71July / August 2013

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THE VERY BEST IN SCALE ARMOUR MODELLING

ROUTE MARCH STUNNING GROUP BUILT DIORAMA

BLITZKRIEG

2 Blitzkrieg Route MarchRoberto Aguilera directs a team of leading modellers in this fall of France diorama project.

12 T-62 Mineroller Andy Gulden teams up a Mig Productions mine roller with the Trumpeter T-62.

20 Singapore Armed Forces Leopard 2A4SGChris Meddings tackles an ambitious project to build a Singaporean Leopard based loosely on a Hobbyboss kit.

32 Drilling SdKfz 251/21 ‘The Last Snows of Winter - Hungary 1945A superb winter weathered halftrack by Lester Plaskit.

44 Keeping TrackMore new releases

56 Stalinets ChTZ-65 ‘Heavy Russian Tractor’Rick Lawler add his own touches to Trumpeter’s tractor.

CONTENTS

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AFV Modeller is published Bimonthly byAFV Modeller ltdOld StablesEast Moor StanningtonNorthumberlandNE61 6ESTel: 01670 823648Fax: 01670 820274email: david@afvmodeller.comEditor and Designer: David ParkerDeputy Editor: Donald CampbellSales Director: Keith Smith

ISSN 1747-4183

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4TH PANZER DIVISION FRANCE 1940

BLITZKRIEG

Roberto Aguilera brings together thecombined talents of Sang Eon Lee,Michael Rinaldi, Daryl Dancik andhimself to portray this stunning 1:35thscale scene of the 4th Panzer division’srapid advance into France in 1940.

ROUTE MARCH

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Perhaps everything began with a scene inmy head, a classic scene. After returningfrom my first visit to Euromilitaire, I was soinspired by all that I had seen, that I wantedto build a landscape somewhere. I hadacquired a beautiful Dragon Panzer I Bisonfrom my friend Michael Rinaldi, plus anothergood friend and great builder, Daryl Dancikwho was finishing a Panzer IB that Michaelwould paint for me. These early war tanksmay not be very fashionable right now withthe trends to the ‘paper panzers’ and latewar kits. I wanted a dirt road to match theBison’s finish as Michael had painted theBison with a dusty and dirty look, so I couldsee it in a column of tanks on a road, now Ineeded the troops.I found great range of German infantrymen,early war period, from the outstandingRussian figure maker TANK MODEL. Fivesets T-35075 - T -35080, perfect for that Ihad in mind, so the shipment went all theway to Korea for Sang Eon to bring them to

life. He is a fantastic painter, no doubtamong the best in the world, so the rest ofthe project had to be top quality. I neededsomething in the diorama that would focusattention besides dust and grass, and I waslooking for a bridge or a building. I had alsoacquired a wide selection of grass tufts,flowers, and summer bushes fromMININATUR from Germany, I wantedcontrast between the military colours and abeautiful coloured environment surroundedby flowers. And then I found the piece I waslooking for, a European windmill MDP043from MONROE PERDU, in my opinion one ofthe best if not the best scenic modelmanufacturers.So the scene was set, France 1940, 4thPanzer Division. I started sketching layoutdrawings that I sent to my buddy TorlapIntarangason in Malaysia, to get some helpwith the basic layout in Styrofoam, while Iwas finishing another project and startedthe windmill construction and painting.

The base was cut into shape fromStyrofoam, although the road was correctedtwice to fit the infantry, the bridge was madeout of balsa wood. The stream was mademixing Vallejo still water 26230 and Vallejoacrylic colours interior green and sandyellow. Pouring several layers, making sureevery layer was fully cured before addingthe next. Torlap did a Great Job on the initialgrass layer, using a Noch Grass-master60131 and Noch static grass. I got the baseand started by adding depth to the summer

foliage of France, 15 different sets ofMininatur, summer bushes, turf, turf withleaves, late summer turf, and yellow andpurple flowers, all scattered on bits andpieces carefully glued one by one, it tookabout 5 weeks, 4 hours a day to do the job,then hundreds of leaves and brancheswhere glued on. WOODLAND SCENICSrock debris, Talus rock debris where addedto the road, all of which was airbrushed withTamiya Buff, and the base was heavilycovered with MIG pigments.

SETTING THE SCENE

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What a beautiful piece this is, cast in fine light grey resin, itcomes with a sheet of laser-cut high impact cardboard, colouredin wood brown. I started with the top section and the tiles, Afterthe initial coat of Tamiya primer, a coat of Tamiya flat black wasairbrushed, each tile was painted in a different colour using awide range of Polly S acrylics that I had in a drawer for a longtime so I decided to use them, I was very happy with the resultsof my old paints, smooth, great colours and nice finish. Thenlayers of MIG pigments where applied very subtly on top of eachtile. A thin coat of Humbrol satin varnish was airbrushed to obtainsome fresh mud look. A second round of pigments was applied.The wheel, blades and wood rail where painted with differentshades of brown using Polly S acrylics, the effect is great on thisamazing cardboard, and the result is a very realistic. MIGpigments again, on top the acrylic paints, using earth tones,after a couple of days, Winsor & Newton oils Raw Umber thinnedwith Humbrol thinners where applied using a fine brush on thepanel lines, scratches and wood grain.

THE WINDMILL

The base of the windmill was primed usingTamiya grey primer, then a mix of TamiyaBuff acrylics and desert yellow wasairbrushed recreating stucco finish. Moisturespots were heavily accentuated around thebase, then three different hair spray coatseach one airbrushing the Tamiya mix overagain. Chipping on this was different thantanks, these are damp spots in old paintover the stucco, using the references that Ihad, I tried to match the peeling paint byrubbing the paint in a very subtle way,shaping the stains and peeled paint.

The painted advertising graphic on the backis a huge decal provide in the kit, andseveral coats of Solvaset where applied, toachieve the hand painted look. After thedecal was set, two coats of satin varnishwhere airbrushed over it. The door waspainted light wood colour using Vallejoacrylics, then a coat of hair spray and VallejoPark Green, chipped off and then finelyaccentuated using Winsor & Newton oils.The base was finished by adding severalcoats of MIG pigments on earth tones andstains and rain streaks with oils. Overall thiswindmill was a very nice piece that I reallyenjoyed modelling.

Award winner and Master Painter Sang Eon Lee From Korea did the job, thefigures where primed and the airbrushed flat black. The details are beautifullypainted using Sonja’s acrylics. This is one of the finest paint jobs I have ever seen.

THE FIGURES

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Michael Rinaldi built the Bison, from the Dragonkit. He added some PE and Fruil tracks, Ialways speak highly of my collaborators butMike deserves a special respect andadmiration when appreciating his art, withoutdoubt Mike did a great job with this one asusual. After a coat of primer the model wasbase coated with a mix of Medium Blue XF 18,Nato Black XF 69, German grey XF 63, tocreate the panzer grey, extensive washes andpigments were added. The Pz I was deliveredto me half finished, as Mike could not finish it,so I had to copy his style and add final touchesto this one. Not an easy task when you have tomatch Mike’s style! The only basic differencewas that the Pz 1 had a red primer base coatand I leave it to you to judge my success!

PZI AND BISON

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The different components were now all complete and could be broughttogether on the base and final adjustments made to the composition. TheAlpine motorcyclist was added to the scene as part of the traffic jam and hecontrasts nicely with the marching infantry.

CONSOLIDATION

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Modern Russian vehicles have always been a subject that I have

found very captivating. I always pick up the newest kits and the

new photo-etch and resin conversions find a way into my work

shop. Since painting and weathering a vehicle in combat

conditions is my favorite part of modelling, most modern Russian

subjects get pushed to the back of the work bench as I build and

paint the newest WW II project. A shinny T-72 on parade in

Moscow just won’t do it for me.

As I was researching current Russian uniforms for some figures I

was painting, images of the Russian Army in Chechnya keep

showing up. A particular picture of a combat weary T-62 with a

KMT-7 mine roller peaked my interest. After quick check of my

stash, I was confident I had all the necessary parts to re-create

the T-62.

T-62

Modelled by Andy Gulden

mineroller

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ConstructionThe base for this project is the Trumpeter T-62,

model 1972. I planned on using the many

aftermarket sets I had collected over the last few

years. The following sets where used on this model:

MIG Productions KMT-7 Mine Roller

MIG Productions T-55, T-62 Fuel Tank Fittings

SP Designs Corrected Turret and Fuel Tanks

RB Productions Gun Barrel

Voyager Model Fenders, Photo-Etch Detail and Slat

Armor sets

Miniarm Resin Wheels

Furil Track

The issues with the Trumpeter kit have been

hashed out on the internet and in magazines so I

will not go into them here. I intended to spend my

time enhancing the details instead of correcting

these problems.

Hull and FendersI started construction with the lower hull as usual. I

really did not follow the kit directions much; I used

them just as a reference as I went along. I set out

assembling the major hull components first. After

gluing the hull top and bottom together I

progressed to the rear deck and completed the

major parts of the hull construction. Once dry, I

filled all the locating holes I would not need with

plastic stock and super glue. A swipe of Mr

Surfacer 500 and a little sanding finished up the

hull “box”. Thankfully the fenders are separate parts

so no cutting was necessary. I moved on to the

suspension and built that per the directions. While

the suspension was drying, I concentrated my

attention on the fenders. The Voyager set is very

well detailed and assemble just like the real thing. I

soldered the first and last vertical support to add

some strength once they are placed on the hull.

The strengthening spars on the underside of the

fender were secured with thin super glue applied

with a disposable brush. The Voyager fenders lined

up perfectly with the locating slots on the hull and

where then secured with thin cyano glue. It was

time for some detailing.

Both fenders received there remaining support

braces and various other photoetched parts that

replaced the plastic bits. A rather detailed look at

some references set me on the correct path of

adding all the weld beads to the hull and fender

assembly. Most of them where created using thinly

rolled out “Green Stuff” and a wet cocktail stick

was used to add the texture. I replaced the kit fuel

tanks with ones from SP Design and detailed them

using various Voyager parts. The MIG Productions

fuel line set supplied the proper plumbing for the

tanks. They were finished off with some plastic rod

and lead wire for the lifting handles. The kit storage

boxes were brought up to standard using details

from Voyager and the ten or so mounting

assemblies were fabricated from plastic rod and

brass bits to finish them off. The rear mud flaps

have been fabricated from lead foil and bent into

shape using the kit parts as a template. My

reference vehicle was missing the front fenders so

only the remaining hinge sections were built.14

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Rear DeckThe rear deck of the Trumpeter kit is full of

inaccuracies and soft details. I decided to

shave off the small intake screen on the

left side and recreate using plastic strip

and brass rod. A section of Voyager mesh

finished off the rebuild. Reference pictures

show a very complex system of hinges and

locking mechanisms for the large intake

covers. I recreated them using brass rod,

plastic stock and a few etch parts from the

scrap box. Various missing details were

added to the back wall such as bolts,

conduit and wire to the lights finished up

the rear end. The fuel drum mounting arms

were modified so one could remain empty.

Another check of my references led to an

additional round of weld beads.

Front Glacis Plate – MineRollerThe Glacis plate needed no modifications

but various parts from the Voyager set

helped to add some fine detail. All of the

moulded on conduit and wiring was

removed and replaced with brass rod and

copper wire. Special attention was paid to

adding the missing details around the

drivers hatch.

Before finishing up the front, I assembled

the MIG mine roller. It went together pretty

well but the instructions left a little to be

desired. A good set of reference pictures

will be needed here. Once completed, the

mine roller and hull where secured to a

piece of thick cardboard with Blue Tack to

help line everything up before gluing the

retaining bolts to the top and bottom of the

glacis. A bit of patience is required at this

step but once completed I had quite an

impressive mass of plastic, brass and

resin!

TurretI decide to use the SP Design turret as it

already had the canvas tarp molded on

around the gun mantlet. Most of the kit

parts were used on the turret and

additional details from the Voyager set

finished things up. The RB Productions

barrel mated up perfectly with the turret

opening. It was now on to the slat armour.

