Ingo Degenhardt

Looking good! I like the weathering very much! Back then Monogram was among my preferred kit manufacturerers. With a little effort you could remove the surplus roundel I think - so it would not bother you any more.

I think that must be it - I didn't even know about different tails. May be that's why the tail section seems to be a seperate sub assembly when looking at the model - for a possible earlier version.

Looks more ok on the model than on the boxart, where it appears rather short and thick...at least to me. I am no B-17 specialist either - it was just a first impression.

Hopefully the new Airfix B-17 kit has a better shaped tail end than it has on the box art - to be seen at the Airfix website.

Hi Graeme, as you know I build this one too right now. About the vertical "towel rack" antenna you added on the cockpit sides - do (did) all HC.4's have that? May be retrofitted? Because I have some pictures here of aircraft without it.

I have no experience with Humbrol Decalfix but Microscale Set and Sol work fine on any paint I've used, incl. Tamiya.

Very nicely done. I have that one too - but still unbuilt. One thing to mention I think: You should do something about the 'silvering' of some of the decals (air caught under transparent carrier film of decal) - put a gloss clear coat on before decalling and/or use some decal softener should do it (with a flat clear coat afterwards to seal it all in)

I had the Monogram B-52 too - hanging from the ceiling right over my bed. Luckily the thread never broke. But the model is long gone now. But I have an unbuilt one in the stash....

Hi Arkady, I am a little bit late here, but as I have FORREST SHERMAN to build - that box contains a PE fret for the railings as well. But no instructions for them (except the helicopter landing deck nets). Are the railings already cut to length and assigned to specific areas? Or is it some kind of generic fret with different styles of railing?

But the P-8 looks rather boring - a color scheme in Hemp or EDSG over Sky would make up for their 'airliner look'

Really nice trio - I built myself two MiG killers from the Academy F-4B kit when the kit was new. VF-51 and 161

Weathering/wear & tear might be a little overdone (I do not know) but your techniques definitely work very well. Those upper wing roundels! Are they painted on?

That's great - just what I was looking for. I will do it the same way. The CIWS looks good - must have that too! :-) Thanks for posting.

Not my favourite scheme but the model, painting and weathering are excellent. A joy to look at - well done.

I am reviving this thread hoping to find out about how to add the modernizations that have been incorporated into the Flight IIa Arleigh Burkes - regarding the Trumpeter USS FORREST SHERMAN. I understand all these ships by now have a Phalanx station on a new superstructure behind/below the rear main superstructure. I think I have detected the Phalanx on the sprues, but: a) do not know which parts all belong to it and how to assemble them about the mentioned superstructure - may the parts for it be included in the kit (I think I would only find out when all the other sidewalls and roofs have been used - it's all a bit confusing to me on the sprues)? So you see I am by no means an expert and only do the occasional 1/350 ship model. If anyone could provide me an excerpt from a Trumpeter instruction with the Phalanx assembly...that would be nice. And of course if anyone nows about this superstructure it is mounted on...as mentioned by someone above I might have to scratchbuild it... In short - I would be grateful for any information about the CIWS on actual Flight IIa AB's. Ingo

Thanks for the answer - one would be enough for me :-)

Hi, does anybody know if there is some new kit of this cruiser class forthcoming by some modelling company? The old Dragon/Italeri are hard to find and I do not wish to finally get one only to learn a day later that company xyz just announced a new kit... ingo

Great - you did very well with the Hairspray method and the rust effects!

