Previous Updates

June 8, 2011

Preview of a seldom seen softskin posted:

1/76 Convoy International M425 Tractor and 10 ton Semi-trailer

June 7, 2011

Preview of the Cromwell Mercedes L3000A with Office Body posted:



I am using it as a test bed for a way to hollow out the solid cab and insert an interior from below.



June 6, 2011

More tweaking of the details on the Panzer IV F1 while decals and painting progress.



b>June 2, 2011

Gutters added and jerrycan removed on the Panzer IV F1 and on to painting.



Matchbox Panzer IIF rebuilt. It only needed an antenna. A drybrush of Testors MM RAL 8020 brown toned down the orange shade of the original Humbrol 63 Afrika Korps Desert Yellow.



Matchbox Panzer IIL finally put to rest, now with two turret lifting points.



MMS Panzer IV D underway.



May 27, 2011

Three armor previews posted:

• 1/76 Skytrex Hinchliffe RSO with Pak 40
• 1/76 MMS Panzer IV F (F1/F2)
• 1/76 MMS Panzer IV G late

April 12, 2011

Decals and weathering completed on the B1 bis. Now onto the chains and the radio antenna before appying grass and the final coats of flat varnish.

April 11, 2011

Basic paint completed on the Matchbox/Revell B1 bis. Same colors as on the R35 but airbrushed this time, Humbrol 148 and Testors MM Russian Tank Green, which had the desired gray tint. Beige first, then green, after masking with poster putty. Soft edges were touched up after the fact. Decals for Bourrasque from the 2nd DCR 15th BCC are next, followed by (extensive) weathering.



A couple previews of 1940 French vehicles:

March 22, 2011

Finished a Cromwell Renault R35 light tank. Well armored but slow, unreliable and sporting a pathetic short 37mm gun with negligible armor penetration, it is a minuscule machine, about the size of a Panzer I. The model carries Aleran decals for the 24th BCC (Combat Tank Battalion) which saw action at Montcornet, Abbeville and on the Loire river in May-June 1940. Ironically, most of these tanks had no radio, but all the24 BCC machines had one. I'll add the stub, which must have been the nub I removed on the back of the turret roof to make room for the roundel and the antenna as soon as I find relevant pictures. I am a stickler on getting the antenna's size and diameter right. The base resin kit has numerous air bubbles filled, missing details on the rear grilles restored, a dozen or so broken or missing track guide teeth made from strip, and details added from odds and ends, including a spare pickaxe head, a Notek type light, the horn, 4 metal towing eyes, a tow hook, a hammer head, 6 lifting hooks on the turret and cupola, a spare roadwheel, a brass handle for the rear engine hatch, and the exhaust stub.



The preview of the kit is here.

Using the momentum gained from this rare achievement (actually finishing a model) I dusted off the Matchbox B1b that had been gathering dust for over a year and resumed work on it .

March 6, 2011

Finished a Cromwell StuH42. This is from a set of 3 built models acquired on ebay. It was stripped and rebuilt, so bypassed the usual preview. The hatch covers are separate and are from plastic card, the original parts were melted by the paint stripper.



March 5, 2011

Completed the Airfix Pak 40. Not a bad kit despite its age. The base and crew will take more time than the gun itself.


February 22, 2011

The IS-2 is done.



More 1940 French equipment reviewed. Here is the Cromwell Laffly V15T:



February 21, 2011

The Cromwell Renault R35 is ready for the paint shop. The Renault UE is close behind. The latter seems to be a resin knock-off of the Hinchliffe model.


I am trying out the crazy idea of using the teeth from a plastic knife on the tracks of the JB/Airfix Light Tank MkVI. Here is what we have so far.

February 16, 2011

The Fujimi IS-2 is close to completion. Nice model despite the incorrect engine.



The Cromwell Bedford OYD and SHQ Gaz AA reviews have been posted.

February 9, 2011

Finally completed Tuskegee Airman Lt Buddy Archer's plane in Italy circa 1944.



