Mick Modeller

Hi Splinter, Thanks for the comments, fair point on the red spots, ow that I have some better photos it would appear that Blue 30 has grey pads, but then again it might have had a different ejector seat fitted during overhaul....... Just one possibility.. I don't think the cockpit tub is finished. Ian has now started on the aircraft proper, so updates should be more frequent.

Some beautiful pics there Serge, congrats to the photographers, sadly I could only open the first 4 pages........

Hi Troops, The first production shots, as you will have guessed I've doubled some parts from different suppliers to get the best option, in this case the resin seat with Eduard hardware, hope you like.

My builder is under strict instructions to build the early prod stinger, just a pity someone like quickboost hadn't done an early stinger. The other difference is that mine will have the chaff/flare dispensers modelled, my thing, after all I'll be the one looking at it. Close enough, baby steps, just thing sometime soon you'll get into a big boys plane......... I should also say that this one isn't yer quick project, I've been planning Blue 30 for over a year now!

You're a lucky man Serge, pretty sure that you wouldn't be able to do that here! Pity she didn't have any armament, with the quality of the pictures would have been a superb resource.

You beat me to the draw, I was going to tease you about getting caught in the cockpit......... I guess flying one of them is along the same lines as firing machineguns, the best fun you'll ever have with your trousers up!!!!!!!

Hi Dora, Crackin user name. Which R-27 do you want, the Miniarm or Kazan? fwiw the Kazan are the best. I'm on holiday so will need my main computer to give you a proper reply c/w addresses. Best MM

Splinter you definatelly know your stuf. Cheers Mick

Any ideas of anyone/where I can get an access ladder?

Hi WOW!!!!! One of the reasons of getting someone to do it for me is to get it finished, I know that I could never build or afford one to your standard. There is a dream models pitot tube somewhere in amongst the bits, took a long time to get one!! The edges seemed OK on the Decals, but then I wasn't looking for dodgy edges. The landing gear was more for longevity than for anything else. Oops on the Eduard..... I've an unopened set of Miniarm R-27 ETs and 1x each R-27 T & R. Then I'll have a pair each of Kazan R-27 ER & ETs, at present the unopened set is definatelly not being used the rest will come back after the builders finished with the others. OK that's it.

Hi All, An interesting one, I'm one of those guys who likes a really well made/built model and can't do the work myself for a number of reasons, so I'm getting this one built for me by Ian Miller, a guy I've used before. He's promised me a supply of build photos to put online as the build progresses. I'll start this off with the ingredients and hear what you guys think. Ooh and there will be some spare items for sale at the end of the build, for example Miniarm & Kazan Alamos, so if you're interested give me a shout.

This wagons a legion, ran out of track bits a mistake on the part of the suppliers, but they're sending replacements, so it only means a short wait. Added some tow-rope mounting pieces to the hull today and now moved onto some pieces of the rear toolbox, I did the easy folds yesterday and moving onto the more difficult pieces now. When you consider the intracy of the box, I've built 70-80% but am about 40-50% of my waythrough the box. I remember years ago reading a report on some of the German PE stuf for the Tamiya Panther as models in their own right, well the Leo 1 ain't any different, working hinges and latches, my only worry is being able to do the kit justice! I've had some probs with the box where the PE was too long for the final stretch to be covered which meant a wee cut in the strap to fit it, no major problems, fitting the 0.6mm rivits as hinges was more problematical as I forgot to run a 0.6 drill through the hole first, resulting in two rivits disappearing into the shagpile....... My repect definatelly to those who do PE in 35th and smaller. Did I say that this was my first attempt at accurising a model and I go and pick this one....... Also meant to say, sorry if this is a little bit disorganised, but I do what seems good at the time, I should get back to the side bins, the ones beside the exhausts, I've the bodies and lids done and just need the hinges and catches, the interesting/tricky bits......

