You know that distinctive gut-wrenching sound that tweezers make when the ends snap together signalling that they have just launched some small part off into the nether regions ? It’s usually the death knell for whatever part it was, because Murphy dictates that the harder the part was to scratchbuild, or the more important and irreplaceable it is to the kit then the more obscure its trajectory will be, meaning it’s projected flight path can defy all laws of physics.

But not tonight. Tonight the tiny four piece, 3mm long latch that I had just scratchbuilt went flying into the blackhole of carpetdom. I’d just spent 15 minutes making it and damned if I was going to lose it. So I can proudly say that after 35 minutes on my hands and knees with a torch I actually found it.

Now I know in those 35 minutes I could have made not only another one but one of the two others I will also need, but that’s not the point. The point is I won. I defeated the carpet monster. I am man, hear me roar. I have conquered my Everest despite big thumbs, failing eyesight, the gloom of 11PM under a table and the littered debris of four days modelling.

Dean 1, Carpet Monster about 30. The fight back begins.

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I’ve spent the last few weeks researching a build which has involved a lot of reading of various books but also a huge ammount of time spent online trawling through thousands of online photos, many on Russian and Polish websites. Add to that many hours trying to find the best books to get and just reading online accounts so as to be able to put together a good overall picture of what I want to do.

Then yesterday I had the chance to flick through a few modelling books from the late 70s and early 80s and I have to say that when you consider that they had no internet with which to research builds back then you can’t help but be impressed by what could be acheived. Add to that the consideration that the kits they were working with then are now 30 years old and wouldn’t be considered as particularly good kits these days and it’s even more impressive.

In that point in time ( late 70s to ealy 80s ) I can remember browsing the various books at Whitcoulls and London bookshops that related to military history, in particular the old Squadron Signal books. There seemed to be a lot more military reference books around back then than you’ll find in most bookshops these days. At least in New Zealand. I still struggle to work my way through the thousands listed on Amazon. But even with more books it must have taken literally years to accrue the level of knowledge that these days can be found on the web in a matter of days.

Of course modellers back then were probably also blissfully ignorant of all the people on the web who will constantly tell you that a particular kit is glaringly wrong and they also were sans the pressure to use all the latest and greatest weathering techniques to make their models look more like how we like to think they looked rather than how they actually did, and that is reflected in the photos in these magazines.

But the thing is you look at these 30 year old dioramas and you don’t find yourself thinking “oh look, that barrel is half a centimeter too long”. Instead you find yourself thinking “damn that looks good” and marvelling at the level of scratchbuilding that went into something to replicate what today we get straight from a box. You can see weathering built up painstakingly with hours of drybrushing, and figures lovingly bought to life from dull old Tamiya and Italeri figures.

In a way I sort of feel like modelling has devolved, not evolved. It’s like music and literature. Forty years ago to get a record produced the music had to be good, to get a book published it had to be good. These days the web offers people the opportunity to produce their own. These days almost anything gets published or produced. And with models the models themselves have become so good, the online tutorials so good, and the techniques a step by step guide that anyone can follow so that anyone can paint like Picasso.

I see photos of hundreds of models, hundreds of dioramas, and honestly so few inspire me the way photos of ones from thirty years ago do. Maybe it’s just me but you feel like when a modeller put so much work into his build that it conveys exactly what he pictured in his mind so well that it lifts it a big notch. Of course there were crap ones back then too, but I’m talking about the truely good ones, the ones that you remember, that you find yourself looking at for ages.

I see many today that are technically proficient but entirely lifeless. I think after i finish what I have on the go I am going to try a new tack, I am going to build less so as to be able to build more.

One of Shep Paine’s, and one I think is really good for its time.

The following photos along with the first one of the drawbridge are from Japanese modeller Tatsuya Kaneko, dating from the late 70s to late 80s.

shep paine panzerspahwagen, Tatsuya Kaneko

When you compare what models we have available now to the models that were available  thirty years ago it would seem that we are in a golden age. The variety, the quality, the affordability, all have increased, some a little, some markedly. People will criticise manufacturers like DML for only making World War Two subjects, and primarily German ones, but you can’t deny that they have come great strides in a short ammount of time to set not only a new benchmark in quality, but in doing so have raised the bar quite high.

And others have followed. Even Tamiya has upped their game, and manufacturers like Bronco and AFV Club also put out very high quality products. Miniart and Masterbox have set new levels in figure animation, and certainly between the new DML figures and the latest offerings from Miniart the quality is approaching levels originally only found in resin. There seems to be more manufacturers now than ever before.

So why does it feel like a dying hobby ? I don’t know about the rest of the country but in the past couple of years the number of Hobby Shops that I have known of in Auckland and the surrounding areas has dropped from fifteen to eight ( I don’t count places like Toyworld that have a dozen models on a corner shelf ). One of those only deals in diecast cars and another only in boats. One has a focus more on trains and two others more on RC stuff. Only two come to mind as a dedicated model shops and one of those was up for lease a year ago.

