Thursday, August 30, 2007

Models of figures = Model of vehicle

Today I think about one interesting thing.
Why plastic model kits of vehicles with many molds, details, decals cost as much, as kits of figures with one mold and pure number of low detailed parts.
I'm a new fan of modeling and don't know WHY THIS HAPPENS!!!
Hm...

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hetzer (early version) German Tank Destroyer

Hi again, my dear friends!
This is a model kit from exUSSR manufacturer UniModels.
Here are you welcome.
Hetzer tank destroyer in 1/72 scale!



This kit contain 112 light grey plastic parts on four sprues, 16 PE parts on one fret, decals for six or more vehicles and a 4 page A5 instruction booklet with history, parts plan, 11 clear build diagrams and 3 paint/decal drawings.
Highly detailed, The only early production Hetzer in 1/72 scale and machine gun shield plus side skirts in PE.

First issued in 1944, the Hetzer was a very successful tank Hunter (Jagdpanzer). With a very low profile, a 75 mm gun and a remote controlled MG it could take on anything the Allies could throw at it. Even though it's armour was quite thin, it was sloped at such an angle that it gave it's crews good protection.

Although the Hetzer was based on the 38(t) light tank, very little of this kit is from the earlier UM 38(t). Even the two track/suspension sprues are new with only the tracks themselves, bogies and a small number of add-ons carried over from the older kit. Marketed as an early production model, the sprues also contain all the parts for the Late Production Hetzer and the flame thrower Hetzer.

Therein lies the first minor problem. The early vehicles had road wheels with 32 bolts securing the armour plate to the wheel, but it was found that these bolts loosened in combat. Later vehicles had the armour riveted to the wheels, and the number was reduced to 16. Unfortunately, the kit comes with the late wheels only. You do get the late and early gun mantlet, engine deck, idler wheel and exhaust. You also get an optional non-perforated equipment box in plastic and the perforated box on the PE fret as in the earlier 38(t)s.

All the parts are nicely detailed and flash is at an absolute minimum, but care will have to be taken assembling the lower hull to make sure everything is aligned or the upper hull will not fit.
You can check this molds on pictures.







The PE fret contains some very nice side skirt armour, (Shutzen, not sure if that's the right spelling), the MG shield, a perforated heat shield for the early muffler, periscope shields, guard supports and the afore mentioned equipment box.



As usual for UM, they give you more vehicle markings than there are instructions for, but I guess to many is better than not enough.

My one criticism of this kit, apart from the wheels, that is, the hatches are all closed. Again, nit picking, as they shouldn't be hard to open.

Esci's Hetzer was one of their best. This kit from UniModels, I believe, will leave it for dead.

Thank you for attention!
Good luck and comment my post please in any questions!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Revell 1/72nd U-Boat





This is Revell-Germany's 1/72nd scale Type-VIIC U-boat. It's a big and rather striking model, though perhaps more "big" than "striking". Note how it overflows my jumped-up "photo studio" in the first picture and gets into one of the lights! Its sheer size makes it difficult to work on; I ended up having to move it to my "woodworking bench" just because there was more room there.

But for such a large model, it goes together relatively quickly and easily, though I found the rudders and stern diving planes somewhat fragile, and the odd shape of the dismounted conning tower makes it all too easy for it to roll off the workbench. Ask me how I know that. Sharp-eyed viewers will note that the optics at the top of the attack periscope are missing - they snapped off when the conning tower rolled off the bench and were never seen again.

I spent a lot of time opening up the free-flood holes in the hull, and in a way I wish I hadn't. I didn't duplicate any of the pressure hull behind the free-flood holes, so in the right light you can see all the way through the hull and it just doesn't seem right.

I decided to build it as Erich Topp's boat from earlier in the war ("U-552 Early" in the instruction sheet) though purists will note that I didn't apply Topp's Red Devil marking to the conning tower. Maybe someday, but my decal sheet was damaged by exposure to high temperature, wind, bad vibes or something and I only barely managed to salvage the decals on the base. Later, when I have more nerve, I'll try Topp's personalized markings, but for now, I'm simply pretending that the Red Devil washed off in high seas.

