A Magazine; Military in Scale, November 2010

The US Marine Shermans just keep on coming, like the Alvis Stalwart did before! This is an amazing build including a number of different kits and scratch built details. I had never heard about Iron Division (sorry!) who have made the upper hull for this conversion but googled it and found a number of Sherman products via Toadman's site.

What's in the Box; M4A2 Sherman, Academy, 1/35

As I have had a bit of luck regarding M4A2 articles in magazines and on the internet  I think it is due time to present the plastic as well. Sprue A, wheels and bogies, are actually duplicated in the box. I have no idea about measurements and such but it looks like a Sherman I think. Quality is good as Academy gets but not as sharp as a recent kit from Tamiya or other comparable kit maker. However, I think it will be a pretty fast build as the kit does not seem to be over engineered. For those of you who like your details being a bit more well defined there is a bit to do.

A Magazine; Military in Scale, January 2007

 

Let's continue on the Sherman track from the other day. The MiS issue of January 2007 had a nice build article on the Academy M4A2 kit. The kit is said to be not fully correct but for some people there just aren't any correct kits out there, final. So go grab a fist full of resin and aluminium barrels then! For the rest of us it is good enough I think. I'm happy Ashley Webb chose a really nice sand and green camou for his Sherman,so will I one of these days! The Perth Military Modelling site, Missing Lynx and Military Modelling magazine have reviews of the kit.

A Book; Tank Warfare on Iwo Jima

Tank Warfare on Iwo Jima, David E Harper, Squadron Signal, 2008

96 fact packed pages of colour side views, photos and text helps the model builder to recreate one of the most famous tanks ever, the M4 Sherman, from one of the most famous battlegrounds ever, the one on  Iwo Jima in 1945. If you have seen the films Flags of our fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima you know a bit what the fighting was like but can never fully comprehend what the soldiers went through. The photos of war weary tankers, blown up Shermans and the conditions of the fighting are mildly said sobering. If you like the Sherman this book is a must. Lots of colour and markings, not just Olive Drab and white stars like in the ETO.

A Magazine; Military in Scale, April 1996

I keep on finding this weird vehicle called Alvis Stalwart. It's everywhere, you can't miss it once you know what to look for. Till this year I have not had much fondness for the six-wheeled wonder but I'm changing my heart. Can we now have a main stream model kit of it, please? Trumpeter isn't afraid of weird things but I guess they would probably mess it up. AFV Club did the Scimitar so they're used to odd British vehicles... Never mind, I have enough to do at my build table anyway. The Military in Scale April issue of 1996 shows how to assemble and paint a Dartmoor Models kit in 1/35. John Davis was the man who tackled the full resin and white metal kit. Watch and learn!

The following four pages is on the history and use of the Stalwart.

A Magazine; Military In Scale, December 1996

Recently I have pushed for some of the amphibious machines used during the Falkland conflict of 1982. The Military in Scale issue of December 1996 was a Falkland War Special concentrating on vehicles and aircraft of the South Atlantic conflict of the 80's.

The first build special in the magazine is on the LVTP 7 in Argentine colours, or rather colour as it is one green only. The build takes you through the steps to build, paint and mark one of the crawling Tuna boats. The builder used the Academy kit as has been reviewed here before. It should be an easy one, don't you think?

A Book; Dunkirk, The Great Escape

Dunkirk, The great escape; A.J. Barker, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd.

Is an evacuation regarded as amphibious warfare? Yes, in my book (as a matter of speaking) it is. In 1940 the BEF, British Expeditionary Force, fought alongside the Belgian, Dutch and French in order to halt the German advance. The swift maneuvers and heavy fire power of the Germans were not possible to stop but the defenders were gradually wiped out or forced back. When the final outcome was clear to the British an order was issued to evacuate the remaining forces. It was understood that at some point it was useless to pour in more soldiers and fighers just to have them slaughtered and shot down, it was better to save the men and aeroplanes to fight another day, so plans were made up to pull back slowly and in order. The beaches and harbours were filled up by retreating soldiers in Dunkirk. Vehicles massed up and were set a blaze to hinder the Germans from using them after the inevitable end. Hundreds of vessels, small civilian, trawlers, destroyers, tugs and so on went from the French coast to the English to save what could be saved of an army. From 26 May to 4 June 1940 soldiers endured artillery shelling and aerial bombarment on the beaches and on the ships. When the evacuation was over more than 300 000 soldiers were saved to British soil. The survivors were battle hardened and experienced now and formed a foundation to build up new forces to keep the fighting going. This is however another story.

