Various WIP

[ripley]

Thanks . Now to find an easy paint scheme

[ripley]

I chose a generic   3 color scheme with a black outline between the colors. The decal set from Warlord is lacking in some things and generous in others , For example , you only  get 2 French rondels , but some tanks have 4 ( turret sides , glacis  and engine deck ) others just 1 ( engine deck ) . You get 6 each of medium size  card suit decals ( diamond , club , heart , spade ) , plus 2 larger diamonds ? I mixed and matched decals to get a look that looked good to me, in fact I used numbers from a Russian decal set as the kit supplied ones just didn't look right IMO . To be fair , the Char B is a strange vehicle in that the turret is oddly shaped and the hull side panels are not twinned on either side of the tank ( ie : crew door / air grill ) so you can't exactly match the decals on either side like a Sherman or Tiger . Still needs a wash and I'm probably going to set it on it's own scenic base as I want to have the side door  left ajar  ( not open flat  against the hull ). Anyone know of any surrendering French tank crew figures ?

[ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice.

[ripley]

Thanks .

[ripley]

Got a bit side tracked at an Edmonton hobby shop this morning . They didn't have any 1/56 kits , but they did have a old kit I've been interested in for ages ( 10 + years ) at a great price



A Trumpeter 1/16 scale T-34 / 85 turret with it's 1/56 little brother on top . Full interior , ammo , individual track links , not a week end type build !

[ultravanillasmurf]

That is a contrast.

I look forward to seeing how that goes.

[ripley]

The kit will be put a the bottom of the stash pile for the moment . Now I have to figure out where to build it . My bench never has more than a square foot of clear space on it at any given time , and the hull is probably 14 inches long .  I guess I'll build and paint it in sections when I get around to it . I wonder if I can find a couple of the 1/16 Russian tank crew figures that Trumpeter released years ago ? I managed to pick up the 1/16  Tamiya Russian  figure during the summer .  I've seen some 1/16 Russian figures in resin but $60 odd bucks or more each is a little much IMO

[ripley]

Another Meng egg tank , the Tiger (P) 45.01 . Not content to build it out of the box I decided to add some 1/35 tank parts to sort of get it to look like 003 the only operational Tiger (P) .



The real thing had Zimmeritt and the added bolt on armor like the Ferdinand , and although I did think about adding both , I want these kits to be a fun distraction from scale modelling . Also my 35th scale parts box is getting a little low on cool bits and pieces , so I made do with what I could find hence the Stug cupola ring instead of a early Tiger type . And I bought a Tamiya IV D just to get stowage box , $ well spent as it IMO really adds to the kit . I might have over done it by adding the 1/35 scale Tiger barrel though , but I like it .







Its almost finished , just needing the decals to set and then a light wash to dirty it up a bit . Next egg Meng kit , their modern Type 99A MBT

[ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice work on that.
They look like fun kits.

[ripley]

Fun & frustrating at the same time . I've got 10 of these now and each of them seems to be designed by a different person . Some have wheel hub and nut details , while others the wheels are just plain . Some , the engine decks are mirrored ( left hatch / right hatch ) , others have a hatch on the left , a grill on the right and various filling hatches ( fuel , oil ? ) here and there . So its a bit hit and miss trying to "real world " them . They're really just made for kids to put together ( push fit , no glue ) right out of the box . Over all though they have been a lot of fun , which is sometimes needed in this hobby of 600 piece 1/35 scale track sets ( swear word !!! ) . Plus spending time trolling through the spare parts boxes , I have found bits  that I can use on my 1/56 stuff as well so its a win / win

[ripley]

After finishing off my T-34/85 I decided to start on  a JS II . As I already built one a while ago , this one was quick to put together . I decided to give it a different  pattern to the casting on the turret than my first one . Going through my saved photos , I found 28 different casts , some rough , some  smooth , some with raised numbers /letters . Since I gave all my model RR raised  letter sets away to a buddy , who actually used them all ( b#stard ! ) , I settled on a smoother casting . And just to be a little bit different , I decided to give this one the hatch mounted AA mg .

The kit piece is very flat , not at all like the real gun , so it was off to the parts box for a few bits and pieces

[ripley]

Here's a couple of metal figures I finally got around to painting . 1st up , a German Propaganda Kompanie camera man , I'll think I might l use him in a diorama with some German troops checking out my knocked out KV II

 The 2nd figure had his head replaced with a metal Warlord head  as the hat was badly molded on the original , as well the hands were replaced  with more detailed plastic ones from the parts box and I added a surrender flag out of gauze

[ultravanillasmurf]

Excellent.

[ripley]

Been busy the last while , so didn't seem to finish anything .And then all of a sudden ,things seemed to get finished . Got myself my 4th box of PSC Russian 45mm AT guns ( I love these things ) . As I have 6 guns set up in firing position I thought I would  build a  crew moving their gun , something like this

The figures are from the BA plastic Russian set with a few leg swaps and the odd tweak to the hands .

This wip has the 76mm Infantry gun which I decided to use elsewhere , so I changed it to the long barreled 45





While researching the gun and its crews I found that there are 2 types of ammo boxes seen with the 45mm gun , a 10 round wooden box ( 2x5 rounds , 55-75 pounds ) and a metal brief case looking thing (5 rounds , 25 -35 pounds ) , the weight depends on type of rounds .

So I made a few using Plastruct siding , giving the built crew 2 , having 2 more to add to figures I will build at a later date

[ripley]

I managed to find some cheap air dry clay so I built a couple of large bases , a gun pit and a trench



I used stir sticks for the boards , plastic rod for the log   supports  and added some ground cover , GW spiky ferns and some barb wire. I used the same stuff for the trench , cutting the figures off at the thighs to keep the trench low on the table as opposed to those above ground GW types . I did the same thing  on my Japanese fox holes , the idea being you use full figures when the troops move out of the trench