Well the track-bashing has started and nearly finished, my latest consignment has arrived and another burst of activity on the Panzer. Lots of wee bits and pieces, bolts, nuts & washers in very small sizes, a 0.6mm tap, M 1 & 2 nuts, Scale tools c/w wooden handles and finally and most importantly the tracks and top rollers. Unfortunatelly the drive sprockets are on back-order and I'll have to get the baited-breath out. Stage 1, End link assy. Note Irish Screwdriver for final endlink assy. Step 2, Track Link 1 Step 3, Guide Horn. Step 4, Track Link 2 Step 5, End Link final assembly. Step 6, End result, 10x links in a section as per the original. It takes in the order of 20-25mins to assemble a section, lots of silly mistakes i my first few sections, but once I got a system into full swing there were surprisingly few errors, just glad it wasn't full size bashing........ One error from the suppliers was 10x Guide Horns and 8x Track Links missing from the packets, shouldn't be a problem from the suppliers though, as you'll have seen from the photos I haven't assembled the track pads, which I'll do after painting. I need to find a surface cleaner as there is a awful lot of surface dirt on the various items of the tracks and I get the impression that even with etching primer there mightn't be much for the paint to hang onto. As a final coat I'll use Tamiya satin black as this was the closest colour match that i've seen. There doesn't appear to be anything special about the fixtures of the track pad to links, so I'll make use of a glob of my old faithful loctite 480 and see how they hold on.

He did say that he had to weather the wheels & tracks. But if you're talking a scenrio of the vehicle being parked up for a day or two after running through wet sandy ground the tracks would be just about solid rust, i.e. a complete covering in rust, but once back on the road the rust would be off the tracks in less than a mile of sandy ground. Regimental HQ vehicles did a lot less movement than sabre troop/Sqn vehicles, one of the reasons was that the crew had other jobs to do and one or more of the vehicles crew would be kept busy on higher command tasks. When you consider care of the vehicles, the armament would be first followed by engine/transmission and then the roadwheels/sprockets/etc, the paintwork of the vehicle would be covered either under depot maintanance or rest periods when nothing else needed doing. Different armies did different things with their vehicles, back in the 80s we used to do a 40k round trip to a washdown after a CPX to clean the wagons, we'd add a few miles to that as we relieved a little stress as we had a good ole bomb around the neighbouring training area before returning to the washdown to clean the wagons. On top of that the vehicles were painted yearly without fail, we even bough spray guns so that the limited supply of paint would go further. The Bundeswehr were quite different, their wagons (Leopards) got a basic clean with loads of dirt left in the crannies and the vehicles were only painted during depot rebuilds, which came more frequently than ours, or perhaps their track milage was more than ours and as a result got used more. Hope this helps.

Ditto!!!! You've got the chipping perfect, a lot of it but all done right. The mind boggles at the result when you use PE & turned barrels....

Hi All, Another bit arrived, I'd previously been advised to use a Cammett Flip R10 Bending tool for the etched items, sadly while the tool may be good for 1/35 items it just couldn't deal with the large 1/16 items. Another trip onto ebay and the cheapest item that I could find that looked fit for the job was the "Etch Partner" Photo-Etched Fixture Tool, £22.99 + £3 postage and from first impressions is very good and cheaper than similar items. I'll advise if I find any probs with the item when I get folding.

Hi All, Things have been quiet for the last couple of weeks, I'd started some serious PE folding and the folder that I was using was'nt up to the job, so I stopped work whilst waiting for a new folder to arrive. One thing that I'm looking help for and need advice/pointers for is cam nets, does anyone know any suppliers? The company that makes the majority of the bits that I'm adding to the Leo supply various nets, but their prices are huge!!! And simply put I'm looking for a cheaper source. Cheers Lads

Did Accurate Armour not do figures or conversion pieces a (long) while back?

Hi Ivan, The pic must have been after my days, I don't remember seeing any mine plows or fascine racks on the Cents. Another odd one from the ole days was the Air-Defence Spartans with pintle mounted M2 .5 Brownings on their coupolas, now there was an odd view, the Ma Deuce was almost as big as the Spartans......

