gamevender

I got a couple of this series released by Aurora back in the 60's (63 to be exact for this one) and decided to do it as a nice desk model. It doesn't come with any landing gear, so that was actually and easy decision. Of course, in 1/175 this was a very basic kit with rather large trenches for panel lines. I filled all those and sanded everything smooth.The finish is Alclad polished aluminum. The decal were a total loss, so I just cobbled some together from my spares. I dressed up the base a bit in the hopes that it will be a bit more stable as it's pretty wobbly on it's own. I included a shot including the box top and the box end with the price tag of $.39. I have no idea what that would convert to in 1963 shillings and pence, but I would wager not a lot.

They also do one in 1/35. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/rpm-35017-samochod-zwiadowczy-mmgs--179468

RPM is a company out of Poland. The scale is 1/72. As you can see, the plastic thickness in this scale is way off. You could rebuild the upper body and thin the fenders et. al, but that was more work than I was willing to do. The British used these on the Western Front mostly in Flanders in the early, more mobile, period of the war. After the continuous trenches closed the front, they were less useful, so they moved to the Near Eastern Theater. Notice it is right hand drive, even though it's an American make auto.

A quartet of Airfix airfield support vehicles. Thompson three wheeled fuel truck (repainted Oxford die cast), Austin Crash Tender, Commer GP dogsbody, Coles Crane, and Bedford fuel truck converted to carry jet fuel.

This is the RPM kit of a Ford Model "T" equipped with a Vickers MG and used as a Scout Car. The kit is pretty basic and the instructions, which are printed on the back of the box, are quite inadequate to do the job. Parts float in space along vague arrrows and magically land in place, but there are few, if any, locator pins or rib or anything like that. Getting the chassis in place under th body so the wheels line up with the wheel wells requires patience and care. There are no holes to accept the headlight mounts, so those need to be drilled and the bed of the truck has a rather defined 'step' between the two halves that needs to be addressed. All in all, very toy like. I added a dash board and the gear shift lever as well as a condenser can for the Vickers water cooled MG and a seat for the gunner, and a hinge joining the hood halves, and the grill detail to the radiator. I made some spare tires for the right running board and the stowage in the rear is from spares. It was as simple, yet fiddly, build that does fill a niche in my WWI collection.

This is from the old Airfix Refueling set. Between this model, with has the twin axel in the rear and the earlier Airfix Matador with the 5.5" gun, which has a single axel, you have all sorts of possibilities for conversions. This one, however, is pretty much OOTB. I did replace the rear doors out of sheet plastic as the kit ones would have looked out of armour plate. I also "busied up" the pumping equipment as that supplied with the kit is a little sparse. Only other additions are headlights, which the kit omits, and glazing for the windows.

Try Shapeways for 200 scale helos. https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/aircraft?facet[pdcId][0]=143&facet[pdcId][1]=490&facet[price][from]=1&facet[price][max]=2500&facet[price][min]=1&facet[price][to]=2500&q=&sort=popularity

Here are the steps I used in finishing the model 1. Paint. 2. Gloss coat. This is necessary to keep the wash from staining the paint rather than just settling in recesses and provides a smoother surface for any decals. 3. Black water color wash over whole model. NOT acrylic. Acrylic will stay where it dries and you will not be able to remove it. Model will look terrible at this stage. 4. After dry, remove wash from unwanted places with damp paint brush rinsing brush often. This will leave the wash in recesses and around detail and will give a more uneven color finish to the paint. 5. Dry brush with original color. 6. Decals. 7. Flat coat. 8. Pastels.

After I finished a major project, I was casting around for something easy to get into. Poking through my stash, I came across my Airfix Emergency set with a K2 ambulance and Austin K6 Crash Tender (firetruck). At the same time, my eye fell on a box of left over 'stuff' from my Airfield Resupply and Bedford Truck sets. I had not used the long bed in the Bedford truck set, so I checked to see if it could be mated to the Austin K6 frame and, what you know, it could. It took a little doing, like lengthening the wheel wells and some other things, but it fit nicely. I also found a short bed in the Resupply set left over, so that was bodged into an improvised trailer. It turned out a lot better than i thought it would.

Spitifre, Interesting how they applied the camo. I did it the same way "in scale". Top of fuselage/wings/tail green. Mask it off half way down fuselage then paint bottom of fuselage light blue. Remove that maske then mask off the camo pattern and paint the whole thing silver. Was tedious, but not difficult.

Andy, Mine's 14, has diabetes and cataracts and is in remission from Lymphoma, but keeps on trucking! Great dog.

I also used their set for the new Swordfish. Worked a treat.

