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Thought I'd post some pics of a build that's been going on some time, meant to be relatively quick but life has very definitely got in the way this year! Started back in April, very slow progress; The plan is a Mk11 Chieftain with a 432, on a simple base, extras are Voyager models etch for the Chieftain and Tetra model works etch for the 432 with Master Club tracks for both, which I haven't used before. Accurate Armour figures with Hornet heads when we get that far. Started with the Chieftain building up the hull and replacing various bits with the etch; Turret next, hopefully it'll move a bit faster! Cheers Nick

Takom is to release a 1/72nd Sänger-Bredt Silbervogel - german Luft46 sub-orbital bomber - kit - ref. 5018 Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0nP8RehYFkEzbAvTSoh54rRrp1VMEVHdHwoEJQLf2FDch2VKy6pdoR7WkvmMo9v46l&id=354803674728188 V.P.

Takom has just announced a 1/35th Fieseler Fi 103 aka V-1 flying bomb with interior kit - ref. 2151 Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1770042266537648&id=354803674728188 Box art V.P.

Evening all........about time I kicked off the GB blog. Here's where she began as a standard blog build......but ended up languishing in a draw.........so have taken the chance to have a deadline and get it done........ Managed to get some of the final units put together.....engine, transmission, side walls and floor.....and then started to tedious painting in stages during the build............this is where I've had to leave off until Thursday. The paint I'm using is a Hataka modulation set for German "Red Primer" AFV Panel Lighting. I have to say, very impressed with the paint itself....it airbrush's with no issue's and dry's to a beautiful finish. The set is supposed to start with a A100 Jet Black (RAL 9005)....but decided to skip it and went straight on with the A174 Brown Primer Shadow. Looking back and final finish, I wish I had used the Jet Black.......live and learn. It's the first "Red Primer" colour lay down I've done....so making notes. There's two choices in interior paint job after the Primer is down. The MIG Interior painting illustration has everything Dunkel Gelb....sponsons, and everything above 12 to 16" from the floor. Another is taken from an actual analysis of a Berge in Germany, and it has a smattering in the forward driver and radio crew positions.........have to see how masking can be done as I fancy the MIG one, to show up the chipping better. Anyway.....off to read some of the other blogs in the GB.....nite all.....

Takom is well known by AFV - aka targets - modellers not really by aircraft modellers. There's a recent announcement in the Chinese producer Facebook with what is obviously a Lun-class MD-160 Ekranoplan. So, soon something flying in the Takom range of kits? Time will tell. Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1537299736478570&id=354803674728188 V.P.

In 2022 Takom is to release a 1/16th Focke-Achgelis Fa.330 Bachstelze kit - ref. 1015 Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1713310435544165&id=354803674728188 Box art V.P.

Here I show you a model finished a good few years ago. Quite a complicated kit, huge in size, one of those special kits that are unlike anything one has built before! my first model that I airbrushed, as hand brushing all that intricate parts was daunting indeed. For those who wonder, the crew is WW2, but as one was used then, it can still be called historical . Sadly, no WW1 german artillery crewmen in scale was available then! and I think not yet, except for some very obscure resin ones. Will be posting here the rest of my 1/35 kits for easy finding.

So I'm going to be building this for the GB... I do like obscure subjects and odd looking and/or asymmetric vehicles so this is right up my street. Apparently they were designed to use powerful carbon-arc lamps to illuminate and disorient the enemy at night - though I'm sure in combat that would see them draw more fire on themselves. Apparently the turret gun in these M3 conversions was simply a fake dummy one, in order to disguise them more as regular M3 tanks to the enemy. Onto the kit, the box contains a nice sprue layout on the side... Here's a few shots of those sprues, lots of parts in this kit... Pretty much all individually bagged, apart from the duplicates and also 2 sprues in one bag, though the bag there was folded down the centre so the two sprues were separated. All looks very nicely moulded with lots of detail, haven't seen any nasty flash, ejector marks or mould lines so far. I think this is the first Takom kit I've built but the quality seems great, I like the fact the sprue identifying letters are big and actually cut out voids so easy to see. Only issue I've found so far is that the long piece of photoetch seems to have been bent in the box as it's got caught under the corner of the instructions, but hopefully easy to flatten back out if needed. The instructions are in a nice glossy black and white booklet, with a colour foldout paint/decal guide. My only issue with that is that it's quite small scale but given the minimal number of decals and overall olive drab scheme it shouldn't be too much of an issue (there's also a high quality scan version on Scalemates.com I can zoom in on if I need to help my poor eyesight). So without further ado I decided I'd make a start, fit and detail is great - so good that I mistook some of the detail on the inside edges of the drive wheel casings (I think this is part of the cast markings) for glue drops and started sanding it out. So that'll do for a start, the next part is assembling all the wheels, bogies and tracks. There seem a lot of potentially fiddly little parts and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to tackle these link and length tracks, wheels and painting everything. Ideally I'd like to paint the tracks separately then attach after painting everything else, I'll have to see how easy that will be to achieve, but that's for another day.

