Thursday, January 17, 2013

Advanced Aviation Modelling


We all have our own story that makes up who and what we are. I was born into a British Armed Forces family in West Germany, as it was then, in 1971. I cannot remember how old I was, but I recall picking up a red plastic Airfix Gnat from our local NAAFI. The only other thing I remember was that the kit was in a bag! When the film Star Wars came out in 1977, my friends and I wanted to make the sci-fi models that were becoming available, and then in 1980 when the whole of West Germany seemed to become one big military exercise area as Crusader 80 kicked off, we all started making Tamiya tanks. The tank thing has never really left me and certainly was the only area of the hobby I was interested in when I myself joined the Army for five years. The next modelling chapter of my life came in my final year at Theological College when my wife decided I needed a hobby for a bit of escapism and proceeded to go out and buy me a Tamiya Mini Cooper! Sandra has continued to encourage me in this area ever since and as long as the models aren't too big or dirty looking, she is happy. Perhaps the greatest turning point in my modelling life came in December 1994 whilst ministering in the Aldershot area. It was at this juncture that my local model shop introduced me to the International Plastic Modelling Society (IPMS) club held at Farnborough, at which I was exposed to a great variety of modelling interests and skills.

Battlecolours No.01


Welcome to the first issue of Battle Colours, featuring dios from modellers around the world. Over the past few years it has been our great fortune to meet and correspond with many excellent modellers and interesting people; such as the staff at Warriors Scale Models, Mr. James Welch of Luxembourg and Mr. Andreas Noßmann of Germany. We also have come to know some of the staff at Universal Models in Hong Kong (makers of the fine Dragon Models line), as well as Mr. Nobuyoshi Okuno of Ordnance Models - The Tank Workshop in Japan. Talking with these people gave us the idea for this publication. We thought it was time to combine the talents of some of these modellers and display their skills in one publication aimed at the diorama enthusiasts. Not just dioramas using one style and one type of product, but a combination of techniques, products and ideas. We do hope that you agree.

Armor Conversion and Detailing Projects


The Sherman tank wasn't the biggest or the best, but it was relentless in both numbers and reliability. It carved its name in history, "Built like a Sherman tank!" The Sherman rivals the Russian T-34 as the most-produced tank in history; more than 49,000 were built. I wanted to build the first of the line, an M4. (The M4 wasn't the first version produced—the M4A1 and the M4A2 actually came off the production lines earlier—but the M4 was the first Sherman standardized as a production design.) Research. Information on the M4 Sherman is a good-news bad-news situation. The good news is that many excellent books and articles exist dealing with the Sherman; the bad news is that none of these sources is definitive and you may need several publications to find details on a particular variant. Many examples of Shermans still exist and can be studied, but many of these are test vehicles, one-off modifications, or other deviations from production standards. I found only one photo of the particular version I was interested in, so I assume few actually were produced.