The new 1/72 Airfix Gladiator is a real sweetheart of a kit. No flash and any mold seams are slight and easily dealt with. Fit is as with all new Airfix kits, precise to the point that you need to be very careful during clean up not to remove too much anywhere before checking. I did mine OOTB with the exception of using the S.B.S. rigging wire set. (#72046). It gives you a complete set of rigging all pre-made to the correct lengths. You do, however, need to pre-drill holes to receive the wires, so advanced planning is necessary. As they are made in a silver metal, I painted mine a darker metallic color before cutting them from the fret. Almost all the wires fit spot on, but a few needed a slight bit of tweaking, probably due more to my assembly technique than any error on their part. The only thing missing is the antennae. It would have been nice to get that as well, but it's either easily made or can be omitted entirely from some versions on the a/c. I did mine in the camo of the Swedish volunteer unit that flew for the Finns during their war with Russia. (P.S. Notice how I forgot to remove one of the pieces of masking from the left rear of the canopy. What a twit. Problem has since been solved.)

Just for comparison's sake, here's the old Pyro version of the Olympia. They released the exact same kit, but with sponsons so you could mover the main guns off center, as the Maine. Didn't remotely resemble the Maine. Interesting, however, how the Encore(Revell)and Pyro models differ in general appearance and detail and how simplified the Pyro version is.

I can just see 'ol Gatsby behind the wheel of that racing along. Cool color.

Apparently, the dual cowl was the standard size and the speedster was a smaller one. This from Wikipedia. "The Packard Speedster Eight Model 734 was a sporty passenger car line by the Packard Motor Car Company offered for the 1930 model year (7th series) only. Based on a heavily modified Standard Eight (733) chassis, it got smaller and narrower coachwork. The 734 straight eight engine is derived from the 740 Custom Eight's. It differs in valve and manifold revisions, a dual updraft carburetor, a vacuum booster pump and a ribbed exhaust manifold. The engine delivers 145 HP (740: 106 HP) without increase in bore or stroke, which remain at 3½ x 5 in." As to "dual cowl, Wikipedia helps again. "A specific use of the term "phaeton" is with the dual cowl phaeton, a body style in which the rear passengers were separated from the driver and the front passengers by a cowl or bulkhead, often with its own folding windshield." By the way, your model is gorgeous. Obvious that the Monogram kit was vastly more detailed.

I think that's what scale this one is. Wasn't the plastic one by Monogram? For a short while, they did versions of some of their classic car kits with metal bodies I believe.

The Ertl Company use to make a line of metal car kits. About 80-90% of the parts were cast metal with smaller detail or more complicated parts injection molded. They featured rubber tires and chrome plated parts were held together with an assortment of screws, tabs and in the case of the plastic parts, cement. They even came with a small file to remove any metallic or plastic flash and were pretty detailed for the time. They were not really aimed at the young modeler, but being the dunce I was (and am), I got into them anyway. They had models of several versions of the Ford Model A, I think a ’32 Chevy Coupe, a model “T”, several Packards and even a couple Duesenbergs. I built most of them, including a Duesenberg and they were pretty impressive when completed. An advantage of the cast metal bodies and frames was that you could use automotive lacquer touch up spray paint on them and get a really nice finish. The Ertl Company went through the usual gyrations of being taken over by other bigger fish, but Joseph Ertl has kept the business alive in the form of a company named, oddly enough, Scale Models. From their web site it would seem that most of their business is toy and peddle tractors, however, they have released a limited line of the old metal car kits. In a fit of nostalgia when I saw these kits were again available, I bought one, thinking that surely I could do better now than I did all those years ago. Well, as my mom use to say, “We grow too soon old and too late smart.” I purchased what use to be called a 1932 Packard Dual Cowl Phaeton. No scale is given, but the finished car is about a foot long (30 cm). It is a beautiful car in real life and looks like a real luxury car should. I love the design of the autos of this period. However, my nostalgia was not to be rewarded. The parts were covered in flash, metalic and plastic, mold seams were everywhere, most of the screw insertion and parts locator holes had been filled in (not flashed over mind you, but filled in), the clear acetate for the windscreens was no longer included, the stickers that were supposed to represent the inside upholstery were tragic and the white wall appliques looked like they were poorly made. Another draw-back is it is harder to find the old fashioned lacquer spray touch up paints anymore, so I had to stick to enamels. The model was a wrestling match from start to finish. My work area was covered in metal and plastic dust, metal shavings and pieces of flash. With the presence of all those mold seams and the flash, that meant after cleaning up all the chrome pieces, I had to remove the rest of the chrome preparatory to re-doing them. I did this the easy way with Krylon Chrome Silver. It’s not as hard a finish as the chrome plating, but it has the same sheen and looks fine. As I said, all the screw holes were filled in, so all those needed to be drilled out first. I redid the upholstery with craft paper, covered the seats in tissue before painting to give them some texture and made wind screens from sheet clear acetate I had. Aside from the white walls, which just look funky (see the photo), it still builds up into an impressive model and weighs in at around two pounds! While I’m satisfied with the results, I think I’ll give my nostalgia in this area a rest for a while.

