Various WIP

[ripley]

Great minds think alike , lol .

[ripley]

My Tigers are coming along slowly . I haven't decided on cammo and marking for the 3rd Tiger  , and I still need crew . I wonder when Rubicon's plastic German crew will be released ?

[ripley]

I finally finished my second Tiger II ( sans full crew ) . Although you get the knight  decals for the Pz.Abt. 505 , the turret sides have full zim . You have to remove a square in the zim as this unit's marking were on the turret side plate .  Dosn't really help with keeping magnetic mines off the turret sides , but it looks very cool . You also have to find yourself a set of turret numbers in 3 different sizes , Large ones on the turret rear , middle size ones on the gun close to the turret and smaller ones on the barrel . Unfortunetly , I couldn't find all three sizes of the same   black number with a  white outline , so I used all white numbers .And its a real mish mash of numbers using decals from  Rubicon  , Warlord  & Tamiya .

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice job on that.

[ripley]

Still spinning my wheels on the 3rd Tiger and my Panther still sitting gathering dust  , but I did pick up the latest Meng Toon Tank , a Somua S-35 . Man did the French ever have some weird cammo schemes ....

[ultravanillasmurf]

Aw cute - not normally the response to a tank, except possibly Leona's tank "Bonaparte".

Very distinctive camouflage.

[Ballardian]

 Nice They look like fun kits (Soda Pop minis also do some Chibi-esque models, though I dont know if they're similarly scaled, a Pz IV & an M4 with some infantry for each).

[ripley]

Thanks guys . They are kind of fun to build . If you look them up on the net you find guys that try and make them look as scale / real as possible with tank bits from various scale kits . Others go all  cartoony with strange color schemes and crews . A Pinky and The Brain Sherman is one I really like . Have also seen guys kit bashing them for 40K , seems like they make great vehicles for Orks  . I'll have to checkout the Soda Pop figures , thanks . You can get about 11 diferrent toon  tanks , 5 ships and a sub plus 4  planes from Meng .  AFV Modeller makes a couple of KVs and a Pzr IV in this style , plus Fujimi makes half a dozen or so . Hasegowa and Tiger do a bunch of fighters , both WW2 and jets , so there's  something for everybody 

[ultravanillasmurf]

There is a guy on Lead Adventures who is building a large Space Dwarf force using them.

[ripley]

Those Meng kits sure are getting popular . There is a company called RetrokiT that is making resin parts for them . M4A3 Sherman hull , the late 76mm Sherman turret ,  Stug III early hull , Sturm Tiger hull , a couple of KV I turrets , as well a T-34/85 turret ,a 3 piece Sherman transmission cover and a pair of 50 cal mgs . Guess I'm going to have to track some pieces down , although price wise it seems a resin turret costs as much as the inital kit  . On to hobby , I've been working on my Poles in Berlin 45 conversions . I used plastic winter Russians , removed heavy felt boots in needed , and added heads with the Polish "rotatywka "" from Studio Siberia , which funny enough  is based in Siberia , so  delivery took a while , but all round get price and service .  I added bits of cobblestone sheet as well as model rail road coal/ cinders to give the base a damaged urban look . Still needs some Plastruct beams and channel as metal scrap and maybe some broken wood pieces ( stir sticks ) .

[Pinky]

I always read your updates, Ripley, even if I don't comment often.  It's great to see how fast your many projects proceed, compared to my glacial pace. 

These bubble tanks look like fun.  Your Somua is very cool. They have rubber band tracks, right?

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice looking infantry.

[ripley]

Thanks guys . My many projects , lol . I think that's my problem , I've got too many projects on the go all at once . Still got a Tiger II , a Panzer IV , Panther D , ( all about 3/4s done ) , both a resin and a plastic Japanese Ha-Go Type 97 , as well as two  250 half tracks , a 251 and a BMW with side car to start .Plus  couple of 1/72 planes , a Meng Toon Plane and a Zvezda 1/144 Stuka , and numerous  Rubicon kit figures as well as BA sprues for kit bashing  And . I still haven't finished my Russian Cavalry yet  . Although too many kits might seem like a problem , you can never get bored , cause you just box one kit and start another . The trick is getting ALL the pieces back in the box !

[ripley]

Finished my last Tiger and tank riders . Its taken almost 2 months to get those 6 Paras sorted  , but finely done .  Of the  6 bodies in  the BA FJ sprue  , 3 were built stock , 2 had a leg swapped and the seated figure has lower legs from the BA plastic German seated set added . 



And as I was able to make the fourth  turret  using extra parts from Rubicon's Tiger I , I decided to model it as battle damaged .

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice job.