Valentine DD from Mini Art?

We all know what DD means, don't we? Duplex Drive was a system created during WW2 using a screen and propellers in order to make a tank float and propel itself beach wards from a landing craft off shore. The most famous application was the Sherman DD tank, used during the Normandy landings. A few other tanks got the DD treatment including the British Valentine tank.

As Mini Art is releasing Valentine model kits by the dozen one could expect a DD sometime. According to the Wikipedia article the Valentine DD was used as a training tank. The marks converted into DD configuration included  Mks V, IX and XI. As Mini Art has released Mk V and have Mks IX and XI in the pipeline there is no excuse not to build one anymore. If Mini Art will release a proper Vally DD I do not know but let's have our fingers crossed!

Whatch this Valentine DD drive off the flat bed trailer for the War & Peace show in 2011.

What's in the box? LCVP, Lindberg, 1/32

Before Italeri came up with a new large scale LCVP there was only Lindberg's in 1/32. Although it is not state of the art it isn't that bad, it can absolutely be more refined by an ordinary builder but going the Lindberg way to get a stunner is somewhat masochistic. By today's standards this is a toy but maybe you got it for nothing or you want to build the model you built a man's age ago, I say build it! There are 90 parts of light grey styrene; you'll have it built and painted in a weekend. Mark Gloor did a good job on his LCVP.

Single piece hull, inside.

Single piece hull, outside. The ribbed structure on the sides are complete and do not need any further assembly other than some small details.

Decals for one individual LCVP, printed paper sheet for signal flags.

A Magazine; Airfix Magazine September 1975

Let's stick with old Airfix Magazines for a while. In the September 1975 issue there is a short but excellent article on the Operation Sealion, the invasion plan to conquer the British isles in 1940. The invasion was supposed to take place right after the fall of France but this was never realized. A stubborn opposition (mainly the from the Royal air Force), lack of proper equipment (no proper landing crafts), other invasion plans etc made the Germans give up and look for next piece of property to rape and loot, the Soviet union. The plan was put in the Big Archive for once and ever. The article in Airfix Magazine explains the planning (or rather lack of it...) before the invasion was to commence and the planned invasion areas around the southern coast of England.

A Magazine; Airfix Magazine March 1974

Now this is funny, I was leafing through a bunch of old magazines in a book shop and found this issue of the Airfix Magazine. There seems to be an Alvis wherever I look these days. The comment on the cover photo is "Three Alvis Stalwart get their feet wet during an exercise recently. Modelling details for a Stalwart in 1:76 scale appeared in our November 1973 issue." So let's find that issue, shall we?

A Video; Alvis Stalwart jumping into water!

Well I'm back from the mountains and still hoping for this summer to take off in a grand way. So far I had better weather in Swedish Lapland than now. Rain, cold, wind. Pure crap in other words. But, I manage to have a bit of a swim every day, just like this Norwegian Alvis Stalwart! You have not missed the Stalwart walk around, have you?

Gone hiking!

Well folks, I'm off for the mountains, see you in a while!

A book; Going to the Wars

Going to the Wars; Max Hastings, Macmillan


Many times journalism is made with a telephone by a desk in a town. War journalism can not be made that way but has to be done where the action is. One such reporter who went where it all happened is Max Hastings and he was at the Falkland Islands during the conflict in 1982. Going to the Wars is a compilation of some of the conflicts Hastings has covered, like a comment of the years spent at the front lines. Northern Ireland, Vietnam, Angola, Biafra, Yom Kippour, Rhodesia are there as the chapters on the Falklands. A good quarter of the book is on the South Atlantic events and is a jolly good reason for reading it. Max Hastings is also the author of Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands, two other books on amphibious matters. Will have to check them out I guess.