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Here's my contribution to the fun. Given the detail and complexity of the kit I'll be building it pretty much clean and OOB and try to avoid rabbit holes and dilatory faffing.

Hi This my place saver. I've made a start on the running gear and I'll take a photo or two tomorrow.

No not this guy. After 16 years of on again, off again (mostly off again) work. I finally finished AFV Club's Stuart. The model is not overly complicated and builds into a nice little kit. There are no real problems to report, which were not of my own making (lost parts, rolled off the desktop and shattered, etc.). I painted this with Tamiya base coats and Vallejo for all of the details. Weathering is pretty simple - mostly a vandyke brown oil pinwash, and lots of drybrushing with acrylics. A bit of pencil led hear and there, and just a touch of raw sienna pigments on the lower half to accent the drybrushing where needed. Markings are for the 1st Spahi regiment of the Free French Army in 1944. I still don't quite have the hang for painting fabric, but I guess I'm getting better each time I try. But for the first time, I'm very pleased with the metallic effects on the guns A few pictures of the M3A3 with its M3A1 stablemate. The latter is from the Tamiya kit I finished around 2019 I think. I think I'll build my Academy Stuart next.

AFV Club is to reissue its 1/48th Northrop F-5E Tiger II kit as " Peace Bell Programme" (Yemen & Taiwan AF) - ref. AR48S10 Source: https://www.facebook.com/AFVCLUB.TW/photos/a.3561524077226419/3617871271591699/ V.P.

Morning all. Here is my entry for the GB. I love the look of this brutalist chunk of metal, with its massive mortar gun. This will be a OOB build with a few embellishments and I will be learning along the way as I know little about this one. Hopefully it shouldn't be too stressful a build. All the best to you all and I look forward to seeing your great work.

Here we go one big Churchill Cheers Wellzy

Hi Guy`s well here it is a Churchill ,but not as we know it , Looking forward to the build, Wellzy

I bought an AFV Club Dieppe Raid Churchill Mk.III kit as a back up in case I had problems with converting my Mk.VII Churchill into a Crocodile. Seeing as that build is going well I decided to also build this kit. As I mentioned in the chat thread, I considered building it from the kit options, from the Dieppe Raid, or even as the captured option, in Panzer Grey. Another idea was as a Lend Lease tank in Soviet markings, but I found a Panzerart resin turret for a Mk.IV on ebay, it comes complete with hessian camouflage net, this really appealed to me so it's on its way. I have had experience with Panzerart resin turret before, they usually come without any hatches or barrels but that's not a problem. I was going to wait until I had received the turret before I started this topic but, there's that nice suspension to build as well as a set of workable tracks so I thought I'd get started. Here is the kit, it comes with a set of workable early type tracks as well as a set of vinyl late type tracks, both types were seen during the Normandy campaign. I made a start on the hull, building the working suspension is rather time consuming but straight forward, especially if you've made one before. I've also made a start on assembling the workable early type tacks. I used my Haynes manual on the Churchill to make sure the large rivets were correct for a Mk.IV. These AFV Club kits contain the same sprues as most early Churchills used common parts, except for turrets, until the Mk.VII came along. Here is my progress so far. Thanks for looking, any questions or comments are always welcome.

My submission for this build is the AFV Club Churchill Mk.IV AVRE with SBG Bridge. An ambitious kit, maybe too ambitious for a Group Build (especially when I rarely complete a GB on time), but ... The box: And a quick shot of some contents: A lot of odd reflections and shadows in this image, sorry. Both Mk III and Mk IV Churchill hulls were used as bridge layers in the Normandy and NW Europe campaigns, this will be a Mk IV. The kit comes with two types of track, and extras that make it adaptable to most aspects of the battle for Europe.

Joining the group build a little late, but hopefully the kit should fall together pretty quickly. I've got a boxing of AFV Club's Egg scale (or Q-scale, as they call it, probably not related to the two-source hypothesis) F-104G with RoCAF markings. The box included enough plastic to make two kits but I'll probably only be assembling one for this groupbuild. The plastic looks well molded, though the clear part for the canopy is a bit scuffed up. The instructions are on a single sheet, and there're decals for four different airframes the RoCAF had. Looks like it should be straightforward. I'll probably build it in-flight. The back of the box contains the profiles for colors and decal placement. I'm assuming that they're using RLM 76 as a stand-in for ADC Gray.

