Search the Community

Tamiya 1/35th NASHORN Pachyderm packs a punch First off, a HUGE thank you to @Ozzy whom, for reasons known only to himself, thought to gift this Nashorn to me. He did say, however, that he remembered the birth, life and untimely death of my previous Nashorn, and 'felt sorry for me'. I'm paraphrasing there, and putting words into his mouth, but hey, that's the gist of it. Humbled by his generoustiy and thoughtfulness, I have delved into my stash and am donating a boxed Tamiya 1/35th Cromwell to his Models for Heroes work. Prologue. I originally entered this GB, intending to have a second go at a Nashorn, with full PE, but I discovered that the price of said model had risen by 30 percent in the past 2 years, from over 30 quid, to over 40 quid, and the full PE has increased in cost as well, taking the total to over 100 quid! That was too rich for me. I decided then, to fall back on Tamiya's Golden Oldie, StuGIV and uprgade this with PE and PE zimmerit - a lot of PE, but still a fraction of the cost of the full-beans Nashorn. Ozzy's kind gift though, has ressurrected the Nashorn, and, after much deliberation and studying of the interweb, I have realised that the full beans PE isn't worth the money anyway. There are no PE parts for the gun itself, and really, the only 'worthwhile' parts are for the ammo boxes. And the racks inside those boxes are (in my experience) a bit of a pig to make. The kit's gun barrel is pretty good, requiring only minimal 'de-lousing' and is nice and straight, so I won't bother with a metal replacement. The tracks are pretty good too, so I won't be bothering with an upgrade there either. This Nashorn then, will be OOB. In honour of my previous NASHORN, RIP (Rest In Pieces) I shall be sticking with the winter camo. This time, however, I will NOT be using hairspray 'juice' and bicarb for snow effects. 'Tis this, I believe, combined with a final rinse in warm water, that caused the orginal to begin to fall apart in my hands, and prompted the 'absolute' falling apart due to sudden, repeated, and violent impacts against the hot water tap. Finally, 'Pachyderm' is a term most often associated with elephants, but it does encompass any thick-skinned, hoofed mammal, including elephants, hippopotamusessesses, and rhinoceri. 'Nashorn' (for those who don't know) is German for 'Giraffe'. No. Really. It's not. Good luck to all in the GB, and even if you don't get to finish on time (I may well be one such person) PLEASE DO STILL VOTE! Badder

For my next project I have decided to do something outside a GB again. Last year, I realised, every build I had done had been done as part of a GB and so I promised myself I would do more kits outsdie GBs this year. This will only be my second but, I started the year with a non-GB project and I'm going to end the year in the same way. Having recently built two Shermans in GBs (Meng's Toon Sherman in the Blitzbuild GB and Dragon's 1/72nd M4A1(76)W VVSS in the Radial Engines Rock GB) I was initially thinking of making another Sherman in the same GB. I then realised the M3/M4 GB starts at the end of this year and felt I might get Shermaned out. I thoroughly enjoyed building Dragon's 1/72nd Sherman so thought I could risk trying my first 1/35 Dragon kit. Having looked at the few I have in the stash I opted for a smaller project first: I got it a while back in Ian Allen's Bookshop in Brum and, having looked at the contents, I reckon it was a bit of a bargain: I know it sometimes retails around the £40 mark but still........ Back of the box: and the sides: All of the versions this kit builds in to appear to have a worn whitewash finish so this will also be a first for me. So, as usual, I'll start with some photos of the contents: Sample of the instructions: The plastic - and there's a lot - although if you check out the first instruction page above you can see stuff not used in the blue blocks: and 2x these: Lower hull: Turret: Tracks - these are the Magic Tracks but there are two ejection marks on each piece - which is a bit annoying: Photoetch and decals: Clear parts: Some closeups of some details on the lower hull: Over the weekend I had a lovely time assembling parts onto the lower hull: Including the first couple of pieces of PE: Fit has been mostly very good although the instructions leave a little to the imagination. Some of the diagrams do not show the whole picture which results in a bit of guesswork here and there. I have been using Brian Krueger's review from IPMS/USA to help me as he has lots of very useful suggestions of what to look out for during the making of this kit. There are some seam lines to remove on some parts but no flash so far. Speaking of seam lines - I also started work on the running gear wheels - all of which require the seam lines removing from the centre of the tyres. More next weekend when I will hopefully be getting the painting started. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix