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No pictures yet but listed, they are very good resin figures having a few sets in the stash at the moment Also not too expensive. http://www.valkyrie.co.kr/ Soviet Army Tank Crew in Afghanistan - 1980 Era (2 Figures and 1 Bust) VM35014 British Army of the Rhein Tank Crew in Germany (2 Figures and 1 Bust) VM35015 Modern US Army Truck Driver and Support Crew for M977 (2 Figures) VM35016 JGSDF Tank Crew - 2000 Era (2 Figures) VM35017 Modern British Army Tank Crew in Operation Granby 1991 (2 Figures) VM35018 IDF Tank Crew in Yom Kippur War 1973 (2 Figures) VM35019 Egyptian Army Tank Crew in Yom Kippur War 1973 (2 Figures) VM35020 Modern US Army Driver and Support Crew for M1151 Humvee (3 Figures) VM35021 Bundeswehr Tank Crew - 1950 ~ 60 Era (2 Figures) VM35022 Modern IDF APC Crew included Female soldier - 2000 Era (2 Figures)

HobbyBoss 83841 Soviet T-35 Heavy Tank - 'Early' with HobbyBoss 81011 Soviet T-35 Heavy Tank Track-Links Day 1: Official start time will be 12:00 noon, Saturday 31st January 2015 Oh Yes! I'm back!!!

Mil Mi-4 Hound Hobby Boss 1/72 Finally managed to get a build finished this year. It was a nice little kit with reasonably good fit and detail but for some reason I decided to make it incredibly fiddly and fragile with the addition of Eduard's exterior etch set. It does add some nice details though. Hope you enjoy the shots Thanks for looking Andy

I just received this today. It was really cheap off eBay and I may end up just keeping it as a neat piece of history (I didn't buy it myself in Russia, but I have lived in Russia in the past). It's a 1/72 EE Lightning F.6 ... but it's a Soviet kit. I say Soviet instead of Russian because the price of "1 Ruble 50 Kopeks" tells me this was from the 1980s. There is no English anywhere on the box or the instructions. I can read and understand a bit of Russian, but nothing stuck out as a brand name. There is, however, a logo in the corner. It's actually not a bad kit. Good deal of flash, raised panel lines, visibly rough machining of the molds visible on some plastic parts, but it doesn't look terrible (I'm looking at you, Academy, and your "MiG-21" kit!). No internal detail to speak of and the decals are shot (the tissue has stuck to the decal film somewhat but they could probably be salvaged with Micro Scale or varnish or something), but it looks alright overall. Haven't decided whether or not I'm going to try to build it yet. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hi all,thought I would join in with a simple OOB build of Airfix,s Tomahawk after one fell into my trolley today in Aldi,Now this kit has defeated me twice since it was released so hopefully third time lucky,I had a rumage in the spare decals box and have a set of AVG decals as well as the desert scheme in the box but I think I can cobble together decals to build a 26 sqn machine based in the UK at Gatwick just waiting for colour confirmation in the discussion section.

Okay the bad news first; despite the rather lurid title, I only completed two models this year, an Il-2 Shturmovik and an La-5, both in the gentleman's scale of 1/72nd. Now the good news - this doubles my output from last year! The Il-2 arrow (swept-winged variant) was from the Toko kit, with wooden wings represented by labouriously sanding down the wings to rid it of the engraved panel lines. The La-5 was built strictly out of the box, and the kit is a repop of the old, but quite nice Cooperativa kit. I'm not too happy with the exhaust stains on the La-5, but I was in a hurry to get if "officially" finished for 2014. The lack of weathering is deliberate - looking at photographs, the La-5 was usually kept in pretty good nick. I may well revisit the exhausts and the near lack of exhaust stains on my Il-2. The Il-2's engine, the Mikulin AM-38 was not a particularly oily or greasy engine, but it did put out quite a bit of exhaust. At any rate here they are, in all their mediocre glory! As usual I apologise for the poor quality of the photography, assembly, decaling, weathering, etc. Best Regards, Jason You may wonder why I have so many photographs for such so-so models, but I happen to go by what the Vozhd ("Boss" - Stalin) is reputed to have said - "Quantity has a quality all its own.".