Right then lets have a crack at this WIP malarky shall we, see what it's all about, give it a bash, what can possibly go wrong! The subject of choice is the AFV Club Dorchester Command vehicle. While being a bit of an ungainly boring box on the outside it's full of lovely details and potential inside. I'm hoping this is going to be quit the beast similar to the Scammell Transporter I did earlier this year. I really enjoyed do that. I think it was a kit which deserved the attention I put into it and this one has the same feeling. I think your attitude towards a build is half the battle. You put the love in which you feel for it. So expect lots of little things scattered about the place. First off some random box content to give you the flavour............. Ha! nothing a bit of brute force wont put right Some nice looking decals, PE mostly for the Jerry cans and some ok maps which have a very anoying Union Jack randomly in the backgroung. Most maps have a white border. Thats them rendered useless. Might do a bit of photoshopping or print some new ones. And finally...... In my opinion the single most useless item in any model kit. How on earth are you supposed to weight these toys? Why aren't weighted tires standard in any kit. If there is one thing that really kills any realism in a model it's the lack of illusion of weight. So I bought these....... Pretty horrible with very poorly moulded hubs and no weight even though they were advertised as such. So I bought these....... Now your talking. Nicely weighted with fine detail. The only criticism would be the lines on the smooth faces of the hubs. The scammell aftermarket ones had that as well but disappeared after paint and weathering so I'm not too concerned. The instructions are as to be expected and seem nice and clear....... I think 'J3'....... which is shown as...... is this......... So heres the plan........... Outside it's going to be plain North African scheme (I haven't looked into the exact colour yet) with an additional camouflage to disguise it as a lorry. Something like this which I think is supposed to look a bit like a Quad / Matador hybrid. Should make a change from a Caunter or Disruptive or Mickey mouse schemes. One of the canopies will be extended and a few tables and chairs placed outside. All sitting on a plain black base which all my builds will be on. Storage on top of course. Inside I'm going to use some reference sketches I found which shows the storage for admittedly the wrong versions but still gives me lots of scratch building options. This will include a lot of opened cupboards and floor storage which will be filled with lots of goodies. It will be covered in wires running all over the place In addition the Wireless Set N19 will be in bits having a bit of maintenance done. Scratch built 1/35 scale tubes anyone? I have bought but still waiting for the Voyager PE set for this. I'm rather hesitant of PE kits after purchasing a few and realising that a lot of replacement bits are either way too thin to be realistic or just pointless. This one may be the same but we shall see. Finally the desk lights will work! The whole thing will be accessed by the roof coming off So I hope thats whet your appetite and will be interested to see what I get up to. All my reference pics and other stuff is here and will include all pics as the build goes on: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143851440@N06/albums/72157715971970841/with/50345536503/ Please feel free to chip in with any comments, questions, advice and all that. Hopefully I can get started this weekend so 'Tune in'.....tune in...... get it? Command vehicle....... radios....... tune in........... I'll get my great coat................ Andrew

I’ve been looking forward to this group build. My entry will be AFV Club’s 1/35 M5A1 and I will be doing it as a 4th Marine tank at Kwajalein, more specifically, during the battle for Roi-Namur. Not pictured are some Tiger Model Designs goodies I have to dig out of somewhere. A combination of the kit decals and Star Decals will be used to depict “Hothead” from Company B, 4th Marine Tank Battalion. During the Battle For Kwajalein, the heaviest action took place on the islands of Roi-Namur (connected by a causeway). Because they figured to be the most heavily defended in the atoll, the task of clearing them went to the Marines. Roi was home to a large airfield while Namur had the support buildings. Intelligence figured the airfield would be more heavily defended, so M4A2 Shermans were sent ashore there while the M5A1 Stuarts, which were quickly falling out of favor with the USMC, went ashore at Namur for what figured to be little more than mop up duty. Unfortunately the opposite happened. The Shermans raced across Roi with very little resistance while the main fighting greeted the troops who went ashore at Namur. The four Company B tanks (Hothead, Hunter, Hornet and Heater) did their best to help, but some never made it off the beach after falling into shell holes. Furthermore, during the first day of fighting, they lost their commanding officer. Capt James Denig in Hunter was advancing across the island when his tank got caught up on a tree stump. Half a dozen Japanese soldiers then used this opportunity to swarm the small tank. A nearby marine left cover and emptied his BAR at the soldiers, cutting down five in one blow, but in the short time it took to reload, the sixth enemy soldier was able to climb on top of the tank and drop a grenade in the signal port. The marines rushed to the aid of the crewmen, but the grenade fatally wounded Denig and the driver. Roi-Namur was secured the next day but it had come at a cost and further proved to the Marines that the Stuart was no longer a front line vehicle….by the summer of 1944, all Stuarts in their inventory had been replaced with M4A2s. Capt Denig’s burnt out Stuart.

