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Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L No.1 - 10th Panzer Division 1943 - Tunisia EDIT 03/05/17: a while back I said I would include some photos of this Pz.III on the scenic base I built for this and the two other tanks I made in the same GB. I have included them at the bottom of this first post. The Ausf.L version of the Pz.Kpfw. III was produced from July 1942 and was similar to previous versions. Armament consisted of an improved, long barreled Kwk50 L/60 tank gun and two 7.92mm MG34 machine guns. The front armor thickness was increased to 57mm plus 20mm thick spaced armor was added to the gun mantlet - meaning the suspension system had to be strengthened to cope with the 200 Kg of extra weight. In total 635 Ausf. Ls were produced by the end of 1942, most seeing active service on the Eastern and North African Fronts, including Tunisia. Pz.Kpfw. III No.1 saw action in Tunisia including in the Kasserine Pass where it was eventually knocked out by 37mm American artillery. My build depicts it sometime in the days before. Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.L Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Stretched sprue aerial and Tamiya stowage items from the Jerry Can set. The rope for the stowage was made from some of Mrs PlaStix's thread. This tank was the first completed model of a scene I built for the MTO GB. The first photos were just taken on my chipboard table top with a desert scene propped up behind. I will now made a proper base. The kit was fun to build with only a few minor fit issues here and there. The diorama RFI I built this Pz.III as part of can be found Here. Some photos taken in the days before it was complete to show some of the details: And one with my second completion - AFV Club's Tiger 1 (as 131): The WIP for this project can be found here: EDIT 03/05/17: a bit late but, as promised, some photos of the Pz.III on the base I made for this and the two Tiger tanks I built for the MTO GB: Lots more photos of the scene can be found here: Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

EDIT: 03/01/17 - It's been over a year since I did anything with this kit and year and a half since I started this project. My original intention was to build this kit during the early part of 2016 - when I thought I would have some time but then I spent the whole of 2016 building models in GBs! My later plan, during the latter part of 2016, was to build this once I'd finished my MTO project but that ended up not being finished until 24th December (the day before the deadline) and then I realised I had said I would build something in the P-51 Mustang STGB. I managed to finish that kit yesterday morning. So yesterday afternoon I finally got around to making a proper start on this Panther - albeit only a small start. (Please see page 3 for current update.) I'm quite excited about this future project. So much so that I thought I'd post a few photos early. The first AFV kit I made, after being back into making kits for a couple of years, was a Panther. In fact it was Dragon's 1/72 Panther Ausf.G with Zimmerit. It turned out reasonably well and I really enjoyed making it. So much so that I have quite a fondness for the Panthers. Since making my first I havent really seen one I thought I'd like to have a go at next though. Recently, however, I picked up a modelling magazine which had a preview and advert for Tamiya's latest 1/35 Panther - the Ausf.D. Now I rather liked the look of it and mentioned this to Mrs PlaStix. Well, while on a shopping trip to Birmingham this is what she got me: .........which comes with all this in the box: Not only that she also got me these!: I feel really lucky! Im going to post this in several sections rather than in one long post.

This kit was originally purchased and sort of started back in the summer of 2015. However, I then seemed to get sidetracked into other, mainly GB, builds. Back in 2015 I only really got the individual track links built -so the rest has been completed since the start of this year. If you are not aware of this kit then you won't know that Tamiya released it at the same time as three add on sets for this kit - replacement individual track links, engine deck grills and a replacement metal barrel (the latter included the breech as well). Some reviewers of the kit were not happy at the time that Tamiya didn't at least include the grills and metal barrel in with the actual kit and I can kind of see why. It was Mrs PlaStix who bought me the kit plus all the sets and I have used them on this build with the exception of the breech. As the inside of the turret isn't designed to be on show I decided to only use the metal barrel. I intend to use the breech when I make another Panther D and then have the insides visible in some way. The kit was actually a pleasure to make and is only my third 1/35 build - my first being Tamiya's Panzer Kampfwagen II Ausf. F/G and AFV Club's Australian Centurion was my second. The Ausf.D was the first variant of the Panthers and had the impressive L/70 7.5cm gun, sloped armor and a powerful engine. Approximately 840 Ausf. Ds were made between January and September of 1943 and the first time it appeared on the battlefield was in the Battle of Kursk. Not everything was perfect but the Panthers were still able to take out approximately 140 Soviet tanks from a range of 1,500 to 2,000 meters while protected by the sloped armour. The version I have decided to finish mine as is No. 445 - Pz.Gr.Div. - Großdeutschland - Kursk in August 1943. Kit: Tamiya /135 Panther - Ausf.D - Sd.Kfz.171 AM: Tamiya individual track links, grill set and metal barrel Paints: Humbrol, Revell, Citadel and Railmatch all applied by paint brushes Mud: Mig - European dry mud WIP: Here I decided to use the kit figures: A few photos on my Spitfire display shelf with some grass matting: Well, as usual, I got a bit carried away when I was taking the photographs but I do enjoy this aspect of the hobby too. Thank you to all the people who dropped into my build thread to offer advice and support - it wouldn't be what it is without both. I only noticed after I had taken all the photos that I hadn't fitted the aerial - so that will be corrected when I get chance but I'm not going to take all the photos again! Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

