Tiger Tiger! - Saumur Musée des Blindés unveils 'new' Tiger I

 

Courtesy of militarymachine.fr and the Saumur museum here a few views of the recently unveiled Tiger I seen alongside the always impressive Tiger II in an event for fundraisers. A 'World first' claimed by the French at the end of a three-year restoration to have these two Tigers 'in motion' alongside each other. Note the French roundel and the 'Bretagne' marking but this machine - after escaping the Falaise pocket - was a French ' war prize' captured after colliding with another Tiger and being abandoned. It was apparently restored to working order by an FFI unit after being left behind by the German owners. The German Balkenkreuze have been literally scraped off the hull. Note the 'off-set' muzzle brake. A single click on the 'red' square to watch the video below without leaving this site.. 

Produced near the end of Tiger I manufacturing, the tank was delivered in April 1944 to the 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion and fought in the Battle of Normandy. In August 1944, while trying to escape the Falaise-Chambois pocket, it collided with another Tiger tank, damaging its front armor and rendering it immobile before the crew abandoned it. During the winter of 1944–1945, French Forces of the Interior (FFI) led by Besnier recovered the vehicle. The "Bretagne" Squadron - repaired and put back into action, it was renamed "Bretagne" as part of an independent FFI tank squadron where vehicles were named after French provinces. It later saw combat during the liberation of the Saint-Nazaire pocket. Following the war, it was briefly renamed "Colmar" in the 6th Cuirassier Regiment, sent for occupation duties in Germany, and later used for technical experiments and trials at Satory.

Eduard Fw 190 A - 'old' new-tool. What a dog! (part 2)

 

Finished the Eduard Fw 190 A-5 - the 'old' new-tool 'weekend edition'  Obviously it is not designed to be built 'closed-up' (or even finished in a weekend!) but I did not want to leave it all open. I drew the line at filling, filing and sanding a second cannon-bay hatch and left the starboard wing-root door open. Some of the engine parts have to be mounted (somehow) inside the cowling panels in order to have the BMW fan correctly positioned

The other point to mention about this kit is the poor 'sit' or 'stance' of the finished model - it definitely needs some tweaks to the gear legs. 

Finished as 'black 7' of II./JG 54. Still not 100% convinced by the paint finish, it looks a little too neat to my eyes, but at this stage I was just happy to get something that looked reasonably 'presentable' on the shelf

Some images from Huw Morgan's build of this kit - or rather the A-8/R2 boxing - that was featured in the now defunct 'SAMI' in 2015. I chuckled at the 'minimal filler' needed. There isn't one part of this kit that fits to another that doesn't require it! Obviously if you attempt this - I do have another in the stash -  you will encounter the same issues.

Wessex HU 5. walkaround - reference photos for the new 1:72 Airfix kit

.. Yes I appreciate that the HU 5 and the HC 2 are not (quite) the same aircraft but really the differences are not major, certainly not in 1:72 scale. While I finished the new-tool Airfix Wessex earlier in 2026, it is only now appearing in the latest issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling. Here's a few images that I took at the RAF Manston History museum of XS 482 (an HU.5) that I wish I'd had when I was actually building the kit - in particular showing details of the lower fuselage exhausts ( I was convinced these were wrong on the kit, but they are not..) and the 'pincer'-like tie-down 'arms' behind the main wheels. Click on the images to view them full size...

 

Italeri T-6 G Texan, Algerian war in 1:48

.. surprisingly straight forward for Italeri, not their plastic though.. (Occident) Hardest part of course, canopy masking. Finish is a mix of Tamiya yellow and clear orange. Period images of this machine (see below) appears to show the addition of black wing tips... 

My model depicts a French EALA machine (escadrille aviation légère d'appui- light ground support) tasked with suppression of rebel forces (or as the French put it, 'maintien de l'ordre' ) during the Algerian war, 1958-60. The T-6 G could carry four AA 52 7.62 machine-guns (each with 200 rounds) six T-10 rockets, two 50 kg bombs and either two napalm containers or two rocket launchers carrying seven 30 mm rockets. Claude Liedet was one T-6G pilot with EALA 10/72 who flew a fourteen-hour conversion course during December 1958 comprising aerobatics, rocket-launching, bombing and strafing and flying in mountainous regions. Sorties lasted from 45 minutes to 2hrs 50 mins. Risks were mechanical failures, ground fire, bad weather or pilot error especially in mountainous areas.  Liedet describes some of his 'near-misses' in the January 2020 issue of "Le Fana de l'Aviation"..

August club meets, IPMS East Kent, Shepway Military Modelling (SMMS)

Some highlights from the two club nights I've attended this month. Keith's Airfix Hovercraft reissue was a surprise, David brought his 'usual' Harrier (AV-8) and F-4 contributions while Les had two Sunderlands to show off, the Special Hobby and Italeri kits. Finally, Ade's VW Transporter conversion with home-printed figures is the sort of modelling many of us can only dream of achieving...

Building the new-tool Airfix Junkers Ju 52

 

A few modellers have already built and/or are building the new Ju 52 just released. Here are some screen shots from Luke's video at Mach Models (video link below; great model, superbly filmed) and some pics from Jonty at IPMS East Kent. Incidentally some of Luke's work is on display at Hannants in Colindale close by the RAF museum, Hendon. 

The new Airfix Ju 52 has a good level of cockpit detail - features include rudder pedals, control yokes, the central instrument panel with throttle levers and radio equipment/sets behind the forward bulkhead. Internal 'cargo' space can be configured with Airfix-supplied oil drums and/or seating. The rear bulkheads visible  fill the space below/around the gunners' position. The internal 'corrugations' are well done and the bracing framework is also featured. Note the 'single-part' roof in the image below.

The lower fuselage and the top roof are available as single parts avoiding a central join/split and there are two large spars built into the lower section to support the wings.

Some screen shots from the Mach Models video below. Note less than 10 minutes of Luke's video are devoted to construction which appears absolutely 'painless'. 

Below; A single click on the red square to watch the full video here.