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Hi there, I've setup my workbench and found my kit, so if glue and paints are not dry, I should survive my umpteenth comeback to modelling, this time after four years. For this Sherman GB, here's my choice. Dragon M4A3E8 "Thunderbolt VII", which will... not be build as "Thunderbolt VII", but I won't tell you more, at least for the moment. I used to review each kit I build, but not this time, as Terry Ashley does it very well. I've got a few books to help me during thid build. Well, it's about time.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, this is an aircraft modeller's attempt on "Heavy Metal" - Dragon's 1/72 T-34/85 Mod.1944. Built from the box with the addition of metal towing cable from the spares box. Earlier Dragon kits did include this, as well as photo-etch pieces, but their new (orange) boxings contain plastic parts only. It still builds into a very nice model kit, probably the best in 72 scale. I still need to improve my skills on tank painting and weathering, but I hope you like the outcome. Painted with Gunze acrylics (Olive Drab H80), photographed by Wolfgang Rabel. With kind regards from Vienna.

This is my Dragon Panther A which has been shuttling between the workbench & the shelf of doom for over 10 years. I made most of it then decided it needed Zimmerit. I tried Milliput but wasn't too happy with the result. Back on the shelf, fast forward a few years & I bought some Eduard etched Zimmerit but had to remove all the parts I'd stuck on the hull - exhausts, pioneer tools etc. Back on the shelf again. Finally got it Zimmered up & re-attached the parts. I decided to go with a winter whitewhash & decided to replicate the application in the field. I used off white artist's Guache slapped on with a brush then scrubbed with a stiff brush to simulate wear. Sealed & weathered with oils, Mig pigments & ground soil from the garden. Can't say I'm uber chuffed with the results but glad to see the back of it! Figures are Alpine. Any comments or criticisms welcome. Pete Thanks for looking.

When I first joined BritModeller, a little over a year ago, the first model that I posted in RFI was an Israeli M51. At that time I had a few problems with posting photos from a hosting site (nothing to do with Photo Bucket, more to do with my incompetence). When I tried to upload the photos (from Village Photos), all that appeared were links. I didn't know what the problem was (I still don't), but it's not occurred since, so I thought that it might be an idea to post the photos again now and hope for better success. So apologies for doing this twice, but here goes. First, a brief run down of how the model was built. The tank that I depicted was what was referred to as a Batch 4 model. Batch 4 M51s were the last ones produced by the Israelis. In 1/35th scale, there are three M51s produced by Dragon, Academy and Tamiya. The first two have got their problems, not least of which is the grossly oversized muzzle brake. The Tamiya kit is a beauty, but it is of a Batch 1 version, but as it is by far and away the best “51”, I used the Tamiya kit a the basis for this build. Without going into a WIP, the conversion consisted of the following; Rear upper hull sliced off of the Academy kit and attached to the Tamiya hull to give an increase in length of 5mm. Extra louvre added underneath. Dragon diesel engine deck added in place of the Tamiya radial engine deck, along with the main gun travel lock from the Academy kit. Extra stowage bins each side made from card and etched brass. Rear stowage bin from the Academy kit. Raised serial numbers (Academy) front and rear. Turret weld lines beefed up with Milliput (beefed up a bit too much!!) Extra turret bin on rhs from card. All of the jerry can holders were replaced with ones from Eduard etched brass. The headlamp lenses are Little Cars. The Eduard set for the M51 was used throughout. It was sprayed with a mix of Tamiya XF57 Buff and XF24 Light Grey in a ratio of 3:2. Decals included in the Academy kit were used and are for an unknown training unit in the 1980's. The casting symbols on the glacis were later removed as I found out that this hull had not been cast by that particular foundry. There are a couple of mistakes/omissions that are in the photos but have since been rectified. As always, thanks for looking. John.