This is my build for the 70s NATO vs Warsaw Pact GB. It was a lovely kit to make apart from the instructions being a bit wrong in a couple of places. I hadn't heard of Modelcollect before but would certainly buy one of their kits again. The detail is excellent for such a small kit. A bonus is that the kit comes with a metal barrel and Link & Length tacks. The kit originally came with band tracks but these, I found, have been replaced - however, there are no instructions for putting the L&L tracks together - it would help if you have made some L&L tracks before - which I have done. The model is OOB apart from where I had to replace a handrail with wire as the kit part was very fragile and snapped early on. The model depicts a T-64 somewhere in Eastern Europe during the 1970s. I used Humbrol, Revell, Citadel and Railmatch Acrylic paints and all were applied with brushes. All the paints were thinned with water. The WIP can be found here. Lots of photos: I have finished building a small scenic base for this kit and have taken some photos with the tank in place. The full set can be found here. A few here - these are new photos which were taken in daylight - posted on 15/03/17: Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Hi Folks, Here is another of my old Airfix stash props. Finally dragged out of hiding and cobbled together for fun. I sanded down, not off, most of the surface details, and added the roll cage and armour head rest behind the pilot from scraps of stock plastic sheet, and stretched sprue. Fit of the clear parts was iffy, and it took quite a bit of time to get them to comply, especially the rearmost section. However all was well in the end. I added gun ports in the leading edges of the wings too. Apart from that its OOTB. Still looks good built up (I think) even though its pretty basic by todays standards. Here's the pics: All brush painted with Humbrol and aeromaster acrylics. Some limited weathering was applied to the main surfaces with very small amount of drybrushed matt white. Kit decals shattered on impact with water so I used AM set by Printscale - Buffalo Aces. This aircraft is Sqdrn Leader Harper RAAF, 453 Sqdrn Singapore December 1941. I presume his kill markings are for other theatre of operations unless the Germans were helping out the Japanese at some point! All comments welcolme, Cheers Greg

All the way from 1977, its says on the box. My first completed kit in a while and a real mojo booster. A nice kit for its age and vintage, the kit built up with no issues ootb, I brush painted it with Humrol acrylics, applying a number of thin white washes over the base coat of dunkelgrun. Top view showing the rear gunner/observer who is a Revell figure. The original kit has a bloke holding a camera pointing straight down, which is fine if you are displaying it in flight. Opposite view showing the original kit transfers (including the swastika) which still worked after 40 odd years in the box!! And there we have it, mojo restored thanks to all the brilliant builds I have been following on BM. I have a few more nearing completion in the pipeline, and having managed to post this I will try and squeeze in a couple more before end of year. Thanks for looking, and comments welcome. Cheers Greg.

* Thank you to JackG for the suggestion for the title of this thread and more information from Jack can be found here. Thank you also to Levin for letting me know how it would be in German. I initially got interested in German WW2 armour during the D-Day GB in 2014 - so when this MTO GB was suggested I knew instantly the sort of thing I would be doing. It took until fairly recently, though, to firm up my plans with the help of JackG and SgtSquarehead and, as you can see from the title, I'm planning on building 3 kits. First up is this one from Tamiya: I'm intending to make it OOB as this version: Alongside the one above I intend to build this kit from AFV Club: My intention is to build this kit as Tiger 131' - (now The Bovington Tiger) - there are a few minor changes that I will need to make to produce a more accurate version. To go along with the AFV Club Tiger 1 I purchased these at the same time: Apparently the tracks AFV Club provide in the box are not perfect so I will build their replacements from the set above. As I'm planning (hopefully) to make a diorama, I thought the brass ammo might be useful. Next - if I manage to get the two above finished in time - I thought I would have a go at making this Tiger 1 from Tamiya as well: .....but rather than make it just OOB I thought I could use these: I haven't decided which version to make it as yet - there are two suitable schemes in the Tamiya box or I could use one from the AFV Club Tiger 1 boxing. Finally these are the figures I am going to use to make up the diorama: I got the first two kits washed over the past two weekends so from this coming Saturday morning I'm ready to go! Can't wait!! Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