The hobby shop in Glen Eden that my grandfather always dragged me to is now a Stihl Shop, the big toy chain that used to be in all the malls has now gone and few of the Toyworlds carry models anymore. There’s not a single hobby shop in West Auckland anymore. In other parts of Auckland I may be missing some no doubt, but I don’t know of any truely model dedicated stores apart from the two I already mentioned. The rest of the country I can’t speak of but from what I hear it seems to be a similar situation in most areas.

I went to specialist magazine store not so long ago, they had seventeen different magazines for model railroad enthusiasts, a couple of which were local. They had three model magazines, none of which was local. There were more magazines for RC aeroplanes than for models. Borders which has the best selection of books of any bookshop has a huge history section on all aspects of wars of the twentieth century, but not a single one is a reference book for modelling.

Is all this because we don’t buy them if they’re there, or do we not buy them because they aren’t there to buy ? Is it the chicken or the egg ? Or perhaps the average builder doesn’t read about modelling but rather just builds them. Or has NZ taken to the internet so much so now that we get it all from Amazon and Ebay ?

There’s obviously still plenty of modellers around but I’d hardly call it a thriving industry. I’d actually love to know just how many people in the country call it their hobby. And by that I mean people who do it regularly as a pastime. I never will know of course but don’t you think it would be interesting to know. Maybe when the business is big enough and strong enough I’ll host some kind of model expo like they do in the U.S. and see how many people come.

I’d really like to believe that with all this great stuff coming out that the hobby is in a growth phase, but honestly, at least here in New Zealand it looks to be dying to me.

I blame Playstation.

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THE FOLLOWING IS BOUGHT TO YOU BY CURMUDGEONLY OLD MAN RANTS

( WARNING : Curmudgeonly Old Man Rants contain no added sugar and are seldom fully thought through in advance. They should not be viewed by any persons who drive out of tune diesel vans with “Save The Coromandel” bumper stickers )

Today National announced a backdown on the Mining of State Parks. Fair enough, I don’t really have an opinion either way, but if you were to believe the media it was because they were swayed by the will of the people. All that highlights is the clear indication yet again that the great majority of our media reporting has about as much substance as what comes out of by butt after my morning coffee each day.

The Land-Rights-For-Gay-Whales crowd certainly did their mandatory placard waving and got their desired airtime, but anyone with half a brain knows that the squeaky wheel does not represent the will of the people. The will of the people is, always has been, and always will be “whatever”. Most of the population just didn’t care. I didn’t see throngs of millions choking the street to parliament. The throngs were at home wondering what was for dinner.

But it does media ratings no harm to be seen to be siding with the populist vote, even if they have to actually create an impression that there is a populist vote with which to side themselves before they can then side with it.

And so it is with internet modellers ( you were wondering when I was going to get to the point weren’t you ? ). Manufacturer A announces a particular model and the forums come alive with the “it’s all about me” crowd declaring that they don’t like it, they won’t buy one, Manufacturer A has obviously lost the plot and should burn in hell if they do not immediately produce what Mr. Allaboutme does want. Meanwhile Mr. Whatever goes out, sees it in the shops, buys it, or doesn’t. It’s just another kit in a box to him.

And Manufacturer A promptly ignores them and goes about their business. Because they know that for every Mr Allaboutme there are a hundred others happy in their own little world who really don’t care and will buy what they want, when they want it. Strange as it may seem many, many modellers spend their time modelling with a blissful ignorance of what happens in internetland.

The reality is that a few dozen people on a few dozen forums making a whole heap of noise isn’t going to sway a manufacturer’s decision on what they chose to build. The internet is a void for voices to go unheard but like the tofu-hugging swamp mossie campaigner having an outlet that makes you think your voice will carry further than it does makes you feel like someone is listening. You can even actually convince yourself that they are. They probably aren’t.

But still people seem to think that they should listen to the squeaky wheel. Politicians do it after all. Don’t they ? The media says they do ? Maybe they do listen. Afterall they do have to reapply for their job every three years. Maybe they just offered you a lemon or a grapefruit and didn’t mention you didn’t have to have either.

But whether politicians listen to the squeaky wheel or not Model manufacturers don’t. They don’t have to listen.

If you don’t like something they release leave it for those who do and carry on waiting and hoping for what it is you DO want. But for god’s sake just shut up about it.

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An Italian 88cm Armed King Tiger Tank In Action Against Patton's U.S. 1st Army In Northern Turkey in 1940

Normally my wife is the only person priveleged enough to be party to my soapbox presentations, but lately she doesn’t put the same effort into her “gee honey, that’s facinating, I really am listening intently” face. Not to mention she wouldn’t understand the importance of not calling an Sd.Kfz. 8 an Sd.Kfz. 9 so you lucked in today because I have my rant hat on.

