PeterB

Thanks, I will have to think about that. I have the Airfix Mk I Male and Female, ditto the Emhar Mk IV, Medium A and A7V, and the Renault FT from the Matchbox Char BI Bis kits, but I would like both a Schneider and a St Chamond to go with them and AFAIK nobody makes them in 1/76, not even Milicast though they have added 2 versions of the A7V and a Whippet in recent years so who knows? Cheers Pete

Very nice, I shall have to look at the site and see what I might be able to do about the "Chars" - one good thing about the early tanks is that they have mostly pretty straightforward shapes. Incidentally, and as you probably know, your Whippet should be the other way round to match - it is a very weird design that always looks back to front to me! Cheers Pete

Hi Alistair, It works fo me and I do not even bother priming usually as my old White Ensign Colourcoats paints seem to cover pretty well. I started with Steradent? but now use the cheapest generic brand I can find, usually only 1/2 a tablet in a small jar. I think I may have read about it somewhere, probably in a magazine or on the Milicast website. Just leave it overnight (like dentures) then give it a good rinse under the tap - preferably in a sieve to avoid any loose pieces going down the plughole - I leave the plug in anyway as a precaution. I suppose a few drops of household bleach would do the same thing but I am not sure how the resin would react - at least I know that the tablets do not damage the plastic or whatever old fashioned dentures are made of. Cheers Pete

Well all the bits are on as are the decals. All it needs now is a finishing coat of varnish. I thought the Xtradecals instructions showing what seemed to be a white radio aerial were probably wrong but I have found a colour photo of this plane (as no doubt did Hannants) and it seems that at least some Egyptian Mig-17 did indeed have that, though I have no idea why, Others seem to be in camo colour as you would probably expect. I have used the Master cannon barrels on the 23mm guns, but as the set I bought was for the PF version it does not have a 37mm barrel - the Airfix one will do as will the pitot tubes - had I been using the original ones from the KP kit I would have replaced them as they are rather thick. According to the Xtradecal sheet this is Fresco C "2975" in 1973. Now, as I am about to start building a load of tanks in the Western Desert, I can make a start on Monty's Caravan as I will have the paints to hand. Cheers Pete

Hi @Mjwomack Thanks for the that - I am flattered! I see you have a display only gallery which is unusual but I think is a good idea. As I may have mentioned earlier, when I was mad enought to decide to enter my first GB back in June 2019, I was in the process of building/refurbishing a batch of tanks used by the Brits in the Western Desert - JB Models Vickers Light Tank Mk VI (later reboxed by Airfix), Hasegawa Stuart, Fujimi Matilda II and Valentine, Milicast Sherman and Grant to be precise. All work on them stopped, but as I will have the paints out for this GB I will be finishing them off in parallel. They are of course not eligible for this GB because they are either injection or over the 25% limit, but I will no doubt show them in passing from time to time for comparison, and I wondered if I could perhaps post the odd "group photo" of them with the ones I am now building in your excellent GB - possibly in your display only gallery as it would give a more complete background history? For example, my "Cruisers- Part I" build will include the A9, A10 and A13 used in Operation Compass, but the Matilda II and Light Mk VI were also involved. Just a thought!😆 Pete

Hi Heather, May be totally wrong but I seem to remember that in one of your builds you were wondering about using an Airfix Austin K2 Ambulance body - I have one spare if you need it. However, I suppose using an injection body would make it ineligible for this GB though. Cheers Pete