This was my third tank build for the MTO GB and again I thoroughly enjoyed making it although there were a couple more minor issues with it's construction than previous Tamiya 1/48 builds or the AFV Club Tiger 1 I made for the same GB. I made this kit to represent Tiger 1 No. 731 'Norbert' in Tunisia. Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Tiger 1 Initial Production Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Stretched sprue aerial and some Hauler PE WIP: Here Diorama RFI: Here ....and a few on my chipboard tabletop with one of my sandy backgrounds behind - (this isn't the diorama base): Finally one photo showing how 731 appears on the diorama: I have posted the photos of the full diorama in the Diorama section which can be found here. I thoroughly enjoyed building this tank and thanks must go to all the Britmodeller members who offered advice and support throughout my project. It was a great GB to take part in and, if you haven't checked it out out I would recommend a quick look! Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix Edit: 04/01/17 - some more photos of Norbert on the diorama, some of which have had some Photoshop work on them: Photoshopped image - Norbert on the left: Photoshopped image - Norbert on the right: Images without any Photoshop work:

When I was planning what I wanted to build for the MTO GB I was initially thinking of just making a couple of German tanks based in Tunisia. Then Jack G mentioned that the units did tend to fight in battlegroups and, in fact, that In early 1943 the eleven surviving tigers of 501 were allocated to 504. From there the project grew and now includes two Tiger 1s, a Pz.III Ausf.L and an Fw.190 A4 in a small diorama which includes some figures. The kits: Kit 1: 1/48 Tamiya Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.L as Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L No.1 - 10th Panzer Division 1943 Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Stretched sprue aerial and Tamiya stowage items from the Jerry Can Set. RFI: Here Kit 2: 1/48 AFV Club Tiger 1 as Panzerkampfwagen VI, Tiger I (E), SdKfz 181 No.131 Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Skybow individual track links RFI: Here Kit 3: 1/48 Tamiya Tiger 1 Initial production as Tiger 1, No.731, 'Norbert' Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Stretched sprue aerial and some Hauler PE RFI: Here Kit 4: 1/48 Tamiya Fw190 A3 (converted to an A4 ) as Fw 190 A-4 of II./JG 2 Flown by Hauptmann Dickfeld Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Aerial cable from EZ-line plus an Airfix propeller motor. RFI: Here Figures are all from the Tamiya Africa Corps and Tank Maintenance sets. The palm trees (such as they are) are from Woodlands Scenics and the tufts are by Army Painter. WIP: Here ] .....and a couple to show how it looks without a background: As I have said in my other posts I thoroughly enjoyed building this diorama and a lot of that is down to the support and advice offered by Britmodeller members - so a big thank you to all those who contributed to my build thread, especially JackG and Sgt.Squarehead for the initial advice and ideas for the project. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix Edit: 04/01/17 Some new Photoshop images:

Well I am very late to the party but, having eventually finished my MTO GB diorama project, I'm hoping to get this kit started tomorrow morning - I gave the sprues a wash with warm soapy water this afternoon. It is going to have to be a quick OOB build so I get chance to finish it in time. The kit is the starter set version but I have cut away the section from the box with the paints, glue and brush because I'm not going to use them. Box art: This will be my first ever Mustang build and I'm really looking forward to it. Kind regards, Stix

Yep, the last one for this year. I had hoped to get in another but realistically that ain't gonna happen! So my latest project, another old Airfix tooling from the 70's (sorry no box top this time) dug out from the bottom of the stash. The old Mk 1/IIB Hurribomber. I sanded back but didn't remove all the surface detail. Again its all brush painted with Humbrol acrylics including the tail band as I cannot get transfers to stick to curves! The outer gun ports which Airfix supply as transfers are replaced with paper napkin soaked in white glue after being painted red. Another of "old" Airfix;s gem kits I think. This tooling replaced or supplemented the original Mk VI the kit I have supplied the underwing rockets, long range tanks and 20mm cannons to make the various other marks but does not supply the volkes airfilter. The transfers are old and a wee bit out of register on the code letters... All in all another nice enjoyable build. Just to compare old with new I took a shot with the more recent Mk IIc tooling... The heavy recessed panel lines of today are quite noticeable. And that's it for 2016 from me, hope you liked. Thanks for looking, and Happy New Year to you all. Cheers Greg, all comments welcome.

