Hi Tim, Thanks for the welcome! Good to see your interest in 1940 too, a friend of mine,Paul (Space Wolf Dad ) is onboard also and does alot of german early stuff also

Your choices sound cool! Can you post a pic of the Whippet kit? How does the Vickers kit look?

Yeah, the RPM kit is a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, sepereste hatches and tools and interior. On the negative side the molding all around is soft with pretty bad mold lines.....















The plans for the dio call for the Germans moving thru a town past some knocked out and abandoned French equipment.

The only armor I have done so far is a Pz IV D that I put together from a Dragon E kit that I back dated....















I'm thinking that I need a couple of more german pieces, PZ II 's and maybe a halftrack towing a gun. Need to talk to Paul about this.

Is it time to start yet?



Randy

Randy, the RPM kit doesn't look too bad. I am sure that we have seen much worse. Even the tracks appear to have reasonable detail but I can see that they will need some cleaning up with some small files.

As for you Panzer IV; YOU MUST BE CERTIFIABLE!!! That looks like the E. T. Model P.E. set. I have a review of the set on this site and it is positively insane. Until I looked at your pictures I didn't realize that they included those microscopic coil springs on Fret A. The larger scale builders have absolutely nothing on builders like you that can put all that PE to such effective use. Recently someone here (Armorama) commented on Sudzonic "graduating " to a "real scale" like 1/35 with his Hummer builds. After seeing the Panzer IV I think that the person that said that should graduate to an actual skill required scale like 1/72.

Cheers,
Jan

Hi Jan, Thank you for the kind words Actually I used a pe set from Part for the fenders and the rest came from a Eudard set. Just checked out your review on the E.T. set and that does look cool!! Seems like you get alot for your money. Where did you get E. T.'s stuff?

Randy

Hi Randy,

Good to see you here, I haven't finally decided what to do yet, but I might do the MK72 Demag with the 75mm infantry gun and Russian limber as one thing and then finish off a load of part done wargames stuff for the rest. I am also in the Workhorse - PzIV campaign, which is why you won't see any of my Pz IVs here (which is a good thing as yours is stunning). Look forward to seeing your builds, I am being a good boy and not starting until November (I have way too much stuff to do before then anyway) so you won't see anything from me until then.

All the best,

Paul

I agree with your comments Jan. I thought going to braille would be a tad easier, man was I wrong!!

Randy: That is some sick detailing on that Panzer, and I mean "sick" in both the good and bad ways

Jeremy - What ever made you think that Braille would in any way or stretch of the imagination be easier! Seriously, it all depends on how far you want to take things. Check out the review of the E.T. Model PE set for the Panzer IV in the reviews section. The three frets that come with that account for well over 200 add on parts. The replacement vehicle jack has 14 parts alone. It's the 1/35 people that should move UP to 1/72 if they really want to practice their skills.

Cheers,
Jan

I hear ya
Jan, where do you get your 1/72 armor AM from?

Guys... I'm really sorry, but I think I will have to start another model for that campaign Valentine will be ready before Nov. 1st.

Hi all
@eremzet: Very nice work on the Valentine, post a picture with the Decals on when your finished,now you'll have to decide what to do for the campaign!

Jan: Whoa! Read the review of that PE set, that's an insane amount of detail on something that small! And i thought 1:35 builders were detail crazy!

Randy: your panzer IV is looking great! Having just got back into the hobby this year after many years away i'm only just starting to come to grips with the IDEA of PE sets and all the after market stuff available these days let alone trying something with that level of detail!
Really looking forward to seeing your Dio! If you really want to "mix it up" a bit you could throw in a Pz 38t or something....
The RPM kit doesn't look too bad,and with that camo scheme will look great i'm sure.
I will post a picture of the Whippet in the next few days.I've read it needs quite a bit of work as it's not the best,though being the only plastic one available in Braille scale 'beggars can't be chosers" as they say!
As for the Vickers, it's Airfix so it's a pretty simple kit but then the Vickers VI is a pretty simple tank isn't it!
I recently visited the Bovington Tank museum in England while over there and got some nice photos of the one they have on display there, i've always really liked the colours on B.E.F equipment so really looking forward to seeing what i can do with it.
Cheers,
Tim

Randy + Jeremy (RE: E.T. Model PE) Guys, the E.T. PE set was provided by the manufacturers for review purposes. You can find their list of distributors HERE. They are still fairly new so I am sure their distribution network will be growing.

As far as other sets and "enhancements" go, My local hobby shop has a policy of "if you don't see it, we will try to get it." They deal with two large importer/distributors in Toronto and Montreal. So far anything that I have ordered has been delivered within one to two weeks. The only exception to that rule was when I ordered four sets of Preiser 1/72 figures. Two sets (German WWII tankers) came in within a month. The other two sets (modern US tankers and infantry) took almost four and a half months.

The LHS's main fare is catering to model railroaders. In that area they are very well stocked. PE engine grill material in various styles is readily available, as is various types of brass rod and sheeting. Many HO scale sets such as various sized bags and boxes are quite useable in Braille scale. They even carry a number of styrene sets of handrails and grab rails that with little or no modification can be used. Then there is also all the associated scenery materials.