Well there, I started modelling again on christmas 2016, yeah, with on eof thos Tamiya kits, only realizing that the manufacturers have diversified. This was build after I did the Dragon Panther, thought to add a diorama with several vehicles and one should be air defense. Then I realised, that doin gon tank on a beermat is enough. So this ended as an individual vehicle. The build was nice, althogh I did soooo many mistakes on it. In the end I painted it, or repainted it to be in the Herman Goring 1944 callout from the Dragon manual and intended it to be in service for some time. So basecoat was German tank gray and the repainted in 1943 Tank Ochre from the Vallejo line. Wanted to try scratches, but not rusted, so all scratches were in gray. Then I wanted to try Oil colours, and I tried them , mainly at the front. I didnt do any dirt on this yet, because I couldt make up my mind on that yet. Any recommendations are welcome. Still learning

Hi there, that was my last kit I more or less finished and started a vignette on. It is a dragon Jagdpanther. Painted based on one of the color callouts with some artistic licence. The main weathering attempts was using 1st: the AK Panelliner and 2nd: Pigments, as I didnt try that yet. Base colour was Vallejo Dunkelgelb and Ivory mixed at 50:50 and the highlights sprayed on, second came the Vallejo Olive green camo. Added the MiG Tan filter, panelliner pin wash, and then started modulation with 502 oil paints, olive green mostly and some faded green on the green and sand on the dunkelgelb. Pigments were then basically three Vallejo tones intermixed to get various shades and I tried to use two different fixers. Then finally used the MIG Streaking grime, because I had it. Well, any oilpaint works as well. The kit has some amazing detail. Not a big fan of those Magic Tracks, but they worked really well here. Here it is: Oil Paint color modulation Mess around with pigments Finally on base and after streaking in the daylight

Just finished this one, it has been on the shlve og DOOM for some time , but finally finished it with homemade zimmerit, made from milliputty. otherwise OOb. It was a preprodution vechiale so used for scooling. Cheers Jes

Hello, starting a new project, Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdtiger - Henschel Production Type - Dragon - Nr. 6285 - 1:35 more picts soon

Hello guys, this is one of my first kit in 1:35, Tiger 1 with white camo

Now that the Welded Cromwell WIP is finished and it's been put to bed in RFI, I'm laying this down as a marker and will hopefully make a start on it in the next couple of weeks. I've managed to get some modelling done by sitting in the armchair with a portable workplace on my lap, so as a consequence, the Tiran is nearing completion and I'll be posting some updates on that. But in the meanttime, this is my next WIP. Last year, I built a model of “Champagne”, an early M4A3 (76mm) of the French 2nd Armoured Division as it was during 1944, before it was knocked out at the battle of Dompaire. This tank still exists today as a memorial in the town of Ville-sur-Illon in basically the condition that it was once it had been disabled. It's been resprayed and new markings applied, but it still has the two shell holes in the left upper hull and through one of the VVSS units. When it was hit, it caught fire, so all of the rubber from both the road wheels and the tracks (T-48 rubber chevron), was burnt off. I've never built a model of an exhibit before and thought that it would make an interesting project. In some ways it will be slightly easier than a normal build as there will be no need to fit some detail parts (which are no longer there) and spraying will be straight forward as the authorities, when they repainted it just painted the lot in a yellowy green, including the tracks. So, I rummaged around my spares boxes and came up with the following. Lower and upper hull, final drive housing, rear hull plate, and VVSS units minus wheels; Dragon M4(105mm). Turret and M4A3 engine deck; Asuka. M1A1 Unthreaded 76mm main gun; Formations. Burnt out road wheels; Verlinden. Burnt out tracks; Panda Plastics. Decals; Bison. The Formations main gun, being resin, was slightly warped, so I assembled the one that came with the Asuka turret as an emergency stand by, should the hot water treatment prove to be unsuccessful. Also, as can be seen from one of the photos, I'm going to have to combine some Tasca VVSS springs and track skids with the Dragon parts. So, I'll be back when I've got some progress. John.