Hello all 🥳 As announced yesterday, I present my new project today. This time it goes from North Africa directly to Southeast Asia 🌴🌴🌴 My scene is set at the end of the Vietnam War and shows the PAVN invasion of Saigon. The main role is not played by Jackie Chan, even if the title of the post might suggest it, but by Takom's T54 B 😎 As one of my favorite tanks, building it is an absolute must for me-the kit is also highly recommended. The older Russian technology has a special charm and just because represented in almost all conflicts, an endless topic for modelers. The beginning make some pictures of the construction of the model, whereby I must say that this is already some time ago. But to really show everything from A-Z, I do not want to withhold these steps 🤓 Have fun! MD the plastic strips help to align the rollers correctly you can even see the ball bearings-who needs a protective cap? the plastic tracks are very good with a little bit of sanding you don't always need complex PE fenders. A few simple aluminum strips suggest dented sheet metal also here with a dremel tool new holding clamps for the DSchK from a plastic sprue better 😁 with russki in love 🥰 ok, it probably won't work completely without PE and wire 😁 some tools and a machete is a must in the jungle protective tubes for the rear light wiring also here new protective tube for the searchlight cabling the characteristic extra fuel tanks here I used another kind of wire mesh See you!

Takom continues to surprise us with its choice of subjects. 1:350 Zeppelins; the P and Q class becomes half a meter long in that scale - in the same scale as many WW1 ship kits. The Q-class is of interest to me as L-20 drifted ashore in Norway and some bits and pieces are on show in the museum at Stavanger-Sola.

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Bandvagn BV 206S with Interior (2083) 1:35 Takom via Pocketbond Originally developed as a replacement for the Volvo Bv202 for the Swedish army by Hagglunds, which are now part of the global Bae Systems conglomerate, the Bandvagn is a segmented tracked vehicle that was initially designed for troop and equipment transport, with the crew cab in front, and an adaptable rear cab that can be reconfigured to a number of specific tasks. All four tracks are powered and have very low ground pressure to help it travel over both arctic tundra and boggy conditions during the Swedish thaw, with an additional amphibious capability making it almost unstoppable. It has been so successful that dozens of countries now field them, with the United Kingdom amongst them, (a larger variant named the Viking) using them to good effect in the desert during recent actions in the Gulf and Afghanistan. The S variant is armoured to withstand small-arms fire, and can carry 12 fully equipped troops spread between the two compartments, which improves survivability in the case of a hit from a larger calibre round or IED. While the British BvS 10 is similar in form, it is substantially larger with a more powerful Steyr engine to pull its added bulk along. The Kit This is a brand new tooling from Takom, and it seems fitting that it's the (likely) more popular armoured variant that has led the way, although I'm sure that other variants will follow. Whether this will extend to the Viking is uncertain, as I would imagine it would require an almost complete retool, given the dimensional differences. This variant is fielded by Sweden, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands and Italy, so there should be plenty of options to go at amongst those operators. It's not a huge vehicle, so the box is commensurately compact, with six sprues and two hull parts in grey styrene; four rubberband-style black flexible tracks and a small sprue in the same material; a clear sprue; decals and of course the instruction booklet, which has a correction sheet included for step 21. The booklet is around a5 in size in portrait form, with a glossy fold-out at the rear containing the decal and markings options. Detail is good, with some slide-moulded parts at the edges of sprues to improve it further, and the main compartments are moulded as individual shells, again using slide-moulding to obtain superior detail on the sides of the parts. There may have been a bit of groaning at the inclusion of "rubber" tracks, but as the real things are made of just that, it's entirely accurate and having seen the larger ones coiled up at the Tank Museum, they're very chunky, not to mention incredibly heavy, which doesn't really carry through to them in 1:35 as you can imagine. The inclusion of an interior is useful due to the large ballistic windscreen in the forward compartment, which would look a bit odd otherwise. Construction begins with the large beam-mounted running gear, with four road wheels, idler and drive sprocket on each one. The front and rear suspension is identical but handed, so you end up with four subassemblies, which each have their boat-like mine resistant hull fitted with slightly different drive-shafts and mounting struts, both of which are well-detailed. The tracks wrap around the suspension and are glued at the ends using standard cement, with a large contact patch and four shallow pins making this task a little easier. Once on the road wheels, the outer half of the drive sprocket locks them in place and the finished subassemblies fit on pegs to their mounts. The rear compartment has a complex umbilical as part of its drive assembly, which is linked to the front compartment via a recessed back panel that keeps the gap between parts small. At this point the lower portion of the vehicle(s) is/are complete. In the crew cab the driver and co-pilot's seats are installed on the sponsons, and the engine compartment cover slips between their chairs, while a pair of jump-seats attach to the rear wall. The pedal box and other controls are fitted before the upper hull is detailed with exterior parts, separate front and passenger doors and the thick glazed panels, with an overhead console and sun visors added inside. The rear compartment's details are all fitted to the upper hull part, including jump seats, stowage locker on the roof, and the obligatory fire extinguisher. At this point it is worth mentioning that if you are going for accuracy, you will need to shave off the copyright and kit details from inside the roof of each compartment, as well as some ejector-pin marks that simply couldn't be avoided in these large parts. There is sure to be some additional detail missing from the rooves too, which you'll have to scratch-build yourself although who will ever see it? That's entirely up to you though The upper and lower are now ready to be brought together with the addition of mudflaps front and rear, running-board on the forward compartment, and rear doors on both parts. The rear compartment's door has a window included, as well as the usual windscreen wiper (very thoughtful for the troops), light clusters etc. The rear door of the front compartment covers up the linkage and what looks like the heat exchanger on the roof mounted air conditioning unit. Markings You get three possible schemes in the box, with the decals mostly consisting of number plates and unit markings. Two of the options are Spanish with one Italian, with the Spanish in Khaki green all over, and the Italian in NATO camouflage. You can build one of the following: Regimiento de Montaña 66 2002 – Khaki Green Regimiento de Cazadores de Montaña 66, 2009 – Khaki Green 9th Reggimento de Alpini, 2008 – NATO Green, Brown & Black camo As the profiles cover less than two pages you might need your magnifying glass to read the print, but usefully the interior colours have been provided next to the final profiles to assist you with painting. The decal sheet is small, but is reminiscent of Cartograf's style, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. A couple of instrument dials are included at the bottom of the sheet, which will improve the realism of the dashboard. Conclusion It's awesome to see the sheer volume of modern and near-modern armour being kitted now, and this is one of those instances. Clearly, there's more mileage in the Bv206S due to the number of operators, but as a British modeller, I'm now hoping we'll get the Viking at some point down the line. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK Distributors for

