. Rust was made by using blobs of enamel leather brown brushed downwards with a damp brush of thinners. It was the first time I've tried to use depth in my scratches by first using a lighter colour to make the scratch (yellow) then painting an even finer line of tank grey in the yellow, leaving a slight yellow colour outside of the grey. Chipping around the edges was done using a small sponge. I also made a headlamp from sanding down some clear sprue then painting it silver first then the base colour and finally chipping it with tank grey and painting a gloss varnish over the lens.

This was the actual vehicle I was basing this kit on, and is the only picture of it available anywhere I could find.

Airfix 1/76 Chi Ha tank - Part II

Can't believe I haven't been on here since the end of March, that's just being lazy, but in my defense I have been bust building and finishing off models, this Chi Ha being one of them. I decided to make it really muddy using weathering powders overlaid ontop of each other, building up the effect. The tracks were about 10-15mm too short. After trying to stretch them by leaving them dangling with weights on the end I wrote to Airfix explaining my dilema and within the week they had sent an extra set of tracks out which I managed to marry up with the existing set. Once weathered you can't notice the join at all so I was made up with that. all in all a great little kit, easy to build however I think the colours mentioned on the back of the box are wrong. Instead of the light green, it should be more of a browny colour. I'll know for next time

Airfix 1/76 Chi Ha tank

This is a great little tank and very easily put together. Cammo is painted, and an allover wash of dark umbar followed by a wash of buff then a gloss coat was added. Next up decaling and a pin wash, then it's time to get messy and some serious muddy weathering.

Airfix 1/76 Universal Carrier Suez Crisis 1956

Having completed my MkI tank for the group build on Missing Lynx, I thought I'd start another one. This is the Airfix Universal Carrier as used by British forces during the Suez Crisis. as far as I can make out, it had become obsolete in the British motor pool, but this one must have been "liberated" from Egyptian forces and put to good use. Decal are from the Bison Decals sheet "Suez Crisis" and contains loads more decals which will be used in the near future. Its painted in a 50/50 mix of  sand yellow and buff colour. The gaps where the foot holes were had to be filled, otherwise the 1/72 decal which fits here wouldn't and a sand skirt will be made from foil. This is as far as Ive got.

Airfix Club Kit - Under The Red Star - Spitfire

The Airfix Club Kit this year , well consists of three kits actually, all with excellent decals to reproduce aircraft flown by the Red airforce of communist Russia against the Nazis. The three kits you get are a Spitfire, Hurricane and Warhawk, all 1/72. The decals are to say the least, superb. The Spit , though, is just the older version not the newer re-tooled kit with engraved panel lines and cockpit, however you can still make a decent kit from it. I messed up with the cockpit glazing, trying unsuccessfully, to mask it with basic B&Q masking tape. I have since bought some Tamiya tape, which is supposed to be much better. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how its turned out and thinking about it, this was my first ever Spitfire built. Weathering was kept to a minimum, with a little bit of silvering on the wing where the constant shuffle of feet in and out of the a/c has worn away the surface paint. Smoke dust from the guns has also been added using Mig powders.

Airfix WWI MkI tank in Gaza - Part II

Finally got round to taking some pics of the finished thing, so here they are. I was in Liverpool last week andjust happened to wonder into ModelZone, as you do, and ended up picking up two more WWI Male tank kits for such £1.99 each. I have the Airfix Conversion book by Tom Cole which will give me plenty of options for those other tanks. Next up is the Female "we're all in it" complete with tail wheels and funky camo scheme, then maybe "mother" (the first tank) and possibly a Russian one...who knows. BTW, I also picked up a couple of WWI bi-planes which were also in the sale, as I stupidly fancy having a go at rigging one of those things before trying the huge Handly Page 0/400.
Anyway, onto the pics.

Seperated by over 90 years. Two British, in their day, state of the art tanks.

1/72 Dragon Challenger 2, Iraq 2003

I started making this kit a few years ago and then stopped. Having a bit of spare time on my hands, this was the first one I chose to finish. I'm prettyb happy with the way it's turned out. The stowage sheet was scratched from a tissue soaked in diluted white glue and then ties with cotton and placed on the tank, although I put it on too high along the sides stopping the turret from turning. Oh well at least it covered the space where the tow cables should have been. These along with the tracks were too small and didn't fit the holes provided, even with gentle stretching. The tracks didn't matter so much as they were mostly covered by the armour. Overall this is a great kit and the level of detail is exceptional. I believe there are a few dimentional errors regarding the turret but to me it looks like a Chally. You also get two excellent GPMGs, and only needing to use one you're left with a spare which will look great sticking out of a Sea King or Merlin.

The figure is from ?? RH Models. you get three in a packet, all different. The thermal recognitional panels were cut from plasticard and the aerials were from those plastic pieces of string which attach swing tags to clothes. They should all be straight but we'll put it down to battle damage!! Weathering was done with pastal chalks.