I decided to waste another hour of my life watching yet another load of drivel on the “history” channel and wondering why I don’t just turn the sound off and enjoy the pictures, and I can’t help thinking, why can’t someone who calls themselves a History channel actually do a little research into things so that they don’t come across as the “we slapped this together for war film fans to score some advertising dollars” channel.

Yet again we have archive footage of Pz.Kpfw. IVs whilst talking about Pz.Kpfw. IIIs ( which by the way did you know were apparently the backbone of German armour throughout the war ). Yet again we have random footage from all time periods and theatres of the war portayed as being from one particular battle. Which reminds me I did see a good one once on the “History” channel where in two episodes of the same programme the exact same footage was described in one episode as retreating German armour and in the next as advancing British armour.

Yet again we have the usual off the cuff statement “The T-34 was undoubtedly the best tank of the war”. Hello people, the word undoubtedly means there are no doubts. Most numerous ? Yes. Best ? No. If 1000 drunk pygmies managed to attack and overwhelm five SAS soldiers would that then make drunk pygmies undoubtedly the best soldiers in the world. Morons. Who proofs this garbage ? Who pays for it ?

I’ve yet to see a single WWII related program on the History Channel that didn’t contain inaccuracies, even if just showing the wrong footage. And WWII is still within living memory and is easy to research. If they can’t get that right then does that mean there are thousands of Civil War enthusiasts out there annoyed because they don’t get any of those programs right either ? Do they get anything right ? Do they care ? Or is the important thing to just make sure you have a guy with a pipe so you look scholarly and people will just accept it ?

In short do we care if history is accurate, or do we just want to be entertained. Am I stupid to expect that a commercial broadcasting channel will actually try to be accurate just because they use the word “History” in their title ? Seems I am.

So if you want to know what really happened in the world before you were a part of it expect to do a lot of your own research and reading. Don’t expect it to be neatly packaged in a one hour presentation because all you’ll get is rewarmed servings of 1960s ideas served up with different images.

So if you want to watch the history channel just turn down the sound and enjoy the pictures. It’s less frustrating that way.

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One of the things that the Wehrmacht used to move troops around, especially in the early years, was buses. You couldn’t really expect your troops to all walk from Berlin to Paris, and trucks were more suited to carrying heavy loads of equipment, so buses were the ideal option, and there’s plenty of wartime photos of buses in use in every theatre of the war.

So I would really like a decent 1/35 scale bus with a full interior, preferably to include twenty to thirty seated troops with all their gear stowed on the roof. Seems like a simple enough request. And if you want to throw in an optional radio command interior as well I won’t complain. Oh yes, and a complete engine. Not that I’m being demanding but hey it’s like going to see Santa, he can only down-grade your request but if you aim low you can’t then go back and say “well you agreed to the PS3 too easily so how about I add in a 60 inch Plasma to play it on ?”

Actually I don’t think a bus is a completely stupid request. The old Ironside one is still around but it needs a lot of work, so I figure someone out there must be willing to take the punt on a decent Wehrmacht bus that can be used as either a troop transport, a command base, of a mobile canteen. I’d buy all three, and probaly several of each.

I’d like to think I’m not the wierd odd one out that likes the one thing nobody else likes. I’d like to think that just as there are plenty of people out there who would build a World War One tank if a decent one were avaialable ( and before you go pointing your stubby little digets at the Ermar keep in mind I did specify “decent” ), that there are also plenty of people out there who would build the obscure pre-war and early war vehicles, the support softskins and the ancilary vehicles that sort of helped it all happen but never got the limelight. I just think no manufacturer has ever really taken the punt on the fringe support vehicles of World War Two.

So when you’ve made me my bus I’ll have a armoured 1935 vintage artillery tractor and a Magirus Achtradfahrzeug please.

1/35 scale model buses

One thing that I’ve noticed over the years is just how ingrained into the collective New Zealand modelling conciousness is the Tamiya brandname. Over the past ten years or so we have seen a veritable quantum leap in modelling, from the days when Tamiya was the undisputed champion, being great leaps ahead of the competition in terms of kit fit and build, to today when we have 500+ piece kits with metal barrels, photo-etch, resin, and then the option to add more of the same to make it into a 1000+ piece kit.

I don’t think anyone can argue that compaies like Dragon haven’t raised the bar not just a little, but into a whole new league, and others have followed, companies like Hobby Boss, AFV Club, and even Trumpeter who have now lifted their game. Tamiya still produces good kits, but their focus these days seems to be on RC and model cars so we see reahshed older kits more than we see new kits, and even those that we do see are still traditional Tamiya. By that I mean they are good kits, but not nose deep in excess parts and photo-etch.