Morning all, and Happy New year.....a recent completed Bergepanther for the Panther GB. Here's the rest of the pics. Tools and other stowage to follow once they turn up....delayed due to lockdown ...Once here, I'll add and update the pics. Here's the build blog for those interested.... All the best Simon.

Hi all, In between the frustrating steps of my other projects, I've decided to start something a little more easy going. I picked up Takom's M-46 and Jeep combo, a few days ago. Both kits have been previously released separately. I don't think there is anything new here. The patton has the fantastic Korean War tiger markings, and the jeep can also be built as a USMC Korean War vehicle. The choice was simple. Some of Takom's early kits were extremely frustrating, but the more recent releases are what I like to call "Tamiya-plus". The kits are well engineered and comparatively easy to build, like Tamiya's. But they also have a bunch of smaller details that Tamiya often excludes, right there, in the box. So anyway. Here we go. First the chassis and engine of the jeep. Admittedly, I started this a few nights ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting. It looks fairly intricate, but the assembly was very simple. And here are the first steps of the patton. After wrestling with the suspension on Miniart's T-44, this was like a dream. After taking this photo, I finished the other side. This all took maybe an hour or so.

I have done a build thread in awhile, so with a week off over Easter I thought I would pull this one out of the stash. I was brought up on Salisbury Plain, and then later Germany so this was quite the nostalgia build. Completed as Chieftain of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, based in West Germany in the 1980s (which was when we were living there). Brush painted with Tamiya Acrylics. Build thread can be found here: Thanks for looking.

Haven’t done a build thread in awhile. I picked this up before Christmas as a possible holiday build, but didn’t get to it. So pulling it out as a maybe Easter holiday build. I grew up on Salisbury Plain so this will bring back memories of taking the bus from Tidworth to Salisbury for the Saturday markets. Box is packed to the brim! No surprise I guess as there is two of everything. oh oh - photoetch Going to make things easier on myself - a single colour scheme: Reading around, it looks like Tamiya XF-65 is the go, which is good as I have pot of it. any tips/tricks/warnings gratefully received, although my intent is to do it straight out of the box as don’t feel up to major fettling if needed.

