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This is my long lasting project started back in 2013. As you can see, there hasn't been much done here. But I recently got the fenders on it and figured it's time to get it up on the internet. I don't have the shot of all the stuff I'm using here, but the base kit is Dragon 6301. I won't use Vorpanzer parts and will make it a regular later version Ausf.E. I also have Armorscale fenders and barrel, Lion Roar PE set, Aber PE stowage bin and Modelkasten tracks for this project. I'm also using the interior bits that got left over of Trumpeters Brückenleger build some years ago. So far I have the suspension put together and also most of the drivers compartment. I made a very basic floor around the turret turntable just to fill the huge emptiness around it, but I guess I wont bother myself with the interior much more than the parts that will be directly visible via open hatches. Armoscale fenders were a charm to put together and seem to be very accurately built up. These have the PE parts and resin bolt heads to it in the set and they fit on the plastic very exact. Cheers! Kristjan

Hello, My next thread will be StuG III Ausf.B. I have chosen Tamiya kit for this one and since I have few leftovers from Dragon's Panzer III family kits I've built before, I use them wherever I can. I have few Aber upgrade sets also to use and aftermarket decals, as I'm going to one of the StuG Abt. 185 vehicles. I'm not very happy with the Tamiya kit, but there are not many options when building Ausf.B. Bolts are rounded and need to be replaced, weld seams are often missing and need to be reproduced, fit is loose and need a lot of filler. But main problem with this kit is that upper hull, when removing the molded fenders, appears to be 1mm wider than lower hull. I really don't know what to do with that yet. Here is the front driver's plate compared to hull: But Aber's etched sets seems to be awesome and offers a lot of fun. Here's the assembled ammo storage cabinet. And yep, the lid is movable: Tracks are from MasterClub this time and oh are they awesome. Compared to Friuls, these need very little cleaning and go together with little resin pins. Til' next time, Kristjan

Hello. Something new. Cheers Mike

Hi ! I had promised you informations on my friend Basket... I take advantage of the opening of this topic to keep my word This dear friend lives therefore a small mediterranean village called Marseille. Rémy (his real name) is indeed a true anglophile, but of an anglophilia which makes useless the existence of the worst anglophobes. Let me explain 🤓 This excellent friend draws most of his knowledge of England from the repeated vision of "Little Britain" and has identified himself surprisingly with Miss Howard (the Emily Howard her/himself), a curious and unique case of pathological bovarianism (this partly explaining its acute suceptibility). So he scrupulously adapted his lifestyle to his favorite character... The true problem is that, despite a much sought after outfit, his appearance is closer to that of a trans rugby player than that of a victorian lady and anyone who has suffered the spectacle of the dear Rémy bicycling down the narrow main street of his village (the Cannebière), screaming hysterically in a high-pitched voice “I am an English lady, yes, a real lady” will understand what I am talking about... But let get back to modelling with one of my last build, a M113 ACAV from AFV Club. The figurines are from Bravo6 and the water-buffalo from Mininature. The kit is a gem and an excellent base for detailling. I’ve scratched some internal details which remain visible when closed (so it’s not an exhaustive redetailling of the interior). The project and work in progress The pics below will show you stuffs i added on the interior. AFV done And the final result Complete buid here : http://fighters.forumactif.com/t94091-gb-vietnam-buffaloes-encounter-m113-acav-1st-squadron-10th-cavalry-4th-inf-division See you! Fabrice https://www.facebook.com/Fabrice-Simon-104518141316306

A bit of background to start with; I normally work in Myanmar every winter and get to see 'real' life there. After WW2 a lot of vehicles and equipment was just abandoned there for which the locals were very grateful! When I started working there nearly twenty years ago it was very common to see allied trucks and vehicles 'repurposed' as buses(buscars in local parlance), trucks and village transport. We ourselves have 7 buses converted from Chevy and Ford CMP C60 trucks, and every village has or had, an allied vehicle of some sort to transport villagers to town for shopping, charging house batteries(no mains leccy in a lot of places), and as general freight transport. Obviously spare parts are very hard to come by and maintenance is erm, basic! It's a bit difficult to know where to post this as it's (ex) military but not an AFV, but at the same time could fit in the civvy section🤷‍♂️ Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at converting a US truck to a 'village truck'...Somewhere I've got a load of pics of typical vehicles, but I can't seem to find the hard drive they're on🤔 I'll attach one to give you an example... As I said, a lot of equipment was left behind as well as vehicles: PSP is a very common garden fence material! As a model it was fairly straightforward even for a very old kit. The assorted junk in the back is from a Tamiya(?) stores set, the rice sacks are made of putty, and the tarp is tissue paper soaked in PVA glue, and painted in the typical colours of Chinese imported sheets: Blue one side and orange on the other. This was my first build since I was a kid, apart from the Revell 1:24 Landy which I built a few weeks before. I got back into modelling like many others I suspect, during Lockdown last year, having not built anything since I was about 14! The Landy was a revelation in how far kits have come in 40 years😱, so this one was a step back in time! Looking at the pics now, I can see many ways I could improve it based on what I've learnt since then, but I prefer to leave it as-is...