Here is what might happen if you come across a 1983 Bandai Gundam 'Mobile Suit' with the funny trunk - I nearly built it as intended by Bandai but then had an idea.. And now it is no longer a 'Mobile Suit' and no longer in 1/144 but rather a Schweres Bergegerät 'Rübezahl' in 1/72. The story behind the diorama is the first appearance of one of the Rübezahl machines when US forces tried to capture a secret Luftwaffe airfield in Germany but became stuck when this Maus tank blocked the only road leading to it. A day later, the Maus suffered mechanical breakdown, observed by the US troops so they decided to advance with two Pershing tanks and some infantry. Unknown to them, something else had arrived during the night and has been waiting in the treeline beside the road to tow away the disabled Maus with first daylight. Having advanced to the Maus position, the US still had not seen the Rübezahl - the diorama is the scene just seconds before the three Maybach engines of Rübezahl come alive and along with them all it's internal e-motors, hydraulics and what else got stuffed into the heavily armoured skin of the giant. As the story goes, there was not a shot fired, but two Pershing tanks got new owners and a few GI's joined a POW camp. No wonder the GI's were too stunned to put up any reststance with the Rübezahl towering over them, wielding it's 'arms' bristling with weaponry. Despite such Wunderwaffen as the Rübezahl and the surprisingly successful Maus tank (124 produced, this is an early production model) the war ended soon after. There were only three Rübezahl heavy recovery machines built - one never left the factory, hidden deep in the Harz mountains and was later shipped to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the USA. The second also never saw action but was damaged by aircraft and taken away to Russia. The one seen here successfully towed the Maus to the airfield for repairs and then was ordered to cross the Harz mountains for another assignment but never arrived there. According to a former crew member, interviewed after the war, the machine tripped over large rock in a remote part of the mountains, fell down and had to be abandoned by the crew. He claims it is still up there somewhere. By the way - the Maus is by Pegasus models, the Pershings are Trumpeter and the US and german infantry are mainly PlasticSolider Co.

Last picture of the Sho't Kal's frontal view. Hope you like it and every comment is welcome - constructive critic comments also.

Here's an overview of the scene with an Israeli flag sticker that I put on the wooden base with the groundwork applied around it.

In the desperate and brutal fighting that followed, the IDF managed to inflict such heavy casualties that the Syrian army finally withdrew from the Golan Heights - and left ca. 900 tanks there, either destroyed, damaged or intact, but abandoned anyway. The IDF lost virtually all of the 177 Sho't tanks, but may be quite a number was not beyond repair and finally was recovered and repaired. The large amount of captured Syrian armour enabled the IDF to put a lot of them into their own service - either as the 'Tiran' MBT oder later converted to an APC - the Achzarit. Mainly T-55. The equipment on the tank comes from a Verlinden box with IDF accessories. The goat (very soon to depart the Golan for a quieter place) I received from a member of our local model club and I have forgotten who makes them (There was a cow included as well which he kept). I painted the goat in Humbrol glossy White and while this was still wet and sticky, I sieved some very fine Viscose fibers all over it and later sprayed the brown areas. Looks quite convincing to me.

The Diorama/Vignette is supposed to show this Sho't Kal at the beginning of the Yom Kippur war in October 1973 on the Golan heights, when approximately 1400 Syrian T-55s (+T-54 and T-62's) attacked the Israeli positions along the 'purple line' (marking Israeli-occupied ground there on the Golan). Hence may be the rather astonished expression on the commander's face - the IDF only had 177 Sho't tanks to engage the syrian onslaught in the first few days. I used Ammo mig MIG-067 (IDF Sand Grey 1973) to paint the tank plus various pastels for weathering. The ground is Lifecolor's 'Golan Earth', also a pastel powder. When I bought the kit I was happy with the rubber tires provided - but only until I found out that the rubber rings also form part of the wheels themselves. Not a nice thing to paint... I recommend some decent resin replacement road wheels. In order to put some pressure on the suspension I loaded the tank with some heavy iron weights - this worked quite well as the tracks now followed the moderate ground curves.

Here's one of my rather rare builts of 1/35th scale military vehicles. In this case AFV Club's Sho't Kal, which is basically a british Centurion - amongst other things upgraded with an American Teledyne Continental Diesel engine that provided the tank with more than twice the range of the original petrol powered Centurions with their Meteor engines. All IDF Sho't tanks were upgraded from the Sho't Meteor to the Kal. Besides better range and reliabilty, the Continental engine was the same as used in the Magach (M48/60), also a major MBT of the Israeli Defense Force back in the late sixties and Seventies - with obvious advantages. Because of the kit's workable suspension I bought AFV's workable track links which are fine but do not hold together all that well. I think Friul tracks would have been the better choice. Other extras are the mantlet cover (AFV) and the commander figure (Legend) There's some strange lighting here - the turret is of course the same color as the rest.

That's what happened to me - very little information to be found. I know Tropy does this (engaging incoming ammuniiton) but I do not know about the 'Droid'