Panzerkampfwagen VI, Tiger I (E), SdKfz 181 No.131 in Tunisia Possibly one of the most famous Tiger 1s, 131 saw service in Tunisia where it was eventually captured by the British 48th Royal Tank Regiment during World War II. It is now at The Tank Museum in Bovington and is currently the only operating Tiger tank in the world. This tank is the second completed model of a scene I am building for the MTO GB. The first photos were just taken on my chipboard table top with a desert scene propped up behind. I will eventually make a proper base. The kit was 'modified' from the base version to be more like 131 with the addition of a few bits and pieces here and there and the removal of some others. I have depicted the tank sometime in the days before it was captured. More details of the build can be found in my WIP thread - see below for details. Kit: 1/48 AFV Club Tiger 1 Ausf.E Early Version Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Skybow Tiger 1 tracks, plus wire and plastic strip for the grab handle and step that were a feature on the front of the hull The diorama I made in the the MTO GB which this tank forms part of can be found Here Some photos from above to show some of the details: One with the Tamiya Pz.Kpfw.III I have also completed for this project: The WIP for this project can be found here: Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Recently I was quite lucky with my eBay trawling and came across Eduards 1/48 bf 109 G Royal Class for bargain. Now, I'm well aware of Eduards folly with their initial 109 G-6 release, such as bulges where they're not wanted, unusual joins and the 1/47 point something scale they managed to measure it out to, but to me this isn't a deal breaker. Besides the known issues, which can be made to disappear, and ignoring the unusual scale, this is reported to be the best Gustav out there. To have found a complete Royal boxing, that wasn't in need of a call to my bank manager first, seemed too good to miss. As you're no doubt aware there are a good 14 marking options available, two of which are for North African based Gustavs, and I plan to build Werner Schroer's bf 109 G-2 as part of the MTO group build. As an insurance policy should something go terribly wrong (and things always try to with my modelling!) I've got a new tool Airfix 1/48 Emil lurking in the shadows. So, onto photos. Below we have the full kit itself (minus the glass, it's in use), the decals and the marking option I plan on using. I plan to brush paint this entirely but unfortunately I picked up Humbrols RLM range with high hopes and was horribly surprised, thus I'm lacking all of the required paints. New ones were ordered from Sovereign on Sunday, they shipped Monday so hopefully they'll be here Wednesday and the chaps have been kind enough to give me plenty of info on them so I can just jump right in. That's it for now, I'll make a start on what I can and then start making decent progress once the postie has been! Only worked against the clock once before so we shall see how this goes, but with just over two months I'm feeling confident.

"Road to Berlin" - 1/48 Tamiya IS-2 Kit: Tamiya 1/48 IS-2 (built for the Great Patriotic War GB). WIP: Here. RFI: Here. Figures: Tamiya and ICM Base: 4mm MDF mounted in a Wilkos 7in x 5in picture frame Scenery: Filler over expanded polystyrene, painted with Humbrol Dark earth and then a variety of turf scatters, grass tufts and trees from Woodlands Scenics, Greenscene, etc. applied. The fencing was wooden coffee stirrers mounted on square strips of softwood and the road sign was created in Photoshop. Vignette GB WIP: Here. The Vignette: One of the IS-2s in the Russian tank column, en route to Berlin, is passing the female army traffic controller who has just given permission to proceed. Just at that second there's an alert that there's possibly German troops/armour in the fields/forest to the south. Some of the IS-2 troops/crew are more alert than others and instantly spring into action - the others are getting there more slowly as the tank commander smiles as he brings his large gun around ready for firing. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix Edit - On a personal note: Thank you to everyone who voted for this Vignette in the Vignette GB - I am so surprised it won - there are so many brilliant Vignettes in the Gallery. I was obviously delighted but on the day this won it was also a very sad day for me. Unfortunately my mum passed away that same afternoon after being poorly for some time. I have dedicated my win to her as she was always very supportive of my modelling and in fact she purchased the Revell Schlingmann Fire Truck for me a few years back when I was getting back into building kits. I had shown her some photos of this Vignette the week before she died, while she was in hospital. She was delighted when I returned to the hobby because she remembered how I used to love making models as a child. For my mum Betty 10/04/27 - 09/11/16