January 10, 2011

Happy New (Modelling) Year! May you find the time to model to your heart's content!

The year starts off inventorying my 1/76 stash. I bought some stackable drawers and reorganized models by medium instead of nationality. It's a good idea to separate resin from metal kits, unless you don't mind having more resin parts to glue than originally envisioned. I will update the 1/76 previews in the next few weeks, there are about 50 kits that still need to be photographed.

The WW2 section has been updated with two models that sort of bookend the war, an early war German soldier from the Polish campaign and a P-51C in China during the 3 months between the fall of Nazi Germany and the surrender of Japan.



The Orange Nassau figures were finally completed and added to the Waterloo section. They are Hat Belgians with Hat Wurtemberger heads. This finally closes the Infantry and Cavalry sections.

December 7, 2010

Took a break from planes with some figures:

Late Roman, Renaissance gendarme, late war ETO US infantry, mid war German with splinter camo smock



The French Army page was updated.

October 8, 2010

Time for some updates. I've been busy finishing some of the planes in the workshop: the 109 E7, Hurricane IIb, Typhoon and one of the P-51C's.
In the live and learn category:

- the P-47D-30 used the same wing as the P-47M so my comment below is wrong. Of course I spent some time carefully sanding them off, now I have to make some new ones from plastic strip.
- the 109 E4/7 and E3 have different canopies. That includes the windscreen. Building the two concurrently caused a mix-up and I realized that the windscreens had to be switched after painting was completed. Fortunately I use white glue for fixing transparencies so no damage.

Here are some pics of the newly completed models:



I tried soem group photos with mixed results. The only one worth keeping is a picture of my small collection of Allied fighters. Having them all together is interesting. The diminutive size of Soviet fighters is really striking. The Yak 3 and the La-5 have very short wings and look like toys next to the huge Hellcat (the largest plane on the pic, bigger than a Thunderbolt),



July 12, 2010

Back from vacation. I just realized that the Revell P-47D uses the wing of a P-47M so the air brakes need to be sanded off and a landing light added to the starboard underwing.
The Battle of Britain Me-109 E3 and the Pearl Harbor Zero type 21 have been completed and been added to the fighter and WW2 galleries.

June 14, 2010

A group photo of my late war Allied fighters. British, US and Soviet planes representing theaters thousands of miles from one another : Northwest Europe, Italy, Eastern Front, Burma, China, Central Pacific. The Typhoon and the two P-51Cs are not completed yet. Academy made a mistake in their decal placement instructions for the two Mustangs. The larger stars go on the wings not the fuselage. I fell for it and it just did not look right. It cost me two stars trying to move them. They had already been sealed with Future so that did not help.



June 7, 2010
More progress on the plane models though I am late on my schedule. I was planning to complete 12 planes by April 30 and then move back to armor and figures. I am now trying to get 10 models done by the end of June.
Tuskegee Airman Buddy Archer's P-51C is almost done. I lost one of the "INA the Macon Belle" decals so had to order another kit online. I did spend an hour on all fours looking for it. Academy decals are really terrible: thick, brittle, impervious to Microsol, plus they won't stay on without a final coat of Future.
The Pearl Harbor Zero is also almost complete. The wing fuselage join was pretty bad, which was a surprise to me as the rest of the kit falls together.
The Typhoon is still lingering pending rockets. The Pavla aftermarket rockets don't fit the holes on the model's wing... So I'm stuck with the kit's rockets. One consolation is that the Pavla rocket fins are almost as thick as the Academy ones (and the ones that come with the Tamiya Mosquito)
The other Mustang, "Princess", a P-51C from 311th FG in China in 1945 is undergoing a repaint job. I learned that spraying Alclad on bare plastic accentuates all the plastic flow boundaries. I have to reasearch why this is as the surface seemed totally smooth. In the end I sprayed gray primer over the Alclad and will start over.

So far only 4 models have been completed this year. Actually the 109 E3 needs an antenna wire. I plan to use 5thou steel wire like for the E1. I switched from fine fishing wire, the kind that retracts when heated, leaving a nice taut line. Problem is it slackens over time so you have to heat it again every couple months.




