We’re stuck!Box Art. This edition comes with figures by Master Box of Ukraine
The Long Range Desert Group (L.R.D.G.) operated behind enemy lines during the North African campaign in WW2. It used a Chevrolet 15 cwt truck on a Canadian-built Chevrolet chassis. It was fitted with desert tyres and a big open body to hold all the gear and supplies for the long range sorties into the desert. With the extra load, they had extra leaves fitted into the springs, wireless and a condenser fitted onto the running board to conserve cooling water. Doors and door pillars were removed, extra spare wheels fitted, and mounts added for machine guns and anti-tank rifles. The load carried might be up to two tons, consisting of food, fuel, ammunition, water and explosives for demolition work. Sand-mats of canvas and steel sand channels were carried to assist through the many shifting sands and dunes.
For navigation, a sun compass was attached to the dashboard and sextants were also used to fix positions, much like the way mariners navigate at sea.
The LRDG was made up of volunteers and their main task was to observe and plot enemy movements behind the lines and report back by radio. Beards and other non-military practices and apparel were common given that this was not a regular Regimental unit.
The LRDG took delivery of new vehicles in May 1942, namely 30 cwt types with general military service steel bodies. These were more rugged than the original type of vehicle and more capacious.
This was a highly detailed kit and with the extra figures it came as a ready made diorama. I added a few touches myself, a wire lead for the radio (open at side), and even a ‘plank’ made from an ice lolly stick!We’re lost!I added a couple of extra sandbags made from modelling putty to sit behind the front fender. The metallic chain was also an extra I included. I rarely scratch build extras or add accessories unless I really think it enhances the model and it’s not too difficult!A lot of spadework went into this model!Note the rifle on passenger side and Bren gun on the bonnetIt is possible to lower the tail-gateBags of room for all the various supplies, including Jerry cans and spare tyre
A classic British film ‘Sea of Sand’ (1958), starring John Gregson was based on the exploits of the LRDG. Not sentimental although there are heroics as you would expect, definitely one of the better films from that era. It shows the LRDG Chevrolet in action and besides was made during my birth year! Highly recommended.
Avenger in Atlantic colour scheme This kit has so many details it’s hard to know where to start! The aircraft is covered in engraved panel lines, recessed rivets, inspection hatches, movable gun turret, moulded in brake lines, separate ignition harness, the list would fill this whole page!
This was one of my earliest creations and if memory serves me correctly, it was manufactured by Accurate Miniatures, an American company that sadly is no longer in production. At the time, Accurate miniatures kits were considered the acme of the modelling world and were top notch quality. It was a difficult build and the ‘green house’ canopy was a challenge to say the least to mask and paint, in particular the rear ball turret. Luckily, the ‘greenhouse’ part lacked curved lines!
I remember feeling very proud of myself that I was able to achieve for the first time a realistic ‘feathered’ edge between the grey and white colours, no mean feat with a single-action airbrush and Humbrol paints! I like to think I have come a long way since then with my modelling skills, and I have long since upgraded to a double-action airbrush. But after all these years, my Avenger still sits proudly on my shelf ready for another sortie into the grey mists of the north Atlantic.
Note the open crew access hatch, a nice touch. To the right of the tail wheel is the ventral rear firing machine gun. At the rear is the arrestor hook.
If you have seen this aircraft at museums or air shows, you realise it is BIG! It was the heaviest single-engined aircraft of WW2. Avengers were torpedo bombers manufactured by the Grumman company (TBM versions by General Motors) although this particular specimen is carrying four 500-pound bombs.
There were three crew members, pilot, turret gunner and bombardier/radioman/ventral gunner. It had a 7.62mm machine gun in the nose, a 50 cal machine gun in the rear-facing electrically-powered turret and a manually fired 7.62 mm machine gun mounted ventrally under the tail to defend against enemy fighters attacking from below or to the rear (see image above).
The Avenger entered service in 1942 and first saw action at the Battle of Midway in June where only six were present as part of VT-8 (Torpedo Squadron 8) . Of these, five were shot down. Despite this inauspicious start Avengers went on to play a vital role against surface forces in the Pacific war and in the North Atlantic campaign where many flew from escort carriers on anti-submarine patrols. The Atlantic scheme featured here is particularly attractive in my opinion. It was a TBF-1C that former US President was flying when he was shot down in in September, 1944.