FW190 A-8 'Brown 6' WNr 175140, JG26, Melsbroek, Belgium, July 1944 Kit: 1/72 Airfix Starter Set Extras: Tamiya tape seatbelts and EZ-Line aerial wire Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel acrylics all applied by brush WIP: Here This was my build for the FW190 GB and was in in fact my first build of a German aircraft. I mostly enjoyed the build although the kit itself did try to fight back at times. The fit is not great in places and I think that it really couldn't be considered a 'Starter Set'...........I think if this had been the first kit I had ever attempted it would probably have been my last. Full details of the issues I had can be found in my WIP here. I also had some issues with the paints I used - I tried Humbrol's RLM range for the first time but found them a little difficult to use compared to the other Humbrol paints I have used before. I also took a lot more photos on my Spitfire display shelf: ......and a few of the above photos in B&W: Finally a big thank you to all the people who contributed to my build thread - especially Troy Smith who found me photos of the actual aircraft and offered advice about the necessary paints.........thank you Troy. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix EDIT: 22/08/16 Troy Smith spotted in my earlier photos that there was a problem with the gear doors - I had shortened the legs a touch but hadn't altered the doors. I have now corrected the problem and retaken the photos. As the light seemed better I have taken a few more which I have included above.

This is going to be a bit of an intermittent thread but I'm determined to get get this Hurricane finished. I started it as part of a double build over in the Hurricane STGB but only managed to get one of the Hurricanes finished in the allotted time. I basically had too many GBs on the go at the same time! Now the problem is that, at the time of writing this, I'm still finishing off a Spitfire over in the Edgar Tribute GB and going to start a couple more GB builds in the next month or so. I'm also co-hosting the Vignette GB which starts in June! So this thread is, hopefully, going to make sure I keep working on the second Hurricane whenever I get chance. The original plan for the two Hurricanes was to make a bit of a diorama with one aircraft taking off and one being readied on the ground. The one taking off ended up like this: More photos of the completed Hurricane can be found here. I had done some work on this second build (which can be seen in the photos below) and over this past weekend I got a little more done while I was waiting for decals and Pledge to dry on my Spitfire build. This is the kit I'm using: ....and I will be making it as this one: This is the PE I will be using - although maybe not all of it: ......and these are the replacement wheels: The following three photographs show how far I'd got up to before this last weekend - PE parts fitted for the top of the wheel well: Cockpit walls painted: Some work on the seat, seat frame and IP: More details can be found in my STGB thread. This weekend I first got the PE cockpit side walls fitted: The seat glued to the frame: .....and finally some PE detail parts added to the IP frame: With my Spitfire build almost complete I hoping to get a fair bit done on this next weekend. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Quick building of kits is not usually my approach but this sounds like fun and I think I have a suitable kit: I think I will have to go for the two 12 hour sessions because I'm not going to be able to stay awake for 24 hours!........I'm waaaayyyy too old! Kind regards, Stix

I'm afraid this isn't going to be an exciting build to follow but I'm looking forward to it. To be honest this GB wasn't on my radar at all. I'm sorry to say I only realised it was happening when these threads appeared at the top of the GB section. The reason I'm here now is that, when I saw the title, I suddenly realised I had purchased the above Starter Kit a couple of years ago when Aldi were selling them cheap over the Christmas/New Year period. The kit was hidden away among the few bits of my limited stash but I managed to find it. I'm going to have to do a bit of research into the proper colours for the cockpit, wheel wells, etc. because, as this is the starter kit version, the instructions only give colour call-outs for the limited range of colours provided with the kit and I want to try and do it a little more accurately. It will be predominantly OOB. I won't be starting it straight away as I currently have two ongoing projects in the Vignette GB and one in the Great Patriotic War GB (plus I'm co-hosting the Vignette GB!) Onto the photos - box: This is the starter kit version but I cut off the top bit with the paints, brush and glue to make it easier to store and I won't be using them for this build anyway. The contents of the box: Sample of the instructions: Decals: Version to be made - WNr 175140 'Brown 6' 7, JG26, Melsbroek, Belgium, July 1944: I have never made a German aircraft - I can't even remember making any when I was a child - so this will be a first for me. This is a new tool version and, to me, the detail looks quite nice - I have made newly tooled Airfix kits before (Spitfire and Hurricane) and they seem to go together okay. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Having had some problems uploading photos yesterday, I wasn't able to get this thread for my first vignette build started. My plan for this one is to basically use these: I built the IS-2 over in the Great Patriotic War GB and the WIP can be found here. My intention is to have a small scene with the tank out on a country road on it's way to Berlin - the base will possibly look something like this: The figures will either be on or around the tank - I haven't yet decided. This is the frame: I've got several of these and will be using at least two for this GB. .........and with the tank roughly in place on the frame: I'm currently building a 1/72 IS-2 also over in the GPW GB (in the same thread) and that will take up most of my time next weekend but I am hoping to get something done on this project too. Comments and suggestions welcome Kind regards, Stix