At IPMS Farnborough Modelfest at the weekend I picked up a cheap Tamiya Challenger I Mk 3 kit so since my Avro Anson build has ground to a halt, I'd do something with the CrARRV conversion I've had in the stash for about 3 years! it makes a change from bloody Thunderbirds! So this is the starting point: and after all the resin has been washed in soapy water The Tamiya kit only contributes the lower hull, road wheels and tracks, the rest is discarded - which is why I've been reluctant to build this conversion up until now as I don't like the idea of throwing away most of a £30 kit! However having sourced a cheap one, I'm less concerned... So the first steps in the conversion and of course building the lower hull as Tamiya instructs, Here are all the road wheels [img[http://www.mardona.org/gallery/d/19614-2/DSC_3864.JPG[/img] I'm not going to distress them as frankly I can't be bothered Next is to attach the upper and lower hulls together... and I've just realised that means I can no longer fit the driver figure in using the neat technique they've used: which would locate the figure in the right place at the right height... bugger! I'll have to sort something out about that late - doh! Anyway the two halves came together with a bit of fiddling and filling The rear joint needed a bit of filling and it was rather gappy and the front joint also needed some work Speaking of the front, the next task it to look at the dozer blade and its mechanism... I'm going to do this as a Gulf War 1 vehicle, probably Big Geordie as I found some great photos online at Prime Portal.

While forced to stay at home, time to build is available rather abundant. So, a new kist has been opened after finishing the M1 gun (see The first carrier is ready to receive it's base color:

Hello, I've just finished the a7v from Tauro. It's a 40years old kit with a (fragile) workable suspension and individual links which was pretty advanced for the time. The molding is questionable here and there but I've only paid about 12 pounds for it and at that price I would highly recommend it. Little information is given by Tauro which exact tank is meant so I took inspiration from the 540 which is wrong because it's a different model of a7v with only one hatch on the front. There are different interpretations of the model in terms of patters and colours, especially the roof. Some show camouflage on top and some drawings show a solid green roof with a big white cross on it. Frankly, I don't know. I couldn't find a photograph taken from a bird's eye view. Making this model despite of it's flaws put a smile on my face and it made me appreciate the tight fit of modern kits. Here's two pictures with a younger panzer sibling that almost looks modern by comparison. Thank you for watching, Cheers, Ernst.

Hello chaps ! A more recent assembly carried out in 2019. This is my first return to AFVs kits after a ten-year hiatus. The Hobby boss Sdkfz 222 is of very good quality and constitutes a good base to add some details. A DAK soldier from a reconnaissance unit searches for his way in the middle of the dunes... Enjoy ! See you ! Fabrice

For a Dutch FB GB I decided to build a not often seen kit: Soar Arts' German 35,5cm M1 Super Heavy Howitzer (also posted in the Arty section). Yet I decided, this also needs a complementary (albeit skeleton) crew an ammo delivery truck and ofcourse a dio. Here are the results:

Let me present my first 1:35 scale armoured vehicle - the Centaur Mk IV by Tamiya. Brush painted with a “home brew” Tamiya acrylic mix of SCC 2 to represent “Hunter” from H Troop, 2nd Battery, 1st Armoured Support Regiment, Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, Normandy, June 1944. Weathered with various oil and acrylic washes. Thanks for looking.

