HMS Belfast 1:350

 Simon's competition winner at the IPMS East Kent June club meet.

unknown Eastern Front Tiger in a diorama setting

 

 Ade's (Shepway Military Modelling Society -SMMS) on-going Tamiya Tiger dio. Identification of the Tiger I, unit, location and time frame is proving difficult. Kharkov, s.Pz. Abt 505 possibly but the Tiger is 'white-washed', it appears to be late winter and s.Pz. Abt 505 was not deployed to that region until summer 1943. Note the Tiger is devoid of markings. The roof tiles were individually 3-D printed. 

A couple of images from a French publication entitled 'Tigers at Leningrad', a special issue by 'Batailles' in 2006 (Histoire et Collections). This was not a random magazine article on Tigers but a special issue based on the photo album of Max Loetsch of s.Pz.Abt 502 (1/502) - these images from the chapter covering the second battle of Lake Ladoga (February 1943) depict some of the first combats of Operation Iskra, the Soviet operation to relieve Leningrad. Note there are no markings of any sort on the Tiger. The timber building to the left appears to be in a very similar style to the subject photograph, a location where the battalion was quartered briefly..

Revell Bf 109 G-6 in 32nd

 

This model blog has just finished a Revell G-6 in 32nd scale OOB - a first build of this kit that has been in the stash for some 13 years now! It's a decent kit, goes together reasonably well - except for the horrible spinner arrangement - and is here finished in AK Real Colors. The spinner spiral was masked and painted as were the fuselage 'Bauchbinde'. As usual I bought some Quick Boost add-ons (bulges, charger intake) and then decided that really the kit parts were just as good so the model was finished OOB in the kit markings - this is a late-war machine with the tall tail and Erla Haube to represent the machine as flown by the Gruppenkommandeur III./JG 5 ace Franz Dörr. Dörr achieved around 120 victories, his last in late October 1944 in the Eismeer Geschwader flying over the Far North. 

below;  essentially the same kit - in the G-10 version - as built by Auguste Kleinpeter to represent 'yellow 8' of 9./JG 300

May model club night - Challengers in 1/35

Here's a few images from the two club nights I've attended this month at IPMS East Kent ( RAF Manston History museum) and Shepway Military Modelling..(Kent Battle of Britain Museum) 

First up, some Challenger tanks, including  Robert's build of the Trumpeter kit followed by two of Steve's from the complex Rye Field kit to the more simplified (and 'desertised') Tamiya kit...

Who Are DBMK? 1:32 Sea Fury launch

 

Who Are DBMK?

 
DBMK is a model company founded by East Kent Scale modeller Will and his Ukrainian colleague Ilya. Their aim is to;

- Produce highly accurate kits that also build properly

- Bring overlooked or underrepresented subjects to life

Will has been modelling since the 1970s, later studying aeronautical engineering and serving as a tank commander in the British Army. He now works in London as a management consultant — but modelling has always remained at the core of his passion.

Ilya began modelling in Ukraine in 1975 and has worked with respected brands including SIGA, Olimp Models, Armory and Copper State Models. He also served in Afghanistan during the 1980s, giving him a deep, first-hand connection to military subjects.

The DBMK 1:32 Sea Fury has already featured heavily on this blog - my colleagues at East Kent have built a number of the test shots. The kit was recently 'officially' launched at the RNAS Yeovilton 'Navy Wings' hangar in the presence of various modelling alumni and here are a few images..

Ilya (left) and Will (second right) with East Kent Scale Modellers and test shot builders, Rod (third left), Dick (4th right) and Bill (third right).

Also on this blog;

1:32 Sea Fury test shot builds in close up at the East Kent Scale modellers monthly meet

And, below, a quick video presentation from James LPJ Models of the RNAS launch day

And you still don't know what the letters DBMK stand for .......

John's Trumpeter/Zvezda T-62

on the table at the most recent club meet of the Shepway Military Modelling Society were John's Trumpeter and Zvezda T-62s. The Trumpeter build is painted while the Zvezda kit is still in primer. Shepway Military Modelling Society meet at the Kent Battle of Britain museum on the first Monday of each month.

 

Finnish B-239 Buffalo from the 'classic' Airfix 72nd kit

 

The ancient 1:72 Airfix Buffalo is a poor kit. Turning it into a Finnish machine is to be honest a bit of a pointless exercise - everything needs work. But then again, everything needs work anyway. Here I've built up the cowl - drilling out the cooling apertures and relocating the MGs to those little bulges on the top - lengthened the forward fuselage with card and putty by several mms, revamped the cockpit with an instrument panel and head/back armour and substituted the propeller for an item out of the spares box that actually looked like it might have belonged on an aeroplane! The opening canopy section had to be 'plunge-moulded' to actually get something to fit in the open position and I used decal strip for the framing. The raised detail was sanded down and a bit of rescribing undertaken - not my favourite task.The lumps of plastic that pass for exhausts on the kit were removed and replacements installed on the bottom of the cowl. The tail wheel was replaced with something from the spares box. Decals came from an old Colarado sheet. Just to make things worse I used Humbrol 24 for the yellow Eastern Front theatre markings - and it refused to dry! Still to add the pitot but this one is done..