Hi folks, built this AFV Club F-5E for the Asia GB. Very nice little kit, fantastic surface detail and good fit overall just a tricky little nose section. Quinta Studio 3D decals for the cockpit. F-5E Tiger II - 1st Tactical Fighter Wing, ROCAF, Tainan AFB, 1996. Thanks for looking in!

Going to be bold and throw up another build for this GB (Like I said- I've been looking forward to this one for months). I've wanted to have a crack at the AFV Club F-5 since I started the hobby and I can't see a better time to pull the trigger than now! It's the Peace Bell Program boxing but does include 2 ROCAF schemes, still undecided on whether to do the grey scheme or SEA camouflage. I have the Quinta 3D decals on the way from Hannants as well as canopy masks by Eduard. Very much looking forward to ticking off a bucketlist build! Thanks for looking in!

This is the 1/700-scale AFV Club Knox-class frigate with Five Star Knox PE add-on set. Other aftermarket details include Five Star whip antennas and SSModel Phalanx CIWS. I used SSModel 0.05mm memory metal for the rigging, having learned that the elastic Infini Aero rigging I used on my last build makes getting the right amount of slack in the lines difficult. Painted with Vallejo, weathered gently with Tamiya enamel panel liner and some oils on the hull. Overall, the AFV Club kit suffered from a couple inaccuracies and didn't always have the best fit. Decals often were not sized correctly and didn't include flags or helpful things like helopad markings (which, incidentally, are molded onto the plastic and I was able to bring out by painting the surface and lightly sanding the paint off the raised lines, revealing the light gray, albeit not white, plastic beneath). The Five Star kit is lovely, but is also missing some obvious adornments, like the goodies that line the mast. Still, it all comes together in the end.

Well, I signed up for this one before it made it through so I had better at least try! I've been itching to get started on this for a good few months now so let's see if life can keep out of the way and I may actually complete something... I bought this kit a long time ago, when it was arguably the best on the market, initially to put it on a SSYMS flatcar (I have one from Ironside, again bought a very long time ago) but I've decided I like the look of the late June-July 1944 camo applied to s.SS-Pz.Abt.102 Tigers making their way to Normandy. There are some nice inspirational photos taken while they were on the road march which will hopefully spur me on. Anyway, the obligatory box, kit and accessories shot. I bought Eduard's photoetch set designed for the Tamiya Late Tiger I kit for the fenders, skirts, exhaust shrouds and tool clamps, completely forgetting I already have AllianceModelWorks lovely workable tool clamp set. As it stands I'll use AFV Club's late Tiger workable tracks (I have thier transport tracks too). I think the only item I have left to get is some epoxy putty for the dreaded zimmerit. All the best, Si

Hello everyone! Here is my latest kit finished a week ago. It's Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King "05", s/n 4005 of HS 50, Royal Canadian Navy, on HMCS Bonaventure, in 1965. It is AFV Club's 1:144 kit built OOB with corrections and some details added. This is a nice kit with several options (rear sliding door in any position, rotors an tail folded for storage, search radar and spray shield) but is a bit disappointing in the lack of detail in the rear cabin for example. The box comes with two full kits and four decal options of which that of the Canadian Navy really stood out. Unfortunately, although described as being for a 1965 option on the HCMS Bonaventure, the decals, scheme and the options added (radar and shield) are based on the machine when it was repainted in the old scheme in 2010 for the centennial of the Canadian Navy and with several errors too! Canada received 41 CHSS-2 (later CH-124) Sea Kings of which the first 4 were built by Sikorsky and the remaining 37 were assembled by United Aircraft of Canada (now Pratt & Whitney Canada), in Longueuil, Quebec (just across the river from Montreal). 4005 was the first one assembled there in 1964 and survived up to the retirement of the type in 2018, going through all the upgrades and is now on display at the National Air Force Museum of Canada (NAFMC) at CFB Trenton. I intended to represent the type as suggested by AFV Club on the HMCS Bonaventure which required few additions from stretched sprue, ignoring the radar and shield and adding some flags for the sponsons (sourced from a Mark I H-34 kit). Unfortunately, I couldn't find a replacement for the insignia since those of the kit are for the later type (less-detailed maple leaf). Some errors in the instructions concerning the scheme and the colours were corrected thanks to research and photos of the type in the 1960s. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. For more information on the build see my WIP at the Kampfgruppe144 forum: http://www.kampfgruppe144.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=9016 Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

