Hasegawa's 1/72 Mercedes-Benz G4

Hi guys, this is Hasegawa's 1/72 Mercedes, I had a hard time finding any picts of this vehicle used in the German armed forces so not sure if any were used, I didn't want to make Hitlers ride, but I did find a model someone else had done of this vehicle so I basically copied his hoping he had better referances than me, so I have no idea if it is authentic, it was a nice enough model, Hasegawa can be a very mixed bag, and generally anything with tracks will be poor, there figures are always very bad, some of their later stuff can be good, their Pz IVs are good (except the tracks) and their Sdkfz 234 and 251's are good, this one deserves a 7/10, the bike on the back is an old spare Matchbox BMW and a little under scale at 1/76, the figures are a mix of revel and Preiser's excellent multi part figures. As this is one of my older models it suffers from too heavy handed paint chipping.

2 Italeri 75mm PaKs for 1/72 FoW

Hi guys, these are a couple 75mm PaKs from Italeri, not the new ones but the older kit, haven't got the new ones yet so can't compare them, but I will pick a couple up because these ones need replacing, the older Italeri kits are moulded in full recoil, I managed to convert the one behind the small wall into the pre fired position but couldn't be bothered doing the other one, these are on OK kit, nothing special, looses a point for the recoil 6/10 the figures are a mixture of Hat, Revel and the Italeri figs that came with the kit, all have been converted to winter scheme. This blog is great, it has reminded me of a lot of unfinished projects, this being one of them, a mid war winter German army, I am going to base them for flames of war, I didn't want to buy the actual FoW figs because I have so much 1/72 WWII stuff that I don't want to waste. I only have these 2 and the 2 88s from this project finished so I will be re starting this one soon.

World Eater terminator champion

This is a World Eater terminator champion, made the Khorne horns from plasticard

Armourfast/Italeri kitbashed M4A3 76 1/72

Hi guys, this is an M4A3 76 that I kitbashed using Armorfasts quick build and Italeri's Esci re released M4 Sherman, the hull and turret are from Armorfast and the running gear/tracks, .50 cal, and a lot of other small details are from the Italeri kit, I made this before Dragon came out with their excellent Shermans, the figures are from AB

Saxon Prince Max Regt AB 15mm, Scott's commision

Hi guys, thought I had finished these today but notice in the photo's I missed the musket slings, I will finish these today, these are the usual high quality AB's although this batch had more flash then usual so only get 8/10, they are painted up for Scott as the Prince Max Regt.

French line Regt 15mm

Hi guys, this is a French line regt to be added to my 1812 Grande Armee project, the figures are mostly excellent AB's 9/10, the 2 grenadiers are Lancaster figs, these are nice figures but each troop type only comes in 1 pose 7/10, I by all my AB's from Nic at Eureka.

Another World Eater termie, again used a converted beastmen head.

Hi guys, this is a World Eater terminator, used a plastic beastmen head, wanted to convey frenzied/furious speed in his pose.

Trumpeters 1/72 Ferdinand

Hi guys, this is Trumpeters 1/72 Ferdinand, its a very detailed kit, with beautiful link and length tracks and because it was one of their first releases I was thinking that they would be a big rival to Revel who were the front runners in Braille scale kits at the time, however this was one in only a few kits brought out by their A team followed by a long string of B team offerings, despite the great end product this kit was not without its problems, the hatches are all molded closed, and the running gear was a nightmare to assemble, you have to be very careful or you end up with a lot of misaligned wheels. Due to the wheel problems I would give this an 8.5/10 This was one of my first camo attempts with an airbrush, the camo pattern turned out larger than I wanted but not bad for a first attempt. details were added with wire and lead foil. Replicated tread pattern on the fenders using cigarette packet paper.

Humble beginnings

The first contact I had with models was when I was a young boy, probably 7 or 8 I used to stay at my grandparents house sometimes and they has some toys that used to be my dads and uncles, I clearly remember a turret less and trackless Airfix Churchill, there where others but I can't remember what they were, I loved that Churchill though, all those little wheels. I used to play armies on their carpet, so as a kid growing up I started to buy the Airfix and Matchbox models and soldiers, roughly gluing them together and slapping army looking humbrol paints on with crappy old paint brushes, those are all lost to time now. In my late teens I moved onto other hobbies, martial arts, sports, girls, I was brought back into the hobby with 15mm war gaming when I was in the army in the mid 90s, but I didn't make my first serious AFV model until about 2002, it was this 1/72 Fujimi KV I, the original model was quite plain, some of the parts were poor and lacked detail, I upgraded it to a B varient by adding the turret armour using plasticard, the bolts were done with stretched spru, weld seem was done with miliput, I scratch built the tool bins and fuel drums from Plasticard and bits n pieces, I remember the this kit had the worst tracks of any kit I have ever built, very thick and stiff rubber, it took lots of 2 part epoxy resin glue and time to attach them in a very unconvincing manner, hence all the mud used to cover the botched job, I really don't like the paint job, I started a long love affair with scratched paint jobs with this kit, but my later models are toned down in this area, I would only give this kit 5/10 since a determined modeller maybe able to make something out of it but a youngster would end up with a trackless kit. The mud is just dirt, white glue and paint mixed together.

a couple of cats on the work bench

Hi guys, I haven't done 1/72 scale armor for about 12 months now, was waylaid by some sci fi and now the 15 mm Napoleonics, I was recently going through some stuff and came across a box with about a dozen unfinished 1/72 armor kits (in various states of completion) and a couple of Maschinen Krieger power armor kits, I will attempt to finish them after Scott's commission is done, about 6 weeks I guess, the first 2 I will work on will be a Panther G late and early, the late is a Revell kit, have swapped out the mantlet and gun from the Dragon kit, cupola and outer road wheels are Italeri, the early is from Dragon, it is pretty much built from the box, if I remember correctly the barrel is from Armo, this is a beautiful kit, the zimmerit is nicely done, great PE pieces, and I usually like link and length tracks but these GS tracks are very good. IMHO this is the best plastic kit on the market.

15mm AB Wurttemberg Chevaulegers: Scotts commision

I have finished the 1st and 2nd Chevauleger Regts for Scott's army, the riders are only blue tacked on so they are sitting a little high, the usual great AB figures, the only fault I could find was the officer with his sword drawn also has a sword in his scabbard, if I had have notice this before I had half painted him I would have removed it, I would give these guys 9.5/10 but they loose .5 for the oversight with the sword 9/10
this is the 1st

2nd Regt