Messages

1831

Work In Progress / Re: Soviet Medium Tank T-34/85

« on: November 23, 2014, 07:12:51 am »

Looks real good . If you had yours out 6 months ago I wouldn't have had to convert a couple of my Warlord T-34 / 85s to the early type .    All I can see you've missed is the vision slit above the loaders pistol port ( right turret side ) . The gunner didn't have one as his periscope  was further back and could turn to fully face the left , the loader with his periscope further forward ,  was sort of jammed in by the gun breach , hence the slit .

1832

General Discussions / Re: To Some - Size does matter!

« on: November 23, 2014, 07:05:43 am »

Could you also add width and height as well as length over gun barrel .  A few guys at local hobby shop were disappointed by the size difference in Warlord"s resin and their plastic line tanks  of tanks.  Be nice to know how  yours measure up to Warlord's " sort of " 1/56 scale .

1833

Wish Lists / Re: Plastic Guns

« on: November 17, 2014, 04:52:56 am »

I 've got a few resin crews from a few different companies but they all seem to be different sizes and don't fit well , and I hate trying to convert resin figures , usually I end up trashing them . Most , IMO Bolt Action metal tank crews are too small , with  the newer Russian crew being more , again IMO to scale . I have converted a couple of the British plastic figures  to crew my Italeri Sherman , after modifying the hatches , as they are too narrow being made for the BA crews . Yes you can covert the BA troops , I've done almost 30 figures , 2 / 3 crew each  for my 7 tanks , 5 guys for the BA Bren Carrier ( only used the kit driver ), 5 guys in the plasic Hanomag and 8 guys in  the M3 plastic half track . It would be nice to have a five or six figure plastic set of say , 2 standing , 2 seated and 2 half figures for driver hatches . Could include various head gear , with and with out radio head phones . Maybe 8 pairs of arms to give the kit a multi pose kind of vibe . Could have a set of  early and  late Germans , Brits , Yanks ,and Soviets . These kind of sets are availabe in scales from 1/87 ( HO trains ) to 1/16 th for the big tank kits so hopefully some will bring some out in 1/56 . Getting really tired of scrapping and sanding off all that plastic infantry kit .

1834

General Discussions / Re: References

« on: November 16, 2014, 06:52:59 am »

  For the casual modeler , I would say pick up the Osprey Vanguard or Squadron Signal books or Walkarounds  on the vehicle your wanting to work on ( about $ 20 ) . Not a huge amount of technical info in 60 to 80 pages but enough text , drawings  and photos to set you on the right path  . A series called  Nuts & Bolts  goes into more detail on one vehicle or chassis type ( mostly German ) , getting down to ammo storage , engine compartment and radios , etc . Panzer Wrecks  gives you pictures of wrecked / captured  German vehicles ,  by type or setting , ie - Normandy  or  France 1940 . Ampersand Publishing has some great photo studies on the Churchill and the Staghound to name the two I have . Also Haynes , who publish auto books have a few on Military vehicles  , I've got the Sherman , the Churchill and the one on Bovington's Tiger .  My go to books for modeling ideas are Encyclopedia of German Tanks ( Chamberlain & Doyle- 1978 ) , British and American Tanks of WW2 ( Chamberlain & Ellis -1969 ). Old as heck , but with over 1000 pictures in the E of GT and over 500 in B & AT book , I get lots of ideas on crew stowage , battle damage , vehicle markings and general wear and tear on the vehicles  . Lots of great books  on Soviet tanks  coming  out of Russia , Poland and the Czech Republic , the only problem is that they might only have a short summary in English , the rest will be fun to translate , but lots of never before seen pictures , I picked up one , in Russian on the KV 2 . A  great site to check out for modeling ideas as well as book and kit reviews is Armorama .

1835

General Discussions / Re: PzKpfwg III

« on: November 15, 2014, 12:53:37 pm »

Interesting .... it's not a Panzer III ( Fl ) Sd Kfz 141 / 3  flame thrower tank is it . ?

1836

Work In Progress / Re: Soviet Medium Tank T-34/85

« on: November 09, 2014, 07:40:53 am »

Looks great . Really bummed  that I've got 5 of the BA 85s . Nice to see both the 2 piece and later 1 piece commanders hatch . Are you going to include the early dish rim style road wheels ( found in your T-34 kit ) as many D-5 gunned tanks had those ? Also , how about giving us kit bashers the option by including rounded front fender pieces as again most D-5 tanks had these .

1837

Work In Progress / Re: New Project - What is this?