Buy lots of paint! The hull consumed a full bottle of Model Master flat black, and I still had to touch up here and there with a little bit of hardware flat black. Still, I knew I was going to weather the boat, so I didn't worry about the coverage too much. I weathered the boat with pastel chalks for the most part. I use a stiff white artist's brush to grind pigment off the bars of chalk, which is cleaner and easier than rubbing the stuff on sandpaper, and I kept sealing as I went along with Dullcoat. The clear flat spray darkens and tones down the weathering, so for a while I was scrubbing on pure orange and hoping that it would look all right overcoated. I think it does.

I found the Squadron "U-boats In Action" volume useful in building this kit.

There is no crew, yet. A while back I bought Revell's vinyl "Kriegsmarine" figure set and will add a few figures to the boat. I'll probably use the guys in slickers on my S-100 and add a couple of nonchalantly-standing guys to my U-boat just to give it an impression of scale. Any thoughts of showing the crew manning the deck gun were dashed when I hung the kill pennants from the overhead rope, but none of the Kriegsmarine figures look much like Topp and his bridge crew lounging in the sun while the boat arrives in port. So I'll just throw in one or two guys for scale and call it good.

Thanks for attention!


Tamiya 1/35th SdKfz-250/3

Hi friends, You can Check this kit! This is Tamiya 1/35th SdKfz-250/3.


Tamiya's SdKfz-250/3 command halftrack, with General Rommel. I built this straight out of the box originally intending to sell it. (I don't generally keep 1/35th scale armor models) but somehow it sort of hung around. It's a nice kit and a fun time, but I painted the non-Rommel uniforms with Gunze Sanyo paint and I didn't much care for the semigloss sheen it left on clothing. I tried overcoating the guys the clear flat a couple of times, but to no real avail.

Verlinden 120mm U.S. Grant figure


Verlinden's 120mm resin Lieutenant-General U.S. Grant, pretty much straight out of the box. Everything you see here came from the kit, including the nicely printed period map, the binoculars and the base.

I like painting figures, and seem to have the most fun with figures around the 120mm mark. Larger than that and they get kind of cumbersome and tedious; smaller than that and they become difficult for me to paint. But 120mm is a nice size, at least for me.

Mostly I used so-called "craft paints" on Grant, mostly Delta Ceramcoat. I like these paints because they're easy to access, are quite inexpensive, mix easily, and clean up easily. They don't stick particularly well and like all acrylics don't support on-the-figure shading and highlighting, but I'm not that involved. If my technique of using washes and drybrushing won't win me any awards at model shows, well, I'm okay with that.

Thank you for attention!

Model Kits trash Art!

After making some of kits we have so much trash and pieces of plastic molds, BUT some of us have the good ideas in future style! Please, you can check this fantastic TREE!!


Artist Harm van den Dorpel makes constructions and artwork made out of Revell plastic model kits, check out his other works too!

So! After this post do you have some ideas, folks?!

RAF BE 2c. British Fighter WWI in 1/48 scale.

Hi! I will talk about RAF the british aircraft in WWI. This model kit is NEW 2007 year model kit by RODEN manufacturer. Scale of kit is 1/48.

A Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2a (Bleriot Experimental) of No.2 Squadron R.F.C. was the first aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps to arrive in France after the start of the First World War, on August 26th, 1914.



VARIANTS:
  • B.E.2 : Prewar version - important pioneer tractor biplane
  • B.E.2a : Built in small numbers from from late 1912 - still a standard type at the outbreak of war in late 1914
  • B.E.2b : Basically the same as the "a" with higher sides to the cockpits, late examples used ailerons instead of wing warping
  • B.E.2c : Extensively redesigned - really a new aeroplane. The most produced version 1914 - 1916
  • B.E.2d : Essentially a "c" variant with a larger gravity fuel tank
  • B.E.2e : The final version, with new wings - expected to be a great improvement on the "c", it was a major disappointment. Nicknamed the "Quirk".