Hello, Having noticed a dearth of discussion regarding said kit, I thought I'd start the ball rolling myself. Sprue pics are already floating on the Net, however here are mine. Looks like this boxing is the only one that we'll get, with optional parts for early and late versions and something for the spare box as well. Manufacturers take advice: the fuselage interior shape follows, well, is the actual fuselage: the Karman fairing is a separate part. Great for accuracy, although it remains to be seen how this will affect putting on the wings. With respect to their first kit, ejection pin marks are more in check, and there is some detail on the inside of the wheel wells: You get enough bombs to prevent takeoff. I don't think the Il-4 was ever armed with rockets, however their provision doesn't certainly harm no one. Spare box, here we come! A rather unusual load is an AMG-1 naval mine with aerodynamic fairing; there's also a torpedo (possibily a 45-36-AN model?), one FAB-1000 and two FAB-500 bombs. If you build the bomber version the torpedo can be used for a Soviet A-20... What let me down is the width of the panel lines. What to do here? Mr.Surfacer? Stretched sprue? Bite the bullet? Suggestions are welcome. Some oddities of the surface detail: Rendition of the fabric has improved a bit: There are a lot of parts for the interior, but the detail is rather on the soft side: The clear parts are thick but clear. You get a dorsal turret and a half (the difference is in the number of frames), the other half might be a starting point for a field-modified Boston...? This was the feature I was most anxious about. How do the nose windows fare? Fit seems good but they sit 'recessed', not flush. Thinning of the fuselage in correspondance to the frames is in order. Part of the engine. See what I mean about the 'soft' detail? Re the decals, we're finally spoiled for choice. Register is good. However, there's a bit of a problem with the star borders and other details: the white and especially the yellow don't quite cover. This kit will satisfy enthusiasts first and foremost by virtue of its existence, however in some regards (surface detail...) it's a step back from the Tu-2. Pity. Still, I'd rather put together this one rather than wait for Tamiya. If I get some spare time today, I could try and tape it together to check for fit and shape. HTH, Bone

Hello dear Helicopter fans. Northstarmodels announced several new items in Heli line series - products for model kits of Helicopters. 1/72 scale NS72048 Photoetched set Mi-24 V/VP/D interior set (cockpit + cargo cabin) Zvezda model kit NS72049 Ka-50/52 rapid-fire unit NPPU-80 with 2A42 30mm gun. Resin, photoetched parts and brass barrel. NS72056 Kamov Ka-8 Soviet Helicopter. Full model kit. Resin, PE parts, decal. NS72068 Additional internal fuel tanks for Mi-8 (resin, PE, decal) NS72071-a Ka-50/52 Wheels set Na mask series NS72081 Photoetched set Mi-24 V/VP/D cockpit Zvezda model kit NS72089-a Wheels set for Mi-24 ,Mi-35,Mi-28 No mask series 1/48 scale NS48054-a Mi-24 V/VP/D Hind wheels set No mask series

One of my newer models - circa 2014 Kit: HobbyBoss 82499 Scale: 1/35th Scary part: the Indy link track with indy track pins Yikes! (15% tank, 85% track ) Based on the T-26 chassis (a British concept) this was probably the first Soviet SPG This was another long weekender for me and although it looked crude, it went together really well. The kit is fairly bland having no markings supplied so, I took a little license and added the '143' strictly for effect - I think it works? AND, the track Actually Works! Yeah, I know....... Just a little light weathering and ????? Hope you like

A quick build this one. Was the Hobbyboss Easykit Mig-3. Figured I'd give it a buy since it was only £2.50. Can't go wrong at that price. Turned out to be a decent kit. Fits together like a glove but had a very basic cockpit and was a little too simple to piece together. Still, it was enough entertainment for a Friday night and a Saturday morning so can't complain. I didn't like the schemes suggested on the box so opted for a green and white speckled, 'diseased' look that I saw online and liked the look of. Figured it would look cool and would be something different. I decided to nickname it 'Speckled Jim' There's quite a few interesting schemes available for the Mig-3 so I may end up buying more of this kit and getting a little squadron. Anyway, if you can pick the kit up cheap I recommend it. On to the pics...