Soviet LAP-7 Rocket Launcher MiniArt 1:35 The GAZ AA 1.5 ton truck was a licenced manufactured version of the Ford AA truck for the Soviet Union, where more than 950,000 were built. There were many body styles, but the most recognisable version was the flat bed truck as depicted in this kit. The difference with this kit though is the fact that the flat bed is fitted with a large frame work fitted with rockets, and big ones at that. The model is contained within a very attractive, bright and colourful box that MiniArt have started using recently. Inside, there are forty four sprues in grey styrene, one of clear a single sheet of etch brass and a small decal sheet. The build starts with the nicely detailed engine with the block, head and sump being glued together followed by the addition of the starter motor, alternator, water pump, auxiliary drive belt, cooling fan, cooling pipes, oil filler pipe. The gearbox is then assembled from three parts and glued to the engine assembly, along with intake manifold. The two, chassis rails are fitted with an extra beam where the truck bed will sit. These are held on the rails by three “U” bolts and thir associated clamps. The rear leaf springs are then attached via their support links. Four cross members are then used to join the rails together, as well as the rear chassis end piece, to which the towing eye spring is attached. There is a three piece box attached to the left hand rail, near the front. The wheels are assembled, and in this, MiniArt have deviated from the norm, by making the inner tyre half made up from four individual rings, while the outer section is made up of three rings. The wheel itself is then sandwiched between the two tyre sections. Whilst this sounds odd, I think it’s to make a realistic tyre with the type of radial tread used at the time. The rear axle and differential is made up from six parts, if you include the drive shaft. This assembly is then fitted to the rear leaf springs, while the front suspension is made up on a single leaf spring assembly mounted laterally and fitted with the front axle, steering rack and support arms. The rear differential is then fitted with a triangular support structure which also supports the brake rods. The front chassis end cap is attached as are the two bumper side arms, while to the rear there is a choice of towing hook styles, one, just a single piece unit, the other is made up from five parts. The spare wheel, mounted under the rear chassis is held in place by a support large clamp. The front and rear brake drums are then attached to the axles, followed by two wheels per side on the rear axle and one per side on the front axle. The engine assembly in then glued into position, followed by the two piece radiator, two piece front bumper and two support brackets on chassis rails. The five piece exhaust is the attached to the right hand side. The two front fenders are each single piece units to which a small hook is attached before being fitted to the chassis, as are two of the lateral truck bed beams. The cab floor is also attached and fitted with the bench seat, gear stick and panel support. The three piece wiper/wiper motor is fitted to the front screen surround, once the clear screen has been fitted. The screen is then fitted with two small arms, these can be glued in either the stowed position for a closed screen, or down, so that the screen can be posed open. The rear of the bonnet section is then glued to the front of the screen support, along with eh two side sections and engine bulkhead which has been detailed with several small parts. Inside the foot pedals are attached lower bulkhead, part of the floor panel fitted earlier, before the front cab assembly is glued into place, along with the steering column and wheel. The three piece rear panel and roof of the cab are then glued into place, as are the two bonnet supports, between the bulkhead and the radiator. Each door is made up from five parts, including clear section, door handles, latches and window winders. The doors are then put to one side. The bonnet halves, split longitudinally are each made from two sections, which can be posed in either the open or closed positions, allowing the modeller to show of the engine should they so choose. The doors are then attached; again, they can be posed open or closed as the modeller wishes. The three piece horn is attached to a rail, which in turn is attached to the front of the vehicle between the fenders. The two, three piece headlights are then fitted, as is the single, two piece wing mirror, on the drivers side. The truck bed is then assembled from five parts, bed, with two cross beams fitted underneath, sides, front and rear sections, and glued into place, completing the truck section of the build. For the rocket launcher frame, there are two large beams that are slightly longer than the bed, the overhang being where the handles used to raise and lower the framework into firing position is attached. There is a smaller plank that runs crossways from this elevation beam, which is also fitted with th hinge points or the rear of the frame. The modeller ahs a choice of building the frame in the firing position or transport position by the use of alternative actuator parts. The raising mechanism is made up from nine parts. The main frame is made up from ten parts while each of the six rocket containers are each made from sixteen parts, while the rockets themselves are each four parts. With the rockets slid into the containers, each assembly is then glued into position on the frame. If the frame is to be modelled in the transport position, the right hand side and rear flaps of the bed are fixed up with the relative catches fitted. In the firing position these flaps are lowered and the catches fitted in the down position. Decals The decal sheet gives the modeller only two options for same truck, one in a summer paint scheme, and one in a winter scheme. The decals are beautifully printed, are clear and in good register with a slightly matt finish. Conclusion I just love these trucks from MiniArt, they are so evocative of the period and can be used in so many situations, whether on their own, or in a diorama. The rocket frame gives this normally benign truck a certain menace and goes to show the ingenuity of the Russian forces to get as much use of these types of vehicles as possible. Review sample courtesy of

Hello, starting a new project, Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdtiger - Henschel Production Type - Dragon - Nr. 6285 - 1:35 more picts soon

Hi everybody ! back to an autumn cat,more precisely a winter one with this Jagdpanther along with three GIs searching for trophy Build is here : https://warpaints.net/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=13444&sid=592e930077ca7c8d2f038bcc074325e0 See you ! Fabrice