The squat lines are captured perfectly in this kitThe cockpit glazing is crystal clearThe cavernous bomb bay with four 500-pound bombs. It could also carry one Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo or a single 2,000-pound bomb. Overall, the Avenger was a very rugged, stable weapons platform and pilots say it flew ‘like a truck’ , for good or ill. Note U/C bays are painted white not interior green.This kit set a new bench mark in modelling, at least it did for me!
Spitfire Mk IXc in Desert Air Force camouflage. This one was a member of 145 Squadron flown by Squadron Leader S. Skalski (5 kills).The gorgeous box art
This was my first ever Tamiya 1 32 model and it was a sheer joy to build! The kit exudes sheer luxury and the level of detail is extraordinary. Everything fits perfectly and you end up with a wonderful display model straight out of the box (OOB). I chose the tropical scheme rather than the dark grey/green shown on the box top as it’s one of my favourites.
The Merlin 61 engine was fitted to the existing Spitfire Mk.V variant to match the performance of the newly encountered German Fw190s. It retained the same sleek lines of earlier Marks but the body of the aircraft was elongated by 9 inches to accommodate the new engine which incorporated a two-stage supercharger. The Mk IX also added 70 mph to the Spitfire’s top speed and 10,000 ft to its fighting altitude.
A four-bladed propeller was added to handle the astonishing 20% increase in power.
The Spitfire Mk IX became the most numerous and arguably the greatest variant of this legendary aircraft with more than 7,000 delivered to the RAF, Soviet and other Allied air forces.
Note Polish flag (reversed) and five white swastikas ahead of windscreen.Tamiya supply a glossy brochure with the kit which has detailed photos of the real aircraft.Excellent reference. Highly recommended when making this kit. Shows other Marks of Spitfire as well.Photo from above book of an actual Spitfire at Temora Aviation Museum. This is a Mk.VIII although it would have been the same as the Mk. IXc. The well of the floor-less cockpit was a tangle of wires and devices to operate the machine.The book gives a detailed guide to the various assembly stagesThis photo from the book gives an idea of the fantastic engine detail. I left off a panel in my model to expose some of it.Some of the alternative marking options for the Mk. IXc although not all are included in the kit. These would have to be sourced after-market.
This 1/48 scale model is by Russian kit manufacturer Zvezda. I was very impressed with the quality. I have set the scene by adding a Soviet Gaz jeep and two figures.
The Petlyakov Pe-2 or ‘Peshka’ (Pawn) as it was nicknamed, was a two-engined dive bomber developed by V.M. Petlyakov and his team, one of the major Soviet planes of World War II. It began mass production in summer of 1940. The bomb bay could accommodate four 100-kg bombs, and its external store 250-kg bombs. Its defensive armament comprised five machine guns.The word on the fuselage, ‘Zabijaka’, means something like ‘destroyer’ or ‘beater’V.M. PetlyakovThis one didn’t quite make it! Destroyed in Germany right at the end of the war.
In January 1942, Hitler ordered the development of a multi-purpose infantry support weapon that could also operate against tanks. The Hummel (bumblebee) emerged as an interim solution for this project. It is a hybrid design based on a Pz.Kpfw.III/IV chassis fitted with the huge 15cm sFH18/1 howitzer. It comprised three sections, from front to rear, driving compartment, engine room and finally open fighting compartment at rear.
It was intended as a long-range fire support weapon and given this role, there is scant information about their performance.
However, the Hummels continued to be used throughout the war on both western and eastern fronts which testifies to their value to German combat units.
Replacement metal barrel for the kit plastic one. It enhances the final result no end. There is no seam to worry about and it even has rifling detail. Amazing!Note the aiming stakes at rear of vehicle. Time consuming to mask and paint but add a touch of colour and realism.The breech was amazingly detailed and even has tiny metal screws to raise and lower the gun. Note range finding chart on left of mechanism. Also the red fire extinguisher.Note the MG34 on the side of fighting compartment
This kit by Tamiya I wanted to incorporate into a diorama. These days, I like my models to depict some sort of story as it makes the hobby more interesting. It comes with 4 Waffen-SS tank crew figures and so that was a good basis. One of them is holding a cup which I made from tiny plastic tubing! The commander is a Panzer Ace.
