1/48 Afrika Korps Diorama

I've recently been working on 2 dioramas which I've been wanting to build for quite sometime. One being a diorama in a winter setting and another diorama in a desert setting.

I started on the winter diorama first but ended up completing the desert one first. It's a simple diorama of the famous Afrika Korps during WW2 and it's built from 2 kits, namely the German Panzerkampfwagen II (sd.kfz.121) and the Kubelwagen, both in 1/48 scale. I was initially planning to get either a 1/48 Panzer III or IV but those are completely out of stock in my country and went along with the Panzer II instead.

The two kits were easy to build and as always, in excellent quality without need for removing flash or hiding ejector pin marks.

I didn't put up any photos of the build process as it's pretty straightforward. Here are instead, photos starting from the priming process.

Panzer II primed and ready for base coat.  Although the kit is actually for the French Campaign, I didn't see any major discrepancies for using it in a desert scheme. 

Rear view of the Panzer II with some minor battle damage using a soldering iron on some areas of the tank. The exhaust cover in real life is actually a grill with holes which in the kit is replicated by a applying a spotted decal which comes with the kit but after adding the damages, I didn't bother applying the decal.

The base coat was painted in Mr.Color 40 (german gray) and following Youtuber Hamilkar Barkas' chipping technique, I applied Mr.Masking Sol with a sponge, which was later to be removed after painting the second coat of Mr.Color 39 (desert yellow). 

Additional photo of the rear side with Mr.Masking Sol applied.

A photo of the Kubelwagen primed and ready for painting.

Second coat of desert yellow color applied.

Removing the masking sol wasn't as easy as I expected it to be. I suppose I'll try the hairspray chipping technique next time. The chipping marks on the Kubelwagen were done with tiny dabs of german gray paint using a sponge.

Painting and chipping completed. Next was weathering the models, then building the diorama. The diorama base was built using paper clay on a small wooden board and the rough terrain was replicated with real soil sprinkled on after applying water diluted white glue. The signs are cutouts from the Kubelwagen box, the rocks were made by ripping apart almost dried epoxy putty and the grass was made using trimmed hemp string strands attached to the surface with CA glue.

Here are photos of the completed diorama :

1/48 Tamiya Tiger I Early Production

Having decided to build 1/48 scale armor kits for the time being, this excellent kit was my first in line. Not only am I a bit tired of building aircraft kits, I'm also running out of space on my bookshelf which I also use for displaying my models. I suppose I'll have to stick to 1/48th's for now till I can rearrange my shelf and try to get some more space for future and/or larger models.

Tamiya is known for it's high quality products and this kit is no exception. Despite being smaller than its 1/35 scale counterpart, the parts are very well detailed, there was absolutely no flash at all and no visible pin marks to cover up. With this level of detail, I think 1/48 kits are excellent for building dioramas or vignettes for those who are confined to smaller display spaces.

Here's the building process :

Wheels attached to the famous die-cast chassis. The kit was actually heavier than I had anticipated even after reading all the reviews.

Link and length tracks attached. The tracks aren't too difficult to put together as one of the sprues has a frame which can be used as a guide when building the tracks to produce a sagging effect.

On most of the photos or videos I've seen on the internet, the top part of the track just behind the sprocket wheel has a sharp bend which looks rather awkward. This is most likely due to the shape of the frame of the sprue used as a guide for building the tracks. To give it a more natural looking sag, I switched places for a couple of links.

Tracks glued then held into position with a toothpick and some tissue. 

Build completed. Only the main gun barrel needed some putty work to conceal the seams.

Model primed and ready for paintwork.

There are 4 types of tanks that you can build with this kit but since I didn't have the appropriate paint colors for other types, I decided to go with Tank no.332, sPzAbt 503, Russia, Summer of 1943, which was painted in german gray.

I initially painted the model with Mr.Color 40 (german gray) which in my opinion is a bit too dark compared to paints from other manufacturers and painted another very light coat of dark seagray.

It was only after painting the model that I realized that this particular tank, no.332, didn't have extra track links attached to the sides of the turret. Oh well, too late..

Lastly, photos of the finished model, painted and weathered. All in all, it was a fun kit to build as it wasn't too difficult and it took me only about 3 days to complete. Moreover, I could still apply weathering techniques just like its larger 1/35 scale models. I am definitely building more of these including figures to perhaps build a diorama sometime soon.

1/72 Academy Fockewulf FW190a 6/8

I had this kit on my shelf for months half built and thought I'd finish it since I had a bit of spare time between projects at work.

This kit by Academy was released in 1992 and I presume it's for an entry level modeller as it was an easy kit to build with simple and minimal parts. I think it took me only a couple hours to build (minus paint drying time) and being as simple as it is and at the same time being very cheap (US $5), I figured I would do some practice at some free-hand camouflage airbrushing which I had never tried before.

The whole model except the topside of the wings was painted with Mr.Color 117 (RLM 76 light blue). The topside of the wings and elevators were painted in Mr.Color 331 (dark seagray). I'm sure dark seagray wasn't painted on the real planes but as said before, it's a practice model. :)

Top part of the fuselage painted with dark seagray and camo pattern painted with Mr.Color 18 (RLM 70 black green).

Left and right sides of the fuselage camouflag patterns airbrushed with black green color. I had to repaint a couple of times until I reached a result that was somewhat satisfactory. I am currently using a Taiwanese made 0.3mm Unico AB725 which I bought second-hand from an LHS owner who manufactures and sells his own air compressors. It's a pretty reliable novice level airbrush but as such, lacks the ability to airbrush finer details and I think it's about time I invest in a much better quality 0.2mm airbrush, probably a Mr.Hobby Procon Boy.

Here are photos of the finished model :