Tim R-T-C

Don't forget that a vignette doesn't always need a centrepiece plane or vehicle, I have created many small scenes with just figures or just scenic elements. Its a good way to focus on the scenic details and use up some of those diorama detail sets you often accumulate but never find use for!

Those who have seen my productions before know I always like to make a vignette out of my builds - harks back to my model railway upbringing and the fact that I generally model for the show circuit, where a tiny model is easily lost on a display table. For these two I decided to try something different by using a wooden base - it isn't a solid block, rather a wooden sheet on a roughly 2cm framing, which makes it much lighter. Onto this in my normal pattern I added texture paint and grass, leaving space for a nameplate. I started work on the vehicles too, more details on these at the next update. Unfortunately I couldn't get figures and vehicles ready in time for the Hinckley show so I took the planes on their bases to display with the Night Fighter SIG. Next step will be to complete the vignette part before their next outing at the Stoke show at the beginning of September.

Highly impressive

As for the Hurricane Emerged from the paintshop in Tamiya NATO Black. I don't often gloss before decals, but I felt that silvering would be highly visible on the black surface, so a did so here. Decals are from Shelf Oddity - a very high quality Polish aftermarket supplier. This sheet provides four alternative Hurricane Night Fighters - I will hopefully be building all of them in time. They are delightfully thin and conform in seconds - some care is needed while handling though. A protective coat of matt was quickly applied, followed by some metallic chipping on the wing roots and heavy exhaust staining, for which I use AK Interactive water colour pencils. The reference pictures I have found show a lot of wear on these types. The 'soot' black paint apparently wore off very rapidly, although from the monochrome pictures it isn't clear if the original temperate scheme is showing through, or just a black undercoat. I decided not to try and replicate this without more information. The canopy and aerial mast were added, per the Shelf Oddity sheet, these were left in the original green and brown - this completed the Hurricane airframe.

Decal time for the Emil. A few choices had to be made here. Firstly on the colour of the lettering. Some sources say red, others grey or white. The kit only came with dull red options for this airframe, so it made my choice for me! Then the crosses. Some models have just the white outlines, using the black base to fill in the rest. Others have the pure black of the cross distinct from the slightly different paint scheme. I went with full decals including a black base as, from my understanding, this was the standard practice at this time and, given the airframes were probably resprayed from a traditional scheme, it seems likely that the markings would have just been masked rather than redone from scratch anyway. The F-Toys kit doesn't include any stencils so I sourced these from the Beacon Models kit sheet and ended up using the crosses from there as well, as the Japanese decals are incredibly thick. After a spray of matt varnish, the masks came off and the main part of the 109 construction was complete.

Civilian boxing, RAF and Royal Navy. Seen here with some of the civilian schemes and a sample of their upcoming Comet racer which is going to be cast in resin by CMR. Innards. The schemes included in the RAF and RN box. I don't believe they have an online shopfront yet and not sure about whether any retailers will be carrying the range, but they are selling direct in the UK and overseas - use the email address on the box front and tell them Tim from SIG144 recommended you. They do also sell at some model shows, I believe they are at Hinckley this weekend.

Splendid paintwork and construction.

I'm definitely in, got a stash full of Valom biplanes. Will quads be allowed too? 😁

Yes, the wings on this Thunderbolt for example were brushed. I don't airbrush, I find the easiest method is a rattle can. I used to just step outside and spray over the bins. But more recently got a Benchvent solvent extractor so I can use cans indoor.

