Another modelling magazine

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Few days ago I have found out (thanks to facebook) that there is another modelling magazine coming to the market these days. The name is Abrams Squad and it is magazine to be solely devoted to the modern armour. I find this to be very welcome additions (there is never enough of good modelling magazines I believe…) and judging by the name of authors contributing to the first issue, my expectations of quality are set high. Recent flurry of new models of modern vehicles should guarantee that there is going to be enough of subjects to cover in the future…

If you feel tempted, you can find more information and order the magazine online here (country of origin is this time Spain). I had some trouble to switch the page language to English – the English button was nowhere to be found, until it has mysteriously appeared below the Spanish language button (?).

I am hoping that the magazine could become available in a digital form, as I am progressively becoming more of a tablet user when it comes to modelling magazines.

It is interesting to see this recent trend in the modelling publications marketplace – specialization, going from modelling to armour modelling and then to even more specific subjects as weathering or specific time period. Maybe this is not the end yet…

Voroshilovets Artillery tractor – Part 12: Finishing

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I have made some progress on the Voroshilovets as I am trying to get it finished. This means all the small things that need to be touched and finalized, so it usually takes some time. In this case I had to add windows on the cargo bed cover. This was quite easy, so I was lucky because not having paid attention to the instructions properly, I did not notice at first that the windows are not the same and that each window fits specific opening (all windows are numbered). As I said, luckily I found this out not too late, so all the windows were fixed as per instructions.

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Miniart Tram

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Very interesting announcement came yesterday from Miniart – it will bring us: Tram. Given its huge diorama potential, it is more than surprising that it took so long for a model company to figure it out… But here it is finally, looks good on the pictures. I believe this will be definitely one of the models I will not miss.

Stug III pulled from a bog

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I dare to say that it is not that unique for WWII vehicles to be found these days, usually they are buried in river, swamp or other similar place. Given that they have been hiding for almost 70 years, the elements took their toll on them, and they are not in the best shape.

When a friend recently sent me a link to the video below, I didn’t pay much attention at first. However as I was watching it, I was amazed by the state of this Stug. After being pulled from the bog and cleaned from mud in few minutes, it presented spectators with perfect paint job and markings as clean as if applied yesterday. Even more surprising is that after a short while, as the vehicle was pulled away, the wheels and tracks of the vehicle started moving. One would wish modern cars would have the same quality…

Mike Rinaldi at Hornet Hobbies

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As I have already mentioned here recently, modelers in Toronto had during the past week unique chance to meet Mike Rinaldi, one of the most prominent (and my favourite) modelers these days and author of the popular TankArt Series of books.

Those interested had a chance to see a presentation by Mike on his techniques or take part in one of the workshops organized by Hornet Hobbies store. I have of course not missed this opportunity and participated in Saturday’s workshop where Mike in few hours demonstrated his weathering techniques, focusing on pigments and hairspray method. In the first part of the session, Mike showed application of the pigments to lower hull and wheels of a tank using older Crusader kit. In the second part he used Panzer III turret in base grey coat to apply hairspray & chipping of the dark yellow coat and this was followed by another layer of chipping, this time by adding whitewash camouflage.

It was great to watch Mike do the magic and have a chance to ask questions. I will not be speaking for myself when I say that these few hours were extremely helpful and I have added quite a few tricks into my repertoire. Many of the issues I have experienced in past have suddenly disappeared. You can read hundreds of articles on how to do the things, but watching the process was simply different kind of experience.

Mike also brought two of his models – Stug III featured in the excellent book On Display – Stug III from Canfora Publishing and M26 Pershing recently presented in the second TankArt book (I did not realize, this was in the 1/48 scale…).

Thanks goes to Mike for coming to Toronto and sharing his secrets, I hope this was not his last visit here and of course to Dave Brown of Hornet Hobbies for organizing this excellent event.

Below are few shots from this workshop. At the bottom you can see the product of this session - painted and weathered Panzer III turret. Frankly it’s better than any other I have built so far…

In addition to the pictures, I have also shot few short videos, which I will be adding here as soon as I can figure out how to do it.

Canadian RG-31 from Kinetic

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Since Kinetic has released its RG-31 few weeks ago, I was thinking what would be the best way to convert this kit to the Canadian version. And having checked online forums for ideas, I definitely was not the only one… Now Kinetic seems to have noticed as well and today announced release of exactly this version of the vehicle. This is of course another great news for the fans of Canadian armour, though I wish I knew this before buying the first kit.

Well, my wish list just grew longer…

M48A3 coming from Dragon

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Another surprising announcement hit modelers only days ago – Dragon has announced release of M48A3. I don’t think there would be a modeller expecting this as in the past years Dragon has focused on recycling their Panzer IV and Stug III molds and flooded us with all the versions of these vehicles we didn’t know about (with the exception of Japanese tank series started recently)…

This news is definitely most welcome and perhaps is a sign that Dragon could again add to their lineup of modern vehicles. I am secretly hoping (hmm, I guess not so secretly as I am writing here about it) that perhaps IDF M48 could follow sometime (soon)…?

Special event at Hornet Hobbies

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In one of my recent posts I have complained about disadvantages I encounter being modeller in North America. Now I must say there is one special event happening this weekend at Hornet Hobbies in Toronto, which is unique and perhaps European modellers can envy a bit. My friend Dave from Hornet Hobbies has prepared and organized visit by Mike Rinaldi, acclaimed armour modeller and author of recently published TankArt books. I am not going to be alone to say that this is going to be unique opportunity to meet and talk to Mike and learn some of the tricks of the craft from him. I will definitely not miss this event and neither should you if you’re living anywhere near TO and don’t have an excuse for not coming.

