WW2 modelling is a subject I left behind in the 80's
Aircraft, tanks and small soldiers were all constructed, painted and played with, yes played with. Usually recreating some kind of battle in my neighbours loft on his train set layout.
I knew enough about various vehicles, planes etc to tell them apart, but never really anything in-depth to say what variant or Mk they were, basically every Sherman, Tiger, Spitfire or Paratrooper looked the same...within reason.
Over the last few years watching @snake7 build his wonderful renditions of armour of old, I've been tempted to dip my toe back into the World War 2 era.
By chance a guy at my local model club handed me a USB stick and said have a look at these... Upon opening the device, I was overwhelmed with a 150+ paper models, 90% of which were WW2 subjects his friend had scanned in, before making them.
Looking through the files I noticed a vehicle which hit a nostalgia vibe.
Matchbox, in the mid-seventies, produced these wonderful 1/76th scale vehicles, moulded in several colours which helped younger model makers build out of the box something that resembled the box art (painting would be needed for other variants) they also came with a tiny baseplate/diorama for you to display your finished model on. I built a few, some never finished, and surprisingly a few are still in my possession... still unbuilt!
Revell acquired the moulds of some, if not all of Matchbox's back catalogue and a few of these kits can still be bought today.
This particular one, my brother found going through some of my old boxes of stuff! Could be built as an Afrika Corps version too.
A bit dusty, but still in one piece, although the German trooper departing over the side of the vehicle, seems to have gone into battle.
The second part of the nostalgia was noticing the particular file I had chosen had 'GREIF' on the side, of which had sparked another memory of looking through my brothers old Airfix catalogues and the wonderful artwork which adorned the box tops.
Thus, its the model I intend to have a go at... Released around 2004 by GPM, the kit consists of 8 sheets and a squillion parts!
Having never built one of their models before, I looked over the bits and picked what I thought looked half-way easy to make first.
Picking some Jerry cans and weaponry as a first strike.
The cans can be assembled simply, or by going the extra mile, cut-outs and backing plates are provided to give you an extra bit of depth.
Viewing some pictures of the real thing came up with with a few discrepancies in the handles and also the filler cap is not central, but off-set.
Unable to verify the correctness of the parts, I just pushed on. However at the scale, I thought about having a go at adding a few details around the filling cap.
Top & bottom shot of the first few added parts - A back thumb plate? also a bar from some brass wire across the top.
Some kind of catch plate (middle was cut out to aid the fit)
After a weeks work, I have six Jerry cans!
Cans of Jerry
I also added a 0.5mm strip of paper ahead of the brass wire to give it a small bit of extra detail, which can be seen on the photo of the real thing.
I probably won't go into as much detail on this build other than showing parts vs built, unless I add something extra.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my re-entry to the world of WW2, and I'll update as and when.
THANKS FOR WATCHING...
Aircraft, tanks and small soldiers were all constructed, painted and played with, yes played with. Usually recreating some kind of battle in my neighbours loft on his train set layout.
I knew enough about various vehicles, planes etc to tell them apart, but never really anything in-depth to say what variant or Mk they were, basically every Sherman, Tiger, Spitfire or Paratrooper looked the same...within reason.
Over the last few years watching @snake7 build his wonderful renditions of armour of old, I've been tempted to dip my toe back into the World War 2 era.
By chance a guy at my local model club handed me a USB stick and said have a look at these... Upon opening the device, I was overwhelmed with a 150+ paper models, 90% of which were WW2 subjects his friend had scanned in, before making them.
Looking through the files I noticed a vehicle which hit a nostalgia vibe.
Matchbox, in the mid-seventies, produced these wonderful 1/76th scale vehicles, moulded in several colours which helped younger model makers build out of the box something that resembled the box art (painting would be needed for other variants) they also came with a tiny baseplate/diorama for you to display your finished model on. I built a few, some never finished, and surprisingly a few are still in my possession... still unbuilt!
Revell acquired the moulds of some, if not all of Matchbox's back catalogue and a few of these kits can still be bought today.
This particular one, my brother found going through some of my old boxes of stuff! Could be built as an Afrika Corps version too.
A bit dusty, but still in one piece, although the German trooper departing over the side of the vehicle, seems to have gone into battle.
The second part of the nostalgia was noticing the particular file I had chosen had 'GREIF' on the side, of which had sparked another memory of looking through my brothers old Airfix catalogues and the wonderful artwork which adorned the box tops.
Thus, its the model I intend to have a go at... Released around 2004 by GPM, the kit consists of 8 sheets and a squillion parts!
Having never built one of their models before, I looked over the bits and picked what I thought looked half-way easy to make first.
Picking some Jerry cans and weaponry as a first strike.
The cans can be assembled simply, or by going the extra mile, cut-outs and backing plates are provided to give you an extra bit of depth.
Viewing some pictures of the real thing came up with with a few discrepancies in the handles and also the filler cap is not central, but off-set.
Unable to verify the correctness of the parts, I just pushed on. However at the scale, I thought about having a go at adding a few details around the filling cap.
Top & bottom shot of the first few added parts - A back thumb plate? also a bar from some brass wire across the top.
Some kind of catch plate (middle was cut out to aid the fit)
After a weeks work, I have six Jerry cans!
Cans of Jerry
I also added a 0.5mm strip of paper ahead of the brass wire to give it a small bit of extra detail, which can be seen on the photo of the real thing.
I probably won't go into as much detail on this build other than showing parts vs built, unless I add something extra.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my re-entry to the world of WW2, and I'll update as and when.
THANKS FOR WATCHING...
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