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, I have found the only way to get a food delivery booked from one of my local supermarket stores is to go on line at 1 minute past midnight 3 weeks in advance - leave it 5 minutes and all the slots are booked! Hopefully things will get easier as restrictions are eased, but in the meantime it means I am up and about at the moment the GB starts so I might as well take advantage. I have sanded down and cleaned up my early Cruiser models and de-greased them. You can see what I mean about the lack of detail on the undersides, and that the A13 is hollow. Anyway, in between fettling my replacement computer I might manage to get a bit of work done this weekend. The construction should not take long, though as I have lost the 2 exhaust pipes from the A9 I will have to make some more, probably from metal paper clips - no doubt the originals will then turn up! Here is the final bit of general background before I start describing the actual tanks I am building. I think it is fair to say that the British ended WWI as the leaders in tank design and use but that lead was soon lost due to the usual underfunding after a war, together with a certain lack of interest from the Army who still seem to have been rather attached to the idea of cavalry on horseback and did not really see much use for nasty smelly tanks – Ok I am being humerous to some extent but it really does seem to have been part of the problem! The experimental multi turreted A1E1 tank of the early 1920's was proved to be a bit of a dead end by the Russians later with their T-28 and T-35, though the Germans also went through that phase with their 6 Grosstraktor prototypes, perhaps inspired by plans of the A1E1 provided by the spy Norman Baillie-Stewart. It was big, heavy, expensive and needed a crew of 8 and only the one was built. In reality the main tank used by the Brits between the wars was the much cheaper Vickers Medium Mk I and later Mk II, which I believe was actually the A2 though I am not sure – the numbering system gets a bit confused early on. This had a crew of 5 due to there still being extra mg sticking out of the side sponsons which you can't see in the pic, and it was supported by a host of Vickers Carden Loyd light tanks, probably designated A4 originally though it is hardly ever referred to as such. And so the British Army bumbled along secure in the knowledge that there was unlikely to be a war in the near future requiring tanks, as indeed did the Americans, but when it became apparent in the mid 1930's that there might just be a war a number of relatively mediocre designs were produced due to the ever present reluctance to actually spend money. The worst of these was probably the A11 Infantry Tank Mk I aka Matilda I, apparently it got the nickname from a cartoon duck. Crew of 2, one Vickers 0.303 or 0.50 water cooled mg in the turret and with a 70HP engine it was slow. Built to the cheapest price possible with no protection for the running gear 140 were built, most of which were left behind in France after Dunkirk. The one thing in its favour was that the armour was very thick and only the German 88mm could penetrate it. On the turret you can see the so called Chinese Eye which some sources attribute to the influence of the Chinese labourers employed by the Army for cleaning etc - supposedly it comes from a "pidgin Chinese saying" -'No have eye, how can see'! More another time. Cheers Pete

This should be interesting - I will have to look it up but I believe this is the aircraft originally designed by Messerschmitt and then the RLM forced them to pass it on to Blohm und Voss to complete. If so I gather that the design changed quite a bit over time and that this will be the middle version? Cheers Pete

Hi Adam, I have done a few vacforms including the old Rareplanes 1/72 Vulcan, and I agree with what Ray and of course John Adams says. The only thing I would add (and John probably said it already) is take your time, don't try and take off too much at once. As Ray says, you can fix it if you take too much off, but it is a lot better if you can avoid it. Good luck. Pete

Hi Rich, Yes, the archer and also the Sexton SP 25pdr gun have a lot of very thin and small details, some of which are going to be a slight problem I suspect, but I have enough plastic card, rod and tube, together with brass tube to hopefully manage. One of the biggest problems with these models is the gun barrels. The 2pdr ones are very thin and can be a pain to get off the moulding blocks intact, and like all thin resin are prone to bending so I have invested in a load of Aber metal barrels for many of the kits. With the longer guns Milicast have opted for an interesting solution by casting the resin on a metal rod which should be better. Milicast have now started selling a few metal barrels as well but when I first started buying their models I bought quite a few barrels from the old White Ensign, When they went under I sourced them direct from the manufacturer in Eastern Europe and now have a box full of them including 3 x17pdr and at least 1 US 76mm as in the Hellcat. I even have some nice brass shell cases to add to them if I want some extra detail, not to mention a fair bit of resin "stowage" and some crew figures for the odd one or two that come with the hatches moulded open, such as the A 30. Cheers Pete

Hi Rich, Unfortunately all my resin German tanks are now built although there is still a bit of finishing off to do - they will not be eligible for this GB, but perhaps somebody else will join in with some. As they are well covered in injection kits I only built an early Panzer II, IV and the command version of the Panzer I. Millicast do some interesting versions of the Porsche Tiger and some SP guns. Pete