Hello all, As I was involved in the last F-15 STGB (wow has it really been 4 years?!), I thought I would join in with this one. I have been in bit of a rut recently with my model building, I've still got an Bear, Typhoon and Horsa to finish yet. But, after seeing the builds started by parip and azureglo, I have been inspired to give these a go. I'm not 100% sure on what scheme I will be going for yet... I have a few to choose from. I think I had the aggressor scheme for the last STGB?... I also have these... The kits I shall be using... The two top kits are from LS and are F-15A models, the bottom left is the wonderful Revell F-15E and I have about 12 of them (seriously) and the bottom right is the Dragon/DML version, I have about 3 of them. The resin goodies you can see in the top middle are two F-15A cockpit sets with an F-15E cockpit set and two exhaust can sets from RetroWings. I was going to order more, but the website will not let me order anything. I have sent in a question asking why but not had any responses yet. I also have the Res-IM resin wheel replacements and Brengun vacform canopy as well as the Shelf Oddity PE set for the F-15. Going all in on this one, however I am not going to guarantee that I will get any done. I am planning to make an F-15B ACTIVE alongside these ones, but this is one from a computer game thus not allowed to be included in the rules of the GB. However, I will include the build of that as well if anyone is interested and I am allowed, seeing as it isn't the main build. Picture below... The fuel tank will need to be replaced with a gun pod, like the F-4 carried on the centre line station which I have in an Arii weapon set (I have a lot of stuff in 1/144). Now sure on what decals/version I will build first however. I am tempted by the Digi-camo, 23 Sqn and the White Dragon set. Any advancements? I'll probably be starting at the weekend as I await bits to turn up. Kind Regards, Dazz

Rambo's captured Russian Huey is just about done, he's shot the hell out of the camp and rescued the POW's. I have it temporarily on a pole until I get it mounted in the diorama on a river sandbank, now I have the base to build for the diorama, this is where the real fun begins! You can see my work in progress of this build in the link below.

This was a build from a couple of years ago using Dragon's M50 kit, but backdating it to one of the first conversions. Anyone wanting to know how I went about it can click Here The base was just a simple construction of a box structure made from balsa wood and painted matt black and then filled with off cuts of laminate flooring fibre underlay. This was then fixed onto a photo frame. The top was covered in a slightly sloppy mixture of household filler mixed in with some yellow ochre acrylic paint and very fine sand. Before it dried I pressed some stones into the surface. First up, some photos of the model sans base. All the rest are of it fixed to the base. I included a figure but this is the one aspect that I'm not happy with. I tried (and failed) to make him seen as though he was casually leaning against the tank, holding a water bottle, but it doesn't seem natural. Maybe I'll revisit him another time. And that's it. Thanks for looking and any comments, critical or otherwise, are welcome. John.

The Tiran is on hold at the moment, so in the meantime, as I have a lot of the build on my laptop with me, I'm going to do mini WIP on a project that I did a couple of years ago. Being one of those modellers who is forever raiding one kit or another for parts, I tend to find that I'm left with several boxes with incomplete kits in them, usually Shermans. So every so often, I try and use them up and build a complete model from what's left over. I did it before when I built the French M4A3 Champagne and I'm going down a similar route when I build the same tank again, only as it is today. This WIP is about the Israeli M50. Not exactly as the picture on the box depicts as that's HVSS. I'll be doing an early VVSS version. I won't be doing the usual and posting photos of the sprues etc, for obvious reasons, so instead, I'll give a little background to the tank. After the founding of the modern state of Israel, the IDF acquired many second hand Shermans from several different sources. These held their own against the surrounding Arab nations for a while, but it soon became apparent that the 75mm armed tanks were being outclassed, so a search was made for a more powerful main armament. The outcome of this was that they fitted the gun from the AMX-13, the CN75-50 which itself was a development of the German 75mm Kwk42 L/70 of the Panther. The first 50 M50s were converted using VVSS. They were based on M4A4's but the Chrysler Multibank engines were removed and Continental R-975 installed as at this time, the IDF standardised on this engine for all Shermans. Unfortunately the additional weight of the gun and the counterweight on the rear of the turret proved to be too much for the engine and suspension, so all subsequent M50s were converted using HVVS and Cummins diesels. So to the build. I had the Dragon M50 kit and from this I used the upper and lower hull and the turret. The first job was to add the eight bolts on either side of the hull, just in front of the forward suspension back plate. These I punched out of card with a hexagonal punch and die set. Next up was the transmission housing. This came from the early Dragon kit of the Firefly 1c Hybrid. Once the final drive humps were in place, some filler was required around the joints and in some ejector pin marks on the bolted flanges. More tomorrow. Thanks for looking. John.