The Voyager Slat armour set provides

turret and hull sections, thankfully my

reference vehicle only sports the turret

sections. Constructing the slat armour

sections proved to be fairly straight

forward. I soldered the outermost vertical

and horizontal rails to create a strong

frame and filled in the rest, securing with

thin cyano glue. Mounting the panels to

the turret was another story. To keep

everything straight and plum, I mounted

the turret to a thin piece of wood with blue

tack and scribed a reference line for the

top mounting points with a drafting

compass. This allowed me to secure the

top arms level and could now install the

slat panels being careful to allow them to

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rotate on the hinge point. I could then set

the panels perpendicular to the wooden

base and glue the bottom arm. More weld

beads were applied around the mounting

points.

MiscellaneousI finished the assembly by installing the

road wheels from Miniarm, track from Furil

and replacing the kit DSK-M with one from

the Tamiya T-55. One of the kit fuel drums

was built and secured using one strap from

Voyager and replaced the other with a

heavy chain from AK Interactive.

PaintingPainting started with a good coat of primer

from Vallejo. The base coat started with a

deep pre-shading of Tamiya Nato Black in

all the corners and recesses. My green was

made from a mixture of Tamiya Nato

Green, Sky Green and white. I applied a

few thin coats to let the pre-shading show

through. A few drops of white were

progressively added to the base colour and

applied to the center of large areas as a

type of modulation. A splash of Tamiya

Dark Earth was sprayed along the running

gear to begin the weathering process. A

good coat of Tamiya clear sealed the paint

job for decals and weathering. A MIG

Productions set of dry transfers for

Chechnya was used to add unit numbers

and symbols.

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T-62

WeatheringI started the weathering at the mine roller and worked my way around the whole

tank by adding chips and scratches using Vallejo SS Camo Black Brown. I applied

them randomly with a sponge on all the exposed edges and areas of high crew

traffic. Although this achieves good results I always go over the areas with a 000

brush and add some refinements. I purposely went heavy on the rollers themselves

to create a good base for the metallic effects to come. With that step complete I

applied a few green and brown filters from MIG Productions with a wide flat brush

making sure they dried completely between coats. To create some depth on a

boring green base I added many little dabs of blue, green and yellow oil paint and

blended them in using a wide brush dampened with mineral spirits. Once

everything was dry a round of pin washes was applied using MIG Productions Dark

wash. I used it right out of the bottle for the running gear the lower part of the hull

but thinned it quite a bit for the top surfaces. Some random rust washes on the bar

armour finished up process. With my air bush filled with heavily thinned Tamiya

Buff, I began adding dusty areas and rain streaks around the entire tank, especially

the running gear and lower hull. Before moving to mud splatter and general

dirtiness, I covered the face of the mine rollers with Humbrol Metal Cote and

polished it to a nice shine.

Mud and more mud… I had a pretty good looking model at this

point and I could have easily assembled all the components

and called this one finished but not yet. I had recently

purchased the AK Interactive “Heavy Mud” set and was eager

to use it. Combining the ingredients with water and adding

some gloss from the Vallejo range, I mixed up a thick mud

paste. I laid down a think foundation of wet mud by splattering

the mix from the tip of an old brush with blasts of air from my

airbrush. Two or three more applications of mud were applied

but adding some lighter colors to the mix to get a good

contrast between wet and dried material. The mixture was

scrubbed from areas of ware such as the face of the rollers and

road wheels with a short stiff brush.

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Final weathering was completed with a few

applications of “Streaking Grime” and

“Light Rust” from AK. A quick pass of

graphite power applied with a cotton bud

added some metallic sheen. The track got

the same mud treatment as the tank after

a quick dip in “Blacken it” and the contact

points were scrubbed off with 800 grit sand

paper.

Once everything dried up, the road wheels,

tracks, spare fuel drum, MV lenses and

machine gun was mounted to the hull. One

final application of scratches was applied

using a light green colour to create some

depth. The ever-present skull on the DSK-

M was added as the finishing touch to the

project.

ConclusionThis was a very enjoyable project that

allowed me to try some new techniques

and became a good platform for the many

aftermarket bits I had collected. I think a

war wary veteran T-72 may be in the frame

soon!

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The Leopard 2 MBT, in its variousforms, is one of the most widelysold and successful modern MBTseries currently in service aroundthe world. It is in service with alarge number of countries in theworld including; Greece, Spain,Canada, the Netherlands andSingapore and of course;Germany, and if reports are correctthen soon apparently; Indonesia.

In many cases these tanks have been upgraded and

changed with local systems and additions, usually in

co-operation between the German manufacturers

Kraus Maffei and local defence engineering companies.

The Leopard 2A4SG is no different. At heart it is an

upgraded and standardised 2A4, much like the original

2A4s bought be Singapore a few years ago.

H O B B Y B O S S

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REFERENCE

As far as I am aware, the latest incarnation

of the 2A4SG is so new it does not feature

in any publications. Information on it is very

limited from other sources such as the

internet and if I hadn’t been lucky enough

to see one it is doubtful I could have got

enough photos to complete this project.

Luck was on my side though as I was in

Singapore in May 2012 when the Singapore

Armed Forces held their biennial ‘Army

Open House in the City’ event where they

take over the Formula 1 site in the heart of

the city and bring out their equipment for

the public to see with various

demonstrations on attractions for families.

At this year’s show they had two 2A4SGs

on display, one on its own and one which

they had brought steps up to, allowing the

public to get on top to take a look.

Needless to say my camera and I made full

use of the opportunity.

KITS AND ACCESSORIES USED:

In preparing for the build, I got what I could alreadymade from kits and aftermarket. These were:

1. The Hobbyboss Leopard 2A4SG. This is a very cheap kit when I bought it in Singapore and given the amount of it that would not end up on the finished model, its basic soundness for the price was the best choice.

2. Leopard 2 tracks by Armour Track Models. I wanted the Bronco track but they were not available at the time.

3. RB Models Barrel. I got this direct from RB Models. It’s a beautiful item, service was excellent, but it did need a little bit of correction as we will see later.

4. Karaya tow cable5. Legends IDF Machine gun set for the MAG MG

and parts of the pintle mount.6. Various resin nuts from Miniarm. I would also

need an awful lot of white styrene, brass rod, fillers of various types, metal sheets and foil and to design a large fret of photoetch.

CHRIS MEDDINGS TACKLES AN AMBITIOUSPROJECT TO CREATE THE LATEST LEOPARDUSED BY THE SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES. 1:35

SCALE

The latest upgraded version has a number

of key differences that make it unique

among 2A4s in service around the world.

The differences are partly German

designed, and partly Singaporean in origin

and the work of ST Kinetics, the indigenous

defence engineering firm and designers of

the Bionix IFV and Terrex LAVs. Changes to

the 2A4 to make the latest 2A4SG include

an auxiliary power unit, comprehensive

‘AMAP’ armour block upgrades to the hull

and turret front and sides and the addition

of slat armour to the rear sides and rear

itself.

It also has the new integrated Battlefield

Management System in use on all

Singaporean armoured vehicles and I

believe integrated to all air and other land

units to allow complete tactical information

sharing in real time across all units, and a

number of other more prosaic additions in

terms of preferred machine guns (the

GPMG/ L2A1/MAG), unique light clusters

etc.

Due to the sheer number of changes to the

tank from a standard Leopard 2A4, the

number of unique features it possesses,

and the number of corrections to kit parts

required; an out of the box build, or even a

kit-bash, was always going to be out of the

question. The only thing for it would be a

significant scratch-build.

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THE HULL

I started with preparing the upper hull forthe conversions. This meant measuringout the APU and cutting a section fromthe right rear and scoring new panellines around it where access panels hadchange. As I would be putting so muchnew anti-slip on the model I removed theanti-slip also to avoid issues withmatching mine with the moulded versionon the kit. on the kit.

I started work on the front upper armour,working from my reference the armour ismade from 1mm styrene sheet and0.5mm styrene sheet. The armourpanels have a number of circular lockingnuts in them. To duplicate these I used ahole punch and punched out 4mmdiameter discs and some more 3.5mmdiscs. In these I drilled a 0.3mm centralhole and added two more holes eitherside of the centre with a pin. Next Iadded the top sheets to the base layer1mm sheet creating an overhang on theareas where the thicker sheet was shortto duplicate the overhang seen on thereal thing. Lastly I added the 3.5mmdiscs in the 4mm holes for the lockingnuts.

This armour then had to be furtherdetailed with anti-slip and small nuts thatstand proud of the armour. I used thepunch again to punch out 2.5mm discsof masking tape to protect the detail andI cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tapeand laid these along the edges of thepanels and masked any other areas thatwould not require anti-slip. Working onepanel at a time I added a thin coat of MrSurfacer 1000 and left it a couple ofminutes to start to set. Then when it wasstill tacky I rolled a cotton bud over it toget it to pull up in the desired fashion.One application was not fully effective, soI sanded it back a little with a finesanding stick and applied a second coatover the first. When that was set Isanded it minimally to take off anyremaining high spots.

THE TURRET

All this while I was also working on theturret. The turret on the 2A4SG issignificantly different in detail to thestandard 2A4 with upgraded additionalarmour to the front and forward sides ofthe turret, and slat armour for the rearsides and back. There is a newammunition locker on the rear left and

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an air conditioning unit on the rear rightside plus stowage boxes attached to theoutside of each of these. The smokedischargers are also different to theGerman 2A4 and in fact are laid out morelike the Austrian 2A6 with 6 dischargersabove and 2 below rather than two rows of4. Externally the sights appear to be thesame as the original 2A4 but a forwardfacing camera has been added betweenthe two turret hatches.

The flag holder bracket on the right side ofthe turret by the commander’s cupola wasrelocated to the right edge of the turret toallow the AMAP armour to be fitted. Thelifting eye on the mantlet was poorlymoulded so I replaced it with 1mm brasswire. The wet weather mantlet flap wasalso replaced with textured foil from acoffee tin.

The kit turret is missing many welds. Ireplaced them, and added the missingwelds, with stretched sprue that wassoftened with cement and shaped into a

bead with wax sculpting tools. I nexttackled the gunner’s sight by adding themissing plates and bolts on the ‘shelf’ infront of the sight. I then scratchbuilt somebasic optics for the sights and armoureddoors. The Rheinmetall/Zeiss PERI-R 17 A2panoramic commander’s sight supplied inthe kit is poorly detailed and with a terriblejoint to try to rectify so it was easier just tomake my own.

The kit cupolas are not great. Thecommander’s cupola has poorly detailedsupports on the ring and the ring itself is abit thick. I decided to design a set of PE tocorrect these, and other issues so I tooksome time out at this point to work on thePE drawings. I continued the turret byscratching the AMAP Armour packs for thefront and sides. These were constructed asboxes, each part of the armour pack beingindividual as they are on the real thing.

The actual AMAP packs do not lookcompletely solid. The top seems to have anundercut on the inside face and this

needed to be duplicated so I drilled somesuitable holes to a shallow depth and thenused the tip of a new scalpel blade to carveout the recesses for the attaching bolts. Ithen masked off the anti-slip panels on thetops, including masking the areas for thebolts and other uncoated details, andadded the anti-slip with Mr Surfacer asbefore. The seven completed AMAP blockswere then assembled onto the turret and Istarted on the finer details such as thehinges on the front corners and brackets onthe left side. No two blocks of the armourfeature the same shape or details, so thepictures I managed to get at the OpenHouse event were essential here.The final part of the AMAP blocks on theturret to finish was the block that covers themantlet. I can’t say I figured out the bestway of doing this because my way certainlyseemed to be a lot of work and not easy atall. In my case I more or less made a boxthen carved the right shape out of the blockdrilling the holes for the MG, 120mm L44etc. Needless to say a lot of sanding sweatand filler were involved!

I started with the air conditioning box. Ibegan by building the basic shape, leavingoff the lid. Towards the rear of the unit onthe top there is an air intake with mesh andinternal louvres. I filled the box leaving avoid for the louvres which were added fromstyrene sheet. I added the top to the boxafter cutting out a section over the louvresmaking the mesh and screen surrounds inphotoetch. The unit has an armoured lid,the basic shape of which was easy, but thehinges took a little more work. To make theupright ‘triangles’ uniform I tacked several

pieces of styrenesheet together with CA andcut them all in one go. Once theywere cut a gentle slice with a new bladeseparated them.

The rear of the 2A4SG turret is verydifferent from the standard 2A4. Instead ofthe tapered rear stowage it has four newunits; two large in the form of anammunition stowage box and an essentialair conditioning unit along with two smallstowage boxes (with attached baskets).