Russian Heavy Tank IS-2 - Model 1944 ChKZ 88th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment - April 1945 Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Extras: Hauler Photo-etch HLX48324 and stowage from a Tamiya Jerry Can set Paints: Humbrol, Revell, Railmatch and Citadel acrylics - all applied by brush WIP: Here This was my first build for the Great Patriotic War Group Build. As with all 1/48 Tamiya AFV kits I've built so far it was an absolute pleasure to work on. The fit is superb and the crisp details make it a joy to paint and weather. These photos were taken on my Spitfire display shelf - I am going to make a proper base for it over in the Vignette GB - here. ....and some photos to show a bit more of the detail: Thanks must go to everyone who contributed to my WIP thread either by offering support or advice. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix Edit 13/07/16 - As I mentioned at the top of this post; this 1/48 Tamiya IS-2 was built as part of the Great Patriotic war GB. Once I had completed this one I began work on a 1/72 Italeri IS-2 and once I had finished it I took some photos to put in the RFI section and I included a couple which showed this 1/48 version next to the 1/72nd one. So I thought I would include the two photos here too: EDIT: 15/08/16 - some photos of the tank on it's vignette display base which I made in the Vignette GB: Loads more photos of the tank and it's base can be found here. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Intoduction taken from TANKS ENCYCLOPEDIA A new standard in hell: The IS-2 1943 onwards - Heavy tank - 3,854 built As the escalation between German and Russian engineers reached a new point with the introduction on the German side of the Panther and Tiger, plus the knowledge that something bigger was brewing, the IS-2 was pressed into service as soon as its main armament was ready. With partly sloped, 120 mm thick frontal armour and moreover, a new massive 122 mm main gun, the new heavy tank seemed to be just the trump card Stalin needed to wash over any armoured opposition on the Eastern Front. Or so it seemed on paper. In reality some shortcuts were taken to meet the expectations that will prove real issues in the long run, starting with the gun itself which was slow to reload and with bulky two-pieces naval ammunition that consumed the available room in the turret you can read more here at TANKS ENCYCLOPEDIA This was a great looking tank and both the Tamiya and Italeri versions should make up into good looking models. The Italeri version was very kindly donated by Sgt.Squarehead and I'm intending to build it as part of this GB and then design a scene for it in the Vignette GB which starts on the 25th June. First here's a photo of the box of the Tamiya Version which I will be starting first at the weekend: I'm also intending to use these with the Tamiya version: Then from the 25th of June onwards, to coincide with the Vignette GB, I will be building this one as well: I am really looking forward to the weekend when I can get started on the Tamiya kit. Kind regards, Stix

