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According to at least one of my sources, during Desert Storm the Iraqi army used T-72, T-62 and T-55 tanks, of which it says the latter were most numerous though I believe that in many cases they were in fact the Chinese copy known as the T-59 - I saw a captured T-59 in Iraqi colours at the Tank Museum after the war and probably have a photo somewhere. A few years back I tried to build the ACE T-59 for the Vietnam GB but abandoned it as virtually unbuildable and used the PST T-54 instead. As you can see from the box, one of the optional schemes is for an Iraqi tank, and so I will be "borrowing" the decs to build this. Unlike the T-59, the T-54 kit built quite well so I may just be able to get this finished before the deadline, and if not there is always the KUTA. Incidentally, as you will see from the box art somebody got a bit confused date wise, unless WWII was thought to extend into the 1950's in Belarus where the kit was made.😄 I might paint this in the Mig version of Iraqi sand instead of the AK one I used on the T-72, just for a variation. Pete

My KV-1S from PST. I used a 4BO weathering guide for this one and most of the products used were from Ammo. Thanks for looking. Cheers Calum

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 ZIS-6 Soviet Army Truck from PST. Painted with acrylics from Mr.Hobby, weathered with artist oils, pastel chalks and graphite pen. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. The PST offering not a very exciting kit, but the only (injection-moulded) option for this vehicle in 72 scale. For today's standards the parts are crude (the kit was originally released in the 1990s) and suffer from flash in some places. I built from the box, adding windscreens from clear foil and etched step gratings. It may look like mirrors are missing, but most of these trucks didn't have any! The kit came with a M30 122mm Howitzer which I will present as a seperate item. Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna!

As I mentioned before elsewhere I am retired and in lockdown yet again here in the South Wales Valleys. I have hardly been outside my house and garden since March and I am bored rigid - hence the number of kits I have built for several GB of late in an effort to retain my sanity! In the summer of 1961 I was visiting relatives in Scotland, and walking into the Woolworths store in Alloa I saw the then new Airfix Sherman kit for 2/- (10p). Since then I have built an awful lot of tanks and related vehicles. some in 1/35 but most in either 1/72 or 1/76 (Airfix could never make their mind up if they wanted to be the same scale as their planes or trains). Eventually I ran out of WWI and WWII kits and started looking for post war ones, but for a long time there were few on offer, particularly those built in the Soviet Union. OK, the Airfix JS (or now IS)-3 served post war, but until Esci released their T-62 in around 1988 that was about it. Matchbox followed with a T-80 in 1990, and others have come steadily since including a white metal T-72 I picked up from the shop at the Tank Museum on one of my visits - just wish I had picked up the resin Conqueror I seem to remember seeing at the same time! I gave up building tanks for a few years, and then started again when I stumbled across the Millicast range of resin ones, and eventually decided I needed to fill the gap between 1945 and around 1960, so I bought these 10+ years back. All could be eligible for this GB, but I have decided to build the T-59. The kit is from ACE Models in the Ukraine (Kiev), and is a bit messy. The plastic is not as good as the PST kits from Belarus (Minsk), with plenty of flash but it does come with NVA markings. It is going to be a bit of a challenge because when ACE released it in 2002 they seem to have just reworked their earlier T-55 kit slightly, which is probably why the instructions say "Due to the moulding procedure certain errors have occured" - charming! What it comes down to is that the second and fourth pair of roadwheels on each side, together with the drive sprockets at the rear all need re-positioning slightly and the engine decking needs a bit taking off it. That does not look too difficult but we shall see. If it turns out to be a mess I will probably abandon it, but Enzo likes to say, a challenge is good for us. Anyway, here it is. I was going to build it like the one in the Tank Museum recovered from Iraq after the first Gulf War, but an NVA one will do instead - I can always repaint it later. Incidentally, I don't know if the T-59 in the Museum is the one in question but I seem to remember that when they were unloading one of the captured Iraqi tanks from the transporter, either the clutch jammed or the driver's foot slipped and it smashed up some cars in the Museum car park - that would make an interesting insurance claim! I know that the T-59 started life as a Chinese copy of the T-54's that the Soviet Union gave them, but that it then "evolved" over the years. Once I have done a bit of research I will write a brief background history for those of you who might be interested. so be warned! If by any chance somebody reading this has actually built this particular kit I would be interested in any info you can give me. Cheers Pete PS. As Norinco was not actually formed until the 1980's I guess I should not use that name, but I have no idea what the name of the company making them in the 1960's was!

Dear all, Here are some images of my recently finished KV-2 Dreadnought from PST in 1:72. This very heavy tank (57 tons) was developed as a bunker buster for the Soviet Army in 1940. Its armour was so thick that the German anti-tank guns couldn't penetrate it. Only the fearsome 88 Flak gun could. On the model I replaced the various handles with brass wire and opened-up the front hatch, meaning I had to scratch build one as well in order to pose it open. I replaced the kit's link-and-length tracks for resin examples from OKB Grigorov, as they are superior to kit parts when it comes to detail. The decals are from the box. For weathering I used a black-brown enamel wash and Tamiya weathering pigments. I hope you like it. Peter