The boxes feature anumber of brackets and

other fittings on the outside.Many of these are complex and

as I was making PE anyway I decided todraw them for etching as they would bethinner, stronger and would look a lot moreprecise in brass. The exceptions to this onthe ammunition box were the lockinglatches. I attached these to the turret andscratched the mounting blocks for theaerial mounts. I was hoping just to cut the

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I decided to correct a couple ofthe kit’s outer wheels and getthem cast. I started by drilling ahole in the centre of the hub.There should be a square holehere, but on the Hobbyboss kit itis represented with a raised ring!After this the main issue is thetire. On the real one there is araised rim on the inside edge.Also there are a number of discson the face of the tyre which looklike the stubs of the feed rodswhere the rubber was injectedinto the mould. I replicated thesewith Tamiya masking tape.

After dealing with the roadwheels I looked at the idlers

where the following issues had tobe corrected. Missing bolts onthe hub, incorrect shaping on theribs on the hub, missing holes onthe rim and incorrectly shapedteeth.I fixed the ribs first, this was just acase of shaving a little materialoff. After that I reshaped theteeth with a sanding stick thendrilled the two holes; on at0.6mm and one at 0.4mm. FinallyI used Masterclub hex bolts toadd the missing bolts. This waspretty easy as Hobbyboss hadleft the shaped spaces for them,just somehow forgotten the boltsthemselves!

THE RUNNING GEAR

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kit ones out of the parts for the 2A4stowage bustle, but they were a differentshape. However, making new ones wasno real chore as they are quite simple.The bases themselves are standardwound spring mounts. I took a piece of1mm styrene rod and formed a small ballof putty around it. When this was nearlyset I wound some 0.4mm wire around ittightly, with a little CA on each end to holdit. Once all that was in place I could makefinal measurements for the two outsidestowage boxes. These fit around the aerialmounts and larger boxes with the outsideedges following the tapering lines of theturret. Other than that they are prettystraightforward and didn’t take a lot ofconstruction. The only things that were alittle more complex were the hinges, so Iadded these to my PE fret.Once all the boxes were in place, I had alook at the rear and sides of the boxesthemselves. The aircon box has a frameof downward pointing louvres forexhausting the hot gasses which wasmade from strip plastic.

Like everything else on this kit, the hull rearwall needs work! All the welds are missingand there are quite a number of them. NextI added the brackets to the engineinspection ports. The biggest andwell-known issue though is the number ofslats on the air/exhaust outlet. There shouldbe eleven slats, but on the Hobbyboss kitthere are only 10. This is not an easy thingto fix and although a new resin outlet isavailable as part of an upgrade set byPerfect Scale Modellbau, but I made myown with strips of spare brass cut fromused PE frets.

The towing hookshave a plate latchto retain the cable and I made these fromthick foil. Once the rear hull was in place Itook off the rear light clusters and mudflaps. The light clusters are different on the2A4SG from the 2A4 and the mud flaps arerather over-scale. I made new boxes for thelight clusters from copper sheet which ismore malleable and more easily cut thanbrass sheet. I left the bottom slightly longerthan necessary and bent the end over togive something to attach the mud flaps to.The mudflaps themselves were drawn forPE etching later. I finished the clusters by

removing the lights from the Hobbybossparts and putting them into their new‘boxes’.

Now all that had been tackled I added therear facing camera, built by KMW thecamera is a standard item on the 2A5 and2A6 but has been fitted to the 2A4SG aspart of the kit used to enable theSingaporean Battlefield ManagementSystem. This was scratch built from plasticworking from my photos from the ArmyOpen House event.

THE HULL REAR

26

The first thing we notice is the air intakesfor the engine cooling fans. On the Tamiyaand Revell Leopard 2 kits these aremoulded solid with relief mesh detail.Hobbyboss score points for supplying themesh separately, but unfortunately theylose them again for the poor and incorrectmesh pattern! Consequently I drew newones to have them etched later. I decidedto re-scribe the major panel lines on therear deck for better definition. In addition Ihad three new hatches to scribe on, for theaddition of the APU, and various otherdetails on the APU itself. I cut a templatefrom brass sheet, drilling out the corners toget the required curves then cutting thestraight lines to join them up. I then placedthe template on the model and used thewax tools again to engrave my lines. I then(carefully!) used a steel rule to get the otherlines need on the APU and to deepen andsharpen the lines of the engine accessdecks.

I returned then to one of the larger jobs, thesix modules of AMAP armour that make upthe two armoured skirts on the hull sides.These are quite large and I decided tostrengthen the form with a frame whichwould also give me something to attachthe other ‘facets’ to. I used 3mm x 2.5mmstyrene section from Plastruct. Beforeadding the outside sections I thickenedthem with some extra 1.5mm styrene sheetto make them sturdier and also to give mesomething to drill through to in order to sitethe large countersunk bolts visible on thereal blocks.Once the two blocks were built I markedout the locations for the countersunk boltscarefully and drilled shallow holes pilotedwith a fine drill then completed with a largediameter drill and cut thin slices from 3mmhex rod and placed them in the holes. Ithen added the anti-slip and bolt details tothe tops in the same way I did on the turretarmour. I moved on then to the front twopieces on each side. Given the angled joint

between the two parts I decided to makethem in one piece and score the joint afterthe basic shape was made. There wasquite a bit of work required to work out theoptimum shapes for the slopes on thesides, especially the way they meet at thefront end. After a little trial and error, andfar too much maths for my liking, I got oneside done then used it as a pattern for theother side.

Next I had to add various small details tothe top. The first were to driver’s sidemirrors. The mirrors themselves aren’t thatbad, but the rest (clips, arms, mounts) wereawful so I scratched replacements frombrass wire, styrene and foil. I decided to dothe clips that hold the two foremost units ofthe side armour together in PE, as were thelifting handles as both parts needed to bevery exact and were very small. It’s mucheasier to draw it accurately than make itaccurately in plastic for objects like this.

THE REAR DECK & AMAP ARMOUR

27

After scratchbuilding indicator lights Ihad a look at the headlamps - one of themany challenges that made this buildattractive in the first place was its uniqueparts. I started with the plates they siton. These were formed from stock brasssheet, with suitable bolt details added.The hinges were made by folding foilaround a piece of 0.3mm styrene rodthen pressing the lines into it torepresent the flat hinge part joints. Iunsuccessfully tried to scratchbuild thelight guards from styrene, copper andthen brass sheet. So again I drew themup for etching In the end each one had 8parts!

The driver’s hatch was next and requiredconversion. Like everything on the front

half of the 2A4SG it has received anarmour upgrade. This was pretty easy todo with a smaller blank of sheet styreneunderneath (one of 0.5mm and one of1mm) and a thin sheet on top andslightly larger to create a lip. To finish thedriver’s hatch I added a windscreenwiper for his periscope. I took the timewhile I was there to re-work the slightlysimplified and inaccurate splash guardsaround the hatch too.

Surprisingly the tool clamps have beenreplaced on the 2A4SG. I saysurprisingly because surely a tool clampis a tool clamp? New ones weretherefore designed in etch. They arequite a complex design so I broke eachclamp down into four parts.

I was now ready to start the slat armour whenmy friend Lawrence Goh of Echelon FineDetails sent me a picture he had taken of thenose of the 2A4SG from a different angle andwe realised I had the nose angles wrong. Iwasn’t pleased and part of me did think ‘justleave it and carry on’. After thinking about itbriefly I knew I had to fix it properly or I wouldhave wasted all the other work done on thekit. I took the drastic and most direct route ofadding a little more styrene to the front of thenose (where it was deficient) then marking outthe correct, more aggressive angles and lineson the work already done and attacking it witha large razor saw and Dremel. It was messybut a bit like ripping off a plaster; painful butbest done quickly! It was tidied up re-detailedand I was very happy with the result, evenwith the extra few hours spent correcting it.

28

THE SLAT ARMOURDue to the slat armour’s complexity Ineeded to work out the measurements anddimensions as I had done with the AMAPpacks. I created a blank template from thinsheet styrene which was then test fittedand adjusted multiple times until correct. Icould then use this as a template for theprecise measurements I needed to makethe slat itself. I worked out the sizes for thesupporting arms. On the turret these aremade from steel box section weldedtogether with simple plate mounted bolts totake the slat panels which were easy tomake from square section Plastruct. I usedEvergreen strip, 0.4mm x 2mm to makethe frames for the slat and the slatsthemselves.

I built the external frame then measuredand cut the required slats. To make surethey were all exactly the same length I cutthem slightly longer then tacked themstacked together with a dot of CA and

trimmed them and drilled the holes for thevertical rods. I then marked one end of thestrips to make sure I knew which end waswhich before separating them again. All of the turret slat is placed the samedistance apart: 2.2mm, and I used TamiyaExtra Thin cement to get a good bondbefore setting that frame aside and workingon the next. I then inserted 0.3mm brassrods for secured them with just a touch ofvery thin CA. Finally I added a small sectionof brass on the inside faces of the slatpanels where they are mounted to thearms. When they were all finished Imounted them onto the arms and addedbolt detail and short lengths of 1mm rodwere then used to attach them to theAMAP packs.

The hulls slat panels were constructed inthe same way as the turret. They were a bittrickier in that they have more sloping topsand bottoms which meant a few more

measurements were required.

My photoetch was ready so I couldconstruct the cupolas and scratchbuild theloader’s MG mount on his cupola ring fromwhite styrene. This is basically the same asthe standard German fit on the lockingrotating mechanism on the ring itself, butthe mounting arm is different. Singaporedoes not use the modern German MG3,they use the FN MAG. This means a newmount complete with ammo can holder.After seeking advice from modellers moreused to modelling modern subjects Iordered the Legend IDF MG set and usedthe MG, and very nice PE can holder andMG cradle from the set and scratched therest. Finally on the build I added Karaya’stow cable (I think about 1.5mm diameter)tow cables filling the slots in the ends of thecable eyes once the cable had beensecured in them. 29

Approximately five months after starting, thebuild phase was now finished. But I wantedto enter the model in the Singapore ModelShow M Con, run by Bernard Cher at MWorkshop. I was lucky to be there in 2012 asthe competition is only held once every fouryears and I didn’t want to miss theopportunity to enter Singapore’s mostcompetitive and prestigious show. The racewas on to get it painted in only two weeks!Singapore’s Leopards don’t get out much.Large tracts of land away from the city stateon other parts of the island are reserved formilitary use, but hardly any live firing takesplace on the island itself. Instead they travelfor joint exercises in countries such asAustralia. A combination of lack ofoperational use and a strict maintenanceregime to combat the effects of the humidityand ocean air in Singapore means that thecountries big cats are very well looked afterand kept in great shape.So chipping, streaking, dents and dings andall the other methods of adding visualinterest are out. I would have to rely ondynamic light effects, and drawing attentionto the many details visible on the tank to addthe interest to the finished model.

Over white primer I applied a basecoat ofLifecolour dark green mixed with Vallejo USOlive Drab. When this was dry I painted allthe details such as the tires (with VallejoBlack Grey), the periscopes and so on.The colour was very light and not quite greenenough, so I added a filter of dark green oils.

I did this by diluting some Emerald Green,Burnt Umber and Black oil in thinners. I useWindsor and Newton thinners for Oils as Ifeel it’s better than turpentine. I diluted ituntil it was about 1 part oil to 20 partsthinner. When it’s that thin is prevents the oilfrom streaking and dries very quickly, butmost importantly it builds up very slowly overmany applications allowing me to control thelevel of tint perfectly.

Once I had got the colour closer to where Iwanted it I added the decals. Of course,there is no kit and so no decal set for the2A4SG available. Luckily though the tankdoesn’t have many markings. Two licenseplates (front and rear) and a bridging plate ismore or less it.Allowing a coat of matt varnish to fully curethen started on the ‘modulation’ bit. I mixeda little white oil straight from the tube withsome emerald green and touched it toedges and parts I wanted to highlight.Generally speaking this meant panel edges.Here I added a little oil at a time with a smallbrush, then took a larger soft , short-bristled,clean and dry brush and gently swept the oilaway from the edge. Over time I was making the oils used lighterand lighter in tone and applying less andapplying it more selectively to build up thetonal graduation and make it more dramatic.I spent about one week just doing this stage.Finally I gave it another 24 hours to dry andthen started on the pin washes.

