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Hi Folks, I've not been on here for a while - life has gotten in the way of me completing anything. A couple of weeks ago I went into a local shop and got this on a whim: And then the Minister for Defence tweeted that the trials versions had arrived: it inspired me to create what I imagine the British version would look like. I was going to leave off the side bins but the tweet has them in place. It was also pointed out to me that the RWS Revell include is the wrong one - we went with the M151 Protector, which Trumpeter handily do one in 1/35. The decals are spares from a Chally 2 I did a while back. I wanted to do it as a 20 ABCT as I know they will be receiving them but I didn't have a spare mailed fist. I scratch built the hazard plates and fitted them the same as we have for the MAN trucks. Interestingly the MANs have the German style convoy light so I left the kit one. contr The Trumpeter RWS is nicely detailed although I had to add a carry handle for the 50 cal. It was sharply moulded but seems everywhere and fiddly to construct. I also noticed that is sat higher than the RWS that came with it (the worst part of the kit to be honest) so I had to shorten the tower for it otherwise it looked daft. I also scratch built (what I assume to be) the front camera and the trunking for it. I added anti-slip to the front as it was smooth rectangles but left the roof as it had some texture. I wish I had done the roof as well as it has been lost in the painting. The kit itself was normal Revell fare - soft plastic with not the sharpest moulding. It went together surprisingly well and, unlike the Hobby Boss version, included a rudimentary driving compartment and the mission module is a separate construction. To get the mission module to fit properly I had to remove the floor plate of the section it fits into. As mentioned the RWS was the worst part but thankfully I didn't need it. Paints are a mixture of Humbrol, Mig, and Hataka. I blacked shaded and initially used Mig SCC 15, but it come out too dark, added some yellow and it come out too bright so ended up going over it with Hataka HTK-A143 BS Dark Green (BS381C:641) which come out just right. Quick Shine gloss coat and Vallejo matt varnish. Weathering was using Mig dark earth and dusk pigments.

Folks, like bus, wait for ages and two come together. I've been on leave this week so I've had a chance to complete one that I had started and was just waiting for a chance to finish. I bought it last year when it was released if nothing else to encourage Tamiya to do more British vehicles. It is virtually OOB, except I couldn't help myself and replace the bar handles with brass wire and add some texture to the turret and the front armour plate. One thing I did do was pair down the birdcage sight as it was chunky. As expected for Tamiya, it assembled like a dream with minimal seam lines and zero flash. My only criticism is, unlike the Bronco offering, you can only do a WW2 version. It stayed in British service until 1960 in Hong Kong and foreign service until the 80's. Bronco includes the fish tail exhaust and the smoke dischargers for a Type B. Bronco also includes working tracks, but I must admit the link and length tracks Tamiya include are the best fitting I've ever come across. They were the perfect length. Paint is Mig SCC15, gloss coat Quick Shine, Vallejo matt coat, oil paint and terps pin wash, and Mig pigments.

From Mengs Facebook and Twitter pages, coming in December: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0e96TNBwSVjVEESy9ptTB7XH2zjSf7KPGCHcdAhnZ5tnnyMS9EohgbarbJUvEbqUYl&id=100028842416849 The Fierce "Mastiff" on the Battlefield The Mastiff 2 is a 6X6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle upgraded from the Mastiff Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. In 2006, the UK started purchasing the first batch of Mastiff MRAP vehicles based on the Cougar MRAP vehicle for the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Mastiff has improved protection and self-defense capabilities. Its hull is fully protected by slat armor and windows have double-layer bulletproof glass which offers good visibility. The Mastiff 2 has interior spall liners, blast attenuating seats, stronger axles, upgraded suspension, run-flat tires and explosion-proof fuel tank. In July 2020, with the gradual withdrawal of Western troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the UK announced that a number of armored vehicles, incl. the Mastiff 2, would be retired from active duty. In April 2022, the UK announced that it would provide Ukraine with about 80 armored vehicles, including the Mastiff 2. This MENG 1/35 British Mastiff 2 6x6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle plastic model will be 233mm long and 114mm wide when assembled. This kit includes two paint schemes. Now, let’s check the details. SS-012 British Mastiff 2 6x6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle Scale: 1/35 Available in: December 2022 The Mastiff 2 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle has been a star on the battlefield with its high mobility and excellent protection. Don't you want to build such a unique Protected Patrol Vehicle model yourself?