Box art
It is supposed to be somewhere in Normandy behind the front in 1944. The crew are having a breather before resuming the battle to repel the Allied invasion, while some French villagers look on. At the time of the invasion there were just 3 Tigers stationed in Normandy!
The Tiger is such a symbol of German military prowess that there is really no need for me to discuss it here suffice to say it suffered from several serious deficiencies:
Too heavy for its engine and transmission, it was lumbering and relatively slow.
Suffered frequent mechanical breakdowns.
Poor fuel economy and limited range.
The running gear was overly complicated, making maintenance in the field virtually impossible.
Turret traverse was too slow, even when the hydraulic system was in use.
The lack of stabilisation equipment meant its main armament of 8.8cm Kwk36 rifled cannon could not fire very accurately except when stationary.
That said, its protection was unrivalled, and its legendary main armament was without doubt the most lethal at the time.
I used a special tool from Tamiya for applying the ‘Zimmerit’ anti-magnetic mine paste to the hull and turret of the tank which is made from Tamiya putty. The model was first airbrushed hull red brown which was the factory undercoat colour. Then it was airbrushed in the standard dark yellow /red brown/ green camouflage pattern. I was quite pleased with the Zimmerit finish as it was my first attempt.
The Tiger is essentially a square box in shape and has no sloping amour, apart from the short glacis plate at front. This was a serious deficiency in the design but made up for by the massive thickness of the vertical plating. Track constructionZimmerit applicator. There are several sizes in the pack.The tree is home made from wire and foamThe Citroen Traction, also a Tamiya kitFigures by MasterboxReference usedGreat study of a devastated late Tiger in Normandy from above book.
ICM 1 48 scale kit of Po-2 with officers and ground crew
Box art
U-2 from the Russian uchebnyy (‘training’). This particular aircraft was one I have wanted to build for many years not least because my Father mentions seeing, or rather hearing, them fly over his native village in Ukraine during the Second World War.
I was drawn to this particular kit as it’s relatively cheap and comes with lovely box art as you can see! They say that building a model is 90% inspiration and the allure of the box art is very often the deciding factor. It is also by ICM a Ukrainian manufacturer in Kiev so rather appropriate.
I am not a great fan of building bi-planes generally as the rigging is such a pain to attach but by now I thought had sufficient skills and confidence to attempt it!
The rigging is mostly nylon thread and stretched sprue (i.e. made by stretching a part of plastic sprue or frame of the model parts over a lighted candle).
Note female officerFrom the instruction sheet. Soviet light night bomber U-2/Po-2. One of the most famous and massed produced aircraft in aviation history. It was developed primarily as a training aircraft and its first flight took place in 1927. At the beginning of the 1930s, it was the actual ‘flying desk’ for thousands of Soviet pilots. During the Second World War, the U-2 was armed and received the name U-2VS and were used with great success in the role of night bombers, often with female crews. After the death of N.N. Polikarpov (Soviet designer) in 1944, the aircraft was renamed the PO-2.
The writing on the fuselage side says in Russian, ‘We shall avenge’ and ‘for the fighting (female) friends’ and also the names of two of the Soviet female pilots ( Tanya Makarova and Vera Belik) who flew in the aircraft at the end of the war (both killed). I managed to mess up one of the decals which were incredibly thin and so had to rewrite them myself with a white marker pen!
Here is what my Father said about the aircraft in the book ‘God Save Me From My Friends’ (3rd edition Vanguard press page 121:
‘From time to time, the Russians bombed our village. The aircraft came over only at night and we dubbed them ‘derkarchi’ due to the unique ‘drr’ sound of their engines, which the pilots would sometimes cut in order to glide and avoid being caught in the beams of the German searchlights. The ‘derkarchi’ were primitive wood and canvas bi-planes and they were little more than nuisances to the Germans‘. The footnote says: ‘Derkarchi‘. Probably the famous U-2/Po-2 bi-plane. Nicknamed by the Germans the ‘coffee grinder’ and the ‘sewing machine’, it often flew by night (painted all black) to drop mines or bombs. On page 120, it is mentioned that two divisions of U-2s were used by the Soviets to bomb the German held Ukrainian fortress town of Ternopil in western Ukraine into submission.