THE PAINTING

30

I would like to thank Lawrence

Goh, Olaf Kievit, Rob Harvey

and Adam Mook Chee Leong,

and also Bernard Cher for their

help and encouragement on

this project and I very much

look forward to producing the

tank as a kit in 2013.

For pin washes I use a mix of Black andRaw Umber oils heavily diluted again, butnot so diluted as the filters. I usuallydampen the surface first with clean thinners,working one panel at a time, and touch thedetails with a 0000 brush loaded with thewash and allow the capilliary effect to drawthe wash along panel lines and aroundraised details etc. I finally added a few smallchips on bolt edges and so on where partshad been removed for cleaning andmaintenance prior to the Army Open Houseevent. I went around the model and addeda few tiny chips here and there using silveracrylic mixed with a little black to dull it andreduce the toy like metallic look.

With that the project, and 9 month’s workand fun was done!

CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS

Like most modellers I do my best to research fully and get things

right, but I did make a few mistakes on this model. The turret bin’s

underside shape is not quite correct, and this throws out the slat

armour. The nose, although now very close, is not quite right.

Since making this model I have decided to kit the subject in 1/35

and 1/72 through my company. To do this I have been drawing

scale plans. If I had this project to do over again I would have

drawn the plans before beginning as it’s a lot easier to change

plans until it’s right than it is to correct a model. I am also not

entirely happy with the colour. This was partly the result of the

time scale and an unfamiliar colour palette used for lightening

which had a dramatic effect in altering the colours, something I

will test more thoroughly next time.

31

32

LESTER PLASKIT’S 1:35TH SCALE

“the second snows of winter”

SdKfz 251/21

Over the last few years I have found myself more and more finding my inspirationfor modelling projects coming from photographs of wartime vehicles which havesomething about them which sparks my interest, this can be a particularcamouflage pattern or something unusual about the vehicle, such was the casewhen I started researching this particular model.Having always liked the look of the 251D halftracks I had started out with theintention of building a 251/22 pak wagon but as with all good intentions things caneasily become side tracked, this started when I was talking to Swedish modellerMirko Bayerl about my ideas and he sent me a picture which showed a Drilling inHungary 1945 with the crew warming a jerry can of water in the engine bay and avery worn winter white wash, almost as if the crew had tried to remove as much asthe white wash as possible after the snow had thawed.. This picture fired myimagination and I decided to build a Drilling based on this picture to try andrecreate the partially removed white wash finish.

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There are two kits of the Drilling availableon the market today the Dragon modelsoffering which can be built up into anearly 1.5cm gun mount version or the AFVclub model which can be built into eitheran 1.5 cm or a latter 2cm gun mountversion. Both kits are not without theirproblems as have been well documentedon the internet and as I had chosen tobuild the 2cm gun mount I decided tobase my model on the AFV club kit, whilstusing some better detailed parts from theDragon kit. The main source of referencefor this build came from the Panzer TractsNo 15-3 publication and further armedwith the Aber 251/D etch brass detail set Ibegan. Much of the construction centredaround replacing moulded kit details with

etch brass replacements such as the reardoor locking mechanism, the dash boardand other various items of interiorequipment. One of the major exclusionsfrom the AFV kit is a number of recessedscrews missing from around the enginebay hatches, these were subsequentlyadded using a beading tool and a bladeto form the screw head slots. As I wasgoing to show the vehicle with the enginehatch open (so I could later add the jerrycan ) I scratchbuilt the engine bay areaand added details to the rear of the dasharea using plastic card and copper wireto reproduce the details required, for theengine I used the excellent Great WallHobbies engine which only required alittle trimming to get a good fit.

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More specific to the Drilling thepedestal for the gun mount was toohigh for a late pattern 2cm Drilling,this was lowered to the correctheight by removing material fromthe base of the mount using thePanzer Tracts book as reference,also both the etch brass and plasticgun shields provided in the AFVclub kit are incorrect, being toosmall and with the incorrectnumber of holes. To solve this Iscratchbuilt a new shield fromplastic card again using the PanzerTracts as reference, further

additions to the gun mount camewith replacing the barrels withmetal rods and using the ammolinks from the Dragon kit as theycould be more naturally positionedcoming from the ammo cans togun breaches.

The forward bulk head with extra detail added from the Aberetch brass set.

The missing screw heads added to the upper hull using abeading tool.

The scratchbuilt additions to the engine bay. Details added to the underside of the upper hull.

35

Interior PaintPainting any open-topped vehicle presentsa challenge as both the interior and exteriormust be painted in sympathetic tones toone another but be weathered in differentways with the interior showing more tracesof wear from the activities of the crew suchas paint chipping and dirt from the crewsboots. With this in mind I began thepainting process, I prefer to paint as muchof the model in sub-assemblies. In thiscase the gun mount was painted as asub-assembly minus the gun shield and theonly items left out of the interior were thecrew seats and the spare ammo cans, theengine had been previously assembled andpainted to be fitted once the engine bayhad been painted and weathered. I hadalso decided that on this project I would tryand achieve the base colours using Vallejoacrylic colours instead of using enamels (asI have done previously), to give the acryliccolours a good base coat to bond to. Iunder coated the interior components witha 50/50 mix of Humbrol 110 and 93enamel, which also had the effect of givinga pre-shading effect. Once this had driedfully (24 hours) I mixed up the acrylic basecoat for the dark yellow, I always like to

keep my base colours very light assubsequent weathering will have the effectof toning the colours down considerablyand it is far easier to tone down a lightcolour than it is to lighten a dark colour. Thecolour I chose for the yellow base coat wasVallejo air radome tan which was furtherlightened with a small amount of off white,this gave an excellent tan yellow basecolour seen on late war German vehicles,once the mix had been applied in 3 lightairbrushed coats it was then sealed with anairbrushed coat of Vallejo satin varnish toprotect it from the following weatheringsteps.

The first stage was to add a little depth tothe colour by adding a slight yellow tone tothe paintwork. To achieve this withoutlosing too much of the Tan base coat Idecided to add a glaze of Tamiya X24 clearyellow which was heavily thinned with waterand applied using a large brush over thetan base colour taking care not to let theclear yellow pool (any excess yellow wascarefully blended away using a dampbrush). This glaze gave the base coat aslightly darker and more richer tone without

darkening the paintwork too much, oncedry, I added a filter of Humbrol Matt 62 andagain left to dry before a further filter ofHumbrol Matt 98. The combination of thetwo enamel filters again added more tonaldepth to the dark yellow colour giving it abetter scale appearance. A more localisedMatt 98 filter was also applied to the floorarea and along the lower edge of theinterior walls to create a shadow effect tomake a colour separation between the floorand the walls.

To define details and panel lines, controlledpin washes of Burnt Umber and Sepia oilpaints thinned with white spirit were appliedaround details with any excess paint beingblended away using a brush moistenedwith white spirit. Through the process offilters and pin washes some of the basecolour dark yellow was inevitably lost, areasof highlights were reinstated by lining inhighlights on the top of panels and anyedges using a heavily thinned mix of VallejoBeige, Off White and Pale Sand makingsure any highlights are very subtle and nottoo prominent.

The dark yellow base mix made up from VallejoRadom Tan and Off White applied via airbrush.

Tamiya clear yellow X24 is then glazed over the basecolour to add some depth of tone to the yellow.

Any highlights lost in the glazing process are nowreinstated using Vallejo paints and a fine brush.

Chips and scratches areadded to the interior usingVallejo Burnt Umber paintapplied with a spongeand a fine brush.

The interiorunder coatedusing a Humbrolenamel mix.

36

The weathering stage begins with theaddition of various paint chips andscratches (as stated above this weatheringwill not be as harsh as would be seen onthe outside of the vehicle as any damagewould be caused by general wear and tearfrom the crew members). I find using a tornpiece of dense sponge to add the bulk ofthe chips/paint scuffs before further refiningwith a thin paint brush the most effectivemethod. Vallejo Burnt Umber was used forthis technique on all of the interior fittingsincluding the gun mount and the spareammo cans being careful only to adddamage where it would be appropriate andlogical such as the wall sections behind theseats where the actions of the crew wouldwear the paint away and on the edges ofthe internal stowage bins. The floor platesreceived more extensive weathering as

they would be subject to more abuse andto further enhance this I added someVallejo Dark Blue Grey and Hull Red to thepallette which gave the impression of thefloor panels being worn down to the Redprimer and bare metal in the areas thatwould see the most traffic. To furtherenhance the floor and give the impressionof an accumulation of dirt and wet mud inkeeping with the Hungarian winter themeareas of the floor were treated to a mix ofVallejo satin and gloss varnish with the muddeposits being made up from MIGpigments mixed into the varnish. To fill therear stowage bins and add some colourvariation to offset the amount of yellow inthe interior I took various items from myscrap box, painting them in green and greytones which were then weathered down tomatch in with the rest of the model. At this

stage I felt it was time to mate the upperand lower hulls together but then a thoughtoccurred to me as to the colour of theengine bay, after checking, my modellingfriends confirmed that the bay would havebeen left in its Red primer state, so outcame the airbrush and once I had maskedthe hull I repainted the engine bay in VallejoCavalry Brown which is a good match forGerman red primer and once the bay hadbeen weathered accordingly the Great WallHobbies engine was installed. Finally Iadded a slight metallic sheen to anyexposed metal edges using a 6B pencilwhich was also used to add a metallicfinish to the gun barrels and breaches onthe gun mount once they had been paintedin using various shades of blacks andblues.

Further effects such as wet mud areas areadded to the floor plates.

The completed lower hull and engine baybefore the upper hull is added.

37

Using a reference picture thefirst part of the camouflagepattern is masked off usingWhite Tac putty.

Once the green has dried the model was re masked and the redbrown colour added which again was mixed from Vallejo paints.

To tone down the colours controlled washes of Humbrol 98 wereapplied over 2-3 days to allow time for the enamel to completelydry. Highlights and damaged paint are added as per the interior.

I started by masking off the engine bay hatchopening and the vision slots on the upper deck.Next the upper and lower deck were matedtogether using super glue to attach a section ata time to make sure no gaps occurred, thisprocedure went surprisingly well with only aslight miss match on the upper hulls rear panelswhich required the addition of some plasticcard extensions to ensure a good fit. Asopposed to replacing the kits front mudguards Idecided to thin down the parts supplied in thekit and detail them using parts from the Aberetch brass set. Since the beginning of theproject I had wondered what the crew would doif after removing the majority of the white washas the snow had thawed it then snowed againhow would they try to supplement the wintercamouflage and it was whilst reading throughthe Endkampf book by Axel Urbanke I cameupon a picture of some 251/Ds in a wintersetting with what looked like white sheets tied tothe hull sides being used as improvised snowcamouflage. This I thought was the answer Iwas looking for and would fit in very well withthe overall look and feel I wanted for the model,I therefore decided to add some sheets to themodel using magic sculpt epoxy putty whichwas rolled out as thin as possible thentransferred to the hull sides of the model withfinal shaping of the putty being carried out withthe putty sheets on the model. Once the puttyhad cured the process of masking off theinterior was completed. The putty sheets wereleft on the hull and would be painted in place as(due to thinness) trying to remove and refit themlater could cause problems.

The camouflage pattern would be a factoryapplied three tone hard edge scheme which Ireplicated using masks. The base coat of darkyellow was applied as the interior using Vallejoradome tan lightened with some white, thisagain gave me a good light base colour whichwould darken down as the weatheringprogresses and it would match the interior

colour scheme. To add a yellow tone to thiscolour it was glazed with Tamiya X24 in thesame manner as the interior and oncecompletely dry I could begin masking thecamouflage pattern. To achieve a very tightfactory sprayed finish I chose to use thereusable roll out adhesive putty method ofmasking and as to the light nature of the baseyellow I opted to use a white coloured putty asthe blue version can sometimes mark or stainthe underlying paint work.