But still Tamiya seems to dominate the market in New Zealand, so lately I’ve been wondering exactly why that is and I’ve come up with three possible theories, though I’m sure the truth is probably a mix of the three.

The first, and the one I hear most often, is that we as a nation, as a people, don’t like change. We’ve always had Tamiya, we trust it, the name is well known, well established, and up until recently it has always been very cost effective with most kits being under $50. The early Trumpeter and Dragon weren’t that great and just as the first crappy Datsuns did irreperable damage to the image of Japanese cars for decades to come, perhaps those early kits didn’t set those brand up quite as well as they might have. Only time will tell if that one is true.

The second is one I think does have some bearing, and that is that the established brands here, the Tamiyas, the Italeris, the Revells etc, have a local representative, a local ditributor. Dragon, Hobby Boss, AFV Club have to come in from Australia, Academy has no representation. But though I think this has some bearing I don’t think it’s that big an influence, as the Tamiya representative also used to handle ICM and Zvezda but they also failed to be accepted. Likewise despite the kits, particularly the newer ones, being quite good Masterbox is very hard to get broad acceptance for.

The third is the possibility that those of us who choose our kits based on how much detail and accuracy they have are completely over-estimating the importance of that to the general modelling populace. The reality could simply be that most modellers like the quick, easy builds that Tamiya provide, and steer clear of the complexities of photo-etch and high part count kits that the likes of Dragon provide. Many of us who build Dragon kit as a preference will scratch our heads at why someone will buy the $70 Tamiya Tiger instead of the $100 Dragon one when the Dragon one has three times the parts. Perhaps they just don’t want three times the parts.

Quite simply it could be that Tamiya has survived for 30 plus years because they have found the right balance of what the mainstream modeller wants in a kit. That being an easy build with a good enough level of accuracy for the average man in the street, as opposed to the man with an extensive reference library. Tamiya serves well the needs of the average modeller, the massed modelling market if you will.

The New Zealand modelling market isn’t huge, and in the past year or two the few modelling shops in Auckland have become three less that I know of. Others devote more space to RC, cars, and trains, and I can only assume that they do that because those are what sells. The New Zealand Market is small, and the percentage of it that prefers the complex builds is no doubt an even smaller subset. A quick look in a well stocked magazine shop will show three or four modelling magazines to more than a dozen model railway ones.  Quite simply it would seem that there really just isn’t that many of us.

Whatever the reason I suspect that for the immediate future at least that things will stay as they are, Tamiya will be the dominant name, Dragon will take the cream off the top, Hobby Boss, AFV Club, Trumpeter and the likes will struggle to get any decent level of sales, and the new comers from Eastern Europe will find the modelling world in general unreceptive.

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modelling in new zealand

One of the things I do like is a kit that comes with a good engine, it gives you a little something extra in the way of options for displaying your model. But what I don’t enjoy overly much is spending hour upon hour trawling books and the internet to find photos of the wiring that was attached to them, partly as that search can often be fruitless, leaving me with no option other than to just throw something in there that looks like a reasonable approximation based on what other engines have.

For some reason engines never come with any form of guide for how to wire them or add any other piping etc that would be present in the engine bay. The same can be said for radio sets, particularly the large frame pack radio sets included in command vehicles, especially if it’s an open topped armoured car where the radio can’t avoid being seen. They seldom come with any form of wiring diagram to allow you to add it yourself.

It’s not like I expect the manufacturer to supply moulded wiring, but if you’re going to go to the trouble of researching an engine to build it in kit form, either as part of a kit or as an after market part, is it really to much to ask for a little reference material showing what the completed engine looks like, and possibly a simple wiring diagram so that the builder can add their own. Just a couple of photos included in the instructions would at least be a start.

I think this probably applies even more so to after market engine and radio sets as these are targeted specifically at people who are willing to spend the extra money and the extra time to add more detail to their kit. So surely adding a wiring diagram or something showing how an installed engine or radio looks with all the correct wires and fittings in place is a bonus selling point. I know that for me personally if there is a choice between three or four different AM kits of the same engine I’m going to go for the one that includes extras like that as my first choice.

So if any manufacturer out there reads this then please throw us this bone. Those of us who like to detail a kit as much as we can want to add as much as we can, and be as correct as we can, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that a kit includes everything related to the part you are putting in, whether it’s part of the kit or AM. I don’t expect it to be all done for me, but I would like to at least have an engine include details of everything that should be there so I can add it myself if I chose to.

In fact if someone wants to put together a book that simply contains reference photos of engines and radios with all their wiring etc then I will be first in the queue to buy a copy. And not just installed engines, but engines in parts, engine bays with whatever wires and parts are left inside once the engine is out. I’d like to think that there would be quite a market among modellers for such a reference.