My computer has been acting up for some time so this weekend I expect to be installing a replacement. I may be lucky and manage it in a day but on past form I suspect it may take longer so I thought I would post a bit of the preparation info now just in case. When building these tanks, the first stage is cutting them off the large moulding blocks which on tanks are attached to the underside of the tracks. As the tracks are thin and brittle this requires some care in the use of the razor saw and I have found it best to support the model on a piece of wood held in a very old tabletop version of a Black and Decker workmate. If anybody is thinking of working with resin kits for the first time please remember that the fine dust created by sawing, drilling and sanding is very dangerous if it gets into your lungs so always wear a mask and work somewhere with plenty of fresh air – I have my windows open and the extractor fan over the hob on full. Anyway that is now done. As you can perhaps see Millicast don't usually waste any effort on the bits you can't see - the underside is a bit rough, and on one of the models they have actually moulded it "hollow" which no doubt saves a bit on resin costs. Once the block is off I rub the cut surface down on a wet (keeps the dust down) sheet of wet/dry sandpaper fixed on a piece of wood, and then I very carefully remove any flash and seams – cleaning between the wheels can be a real pain at times and the slightest slip can mean disaster. Of course the way the block is attached means that there is no tread detail on the underside, but as nobody can see that I don't mind. If there is a weakness in these models it is the track, particularly where it is unsupported as on the tiny Matilda I infantry tank, and as that was a Premier kit the track and suspension had to be glued on to the body which requires very careful handling – in fact I admit that I smashed the first kit so the one I now have is a replacement. Fortunately the ones I now intend to build should be more robust, but then I am older and clumsier these days! The final stage is to de-grease them to get rid of the mould release agent which I do by leaving the parts overnight in a jar of water with a denture cleaning tablet in, which is where they are at the moment. I will show you a pic of the cleaned up mouldings next time. Cheers Pete

Well, it is now a year since the Lockdown started. At that time I was finishing off builds for a couple of GB, but a month later I went into what might be called "production line mode" and have finished another 30 or so. I enjoyed it and it kept me from being too bored or depressed, but over the last month or so I decided it was time to slow down a bit. I have been pottering around with the builds for this GB, and now the Tornado is getting close to the point when I can start getting decs on. Bit of touching up to do and the nose to paint, and a few aerials to add. Then it will just leave the u/c doors, landing lights and the underwing pylons and stores. The cockpit canopy is not the best of fits but I will leave it as it is. Must get back on to the F-111F as well. There may be a bit of delay on posts as my computer is starting to act up, Cheers Pete

Bit more progress. Some tidying up to do but nearly ready to varnish and put the decs on. Pete

And this will probably be my final entry. Three versions of the A 15 Cruiser Mk VI Crusader. Quite impressive on paper it was fast but already outdated and the reliability was pretty poor. Still, the Italians were impressed enough to try to copy it. Cheers Pete

If I have time I hope to build these. On the left the improvised British Archer with lots of bits, in the middle the US M-18 Hellcat and on the right the A 30 Challenger Tank which some will argue was not actually a tank destroyer but more on that later. As you may have guessed the Archer is from Milicast's Premiere range and could be quite a fiddle! Cheers Pete

My next entry will be this. Like @Mjwomack I can't think of a collective name for a group of Valentines and Dick Taylor has already used "Into the Vally" on his Mushroom Publications book which I will no doubt be referring to from time to time. Anywsay, as well as the 3 above, just before I became besotted with GB in June 2019 I was in the middle of refurbishing some existing tank kits and building some new ones - all of which went on hold! I thought this would be a good time to finish off my Fujimi Valentine Mk II though of course it is injection plastic so cannot be an official entry, hence the 3 and a bit!. Here it is stripped down and ready for painting. and here is the real thing in the Tank Museum in obligatory Deep Bronze Green paint the used back then. The Census number makes it a Vickers built Mk II. More once this GB starts, but for completeness I should say that the Milicasts kits cover a range of different Marks, the one on the left with 2 turrets can be built as a Mk II, Mk III and Mk V, the one in the middle is a Mk VIII (which incidentally was cancelled but more on that later) and the one on the right a Mk X or Mk XI depending on which gun I fit. Cheers Pete

Actually I seem to remember mine went together quite well, the only poor fit being the air brakes at the back. Of course I used a replacement resin nose and grafted on some Matchbox intakes, which are a slightly better shape, but then again they do not have the small intakes on the underside which Airfix do include, so a bit of "Swings and Roundabouts" if you know what I mean. You may wish to look at re-positioning or re-shaping the chaff/flare dispensers Airfix provide as I gather they were somewhat different in the Gulf - I think that is covered on Rob's build thread. Good luck. Pete