Anyone know for sure if pitot probes on MiG 21s have a slight kink or change of direction? I'm sure I've seen photos of this but none of my plans show it.

Just to prove that I occasionally complete models, and not just natter on about them, below please find photographs of my latest completed model. As the title indicates, this is the nice little Academy P-39N/Q in 1/72nd scale. I have finished it as a P-39Q in the markings of Grigoriy Andreyevich Rechkalov, the third-ranking Soviet ace, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, with some 56 victories, most of them on the "Kobra". The kit went together very easily, with little or no filling needed, and I think it looks the part of an Airacobra. I chose to weather this a little, but not too much, as this was a Hero of the Soviet Union's aeroplane, and in pretty good nick from the photographs I've seen. An attractive little aircraft, and it looks nice next to one of my Shturmovik's. I realise the photographs aren't brilliant, but neither is the camera nor the photographer. Positive comments are of course welcome, whilst negative comments will be dealt with by the appropriate verbal abuse! Please enjoy (I hope I didn't make too much of a muddle of it)! Best Regards, Tovarish Jason

Just finished this project few days ago. Building process here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234941996-mig-3-trumpeter-148/ . This model from Trumpeter is really nice. A bit scratch parts plus photoetched from Eduard. Hope you like it

Hi guys! Started another project few days ago. Trumpeter MiG-3 Early version. Nice kit. Also I got Eduard photo etched set for cockpit. Artbox got few books as references With planning to get A. Pokrishkin plane... probably something like this: I know this kit got few mistakes but not critical. Going to change armour back plate on pilot seat and not to use harness straps because no one wartime photo showed it. So, lets go rock and roll Tried to deepen and make thinner pilot's seat First version armour back plate beside original one Progress at the moment. Hope you like it Ivan.