    SPECIFICATIONS (B.E.2c):

    General characteristics

  • Crew: Two, pilot and observer
  • Length: 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
  • Wingspan: 37 ft (11.28 m)
  • Height: 11 ft 1 in (3.4 m)
  • Wing area: 398 ft? (37 m?)
  • Empty weight: 1,366 lb (621 kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 2,138 lb (972 kg)

    Performance

  • Maximum speed: 72 mph (116 km/h)
  • Range: 200 miles (320 km)
  • Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,028 m)
  • Rate of climb: 325 ft/min (1,066 m/min)

    Armament

  • 1 x .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis machine gun for observer
  • 224 lb (102 kg) of bombs


    In 1914, immediately after the beginning of World War I, it became obvious that the British Army needed to develop an aviation component. Aircraft were not yet considered as fighters or bombers; at that point their function was seen to be reconnaissance and observation of the movements of enemy troops. The Army needed an aircraft which wouldabove all be stable in the air during the protracted patrol periods, and also allow for the imperfect standards of construction of the time. The first substantial order went to the government's Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF). In pre-war years it produced a two seat plane, the B.E.2, under the direction of graduate engineer Edward T. Busk(B.E. - 'Bleriot Experimental', because it had a tractor configuration, like the aircraft of Frenchman Louis Bleriot). The design appeared to be successful, and orders for its manufacture were given out to such firms as Handley Page, Vickers, and Hewlett, as well as the state enterprise. At the beginning of the War the B.E.2 was delivered to the Army as an observation aircraft.

    The pace of development in aviation was such that the B.E.2 became obsolete in a matter of months. Edward Busk modified the construction of the B.E.2: the lower wing of the biplane was staggered rearwards in order to improve the observer's field of view, the form of the empennage was also changed, and the wings were fitted with ailerons. This new version was the B.E.2c and it was even more stable in flight than its predecessor. Both the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) requested the type. The Royal Aircraft Factory did not have the capacity to execute such an enormous order,and so licenses for its construction were given to such firms asBristol, Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth, Wolseley, Ruston Proctor and others. During 1914-1915 more than 2,000 B.E.2c's were built, along with the B.E.2d (which mainly differed from the B.E.2c in having anadditional fuel tank under the top wing).

    The first B.E.2c appeared at the Front at the beginning of 1915. Its basic tasks in the sky of the Western Front were reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and the bombing of enemy troop formations. This variety of two seat aircraft, with an observer in the front cockpit and a pilot in the rear one, quickly became outmoded, and the B.E.2c lost more and more air battles to newer German two seaters. Its shortage of engine power restricted the scope for improvement, andthat is why the B.E.2c remained in the front line only for a short while. However, when the Sopwith 1? Strutter, De Havilland DH4 and Bristol Fighter appeared, its roles were limited to the interception of huge slow Zeppelins, and training. It should also be noted, that B.E.2c pilots from emergency flights destroyed at least five giant German Zeppelins. However they were already obsolete in 1917 even for the role of interceptor, and they gradually yielded their places to newer types. The only role left for the B.E.2c was in training, and at the end of WWI only a few machines of the type remained from more than 2,600 produced overall. By the beginning of the 1920s all of them haddisappeared for good, and the only B.E.2c remaining is in the Imperial War Museum in Great Britain. This exhibit, an extraordinarily elegant aircraft, is a rare living representative of the first few years of the war in the air.

    1. RAF BE2c “4395” No. 14 Squadron RFC (Expeditionary Forces), Arabian region, 1917.
    2. RAF BE2c "10000" The only British aircraft with five-numeral serial number, Blackburn-built. It was delivered to the RNAS Observers School Eastchurh, July 1917.
    3. RAF BE2c “1741” No. 12 Squadron RFC, Western Front, France, March 1916.
    4. RAF BE2c “2509” No. 2 Squadron RFC, presentation aircraft, it was paid for by Mrs. H.P.Stromberg of New York City, end of the 1916.
    5. RAF BE2c “8407” equipped with the Le Prieur rockets, aircraft based at Cranwell, early 1918.
    6.RAF BE2c “4451” early-built aircraft, based at Eastchurch and Grain, early 1916.

  • About this blog

    Hi everybody! My name is Artem. I'm living in Ukraine and I like model kits!
    I opened this blog for many peoples who likes model kits like me.

    Thank you for attention!