The Model Box

 I decided to work on something a bit simpler and stepped away from the Jagdtiger project for the moment. I normally post my wargaming stuff on Men in Boxes but I decided that since the topic was more on making a simple tank kit, maybe they'd be better off here. What I've unboxed here are two boxes of Armourfast's quick-build Pz Kpfw III Aus G's in 1/72 scale. The kits are very, very simple to build with just the chassis, the left and right tracks and road wheels, the hull, turret and gun making up the parts, aside from a few detailing stuff. You'de need to clean up some mold lines but these are very minimal. Aligning the tracks and roadwheel assemblies will entail some eyeballing with reference material as essential since there are no locator pins. The same goes for the little pasrts that attach to the superstructure and turrets. Armourfast  didn't provide locator holes for any:( I built up two boxes worth in an hour and primed and sprayed them a de...

I found an old Tamiya Jagdtiger I had started work on some years back and left unfinished. I dusted the parts off and decided that I could do with a fast build. Some of the details were lost since it was stuck in a box inside my home's bodega and I'm rummaging for the kit box as well as some research data I had compiled. Here are some pictures as well as some construction notes for this project. The superstructure seems whole but some of the side hooks for the spare tracks are missing and the hatch lacks detailing of any sort. I'm not too happy with the plastic cables but I think I'll leave them on for the meantime. I can't remember what I did to the surface but aside from the weld seams, there seems to be some gouges that needs reparing as well as some cleanup for the skirt attachments. The hull could do with some putty and smoothing. Also, the machinegun port may need repair.   The engine deck needs some work as well as some parts for th...

Check out this neat gallery of Matchbox AFV models in 1/76th scale. These were some of the very first kits I made and I know I still have a few unbuilt ones tucked away at home. Head on out to the article at Armorama

  1:35  Tamiya T-34/76

A 54mm Greek warrior or Hoplite from an unknown maker. Painted with acrylics and ink. The dolphin pattern on the shield is handpainted.

One of my new projects is to build some models of AFVs in use by the Philippine Army. I've been reading a variety of threads at the Timawa.net forums and here's a short list of the AFVs. In addition, the Philippine Army uses a variety of M113, Simba and V-150s: M113A1/2 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) - armed with 50 Caliber MG (variants have two 7.62mm MGs) Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle (ACAV) - with a V-150S turret armed with 50 Caliber MG and 7.62mm MG (variantshave two 50 Caliber MGs on its turret) Fire Support Vehicle (FSV) - with a Scorpion turret armed with one 76mm gun and one 7.62mm MG Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV) - armed with 50 Caliber MG Simba Wheeled Personnel Carrier (WPC) - armed with 50 Caliber MG (others have one 40mm AGL) Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) - armed with 25mm cannon and 7.62mm MG Mobile Command Vehicle (MCV) armed with 50 Caliber MG and equipped with various communication equipment  Armored Ambulance Vehicle (AAV) - no arma...

 I decided to start a 1/72 Deutsche Afrika Korps wargaming army and the first AFV model I ordered from Hannants UK were a few boxes of the Armourfast Pz. Kpw. III Aus G. Each box contains two tanks and are designed to be used mainly for wargames, thus are easily assembled. Inside the box are two sprues, with parts for each tank on one each. A separate small sprue molded in grey holds the new side skirts. These will go to my bitz box.   There are no decals, no painting instructions and the like, only a simple assembly diagram on the box.   The instruction diagrams however aren't very helpful though so you'll need to know your way around a Panzer III:) I had a problem aligning the tracks. Both parts do not have alignment hubs. I ended up eyeballing them and glued each track one at a time to get the distance right. Another problem was that the roadwheels dont really touch the hull and they end up floating unattached. If you try to glue them to the hull, the tracks wil...