Mr. Churchill in 1-72 Scale

This photo of "Mr. Churchill" was originally posted on the Miniaturezone blog before it was unfortunately hacked and the whole website was wiped clean last year.

The figure is original vintage from the 1960s, from the old Airfix Civilians set first issued in 1961 and I think he bears more than a passing resemblance to Churchill.

There was a fair bit of flash that needed cleaning off before painting him, but I could have left it I suppose, painted it as a glow of some kind and claimed it was Mr. Churchill's "aura of self-confidence" :-)

Matchbox M-16 Half-Tracks

I've had these two Matchbox M-16 quad A/A kits sitting in a box for a good few years. Back when I built them the tracks broke and had planned to fix them but never got around to it.

(http://www.1-72-scale.com/2009/05/work-in-progress-matchbox-m16-half-track.html)





That was back in 2009 ...

and they've finally been finished today.



The tracks were replaced with some one-piece fixed track assemblies I got from two old wrecked Airfix Half-Tracks that came in a bag of "pre-owned" kits off ebay.



The original decals have long been lost - or used on some other kit - but I had plenty of stars in the decal spares box.

So , gven the time it's taken to finish these, it's clear I'm a very slow modeler - in spite of that, I'm pleased the way the old Airfix tracks work on these kits.

1/72 US 105mm Field Howitzer Conversion

A few years back I saw an article on Paul's excellent Plastic Warriors Website on using a cut-down Airfix 88mm Flak to make a 105mm US howitzer

http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/m2-m101-105mm-howitzer.html

I needed a couple of these for my WWII US forces and inspired by Paul's original idea, I decided to put a couple of old Airfix 88s I had in the stash to good use.

The barrel of the 88 has been cut down and the shield comes partially from an old Airfix 6 pounder AT gun and the rest was made using some cut-down clear plastic sheeting.

The axle and wheels are from a trailer that comes as an accessory with a die-cast Altaya M16 Half-Track. The trail legs are flat plastic cocktail sticks.

Yep, it's a crude "representation" and it would probably raise a lot of eyebrows at an IPMS meeting, but I think once it's painted and on the table it maybe won't look too out of place.

I'll try and get this painted up and will post a couple of shots soon.

Battle of the Bulge - Keep Moving

Since the last post, things have kept on moving - not as fast as I would have liked, but at a fair pace.

The HaT / Armourfast M4A3 76mm tanks after having been base-painted, washed/highlighted, and mud-weathered, were given a couple of white stars on the turrets courtesy of the decals spares box - the Armourfast tanks unfortunately come with no decals.

They are also very sparse, no tools or any other kind of stowage, and the hatches are moulded shut, but in spite of looking very bare they are fine for gaming and are now ready for table 

The old Hasegawa M5 High Speed Tractor and 155mm Long Tom that were dug out of the old stash have now been repainted and are also ready for action.

As with the Shermans, after repainting the M5 also received a good dose of mud on the tracks.

Below the finished tractor and Long Tom, the Armourfast Shermans and a GPA Amphibious 1/4 Ton 4x4 Truck that was also on the painting table. 

I stuck a figure in there wearing a thick overcoat - he's from the Revell US Ardennes Infantry set.

While I was at it, I took a shot of that now finished 1/4 ton amphibious "Seep". It's from the Academy "WW II Ground Vehicle Set -6". I trimmed down and added a few figures to fit in there.

So a fair amount of progress, and more to come.

And to finish off, a taster of what's on the table at the moment.

We've got die-cast Altaya / Amercon self-propelled artillery, a Fujimi M30 Cargo Carrier, and trucks of various makes and from various sources - all of which will be repainted and might be finished shortly.

So come back soon, as time permitting there should be another update with work in progress.