Object 279 Soviet Heavy Tank 1:35 Panda Model Following WWII, the major powers were convinced that large heavy tanks with huge guns were the way forward in tank warfare, possibly because of the way that the Germans were heading with their Maus project at the end of the war. Each had their own gigantic, unusual tank that never saw active service. The British had the A-39 Tortoise, the Americans the T-28 Super Heavy tank, and the Russians the Object 279. While physically different from the other vehicles, it had four sets of tracks like the T-28, although they were laid out very differently. It was designed to be effective across rough country that would have been previously considered impassable to standard armour, and went from drawing board to completed prototype in around two years. It was also designed to withstand the blast from a nuclear explosion without flipping, due to its elliptical hull design and low centre of gravity from the four track units. Armour was incredibly thick, with a maximum of over 300mm in the cast turret, and around the saucer-shaped hull there were stand-off aerodynamic panels that both contributed to the ability to stand the huge forces of a shockwave, as well as pre-detonating shaped HEAT rounds, draining their piercing potential before they hit the underlying cast armour. Its main gun wasn't massive by today's standards, but at 130mm it was impressive for its day, and was capable of penetrating any rolled steel armour of the time. It had a semi-automatic loading system that placed the shell and charge in the barrel, giving it a fast rate of fire of between 5 and 7 rounds per minute. A heavy machine gun was mounted coaxially, and both weapons were stabilised in both axes to improve accuracy. The prototypes suffered from some issues with their drive train, a high unit cost, complexity of engineering, and a change of armour doctrine meant that the super heavy tank was withdrawn from the Soviet military arsenal, which coupled with Krustchev's enthusiasm for missile firing tanks, the 279's card was marked. The Kit This one came out of the blue only a few weeks back from Panda, and here it is on my workbench already. The box is smaller than I would have expected, but it is fairly closely packed inside the lid, with five sprues of green styrene, three of brown styrene, two separate hull parts in green, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass and a length of braided copper wire/rope. The instruction booklet is glossy covered, and a separate sheet has a replica of the box art on one side, and painting instructions on the reverse. There are no decals included with the kit. These super heavy tanks seem to shape a common theme of being not over-busy on the outer hull, and the majority of parts are used in the running gear and four lengths of track that come with the kit in the shape of individual links in brown styrene. Construction starts with the building of the two blade-like suspension sponsons, which have seven swing-arms on each side, and three return rollers on the upper edge. The roadwheels are glued to the axles, and the idler wheel has a different hub pattern, fitting to a cylindrical mount at the rear of the sponson. The twin drive sprockets are fixed to a separate cylindrical mount that sits on another blade-shaped projection from the underside of the hull through a circular aperture. Presumably the tank would turn into the oncoming blast to present the lowest frontal area in the shape of these aerodynamic "blades". The largest job is undoubtedly the building up of the tracks from individual links, which are very nicely moulded with only two sprue gates per link, which are attached overlapping the inside edge of each end of the link. Once liberated from the sprues, a quick slice with a sharp blade should see them ready for installation, however there is a single ejector pin in each link, right in the centre of the outer face of the track, which could be tricky to deal with. Perusing the sprues shows that most of them are very shallow, and a few are pretty much flush with the surface, so leaving them and ensuring that a quantity of mud is used to weather the tracks should obviate any filler work. Each run has 82 links, and although they are shown being added to the suspension sponsons after they are joined to the hull, it would make the task much easier if they were joined later. The lower hull bears more than a passing resemblance to a shallow bottomed boat, with a central keel section and upward sloping "bow". The suspension sponsons fit into grooves that run fore to aft, terminating just before the drive sprocket apertures. Some small parts are added here and there, but overall the lower hull is pretty sparsely populated if you ignore the tracks. The upper hull is similarly streamlined, having a central driver's hatch with