@eremzet - I figured you might not be able to resist finishing that gem before the campaign. It is looking extremely good and thanks for sharing the pictures with us. Pictures have a way of inspiring others and building anticipation towards a campaign.

@ Firefly74 - When I first got the P.E. set my reaction to it was similar to yours. After reviewing the instructions I was further stunned by the fact that many items are meant to be constructed in such a way as to be posable/moveable (hatches, fender ends etc). Fret C of the set is strictly tools so it could be used with/on a wide variety of WW II German vehicles.

Cheers,
Jan

Dragon has made a Panzer IV Ausf. E kit? As I know they have released Ausf F1, F2 and G only. Or is it Mirage Ausf. E?

Hello Radek, My mistake on typing! It was the F !!

Randy

If so I'm filled with admiration for your work. To make Ausf E from Ausf F is a really big effort. Especially wheels and front plate. Congrats for your model!

Thank you Radek, The front plate modification was not too bad, I had more trouble with all the changes to the turret! I still don't think that the slope of the turret back is quite right. The correct narrow tracks and drive and idler wheels came from the HobbyBoss munitionsschellper. Also used the hub caps from this kit.

Have you decided what you are going to build?

Randy

Well i got what is very possibly the thinnest styrene strip I have ever seen today to make the bar armour for the tusk conversion. better start practicing making it in to bar armour .

VERY good luck to you, Scott. The thinnest I have is .005" (.127 mm) and that is a monster to work with. I'd say that it behaves about as well as tissue paper. By that I mean that it's overly flexible/floppy and only the shortest pieces hold shape without sagging. The one good point is that it is extremely easy to cut. Perhaps sheet brass would be more sturdy but it is anything but easy to cut without causing bends and kinks. Be sure to grace this forum with any pictures and techniques of your experiments.

Cheers,
Jan

Well... no. For sure I'll finish Valentine before start of campaign. My already started Opel Blitz with Flak 38 will go for "Targets shoot back" campaign. Still I have pretty advanced AS42 Sahariana model. And other plans... I'm going to start CV-33 and some Franch tank - H35 or R35. Also I started Hummel, Nashorn and Sturer Emil... I will finish more than one for this campaign, I promise

Greetings all! Been a little quiet in the thread as of late but our numbers are now up to 34 and we still have a little over three weeks to go.

I don't know if any of you have been following my build in the Braille Scale forum but that's what I have been occupied with lately. If you are interested in it, here's an unabashed, self promoting link to the T80B Build.

I want to again thank all those that have been posting and putting up pictures in this thread to help keep the anticipation growing. I'll do my small part by posting a teaser picture from the previous referred to build. This picture is not yet up in the build thread so all members here get to see it first. The camo is pretty well along and I want to do some detail painting before I post another update there.



Cheers,
Jan

Okay, we have two weeks before lift-off. I do hope everyone is getting at least a bit excited. I hope all of you are also deciding what you will grace these campaign pages with!

What's a post without a picture or two.





Whatever it is, it's going to be OOTB. I promise, for sure, this time...maybe a touch of plastic to assist alignment...that's all.

Cheers,
Jan

Hmm, PzHb2000 I would say. Good choice, best artillery currently available

I just took some time last night digging through boxes to find the stuff I need for the upcoming campaign rush. I will post picks of my Heavy Duo soon

Are you absolutely sure, Maurice! Could it not be an AS-90, an M-109, an Elefant? Although you are absolutely correct and it is a Revell kit and so far the fit is phenomenal when compared to the T80. The turret virtually flew together on its own.

@Jeremy - There's no rush but that is all relative to the number of campaigns that one is involved in.

Cheers,
Jan

I don't think you want to know

Well, it seems pretty quiet around this thread. Everyone thinking hard about what they are going to do? I didn't know where also to put this so I'll place it here. My current project was going along smoothly and then a shocking reality hit me. A pin that a sprocket mounts on was not there. From checking the pictures that I took just after I opened the box I see that it wasn't there from the start. How could I have missed that! Has anyone else ever run into anything similar? Either it was a flaw from the factory or it was damaged during packaging. Strange thing is that where the pin was, it was totally smooth and not jagged or anything like one might expect. What to do!



Since it was so smooth I decided to drill out where the pin should have been using a .015" pilot hole and then a drill the same size as the other pins.




Next I heated some sprue from the kit and stretched it, approximating the necessary diameter. By blind luck I got it right the first time. Shoved the new pin through the hole to an appropriate depth and cut it off with a razor saw.



A drop of liquid weld on the inside surface and Voila!!!

Cheers,
Jan

Argh... less than two weeks to go, and the Mk 1 still not quite finished, Still, it may be quiet here, but this campaign thread has over 5000 hits and it hasn't even started yet!!

While waiting for things to dry on the Mk 1, I have been off the deep end, far away from small scale modelling, having made a start on the Trumpeter Karl mortar (yes, plus rail transporter). I actually managed a super mess-up on one of the rail truck axles, but managed to put it right - that is, providing the incorrect vinyl grommet thing I used isn't needed later on, which I don't think it is. . . Anyway, I'm planning on that kit taking about three years, so I can easily put it aside while I get stuck into this campaign.