Harry_the_Spider

Had the itch to buy another Heng Long. Quite fancy the Panzer G. Must resist.

Thanks. I really liked the kit, but it is only my second tank so don't have much to compare it against. I've just started a Trumpeter STRV103C and the "fiddly factor" is x10 higher!

Don't think too hard about Eagle Transporters either. In freight mode there is no door. And there aren't any yaw thrusters.

Meanwhile on the Alien Homeworld... Military Intelligence : Boss, we've worked out that the Earth is defended by 3 single shot interceptors and a submarine with a top speed of 8 kts. Chief of Staff : So if we were to send 5 ships we would have a 100% chance of getting through? MI : 4 Sir if we picked a difference ocean to the one that the submarine is in. CoS : Excellent. Send 5! 3 to get shot down and 1 to get within a couple of miles of the submarine. MI : And what do we do with the 5th? CoS : May I suggest that we travel across billions of miles, losing 80% of our invasion fleet on the way, then land near some remote cottage in the English countryside and poke about noisily in the bushes until someone shows up with a cool looking tanks and shoots us. MI : Sounds like a plan! CoS : Any idea what the purple wigs are about? MI : Not a clue Sir.

They have to sound an alarm first in case anyone is drinking a hot brew or playing Jenga.

The same procurement team worked for Spectrum and bought four jet fighters... and a flying aircraft carrier.

Can you imagine the discussion as Engineering pitched the idea to Ed Straker? Engineering: Boss, we've had an idea for the perfect craft for intercepting UFOs from outer space. Straker: Excellent. More interceptors? We only have three as I keep telling everyone. E: Nope. Guess again. ES: More missiles on our existing three interceptors? They only have one missile each as I keep telling everyone. E: Nope. You need to be thinking more out of the box Sir. Guess again. ES: Go one. If it isn't more space ships or better weapons on our existing space ships what is it that you propose to combat this threat of space aliens that come from space in space craft? E: A submarine. ES: Cool! Will it have a space ship that can be launched from underwater and a fleet of recovery ships? E: Yes! ES: Excellent. Pass me the requisition book. And does your brother still own a ship yard? ---- ES: One more question lads... For operational reasons are you going to insist that it is crewed by models in purple wigs? E: Not this time Sir, models in string vests. ES: Good, good. Crack on.

I wish someone would buy the rights to make these kits. Nearly found myself buying a Dinky SHADO mobile for £80 the other week.

And some complex swivel manoeuvre, like a bayonet fitting. Also, does the supertanker follow Sky-Diver about, or do SHADO have one for every hundred square miles or so of ocean?

Fabulous. Just the right amount of Jerry Anderson style faff and expense!

Decided to go with a winter camo scheme. From what I can gather the brown and light green are replaced by white. The dark green and black stay as they were. Cursing Trumpeter for their black and white instructions!

Finished. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235136825-tamiya-chieftain-135/ Next up the STRV 103C in Winter Splinter!

Thanks. I just gave them both a wash with watered down acrylic browns and greys to give them a little "dust", with heavier weathering on the wheels and lower areas. There's some soot around the exhausts too. Other than that they are clean as I would assume that the crews would not allow them to rust.

Can anyone point me a reference for the splinter scheme showing all angles? Trumpeter's instructions are rather unhelpfully in black and white. 😕

My Tamiya Chieftain Mk "Whatever". Probably somewhere between a 2 and a 3. OOB other than guitar strings for aerials. On exercise. Effortless build other than one of the tracks not playing ball, and that was easily hidden behind the side armour. At less than £20 an absolute bargain!

Fascinating. I’ve recently had a go at ARVs after years of doing aircraft and personally think that something absolutely covered in rust may be beautifully painted, but it looks a little unrealistic unless it depicts a vehicle that has been burned out or left underwater for a few decades. I’m just doing mine “dusty”. A good point was made about Mr Hewes. They’ve been pulling things out of fields that have sat there for 30 odd years and, whilst they are covered in all sorts of muck, there is very little rust.

Thanks. Saw it on YouTube and gave it a go. I have to say it looks rather alarming until it dries!

Thanks, pictures are awful! Had fun throwing all sorts of filth at it. I think the most effective was soaking it in a 1 part brown paint to 10 parts water mix and letting gravity and time do the rest. I think it makes it look like it is covered in road grime. Better picture under the kitchen lights.

My first AFV after doing millions of 1/72 grey coloured jets. I fancied a change and to have a mess about with different weathering techniques. Tamiya 1/35 Flakpanzer Gepard. The kit dates back to 1977 and is a little crude in places, but it went together well enough and looks something like what I hoped it would. Pictures are a little dark, but I wanted natural light and this is as bright as it gets in Manchester during the winter.

Thanks. For the first time in ages I was actually impressed with the engineering of the kit. I've got an HC.3 too and some decals from Xtradecals. Going to do it in the red/grey scheme like the gate guard at Culdrose that we drove past every other day on holiday a couple of years ago. Then I accidentally acquired 3 x 1/35 tanks and disappeared down that rabbit hole...

I have no clue! Built entirely OOB. If it was on the instructions I glued it to the kit. Surprised that you are having issues with it though. Slight smear of filler under the fuselage and a bit more behind the rotor. Other than that it basically snapped together. Quite a lot of stencils though, of which I missed a few off because I couldn’t actually see them. My experience may be “rose tinted” though as I came at it straight off the Revell Osprey, which I still think they have a cheek charging more than £4 for. The fit on that couldn’t have been worse if I had backed over it with the Smax whilst it was still in the box.

I thought that too, but I think I'm converted. I won't be buying one for every kit but suspect that I'll get a generic piece of concrete hard standing for any jets that I do, and maybe something WWII.

Thanks. Got it from Coastal Kits. Probably a bad move because I'll end up buying loads of them!

Not the fancy new big one, but the fancy new (ish) little one. An absolute joy to build. If I wasn't scratching my AFV itch I'd build the HC.3 straight afterwards.

I’m doing the old Tamiya 1/35 and there is an option to have the radar cabinet open. Has anyone got a reference photo of the inside, because at the moment it is only a bottle of milk away from looking like the inside of a fridge?