opener, forward light cluster with cages, and some pioneer tools at the front and a pair of circular intakes just behind the large turret ring. The engine deck is a little less streamlined by nature, having two rectangular louvered grilles running along either side, which receive finer mesh covers in the shape of PE parts and some smaller latches to the sides. More pioneer tools are stashed at the rear of the engine deck, and a step/grab-handle arrangement is attached around the sides of the turret ring. Next to the PE grilles are the exhausts, which are rectangular upstands with a PE mesh interior. They give the impression of being retractable, although nothing about their construction would indicate I'm right, and they seem to be deployed on the surviving example that is on display in the Kubinka tank museum in Russia. The upper and lower hull parts are mated at this stage, but I'd consider mating them earlier, as they are a tight fit on my review sample, and might need some squeezing, which could result in damage to the small parts or the running gear. Another concern at this stage is the addition of the final side panels from separate parts, which will result in some minor seam work unless you're very careful, which could again jeopardise the small parts. I'd certainly look into building the hull before undertaking any assembly of the other parts, as there is no interior, and nothing that is installed from within. A pair of auxiliary fuel tanks are added to the rear, and these have been slide moulded to improve the ribbed detail on the outer faces. They have end-caps, a rear panel and filler cap on the top, with large mounting lugs to secure them to the rear bulkhead of the hull. Unusually, a pair of feeder hoses are included, which link the tanks to the main hull, and it makes a refreshing change to see these small touches out of the box. The large upper turret is a one piece moulding with a very nice cast finish to the outside, and a narrow turret ring is added to the underside to complete the skin following the installation of the main gun. The barrel is a two-part assembly, with a vertical seam running all the way to the mantlet, which might discourage some who are used to turned metal barrels. Due to the complex ridged flash-hider, it would have been difficult to make it any other way without increasing the cost of the tooling, and I'm sure that there will be an aftermarket barrel available soon if you don't feel up to the task of removing the seams. The barrel slots into the small mantlet part using a keyed stub, and the barrel of the 14.5mm coaxial machine gun slots into a hole next to it. They then sit within a locating trough inside the lower turret, and are trapped in place when the upper turret is glued to it. Commander's periscope, various vision blocks and crew hatches are installed on the top of the turret, along with a searchlight for the commander, and a large infrared searchlight mounted coaxially to the main barrel next to the machine gun. Some grab handles are added to the sides of the turret, and some PE trays are added to the middle, that are perhaps for additional crew served weapons that never made it onto the prototype vehicles. The turret drops into the turret ring, with a click-fit retaining clip on each side, which may not last too long if you remove it too many times, but should be fine if you don't subject it to continual use. A travel lock is situated at the back of the engine deck, and lays flat until needed, with the barrel locked in a slightly raised attitude and facing aft for transport. Markings There are no decals included with the kit, and the colour options for the existing machine is Russian Green. If you wanted to go for a What-If option however, the world is your oyster, but you'd need to source your own stars and other markings. The lens on the infrared searchlight of the Kubinka resident is very dark, so you might want to add some smoke to the lens before installing it. The Kubinka vehicle also has black rears to the headlights, both of which are visible on the six-view painting instructions, but not marked by a colour callout. Conclusion If you'd said that we'd have all three of the super-heavy dead-end projects from the early Cold War in injection moulded styrene a year or two ago, I'd have laughed heartily, but here they all are - from different manufacturers, but readily available. The detail is good throughout, but it can't have been very comfortable for the crew, as there doesn't seem to be much room inside, especially taking into account the thickness of the hull. It appeals to my sense of the eccentric, and as I already have a T-28 and A-39 Tortoise, it will look great beside them when I finally get them all complete. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of and available soon from major hobby shops

