My stash just grew again 2018.

[Weaver]

I got some more kits at the London Show today.
The entry fee was rather high at £6 but the organisers (Guideline Publications) did give out a kit with that, a 1/72 Panzer Kampfwagen II by IBG Models of Poland.

This is a new The World at War concept Guideline are trying out where you get a kit with a glossy 16 page guide to the model vehicle in question. The booklet tells a bit of the history, where and how it was built, who used it where, how to build it and how to paint it using Vallejo or Hakata paints. They plan to release 10 kits per year this way.

That seems decent value for money actually. IBG kits are rather good as far as I can see, and £6 is a very reasonable price to pay for just the tank. Throwing in the book and a free show seems positively extravagant....

Also picked up a 1/72 Tatra 97 car by Attack Hobby Kits. These cars were built 1936-1939 as family vehicles and used as military staff cars during the war.
I plan to do mine something like the red one in this link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97

The bigger version of that, the 87, was known as 'Czechoslovakia's Secret Weapon' because so many German officers died driving them, due to the combination of lots of performance and idiosyncratic handling. The German Army eventually forbade it's officers from driving them completely.

[PR19_Kit]

The bigger version of that, the 87, was known as 'Czechoslovakia's Secret Weapon' because so many German officers died driving them, due to the combination of lots of performance and idiosyncratic handling. The German Army eventually forbade it's officers from driving them completely.

With a radically rear mounted V8 engine and old style swing axles at the back what could possibly go wrong? I bet they oversteered while standing still in the garage with the engine off! 

[zenrat]

,,,Also picked up a 1/72 Tatra 97 car by Attack Hobby Kits. These cars were built 1936-1939 as family vehicles and used as military staff cars during the war.
I plan to do mine something like the red one in this link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97...

Jealous.  I have a thing about Tatras.  Great looking cars.  There is a 603 in the closest car museum to me.

[Nick]

,,,Also picked up a 1/72 Tatra 97 car by Attack Hobby Kits. These cars were built 1936-1939 as family vehicles and used as military staff cars during the war.
I plan to do mine something like the red one in this link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97...

Jealous.  I have a thing about Tatras.  Great looking cars.  There is a 603 in the closest car museum to me.

I really got it because of the shark fin on the tail 
That and the low price of £5, but mainly the shark fin!

I never realised the beautiful history of Skoda and Tatra cars until I visited the Technical museum in Prague.

[Weaver]

I never realised the beautiful history of Skoda and Tatra cars until I visited the Technical museum in Prague.

The integrated chassis and transmission of the Tatra trucks is a thing of engineering beauty...



More info: https://www.tatratrucks.com/why-tatra/tatra-vehicle-design/tatra-vehicle-design-1/

[NARSES2]

Also picked up a 1/72 Tatra 97 car by Attack Hobby Kits. These cars were built 1936-1939 as family vehicles and used as military staff cars during the war.

Ah, so you succumbed in the end then  I personally liked the post war version with the headlight mounted centrally in the radiator grill.

Got a couple of kits at the show as well as my Pz II at the entrance. It's one of IBG's "snap assembly" range (intended more for wargaming I think) which is fine by me as the tracks & suspension are one piece  Detail looks quite nice

I also got another IBG kit. The 1/72 PZL 37A Los medium bomber. I already have the B version, but this is the early single tail fin version of which not that many were built. Whereas the B will be real world this will probably be pre-War Bulgarian.

The RS Models Henschel Hs-132B. I'm enjoying the A so much I bought the B to go with it. Whereas a single example of the A was built and captured by the Soviets the B was only planned (as was the C) with a different engine and two 30mm cannon. Kit comes with 4 what if markings including Japanese which I must admit is tempting.

[The Wooksta!]

The Russians only captured the fuselage - it was never completed.  The photo of the "completed" prototype outside Henschel's Schonefeld factory is a postwar fake.

http://www.luft46.com/henschel/hs132.html

[PR19_Kit]

The integrated chassis and transmission of the Tatra trucks is a thing of engineering beauty...

Swing axles on all SIX sets of wheels? 

I bet that rolls like a PIG on the slightest of bends!

[JayBee]

The integrated chassis and transmission of the Tatra trucks is a thing of engineering beauty...



More info: https://www.tatratrucks.com/why-tatra/tatra-vehicle-design/tatra-vehicle-design-1/

This is clearly a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. 

[kitnut617]

I'm trying to figure out how those differentials work, as it shows one wheel would turn the right way while the other would be turning in reverse.

[jcf]

The integrated chassis and transmission of the Tatra trucks is a thing of engineering beauty...

Swing axles on all SIX sets of wheels? 

I bet that rolls like a PIG on the slightest of bends!

Look up Tatra Dakar.
The 815, and descendents, comes in 4, 6 and 8 wheel
versions and the design is biased to off-road use.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_815

[Hobbes]

It rolls a bit, but not as much as you'd think. The advantage of the design is a. independent suspension on all wheels (combined with good ground clearance) so it's very capable in rough terrain, and b. the chassis is that torque tube between the axles instead of the usual two C-beams, so the chassis can better withstand the bending moment that exists when you put one wheel on an obstacle or in a hole.

The two wheels on an axle are offset, so one wheel is driven by a crown wheel at the rear, and the other is driven from the front:

[kitnut617]

Thanks Jon, Harro, I found that same exploded view and now I understand how it works. 

[zenrat]

Back when we lived in Croydon we had cable TV and I spent hours watching Truck Trials on the extreme sport channel.
Lots of Tatras doing stuff like this.

[chrisonord]

Today arrived my Xmas present to myself.
Trumpeter 1/72nd scale TU-128M, and yes I was excited when the post man gave it to me. I am thinking of making this thing in to a Cartel wild weasel aircraft, armed with two pairs of the anti radar version KH-31, and an extra pair of wing pylons carrying self defense R-73 missiles. The aircraft being bought when retired from the Russian air force, and rebuilt with more modern systems, probably bought indirectly from the Chinese.
Chris