1/35 engine wiring, 1/35 radio set wiring, wiring diagrams for afv engines

One thing I’ve found while trawling the web for reference photos is that in the vast majority of cases no-one ever bothers to edit photos before they upload them. So frequently I read threads in forums where a photo is being used to aid in the discussion but it is often complained that not enough detail can be seen as the photo is too dark.

These old photos weren’t taken with digital cameras, so in most cases the detail is there, it just can’t be seen. Usually what obscures it from being seen better is the method used for adding the photo to the interweb. If you look through a lot of published reference photo books you’ll usually notice that photos are much clearer and much better detailed. This is usually because the printer had access to the original and could do a hi-res scan and then lighten it all up and bring out the detail that was always there.

I’ve included a few examples below to show what I mean. The original photos are as found and are quite dark, all I’ve done is use a very basic photo editor, in this case the Kodak software that came with my camera, to lighten them up. The results will vary depending often on the method by which the original photo was uploaded, the resolution it was stored and displayed at, as well as the quality of the original photo.

Sometimes you’ll end up with a lot of the photo looking washed out and over exposed, the trick is to lighten it up till you can see the bit you want, or to crop down smaller and lighten just that bit. One thing you just can’t escape though when working with photos on the net is the resolution, they can only be enlarged so much.

click images to enlarge

Pz.Kpfw. II with Mine Rollers : Before ( above ) and after ( below )

Radio Truck Crew On A Break : Before ( above ) and after ( below )

A Vomag FlaK 88 : Before ( above ) and after ( below )

improvng photo references

I am the father of four girls, one who is just about to turn fifteen, and who believes a world can only exist if it can be accessed by her laptop or mobile phone, an eight year old who doesn’t understand why the sisters that she worships think she is an annoyance, and twelve year old twins who are still at that age where they think I am the greatest man on earth. These two also like to build things ( when they’re not playing with Sylvannians ) and ever since I showed them how to make a diorama each for their animals have been keen to make more.

I have a large box of models from my first year of modelling that I call my practice models. These are kits I bought already made, halfmade, or cheap for the sole purpose of practicing skills and techniques on. Since I’ve moved on to better quality kits these older Tamiya and Italeri kits remain in a box gathering dust. So when one day I casually mentioned this box when they were having a boring wet, Saturday afternoon I was in seventh heaven when they both proclaimed that they would love to build a tank, having always believed that I was doomed to never have a child to whom I could pass on my ageless wisdom.

So I pulled the box out, they each chose a kit, one an old Tamiya Leopard, the other an old Tamiya Stuart, and then I sat them down and began to impart wisdom. I talked about how to cut the parts from the sprues tidily, how to clean up the mould seams, how to test fit the parts, how to read the instructions. You get the picture. By the 10 second mark they were looking bored, by the 60 second mark they were checking what the cat was doing, by the 90 second mark they had that “are you going to drone on forever?” look. I took the hint and shut up.

They then proceeded for the next few hours to assemble their tanks with not one mould seam removed, several large sprue attachments still there, several remarks along the lines of “oops” and “hmm, I missed out this part” followed by “oh well” and the part simply being cast back into the box. At one point I saw a large screwdriver being used to remove a spade that apparently “didn’t look right there”. Once done and with the glue still wet they descended upon my paints and half an hour later we had a Leopard with unpainted wheels, a pink hull and a white turret ( that apparently will get repainted purple the next time she feels like it ), a purple Stuart, and a box full of “I don’t really need that” and “this bit won’t stay on” parts.

As a modeller I was beyond words, as a father their smiles at their creations could make the coldest winter night seem like the brightest summer afternoon. And I then remembered my Grandfather, a modeller, trying to teach me when all I wanted to do was build fire-crackers into them so I could then explode them ( yes I was one of those children ). Now I know how he must have been torn between his wanting me to do it right and his wanting me to do it the way that made me happy.

So what’s the point of all this ?  Well if you haven’t worked it out yet, it’s the realisation that modelling is a different hobby to different people, especially new people to the hobby. Over time some may eventually go from building them with firecrackers and painting them with a one inch brush ( it’s faster you see ) to using an airbrush and PE. Others will always just build them in a few hours, throw them in a box and never think of them again.

So if you have a child that you want to bring into the hobby don’t expect them to do it your way from day one. Give them something cheap, something simple, let them do it their way, and along the way just very gradually try and steer them in the direction that will build and develop their skills. And expect them to lose interest at fourteen and come back to it thirty years later like so many of us have done.