The putty was applied in thin rolled sectionsfollowing the prescribed factory pattern using awax shaping tool to ensure the putty had goodcontact with the side of the model to preventany paint leaking underneath. This can be along and frustrating operation but beingmethodical will pay dividends latter on. With thedark yellow areas masked off I started byairbrushing on my green tone, this was kept adeliberately light tone, using Vallejo GermanCam Green heavily lightened with basic skintone until a slightly minty green tone wasachieved (once weathered this would tonedown to a more realistic colour). The green hadbeen applied in 3-4 light airbrush coats so Iremoved the putty masking to check for anypaint bleed. I re-masked the model inpreparation for the red brown phase of thecamouflage pattern. The red brown shade is avery difficult shade to get correct at this stageas it has to work in harmony with the othercolours on the model but not be too light ordark as it will not tone down to the requiredshade during the weathering to follow, with thisin mind I mixed the red brown from a number ofcolours using a combination of Vallejo Hull Red,Medium Brown, Flat Red and Medium FleshTone. These colours were mixed by eye to ashade I felt would look correct after they hadbeen weathered down and with the Red Brownairbrushed on the mask was removed and afterthe new paintwork was sealed with anairbrushed coat of satin varnish.

Exterior Paint

At this stage the model looks very stark and toy like,so the next step is to tone down the colours insympathy with each other to produce a more lifelikeand in scale appearance, to start this process eachof the camouflage colours were carefully drybrushes with progressive lighter shades of theirbase tones (done by adding small amounts ofVallejo Flesh to their base mixes) I chose to use theoriginal Vallejo mixes that had been lightened forthis dry brushing as opposed to the more traditionalmethod of using enamel paints for dry brushing as Icould not get a good enough match with Humbrolcolours, the Vallejo acrylic paint is suitable to be drybrush as long as you proceed in small areas and donot let the paint dry out on the brush.

With the camouflage colours significantly toneddown the next step is to harmonise the colourstogether to portray a look of aged and wornpaintwork, a filter of Humbrol matt 98 well thinnedwith white spirit and applied with a flat brush in adownward motion is a very effective method ofbringing the colours together and recreating a wornpaint effect. To start to define the detail on themodel a Burnt umber oil paint pin wash was nowadded, this had the effect of further reducing thetone of the colours and adding depth to the model(any excess paint from the pin wash was carefullyblended away in a downward motion using a brushmoistened with white spirit which also added toageing process of the base colours).

38

Using the same method as was used on the interiorvarious chips and scratches were added to the exterior.

With this wash applied I next turned myattention to the white sheets, to add somedepth to the sheets I had first under coatedthem in Vallejo dark sea grey which Iproceeded to over paint with thin layers ofVallejo off white which had been slightlytoned down with small amounts of darksea grey and Hemp, as the colour startedto build up on the sheets I graduallyreduced the grey and hemp in the mix untilfinally the highlights were painted in withpure off white which gave a nice depth andcontrast between the sheets shadows andhighlights making the sheets look as if theyhad acquired layer of ground in dirt and

grime as would be the case whilst attachedto the vehicle in the winter conditions. As allof the elements of the gun mount and theupper hull coming together focus nowturned to the lower hull and running gear,the rubber tyres n the road wheels werepainted in using a dark grey tone (whichlooks a lot more natural than black) thenthe lower hull was given a generous washof AK interactive Matt dark earth enamelwash which nicely stated to darken in thisarea of the vehicle without loosing a lot ofthe previously painted in detail and giving agood base tone for the followingweathering.

Once the filters and washes were fullydry, chips and scratches were addedto the exterior paintwork using thesame method employed to the interiorbut this time as well as burnt umberVallejo Cam black brown and RadomeTan were also used to re-createscratches and chips in thecamouflage colours where the basedark yellow had began to showthrough also any detail paintingrequired was finished off such as theexhaust and the number plate decalsfrom Archer fine prints were added. Atthis stage I believed the paintworklooked sufficiently worn and with thecorrect tonal values that I couldproceed to add the winter white wash,the method for applying the whitewash was the hairspray techniquewhich I will not go into detail about asit has been very well explained in anumber of modelling articles but one

note of advice would be to use Tamiyaacrylic white thinned with water as thispaint seams to leave a moreconvincing flaked pattern whenremoved than the more water basedVallejo paint, as shown in the picturesthe model was only given a light coatof white which was subsequentlynearly all removed only leaving tracesof the white wash in small areas suchas around nooks and crannies andhard to reach areas which would beconsistent with the white wash beingremoved quickly by the crew and theravages of the winter weather. In aneffort to protect the fragile nature ofthe Tamiya white paint an airbrushedcoat of satin varnish was once againapplied over the model, with thevarnish dry a second pin wash of burntumber oil was carefully applied to helpredefine some areas of detail that hadbeen covered by the white.

The start of the winter white wash was Tamiya white thinnedwith water sprayed over a coat of hair spray which had beenpreviously applied to the model.

Now we see the effects of the worn white wash after theTamiya paint has been scrubbed away using a stiff brushand warm water.

A dark earth enamel wash from AK interactive began theweathering of the wheels and lower hull area.

39

AK interactive enamel earth washes were added to thesheets to unify them with the weathering on the lower hulland to give the appearance of dirt and mud that wouldhave been thrown up from the vehicles tracks.

The white sheets are now painted in with Vallejo colourstrying to keep the tone muted.

40

Finally AK interactive fuel stainsmixture was selectively applied neatfrom the jar to areas when wet mudwould be prominent. The fuel stainwas used over a gloss varnish as thedark brown colour of the fuel stainhelps to darken the areas of wet mudand give a nice satin/semi gloss finishwhere varnish would only give a glossfinish and not darken the areas of wetmud down sufficiently. The front

wheels and the Friul tracks after beingpainted and weathered were treatedto the same mud and dirt mixtures toensure everything remained constanton the model and once the tracks hadbeen fitted all that was left was torecreate some of the worn metallicedges on the vehicle and the tracksusing a 6B pencil as had been done tothe interior of the model.

The areas of built up wet mud were blocked in (aswere some mud clots that had been added fromepoxy putty to the lower hull and wheels during theconstruction stage) using a mix of Vallejo burnt umberand hemp randomly mixed in varying degrees as togive some variation to the mud colours, this looks alittle stark and unrealistic at this stage but furtherwashes of AK interactive mud will bring all of thistogether to reproduce the look of mud and moisture.

After 3-4 washes to the lower hull and running gearmud splatters (that would have been kicked up off thewheels) were added by flicking some Vallejo CamGerman Black Brown paint off a short brush with mythumb onto the areas under the mudguards and atthe front and rear of the lower hull allowing some ofthis to drift up the hull sides onto the white sheets.

Further mud effects areadded in the form of mudsplatters to the wheelarches and lower hull.

Once the completed gun mounthad been glued into the mount inthe lower hull and the aerialattached the model wascompleted apart that is for a crewwhich I intend to add at latter date.

My thanks must go to my friendMark Beaumont for his advice atall stages of the model and thenumerous reference books he lentme greatly assisting in the modelsconstruction and finishing.

41

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KEEPING TRACK new releases

44

Tamiya 1:35 Israeli Tiran 5

The seventy fourth (hard to believe!) release in Tamiya's quarter-scale range is the early-war German 8-rad, a completely new kit.Two large dark grey sprues and two smaller duplicate onescontaining wheels and suspension parts. Tamiya always try andbalance ease of build with levels of detail especially with thesesmaller scale offerings, this vehicle must be a real challenge to kitdesigners due to the complex shape and design. The chassis issimplified but with decent levels of detail for what will be visibleand the wheels are good though some of you may wait for theinevitable resin upgrades. The hull is a simple affair with a onepiece upper and separate side plates, all hatches and vision flapswill have to remain closed unless you want to resort to some

plastic surgery. The body features indicate a later productionvehicle with the front spaced armour, splash guards etc. The turretallows an open top hatch and a commander figure is included tosit under the large characteristic frame antenna which is handledin quality Tamiya style. These early war vehicles could reallybenefit from a few photoetched parts, this more so than others. Ithink Tamiya could have included at least the muffler guards (ason Tamiya's 1:48 Panzer II) as what's provided is moulded smoothand looks poor. If dunkelgrau doesn't excite you the decals offer adark yellow with cammo version from Kursk. A nice, typicallyTamiya kit which looks like a quick and easy build but simplifieddetail would benefit from some photoetched finesse.

Tamiya 1:48 Sd.Kfz.232

Hot on the heels of their Enigma release, Tamiya draw on the longterm success of their T-55 kit (the original over ten years old now!)with the Israeli Tiran 5. Around four hundred T-54 (Tiran 4) and T-55s were captured, modified and pressed into service with the IDFright up into the early '80s. Once you get past studying thebeautiful box-art it's immediately apparent that much of this kit isnew tooling including the full upper hull and turret which exhibitssuperb cast textures and weld beads. The Israeli 105mm guncomes with optional covered mantlet and well detailed .30 and.50 Cal MGs and the pair of half-figures are really rather good,

sure to fill the open hatches very nicely. So Tamiya's legendaryeasy build, great detail and a great subject- what's not tolike?..well the soft vinyl / plastic 'band' style tracks won't cut it withsome modellers, especially with that exposed upper run, andmany of us are still excited by a turned metal gun barrel andphotoetch which isn't the case here unfortunately. Tamiya remaintrue to their brand and customers by producing kits their own waywithout following trends with a very wise move expanding on theT-55 variants- could there be more to come? we hope so. Thanksto The Hobby Company, Tamiya distributors in the UK.

45

This is our first look at Bronco's 'Jeep', this latest release comescomplete with the diminutive little 37mm A/T gun. As a youngstermy first 1:35 kit was Tamiya's Willys 4X4 (the first release with thetrailer and figures) I remember it fondly and with a first look insidethe lid of this box it's apparent how much kits have changed overthe years! This is one hugely impressive and detailed kit, ok- soyou won't be able to assemble it in a couple of hours like the oldTamiya release but the trouble Bronco have gone to representevery feature is really commendable. Along with the super-finedetail we're offered plenty of options with superb .50 and .30 Calsincluded and a covered/ lowered windscreen along with fieldmodifications such as bumper mounted wire cutter and rearmounted jerry can which was seen later in production. This is aFord produced vehicle and the logo is included on the rear panel

to depict a 1942 or earlier model. A fully detailed engine bay andchassis can be revealed with the open bonnet option althoughthere are a few ejector pin marks to treat with a dab of MrSurfacer or careful sanding. Photoetched parts are included alongwith a very detailed decal sheet with five marking optionsincluding insignia for the driver figure. The 37mm gun is of equalquality with an excellent set of optional cross-ply tyres. A highlightof the kit is one of the best injection moulded canvass hoodswe've seen, moulded so thin it's almost transparent in places withsuperbly rendered creases. With a choice of Jeep kits availablewe'll recommend this as the best we've seen - superb! Thanks toUK distributors and retailers Hannants for the samplewww.hannants.co.uk

A subject that has long been on modeller’s wanted list andBronco have utilised their excellent Panzer II Ausf.D kit to producewhat is a stunning recreation of the Marder II D. Hull and runninggear are carried over as you would expect and there are nocomplaints here with excellent detail as well as individual linktracks. Even the tires are moulded separately from the wheels.The hull is assembled from flat panels and although it all alignsexactly I experienced some twisting of the hull tub which is wherea solid tub would be better. Bronco have provided a detailedinterior with torsion bars, gearbox, driveshaft, instrument panel,final drives and seats. The sloped armoured sides are wellhandled with recessed screw head details and there is a largephotoetched fret providing a host of details including the largerear basket and its frame. The 7.62cm Russian gun is anotherlittle gem with wonderful detail and comes with a selection of

ammunition and boxes to compliment it. This is very typicallyBronco in terms of the high number of parts which obviouslycontribute to the enhanced levels of detail seen, but can make fora frustratingly slow build with so many small parts to clean up. Theplus side is that its all in the box and you wont need anythingextra apart from your choice of crew. As it says in the instructions“It will require a little more care during assembly, but you feel theend result is well worth the effort”. The instructions deserve aspecial mention too as Bronco have helpfully included CADimages along with the normal line drawings to assist in anyespecially complex areas which is excellent. The kit comes with agenerous choice of seven different camouflage schemes on thedecal sheet.Our thanks to UK distributors and retailers Hannants for thesample www.hannants.co.uk

Bronco 1:35 GPW 1/4Ton Utility Vehicle (Mod.1942)with 37mm Anti Tank Gun M3A1

Bronco 1:35 Panzerjaeger II fuer 7.62cm Pak 36, Marder II D

new releases

46

Meng continue to fill the gaps in the market with style, think of theendless options with this 23mm Russian AA gun which has beenaround since the '60s, and the 1990s (I think?) Toyota Land Cruiserpick-up, you could realistically find this combination anywhere inAfrica or the Middle East over the last twenty years. Meng presenttheir kits beautifully with high quality packaging and compactinstruction booklets, this one even harks back to the days ofMatchbox's tri-colour plastic! Let's look at the gun first which willsurely be released as a stand-alone kit being used throughout theWorld for so long it has huge vehicle conversion potential. Twodark green sprues carry the crisply moulded parts showing super-fine detail, multi-part ammo cans and belts, tube and pressedsteel seats and finely rendered muzzles with the option to havethe gun in a towed configuration, on the ground in firing mode(with folded wheels) or mounted to the pick-up bed on H-beam

sections. The barrels, although not moveable, can be set in threedifferent positions to suit your scenario. A black sprue carries therunning gear and chassis parts with the steel rims nicely donebeing shod in soft vinyl tyres with decent tread pattern (althoughvoid of any side-wall lettering) Tan sprues hold the body parts andinterior, the doors can be positioned open and the roof completewith A and B posts is supplied separate so it can be left off asoften seen with these vehicles. A clear sprue provides glass andlenses which will look good and a small etched fret adds somefine detail. The only thing missing from this kit is the Toyotabranding which I'm sure the aftermarket guys won't mind takingthe risk to produce from a legal/copyright point of view and whilethey're at it a gun crew in civilian attire would be welcome.Another very nice looking production from Meng, top marks.

