Paul Giles

@PlaStix @Badder @Gerrardandrews Thanks chaps your comments are really appreciated. All the best, Paul

I have just finished this build, it was started last year and has taken up to now to finish because of a lack of an airbrush area. The model is the Revell Tiger 1E with the Modeltrans conversion set, Voyager photo-etch and Eureka cable. It was painted with Tamyia acrylic paint, airbrushed with my Iwata HP plus. The weathering was done with AK products, the Afrika Korps wash, Light Dust Deposits and Streaking Grime D.A.K., the whole tank was dusted with MIG Light Earth pigment powder. It is intentionally dusty as it will be set in a vignette scene in Italy during the Summer, I hope to get the base finished sooner than later and will include a few figures for a sense of scale. Here are the photos (oosted using Imgur now Photobucket is not playing fair with its members)... Well that's it, all comments welcome. All the best, Paul

Very evocative scene you have created there Martin. Excellent placement of the elements to make the scene interesting and 'alive'. The Prieser refugee set is so useful for these sort of dioramas, I have one that I have painted up for the Fall of France 1940, very versatile figures. I like the vehicles and how you have distressed them, also the little detail of the wheels on the armoured car being turned, adds so much more interest. All in all an excellent little diorama, well done. All the best, Paul

Thanks chaps, your feedback is much appreciated . All the best, Paul

It has been a while since I posted anything here, so as I have finished this model I thought it would be a suitable restart to posting on the forum. The model is a Mirage Grant Mk1, a very nice little kit and fairly straightforward, it has the RB barrel set for the Grant, Dan Taylor Modelworks stowage and photo-etch ammunition box, the commander is a modified Milicast British Tanker model (Prieser head and side cap). The model depicts the 4 County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) just before the Gazala battles, the commander is modelled in his cricket sweater (it is early morning and a bit chilly!), he wears the distinctive green side cap of the 4CLY, with its yellow insert.... Thank you for looking, all comments welcome All the best, Paul

Count me in with a M10 by Extratech. Cheers, Paul

@Sgt. Squarehead, FrancisGL, Badger... Thanks for the comments lads, much appreciated. I will be working on the base over the next week and I have found a nice MiG resin figure to pop on the Hummel to give some indication of size. All the best, Paul

I have been trying to get some of my 'Shelf Queens' sorted out (I have a lot of them!) and my latest one to be near completion is a Hummel with Winterketten and a whitewash camouflage. I had got as far as building it and laid down the basic camouflage and left the poor thing to languish in a dark box. I got it out recently and set about getting it finished, I firstly applied the decals so I could do the 'hairspray technique' on it... The tactical sign below the battery letter is an old Almark decal, it must be nearly 40 years old! Surprisingly it performed perfectly, it has been stored in an airtight container and the sheet is in near perfect condition, but still - 40 years on!! The Winterketten are from OKB-Grigorov and this shows how well they fit on the running gear, a wonderful boon for us braille modellers, the equivalent to the 1/35th lads having Fruil Tracks etc. I sprayed the hairspray on the model with my airbrush, I use my old, trusty Aztek for stuff like this as I don't want to upset my Iwata. I then applied an off white winter whitewash using Tamyia White and a little Dark Rubber for the basis then and went to town chipping it. I then used a very thin wash of Vallejo White brushed down the sides to represent the whitewash breaking down and streaking the sides. I put a few rust runs in appropriate places. I then did a light pin wash using Vallejo German Black Brown to bring out the detail, this was followed by a fine dry brush of white. I then used MiG Neutral Wash and this really dirtied up the white quite a lot, I wasn't sure about this, but I have come to like it the more I look at it. The model is now ready for the final details and basing. More of which in due course. Here is the 'Hummel in winter togs...' so far... The base will be a basic snow landscape and I will be using the Precision Ice and Snow products, including the Ice and Snow Wash on the tracks to help make them look as if they have been moving through snow. All comments welcome. All the best, Paul

@ Badger & Sgt Squarehead... Thanks chaps, it has been a bit of a marathon in some respects. but the best bit is to come - painting and weathering. Andy, the Atak Zimmerit sets are superb, I have used one of their 1/35 ones for a Dragon Panther A and it really does look the business, well worth the cost. Hopefully I will have this finished for the end of the Group Build - hopefully . All the best, Paul

It has been a while since I posted last, I got sidetracked with other projects, but I have now completed all the little details and the last piece of photo-etch has been added. I also primed the model in readiness for the paint job, which I hope will be done later this week. Anyway here are the photographs of the progress so far... So that is it for now. All comments welcome. All the best, Paul

@ FrancisGL... I will be painting it soon and then the weathering can begin @ Model Monkey... Thank you for your kind comment. I am very pleased that it turned out well, next up for the Zimmerit treatment will be a Brummbar. Should be interesting, nice flat sides.