Sow the seed, give it time to grow. Give a kid a model.

being a modelling parent, children building models

One of the things I’ve become increasingly aware of since I started setting out some Western Desert dioramas is that there is a great dearth of figures representing any country other than the main protagonists. Germans are a plenty, British and American aren’t ill served, but that’s really about it. Actually it’s probably not really even true to say the main protagonists as if you exclude the likes of Miniart, Masterbox and Zvezda the Russian offerings are also thin on the ground, and if you want Japanese you can count the available figure sets on one hand, thumb excluded. French sets can probably be counted on the thumbs.

So I guess it’s no real surprise that the millions of Italians who fought in the war get next to no representation. New Zealand I guess can count itself lucky as most British figure sets will work equally well for New Zealand, as well as Canada and some Australian troops - if they’re in the desert, forget it if you want a set in Burma armed with Owens or SMLE Jungle Carbines.

At least Masterbox and Miniart have come to the rescue of fans of Russian dioramas, and to a lesser degree Japanese, but we need a champion of the smaller participants of the war. Indian troops, Gurkhas, Moroccans in French services to name some of the more extreme. But also more French, more Italian, and more Japanese. Unless I’m mistaken huge parts of the war took place with participants from those countires involved.

We have no Poles, no Finns, no Algerians, no Turks. Some of those I know we can find in resin, but even in that medium we are lacking so many. I’d actually quite like a set of Maori figures, ones that actually look like Maori with the proper physical attributes ( the noses, the legs, and the propensity towards big guns that went auto ).

If it’s too much to ask for full figure sets could we at least have some weapon and eqipment sets ? Some Owens and SMLE Jungle Carbines to enable the conversion of british figures to Aussies in Burma. Some shotguns for the Marines in the islands, Steyr-Mannlichers to turn German figures into Hungarians, Italian helmets, equipment, and weapons so I can resculpt some Germans.

Actually while I’m on that point I’d be happy to also see a few equipment and weapon sets that contained some of the less common weapons. There’s Stens, MP40s, Thompsons, and Brens a plenty, but no Reislings, bugger all M3 Sub-Machine Guns, no MP18, MP28, or MP35s except in a few obscure kits. We also need more of the “end of days” guns seen turned out during the Russian sieges like Stalingrad, as well as those that came out of Germany and wound up in the hands of German Volkstrum in the final months like the VG1-5.

Then there are the guns found in the hands of troops serving beside, or opposed to, the larger nations. We need Hungarian 39M sub-machine guns, French Mas 38s, Finish Suomi M31s, Romanian Oritas. All these were used by rear unit german troops as well as by units of non-Germans in german service.  That’s just a few and doesn’t include the various rifles and handguns.

And don’t get me started on why there is still no plastic kit of the Vickers Mk I machine gun, not to mention the Lewis ( unless you want to track down the hard to find Tamiya LRDG truck just to get one ), the Japanese Type 03, and the Breda M1937 ( though Masterbox do have one of these in the pipeline ).

I seem to have gone off into a bit of a rant there somewhere along the way, but if you’re like me and get a bit tired of various Panther versions following various Tiger versions following yet more various Panther versions with no sign of something a little different to the norm on the horizon then I’m sure you will understand.

1/35 soldiers from smaller countries

I notice that in reviews that German figure sets are often referred to as wearing “early war” or “late war” uniforms, I do it myself. It also recently occured to me that many people wouldn’t know one from the other. So I’ve put together this very simple guide. It doesn’t seek to identify the many small changes such as stitching and linings, but rather to show the progression in small changes that help you to date a uniform to a given year. While it’s easy to explain a 1940 cut tunic in 1944 it’s somewhat harder to explain a 1944 one in 1940.

I’m not going to get into the myriad variations of officer’s tunics, camouflaged smocks, fatigues, tropical uniforms, rocks, jackets, tailored clothing, hats, helmets, boots, equipment etc. Not now anyway as I want to keep this very simple. I may chuck up other guides to some of these at a later date as I feel the urge, but for now I’m just going to be looking at the basic “feldbluse” or field blouse.

Now you’ll have to forgive my artistry, I’m too much of a technophobe to work in anything but MS paint. But I’m not going for complete accuracy with the cut and stitch but rather just enough to be identifiable for the purposes at hand.  Also don’t read anything into the colours other than a general attempt to show how “feldgrau” or Field Grey got less green and more brown as the war went on and material quality changed.

One other point I should make while we’re on the subject of colour is that the field trousers prior to 1940 were more of a slate grey. I decided not to include the field trousers here as they pretty much stayed the same general appearance for what is relevant to modelling in 1/35. There were changes but these were mostly around the waist and wouldn’t be seen on a figure wearing the field blouse over the top of them.

So let’s get down to it. The sections highlighted in blue identify the changes between each year that can be identified on a 1/35 scale figure.

Click images to enlarge.