Developed late in WW I by Germany after encountering British tanks, only 20 armoured tanks were produced. It was armed with one 57mm main gun and six 7.92 MGs and needed a crew of 18! It was large, cumbersome, awkward and slow and was a less than exciting success. However, it did figure into the first tank vrs tank combat when three A7Vs encountered three British Mk IV's (one male armed with two 6 pdr. main guns and two females armed only with MGs.) during the First Battle of Villiers-Bretonneux. The two female Mk IVs were damaged and had to withdraw, but the male continued to fire on the lead A7V, eventually disabling it and forcing the crew to abandon the vehicle. The two remaining A7Vs then withdrew, leaving the 'field of battle' to the lone Mk IV. This is the Emhar kit that has been re-released. It's typical Emhar in that the detail is minimized, but what is there is nicely done. My main complaint is that the slab sides have beveled joints, so getting them to mate up without any gaps takes patience and care. The decals give you a choice of three vehicles, but all have pretty boring camouflage. Also they are a bit thick and have a large amount of carrier film around them that must be trimmed to avoid silvering over all those rivets. I found an interesting camo pattern in a photo I saw on Google and dressed it up a bit with a new name and the eyes on the front. It makes a nice addition to my WW I vehicle collection.

In 1918, some cast off Mk I and II hulls were gutted and the engines moved to a transverse position at the rear of the vehicle with the exhaust moved from the roof plate to the rear. The sponsons with their accompanying 6 pdrs. and all machine guns were removed and large doors were installed on both sides in place of the sponsons. New roof plates were fashioned, eliminating the roof hatch and muffler mounts, but with two doors opening on the centerline just behind the driver’s cupola with a new vent added for the engine at the rear. A quick firing 4.5” howitzer was mounted in the center of the vehicle firing through an opening in the roof, which could be closed off when the gun was lowered and the doors closed. The gun had a limited traverse of 10 degrees right and left. In action, the gun was worked with the side doors open to allow access to ammunition and for ventilation. A small amount of ready ammunition was carried in racks beneath the gun, but the main supply came from a similarly gutted Mk I/II without the gun that had been adapted as an ammunition and petrol carrier. One supply tank could serve three howitzer carriers. The 2/C markings on this vehicle indicate it is from the 2nd Section of Battery “C”. The largest drawbacks of the design were the transversely mounted engine, which required a new transmission which never ceased to give problems, the fact that the gun had a limited range of elevation to avoid firing into the driver’s cupola, and the entire vehicle had to be moved if the required traverse was greater than the 10 degrees allowed by the gun mounting. The program was not pursued past the Armistice, however the unofficial name of the vehicle, Vicar, started the tradition of naming self-propelled guns after men of the church. ****** For those of you who are not as familiar with WWI AFV’s, this one never existed. The fact that the artillery could not keep up with the infantry over the shattered terrain was a common thread as to why many offensives failed, so I devised this vehicle to allow the artillery to cross the broken ground and stay within range. Modifications were done to an Airfix Mk I model just as described in the text above and the 4.5“ howitzer is a modified Airfix 25 pdr.

Beautiful ship and a beautiful job. You can surely be proud. Hard to believe how old the original kit is.

NIce work. I think you mean WW 2, not 1. There was no Leningrad in WW 1.

I saw a couple photos of this pairing from the Tunisian campaign and decided I wanted to do a model of it. The ESCI Valentine kit is very fiddly to get all the parts to fit correctly, but with much care, builds up nicely. I removed all the molded in handles and replace then from thin wire and this version has the length and link hard plastic tracks, which were very easy to work with, especially since I could leave off the entire top run of track as it was hidden by the sand shields. Speaking of which, I sanded off the molded in sand shield supports and replaced them with strip plastic.As it is towing the AT gun, I needed to add a towing bar to the rear which I made out of a truck spring suspension part. The Milicast 6 pdr. is much better than the old Airfix offering, but has a lot of flash and molding voids, like on mine the entire end of the gun barrel was just flash, so I had to "Dutchman" in a length of plastic rod. It also comes with the muzzle brake, but since the barrel just behind it was just flash, it was easy to remove. Before the 'scale police' chime in, yes I know that ostensibly the kits are in different scales, but I have found that some kits run a little larger/smaller than scale, and these two look fine together.

A great example of recycling. Approx. 200 obsolete Crusader tanks were re-purposed as prime movers for the 17 pounder AT gun. Many more were intended to be built, but the mounting of the 17 pdr and "77mm" gun in self-propelled mountings made them unnecessary. It's a typical Milicast kit with lots of detail, almost to the point that I think they sometimes overreach themselves as some detail is "mushy" and there is a lot of flash and many pin holes and voids to fill. Close up photography make these pretty obvious. I had to replace the kit's headlights and guards as they were full of flash and bubbles. However, it builds up into a nice replica all the same. All the stowage came in the kit, which went a long way to concealing many of those pin holes. It's posed with a Matchbox 17pdr in the last photo to show it in its "natural environment".

This is a very nice resin kit of this a/c. It is nicely cast with few problems and clean up, sometimes a chore with resin kits, was pretty easy, with the exception of cleaning up between the spokes of the wheels which was pretty tedious. The only detail missing I found were the front fender braces, and those were easily done with stretched sprue. Fit was very good with no warpage. The instructions were adequate to the task. It builds up into an interesting little model.