Meng 1:35 Pick-Up w/ZU-23-2

This 'Special Edition' set from Inside the Armour really is ratherspecial! Try 430 photoetched parts, 18 resin parts and a full set ofBronco's workable individual link track not to mention turned brassbarrel parts and a CD of instructions…throw this lot at the Revell,Hobbyboss or Tamiya 2A5 or 2A6 and you'll have one seriousproject with some serious detail. Photoetch and resin parts covertool clamps,suspension upgrade, primary sights, cuppola rings,Peri sight, turret baskets, hinges and fittings, engine fans housingsand grills, mud flaps, chains for the smoke dischargers, engine

deck lifting gear (can be built stowed or deployed) and muchmore. The barrel assembly includes three different muzzles (veryearly L44, later L44 and L55 muzzles), collimator, improved boreexcavator and resin recoil gusset. Add to all of this Bronco'sexcellent track set and we have a very comprehensive, qualityupgrade bundle offering good value. Many of the elements arealso available as separate sets, www.insidethearmour.com is theplace to go and find out more and also view the full extensiverange of upgrades and kits.

Inside the Armour Leopard 2A5/A6 Special Edition

47

Following their previous 'Early' 25 Pdr. Dragon are now offering thelater War ( and I think post-war?) version of the famous artillerypiece with new sprues in the box and still extensive use of slide-moulding technology providing some very delicate and impressivedetail. The double-baffle muzzle brake is the main visualdifference to my (untrained!) eye but artillery aficionados will nodoubt relish the many detail changes with this later version. Someof the main features are superbly handled, the main shield free ofejector marks and beautifully thin and the trail legs showingdelicate rivet detail on all sides. Tyres are moulded in DS styrene

with good tread detail with no troublesome joints to clean up anda small fret of photoetch which includes an open ammo tray if youwish to display the doors of the limber open. The problem isthere's no ammo at all provided in the kit (no matter what the boxillustrates!) the previous release at least included a few rounds forthe crew to handle, a crew also are a big miss with this releasebeing such a prominent 'must build' feature previously. Shortfallsaside, this is a nice kit which will provide an easier build than theBronco version of this gun (from what I remember seeing of theirkit) but does lack some finer detail in comparison.

Dragon 1:35 25 Pdr. Field gun Mk.II

Another very specific Panzer IV release from DML boxed as a HJDiv. in Normandy, and Dragon have spent time getting the look ofthe zimmerit coating correct. Many hard-core German armourmodellers enjoy applying their own paste as no two vehicles areexactly the same, but if you're happy spending your modellingtime on other features of a project rather than counting rows andridges, these ‘ready-zimmed’ kits are certainly for you, it's quitesomething how fine and delicate the finish is. The Dragon PanzerIVs have become a benchmark for detail and accuracy but don'texpect a quick build (especially with the 'skirted' versions) lift thelid and there's close to thirty grey sprues, metal schurtzen, etchedbrass parts…but fear not, as with many other kits in the seriessprues are shared and many of the parts are unused. Themoulding quality of these kits is superb with every feature

beautifully replicated with every port, hatch and door openable(except the turret skirt doors for some reason which is a shame) afully detailed cupola is a kit in itself. Schurtzen rails and bracketsrival etched brass for their finesse and will be good and sturdyjoined with liquid cement to the hull. Another time-saver alongwith the zimmerit are the single piece Magic Track, not welcomeby some for replicating the typical sag of the upper run but largelyhidden behind the armour skirts anyway. The decal optionsinclude the roughly applied HJ turret numbers of three differenttanks and five other options if they don't take your fancy. Soanother superb Dragon Panzer IV, it's hard to think of a versionthey haven't covered but there's sure to be more subtle variations.Highly recommended.

Dragon 1:35 Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H with zimmerit

Continuing the steady pace of newreleases, Stalingrad never cease to amazeus with their quality. These two sets areamong their latest offerings S-3006 is aGerman officer in a superbly sculptedgreat-coat with map board under-armgiving a very deliberate salute and S-30007is a pair of relaxed German figures, onewounded and his comrade with the optionof a camera or bunch of flowers in-hand. Ifyou take a look over atwww.stalingrad.diorama.ru you'll see howthese sets will work very well with othernew releases. These really are among thevery best figures on the market,impeccable sculpting and casting whichalways captures the cut of the uniformsbeautifully. Superb!

Stalingrad 1:35 figures

new releases

48

It is fantastic to see plastic kit companies getting to grips withsome large scale armour that is not RC orientated and as suchthe 38t is a really great choice of subject. The compact size of thevehicle means that its not that much bigger than the averagesuper heavy 1:35 tank kit. First impressions are excellent and thislooks just like an enlarged state of the art 1:35 kit with individuallink tracks with separate pins, turned aluminium barrel andphotoetched fret. The hull is a flat panel assembly and itsinteresting to see all the internal bracing and rivet/bolt detail whichperhaps hints at a future interior detail set? I found slight issueswith the length of the floor panel which meant grinding away therear lip to get the back plate to sit correctly. The running gearoffers the possibility of articulating the suspension although the fitof some of the components are very snug meaning that they bindon each other. The tracks are great and well detailed so no needto worry about aftermarket replacements. Internal detail is

confined to the bow MG mount, visors and in the turret there is awell detailed breech and co-ax along with crew seats. Hatches,visors and engine covers are all moulded separately and there areclear moulded vision blocks. One error we have spotted are themissing rivets on the curved left hand turret side. The vehicle toolsare also good and some are provided with photoetched straps butthe clasps are a little heavy and are best replaced withaftermarket photoetched versions. I found several errors in theinstructions with part numbers and two stages duplicated andconsequently other sequences missing so watch how you go. Thekit comes with choice of four different sets of markings. This buildsinto a great looking model straight from the box and Pandadeserve to be applauded for doing such a good job and fordeciding to move up to 1:16. Lets hope we might see otherinjection moulded plastic kits in this scale.

Panda Models 1:16 Panzer 38t Ausf. E/F

Tommy’s War 1:32 Resin FiguresTommy’s War are a fairly new name to the resin figuremarket but already making a big impression with theirWW1 themed releases. The two latest additions to therange are really superb and would work as stand alonefigures or as a pair and there is a simple trenchwork baseavailable to complement them and this comes with someassorted helmets and bits to dress it. Both figures aresuperbly sculpted and feature crisp folds and the levels ofdetail that you would expect from the very best resinfigures. The casting is also excellent with only veryminimal clean up required and hardly any assembly. Myonly gripe here would be to ask for a little more length inthe neck of the two individually moulded heads. The facesboth sport huge period ‘tashes’ meaning they have bagsof character. The beautifully presented colour boxes offerfront and rear views of painted figures as a guide tocolours and the officer figure comes complete with aphotoetched fret with weapons slings. Extremely highquality figures that are just begging for a your paintbrushand its great to see the First World War getting somelong-overdue attention. wwwtommyswar.com

49

Lioness and Lion of the Line- Volume 10, M51s of the Six-Day WarBy Dr. Robert ManasherobA4 softback format, 80 pages Published by SabIngaMartin PublicationsISBN 978-0-9841437-7-1www.sabingamartin.comwww.aviationbookcentre.com

The ultimate incarnation of the Sherman is the subject here inperhaps the IDF's ultimate victory, the Six-Day War. This releasedeals with the 'Dagem Beth' and 'Gimel' M51s and thankfully thefamiliar format of pure modelling reference is presented again,175 photographs, 28 scale drawings and 13 top-quality colourprofiles will give you a wealth of information to produce a super-accurate Super-Sherman of the period with some greatinspirational combat shots (although the eight pages ofphotographs of the variation of 'mazzle' brakes is a littleexhaustive!) An extensive walk-around section provides close-upsof areas modellers will want as reference although the

photography isn't the prettiest being taken with a flash indoors, thecolour profile illustrations are absolutely first rate withSabIngaMartin also producing a complementary range of decalsto accompany their books with new and exclusive informationshared. At the moment I'm working on an M50 using one of theprevious volumes as a reference which is very comprehensive andmodeller-friendly, these IDF Shermans present a challenging buildwith their numerous on-going upgrades and modification, anotherrecommendation in this series if you've a project planned. Thanksto the Aviation and Military Book Centre for our sample copy.

Hot on the heels of Volume 1 we looked at in the last issue is thenext release featuring Allied vehicles and how to achieve thefinishes of the much admired Mr Rinaldi. The introduction isprovided by Lester Plaskit (creator of the Drilling featured in thisissue) and then we’re straight into the materials and techniquesincluding ‘hairspray’ white wash, oil paint rendering, pigments andspecific to this volume, ‘Painting Olive Drab’. The text andphotography are very user friendly with plenty of explanation andjargon-busting along the way. Michael manages to mix old-school

methods along with contemporary finishing products to achievespecific effects. A good mix of project vehicles is presented with alend-lease Chuchill, Pershing, Char B bis, Firefly and KV-1 all withtheir own particular look and feel. The tallented Radek Pituch(remember the cover star of issue 65?) takes the final chapterwith a look into his figures and the methods used to create them.If you’re looking to improve your painting and weathering or justlike nicely presented high quality modelling books, this series isvery much worth a look with more to follow soon.

Tank Art 2By Michael Rinaldisoftback format, 208 pagesPublished by Rinaldi Studio PressUS ISBN 978-0-9883363-2-2www.rinaldistudiopress.com

new releases

More good stuff from the chaps at Panzerwrecks who continue todredge up those reference gems from the archives and the latestaddition to the series continues to impress. This volume beginswith a look at the German armour abandoned or knocked out inthe liberation of Paris and alongside some great zimmeritedPanthers there are also photos of assorted French vehiclesoperated by the German forces, Renault R35s Somua S35 andChar Bs. Fascinatingly there are four views of the rare Sd.Kfz.11/1Selbstfahrlafette mit panzerung. Some short barrelled zimmeritedJagdpanzer IVs and a completely demolished Stug III completethe mix in this section. Two nice shots of the same tiger stripedJagdpanther are next followed by some late production KingTigers with ribbed mudflaps and one vehicle using transporttracks. The Fort Knox Panther G is shown next being transportedfor shipping and these shots provide excellent reference for the

late war M.A.N. camouflage pattern. A veteran Panzer III D1command tank first seen in Panzerwrecks X makes anotherappearance along with a knocked out sPz.jg.Abt.653 Jagdtiger.More revisted subjects from volume X are Panthers, Panzer III, a38t grille/marder hybrid and the unusual 234/3 with improvised2cm schwebelafette turret. The gaudily camouflage Marder II thatnow resides in the Patton Museum is covered as well as late warStug IIIs and a IV along with nice portaits of a Hummel and latePanzer IV J. The book concludes with a fascinating sequenceshowing and abandoned 54cm Karl Morser on its rail transporterwith many useful close up details including a view of the driver’scompartment. As always there is plenty to inspire your nextproject and Panzerwrecks have done an excellent job with thequality of their images here. High recommended.