We've got a whopping £55 off the amazingly detailed Dragon Models 1/35 Black Label US MIM-104F Patriot SAM M901 PAC-3 Launch System plastic model kit right now! This offer is strictly while stocks last.

I wanted to prove to myself that it was possible for me to build a model out of the box so here it is. It's the Dragon 1/72 Mercury Redstone where you get decal options for Freedom 7 (Alan Shephard) and Liberty Bell 7 (Gus Grissom). Unfortunately the capsule is only approriate for Liberty Bell 7 as the capsule lacks the round windows for the early version flown by Shephard. Nice box art A simple kit Complicated by a slight lack of any instructions. Simple enough to work out where everything goes though. Just needed a little filler around the fin joints. Halfords white primer on the main tube and LET (Launch Escape Tower) and Tamiya fine on the capsule. I then mixed 9 parts Tamiya Rubber Black and 1 part X-25 Clear Green for the capsule colour giving it the greenish cast seen on the real thing. That was yesterday. Today, after a flurry of sanding, spraying with a mix of XF-2 and X-2 Flat and Gloss white, masking and spraying with rubber black on the main booster, sprayed the LET XF-7 Red and a little detail painting on the capsule I gave it a nice coverage of Tamiya Clear ready for decals Sorry for the lack of progress pictures, I got a little carried away. Thanks for looking Phil

It's back down to small scale for me at present as house move is probable - so I don't want to risk stuff that will be easily damaged.This is a Dragon kit with two in one box one navy and one marines, both nicely equipped with 12 Rockeye cluster bombs each, plus fuel tanks. I've built the navy one undercarraige up as I intend to display it on a stand with a Navy Hornet(at some point in the future !!). My first Dragon kit and I was quite impressed with the build quality and how it went together. The hardest bit was hanging the bombs they still look a bit 'off' and the yellow decals which I cut myself are far too wide. I'll excuse myself and plead small scale. Enjoy and feel free to comment Paints: Vallejo model air Cheers for looking

Dear Friends I had a go at this old set from Dragon 2007 to see whether I could make a go at painting horse flesh Most fun was getting the reins to look realistic - micro masking tape! Hope you like them? Andrew

I've started to go through my old RFI's which both Photobucket and Village Photos have managed to mess up, one way or another. Instead of having to click on each one twice to see them (and risk going into VP which has no security certificate), I'm uploading them again. Apologies to those who've already seen them, and thanks for your understanding. Basically, what this is, is Tamiya's M1 Sherman upper hull and turret, Dragon's M4 Hybrid lower hull and running gear, T49 tracks from Panda Plastics, and Sabingamartin decals. The WIP is still there, but minus the photos. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I finished this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't want to put it into RFI until I'd put it on a base and added a couple of crew members. Well, now that's done. I used the two figures that came with the Tamiya kit but I wasn't happy with the faces. Most of the figures supplied with kits are a little lacking when it comes to definition with regards to the facial features. For me, nothing beats the resin variety. So I changed the heads for ones from Hornet. Unfortunately, the only ones that I had were British, but I thought that there were many Europeans who emigrated to Israel after WW2, so they'd have to do. I made the base using a small picture frame bought from Wilkinsons, balsa wood for the sides and polyurethane foam sheet. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, so I mixed up some household filler, PVA glue and some yellow ochre acrylic paint with water, and spread the mix over the top of the foam. Before it went off, I gently pushed the tracks down into the mix. Once it had hardened, I added some clumps of grass. It would have been better if they had been a bit more parched, but once again, I used what I had. If you want to see the build log, it's here; Any questions, comments or criticisms, please feel free. Thanks for looking. John.