The Soviets produced over 5,000 Il-4/DB-4 twin-engine bombers from 1937-1945, and they were used until the last days of the war against Japan. Despite the use of this bomber on nearly every sector in the SSR, there exists very few photos of this aircraft post-1945. Can any one provide information on color scheme utilized by the Ilyushin Il-4's used after the war for coastal reconnaissance, transport, communications, training and in its traditional role of torpedo bomber? I have read that the Russians did not begin to retire the Il-4 until 1947, and then only gradually over the next eight years. Thank you in advance for any information on unit histories post-1945, color schemes, and operational history of the Ilyushin il-4, NATO code name "Bob".

Mi-2 Helicopter 1:48 AeroPlast The Mi-2 started as a piston-engined Mi-1, but the greater power to weight ratio of turbine engines gave it better load carrying capability that made it more useful in any of its projected roles. It was brought into service with the Soviet Bloc countries in the mid-sixties, with numerous variants, including a naval rescue model with winch and air-droppable life rafts. A number of former Soviet countries still use them, as well as India, Mexico and others. Currently the Polish Navy operate five airframes, and North Korea have quite a few if you can find the decals! The Kit The AeroPlast kit is the Polish Naval variant, and one of five available from the company in this scale. It arrives in a smallish box (top opener, just in case you're interested) and inside is a large sprue of mid grey styrene that has had the opposing edges nipped off to enable it to fit in the box. A clear sprue is also included unsurprisingly, with quite a large number of parts on it, and a large decal sheet that has a huge squadron crest on that would look good on a display base. The instruction booklet completes the package, and is printed on glossy paper in full colour, using colour to aid with the build process. Curiously, the first page is almost entirely covered by a reproduction of the decals, but with numbers next to them, which aren't present on the sheet itself. The next page is the placement guide, so you'll be doing a bit of flicking back & forth finding their location if it's not immediately obvious from the look of them. The build kicks off with the cockpit, and here the instructions become quite informative, as they are in colour, with the parts you are dealing with in the current step in a mid-blue, while other parts are in grey. This makes things a lot clearer once you get over the density of steps and the comparative riot of (4) colours. Parts that aren't to be glued are depicted in red, and main part information is in a dusky grey bubble to help orient you. The seats have separate framework behind them, and controls are duplicated on the co-pilot's side (which is set back from the pilot's), including pedals, cyclic and collective sticks, with a narrow bulkhead behind the pilot's seat. The instrument panel is a separate part added to the front of the console, with raised details for the individual dials to a reasonable standard, but no decal to ease the job. It slots into the front of the floor part with two tabs, and has an additional sub-panel on the pilot's side. Parts of the sidewalls are added to the floor before it is installed in the port fuselage half, and a roof console and head-liner is added. The majority of the main cabin walls are left bare, so if you want to add some detail here, you'll need to check your references. The windows slip in from the outside and seat on narrow ledges in the apertures, but be careful not to push too hard when installing them. The glazing is nice and clear, but every so often there is a hairline "wavefront" intersection mark where the molten clear styrene has met with the tiniest of skin due to cooling. These shouldn't be noticeable under normal inspection however, especially when the interior is behind them. A clear strip is also included on the sprue and is used to replicate the roof lighting along the spine of the aircraft's interior. A nice touch that will also hide the seam. I'd imagine that some sound insulation would also be applicable on the interior, but you never know with Cold War Soviet equipment design, which wasn't overly concerned with crew comforts. Before closing the fuselage halves, the rear fin is attached through a hole in the tail, with careful gluing leaving it posable. The fuselage halves are nicely detailed with engraved panel lines, raised rivets and even drip rails over the main door all moulded in. When they are joined, further inserts are added to the underside to add more detail and hide the majority of the seam, which is nice. The nose glazing is provided as a paired half that includes a portion of the fuselage skin, and you mask off the windows to give them an integral look. Only a small portion of the joint will need filling or sanding, which is best done before a narrow insert is added under the "chin". The windscreen is added between the fuselage and the nose glazing, and is pleasingly clear with a sharply curved aspect. The upper fuselage is also an additional assembly, and contains the twin turbine engines and gearing, all within a streamlined hump. The main parts are two halves, to which the front and various other detail parts are added, along with the exhausts on both sides. The rotor gear is a single assembly that sits directly on the roof of the fuselage, and is covered up by the hump, after which the rotor head and blades can be added (or assembled and set aside as is more sensible). Again, if you're careful with the glue you can leave the rotors free to go round, but that's entirely up to you! If you are posing the aircraft at rest you'll need to add some droop to the blades, as gravity and their own weight causes them to dip toward the ground. I've seen some interesting ways of doing this, but the simplest seems to be taping them to the outside of a bowl and drizzling hot water over them, allowing them to cool and then removing them to admire your handiwork. Just be careful you don't burn yourself though. The tail of the Hoplite (it's NATO reporting name) is a tapering tube, which is a separate assembly with a dog-leg at the tip for the tail rotor, which is a 2-bladed part with small details added to the hub before installation. The instructions show adding the horizontal fins again, which is a little confusing as they are mentioned earlier in the build too. A tail skid is mounted under the tail, and the fixed main gear fixed to the rear fuselage, with suspension supports linked to the side of the fuselage. The nose gear is similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft and has twin wheels for stability, which are both made from two halves with circumferential tread helping to mask the joints. The main wheels are also split vertically, but have a hub insert running through the tyres and a small hub-centre that holds them in place. A pair of auxiliary fuel tanks sit on cradles mounted on the sides of the fuselage, with small hoses running in through the side-windows, and the winch gear sitting on a pivot over the large side door on the port side. The door has a large lozenge shaped window, and can be posed open or closed, although if you've not detailed the rear cabin, this would just show off the slightly uneven surface of the fuselage interior. Markings There are a LOT of markings choices, some of which are rather colourful, others aren't. The common theme is "Polish", which is fitting, as that is where the main factory is situated. Two of the schemes will tax your masking skills, but you are helped out by the striping being included on the decal sheet, so you only need concern yourself with the block colours. In total there are ten subjects in four schemes, and as I don't fancy my chances of getting all the Polish names right, I've reproduced the relevant pages of the instructions for my ease. The decals are well printed with good register, colour density and sharpness, although I suspect that the white decals may show through any strong colours, so be wary if using those options. Conclusion A very nice range of kits from AeroPlast that will doubtless please any Russian Rotary Wing aficionados. A little more detail within the cabin would have been nice, but I suspect that some sound insulating quilting would suffice to fool the eye. The interiors vary quite significantly though, so a bit of research will be needed if you're serious about the detailing. Overall a good kit of an unusual and quirky-looking subject. Not much flash evident given the short(er) run nature of the moulding, but a few sink marks here and there, and of course the slightly rough fuselage interior. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of David at

Here's my latest completion - the old KP kit built up as a Ugandan AF Mil Mi-17. I'd long ago promised this to a friend, who unfortunately passed on before I could complete it - it was delivered to his widow. My first whirlybird in over twenty years, and took much longer than I'd expected. Hope you appreciate it. With the availability of the HobbyBoss kit, this is definitely 'one the hard way', but it's what I had, and short of the major problem with the windscreen (which I didn't feel I had the skill to change), is not that bad a representation.