Its not often that you find a few unpublished archive images in anew book but to find that virtually the entire book contains freshmaterial is really quite unusual. After a brief text introduction tothe history of the Stug its straight into the pictures with one largeimage per page, running chronologically with the development ofthe production run. Pictures cover vehicles in combat and behindthe lines and one or two that have been knocked out. There are

certainly several images that had my creative juices going withpossible project ideas. Picture quality is generally good althoughthey lack the crisp sparkle of the images in Panzerwrecks forexample. If you are looking for an archive reference that gives yougood coverage across the whole range of Sturmgeschutz thenthis will fit the bill. Our thanks to Panzerwrecks for the sample.

Panzerwrecks 15By Lee Archer and William AuerbachPublished by Panzerwrecks96 pages Softback Landscape formatISBN: 978-1-908032-05-8 www.panzerwrecks.com

Sturmgeschutz III on the battlefieldWorld War Two Photobook series Volume 2By Matyas PanczelPublished by PeKo Publishing 112 pages hardback landscape formatISBN: 978-693-89623-1-7available in the UK from Panzerwrecks www.panzerwrecks.com

50

ET Model are not slowing their release schedule and have a newlarge batch of detail sets tailored to a wide selection of new kitreleases. We will start with two of their Value Packages S35-014and S35-015 for the Russian PT-76 and PT-76B amphibious tankwith complete new trackguards, bow plane, replacement enginegrilles, headlamp cages and all the tool clasps along with a resinantenna mount and brass MG barrel. For Dragon’s M1A1 AIM setE35-174 is a monster set with detail parts for the .50 Cal andassociated ammo boxes, turret basket mesh, completereplacement smoke grenades with turned brass tubes, enginedeck mesh, exhaust grilles, sprocket rings and a host of tinydetails. Also for the Abrams is set EA35-042 which is a turretbustle extension rack with resin jerrycans. Set E35-168 is forDragon’s Maultier half-track and this set provides new louvred

bonnet panels, replacement hinges for the drop sides, bonnetlogo, windscreen wipers, tool boxes and all the usual tool clamps.For Trumpeter’s recent BTR-70 APC (early version) set E35-160contains a replacement resin gun barrel, brass MG barrel andresin antenna mount as well as photoetched parts for new frontwindow hatches, mesh screens, rifle ports, hatch hinges and newpanel for the front of the turret. Also for the new Trumpeter BMP-1IFV kit there is set E35-170 which includes replacementtrackguards, exhaust mesh screen, missile launch rail, turretstowage straps, bow plane, periscopes and replacement hatchesor hatch liners. The set also includes a lovely set of resin tow ropeeyes and a braided cable as well as an antenna mount andturned brass MG barrel.

EA35-042

EA35-174S35-014 / S35-015

EA35-168

EA35-170

EA35-160

ET Model Detail Sets

51

Continuing on and set E35-169 is for the Panda Models 2S6MTunguska with parts to detail the radar dish, turret stowage bins,engine deck intake grilles with mesh along with all the expectedreplacement tool stowage and clamps. For the Hobbyboss T-26Light tank Mod.1931 set E35-167 provides new stowage box,engine grilles, new trackguards, and new Driver’s hatches. Thenext set E35-178 is for the Hobbyboss WMIK Landrover with MilanMissile and this set has new radiator grilles, headlamp guards,instrument panel, excellent textured seatbelts, tiedown straps,sand channels and antenna mount boxes. Next we have no lessthan five different sets of resin wheels for BTR-60 and BTR-70 andset ER35-051 for the BRDM-2. Tire tread pattern is the same andit is the hubs which differ. Separate hubs are prone to fit issues

and this is the case here with gaps between the tire and hub thatwill have to be filled. Set EA35-041 provides the CIP panels foryour chosen M1A1/A2. We conclude with two boxed sets and thefirst EA35-162 is for the Dragon T28 Super Heavy Tank. The setprovides a new resin mantlet and replacement .50 Cal. There arereplacements for the on board cranes, new .50 Cal mount andammo box, new stowage bins and the usual tool clamps andheadlamp guards. The second set E35-165 is an M1A2 Tusk 1upgrade set with seventeen frets! There is new belly armour, anda full incredibly detailed set of side skirts on which to mount theindividually assembled boxes. The armoured screens for the turretroof come with clear perspex inserts. A stunning set but not forthe faint-hearted! www.etmodeller.com

ET Model Detail Sets

EA35-169 EA35-167

ER35-047

ER35-047-51

EA35-167

EA35-162 EA35-165

EA35-178

52

ER35-052

Renowned IDF armour expert Michael Mass and expert modeller(who we’ve featured in the past), Adam O’Brien bring you thelatest in the series from Desert Eagle which is sure to please IDFmodellers. The book (as others in their IDF Armor series) is big onvisual reference, the majority of the book being large formatcolour shots with detailed captions. The book opens withdescriptions of the Mk3 derivatives and then a chapter each onthe Baz and Ramaqh in action followed by a section featuring thecrews living and working with the vehicles. The large ‘In Detail’

section will be most useful to anyone modelling the Mk 3providing good walk-around type photographs of all of thefeatures you’d want. A couple of pages of reference arededicated to the Nochri Dalet (mine roller) which is great timingwith the release of Meng Model’s kit. To finish there’s a pagedescribing the tactical symbols used rounding off anotherexcellent modelling reference from Desert Eagle. Thanks towww.aviationbookcentre.com for our copy

Merkava Siman 3- Baz and RamaqhBy Michael Mass and Adam O’BrienA4 softback format, 80 pagesPublished by Desert Eagle PublishingISBN 978-965-91635-2-6www.deserteagle-publishing.com

Panzer Wedge Volume 2By Lt. Fritz Lucke, Robert J. Edwardsand Mike OliveB5 softback format, 208 pages(black and white)Published by Stackpole BooksISBN 978-0-811710-82-4www.casematepublishing.co.uk

This second volume tells the story of the 3rdPanzer Division's advance to Moscow wherethe aura of invincibility surrounding the Germanforces starts to wain. This is very much ahistory 'reading' book with very little visualcontent as modelling reference, if Barbarossa isan area of interest to you this will proveabsorbing and informative reading. Most of thetext is written by corespondents at the time of

the fighting and is very factual and tacticaldetailing individual battles and movements ofthe kampfgruppes. The twenty-or-sophotographs throughout the book are poorquality so from a modelling perspective prettymuch void of any reference but packed withfacts for the historical and tactical buffs of theperiod.

Outside The WireBy Jim RossB5 hardback format, 352 pages Published by Stackpole BooksISBN 978-0-811712-22-4www.casematepublishing.co.uk

Although this is another 'readers' book from Stackpole it's verymuch more engaging as it's a first hand account of a combat tourof Vietnam in 1970 with the 'Tropic Lightning' U.S. Infantry Divisionwhere the author served as a rifleman, machine gunner, tunnel ratand demolitions man, so as you'd imagine his memoirs areaction-packed! The extracts I've read are easy-going, not a bookyou need to read intensely, very easy to pick-up and put-down inshort bursts should you wish. This is an excellent first-hand insight

into the day-to-day horror experienced by these young mensurviving the conditions and the North Vietnamese forces. There'sover fifty colour photographs which would have been better (formodellers) in a larger format with all vehicles featured beingM113s. Recommended, and at times very moving, reading if youhave an interest in Vietnam War combat. Thanks to Casemate forour Stackpole Publishing samples. 53

Although we're massive fans of Tamiya their figures sometimeslack the edge of the kits in today's modelling marketplace. Tamiyathemselves maybe realise this and have released a few of theirclassic toolings coupled with figures from MB of the Ukraine, whoalong with Master Box produce some of the best styrene figuresets around in our opinion. I don't remember seeing either ofthese two groups of figures before (I could be wrong?) so maybethis is a fresh approach altogether where Tamiya are packagingcommissioned tooling and moulding from Master Box? Whateverthe reason this is a very nice looking set of figures which will

please the modern diorama builder, four U.S. Marines and fourU.S. Army figures come with a wealth of weapons and gear.Moulding and detail is really sharp with body armour nicely done,good sculpting of the heads and hands and excellent weaponswith nice touches like extra ammo clips duct-taped on. The Armyquartet are little more static in their pose than the Marines wholook better with crouched action stances which would work wellbehind a wall or vehicle. Tamiya provide good colour referencesand a bonus sheet of rations boxes to assemble.

I thought this an unusual choice of subject in 1:35 by DML butthey made a really nice job of that kit, not so much here I'm afraid;a bit of a disappointment for small scale fans as most of the kitrelies on the older Dragon Panther which is moulded with the'ready made and painted' market in mind with simplified detail for

ease of production-line assembly. The new parts also fall short ofthe superb standards set by Dragon with not a great deal offinesse to report unfortunately. No doubt this will be a very simplebuild and an easy way to add this odd-ball Panther to yourcollection but disappointing by Dragon's standards

Tamiya U.S. Modern Infantry (Iraq War)

Dragon 1:72 Ersatz M10

Archer Fine Transfers

Excellent news for Allied modellers, namelyCommonwealth and British subjects, with five new sets ofArchers excellent waterslide decals under their AFT brand.All of the decals are in 1:35 and being printed byCartograf are first rate quality. There's a large selection ofchoice and size on each sheet which should allow you tomix and match most scenarios from Summer 1943 -Spring 1945. AR77026 are British Armoured Division UnitSymbols, AR77028 are British Infantry, AR77031 coversBritish and Commonwealth AOS symbols (black and whitestyle) and AR77037 are the coloured style. FinallyAR77030 are British Royal Artillery Tactical markings. Eachset has well researched and detailed marking descriptionsand application guides.

54

With a change to their regular Commonwealth vehicles, Mirrormodels have released this early-war tractor, the 'Special Edition'set containing a bonus Russian fuel trailer. Such a tiny vehiclemeans this is more like assembling a 1:72 piece of armour, thedelicate diminutive feel of the tractor has been captured really wellwith some superb fine detail. As with the other Mirror kits we'velooked at the vehicle builds from flat plates which will mean somecare with alignment but ultimately better detail. The kit designershave done well to avoid any knockout pin marks on any outer orinner faces. A full engine and interior (!) allows a fully opened updisplay and an optional folded seating arrangement offers

diorama potential. Individual track links will be a little tedious atsuch a small size but surely worth the effort to keep the highstandard of detail throughout. The fuel trailer provides a nicetouch and is of an equal high standard with the wheels providedas 'sliced' sections to give good tread definition. Along withRussian markings, Finnish and German are also provided on asmall decal sheet. Building instructions are an improved diagramtype with clear enlarged line drawings and explanatory text.Another high quality release of a quirky subject and more detailscan be found at: www.mirror-models.com

Rocket launchers anyone? The Nuts and Bolts team delve into theworld of WWII German ‘Werfer’ with all their usual flair andthoroughness in this substantial 208 page study. The book followsthe usual format with an in depth look at the development of thedifferent weapons systems, their deployment with abbreviatedindividual unit histories and notes on colour schemes andmodelling. Then its on to the archive images, beginning with thewheeled Nebelwerfer and images of it in service and being towed.Some superb shots of other experimental designs are included.The frame mounted Wurfkorper is also covered as well as theNebelwerfer 41 with great images of the weapon in service. Nextis the Panzerwerfer which gets extensive coverage in a superb

collection of archive images providing a wealth of modellinginspiration. The ammunition carrier version is also covered alongwith the rare Vielfachwerfer based on the Katjuscha rocketsystem. 1:35 scale plans are the next section with coverage of allthe different weapons and in some cases the prototype vehiclestoo. This is followed by the 9 page colour profile section withprofiles tied to the archive images that they are based on. Thebook concludes with a comprehensive walkaround section lookingat preserved examples of the weapons and vehicles and the usualmodelling section. Without doubt the best modelling reference onthis subject.

Mirror Models 1:35 Russian Artillery Tractor T-20 Komsomoletz (early)

55

Nuts & Bolts Volume 30Nebel-, Panzer-und VielfachweferBy J Baschin, M.Block, J.Nelson & H.TippmannSoftback format, 208 pages English/German textPublished by Nuts & Boltswww.nuts-bolts.de Available in the UK fromHistorex Agents www.historexagents.com

56

adds his own touches toTrumpeter’s 1:35 kit.During the Second World War the Soviets relied heavily on the use of

tractors for their heavy artillery and mortars to make their way across the

battlefield. The most ominous of these was the ChTZ S-65 “Stalinez”

tractor which was built in the Chelyabinskiy Traktornyy Zavod (ChTZ ) in the

city of Chelyabinsk. Founded in 1933, the ChTZ factory began producing

agricultural tractors first with the S-60, which was a copy of the American

built Caterpillar 60 which was followed by an improved diesel powered

version of the tractor, the S-65. With the outbreak of war in 1941 the

majority of the 37,626 Sons of Stalin (Stalinez) were pressed into military

service where they were used to pull the larger Soviet artillery guns such

as the 152 mm M1937 ML-20 and the B4 M1931 203mm Howitzers.