Quite a mouthful, but I spotted this on ebay this morning direct from China for now. Henk has a pic up so I'll link to that here. Seems to be a Good time for T54/55 models with the offerings from Revell, Italeri, Ammo and now Takom in 1/72.

Finally took photos of my completed GDR T-55 AM2B from Takom. Not many good close ups unfortunately, due to the annoying dust and white fibres that seem to cling like no tomorrow after it sits on a shelf for more than a day >< I actually got this kit when I grew frustrated with a Miniart T-55 and its overly complex construction, and just wanted to complete a T-55 kit The figures are from the Miniart Tank crew, 1960s-70s set, with a rough representation of the GDR uniform camo. Thanks for looking ^-^ Gaz

Decided to join in on the Takom 'experience'. Inspiration for the build will be this period photo, though it won't be displayed knocked out: There are a few builds ongoing with the Takom kits, and wanted to see myself the fit problems - it did not take long ... There is also some measurement discrepancies compared to Dragon's smart kit of the III J. The length of hull plate (has the red bar over top) on the Takom kit, is bit deeper in depth. The weld bead in front of this looks ok, but the armour plate thickness appears to be slightly more than half that of Dragon. Since I had the hulls out, some further comparisons showed the overall lengths and widths were near equal. Not so with the locations for the return roller stands - on the Takom hull, they are several mm back, particularly the first and third locations: Anyhow, here is a little trick to introduce a weld bead. The kit parts (C6, C17) already have the plastic in place to represent the weld, but has no texture. One the part is glued in place, just run some liquid cement along the area, and stipple it with a tool - I used the tip of a needle file: regards, Jack

Hi folks My latest OOB build. Nice kit, plastic tracks work well. All the hatches can be posed open, but there's no point really unless you're an ace scratch builder as there's nothing inside. Finally, here's a few next to its big cousin for comparison purposes: Regards J.A.

Hallo again This will become a WIP about a Panther A an early one, in 1/35, the basic kit from Takom. I use the Friul metal track, due to the fact that the plastic single link and segments do not appear so good, when assembled. I use the full interior kit, to show all details. When finished, I will open the front hatches and maybe the central rear hatch for the engine compartment. Today I am not sure about two details. The shock absorber, I assume it is, which color did they have? The interior hull at the bottom is advised with hull red. Is it really so correct? The colors for the grenades is not sure for me. Brass cartridge? Or substitution material? Does anyone have a color photo from the engine? I can guess. In museums the photos I found are to my opinion far from real. Well, If anyone has some suggestions, welcome, I would be glad about it. Consider, my field are aircrafts, this is a sidestep. Happy modelling

Very much a place holder for the moment as I'm co hosting the MTO build, it will be built out of the box ( apart from some Tamyia tracks) as I don't think I can add anything else. I have a set of Masterbox crew and a set of paints for the interior.

Hallo This kit is from Takom. With full interior. It was a challenge to build it. I did some Bergepanzer with full interior before. Here I knew already some of the challenges ahead. To avoid an awkward appearance of the finished tank I choose metal chains from Friul. They are easy to handle. The weight on the finished model you should consider! The hull interior I knew already. The difficult phases in assembling I met with knowledge of my Bergepanzer quite well. Not at all the turret. The assembling of the levers for the pivot to lift the gun was a major challenge. I met it. But I had to say good bye to the turret MG. For some reason, I did not find out, the space was not there…I have now no clue if it was my mistake or an error in the kit. Anyway, I choose the painting in Russia. Happy modelling

Hey all, It's been ages since i last made a model tank and since November 11th is approaching, i decided to build a Takom 1/35 Mk.IV. I've been cutting and glueing the past couple of weekends and the model has come together nicely. I've made plenty of mistakes during the build, but most of them won't be noticed when finished. I have also just finished with painting the basic colors. The weathering proces is about to start and i aim to make a small diorama with plenty of mud (small tryout already made on part of the tracks) ! The model/sprues as it was at the beginning as well as the current status can be seen below & i will post an update when new progress has been made!

Hi all, this is going to be my next build. In the large box you find the upper hull as one piece, four big sprues grey styrene, one clear sprue, a small photo etch fret and a small decal sheet. The parts are nicely moulded, no obvious flash or ejection marks. I intend to build a Typhoon K of Russian Military Police in Syria because the colourful stripes will break the green overall scheme. I bougt the decal sheet from Echelon Fine Details, which has also parts for the blue flasher included. The decal sheet also includes decals for a GAZ Tiger, which is great, so I can build another one ´! That's all for now, I hope to show some progress soon. Thanks for looking!