Just been trying to fill in time on shift and came up with an interesting idea for another group build…….though resin one has to be first. During the Cold War and especially at its peak East and West Germany would be the great meeting ground for NATO and Warsaw Pact, with the most likely spot being the “Fulda Gap”! The Fulda Gap was the hypothetical ideal strike point for Soviet forces to strike deep into West Germany and towards the Rhine. This area was smooth and flat which was ideal for swift mechanize warfare and would provide a chance to split the NATO forces in half. With the 72/73 time frame it was an era just prior to the NATO forces moving to the weaponry more commonly seen now. Around that time the “heavy metal” weapon systems of the late 60’s were still at the fore front of both forces. In the air you had the classic F-4’s, F-104’s, Lightning’s, and Mirage 5’s facing off against Mig-21/23’s, Su-15’s and the new “King of the Hill” the Mig-25. Strike aircraft Harrier’s, Jaguar’s, Buccaneer’s, A-7’s, Mirage F1’s, and the new F-111’s while the Soviet forces had Su-11/17/20’s, Mig-21/23’s. On the ground you had Chieftain’s, Leopard 1’s,AMX-30’s, M60’s, Scorpion’s, and M-113’s facing off against T-64’s, T-72’s, BMD-1’s, and BMP-1’s. These would have been just the main protagonists in conflict of this scale, with a conflict broadening a little the Viggen, Drakens, and S-Tanks become eligible to name a couple. I know there will be a few who are a bit sad they can’t bring their early Tonka’s, Eagles, Falcons, A-10’s along, but that would be too easy. With a build like this the choice of subject matter is quite large and there’s bound to be some all time favorites in this list, F-4E’s for me! Just wanted to throw another idea into the hat to see what people think, can either be an all inclusive air/ground GB, or could just be broken up into separate air and ground GB’s if the numbers are there. RESIN RESIN RESIN!!!