Abandoned Moskvitch Kit: Moskvitch-401-420A Soviet Passenger Car (#35484) Scale: 1/35 Aftermarket: MiG Dry Leaves Paints: Vallejo Model Color, Model Air & Metal Color, Lifecolor Weathering: Mig weathering products, Lifecolor pigments, Flory Models wash My first ever car kit, was bit lost with the construction so it has numerous build errors - but I was mainly concentrating on the painting & weathering and had really fun time with it. Despite almost abandoning it for real to the shelf of doom at one point. Detail of the kit was real nice but the plastic is quite soft and the build process seemed quite complicate at a times (which was not helped by the very fine parts) - but I suspect it was mainly due to builder errors. Just make sure your chassis comes up straight, I built mine bit wonky. Definitely looking forwards to more car kits! I think this car will probably end up in a diorama. Thanks for looking - comments & constructive criticism welcomed! Build thread: New photos 16/11/2020:

Hi there! I make aircraft models - but wanted to try out some cars too. I'm mainly interested in the weathering aspect of cars and adding them into diorama environment. So honestly, I'm not much of a 'car guy' but I suspect this will be fun and different kind of challenge in any case. So the kit that I have is this: And this is what we have in the box: It's a fine looking model for sure. Pretty crisp details and quite a lot of details overall. Not your average Heller 1:32 Volvo truck, eh @JeroenS ? In addition to this being my first car kit ever, it's my first ICM kit ever. First impression is good, nice box art, good sturdy box, crisp looking model and a manual that makes sense. So let the building commence. I thought I'd make a sacrifice to the carpet monster early on, before I lose something important. One of the pedals went missing so I made a new one from a piece of sprue. It's not completely straight forward kit, the exterior of the car is made from quite many pieces, have to think about a little in what order I will qlue the the parts down or do I need to paint them first. Planes tend to be bit more simple, you just paint the cockpit separately and once it's done you will put the fuselage together. Started putting together the engine too. Not much of this will be visible but it's nice that the underside of the car and the engine are well detailed too. There are lot of skinny parts - and the plastic is bit on the soft side so need to be extra careful not breaking anything. Next, some paint.

Next project, another wheely thingie. It's Zvezda's GAZ Tiger-M with "Arbalet" remote control weapon system. Boxtop Inside is a sturdy top opening cardboard box Inside the box we have 6 sprues of grey plastic and one sprue with clear parts. Sprue A Sprue B A second sprue B - on both sprues B are parts that will go into the spares boc Sprue C - two times in the box Sprue F Clear parts, decals and metal foil stickers for the rear view mirrors Mesh and the tyres - the tyres have prominent mould seams running along the center lines, these will be hard to come by Paint instructions for two versions Finally a peek inside the instructions booklet This seems to be a nicely detailed kit and should be a straightforward build. Hope to show you some progress soon! Have a nice day Nick

Kit - Tamiya Paint - All acrylics Decals - Star 35-876 Extras - JR turned aluminium barrel, Tamiya kit-specific 'Detail-up' etch set. PzKpfw V Panther Ausf D Pz.Abt 52, Late Summer 1943. Wanted this kit since it was first announced - my favourite German WWII vehicle by a country mile. Kit build is 'typically Tamiya' the usual perfect fit and engineering, did struggle with the kit supplied rubber tracks but that's because I think I glued the idler axles too far to the rear thus over-stressing the tracks, or I did something else wrong, who can say. Paint is Mig's Dunkelgelb modulation set with Tamiya Red Brown and Field Grey 'squiggles' - I diluted the Tamiya colours about 70% with their lacquer thinner and it sprayed perfectly. The paint effects are the usual cocktail of sponge chipping, toothpick scratches, an enamel filter (home brewed) and oil-dot filter - In 1943 this would have been a relatively new vehicle so didn't want to fade the paintwork too much, or rust-up the exhausts. Dirt is all Mig pigments, European Earth, European Dust and City Dirt. I took my time and applied it (using clean turps as a fixer), just one facet at a time and I'm really pleased with the final result. Only my third ever German WWII armour build and really enjoyed it. Best from NZ. Ian.