The S-65 tractor, although strong and

durable was incredible slow with a

maximum speed of only 7 miles per hour.

After the invasion of Russia in 1941 the

German army captured thousands of

these hefty vehicles which were then

quickly pressed into use recovering

vehicles stuck in the heavy Russian mud

as a result of the autumn rainy period

known as Rasputitsa. More often,

however, the Germans used the S-65 in

their original role as an artillery tractor

pulling German guns such as the sFH 18.

Trumpeter really hit a chord with modellers

when it released the S-65 tractor. Finally,

all of those wonderful artillery pieces would

have something to lug them around with.

Furthermore, modellers with interests in

either Soviet or German themes would find

plenty of examples of these tractors in

service. For me, however, the affection is

simply the fact it was a big, hulking tractor.

Something about these utilitarian

workhorse vehicles that really catches my

fancy, and apparently I’m not the only

person who has more than a passing

interest in these utilitarian beasts. Shortly

after the kit’s release the folks on the MIG

Productions forum began organizing a

“Stalinez Smack Down” group build. As

the number of participant’s increased, the

forum thread became full of reference

photos and "Smack Down” talk. My

resistance, which was already low, gave

way and it wasn’t long before I decided

joined into the fun as well. A few mouse

clicks later I had the Trumpeter kit along

with the LZ Models engine and radiator

upgrades on the way and within a couple

of weeks my workbench was full of plastic

and resin. During the course of sharing

photos, one photo in particular caught my

attention. It was of an S-65 pressed into

German service and it appeared as

though they had mounted a field

constructed boom to the front of the

vehicle which then held a bar onto which a

number (14) T34 road wheels. The boom

and wheels are supported by an unlikely

configuration of cables that run through a

tall post and then somehow attached to

the rear of the tractor. It was an interesting

field modification that I'm still not really

sure what it was for, but my guess is for

some type of road work. This was my

Smack Down vehicle!

57

The Trumpeter kit is moulded in light

grey plastic with the parts appearing

with very little flash. The fit of the parts

is generally very good and combined

with the clear instructions and relatively

few parts this is the type of project that

can easily be constructed over the

course of a rainy weekend. The kit,

however, does have a few issues that

you should be aware of. First, the front

radiator contains a couple of spelling

errors. The first error being the name

CTA��HE� (Russian for STALINETZ)

shows the English style “N” rather than

the reversed looking “�”, with the

same issue replicated on the lower

radiator letters for the word “Diesel”.

In addition to these errors the

Trumpeter kit does have one basic

short coming; it lacks an engine. This

leaves the modelers’ only option to

construct the tractor with the large side

engine panels in place. The oversight is

unfortunate as even a quick glance at

period photos show that many of these

service tractors where in use with the

large side panels removed for

increased engine ventilation. Luckily,

Trumpeters omission has been

remedied by Libor of LZ Models who

quickly brought an excellent resin

engine to the market. The LZ Models

engine is nothing short of brilliant. If

that wasn’t enough, LZ Models also

offers a replacement front radiator with

the correct spelling and photo etched

parts for the front mesh and tractor

logo.

58

I began my work with the LZ Modelsengine. I am familiar with the LZ Modelsbrand and once again Libor has producedan excellent product. Once I unpacked theengine I was surprised by the size of thisthing...it was huge! Getting into therelaxed nature of the group build Idecided to have a little fun by first buildinga quick bench on which to hold my engineduring construction and placed a ‘worker’in some of the early photos just to add asense of scale. As with all of the LZ rangeof products the The LZ parts are poured inlight coloured resin with the instructionspresented on a small CD disc. The stepby step instructions are easy to follow anda link to a walk around reference site is

also included. I found the referencesparticularly helpful as I decided to detailthe engine a bit by adding some wiringand extra plumbing just to make thingslooks a little busier. As the engineprogressed there becomes a time wherecertain fittings and brackets of the engineneeded to be fit onto the Trumpeter kit. SoI cracked open the Trumpeter box tobegin construction of the kit chassis. Afew test fits confirmed that the LZ Modelsengine would fit perfectly onto theTrumpeter chassis. The LZ Modelsradiator and engine were glued to thechassis without incident and it was time tomove onto the next steps.The tracks are offered as individual pads

along with two separate inner brackets toform each link; 34 per side. These partshave quite a few attachment points andas such require a little extra time forclean-up. Once completed, however, youare rewarded with a pair of extremelynice, workable tracks. On the boogiesponsons I chose to use only one side ofthe photo etched mud deflectors asprovided by the LZ update set – if only forthe sake of personalizing my model.Building of the tractor’s upper areas is afairly straight forward affair and movesalong quickly thanks for larger parts andclear instructions.

For a little fun, a bench wasconstructed to stand theengine on during assembly.

This figure gives an idea ofthe enormous size of theLZ engine.

59

The primary focus of this beast,however, is the extended boom to thefront of the vehicle. After a bit ofhead-scratching trying to figure outthe exact arrangement of the boomand rigging I finally decided to just"wing it" using my best guesses basedfrom the photo (and a little commonsense?). From the reference itappears that the boom was madefrom found materials, perhaps evenbridging joists. I decided to follow thisnotion and cut two shapes fromplastic sheet, punched 4 lighteningholes into each (improvised - notfound on the photo) and then capped

each edge with thin strip. A friend happened to have a set ofT34 wheels from the Tamiya kit whichI borrowed a pair and made multiplecastings as seen in the referencephoto. I debated on whether or not toconstruct the roof/cab as seen on thephoto and in the end I decided tomake a simplified version of the roof inkeeping with the field modified natureof the project. I also debated whetheror not to show the engine totallyexposed, or to install the top of thehood.

I’ve been told by some who haveviewed my work that they can tell it'smy piece even before they see myname attached. Perhaps they are just“blowing smoke”, but if it’s true then it ahuge compliment. It got me towondering. If we start with the premisethe most modelers are using basicallythe same materials and know the sametechniques and tricks then what mightset my work apart? The accompanyingphotos will show the basic steps that Itake when painting and weathering. Myguess is that most modelers willrecognize the techniques as most arefairly common practice these days. Here are a few of my thoughts:

First, I work very quickly. When I paintand weather I move from one step tothe next in rapid succession. Honestly,except for the drying times of the oilpaints I could often finish the paintingand weathering of my pieces in amatter of hours. I don't labour over thesmall details. I liken my technique tosketching, rather than drawing. I ammore concerned about capturing themood and atmosphere rather thancapturing each and every small boltand buckle. Maybe it's simple lazinesson my part, but I feel that the quicknesscan translate to a certain vibrancy orenergy in the finished presentation.

Finally, I decided to install the hood as Ifelt that the totally exposed engine woulddraw to much focus from the viewer andI preferred to have the focus drawn tothe front boom.

Mr Surfacergives a goodkey for the topcoats of colour.

Model Master MetalizerLaquers provide theraw-steel base colour tothe individual track links.

Oil paint and pigmentwashes provide the lookof the ground-in dirt.

60

First, I realize that Colour Modulation is allthe rage these days. I have used it and Ican see the validity of the technique forproducing eye catching results. However,with so many modelers following suitthese days I feel that the technique andresults have become somewhatpredictable. I see that the same surfacesare highlighted, the same fittings areexaggerated and the same look is foundon many models. Please don’t get mewrong, I am not trying to be critical ofColour Modulation or the modelspresented using the technique. What Iam trying to say is that perhaps there is a

way to take the certain aspects of ColourModulation and incorporate them in anew ways. So what do I do differently? Ibelieve that the majority of my finishedappearance begins with my early basecolors. You will notice from theaccompanying photos that my basecolours are varied - or random inapplication. I do use shadows andhighlights (similar to modulation) but mypatterns are not necessarily tied to therules of modulation. For instance, myhighlight tones are not always found onthe upper, leading edge surfaces. Thereare times that I will apply the lighter tones

on lower or recessed surfaces just for thesake of breaking the rules. From theaccompanying photos you might alsonotice that the green vehicle base colouris actually a comprised of varying shadesof green. It’s all about the multiple layersand subtle shifts of colour over the entiremodel with the point of view not alwaysconsistent with the rules of Modulation ora Zenithal light source. The instances canbe subtle, but I feel that the overallaccumulation of these small “rulebreakers” can bring an added level ofvisual interest to the finished piece.

The primer colours aremixed from Tamiya coloursand applied randomly.

A random coverage of thegreen is built slowly, thetonal differences add depthand highlights in key areas.

A protective coat ofFuture is airbrushedto protect the primerfollowed by a coat ofhairspray.

Warm water and a stiff brushremove the green on it’s basecoat of hairspray in a randomfashion. This is enhanced furtherwith acrylics and fine brushwork.

As with the tracks, the metalizergives a polished look to the contactsurfaces of the sprocket teeth.

The second point is that I am not overly concerned that thegreen colour(s) completely covering the oxidized reddish coloursunderneath, especially on the lower sections. The incompletenature of this layer is somewhat contributed by the speed atwhich I work, but the end result is intentional. It's really aboutthe "happy accidents" at the early stages. I have learned fromexperience that the more interesting that I can make my earlybase layers then the more interesting (and pleasing?) the finalresults will be. So, with this in mind at this stage I am really notoverly concerned about complete and even coverage. Takingthis a step further you can see how the hairspray technique fitsperfectly into my style of work as I am able to further manipulatethe base layers through the “random” removal of paint.

Finally, it's all about the oils baby! Once I haveachieved a random base surface - somemight call it a mess! - I need to bring it alltogether. The Magic really happens during thefinish work done with the oils. The subtlecolour shifts and blending that the oils cangive you is what ties it all together. Keeping inmind that I use the variations of the basefinish to key off of - these are my ‘points ofinterest;. What I mean is this; if I haveproduced some random little patch ofoxidized surface either though an unevenapplication of paint or chipped off via thehairspray technique, I will use this as anopportunity to enhance, refine and create avisual interest point. With this in mind, youcan see how this ties in perfectly with myearlier steps (quick, random base application)as now I have a lot of small ‘points of interest’which to play with.

Filters can help harmonisethe previous colour work andgive subtle shifts of tone.

61

62

What I hope is that in the end my result is apiece that is interesting to look at but doesn'tseem exaggerated. I strive to keep the viewer’seye moving from one interest point to the next,one highlight area to the next, one chip to thenext scratch. All the while I am trying to balancethe result between artistic expression andrealistic finish.

I'm not sure why I got onto this topic; I guessthat it was just on my mind this morning. I amsimply sharing some of my random thoughtsabout the hobby that I enjoy so much. GenerallyI don't think about this type of thing too much, Ijust do it. Maybe from time to time it's a goodidea to take stock of one’s self as a modeller -and dare say even an artist. Happy modelling.

63

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������������� ����TANKART Vol. 1

WWII German Armor

There are many "how-to" books in today's world of scale

modeling, but none has covered the "why", as well as, the

"how-to" processes… the modeler's artistic approach, until

now. In TANKART, a painting and weathering guide book series,

the focus is on taking real-life observations of paint and

weathering effects and incorporating the best techniques to

replicate them. Within this first volume, WWII German

Armor, I will go deeper into my thoughts about the why of

certain steps as it relates to German camo schemes. Combined

with my education in design, my passion for learning &

teaching, and some clear informative photography, we have

strived to produced a book which focuses on the importance

of telling the story of each vehicle. To bring these ideas to life

requires a spectrum of processes and techniques which are

covered in great detail; including the Hairspray Technique and

my new Oil Paint Rendering -- techniques that can be combined

in an layered array to tell the story of each model.

The book is 8.5w" x 9.5l" format, 208 pages. There are 5 models

featured inside, 2 dedicated technique chapters, plus a special

bonus figure modeling chapter by world renowned modeler

Marijn van Gils

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TANKART Vol. 2

WWII German Armor

£19.95

£19.95

www.afvmodeller.comAVAILABLE FROM

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