May 1945 - Soviet forces pour into the shattered remains of the Reich capital. This vignette which has, at least in my humble opinion, become the pièce de résistance of my land-based 144th scale scenes, started life as an exercise in creating ruins. Inspired by the myriad of Berlin '45 scenes in 1/35th scale that catch the eye at model shows and in publications, I wanted to create something similar, capturing the desperate defence and the apocalyptic destruction of the city. The big difficultly was creating realistic ruins - I have tried this before using cork pieces, but they just didn't look quite believable. Then a revelation! N gauge (which in this case is 1/160) rubble loads, apparently designed for railway wagons (not sure I've ever seen a railway wagon carrying a load of house ruins). I immediately ordered a pack - I got mine from https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/real-model-rubble-n-gauge-juweela-21214 (other scales look to be available too) The detail is superb and very varied, so I did a little careful picking to select pieces of a similar style since I'm trying to replicate a single destroyed building rather than a mix of different rubbles. Before embarking on a larger sized scene, it made sense to test the techniques on a small vignette base, so out came one of my 10x10cm boards and an idea for a diorama started to form. 3d figure printer 3djson on eBay released figures of Soviet traffic controllers - women who guided Russian convoys from the East, into Germany and I wanted an excuse to use these. I had recently picked up a few Zis trucks from 3d printers - a Zis-6 from Butlers Printed Models and a Zis-5 tanker from Paint & Glue Minatures - both with lovely detail. So it made for an interesting idea to represent a less commonly portrayed part of military modelling in general and particuarly this campaign - the supply columns - that must have stretched on endlessly to support the Soviet juggernaut. A little playing with layouts gave this finalised plan. With a little extra space to spare I could include a destroyed German vehicle too. This was a wargame model from the Victrix range which are injection plastic with simple construction but good detail. I wanted the vehicle to look damaged and abandoned and 3d printed resin vehicles are much harder to 'damage' without cracking the material. I was able to cut the 'tyre' off the front left and also drilled out the front engine hatch so it could be posed open. I painted this area to represent a fire, perhaps from an attack or just an over-stressed, unmaintained engine. With the layout complete, I started to build up the rubble pile. It seemed rather wasteful to use the rubble pieces where they wouldn't be visible, so I made a base out of cork, topped with Duluxe Create and Sculpt paste, then dotted with cork pieces and a few offcuts of cork coaster to make for some walls that struggle to remain intact. I fixed the Hanomag into position then carefully placed the rubble pieces across the area to try and make a realistic scatter. Then pigment, tonnes and tonnes of pigment. Even just a brief glance of reference photos showed dust to be ubiquitous on destroyed buildings. Fortunately I hadn't wasted any effort painting the rubble as it all received a good coating, as did the Hanomag (obscuring almost all of the careful painting!) and much of the base too. Meanwhile I painted the other vehicles in appropriate greenery. The figures are also from 3djson, the Soviet tank riders set. The figure at the back is supposed to be holding on to a T-34 turret, but it made for a perfect flag holding stance too which fitted the last days of war mood of the piece. More tank riders made up the soldiers sat on the statue base, while the statue itself is a whitemetal medieval wargame soldier. The small children watching are from a Preiser model railway set. With the addition of a nameplate from Name It Plates it was complete and I am very happy with the outcome - hopefully the first of a series of builds on this topic.

I thought it was a sign of a forthcoming cow themed GB?

Sorry I didn't mention - its 1/144 scale

Looking forward to being there with the Night Fighter SIG and hopefully three new vignettes (if I can get them completed in time!)

Very evocative, well presented.

Operation Reforger was the US Army's plan to deliver forces from bases in the US into Western Europe to counter the mass Soviet Invasion they anticipated. Exercise Reforger was an annual wargame based on this principle - rapidly conveying US soliders to depots of armour located mostly in West Germany for maneuvers. During the 1982 edition, the crew of a US M60A1 tank sit with coffee and await instructions for the morning's deployment, while a detachment of Bundeswehr soldiers march past. This diorama started life as an excuse to play with a technique for concrete slab pavement that I saw on a Youtube video from Uncle Nightshift It was initially part of the Chrismas weekend Blitzbuild, but I was only able to finish the base during this time - tank and figures came later. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235134111-blitzenbuild-2023-exercise-reforger-82-m60a1-on-nightshift-inspired-vignette-base/ Some very thin cork sheet was cut to shape (on my classic 10x10cm base) then painted with concrete paste. When dry it was cracked and painted with weathering products to highlight the gaps. I cracked open the M60 next. The U-star kits are rather strange - highly detailed plastic with a little etch sheet too, but without any decals or paint guide. They are from Taiwan and not regularly available in the UK - I picked this up at Telford 2023 for all of £3. On some previous models I have drilled out a hatch or two, but the odd shaped hatches on the M60 would make this a lot more work. After adding the nicely detailed etch, I had painted the tank in all-over green before discovering that the tank actually needed the four colour Verdant Summer camo, which took rather more work than the three days of the Blitz Build. I always like figures on my vignettes, it adds scale and life to a scene. I recalled that I had some Cold War era German soldiers 3d printed from Panzer-Shop.nl who were ideal for this slice of Cold War exericse. I don't have any specific 1980s tank crew figures with the right headwear, so I found some Red Ball Express drivers at rest from eBay seller 3djson who are wearing knitted caps and drinking coffee, who seemed well suited to a crew at rest. To add a period flavour, I found a picture of some 1980s Munchen grafitti This was copied onto a cork piece to make a concrete wall. Tulle - usually used for wedding dress veils, can be combined with brass poles to make a nice chainlink fence This was the scene at the end of the Christmas weekend. Subsequently I painted and decalled the tank base on reference photos and put all the figures together to make this slice of Cold War life. Topped off with a nameplate from Name It Plates.