This was my project for the Vietnam II GB over in the Group Build section. Kit: 1/35 AFV Club Extras: AFV Club track links - kindly supplied by snapper_city Pegasus Camouflage netting Academy Allied and German Tank Supplies Set II AFV Club 20Pdr. Gun Ammo Paints: Humbrol and Revell Acrylics - Humbrol Spray can for the base colour - all other paints applied by hairy sticks. This was my first proper 1/35 AFV build - I practiced first on the old Tamiya Panzer Kampfwagen II Ausf.F/G kit in the Achtung Panzer GB earlier in the year.The WIP for this build can be found here. There are quite a few photos. In Country; Some close-ups: So thats my last completion for 2015. Roll on 2016s builds! I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this and all my other builds during the year - as Ive said before; none of them would be what they are without the advice, suggestions and support of fellow Britmodellers. Thank you. Happy New Year! Kind regards, Stix

'No Petrol - No Hope' - Towards the end of WWII German troops suffered almost as much from lack of fuel and ammo as from damage from allied troops. This resulted in crews destroying their own vehicles, despite being perfectly serviceable. This diorama is meant to show just that, as a Sturmtiger arrives at what they hope would be a fuel depot, only to find it abandoned and empty, destroying any hope of continuing with their tank. The Sturmtiger is from AFV Club, figures are all Tamiya (some with Hornet heads and swapped arms) and cobbled street part of base a leftover from a Miniart building. Crater filled with resin and oil paint. The rest painted using a variety of acrylics and AK Crusted Rust set for barrels etc. All comments welcome

Pretty much finished apart from some minor weathering once in place on the diorama. This is the AFV Club Sturmtiger built OOB except for Atak resin zimerit and non standard (Dragon?) vinyl tracks, as it came from ebay with these in the box. Easy build and fits well together but no interior except for gun breach. The 'turret is not attached to the chassis but will be once the base is done (hence the small gap in the first picture) Airbrush painted freehand with Tamiya acrylics and AK + MIG weathering products. It will eventually be part of a larger diorama.

For those that have followed my build of the AFV Club Scimitar Here, the project is finished ... and here's the result: Thank you for looking and your comments/feedback are welcome. Keith 😁

So, having completed the Filthy Landrover and Dirty Sherman, I'm about to start on my next learning journey build, the AFV Club FV107 Scimitar. This is also a first venture into the brand, which looking at builds here, should be OK. Taking the learning from the previous two, I've decided to go basic ...... no damage, no thick application of mud (despite the recent delivery of some Ammo mud effects stuff) and no aerials made from wire. As it's based on a vehicle used in the desert, I've done a bit of research (unlike the last time!) and; by the looks of it, the desert colour was applied over the standard green, although if anyone knows different, I'll happily take some guidance. Based on this, my plan is to go NATO green, apply chipping fluid in the areas that seem to get most wear and then apply the desert colour so I can work on getting that 'scrubbed' look, but without going overboard. A appears to be tradition, I've pictured the sprues ..... they look crisp and not too much flash. There are a lot ejector pin marks, but none that I can see will need attention at the moment. Make yourself a brew, pull up a chair ...... here goes!! 20230127_213345 by Ran Domstuff, on Flickr 20230127_213647 by Ran Domstuff, on Flickr 20230127_213659 by Ran Domstuff, on Flickr 20230127_213726 by Ran Domstuff, on Flickr Thanks for looking Keith 😁

This is the very nice AFV Club kit in 1/350. It looks to be a simply build, but the addition of photo etch means taking your time with this will give you a nice result. I managed to get most of the photo etch on and the fit of the parts is very nice. I used some EZ line for the rigging and various chalks and pastels for the weathering. Now I need to get an I-400 to sit next to her.

Another braille scale Starfighter announced! AFV Club is to release a new tool 1/32nd Lockheed F-104G(S?) Starfighter kit - ref.AR32104. Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.619334004778789.1073741859.236926266352900&type=1 V.P.

There is, or was, an image on the web of a Guards Division Stummel about to cross a bridge over the Rhine (I think). This particular Stummel belonged to the Leicestershire Yeomanry, a Royal Artillery regiment, equipped with Sexton SPGs. They acquired the vehicle following the destruction of German armoured units at St Vith. It was still present with the regiment for the division's end of war parade. This build will be of that Stummel. The kit: Extras: Decals, paint, and tracks. The decals may supply stars, the blue on the unit markings is way too light. So far as I can tell, the half-track was towing a British 10 cwt trailer with metal sides and mud-guards. The nearest trailer kit I can find is this Bronco trailer, which lacks mud-guards. The Bronco trailer: The extras in the Bronco kit will also be raided for a radio and, maybe, other British kit.