« on: November 01, 2014, 10:21:19 pm »

I'm not saying I'm a tank expert or anything  , but after 45 years of looking at pictures and building various scale Panzer IIIs , the shape and size of the wheels on the P III just jumped right out at me as " wrong ". Mostly the spares because they were very visible on top of the fenders . Now I know this kit is mostly for 1/56 scale  war gamers and some of them seem to be ok with chunky resin  wheel sets and wide one piece sets of plastic road wheels , heck some don't even know or care that the BA Stug  has single spare tires . As a modeler this kind of stuff matters to me , yes I can fix it if I have too , but if Rubicon wants input I'll give them some . And Rubicon has tweaked the CAD drawings which looks pretty good , but at the end of the day they'll decide if they want to go with the new version or just reuse the old wheels . Either way , they should sell a ton .

1838

Work In Progress / Re: New Project - What is this?

« on: November 01, 2014, 12:35:27 pm »

Still not convinced on the thickness of the rubber tire part , but the rim is just about spot on . 

1839

Work In Progress / Re: New Project - What is this?

« on: October 31, 2014, 11:49:41 am »

Maybe its the CAD drawing but it still looks off to me  .  Checking through the books I have it looks like your relief holes in the wheel should be moved inwards toward the wheel hub , not  close to the outer rim as you show them . And the rubber on the tires of the Panzer III is almost twice as thick as the rubber on the Panzer IV wheels . Sorry don't have any reference books with rim / tire diameter  .Don't know if this helps you any . Thanks for letting us give you some feed back , it's nice to find a company interested in it's customers opinions  and wish lists 

1840

Work In Progress / Re: Our SdKfz 251/1 Ausf. D - updated with more 3D prototypes!

« on: October 26, 2014, 06:52:32 am »

Really liking your options for the 251 D . I can see some left over pieces from the build being used on other company's vehicles to bring them up to par . Nothing I like better than a little kit bashing 

1841

Work In Progress / Re: New Project - What is this?

« on: October 26, 2014, 06:46:22 am »

That's great news although I would still get a couple if you didn't , its a problem I can fix .  Don't feel bad about having to redesign and retool from time to time . Dragon brings out a new and improved Panzer whatever at least every six months ,and still screws  things up , just check and see how many versions of your chosen favorite German tank they have .  Not to mention twenty years worth of still not getting the T-34 driver's hatch placed  right .

1842

Work In Progress / Re: New Project - What is this?

« on: October 25, 2014, 08:52:59 pm »

Stowage rack for a Stug   . Could you  fix the narrow  rubber rims  on the spare  road wheels if possible please . Not having one of your Panzer IIIs  yet , I don't know how much the narrow rubber in contact with the tracks is going to matter , I can always cover them in mud /snow,  but the spares on the fenders just stick out like sore thumbs IMO . Now true some might not care , like those with the Bolt Action Stugs with their single spare tire  , but if your going to sell to modelers as well as gamers it  might be better to fix this problem if you can .  And I'ld like to say thank you for all the effort your putting into the kits you've produced so far , as well as those on the drawing board . Keep up the good work

1843

Work In Progress / 251 D

« on: October 24, 2014, 09:26:36 pm »

With over 10,000 vehicles of the 251 D half track built we are going to have so much  fun kit bashing the various versions you produce . I'm already cutting up Bolt Action plastic Germans to make seated crew figures . For ideas , try and find a copy of Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WW 2 by P. Chamberlain & H. Doyle . ISBN 1-85409-214-6 . First published in 1973 , yes older than some of us visiting this site , but lots and lots of great pictures ( over 1000 ) of German tanks , half tracks  , armoured cars and captured vehicles in German service .

1844

Wish Lists / Re: WWII Early war french

« on: October 23, 2014, 09:27:50 am »

True some differences but I think at this scale it won't really matter too much  ( ok maybe  to some rivet counters I know ) . I was trying to give Rubicon a easy way to give us a variety of versions  ( 2 French , 3 German ) with a small extra parts count above the basic kit .  I would love to get a totally accurate kit of the H-35 but the time and cost to produce plus the parts count would make it impractical for war gaming . Heck even the larger 1/35 scale companies Trumpeter and Hobby Boss have short cuts and omissions in their  kits .

1845

Wish Lists / Re: WWII Early war french

« on: October 14, 2014, 05:43:37 am »

I think a Hotchkiss H-35 might be a good tank to produce . Various types can be built with a few extra parts . A H-39 can be made by adding the longer L33 gun . An anti ditching tail skid can be added to either type . Change the commanders vision cupola to a split hatch type and add tripod aerial to the right rear fender for a German Pz.Kpfw H 35 / 39 . A round cover with a split hatch or just a molded canvas cover would convert it to a German artillery tractor or a Munition Schlepper . There was also a German version with two rocket projectors each side like the 251 /1  Stuka  Zu Fuss