Scooter

Finished today my Tiger I Ausf E (as a hypothetical hybrid early/late) in 1/72. Testing new Vallejo paints with my Grex. Pretty happy with the result. Not at all concerned with accuracy, as had never built a Tiger before, and really needed to see the nuances with them before moving to a 1/35 kit in the stash. Enjoy.

Thanks all. Pictures found and project underway. Appreciate your help! Adam

Finally complete is my 1/35 Elefant Sd.Kfz.184 by Italeri. This depicts a late war vehicle of 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion in Germany. As many know, the Italeri kit is from the 70's and has some age related issues to be fixed, but perhaps the biggest difference was the addition of a metal barrel for the 88mm gun and metal tow cables. There are a few other add-ons to finish it all up, namely a home made flag, the addition of the Tamiya zimmerit, and the trees and broken logs on the front glacis plate. I very much enjoyed this build as it seemed to get better as it went on! (not always like that) Everything seemed to flow very well and by the time we reached the final airbrush work, the mighty Grex TG came through a dream. Enjoy the Elefant!

Absolutely wonderful, thank you Mark. Adam

Hi - I'm looking for any pictures or images of the inside of a Jagdpanther please. Colour or B&W, old or new. All would be helpful. Please email to me at ca920@sbcglobal.net if convenient, or steer me to a website that you may know of. Thank you in advance. Adam

Wonderful. Keep it coming.. Adam

UPDATE: Copy found! Good to go. ...now I just have to build it! Adam

Hi all. I'm looking to get a copy of the article from the Scale Aviation Modeler Jan.79 edition, on the Westland Wasp conversion. Any feedback or effort very much appreciated. I assume its an Airfix 1/72 Westland Scout conversion or maybe a 1/48 Fujimi Scout to Wasp.. (not sure when they released the Fujimi Wasp). Thanks in advance. Adam

Great job! Congratulations. Those Frog kits can have their moments too. Adam

Got it - thanks Mark. I appreciate that site - had seen it before but could not remember. Anyway, good to go. Decals - just the Turret # which may be able to be located in my spares box. at the very least, if I can find out what the decal #10 and #12 is, then I'm there. Adam

Great to see the buses. Been intrigued with them for a while. Nice job sir.

Hi all. Wondering if anyone can assist please... I'm looking for a copy of the instructions for the Dragon Kit #6263 of the Panzer IIF please. A scan is all I need. Let me know if you have a couple of the decals spare on that in your spares box also - in particular the decals for "942" of 9./202.Pz.Rgt., 22.Pz.Div., Stalingrad 1942. Will pay the postage for those if thats ok. Thanks in advance. Adam ca920@sbcglobal.net IPMS #41325

Just finished today is my 1/72 Whippet Mk A tank, A347 "Firefly", of B Company, 6th Battalion Tank Corps in France early 1918. The kit decals were used from the EMHAR kit which depicts “Firefly” with a minor few inaccuracies. I built the speedy (8mph) tank out of the box, with the addition of the communications wire reel added to the front. Armament was four 0.303 in Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns, one covering each direction. As there were only three crewmen, the gunner had to jump around a lot, though often assisted by the commander. Always wanted to make one of these and gain an appreciation of my favourite early tanks. And, now “Mephisto” has a 1/72 buddy on my shelf. Enjoy

I agree with the St. Chamond. A Schneider, FT17 and more A7V's would be nice too. Fingers crossed! Adam ___________________________________________ Simply put: 1. T-28 Superheavy Tank (aka T-95 Gun Motor Carriage); 2. a good FT-17; 3. A good Mk I or IV or V British tank (you know, the rhomboid WWI types); 4. St. Chammond WWI tank; 5. a new kit of the Soviet T-35 heavy tank. David

I just found the Hasegawa kit. I'll give that a try, as I am told its a more accurate build. Any thoughts Mark? Adam

With the 100 year anniversary of the Tank being imminent, I hope there is a big focus on WWI armour. Though there are not many available, by 2016 it would not take all that much to release one of each type. Thanks for sharing. Adam

They Honey at the APG is so small it can hardly straddle the cement slabs! Thanks for sharing that. Adam

Hello - Not sure if I am behind the times on this, but has anyone heard of the early 1960's design called the Chevrolet "TUFI"? (Truck Utility Floatable Independent) I was reading about this recently, and it was interesting to say the least. Basically, an amphibious humvee type vehicle that never moved past the prototype stage. ...then I thought.. is there a model kit of this out there somewhere? (resin/cottage obviously) Any ideas/info on this? Adam

First model finished for 2013, (but started in 2012) was the first ship I had built in many many years. This is a 1/700 Admiral Graf Spee released by Matchbox in 1977. It’s an old kit of course, but I think it builds up pretty well as a nice example of the German Kriegsmarine Deutschland-class cruiser which was sunk in December 1939. The Graf Spee saw virtually every part of the Atlantic from her launch in 1936 until the final days at after the Battle of the River Plate where she fought 3vs1 before retiring from the engagement. The kit builds quite well out of the box. It is a second run (non-UK) mold of the kit, so I had to deal with multiple sink marks and a few warps. From a satisfaction standpoint, it was pretty cool to see it all come together during the build process. I painted her in one of the later schemes with the fake wakes on each side, and with an Arado 196 seaplane overpainted in dark grey, but keeping the green/brown floats. She is mounted on a simple board with her bow at anchor into a strong breeze from her port bow to starboard rear. Her stern churns as she slowly moves in the wind, and the waves and chop start to pick up. I made a couple of additions to the kit to improve her – firstly, all of the 11’ (28cm) barrels were replaced with metal ones, and secondly, the standard deck railings were added to the gunnels. The various antenna layouts were also rigged up. The waves were made from Vallejo “Atlantic Blue”water effects, and “foam and snow” added for wavetops and splash. The mooring anchor was added also. Overall, I am happy with it. It was certainly a change from the normal stuff for me, and a delight to see the character of this famous “Panzerschiff” as the build progressed. I am sure that Kapitan Langsdorff would like her too. Enjoy. Adam

One of my last projects to wrap up for 2012 is my 1/72 M3/Grant I of the British Army 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Armoured Brigade of the famous “Desert Rats”, May 1942 at the Battle of Gazala. This is the old Airfix kit that was first released in 1969. The kit when built out of the box assembles more as the US version “Lee” than the “Grant”. I built this for a couple of reasons, the first was that I knew very little about the M3 (what is the Lee, what is Grant?), and secondly that it was a build as a thank you to one of my uncles for inspiring and teaching me as a little kid to what it today something I am kind of good at, and my favorite hobby. The kit has only a few minor changes from being built out of the box. It misses the sand-guards and a couple of other lumps and bumps that were unique to the Grant, plus I think the antenna may not be quite correct. The kit also comes with a Lee turret, so I built that too just to see what it was like. The differences other than that were minor. The reason for the turrets was that the British thought the silhouette was too high, and therefore went with the lower profile type. Anyway, the kit stacks up quite well for an old mold. The paint work was a lot of fun, and I think she looks like a machine sitting on the sands south of Knightsbridge, waiting for Rommel in late May 1942. A true little “Desert Rat”.. I’m really proud of her as she sits in my collection cabinet. - Adam

My father-in-law told me about when he was a kid in 43-44 eastern europe and he watched the engined Gigants come and go from a grass strip near my wifes little home town. He said on several occasions they would walk up and watch the Germans load and unload these machines. He remembered seeing things like Kettenkrads, horses and artillery pieces going outbound, and casualties coming back. Nice work Dick. Cheers Adam

Just finished today was my 1/48 Aerospatiale Alouette IIIB “K-Car” of the Rhodesian Air Force ca. early 1979. This is the Fujimi kit released in 1980 and heavily modified and converted to the unique Rhodesian version made famous during “Fireforce” operations in the Bush War of the 1970s. The kit when built out of the box assembles quite well, however the major modifications to convert the machine to a K-Car required including; Anti SAM shroud and the “Elephant ear” dust filters on air intakes. Also on the outside are the adding of antennas on the front of the cockpit and the cable cutter on the top of the fuselage. On the inside, I added the Matra 20mm cannon on its unique mount with ammo feed line and adjusted seating platform. The 20mm was made primarily of using the Aries 20mm resin gun body and adding a metal barrel and ammo feed. The pilots seat was modified and armored, and armored inserts added internally, as well as relocating the instrument panel and some wiring. The machine depicted is numbered R5278 (ex Portuguese AF from Mozambique), “given” to Rhodesia in 1976, and depicted for operations against ZANLA terrorists in southern Rhodesia in late 1978. The K-Car gunship was a natural evolution of the Alouette III and the weathering and paint scheme on the “Allie” depicts its role as a workhorse and very capable light helicopter that could operate using multiple fuels, and take high volumes of battle damage and still do its job. Even in some instances with a tail rotor missing, the machines could make it back home. Interestingly, the camouflage of the machine includes almost no external markings – this is for multiple reasons, most importantly is that they were technically the only machines in the sky over Rhodesia, so no identification was needed. The scheme of the “X X x x” was a late 1970s’s paint scheme. So in building this kit, I felt it was important to depict the appearance as a working K-Car with dust, dirt and some scratches and cracks being evident. This was a tough build for me, requiring lots of patience and working within multiple modeling mediums, but I’m really proud of her as she sits on my living room table. But in another way, R5278 is modeled as ready to go for her “Fireforce” role and back-up the “Troopies” on demand. Enjoy! - Adam

A few years ago, I was in a model store, and in the next aisle was two teenage girls discussing the merits of the Merkava vs an upgunned T-62. One girl said she was really a Sheridan fan, but as the two of them were building for a middle-east theme, she said that would not work. I was stunned, but I agree, I think there are some out there.

Mark - who had the Saladins? Adam

Hi all. I am looking to find out of there is an aftermarket MG42 (or a 34 will do) made in metal or a really nice plastic mold that can be used on the top of a Stug III/IV or a Hetzer? The kit version is pretty lame, and a nice metal piece would be preferred. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance. Adam