1/100 Kiwi armour...mildly whiffy!

[KiwiZac]

Hi all,
When out of town recently for a weekend I finally got around to watching the 2014 WW2 tank drama Fury, and soon found myself wanting to build a model of the eponymous Sherman. However, I'd never built a tank model before, so I figured I should start small and then work my way up to a 1/35 Fury model.

Some idle Wikipedia-ing at work educated me on the 4th NZ Armoured Brigade and their Shermans and Stuarts in Italy, which opened up a whole new field of research and inspiration for me. As luck would have it, I recently had a refund from an online store (an antenna to give us better wi-fi range didn't work with our router) so I used that store credit on these two:


These are 1/100 snap-fit models from Zvezda, manufactured for their wargame "Art Of Tactic" and which cost NZ$8.99 each. I decided this past Saturday night to get started by building them without glue or paint, then take them apart and do it "properly" while waiting for subassemblies on my big Tamiya Mosquito to dry the next day.


I started the Stuart at 4.20pm. 11 parts, total! 



I finished both at 5.22pm (Sherman has 16 parts). They have beautiful raised detail including tools and rivets, and delicate machineguns. Very nice detail for wargaming pieces.


Luckily there is a TON of info online about British tank markings, colours etc - which we used too - so I was able to mix the paints needed from what I had. Here's the Sherman in progress as a Kiwi one sometime after the battle at Cassino...


...likewise I made a mix of Khaki Green for the Stuart, which I based on a cool photo of one trundling down my home town's main street in 1943.



And by about 5pm on Monday they were done! The Stuart got a machinegun on the turret (slightly overscale I bet) and two (fuel?)tanks, while the Sherman got a spare wheel and some track links, and both got stretched sprue antennas. No decals were in the kits so I spent most of the build time scrounging in my spares box for stuff that looked about right, and combined with the fact neither are the correct mark for NZ service means I can post them here as whifs! ;-)

Cheap, fun, and quick. And small! The two photos of the completed models are easily twice the size of the actual thing.

My next step will be a couple of Shermans and maybe a Tiger in 1/72 and 1/76 to ease into separate wheels and tracks, before hitting the 1/35 stuff - as well as Fury I'm gathering info for a proper Kiwi Sherman, and a North Africa Stuart/Honey...and I saw a cheap Airfix M113 FSV recently  ...how about the Atomic Centurion?...

[zenrat]

Nice work on such tiny tanks.

I was looking at Airfix 1/76 armour in the LHS recently.  I frustrates me that its not 1/72.  I know it's not much difference but it still frustrates me.
Hasegawa 1/72 stuff is good as is Aoshima (although their range is limited).

[NARSES2]

They are nice Zac. Got a mind on some 1/72 armour myself at the moment.

I've got a couple of books on the NZ forces in Italy. It's an interesting story

[Captain Canada]

Great work Zac ! I can't believe it only took you 3 sips of beer to knock out the Sherman  Maybe that's the trick, simple kits and less beer lol. They look great finished, and look like really nice little kits.

[KiwiZac]

Thanks folks! zenrat - I have a couple of Airfix 1/76 kits and they're nice, but I really can't wait to get into 1/35...there are things I want to do but in a decent size, they're just too small.

Narses - indeed. I'd like to do a Kiwi Firefly in Italy, a friend has interviewed a bunch of veterans of the campaign and that got me interested. Download some of the episodes and give it a listen, it's great stuff: http://www.newzealandersatwar.com/Couarage_And_Valour/episodes/

Captain - I noticed that too, it shows how engrossed I was! I highly recommend these for a quick build and a way to just get something done. Good value for money.

[Austanker]

They came out great but don't prepare you for gluing track links and road wheels together ( o the pain the pain  )

[KiwiZac]

I've just started Tamiya's old M41 Walker Bulldog, also have a new Tamiya Easy Eight Sherman on the way (hehe) and come payday this week will pull the trigger on an AFV Club Centurion (to be a restored Aussie 5/1)...is it weird I'm excited to try length-and-link? :-D

[Austanker]

I have that Centurion kit as well I bought it about 5 years ago opened the box and thought " I will need more practice before attempting this " its still sitting there until I can shake this kitbash / scratchbuild bug off lol but yeh nothing like going head first into something to learn 

[KiwiZac]

I've almost finished the Tamiya 1/32 DH Mosquito so I've had a real confidence boost. I'm excited! Keep your eyes peeled for the build threads.