Good paint job, you've worked the dirt demarkation really well!! Very true to life!! You can see the demarcation lines here, the result of pounding around Soltau training area for a couple of weeks. Another pic to help people get those wanting to get their tracks right, if you look at the shine on the visable portions of the tracks, this appeared after a matter of hours and was actually reflective at distance. The area of the tracks contacted by road-wheels, idlers etc got particularly shiny, almost to the degree of mirror shine, once static the tracks very quickly got a rust coating, in wet conditions rusting in 24hrs or less, but being high quality steel they never got really rusty, if you know what I mean.

I'm working on getting into the Jagdpanther, but from what I've seen/heard she is "Bombed-up" with either real or dummy KwK 43s, certainly the gun is live and at one military show she fired a blank and the noise was reported as being quite impresive....... Certainly the gun was reportedly a dig-up where the previous owner having used them in an Anti-Tank role burried them to prevent them being captured, perhaps PAK 43/3 mit Behelfslafettes.

Know how you feel, you should have tried working on the real ones!!! I finished as 2 i/c a 55+ vehicle track fleet and one job was supervising the junior drivers. That said FV tracks tended to come in short sections (10s) and you had a crew (or in the case of comd vehicles the other drivers) to help you. But model tracks are strangely thereputic to put together, although I might change my mind in the next week as i convert 1600 componants into 2x 1/16th Leo 1 tracks........ I've had a look for the Jagdpanther and the Sdkfz foundation has changed name and the new name hasnt' a website, but in a masterful piece of vanndelism the eod bods cleaned the range and put all the blinds inside the hull of the Jagdpanther and retired......... The resulting bang blew the roof off the tank!!! Some of the plate is mild-steel as opposed to RHA, the latter being too expensive apparently. Still cant' find an easily downloadable pic, but the link will take you eventually to a pic, just look for Panther & Variants. http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzers.html Surviving Tanks

Crackin idea, you do good work there Siggi, one wee critique is the tracks, on real vehicles the tracks are always tensioned by weight and then the idler wheel and you don't get kinks in the tracks. Although the tracks are different (dry as opposed to rubber bushed) but one of the ugly jobs on 432s would see the rubber bushes needing replaced and with the originals being inserted by an 8ton press and we having an Irish Screwdriver (Heavy), so it was a case of getting the bushes in anyhow. Once joined the track invariably you had a kink where joined, but when run for a couple of 100yds the kink had gone. Of course after saying all this someone will probably list a picture proving me wrong.......... Speaking of tracks I'll have to see if I can find the pic of a REME 434 with a thrown track in bks!!!!! Now that was embarassing...... I also had pics of the JagdPanther on the Pirbright ranges that is now alive, well and part of the SDKFZ Foundation, back then there were almost 2 doz tracks rusting away including 5 or 6 Canadian Rams one of which had a tree growing through the commanders hatch.... Pity I wasn't here earlier I could have given you a lot of pics of the VIIC at Laboe.

What sort of vehicle are you portraying? By the description of rust something that has been left in the open or something like the factory photos showing part finished vehicles.

Hi All, I've been at it again, in an effort to simplify production of my Leo 1A1A1 I thought I'd use my existing Königstiger as a componant testbed for the Leo's electronic componants, well I'm at it again....... On investigating the turret motor is broken, but everything else is working, but a tank isn't much good without a working turret so I started trying (& failing) to get a replacement motor for the turret but those pesky German's have lost of Gucci gear for 1/16 tanks with the Königstiger being one case in point. The new aim is to refirb the running gear, and then move onto the turret. So far I've replaced the bushings for the roadwheels, which makes a huge difference almost eliminating the play associated with the Tamiya items, the same happened to the torsion bars, the new items are thicker material but with a waisted design at the middle. The difference in play between the tamiya items and the German items is in the order of 8-10mm less travel or slack in swing arm movement. the final item today are plated to fill a gap at the aft of the hull. Next stage will be a supports for the drive shaft and renewed/upgraded idler tensioners. After that the chassis will be ready for metal closed link tracks and that will essentially see the hull finished and I'll hopefully move onto the turret at this stage, but I'm hoping that the next month or two will see someone selling something interesting on ebay and we'll see what happens then. We'll start the pictures with the wagon as removed from her slumbers. The first refirb parts. Some quite well worn tracks. Nearly stripped. The difference between old & new torsion bars. The rebuild begins.