Hello modellers , Well, I've been looking forward to this, only my second GB. I wasn't sure what a Vignette was in modelling terms. In terms of writing a little story, yes, so I thought that is maybe what it is for modelling. Perhaps a small section of what would usually be a diorama? A small part of the bigger picture. I hope I have at least the essence of the idea. Originally I had wanted to build one of two Spanish Civil War dioramas, but as time went by, I realised that my WIP for three I-16's had made such a diorama difficult. Many setbacks with these builds meant that I couldn't be very sure I could complete *another* I-16, a conversion to a 'Type 10' from an ICM 'Type 18' kit in time to have it ready for this GB. Moreover, I simply could not find figures I was happy with for the SCW Republican aircrew. I am so happy Minairons exist, their AFV's are lovely (although I prefer SteelWorks, but both are great). Nevertheless I purchased a set of their 'Republican Infantry' and was disappointed. They're obviously meant for the gaming community. They have that exaggerated, cartoon like quality, that inhuman chunkiness that simply doesn't float my boat. My brother is an avid gamer and I know these figures will be loved by that community (and I often wish I was part of it), but true to scale modelling is my love. Therefore figures like Preiser, even Revell and Airfix, make me happy So, I re-assessed. I'm making three Lagg-3 aircraft in 1/72 for the GPW GB. I checked and found it was OK to use one of these in this GB. This got me rather happy! A few months ago I found a photograph of a Polikarpov Po-2 being refuelled in the cold, harsh environment of a WW2 winter . I didn't know it was a Po-2 at first, but friends over on WW2 Aircraft Net helped me identify it as a night fighter variant on skis. The refueller is a BZ-35 in white distemper and I love white distemper camouflage! Here is the photo: Some sources state this as a BZ-38, but I will not worry too much about that, this Vignette will not even include the Po-2. I purchased a Po-2, but I have decided I will not have time to build it for this GB as I am also committed to the Airliner GB soon, so to keep it fun, a LaGG 3 (one of my aviation favourites!), should be in the process of refuelling. A photo of a LaGG 3 in winter 1942 by Lake Ladoga has always been a favourite; here it is: This image is from Page 10 of 'Lagg Fighters in Action', Squadron/Signal Aircraft Number 163 by Hans-Heiri Stapfer 1996. It is also on Massimo Tessitori's superb VVS website and there credited to'Red Stars'. If I need to remove it please let me know. I have always like the nature of this photograph; the rugged, extreme cold it shows, whilst the aircraft is pared down, even the cockpit main canopy removed, in this hellish freezing cold to improve visibility for the pilot; very likely Georgy Kostylev. He named his aircraft Columbine and was clearly fond of her, scoring at least 10 victories. Well, the components were in the porridge pot of my brain and this vignette was born. Georgy Kosylev waiting for his Columbine to be refuelled. Absolutely freezing even in his long coat. . For some reason the refuelling guy is wearing normal ground-crew clothing with no overcoat and doesn't seem to be cold at all. This causes some questions and thoughts to appear in the mind of Georgy! Has anyone yet noticed it is very cold ? The progress of my build of Columbine can be found here . Meanwhile, I purchased these Zvezda ground Crew figures: They are splendid figures and clearly based upon characters from a famous Soviet film (Only Old Men Are Going to Battle) that can be found here as a colour version (with subtitles) on Youtube, in particular one can identify the quite portly (like me) cheerful man: ​I ask some advice here; the Zvezda kit provides no information on the colours to be used for the ground crew uniforms, I have Googled but to no avail. l If I could type in Russian, I think I would have success, but I can't . Could anyone advise on colours? ​I have bought a figure to represent Georgy waiting for his beloved aircraft to be refuelled, it is by Aero-Bonus, is in resin and is very nice indeed. It was a little expensive for just one figure, but this is for something special Painting instructions are, very helpfully, included with this one: Finally the BZ-35. I have no way of knowing where Georgy got his fuel from, or what kind of bowser, but this will do; it was around in 1942 and looks the part. It is by PST and Sgt. Squarehead helped me to research and locate it; thanks Sarge! Finally the base, two dollars (a pound) picture frame from a Salvation Army charity shop: I will be cutting the size down to fit the dimensions allowed in this GB. It does not have glass, it has a plastic clear face, so I think this could be a nice 'icy' start to the terrain I've made a little start on the fuel truck/bowser and this, the base, a crew figure or two and the plot will be included in this WIP. I have never built a Vignette before and have no experience of painting figures or AFV's/trucks! !! This will be a huge learning experience. Any advice on how to replicate snow over forest/tundra grass will be much appreciated. Also any figure painting advice for 1/72. These are lovely figures and I'd like to do them justice. I've done a lot of Youtube and other research on painting them, and bought a 'Lifecolor' 'Flesh Paint' set. I hope that was a good start? Next post; the BZ gets underway. Thanks for reading and happy modelling Tony

Placemarker.....Need to get all the bogies off my desk before I can get started here!

Really struggled to come up with a subject that I could get done in the little time I've left myself, but I'm hoping this one should tick all the boxes: Unique subject, no need for a platoon.....Check! Plenty of plastic, no resin or brass.....Check! Simple monochrome paint-scheme.....Check! Looks like a goer! Been trying to find a video of the real thing, but what I'm looking for is only the briefest clip and it's totally drowned out in my searches by WOT BS.....Have to make do with a still and a small one at that: The KV-220 is hanging from the crane.....This is the configuration of the vehicle as it went into battle, with a 76mm armed KV-1 turret. Underarmed you say.....If you were German you were most likely meeting this thing in a Pz.III armed with a short barrel 5cm gun that had absolutuly no chance of penetrating its armour from any aspect at any realistic range. Suffice it to say that a single well placed round from a soviet 76mm was, at best, unfortunate for an early production Pz.III at anything much under a kilometer. PS - The more I look at that still the less this looks like a monochrome paint-scheme.....Looks like a white-wash job and a bit thinner on the turret, which would make sense, but might (almost certainly will) scupper a prompt finish.