1939 Issue. Five buttons, pleated pockets, scalloped pocket flaps, dark green collar.

1940 Issue. As for the 1941 Issue but the collar is now the same colour as the rest.

1941 Issue. As for the 1940 Issue but now has six buttons.

1942 Issue. As for 1941 Issue but now has patch pockets with no pleats.

1943 Issue. As for 1942 Issue but now has squared off pocket flaps.

1944 Issue. Now much shorter, similar to the British tunic, with only two pockets.

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german field blouse, guide to german field uniforms, guide to german unifroms wwii

As a rule I’m a 1/35 scale World War Two modeller, and just a 1/35 scale World War Two modeller. I don’t venture into aircraft or ships, or 1/48th or 1/72, though I know that many modellers build anything and everything from 1/24 scale sports cars to 1/72 scale Napoleanic minitures.

It’s not necessarily that I don’t like other genres, it’s more a case that WWII is the period that interests me the most and 1/35 is the scale I find to best suit my available space, my eyesight and my digital dexterity. And quite simply that in 1/35 you’re pretty much limited to armour. Which is a shame, as I don’t dislike aircraft or ships, they just don’t make many ( or any ) in 1/35. One of these days I may even take the plunge and build an armoured train.

I know you can usually get away with a 1/32 scale aircraft in a diorama with 1/35 scale figures and vehicles, and likewise if you can find any you can work with 1/32 scale vintage cars. And yes there are the Italeri Schnellboot and the Bronco Seehund Midget Submarines. But really I often wonder why is it that we have these two similar scales that are just close enough to work sometimes, and just far enough apart not to work other times.

I’m looking forward to Masterbox’s release of their 1/35 scale Junkers Ju. 52, Douglas DC 3, and Horsa Gliders so that I can start incorporating aircraft into dioramas without the pain of knowing that they are really 1/32 scale ( I’m one of those wierd people that is bothered by knowing something is wrong even if no-one else does ). And one of these days I’m going to build that Schnellboot. But I’d love to built a 1/35 scale PT Boat as well, not to mention a 1/35 scale U-Boat. It’s just a pity you can’t open up a U-Boat in a realistic diorama.

I crave 1/35 scale 1920s and 1930 cars, everyday cars for city settings and bombed out wrecks, executive cabriolets for spoilt German officers ( actually these days I’d settle for just being able to get a decent 1/32 scale kit of these that wasn’t made in the 1960s or 1970s ). I crave 1/35 scale FlaK barges and tugboats that I can put Commandos onto. I desire a 1/35 scale Me 109 that is made in pieces so I can do a recovery scene and not have to use a 1/32 scale one.

But I can’t see that day ever coming. 1/32 is too entrenched in aircraft, and ships would be too big in 1/35. So for now I’ll stick to painstakingly converting a 1/32 aircraft scale kit into a 1/35 scale one ( or at least closer to it ) and I’ll continue to hunt out old 1/32 scale vintage car kits from the 70s that need a whole lot of modelling love to bring them to life. Not that it will stop me wanting those and hoping that somewhere out there a model manufacturer is listening.

But for now I suspect that it’s just wishful thinking on my part.

So one day I’ll just give in and scratchbuild my own 1/35 Messerschmitt Me 323.

And a month after I finish it someone will release a high end kit of it.

modelling in different genres and scales

Well there’s no way to make the answer drawn out seeing as there’s no way to make it magically appear after a suitably dramatic pause.

It’s animation.

I’ve been pondering on this. When I was in my early teens I lived with my Grandfather who was a modeller and one of the models he built when I was about twelve or thirteen that always impressed me the most was a 1/48 scale B29 bomber, sitting on a simple looking base made to look like a section of runway with just a small grass verge. But in one corner it had a tower with a light at the top that lit up when switched on, and running up through the undercarriage were wires that allowed him to turn the propellers on one by one and vary the speed. I used to love watching it. I used to especially love turning off all the lights so I could see the way the tower light illuminated the fuselage. He was a keen Model Railroader and had the skills to build the engines into the model and to set them up to be able to vary the speed. He added animation to many of the models he built.

You never seem to see stuff like that these days. And that seems odd when you consider that was in the late 70s so now, more than thirty years later, we have the technology to build so much smaller, and so much more intricate electronics. We could do things like that without any effort at all. Back then it seemed so advanced, now it would be so easy. We could now have trains that would billow forth smoke, tanks that move, light, horns, sounds, if we wanted we could even make a tank that fires. But we don’t.

Is it considered sacrilage ? Is it considered to be turning a serious hobby into a toylike one ? Or are most of us just at the age where we are happy to make models but are unwilling to enter into the realms of witchcraft and scorcery that is modern electronics ? I know my wife still programmes anything with lights and buttons for me, even  though I do have a prediliction for making purchases based on how many lights and buttons something comes with. I don’t have to know what they do, just that it has them. And any electronics manufacturers reading this needs to know that a toaster should look like a part of a spacecraft, should sound like a nuclear reactor powering up and the insides should glow like a smelting furnace. But I digress.