Hi folks, I've never posted a model on here before... And it's been a while since I last built anything to completion (the last was an IDF M579 Macha"G Fitter in 2017). Anyway, a month or so ago, I found myself at a loose(ish) end, and felt like building something. British armour has long been my main interest really (though I'm very interested in the IDF's vehicles), and I really like 'oddities' - like the Archer. It's taking me a while for a kit which (at least as far as sticking it together is concerned) practically 'falls together' due to excellent Tamiya design and kit engineering. Partly, that's down to the difficulty of 'finding' all the bits I needed to build it as a wee bit more that OOB, partly down to it being open-topped (why the heck did I pick Archer) and the difficulty of working out how to build and paint it with the interior finished to a decentish standard, and partly because my mental health isn't fantastic, and consequently at times I struggle to make the decisions and actually do the thing. Anyway, here's where I'd got to by yesterday evening. I have now stuck the gun in place, and the ammo; about to start work on decals, detail painting, and weathering on the outside. I hope I can keep up the standard, and that I manage to keep at it - it's feeling pretty daunting right now.

Hello friends, this time I have a great and well known kit from the Dragon: I wanted to build it from the mid 1990s when I first saw this kit at my friend’s house. It’s a typical Dragon moulding from 1992 with a very good sculpting and perfect artwork from Ronald Volstad. An artwork represents the four infantrymen in their very motley equipment and that’s the main reason why I want to put my hands on it. The painting guide on the back of the box: Actually, I don’t decided yet which paints I’ll choose: Mr.HOBBY or AK Interactive... The sprue with the soldiers and ammunition: Same, the other side: The little sprue with the weapons: And other side of this sprue: The weapons looks fantastic, I haven’t seen more exciting rifles and machine guns in the 1:35th scale. OK, let’s start! 😋

Finally can call this one complete. Build log is here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235059937-tks-tankette/ Here's the photo that started all this: And here's my model: And here's the size comparison with a regular sized matchbox: Thanks, Kristjan

Hi everyone. Hope there's room for another Ian McQue inspired scratch build . I've loved his designs since the first time I saw them, and have all of his kits from Industria Mechanika that I'll eventually build. Since those are all 1:35 scale, I'm building this scratch to match. Check him out if you like his designs. Facebook Twitter Instagram This will be my first attempt at scratch building, so it'll probably be a slow build. Parts of the model will be more kit bash than scratch, mainly the engine and underside. These are the sketches I'm basing the build on. I mirrored one to use as the basis for the opposite side. I started off by building an L shaped box to use as the core of the design. Next, I added another layer to build out the basic shape a bit more. I'll be adding weld line decals from Archer where you see the pencil lines. Here, I've thickened up the top of the front fins, added a floor and round greeble, and cut a notch on the port side. If you notice some rough edges, those are intentional. His sketch looks like a vehicle that would have beat up edges. That's where I am today with the main body. I did spend a little time playing around with some parts to add to the deck, and came up with this "control box" that I'll add somewhere behind the pilot. The red part is from an old Koh-I-Noor drafting graphite container I found at work. I'm not sure what the numbers on the top will look like under primer and paint, but they should be slightly visible. I figure it can serve as an engine system model number. That'll be all I post until next weekend. I'm excited to keep going, but I'm away from home for a few days. Thanks for looking!

Hi! Thanks to the lockdown, I was able to finish this 2005 M5 by adding the figurine. The idea is to evoke a break during the battle of the hedgerows after the American breakthrough and to convey the atmosphere of a hot summer of Normandy I hope you'll like it See you! Fabrice https://www.facebook.com/Fabrice-Simon-104518141316306

Latest tank to go out of my father's confinement factory . Slightly touched up by me prior to photographing. A kit bought in this year's only model exhibition here in Malta before everything was cancelled due to the pandemic. Just for 5 €. A nice kit, with lots of photoetched (a bit too many, for our taste) and wonderful rubber tracks and moving wheels that allows smooth movement. To photograph this in the wilderness was an odyssey, trying to find somewhere remotely similar to Finland in the middle of the Maltese summer. After walking for hours on end, we decided for a small spot in a dried up stream under one of the only woods on the island, and we emptied a whole water bottle to moisture a bit the environment. I love that the kit depicts a version of a minor country, I am tired of seeing Russian, German and American AFVs coping everything on the market. Made happily OOB.

I'm having my StuG currently on a pause, so meanwhile I have another build on my workbench, which is a little TKS tankette. The thing is really tiny, only a spec bigger than a matchbox. The kit is from IBG, which is currently the best one on the market over the RPM and Mirage kits. I also have Part aftermarket sets - both exterior and interior one, to add some detail to the vehicle, and ABER Hotchkiss M1914 barrel. It's going together relatively well. I have added a great deal of Master Club rivets to the hull though - the front and rear glacis got them wrong and bottom had no rivets at all. And the engine has been completed as well. Kristjan