Soviet T-24 Medium Tank 1:35 Hobby Boss The T-24 was a rather underwhelming Soviet medium tank built in the early 1930s, never used in combat, and with only 24 ever built, it seems that they knew they'd sired a pup even before the tooling began rolling. Looking at it, is surprising that the same factory in Ukraine went on to build the mighty T-34 later. The engine was problematic, and although it was quite small, it bristled with machineguns, with two one in the hull, one in the main turret, and yet another in the small turret that sat on the main turret. Its main armament in the primary turret was a 45mm gun, which gave it a reasonable punch, and its armour was sufficient to protect it, but none of that was any use if the tank wouldn't run. The design process wasn't a total loss however, and the running gear was used later to provide a base for prime movers for artillery pieces. The Kit It's a testament to the sheer variety of kits that are being released now that we now have a kit of this incredibly unsuccessful vehicle, with only a couple of dozen ever built. It arrives in Hobby Boss's standard top opening box, with a painting of a pair of T-24s moving across snow covered ground. Inside are eight sprues plus upper hull, lower hull, turret in sand coloured styrene, twelve small track sprues in mid-brown styrene, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) parts, decal sheet, instruction booklet and colour painting guide. The majority of the sand coloured parts relate to the suspension, with four identical sprues containing road wheels and suspension, plus two more with drive sprocket and idler wheel parts. The drive wheels are unusual, as they have a flower-shaped strengthening part that also traps the guide=horns to prevent them slipping off, while the idler wheel has a more standard pair of wheels between which the horns pass. The road wheels are built up into two pairs on a T-shaped piston/pivot arrangement with a double return roller at the top of the strut, four per side. The track links are individually moulded, with 12 per sprue and a total of 144 links provided. It's not made clear how many of the links are needed to complete each track run, and the diagram shows only 35 links per side. Given that we are supplied with 144, I suspect that's not an accurate figure. The lower hull includes both the sides and lower front glacis and rear bulkheads, the remains of which are added before the upper hull, with faceted additions is installed, all of which is festooned with large dome-headed rivets and bolts. One of the rear engine deck covers is separate with hinge and handle detail, although there is nothing to show inside. The rear of the tank is completed with a pair of towing shackles, a large rectangular grille, through which the heat of the engine is vented, and a long anti-topple ski that stops the tank falling over onto its turret while climbing steep slopes. This is reminiscent of the FT-17 and similar late WWI tanks, which pegs it as an old-school design. On the port rear fender, a small cylindrical exhaust with PE mounting bracket is added, and this has a recessed outlet, which would look better after reaming out with a suitably sized drill bit. The turret is slide-moulded with detail on all sides, a small access hatch on the top, and has a lower insert with lugs to attach it to the hull. The two turret mounted machineguns are added to the mantlet and side with the 45mm cannon in a ball-shaped lump on the mantlet, with a large curved and bolted strengthening plate underneath. There is no breech detail included, but the real thing must have fairly bristled with breech and stocks blocking the gunner's every turn. The turret-on-a-turret is similarly constructed with its ball-mounted MG, and circular access hatch on top. Markings As is often the case with Russian (in fact any!) armour, it's any colour as long as it's green. Russian Green in this instance, and if you plan on building the tank in parade colours, the hub rims of the outer roadwheels and return rollers are painted white. The decals include a red circle with white cross and the number three next to it for each side, plus (presumably) vehicle number 017, although a full set of numerals from 0 to 9 in are provided in duplicate in case you wanted to depict another of this small band of awful tanks! Decals are printed on glossy paper with equally glossy carrier film which is a little large for the numbers, so might be better off trimmed. The red circle seems to suffer a little from stepping under magnification, but this shouldn't show once they are applied and weathered appropriately. Register between the red and white seems a little off, but again it's a minor niggle. Conclusion Without wishing to sound sarcastic, we are truly blessed to have this terrible little tank in injection moulded styrene, and it would look great next to the many other inter-war Russian tanks that are now available. Whether the T-35 and T-28s will ever see styrene again is a good question, but looking at the way HB are heading, it's possible that they might be forthcoming unless their current love affair with Russian armour ends before they reach the top of the pile. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi all, This is my first real attempt at modelling for a while, half my life ago in fact. I posted an inbox review of this old kit on my youtube channel, when this thread and the 'Ishak' are finished, I shall post it on youtube as well. This was bought for me cheaply on Ebay a year and half ago by my wife, a great little find even though I have heard this particular kit slated for its inaccuracies but to me if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and tastess like a duck, it's a duck. It is made of hard(ish) plastic and has raised detail, also sadly there is no cockpit I will try to scratch build one and see how it goes.

Hello friends. New item from Northstarmodels - NS48014 Set of 2 resin Soviet tactical air-to-surface missiles with APU-68 launchers. For MiG-23, MiG-27, MiG-29, Su-15, Su-17, Su-24, Su-25, YaK-38 Decal from "Begemot".

My last build for 2012 looks to be one that was built more as a quest, than a serious build! Anyway, it’s a Su-7BM (S-22M) “Fitter – A” of the former Soviet Air Force ca. late 1970’s. The inspiration (?) for this originated for me when wargaming in the 80’s, I played SPI’s “Oil War" which has several Su-7s featured. all with pretty low attack and range factors, which made me curious as to why these had such low value numbers. So – curiosity kills the cat! – and I discovered that operationally, Su-7s were hampered by a high landing speed of 340–360 km/h due to the thin, highly-swept wing. They had poor visibility from the cockpit, and lacked an instrument landing system, which made operations very difficult, especially in poor weather or on poor airfields. Apparently they were pretty fast and rugged. So, that said, I found pretty much the same with the characteristics of the model kit too! Modeling as a hobby requires multiple mental levels and directions, and the process was as follows; First – find something to build that would look basically Ok – and I discovered a “Fitter” kit somewhere in my stash…. Second - Then over about a 12 year period I would occasionally look at the kit box and remind myself never ever buy cheap model kits,.. but the intrigue and interest drove me to see what a cheap Fitter would look like built. Finally, with some determination, much chopping, cutting, sanding and an on-line visit to an obscure Russian company to buy some decent looking wheels, I managed to put together the aforementioned kit, and make it look something like it would have been years ago as a member of the Frontovaya Aviatsiya. Enjoy the Fitter - A! All the best for 2013. Adam