Royal Marines Officer (16012) 1:16 ICM via Hannants Ltd The Royal Marines are a naval fighting force that can trace their lineage back to the 1600s, and are a proud group of soldiers that go through a tough selection process that sorts out the wannabes from the actual hard-men that can handle the rough and tumble of their taxing schedule, which includes official duties as well as their Commando and other roles that they undertake when required. The Kit This figure model depicts a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines (If I’ve read his shoulder boards right) dressed in his dark blue ceremonial uniform with red piping down his pants, and with his ceremonial sword held out at waist height resting over his right shoulder, a white and red peaked cap atop his head, and three medals on his left breast pocket. The uniform is Best Blue, and the sword is based on the Infantry Sword pattern of 1897, with a three-quarter basket guard on the hilt, pierced and beautifully etched with a pattern incorporating the royal cypher of the Queen. The scabbard is held at rest vertically by his free hand on a belt-mount that has an over-shoulder stabilising strap. It arrives in ICM’s usual top-opening box with captive inner lid, and inside are two sprues of grey styrene, a sprue of black styrene and plinth, plus a single instruction sheet printed in colour on both sides. At the bottom of the box you will also find a print of the photo-realistic artwork, which could be framed and hung if you're so minded. Construction and painting guides are shown on the same set of diagrams, using the parts on the grey sprues, which comprise separate head, torso, legs and arms, plus individual tails to his jacket and two shoulder boards. Due to the position of the hands around the sword and scabbard, the fingers are supplied separately moulded, with two strap sections for the scabbard on the left. The sword is finely sculpted and has a separate hand guard that slips over the blade during construction. The base is moulded in black styrene, and has a choice of four different surfaces for the top and a flat base for the bottom. The choices comprise a flat asphalt surface plus three styles of cobble or paving stones. Markings There are no decals included in the box, but the various badges, medals and emblems are all shown with colour call-outs, and they are all large enough to be painted carefully by hand, although the piping down the trousers will need a steady hand, some decal strip, or careful masking. Conclusion This is a handsome kit of a ceremonial uniform worn by one of the most elite British soldiers with a huge vault of history standing behind this young officer. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

I picked up the Revell 1/72 V-2 rocket yesterday on impulse, as I already have the (Tamiy 1/48th) V-1 to go with it. Of the 4 schemes in the box, I'm most likely to do it in the black/white prototype scheme, but I wondered f anyone knew of any decals or paint schemes for a V-2 captured by the British, just to add another bout of deciding on colour schemes? I've done a Hannants and a google search but come up with nothing.

Valentine Mk.IX, 50 RTR, 23rd Armoured Brigade, Tunisia 1943 The Mk.IX valentine was made in answer to the need of a more powerful gun than the 2pdr. To accommodate the 6pdr gun the turret needed to be redesigned. Vickers engineers freed up space for the new gun by reducing the turret crew to 2 men and the coaxial machinegun and smoke bomb launcher were removed. The removal of the machine gun meant that the tank couldn't defend itself against infantry and so was unpopular with its crews. The bomb launcher issue was partially resolved by mounting two grenade launchers externally. But in essence the Mk.IX had turned the Valentine into a tank destroyer. The Bronco kit itself is pretty comprehensive and the only aftermarket I used was the RB Models metal gun barrel and the front fenders were replaced with brass sheet to allow some damage to be added. The model was painted in the Desert Pink ZI / Dark Olive Green PFI scheme with MRP paints. The sand/dust weathering effects were created with a mix of pigments. The thumb print on the front fender in the above photo has since been removed. A few detail photos. And finally the photo I used as a reference. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the way this one has turned out but as always there are things that I felt that I could have done better. The urge to get this finished so that I can start a new project has meant that some additional stowage and crew will have to wait for another day. The work in progress for this build can be found here; Valentine Mk.IX work in progress. Thanks for taking the time to have a look and feel free to point out anything I may have missed or that could be improved upon. Wayne P.S. Some of the photos appear a little too warm on my screen but I haven't profiled this monitor and really don't want to edit them again.

My very first Tamiya and my very first 1/35, this kit has a very close link to my family. My grandad drove Chieftains at the same time in the same place and in the same regiment - and a close family friend fixed them. So I tried my hand at it. The kit is excellent, maybe the best I've ever done. No flash and all the parts fitted flush, I would recommend. Everything apart from the barrel. It's wonky, and it wouldn't sit right without the first piece having a massive gap, so I'm gonna have to live with it. If you it's have any advice I'd love to hear it. Tamiya gets top marks from a newbie builder, and it sits well on my shelf

Hi All, Just completed this Street Fighter. Thanks for viewing, for more photos of this tank click on the link : http://ptearsenal.blogspot.com/2020/03/challenger-ii-street-fighter.html

I decided to revisit the Scots Greys. I had a few boxes to work with ( I still have quite a few more} and some I'd painted several years ago that I thought I could improve on. That was lasy month so things have moved on a little. The situation at present is A few horses. A few troopers The horses have more detail than shows on the photo. They're a little bleached out on here. The troopers are almost finished so after that it's a lot of varnishing to look forward to. Then the final modifications on the horses and a lot of grass tufts to generate.. For those who're attempting to count, there are two more troopers than horses si I have a little leeway deciding which I use. As I said , there's plenty more still in boxes.