I managed to find some suitable photo-etch brass that would do very well for the brackets and set about replacing the aluminium ones,,,, tu While I was modifying stuff, I decided to detail the rear hatch. I put a grab handle on the hatch, there wasn't one there before, and set about producing a better hinge assembly.... I also took the opportunity to put a Bosch light on the front glacis... And just for good measure I decided to put a tow cable on one of the set of brackets, the cable is from the Eureka Tiger set... Finally all the new additions were primed and now the beast is really ready for the painting stage... Hopefully I will get the airbrush fired up later this week and get some paint on the vehicle, all comments welcome. All the best, Paul

Count me in too, it seems a good excuse to dust off my figure painting skills, a 'gentleman in khaki' seems a good choice. In fact I have just found this image from the Second Anglo-Afghan War - Sgt James Roddick of the Gordon Highlanders defends a wounded officer during British attack at Gundi Mulla Sahibdad during the Battle of Kandahar - sounds sort of familiar .... I shall start collecting some stuff to do this, I may do it in 28mm as Perry Miniatures do a lot of colonial stuff. All the best, Paul

Hi Mike, Like you I wasn't sure about how the Zimmerit was applied to the Sturmtiger, I looked at numerous photos to see what the actual vehicle looked like. It would appear that the Zimmerit was applied all the way down the hull side and the side skirts added after, as shown by the photo here.... I looked through a book I have - 'Tigers in Combat Vol. I' and the Tigers with damaged fenders also show Zimmerit under the area of the fenders, so this was the case for all Tigers from what I can see. Always good to check and re-check before you do something. Mind you I had to strip some of the 'Zimmerit' off and stick a strip of styrene sheet in place to glue the fenders as supeglue doesn't stick well to Squadron Green Putty, well it does stick but the bond is weak and the fenders can be knocked off easily, they are firmly fixed now. All the best, Paul

Hi Francis, Thank you for the link, I found it very interesting, really nice interpretation of the vehicle. All the best, Paul Hi Everyone, I have been progressing well with the build and have got to the painting stage. There have been a few glitches and I may have to correct some omissions and problem parts. Anyway this is the point I was at in the previous update.... From this point I set about fitting the exhausts and their shrouds, there was some photo-etch from the Voyager set. This is a really nice set and I thoroughly recommend it, I took the muffler caps and exhaust shrouds from this set... To bend the shrouds I annealed them first and you have to use a blunt point to score the raised ridge on the top and bottom of the muffler. I also used the side skirts from the set for this model, I decided not to use them all and leave gaps where some have been damaged and removed... You will also see my first attempt at the lifting points on the corners of the fighting compartment, they are quite incorrect and had to be removed and replaced with correct ones, these will be seen in the last photograph of the set. I also used the minute bolt-on points for the side skirts from the set where the missing skirts should be... I then made some grab handles for the top hatch, which had just some resin lines to represent them... I then fitted the exhaust shrouds to the rear plate... I made some side brackets for the tow cable, these were made out of aluminium taken from used tea-lights (thank you to my wife), I use the side wall stripped from the tea light. The aluminium works well and forms the pieces easily, unfortunately they were not the success I hoped for as you will see later... I then added the side skirts to the other side and also added the bolt-on points as well... Next up was the jack block, this was made out of styrene sheet and the photo-etch support for the block was taken from the Voyager set... You may also notice the nice engine grilles, also by Voyager, these are the finest grilles I have seen in a set, quite outstanding. I fitted the mudguards from the CMK set, they seemed to be ok... Here is the Sturmtiger with the tracks back on, unfortunately the aluminium brackets didn't survive past this point and I may make some new ones from brass, this will be after I have primed the vehicle... Finally I primed the model ready for painting, I am doing it in a soft edge three colour scheme... Well that is it for now, I just have to replace the aluminium brackets and then get my airbrush out and get some paint on the thing. I am looking forward to this and hopefully I will be able to realise this over the next few days. As usual, all comments welcome. All the best, Paul