stevehnz

Thanks so much for this, I think the kit has the closed spoke road wheels. I'll pick up the T48 tracks & be happy I think. This is the first UM kit I've had, the resin parts for the turret look OK I just need to assemble the mantlet the right way up, very much wrong way on the box top. With some included PE & a turned brass barrel it should look OK if I do my job. Steve.

Thanks Martin, yes, they're a bit different, that was the attraction. Photos in the Gallery now. Steve.

Kopro Mig-21MF 1/72 in post unification Bundeswehr Luftwaffe colours. Based on this photo. Build log. To be honest it was a pretty kak kit but a product of it's times I guess. It managed to incorporate most of the important elements of the real thing but often over scale or poorly defined. I have to wonder if the canopy & the underwing landing lights were from another kit as these were both way overscale. in the end, it was an enjoyable enough exercise as long as I didn't over think it. Steve.

I've picked up a UM model of the above but it comes with pretty generic Sherman tracks, rubber pads, no chevrons or duckbills so I thought to get some 3d printed FCM tracks & from what I can see I probably want their T48 tracks with duckbills. It has a marking option for the fairly well known 1st into Bastogne machine which I kind of fancy doing. Anyone able to confirm those for me or set me right on a better option? FCM seem to cover most of them. Steve

I think I have come around to this solution too, still quite a lot of work but more useful stuff to work with. I'll be trying to base it loosely on HMS Terror in 1941. Steve.

A little late for my annual check in but here I am in response to the electrical summons that someone has been mentioning me. I'm pleased the bedding in Klear thing did the job where it needed to. I'm also enormously impressed at the progress you've made Steve. To say I'm impressed to bits is an understatement. 👍 Your use of the skinny Vallejo tape & Vallejo masking fluid is also a revelation & while I'm not much of a masker, there times I need to use some & I can see these products appearing in my tool box. Steve.

Calling this done now, some better photos for the gallery tomorrow & it'll be all good. Some decals livened it up a lot, there weren't many after I'd discarded the commemorative ones from 23+15, & I kicked for touch on the stencils on the Hi-decals sheet, I could see little evidence of them in these aircraft. I had to adjust the camo plan a little from the previous photo after seeing the 23+13 was similar but not identical to 23+15, so I adjusted as best I could. It is at best representative. It was a weird kit to build, it did a good job of representing most details but the fit was kak especially the canopy & the moulding wasn't great either. I was going to say flash but flash it certainly was. I'm no late Mig fundi but this strikes me as a bit lean to be a good representation, I feel it should look bulkier. All in all I enjoyed it well enough but I really should stop building old dodgy kits. Thanks to our hosts & others who dropped by & gave likes. Steve.

Thanks for those thoughts Jeff, I think what you say makes good sense, I'm looking to get a Roberts/Abercrombie kit ( they getting a bit spendy. ) & after modifying the hull sides, & some work on the uppers, it should be reasonably straight forward, or something. 🙄 Steve.

Hi Dennis, wishing you all the best for whatever it takes to sort this, a willing surgeon seems to be your first quest. Good luck for that. Steve.

These are quite wonderful Rob. I'm afraid I hadn't spotted them before now, too long doom scrolling on threads, not enough time on Britmodeller is part of the reason, plus the way I seem to have less time for anything since I retired. Now that I've seen them & looked through your WiP, I'm completely in awe, at your modelling & your interpretation of a wonderful scene. Awesome, thanks. 👍 Steve.

Thanks for the kind words Stu. I've long been a user of 116 for RAF DG other than the odd time I wanted a slightly more faded look when I've used 86. I've felt the Humbrol dropper bottle acrylics tend to dry darker than the enamels but this one looked a pretty good match for the RAF museum book chip & taken together with the Vallejo 921 English Uniform, gave me a finish that I was very pleased with. Steve.

Some more pondering has got me coming around to the idea of converting a Roberts or an Abercrombie. Still quite a lot of work but a better array of bits & bobs to work with & maybe easier to remove stuff than add stuff. Reprofiling the hull sides would be the biggest job I think, the overall dimensions would do for a fictional vessel. Steve.

Fwiw, I reckon it is possibly Reeman's best or one of his best, works. It was one of the earlier ones of his I read, The Pride & the Anguish was the first, & they set me off as a lifetime fan of Reeman & his grasp of things Naval. That is not just my opinion either, I've read that naval types rate his books as well. Confession time, the epilogue chokes me up every time I've read it & there have been a few. Steve.

Given that there was a huge difference between the WW1 configuration of the monitors & WW2, then it depends on which era you want. Obviously the book took liberties with the real time line, there were no monitors present at the Dardanelles campaign that saw service in Ww2. Erebus & Terror didn't appear till 1916 in WW1 & were fairly extensively modified in WW2, Terror slightly less so having met her fate in 1941. I've long thought Saracens triumphant action in defense of the convoy might have been about the time of the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, slightly after Terror's scuttling so I'd tend to take her level of improvements as being representative. A Roberts class kit would be useful for quite a lot of equipment,, structure armament but their hull is very different to the earlier monitors & would need very extensive modification. I guess it depends of which would be worst, modifying the hull or the uppers. Either way quite a bit of each would be required. Steve.

Just your little joke, I'll take no notice. Steve.