OOB except for the luggage, cable and flag (which could be better - not sure tissue is ideal, I need to try Magic Sculpt or some such). Nice kit, enough bits left over to virtually build another superstructure. Hopefully these are a bit clearer: Regards J A

Hi, here's a recently finished build of a kit I've owned for 20+ years at a guess! I can remember when I bought it it was deemed to be the best kit of the type! Anyway I built it from the box except for replacing the gun barrels and pitot with metal tubing. Decals from Kagero plus some spares obtained from a couple of nice chaps. Anyway, a few pics: Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A-8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A-8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A-8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A-8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A-8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Dragon 1/48 Fw-190A8 by bryn robinson, on Flickr

I took the unusual decision (for me that is), to build two models of the same tank, one as it was during 1944, and one as it is now. Champagne was an early M4A3 (76mm) and served with the 12eme Regiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique, 2eme DB. It was knocked out during the Battle of Dompaire. It is preserved as a monument in the town of ViIle-sur-Illon. The first model that I built was of Champagne in 1944, and for that I used parts from several kits. The upper and lower hull are Tamiya's M4A3 (75mm), but it is the large hatch version. The turret came from Asuka but I still had to source the main gun. Champagne was fitted with one of the early M1A1 unthreaded 76mm guns and I made this from a Formations threaded barrel with a piece of plastic tubing glued to the end. The transmission housing and running gear are all from the Dragon M4 (105mm) kit. The tracks are from Panda. The exhaust deflector which comes with the kit, is a little on the thick side, so I made a new one from 10thou card. I also made a new folding stowage shelf from card for the same reason. The commanders hatch and the loaders hatch are both Dragon. Other additions were the bump stops for the engine doors, the armoured blower vent on the rear of the turret, the rebuilt vent between the hull hatches, the extra "lifting" ring on the turret, seen on early 76mm turrets along with the 2" mortar tube, gun lock and spare track holders from Dragon, plus umpteen other improvements/additions, including Eduard etched brass. It was painted with Tamiya acrylics, decals are Bison and I used Carr's weathering powders. All I have to do now is build it all over again. But it will be quite different. Thanks for looking. John.

Hello, here is my latest model, a 1/35 Tiger II from Dragon. I have added Voyager PE for the exteriour and the skirts, a RB barrel and antenna and home made Zimmerit. The figures are from Mini Art. The model depicts tank "233" from s.Pz.Abt. 503 in Budapest. You can find several pictures of this particular tank online and in books, f.e. in "Tigers at the front" by T. Jentz. This allowed me to reconstruct most of the paint scheme. Only the upper surfaces, the lower glacis plate and the rear hull plate had to be improvised. I also tried to match the tools and the weathering to the photos, which depict a heavily worn turret upper surface. Here are some pictures: Reference: (source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/9/9c/20110118202031!Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-680-8282A-03A%2C_Budapest%2C_Panzer_VI_(Tiger_II%2C_Königstiger).jpg) Reference: (source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/5/58/20110118202602!Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-680-8282A-06%2C_Budapest%2C_Panzer_VI_(Tiger_II%2C_Königstiger).jpg) Comments and critisism are welcome! Best regards, Thorsten

I have Dragon's 1/72 M4A3 105mm Sherman kit and want to make it into a 75mm M4A3 Sherman. I picked up Aber's metal gun barrel, but I suspect that there might be a little more to this than just swapping out gun barrels. Can anyone enlighten me further?

So, the 8.8 Flak is awaiting a sprue so, behold the half built glory of the T28/95. Im going with it being about 40% done as there are a lot of road wheels to make and quite a few sub assemblies. Heres what it looked and looks like now An this is what my kit is like now.