The Kit Works

Hello, and welcome to another project showcase! In today's post I will cover a diorama I call "SAS Jeep in Italy." Its not the catchiest name out there, I know, yet that does not take away from the fact that this is my favorite diorama to date. Let me give you the backstory: two SAS men have been assigned a top-secret patrol through the mountains of the Italy, intending to find the location of a crucial command-post. However, while climbing a mountain pass, there is an explosion behind them, and while scanning the sky, they see a German fighter lining up for a strafing run. The assistant driver grabs his Lee-Enfield, and gets ready to jump from the jeep.  The kit jeep is from Tamiya . . . sort of. The jeep itself was actually made by Italeri, as you have probably guessed from the box lid, but the detail parts and two of the figures were from Tamiya. I am not going to go into much detail on the construction of the jeep, however I will say that co

One of my more recent projects has been a Soviet Ba-10 from the Second World War. This particular vehicle is not based on any actual Ba-10, though in the backstory I have invented for it, it is being used by Pro-Soviet partisans behind German lines, on this day supporting a raid on a railroad junction, hence the large crowbar on the fuel tank.  The kit itself is by Zvezda, my first from them. The construction turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined, largely due to mediocre part-alignment, and a rather different system of applying the armor plates on the front and sides of the engine cover, semi-circular studs and corresponding indents being used instead of holes and pegs. Overall the instructions were pretty good, though they were slightly confusing at times.  The model was brush painted with Model Master Russian Armor Green. One door and the turret were painted with the Armor Green thinned with yellow, to represent a large repair and replacement that o