Tally-ho, a quick bonus post just to show off 2 new models I have recently finished, they are both 1:72 kits from Revell of jets in aerobatics colour schemes. The first is a BAe HAWK T.Mk 1 in  “Red Arrows” colours. I have had this kit sitting around half built for a little while so I decided to finish it and I am fairly please with how it turned out. There are a few dents and scratches on the model (from laying around for so long and getting things dropped on it) which I filled and the cockpit was all clouded up so I painted it gloss black which I think looks very nice.  The second Model is a F-4F PHANTOM II in the scheme of a German air aerobatics team, I found this model quite difficult to build, however the final model I am quite pleased with, apart from the cockpit which looks quite messy. Finally here is a picture of them together for comparison.Ok that’s all for now, Sherman crab tank review to follow soon…

JOE190

In this my first in box review I am going to be looking at the Airfix 1:76 Sherman Crab Tank and sharing my thoughts on it.

Firstly the box art, as usual for Airfix, is very nice.Looking inside the box the sprues are packed in a single bag with instructions underneath. The instructions give a brief history before moving on to the build. overall the instructions are simple to follow which should make building the kit easy. The kit comes with one colour scheme and decals to go with it which is nice.  The kit comes with the standard m4 Sherman sprue and the Sherman Crab modification sprue. Overall the parts are very clean, however some of the larger parts such as the turret and upper hull sections had a small amount of flash on them. There were also several ejector pin marks on these larger parts but thankfully they will be mostly hidden when the model is finished. Also in the kit are a pair of rubber tracks, which I am not a great fan of as I find them fiddly and awkward to put on the model. I think this kit is going to be good fun to build with some slightly more challenging parts. I will follow up with the build and final review soon so that you can see how I get on.

JOE190

This is my the first diorama I built and I am very pleased with it. It was really fun to build and I very much enjoyed the whole process. First I will talk about the tank, which is a 1:76 Panzer 4 from Airfix, it was a nice, interesting kit to build for someone who has not progressed far from the beginner stage. There where a few modifications I applied to the original model, such as the MG on the top of the turret made from heat stretched sprue and a machine gun from another kit, I also added rubble to the tank as though some had fallen on it whilst it was driving through the ruins. 

Now onto the diorama itself, I built up a street scene on a piece of plywood board out of wall filler, I made sure I made more than I needed so that I could break it up to make rubble when it dried. After leaving the base to dry for a day I  glued on the rubble with PVA, then left it to dry for another day before painting. First I pre-shaded the gaps in-between the cobbles on the road and gaps in the rubble piles with black, then I gave the whole thing a coat of grey. Once that was dry I gave the whole base a heavy dry brush of a lighter grey and covered it in a dark brown/black wash then gave it a dry brush of white followed by a dusty colour, I also painted the telegraph pole and other wood at this point. Once that had dried I added some fake grass and glue the soldiers to the base. The finishing touch was to add grey cotton to the telegraph pole to resemble wire.

The photos above are of the finished product, I do not have any photos of the build but i will try to get some for the next. If there is anything anyone thinks I can do better I am open to advice.

JOE190

 

 

 

 

 

Tally-ho, welcome to my small corner of the internet where I will share what I enjoy doing and help others to begin the hobby of building scale models. I plan on doing step-by-step builds, kit reviews, unveils,  give tips on how people can improve, and sometime there may be a Dungeons and Dragons or other RPG game report.  I am always looking for ways to improve my models so constructive criticism is welcome and I will do my best to answer questions people may have.

That’s all I have to say on my first post, I will post again soon with and unveil of my German Panzer 4 F2 Diorama.

JOE190MODELMAKER