Search the Community

Hey all, Benefitting from my first Christmas off in six years, I managed to sneak one last build past the goal post before the new year. This is Trumpeter's BTR-50PK from 2011, which followed on from their release of the PT-76 amphibious light tank, of which both vehicles share a common hull. This kit comes with decal options for either Russian or East German vehicles. The decals contain set numbers for vehicles depicted on the colour schemes as well as a set of numbers 0-9 to make up your own vehicles. I painted the vehicle using the suggested body colour as per the instructions, which was Mr. Hobby's 303 Light Green. I feel it might be a little too light, and for future builds I might shop around for a darker shade prior to painting. Departing from the colour scheme, I recently purchased Tankograd Publishing's book on NVA T-34s, and one image of interest I found was that of a T-34 ARV towing a disabled BTR whilst on winter exercises. The image shows both vehicles in a field applied winter scheme with daubs of white paint applied hap-hazardly over the vehicle. I was inspired by the look to replicate this on my vehicle. Ultimately I used a somewhat frayed old, square brush I had and with Humbrol 34, I took the excess off the brush and applied the rest in a random pattern over the vehicle. The weathering was achieved with oil paints, thinned down Tamiya Acrylics to make filters as well as AK Interactive's Acrylic Mud. I also used Tamiya snow effect. In a departure from recent builds, I decided to have a go at a vignette, which is a first for me. Using a cheaply sourced canvas, I glued down polystyrene sheet and shaped it to create a sunken road. I then applied the same acrylic mud that I had used on the vehicle. I blended some Tamiya snow into the mud to create a slushy, snowy, muddy look. The rest of the snow was applied to make it look like recent snowfall. I added grass tufts that I bought off of a wargaming vendor at a recent Tankfest, and then I drybrushed the tufts white to make them look suitably wintery. My final addition to the vehicle was a commander figure, which was spare from a recent Tamiya T-55 Enigma that I had built. Thanks for looking! Sam

Hey all, This originally was gifted to me as a World of Tanks boxed kit in conjunction with Italeri. Looking at scalemates, I believe this kit originates from Zvezda where it first released in 1993. The kit, under the World of Tanks label contained a poster, a fact booklet and the kit instructions. The vehicle in this boxing was meant to be built to represent an in-game vehicle with semi-fictious schemes and markings based off of those found in-game as well. Ultimately the kit has resided amongst the stash for a good 8 years now, with bits and pieces such as the track and some of the running gear being nicked out of it. However, recently I recieved a Tankograd Publishing book on Nationale Volksarmee T-34s, and my inspiration stems from there, with the help of a Star Decals set. Working with what was becoming more and more of a cannibalised kit, I invested in Miniart's T-55 running gear, and a set of track from T-Rex. I also used bits from the spares box as well as the aforementioned decal set. Combining various bits together, I managed to cobble together a reasonably accurate example of the vehicle as seen in the late 50s to early 60s. I painted the model using Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol enamels. I weathered the vehicle with oils, pigments and pencils. I was reasonably impressed with the cast-texturing on the turret, and worked to bring this out with careful dry-brushing and filters. The turret box comes from an unused part in Tamiya's T-55 Engima. I finished the vehicle with Vallejo mud-textures coloured with mixed in Tamiya Acrylics and further layers of paint thinned and sprayed over the top of the mud. Thanks for looking! Sam

This is another kit that was started earlier in the year and crying out to be finished. If you haven’t got one of these treat yourself. It really is a monster step up in quality (see what I did there). Its finely moulded and comes with masks, etch and decals that you need to be careful with but work well and are in register. The aircraft was designed to be a replacement for the An-2 and was code named Clod by NATO. Not exactly a name befitting the attractive Little Bee.(Pchelka) Its finished entirely from the box as an East German example painted with Xtracolor paints and varnishes, Flory wash and Tamiya weathering powders. Hope you like it. What do you get when you muliply An-14 by 2 An-28 (PZL Mielec M28) Another superb kit this one by Aeroplast, I built this some time ago in Vietnamese colours. Thanks for looking Pete

Hey all, This is Takom's T-55AM2b. This project had resided for a good long while as a shelf queen before dusting it off whilst looking for something else. In that time I had managed to lose some of the running gear and the tracks for it! One set of Miniart running gear and track from T-Rex later, I painted the vehicle using Mr. Colour and Tamiya Acrylics with some Humbrol Enamels as well. The model was then drybrushed and had filters/washes applied using oil paints. The decals were a combination of the kits offerings as well as some nicked off a Tamiya T-55 to make up the numbers. The kit only supplied the DDR Roundels otherwise. The T-Rex Tracks were built straight out of the box with no need for any cleanup, just plug and play. I did dip the tips of the track pins in CA Glue however just to ensure they didn't come out again. The tracks were amazingly well detailed, my only slight criticism is that the material was slightly brittle and a number of links were broken straight out of the box. Thanks for looking! Sam

This is the Eduard L-39 Albatros built from the Profipack boxing, which is a fairly complete offering. A straightforward build, the only mod was to the kit seats, which have been reduced in height and width to fit the cockpit. I added Reskit wheels and UB-16-57 rocket launchers, which are both excellent additions. The DDR scheme is from the kit, with just some Rettung (Rescue) markings from a HiDecal set. I found it difficult to match the colours to the original camo scheme, because they look different in every single photo depending on light conditions etc! Eventually I went with Mr Hobby H85 and H302, over Vallejo FS36375, which at least matched a photo I took of a Czech L-39 at Fairford. This was a really nice kit to build with good shape and detailing where it counts.

Hello to all of you. I present you my latest finished model.The MiG-23ub of the East German Air Force.I built this one pretty much OOB.I made the pittotubes out of needles and some plastic. The paints used are gunze and the varnishes are valleyo. It is quite challenging kit to work on but nothing that cant be built with a little bit of more effort. I have also made a youtube video build so if you are interested you can watch on the link bellow. Regards, Dragan

This is not something I would normally do, I build and try to complete models that should be consigned to the box or garbage bin of doom, but my AMX truly is a pile of and deserves to be in there!!! So I need to fill the space that was of a similar theme, in it was odd, produced in very few numbers and not truly successful, and it only ever was used in training exercises and had small cannons. So I have this...it’s odd/ugly, was out of date by the time it officially entered service, it was produced in its thousands, used in a dozen or more wars and is still in service today even though it was first introduced into service in 1955 and has bigger cannons!! Takom’s ZSU-57-2........I was tempted with the ZSU-23-4, but that may come another time. I’m taking photo’s as I open the box so I don’t really know what’s in there...other than lots of shiny bags filled with plastic goodies....... ....which turn out to be lots of plastic goodies, there’s 5 sprue sets of shells! There was almost tears of joy to see a complete chassis tub!!! The instructions are like a book (I’ve build a Takom model before, the instructions are really nicely done). It even comes with PE, wire, some nice painting instructions, mine will be an East German one... Plus some decals which include a rather grumpy looking dude with a beard! I mean with something as awesome as this shouldn’t you be smiling? ....and the obligatory extras..... The barrels are awesome, I could only afford empty shells, and the track are just models all on their own. This build should be a nice and simple one which should make me forget about that which shall not be named anymore!