Following the large scale Allied Rhine Crossing of Operation Plunder in March 1945, somewhere in Western Germany, a British paratrooper's jeep has taken a spin off a wet country road while on a supply run, but fortunately a passing US supply truck is at hand to recover them. This diorama was inspired by the 3djson figure set of paratroopers loading a jeep onto a glider with some figures in pushing poses. I wondered how it could be included in a scene and this idea was born. The scenery was built on my standard 10x10cm base with some cut up cork coasters doing most of the work, covered in Create and Sculpt paste - basically a premixed plaster goo. This was topped in terrain paste an a tree was added, its an white metal armature from a Woodland Scenics model railway set. Static grass always adds a lot of life and for the stream I used AK Interactive slow water paste, which dries transparent but with a good tint and is quite solid so doesn't need damming like using resin. The vehicles are 3d prints from Paint & Glue Models which have nice detail. The figures are all from 3djson, two from the glider loading set and one Red Ball Express mechanic as the US soldier (there is a dismembered model railway figure driving the truck but is almost invisible). With the addition of a nameplate from Name it Plates, all was done.

Magnificent presentation.

The rusting communist legacy - a Type 59 tank overlooked by a concrete bunker - attracts the attention of a photographer, somewhere in rural Albania This vignette was entirely based on this article by Tomasz Janiszewski in the AK Weathering Magazine Issue 30 - Abandoned. I thought it would be very interesting to recreate this entirely in 144th scale. I started with the tank, a Type 59 (Chinese built T-54). To create a suitably weathered look it needed to be one where I could have flaps and hatches open. This is pretty rare on a 144th scale vehicle - especially now with most being 3d printed solid resin. Fortunately the U-Star kits, from Taiwan, are plastic and multi-part so it was possible to drill out some of the engine deck and turret hatches to give the right appearance. Some sprue offcuts were put underneath the open parts to represent the engine and spare etched mesh recovered one of the gaps. I also cut up the single-piece track/wheel piece to seperate the wheels. The tank complete so layout could begin. I hadn't planned the bunker initially, but when I discovered that Albania was the only European operator of the Type 59, it made perfect sense to combine the tank with an iconic concrete bunker. I even had my own reference photos from my September 2023 trip. Built in the thousands across the secretive Communist dictatorship by the paranoid government, these bunkers would provide cover for soldiers against nuclear strikes and allow them to fight back against the NATO hoardes. They are ubiquitous in the impoverished country, with many still standing, particularly in rural locations. A lot have been grafittied. Some offcuts of thin cork were used to scratchbuild the walls and entranceway, while a piece of sprue with concrete paste applied made the roof. Painting the tank was good fun - an all-over dark rust tone was followed by sponge applied lighter rust. The green was later painted over some chipping fluid to give a highly weathered look. A decal from the stash was used, carefully sanded before application to give a worn look as well. The nicely detailed etched turret side rails were added at the end and painted seperately to avoid them getting damaged. The scene was then built up with static grass and some model railway trees. For the water I used AK slow moving water paste - this gives a nice effect but has the thickness of a terrain paste so doesn't need the careful handling of resin. Several coats were used, as it is quite thick, care is needed to avoid any inclines and I had to poke water-thinned paste around the wheels in particular to ensure full coverage. Once this was complete, I added the figure - he is from Modelu3d.co.uk and has lovely detail - and finished it off with a nameplate from Name It Plates.