May 17, 2010
I finally completed two planes out of the 13 in flight. The 1939 Bf 109 E1 from the Polish Campaign and a late war Tempest V flown by French ace Pierre Closterman. The Airfix Spit XIX in wartime markings is almost done as well.



The Academy Typhoon is also well advanced. I need to add the rockets. The Pavla rocket mountings do not fit the holes on the kit, being spaced further apart, so it's back to the kit's rockets with the overthick fins. The Academy stripe decals were a disater, they would shed pieces if repositioned. The fuselage stripes were actually painted. The wing stripes only lost portions so I touched them up. In hindsight I should have removed the decals and painted them as well. I also learned through this that white cannot be touched up by brush.

I had hoped to finish all those planes clogging up the workspace by April 30 but it looks like it will take another month. It did not help that I started two more kits in the past months... Can't help it, I guess. The backlog is now:

• Typhoon Ib, Academy, 175 Sq, RAF, France, 1944
• Spitfire XIX, Airfix, 541 Sq, RAF, UK, 1944
• P-51B, Academy, Tuskegee Airmen 332nd FG, USAAF, Italy, 1944
• P-51C, Academy, 311th FG, USAAF, China, 1945
• P-47D-30, Revell, 405th FG, USAAF, Germany, 1945
• Me-109 E7, Tamiya, JG27, Libya, 1941
• Me-109 E3, Tamiya, JG77, Norway, 1940
• Hurricane IIb, Hasegawa, 274 Sq, RAF, Egypt, 1942
• A6M2b Zero, Hasegawa, Asahi Gp, IJN, Hawaii, 1941
• P-36A, AML, 15th PG, USAAC, Hawaii 1941
• Me-262A1, Revell, markings TBD

Oct. 11, 2009
Two previews from long disappeared Custom Miniatures in 1/76:

Oct. 10, 2009
French infantry from the late seventies added to the French Army page


ADV Mini resin French soldiers from 1991 and 2005 in the paint shop:


Another preview : the 1/76 Cromwell Combat Ready JSU 122

Oct. 7, 2009
The 253 is in the paint shop. I used Xtracolour's RAL8000 Yellow-Brown, which is a very dark greenish sand yellow. It takes forever to dry so I only managed two coats in 4 days. The 250 is catching up. I completed the interior and closed the body. It will be ready for paint after the lights and other accessories are added.
I also used the same color on the 15cm SPG on panzer II chassis and will snap some pictures when it's dry.

I bought more Cromwell kits on Ebay and here is a preview of something different, a "Panzer 1946" monster:

Sep. 11, 2009
Previews galore:

Aug. 28, 2009
The 38(t) Ausf. B is progressing. Here are some pics to show off the Archer rivets on the cupola:



As usual this out of the box build descended into scratch building as the stowage furnished withthe kit is incorrect for the ealry 38(t).

The JB/Airfix Light Tank MkVIb is also in construction. It fits really well but the detail level is way more simplified than I imagined and requires a lot of attention before the rivets can be applied. Furthermore according to Bradford's drawing it is underscale by more than a couple percent.

I actually completed some figures (8 actually), which gave me more satisfaction than the actual accomplishment.

I also added the preview of the 1/76 Cromwell Combat Ready Renault R35

July 24, 2009
New in the armor preview section, a kit that has been around for 30 years and to my surprise the only Airfix kit reviewed so far the venerable 1/76 Airfix T34. In hindsight it is because most are finished so I don't have unbuilt boxes (or bags) to review.

Were also added:

• Vacucast Panzer IV A
• Vacucast late Panzer IV D with applique armor
• Vacucast early Panzer IV
• Vacucast Panzer IV converted to G model (a late war stopgap conversion)
• Vacucast StuG IV
• Vacucast early JagdPanzer IV with L/48 gun
• Vacucast Panther G
• Milicast Panther G with Zimmerit