So if kits went down the road of having available aftermarket addons that added sound and animation would we embrace them or would we still shun them ? I’m of two minds. On one hand I feel like it would cheapen my construction, it would add someone else’s personality into what I consider my art. It feels like it would turn it into a toy. I think in some ways it would take what I consider to be a serious representation of an historical scene and turn it into a circus act. Sort of like those “push the button” dioramas at museums that pipe out gull squawkings to go along with the stuffed gull inside.

But on the other hand I do think that if it was done right the addition of sounds to a scene could give it a new degree of life. Maybe not one I’d want to be on all the time, but something that was there for the moments when you want it. Or lights to enable you to build a nighttime scene lit by the fires burning in the distance. Assuming of course that the effect in reality matched up with the perception of it in my mind.

Maybe I’d be happy with a middle ground. Something like an armoured train with turrets that turn, smoke that issues forth and the sounds of engines etc is something I could live with. But in dioramas the figures are the focus for me, the vehicle being the canvas. I could never see that being able to be adequately animated, and so something as gimicky as a revolving turret would seem out of place. Like a painting that had one part as a hologram. It would never move the way I really wanted it to, not all of it anyway.

But I do sometimes think that I’d like to at least try.

Just something simple.

Maybe just a crane lifting out an engine.

Must go check the stash now.

adding light to models, adding movement to models, adding sound to models

Paper Panzers, Berlin ’46, What If Armour, call them what you will, they are the armoured vehicles of World War Two Germany that seldom made it further than a designer’s drawing board. But for some reason they inspire many still. People wanted these to have made it to the field, they wanted a new Tiger, a new wonder tank, something more legendary. Would the Maus have been a success, would the Ratte have been anything more than a Typhoon Pilot’s wet dream ?

Did you ever wonder why there were so many of these, and why it was only in the days after the war that they surfaced as potentially good tanks and armoured vehicles that were just too little, too late ?  I think the short answer is that the war ended a lot sooner than was expected. Germany expected the second front, but they also expected to stem it and I don’t think they saw the war being over within a year of it coming. I don’t think they saw the war finishing anytime soon so there was no urge to build the new stuff sooner while the current batch was doing the job. They knew new stuff would be needed, just not quite how soon it was going to be needed.

Contrary to common perception Germany wasn’t a country run on the lines of an ancient kingdom where all knees bowed to the whim of the king. Producers of war material still expected to run a business and to make a profit, they still wanted to be, and were, paid for their products, be that boots or tanks. Just like at any other times there were processes to go through, designs to submit, prototypes to be built and tested, contracts to be awarded.

Also contrary to popular belief Germany wasn’t a country that entered into massed arms production in 1933 and did nothing but build war materials for the next twelve years constantly trying to build more, bigger, better. In fact the level of output in 1939 was less than most comparable countries and the level in 1941 was actually lower than 1939. Germany thought the war was all over bar the shouting at that point. German war material production didn’t peak until 1944 after the Normandy landings when it became clear that the war was turning and that they needed a lot more men and a lot more equipment than they were ever going to have.

So it wasn’t really until then that the plans for the next great weapon, the next wonder tank, the next war winning miracle started to flow from the pens of designers into the hands of those who had the job of chosing what to build. And some were quite good. Some of course were just downright odd and bizarre, but the E series had merit, the Panther II had merit. The new breed of armoured personal carriers went on to become what was used for the next thirty years as did the MP44, a weapon that almost never made it because it didn’t fit in with Hitler’s building plans. It succeeded because someone cheated the system.

Certainly production of any war materials was stunted by the bombing of industry, and so would have any new vehicle. But that bombing was never anywhere near as effective as has been portrayed, production was interupted, slowed, but never stopped. It went on and new vehicles began to make it into the protoype building stages. But then the war ended and there was no contracts to fill, no-one to pay the bills. So no new tanks.

So if the war had gone on for a few more years no doubt more of these would have made it onto the field of battle. But the war didn’t go on and they were never made, but enough was left to be tantalising. And therein lies the appeal, because there will always remain that unknown factor, that “what if..” that has always taunted historians who like to wonder how things might have been if a different path had been taken.

Would the Panther II have made mincemeat of the T26E3 and the JS-3 ? Would the Germans have perfected stabilisation, spaced armour and night vision gear that would have allowed them to put bigger, but lighter tanks onto the field of battle that could fire at night and on the move ?

No one knows, and where speculation rules there are no boundaries to imagination. I suspect that is the appeal of Paper Panzers. On paper they can be perfect, unbeatable, awesome. And no-one can ever tell you a rivet is out of place.

berlin 46, papaer panzers, what if german tanks