As I mentioned earlier I did not stumble across Milicast models until about 10 years ago - around 25 years after they started up. Unless you read specialist magazines on tanks you too may not have come across them so here is a little background. According to their website, Millicast was founded in 1985, having taken over some moulds for resin tanks from a company called Eric Clark Models which dated back to the 1970's. For several years their products were made in a number of parts, with for example the wheel and track assemblies being separate from the hull. I don't know whether this was due to moulding technique, whether it allowed more detail, or if it was a throwback to plastic kits of the day, each kit coming with an instruction sheet as here in the case of the A13. Apparently, in 2004 and at the request of their customers they introduced their simplified Battlefield range which had far less parts and was easier to build – incidentally their shop is located in a district of Glasgow called “Battlefield” so that may have influenced the choice of name! The original kits were re-named the Premiere Range and are still made though many have been switched to the other range. There is I suppose one slight disadvantage to the simplified kits as unlike the Premiere ones, the sandshields for the desert versions are often moulded as part of the body, so there are no less that 11 A13 Cruiser tanks Mk III and IV available - 5 for BEF in France and 5 duplicates for the desert, together with a late one only found in the desert. They also do 6 versions of the later A13 Cruiser Mk V “Covananter” but more on that in another build. The Milicast range is very large and although they mailnly concentrate on British, German, Russian and US tanks from WWII and other vehicles/guns, figures etc, they do also include a few French, German and Italian, together with a couple of WWI tanks and a few post war. In fact the only British tanks not currently in their range would seem to be the Vickers Valentine follow up called the A38 Valiant, the monsterous A39 tank destroyer aptly named Tortoise and the strange WWI throwback called the TOG – "The Old Gang", so called because it was the brainchild of some of the designers of the WWI tanks. As not all their moulds may currently be in use it is possible that they have in fact made some of these earlier and could even re-release them – I don't know but I expect the market would be extremely limited, but then they do include the A33 which was a proposed heavy version of the Cromwell, and the A43 “Black Prince” which was an enlarged Churchill mounting a 17pdr! As all 5 of these last mentioned tanks are a bit "exotic", being only prototypes I thought I would end with some pics. A39 - Valentine replacement with 75mm gun. Tortoise - a heavily armoured tank destroyer mounting a 94mm/3.7" 32 pdr gun - effectively a barely mobile pillbox that was too heavy to cross most bridges. The white or perhaps light grey countershading under the barrel is of note. The same was often done on the 17pdr Sherman Firefly to make them less obvious - the Germans soon learned to target them first before normal short gunned Shermans! A33 heavy assault version of the Cromwell cruiser - this one is the second pilot model with the British so called R/L heavy track, the first one having a variant on the US M6 suspension derived from that of the Sherman M4. British 75mm gun which I believe was essentially an enlarged 57mm 6 pdr. Black Prince "Super Churchill" with 76.2mm 17 pdr. It never entered service as the Centurion was selected instead. The shorter version mounted in the Comet Cruiser was known as the "77mm". TOG II* With a long narrow hull for trench crossing, it was originally had all round track and was going to have sponsons on the side, both like the WWI tanks. Each sponson would mount a 2pdr and a French short 75mm howitzer was mounted in the nose as in the Char B, but the TOG 1 replaced the sponsons with the turret from a Matilda II, The TOG 2 had the upper track lowered and shielded and again was to have sponsons, together with a turret mounted 6pdr but by then the Churchill was in service and the TOG 2 was just used for trials. The TOG 2* here was fitted with a mock up turret and a 17pdr similar to that which was later used on the Challenger, of which more in another build. Incidentally, whilst the Black Prince and Tortoise are in the ubiquitous Deep Bronze Green, the other 3 were in the process of being painted in a rather unusual camo scheme on the day I visited David Fletcher at the Museum Library. Perhaps unwisely I asked him why they had chosen that scheme, which I believe was what triggered his rant about "experts"! Here is the man himself with TOG II* - looks like it was partly it was in primer when I took my pic. I have always found Milicast models to be very accurate with possibly one exception, but I will be covering that in a later build hopefully. In view of the discussion a week or so ago in the "chat" section, I believe I am allowed to prepare the parts before the GB starts, providing I document it - I note one modeller has already started cutting out the parts of his vac form. I may do this, but in any case my next section will be about the preparation whenever I actually start. Cheers Pete

Hi, Looking good. Slightly off topic but I seem to remember reading that Iraq bought the landplane version of the Hawker Fury - after the RAF rejected it Hawkers converted production to the Sea Fury version for the RN, but if Morocco got Furies from Iraq they may not have been Sea Furies at all, though having said that I think Iraq also bought some 2 seat Sea Fury trainers! Pete

I have made a start on the so called "Nile Delta" camo scheme - still needs a second coat and some touching up. The Xtradecal instructions call for "Sand Yellow, Olive Green and Black Green (RLM 70) and list their own equivalents but I do not have the first two, so I have used Colourcoats Russian "Yellow Grey", Humbrol Hu 86 Light Olive and also Hu 241 RLM 70 and am happy with the result. Some pics seem to show a lighter more blue green instead of the light olive but I can't find anything suitable. The underside light blue is still under consideration as "profiles" and photos vary - I suspect I will go with a version of RLM65 with a little white added. Makes a change from NMF anyway! Cheers Pete