With over 30 of these beautiful birds in my 144th scale stash, I definitely need to get my teeth into some for this GB. For the 144th modeller, some aircraft types are grossly under-represented - I've got more kits of the Me-309 and Ba-349 in my collection than Fw-190s - but the Mustang has received very good treatment from Japanese manufacturers, with the B/C model from Sweet Aviation, the D from Platz and recently the H from F-Toys. For this build I'll be using the B boxing. The kit is about 20 years old but still holds up well and is still in production, although sadly not often imported by any Uk or European sellers. Sweet Aviation were probably the first dedicated 144th scale manufacturers and definitely the first to take the scale really seriously for small subjects. Although basic, the Mustang cockpit is a great improvement over the solid fuselage joints painted black that came before, even from the likes of Eduard. The kit goes together beautifully, with only a light touch of filler on the wing roots needed. Sweet Aviation released the Mustang in three boxes, one with USAAF olive drab schemes, one with NMF schemes and a PoW boxing with a captured Japanese example alongside Swiss and Swedish models. Oddly though, no RAF boxing emerged, even though the Macolm Hood is included in the box. I'm not aware of any aftermarket sets, at least not currently available, but fortunately generic RAF markings are available in scale from Mark 1 Models so I will be using these to make a 19 Squadron example, specifically one operating in pre-D-Day bombing raids over France.

Not the quickest progress. The 109 took a coat of black primer, then NATO Black to provide a slightly softer finish. The Hurricane was being slightly more stubborn as the wing roots seem to be determined to show through the filler and after several rounds of primer it will hopefully be ready for NATO black too.

More realistic than the real thing!

Fantastic work

Gorgeous black paint scheme and a good recovery from such a traumatic incident.

A few weeks ago while idly browsing the stash I realised that I have a goodly number of night fighters in various forms, although aside from a Sopwith Camel, I had yet to actually build one. Then while displaying at the South Cheshire Model Show in February I made the acquaintance of the good gentlemen of the Night Fighter SIG and decided to join, with the intention of joining their display at the East Midlands show in early April. So with under a month to go, I need to actually build something suitable to display and what better to start with than a couple of iconic all-black schemes. I tackled the 109 first. This is an F-Toys kit; for those of you not familiar with these unusual Japanese productions, they are known as Gashapon and come in kit form, pre-painted (but with seperate decals) and with theoretically push-fit assembly. This model actually came in a night fighter scheme with two decal options (more discussion on this topic to follow as the build progresses). As you can see from the box art on the first post - the kits are officially sold 'blind' - you could get one of four 109 or Spitfire markings (plus a few unknown bonus options) - although this I sourced via eBay and most international collectors now buy the full box of 10 kits to get one of each set. They are popular among the 144th modelling community as they often present types not otherwise available in kit form in this scale. Although the pre-colouring is often quite good, I generally repaint mine and treat it as any conventional model kit. Initial construction doesn't take long, but you can see the big seam lines that would remain if the kit were not properly glued and finished Seams treated and some canopies found. The kit itself comes with a very nice looking and canopy with excellent framing - but in order to permit the push fit design, it has big locating tabs which extend into the visible part and give a rather sub-par appearance. So I found some canopies that came with the Beacon Models 109E kit (when making those, I used the open canopies from the Armory Models Emil kit, hence the spares, but the cockpit detail on this kit was too sparse to warrant an open canopy). Handily these also include canopy masks so I can save a lot of time when painting. It took a bit of work to fit the canopy around the control panel and moulded antenna post, but fortunately the general dimensions tallied nicely. Then on with the Hurricane. This is a vintage (2002) moulding from Sweet Models, also of Japan and comes with an unusual design in that two complete kits come in each boxing - one in typical plastic, the other completely clear - this was a cost saving measure as it meant the transparent canopies and wing lights for both planes could be added onto one sprue and did not have to be provided on a seperate moulding. The decals for the night fighter scheme are aftermarket from Shelf Oddity - I will discuss these and the design choices of the build more in a future post. The clear plastic is odd to paint for sure and seam lines just have to be guessed at until some primer is on. The cockpit, such as it is (basically just a void anyway) will need some repainting, but I'll leave this until after priming. The canopy will be painted and added seperately at the end of the build and will probably obscure most of the interior. End of a day of building.

Two very smart builds and good to see the Laci sets in use, they really add some extra character.