1/72 scale GMC 'Jimmy' World War II Deuce-and-a-half

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Academy 1/72 6×6 Cargo Truck

Very crisp, well-moulded, and finely detailed model.

Compatible with the Airfix kit, and somewhat more robust. And more than twice the price of the Airfix / Heller kit too. Similar to Academy’s WWII Ground Vehicle Set, this kit comes with a number of jerrycans, oildrums and boxes, and also includes some spare 0.50 & 0.30 cal. Brownings.

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Hasegawa GMC Cargo & Fuel Truck

Strong robust model, ideal for wargaming

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Airfix GMC Truck

Very nice kit, sharp detail and easy to put together. The wheels need to be reinforced or the model needs to be based, if not the wheels will break off the first time you use it in a wargame.

Compared with the Hasegawa GMC, this is quite a fragile model.

1/72 German Winter Figures and Vehicles

Some painted Caesar German infantry in Winter gear and whitewashed German tanks.

Two King Tigers. The one on the right is an old Hasegawa model and on the left a repainted Altaya die-cast model.

A Revell Panzer IV with sideskirts and a Revell Tiger both in Winter cammo.

Matchbox 1/76 Scale 37mm PaK 35/36

Work in Progress - Roving Reporters

A set of "Newsteam" figures I have on the workbench at the moment.

The figures are Hasegawa hard plastic US Airforce Ground Crew with some simple modifications and an Esci/Italeri NATO Ground Crew figure.

The war-weary reporter's van in the background is a Made-in-China toy.

Looking at the photo now, I think I went a bit over the top with the weathering, it's filthy dirty - and those toy-like wheels will probably need replacing too..........

Airfix / Hasegawa Churchill Conversions in 20mm Scale - Teide Hobby

If you ever get to visit the island of Tenerife, don't miss out on a trip to the old town of La Laguna in the north. Apart from old style colonial buildings and a quiet and quite different type of day out far from the more typical tourist centres, it's an excuse for us modelling enthusiasts to get to visit a model shop, Teide Hobby.

It's actually probably one of the few remaining traditional old-style privately owned model shops that still exist today, most others in developed countries are now steadily dwindling away, many having gone over to to supermarket / franchise style outlets which often employ staff with little or even no knowledge of the products they're selling.

The owner of Teide Hobby, Pablo, is an avid modeller and knows the hobby well. He's also got a workroom in his shop where you'll always find him on the go on various projects. You can talk to him about any aspect of modelling and you'll get a reply from someone like yourself who knows the hobby well.

Last time I was there, he showed me some conversions he's working on, some kitbashes using parts from the Haswegawa and Airfix Churchills, pictures of which I'm pleased to post here.

Hasegawa 8-Ton Half-Track 20mm Quad & 37mm AA Guns

These are both nice kits, plenty of raised detail and easy to assemble.

The tracks are soft plastic but can be glued with normal solvent based glue. The "sag" in the tracks was actually obtained by glueing the tracks to the wheels with normal Revell liquid glue.

The Hasegawa crew you get with these mobile Flak platforms are not very good at all, big jointed, stiff poses, and lacking detail.

The two kits were painted using a drybrush technique, consisting of applying a black undercoat and heavy drybrushing with dark sand. The final effect is very nice from a distance, but close-up it's not so hot.

The crew figures shown here are all resin from the Milicast "late war German tank riders" set.

Dec-2004

Modern(ish)

Esci (now Italeri) NATO Pilots and Ground Crew.

Also a Revell Deutsches Kommando Spezialkräfte - better known as the KSK - hidden in amongst the figures there.




Hasegawa NATO Pilots 

Matchbox 1980s British Paras

Flakpanzer V Coelian by Bram Corts

By Bram Corts (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)

The green Panther-conversion is a so-called flakpanzer V coelian






It's a what-if project because the Germans only made a mock-up of the vehicle. The turret is scratch-build and I used the Hasegawa Panther G with steelwheels as base.

Copyright Bram Corts, Netherla

Hasegawa Crusader with Airfix Turret

Hasegawa Crusader with Airfix Turret - Jorit Wintjes (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)

The Crusader was built by mating a Hasegawa hull and an Airfix turret.

While the Airfix hull has some dimensional problems - it's too short - the Hasegawa turret looks like anything but a Crusader one.

I scratchbuilt a new turret roof to get the angles and the hatch correct, and spent some time getting the opening mechanism right - only to hide the latter from view with a poorly painted crew figure. Kinda unsmart... Getting the scratchbuilt sideskirts look right (they should bend slightly outwards) was very difficult.

In the end they still look rather flattish, but you have to be rather close to the model to see that (and if you're that close, your attention will be drawn to a number of other shortcomings :) ).





I also tried to improve the look of the tracks by cutting them into small sections to get some sagging effect, but this didn't work out as intended - actually, around the sprocket, it worked just the other way round!

To get an accurate representation I should also have reworked the engine deck, the side stowage bins and the air filters, but I decided to call it a day and simply load it up with stowage stuff (scratchbuilt or from the spares box).

© Jorit Wintjes - Würzburg, Germany (2004) (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)