Unknown unit - Berlin - April 1945 Kit: 1/72 Italeri Extras: Tow cable from twisted 0.2mm Lead wire, aerial from stretched sprue and stowage from a variety of other 1/72 figures sets. Paints: Humbrol, Revell, Railmatch and Citadel acrylics - all applied by brush WIP: Here This was my second build for the Great Patriotic War Group Build. This kit was in fact a gift from Sgt.Squarehead - so a big thank you to him! This is actually a very nice kit to build although there are a couple of places where there are no precise locations for joining parts which made it a bit tricky. Also the instructions for the tracks are not quite accurate but with a little careful thinking the tracks build up really well. The kit provides the top run of the tracks as straight sections but a distinctive feature of the originals was the sag between the return rollers - to create this I carefully bent the tracks to shape. These photos were taken on my Spitfire display shelf - I am going to make a proper base for it over in the Vignette GB - Here Just one in black and white: .....and some photos not on the display shelf to show more views from higher up - one to show the comparative size: Finally two just for fun - showing the 1/48 Tamiya version alongside this 1/72nd Italeri version: [The RFI for the Tamiya 1/48 version can be found here.] Thanks, as always, must go to everyone who contributed to my WIP thread either by offering support or advice. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Hi all. This is my second entry in the Vignette GB. Both my vignette builds involve the IS-2 Russian Heavy Tank but this one is in 1/72 and from Italeri whereas the other one is Tamiya's 1/48 version. I will be using these for the tank and figures: I will be building the tank itself in the Great Patriotic War GB and will only be posting a couple of progress images here. This was the current state of play with the tank on Sunday afternoon - most of the parts here have been painted and it has had some weathering applied: The start of the WIP for the Italeri IS-2 can be found here. I'm not sure about the artwork on the box for the figures but the figures themselves seem to have some nice detail and get reasonable reviews: The plastic the figures are made from is a little rubbery and there is a lot of flash in places - but a quick test with a scalpel blade showed that the flash and seams cleaned up reasonably well. I don't think I will be able to sand them though. The plastic isn't quite as bad as early Airfix figures. Like with my 1/48 version I will be using this frame that I got cheap from Wilkos: My intention is to make a Berlin street scene of some kind, the buildings for which I am going to scratch build. With some buildings I made for my model railways many years ago I used filler over thin plywood - the stonework and bricks were then scratched in with the point of a needle. I haven't made any plans yet but will hopefully do so soon. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Crusader Mk.III / British Cruiser Tank Mk.VI T126799 - 6th Armoured Division - Tunisia Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Paints: Humbrol and Revell - all applied by brush. The tank is built OOB but I have added some stowage items WIP: Here This tank was built for the Made in Britain Group Build and was great fun to make. I had originally planned on making a base for it but my commitments in other GBs means I'm not going to get time - so the photos here are ones I took after I'd finished the tank a while back. Troy Smith posted a photo for me in my WIP thread of one of the actual Crusader tanks. Thank you Troy! The original photo (below) is from Wikipedia and was taken by Sgt. Lambert of No.1 Army Film & Photographic Unit and shows a British Army Crusader Mk III tank in North Africa in 1943. Wikipedia says the image is in the public domain but if there are any issues with me including it here then I can remove it. The original image can be found on this page. I have edited one of the photos above to make it lighter and black and white: I reckon Tamiya have done a pretty good job with this kit. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

A couple of years back when I returned to kit building, after about a 25 year gap, I built a few bits and pieces before thinking I'd like to try a Spitfire. Noticing Eduard's 1/48 Mk.IXc Spitfire on sale somewhere, I was immediately taken with it's lovely detail and the fact it included photoetch! My concern, before buying it, was that, at that time, I hadn't built a Spitfire since I was a child and it was a relatively expensive kit that I didn't want to mess up. So I decided I needed to do some practice builds first with smaller 1/72 scale Spitfires. My first Spitfire build was Airfix's new tool 1/72 Mk.Ia (WIP here). I built a couple more 1/72 Spitfires before trying Revell's (ICM's) 1/48 Mk.XVI Spitfire (WIP here) - in the first post is a photo of the three Spitfires I'd built up until then. By the time I got around to buying and making the Eduard Mk.IX I was already hooked on Spitfires. I built the Eduard Mk.IX as part of the D-Day Group Build and the resulting model can be seen here. Since then I have made four more Spitfires - two Mk.Vb Spitfires and two Mk.I Spitfires. Throughout all my builds I frequently sought out information about the Spitfires I was building and always found tremendous information and help from a wide variety of very helpful people here on Britmodeller including, of course, Edgar. I never corresponded with him but was always fascinated by the depth of his knowledge and his support of fellow modellers. So for this tribute GB to Edgar I am going to go back to my practice scale and will make a 1/72 Mk.Vb Spitfire - in fact this one: I was originally planning on building Airfix's 1/48 Mk.XII but I've currently got four other builds on the go in other GBs, so I figured I'd start with this one, which I hope to get completed in the STGB time frame. I may well start the Mk.XII during this GB as well but take my time with it. I may even try to get some PE for it. I'm currently planning on making it as the box art version which is as EN821 from No. 243 Squadron, Fighter Command: If you checked out any the links above you may have seen I have made the 1/48 version of this aircraft: I'm not sure when I will actually get this project underway but I'm really looking forward to it. Kind regards, Stix