This is beginning to look like an inspired choice of subject for a GB - all sorts of interesting things threatening to turn up!!! If anybody fancies trying their hand at a Rareplanes vac form Gotha GIV Bomber in 1/72 with loads of Aeroclub white metal, I have one going spare for the price of the postage - I now have the Roden injection one to build instead which might be very slightly easier! Cheers Pete

Well, here are what you might call the sprue shots! This is the A9 and as you can see you get the hull, auxilliary machine gun turrets with guns, exhaust silencer, and a rack for Petrol, Oil or Water cans, you also get 2 turrets, the one on the left for the CS version which mounted a 3.7" mortar/howitzer and the one on the right the normal one with a OS QF 40mm 2 pdr - both barrels are provided, Unfortunately you are presumably intended to only use one turret as only 1 set of hatch covers is included but having paid for 2 I decided to cast a spare set for each of the tanks. Somewhere along the line I must have used one of the "original" sets on another build ao there are 2 sets in orange resin. Looks like I may have misplaced the 2 exhaust pipes - probably in another bag! This is the A10 which does not have the separate mg turrets and has a Besa mg for the hull front instead. Unlike the ones I built for my BEF group all 3 tanks have sandshields fitted and the front section is on the "sprue". Finally we come to the A13. This is the later A13 Mk II Cruiser IV/IVA which had spaced armour added to the turret, and in the IVA the water cooled Vickers coaxial mg was replaced by a Besa in a modified mantlet as on the right. The one in my eariler photo is a Mk IV with the Vickers mg whilst the A10 is a Cruiser IIA with a coaxial Besa and a Besa in the hull, and it is the CS version. There were a number of variations on the design of the mantlets on the A13, including additional plating being added which this one does not have. Perhaps this is a good time to explain the armament. The 2pdr was both simple and effective, being able to penetrate the armour on any German tank up to mid 1941 at combat ranges. It was actually in a free mount, by which I mean it was like a rifle in that it had a shoulder pad that the gunner leant against and he could just move it freely up and down – no gears or wheels to turn, but it did require a well trained and experienced gunner to get the most out of it. However it was only provided with solid shot ammo for whatever reason so was no use against pillboxes etc. A Close Support (CS) version of each of the 3 tanks was built in limited quantities with a low velocity 3.7” mortar/howitzer replacing the 2pdr, but was only intended to fire smoke rounds which I find a bit odd as the later 3” howitzer fitted to Matilda II, Valentines and Churchills could fire HE, as indeed could the 95mm howitzer fitter to those tanks that normally had 6pdr AT guns. Perhaps at this point it is appropriate to say I do not claim to be an expert on tanks but I do have quite a few books, and of course have spent many hours at the Tank Museum. For example, before I discovered the Milicast Cruisers I was seriously considering scratch building them, as I already had done when I converted a Matchbox Comet into the earlier Cromwell. Both the A9 and A10 were to be built using parts from Fujimi Valentine kits which had the same Vickers “Slow Motion” suspension whilst the A13 was to be built from an Airfix Crusader. With this in mind I made an appointment to visit the Museum library where I acquired detailed scale plans and had a very interesting conversation with David Fletcher who was the librarian there for many years – I have several of his books. He had some pretty forthright views about a number of so called experts! I also spent quite some time crawling around the outside of the actual tanks taking pictures and measurements which I have since mislaid! However, I would imagine others viewing this will know a lot more so please feel free to challenge/correct or add to anything I say within reason. Cheers Pete

At least your parts should be quite a reasonable size mostly - I am going to have fun with some of the smaller bits when I build my 1/76 Daimler eventually. Good luck. Pete

Thanks Pat, I know there is documentary footage showing the Soviet BT-7 with Christie suspension actually airborne over obstacles, but the ones I am building would have stayed firmly on the ground whenever possible! In fairness, although the vast majority of my builds in the last couple of years have been planes, I did manage to squeeze in 1 Japanese Light Cruiser, 2 tanks and a towed AA gun. As I said in the "chat" pages I do have a lot more tanks etc in my stash so this GB does give me the chance to get some of them finished and they do have one major advantage over many of the planes - they are small enough to fit in drawers once finished! I was half expecting to see your Perth here unless you have already built it? Cheers Pete