Hello everybody! I'm new here and haven't built a 1/35 kit in er... decades. But with the whole of my family cutting, gluing and painting over the last couple of months of the Covid19 situation, it finally dawned on me that I could join in at the craft table too. So I've decided to start small and see how it goes with the MiniArt 1/35 Dingo Mk. 1b. It looks a like a nice, well moulded kit in the box with some PE included though I've noticed some errors in the decals (more of that later). My plan is to build it more-or-less OOTB as a way to practice a few skills. I'll probably add some stowage and I've seen photos of a Dingo with some sort of additional metal plate between the wheel arches on the right hand side, so I expect I'll try to add that. Some photos also show what looks like an aerial with a pennant on it on the front left of the vehicle and I might be tempted by that too if I can find more information. I won't be following the order of the instructions to the letter because I want to construct in sub-modules for ease of painting. As a modest start, I've assembled the wheels and the first parts of the hull. The wheels comprise two parts - a "front" that includes the front hub and tyres and a "rear" for the rear of the hub. The two parts fit very snugly and offer the first opportunity for a minor tweak: I've drilled out the wheel lightening holes with a 1.2mm bit which makes a definite improvement to their appearance. Thirty-six holes later: I've also drilled holes in the rear to accept cocktail sticks for ease of handling at the painting stage. Next job will be all the fiddly bits for fitting the wheels to the hull.

Saw this advert in the October Airfix magazine, which interested me; two 1/72 kits in one box, Already released Chieftain mk 10 & mk. 11; https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TAK05006?result-token=1l8eG and the advert for this forthcoming new release, FV432 mk2/1 and Cheiftain Mk 5. which interests me. Link and length tracks in 1/72, though? Will I need new eyes?

Doing it again I'm afraid..... Will hopefully turn into a cleaner version of this.

Here I post this British 18pdr, built and painted by my father. I found the camouflage and made the pictures . Not many first world war kits in 1/35, so when we saw this in a model kit exhibition at just 5 € we snatched it. Sad that the crew is just 3, five would have been more like it. Placed upon an improvised diorama. The kit is very simple, but looks quite good all the same. If all were so simple, we would have a few thousands more in house!

Here is a little diversion while my milliput hardens on the "Biggun". I wanted to try my hand at a little something more "Normal" I know me and Normal go together like cheese and chalk. BUt I AM going to try my bestus to make this as OOB as possible. NO guarantees though. OK. Today for your amusement is Special Hobby's 1/48 Fairey Albacore. Special Hobby kits aren't that bad once you understand their "quirks" I've built a few in the past. Where I'm REALLY out of my comfort zone is this being a biplane and will require rigging. The last time I tried that was with Tamiyas 1/48 Fairey Swordfish and that wasn't pretty. One of these days I'm going to have to strip it all back down and see if I can redo it proper, but that is for another day and another build. I hope you will all follow along and please do offer advice. This being a stringbag AND British I want to make sure I do it and it's Service Justice. I have decided to build it as a Mk1 from 828 Squadron Hal Far, Malta 1942

Continuing with the modeling saga of less-known types, that nonetheless made significant contributions to aviation history and development, not to mention aesthetics, here is the Sopwith Bat Boat of 1913, credited as the first successful amphibian built in the UK. This is another pioneer (Like the recently-posted Lee-Richards annular wing) that should make BMs proud, being a local achievement. Thomas Sopwith came from the boating field, and used in the Bat Boat a type of construction technique called consuta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuta The Bat Boat design went through several incarnations. The model here represents the plane as it won the Mortimer-Singer amphibian competition of 1913, with retractable landing gear. Photos show that the plane in this configuration had an inline engine, the fore plane removed, twin rudders under the horizontal tail, and canvas fairing on the space between lower plane and fuselage. Photos show other versions with what looks like a rotary engine, different radiators, different tails and other changes. Beware that some plans out there mix features of them all, and are in general suspicious, therefore always rely on photos and compare them with the plans. There are, as far as I know, two 1/72 kits of this plane, the Joystick vacuum-formed I am using and a Luedemann resin kit, that to my eyes looks just a wee-bit chunky and an itsy-bitsy heavy-handed. I got this kit thanks to the good offices of fellow modeler L. Santos, who saw it in shop and called me to see if I wanted it (you already know the answer), thanks, L.! For those unfamiliar with this brand, you get the usual vac sheets, but also white metal parts and airfoiled struts material, both facilitating building greatly. In this case rods to build the frames that support the tail were also included. The kit came to me started. The vac sheets have been primed, the wings separated (but not cleaned or thinned), and the fuselage sides where already cut and given some reinforcement tabs typical of what we vac builders use. I do not particularly appreciate started kits, but what little it was done to this kit was ok, so I set to continue the build. The kit allows for different versions to be built. The metal parts consist of engine, fuel tank (so-so), prop (very poor) and wheels (inaccurate, solid ones). The vac floats are better replaced with a plastic rod and cones or similar, since they are not particularly good. The kit as I got it:

Hello, I am in the process of building a 1:200 Hasegawa DC-10-30. I would like to make it a British Airways in Landor livery. All I yet have found is 1:144 from Airline Hobby Suppliers. Anybody have any idea of where I can purchase these decals in 1:200? Another option could perhaps be to get the decals of an aircraft of roughly the same size as a DC-10.30, for example a B-767, and buy separate windows and doors? Best regards PanAmFlyer2

Hallo again Here is one Sopwith Dolphin in 48. Enjoy the photos. Happy modelling

Here is the little Gadfly. For the WiP go here:

The smallish Gadfly I started life in 1929 as an ABC Scorpion-powered conventional monoplane of simple lines and conservative design. Soon after, though, its ailerons were deleted and instead a new device was installed, the so-called "oyster" rotary ailerons, becoming the Gadfly II. Gadfly III had a Salmson AD9 radial. This rather simple and small Gadfly is representative of an entry-level project, but there are plenty of other good candidates out there. I happened to have an old Aeroclub Salmson 9AD white metal engine (Aeroclub accessory), so I will be building the Gadfly III (G-AARK) that had that engine. Photos can be found of it flying with either "oyster" or normal ailerons, but I will do the "oyster" ones, since have never seen them on a model. The techniques and resources used for the build are far from being written in stone, and there are many ways to solve scratchbuilding engineering challenges. The build is meant to be only indicative of some basic approaches to the task, for those interested in scratchbuilding endeavors. The completed model is here:

Hi, can anyone recommend 28mm figures for British Infantry and Indians from the French and Indian war? May be some French and Civilians too? I do not need large numbers but I am looking for good quality figures. TIA Ingo

Curiosity as much as anything else, but it crossed my mind to wonder if tank tracks were painted or otherwise coated after production to provide a measure of corrosion protection? Obviously any such coating wouldn't survive long in use when the tracks were mounted on the vehicle but at least some of them must have been kept in storage for a while before use. Interested in any info. John

I am currently building the Asuka/Tasca Direct Vision Sherman II (35-014), as used at the Battle of El Alamein, and I’ve hit a wee snag. According to the instructions, and the odd photo I’ve found, 9th Lancers’ Shermans carried a jerrycan on the left rear of the hull. The problem is that the instructions simply show it ‘stuck’ in place - which, obviously, it can’t have been in real life. All of the photos I’ve seen are too small and/or grainy to really make out what sort of method was used to secure the can in place, other than that there’s a strap running up around the can and under the handles. Does anyone have any definitive information on the ‘holder’ for the can please?

So here's another slightly out the box one from me. Underneath it's the Revell 1/35 German Luchs with a bit of scratch build added to make my rendition of a British NBC Recce vehicle. Originally gifted as a stop gap by Germany I had a look on line and these vehicles have gone through various reincarnations with storage bins plus bits and bobs added and removed since we had them around the start of our journey over to the big sand pit. I know the markings and exact configuration may not be 100% but it achieves the overall feel I was after. This one comes complete with half of Salisbury Plain under it and definitely needs a trip to the wash down! The additional storage boxes were a few I had left over from the Takom FV432 and anything in white was scratch built from plasticard. Hope it's ok and thanks for looking

Reposting due to problems with the photo's uploading on my last attempt so here we go again., hopefully with some photo's this time? This is the Trumpeter 155mm AS-90 with a few added extra's Photo Etch set Metal barrel with sagged recoil sleeve Scratch built cam nets and poles Accurate Armour GPMG (The kit one is a horrendous attempt at a gimpy) Accurate Armour GMPG ammo boxes Lights & indicator lens purchased as self adhesive gems from a craft shop A great kit and as an Ex-Gunner I couldn't help a pic next to my last 155mm build, one of the guns the AS-90 thankfully replaced an FH-70. Hope you enjoy.

(I guess this is as good of a choice for "first post" as any other idea I might have had...) Greetings all, I had thought I remembered seeing an article years ago where someone had built the Sovereign 2000 2-pounder gun in a Caunter scheme pattern. But I went through my database of references, and I only have one article of someone doing that kit; Steve Zaloga built it in a 2002 Military Modelling issue. And, alas, he did his in a straightforward desert tan scheme. Did I just imagine having seen this at all? None of my Google-fu has been able to turn up any photos of the gun in that scheme. I'd love to do it, for something kind of different than my usually artillery projects. But I prefer to feel at least a little certain that it's legitimate! Thanks in advance for any help/advice... -Randy