The PO-2 was the aircraft used by the 588th Night Bomber Regiment composed of an all-woman pilot and ground crew staff and as such they earned the nickname ‘Night Witches’.
All in all, a very pleasing and interesting project!
This kit is by Czech manufacturer Eduard, the first I have made by this particular manufacturer. It’s a very high quality kit and not too expensive. It is called a Weekend edition as it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of their more advanced kits which have lots of photo-etch parts. I am not a great fan of photo-etch, its very fiddly and a lot of the time you can hardly see the extra detail anyway as it’s usually hidden away in the cockpit or fuselage.
The Me109, as I am sure you are all aware, was the German workhorse fighter which bore the brunt of Luftwaffe front line duties in the Second World War. It was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and conceived as an aircraft with the best possible performance for the specified weight, size and aeordynamic qualities. It was a relatively small aircraft and incorporated some revolutionary features for the times such as low wing design, retractable landing gear, wing slats, landing flaps, weapons firing through the propeller hub, etc
The first combat use of the Bf109s was in the Spanish Civil War (December 1936). By the invasion of Poland in 1939, it was probably the best fighter in continental Europe. However, during the Battle of Britain it’s first weakness was revealed: the inability to carry drop tanks which severely restricted its range. However, its Daimler engine did have fuel injection unlike the Spitfire which only had a carburettor and so the engine didn’t cut out like the Spitfire’s Merlin during a dive.
The ‘F’ or ‘Friedrich’ variant took on an offensive role in North Africa and in operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR. It was followed by the ‘G’ version and then the ‘K’. By the end of the war, the development of the Me109 was exhausted even though it had largely kept up with the foes it encountered.
After the war, some Me109s saw service with the Swiss air force until 1949, and many flew in the Czechoslovak air force though with a different power plant in some cases. They also served in the fight for the independence of the newly formed state of Israel and Finland only retired theirs in 1954. Spain didn’t retire its re-engined Bf109s until 1967. Many of these were used in the film ‘Battle of Britain’ (1969), starring Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw and Michael Caine.
This model depictsBf 109G-4/R6/trop flown by Lt. Franz Schiehs, CO of 8/JG 53, Tindja Tunisia, April 1943. Oberleutnant Schiehs shot down 55 enemy aircraft and was awarded the Knight’s Cross on June 21st 1943. On September 2nd, 1943, he led an attack of American bombers over Mount Vesuvius, an event from which he did not return. It is assumed he was shot down by an escorting American P-38. The camouflage scheme is the standard RLM 78 and RLM 79 with RLM 04 yellow. It carries the white theatre band around the fuselage towards the rear for the Mediterranean theatre of operations. Yellow was used on the Eastern Front.
The aircraft is a Messerschmitt 109f of Oberleutnant Max-Hellmuth Ostermann of the 8/JG54 Grunherz (Green heart). The motorbike is a Kettenkraftrad and the Luftwaffe crew are in winter uniforms.
This is an Me109f version in 1 48 scale made by Russian manufacturer Zvezda. The figures and accessories are from a Tamiya kit, though the figures are actually made by Ukrainian manufacturer ICM.
Initially, I was going to do this model in winter camouflage but decided to leave it in the standard Russian green-at least for now! It was based on the T-70 chassis and had a 76mm gun, hence the name. The fighting compartment was not very roomy and left the crew exposed to enemy fire and the elements. However, due to its light weight it was good in terrain impassable to armour such as during Operation Bagration in 1944 in the marshy areas of western Russia. It saw action on all major fronts, including Berlin and Hungary at the end of the war. About half of Soviet self-propelled guns were Su-76s at the end of the war. It also saw service in the Korean war on the side of the North.