Make sure to check Hornet Hobbies’ site (here) to find out more and stay tuned for some pictures from the weekend coming soon…

Not just another Stalingrad movie

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Yesterday I saw this trailer on the Youtube and the only thing I can say is: WOW.

I did not know that there is another movie with the theme of Stalingrad battle in the making, but with the movies coming from Russia this is not that much surprising. Having watched the trailer few times, it seems that we are in for a visually stunning piece ,production and camera seem to be excellent. I loved the music with the trailer, I think it perfectly matches the mood the trailer was intent on invoking. Another positively contributing should be the fact that this being Russian movie, it is more than likely that no Hollywood “stars” will be in it (apology to the few good ones, but simply I don’t see them fit in here).

Another thing I like is that the movie is going to be in Russian (of course), but the German dialogues will be left in German and will be sub-titled, which is quite unique.

In terms of historical accuracy, it is too early to make a judgement, there are few things (I don’t want to use term mistakes) that are clear from the trailer – The Panzer IV tanks visible in the clip are not 100% accurate as this tank at that particular time did not have side skirts (schurzen), the use of these started in mid-1943, about 6 months after the Stalingrad battle. Also attachment of these skirts to the hull as can be seen in the clip is not correct. But this is really nitpicking – I think the filmmakers went to great length to replicate the Panzer IV and I appreciate that they did not use Tiger tank, as is favourably being done in movies. In one of the shots you can see markings of the 24th Panzer Division on the right front fender of the tank. This division actually did fight and was annihilated in the Stalingrad battle. Kamen Nevenkin’s excellent Fire Brigade book does not provide order of battle for this division prior to its reconstitution in 1943, but from other sources it is apparent that the division actually had 12 long-barreled Panzer IV tanks at this time.

In any case, this movie being Russian made is to be expected to present “Russian” view of the battle, not saying there is anything wrong with this. Movie is directed by Fedor Bondarchuk (son of the internationally acclaimed Sergey Bondarchuk), who has already been mentioned in this blog thanks to his great movie 9th Company (see the post here).

According to wikipedia, this movie is to be released this year and it is the first Russian and non-American movie to be produced using the IMAX format.

I don’t know how about you, but I cannot wait to see this one…

 

 

Voroshilovets Artillery tractor – Part 11: Tracks

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Yesterday I picked this model again, intent on getting it to the finish line in hopefully near future. I have finished the tracks, which were painted in the mix of black/brown base colour. I added light overspray with Tamiya Khaki Brown (XF-51) to make the tone bit more natural. Afterwards I have applied Dark Mud Pigment from the Mig range. I applied it both to the inner and outer side, the inner part was covered lightly and the pigment was then spread along the track using makeup sponge brush and my fingers. At the end, most of the pigments were accumulated in the gaps between track links and in around the details such as guide horns.

On the outer part, I have spread the tracks on my table and using a medium brush dipped the pigments generously, but randomly on top of it. Then I used larger brush and fixed the pigment in place by touching the tracks with the tip of the brush and let the capillary action spread it. This was done to avoid smearing the pigments, but let them accumulate naturally.

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Mosonmagyaróvár Model Show 2013

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I confess I feel more than a bit jealous every time I see a photo report from a European model show. While I think that Toronto is a great place to be a plastic modeller, thanks to its modeling community and bunch of good friends I have in this hobby, there is something about the local model shows, that makes me feel…yes, jealous. The models I can see sometimes in local hobby stores or on friends tables are often top quality, but when the time of a model show comes, display tables usually leave me asking for more…

One of my most favourite model shows in Europe is the one in Mosonmya…. well just say Moson. It has been few years ago that I have seen first pictures from this show and it was clear to me that the quality is top of its class. This years show seems to be no exception. Luckily there are some good photo reports from this show that we can enjoy and draw inspiration.

To see one of them, please use this link (first pages are figures, real stuff begins on page 4). Thanks Mario!

 

Back from the Dead – Pz.IV Ausf.H

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Just to avoid any misunderstanding at the beginning – the title of this post is not to be connected with the lack of the posts on this page over the last days. It’s just that April is somehow quite busy month (just finished doing my last year’s taxes tonight…) and I have been working on a lot of things. Too many projects at the same time, I tried few new things and in general just spent a lot of time in my modeling den.

One of those kits I have played with was this Panzer IV. I built it almost 3 years ago during summer vacation at a cottage. It was built, primed, painted and lightly weathered. But the more I looked at it, the more I didn’t like what I saw (unlike my friends, who praised the camouflage paintjob). The paint job itself was quite laborious. I wanted to build it as a vehicle from the Normandy fighting in a standard german 3 done camouflage. This was hand painted with airbrush and it took me few attempts to do it as I did not like the look of it at first.

But after all this work, I concluded that it is not good enough. I did not like the tone of the dark yellow, it was too brownish. After I had painted the green and brown camouflage layers, I have tried to blend them with the dark yellow with a light overspray of the base colour but I have overdone it, so the result was very low contrast in the paint finish and a dull look. I was hoping the weathering could fix it somehow, but nope… (lesson learned)

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