A Coy 2nd Bn 3rd NZ Div 1942

 I have been working on these over the last week or so, and with a donation of Airfix WW1 American's from Al I have manged to field a Battalion. Able to use for Home Defence Forces or 1940-43 in the Med and Greece, Crete.

 A Coy Command Stand, with two Matchbox conversions. Helmet replaced on the charging figure with a lemon squeezer (or as the US call them campaign cap) while the Officer to the rear from the British Infantry set has head swap with forage cap from Airfix Luftwaffe set and a arm and weapon replacement.

 Simple lemon squeezer hat swap. Some figures in Battle Dress, while some are in KD summer uniform. This is quite a common thing, and if you look at pictures from Greece and Crete it crops up all the time.

 No conversions here, simple Matchbox 8th Army and British Infantry.

 Rear shot of the Command Stand.

And another rear shot of a Platoon showing the lemon squeezer.

Model on into the New Year dudes.

Type 97 (Late) Fujimi Tanks

 I have been rebuilding these two tanks for a couple of nights now, and as I finished them this afternoon it was time for a photofest.

 We need two for the Battle of Tarawa which will be taking place at Al's in a week or so.

 I gave them a pretty generic scheme, which was basically just made up after looking at a few colour plates. I think with Japanese Armour, colour is more important than pattern.

 Seen here with my only painted up Japanese Infantry from Airfix. Tim from http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/ kindly has donated a stash of old ESCI poses which I really most get  around to painting .

 Again a heavy black wash to finish. Armour in the Far East and Pacific really received a hammering from the elements, so they need to look tired.

As usual I am well pleased to get these out of the to do category. 

 900 here was basically complete but missing a track. I found one that was not a perfect match, but will do the job.

 678, needed more work, and I actually broke it open and re mounted the lower hull to the upper hull. Both were missing the rear turret MG, and still are. I am far to lazy to add these in at the moment.

This pair makes a understrength Company and is the real start of my Japanese Forces.

Model on!

Actual Christmas Haul

 For Christmas, the wife grabbed me a complete DVD edition of the Pacific. Chuffed about this because it is what I actually asked for. I missed it last year on TV as I was overseas when it was on. And a couple of brushes and Humbrol paints.

 From my good mate Phil, he picked me up some paints and washes from Christchurch, which as the paint supply situation over here is quite grim it was a good thing. Nice one mate!

And my ole chum Al, managed to score myself a Matchbox Album 1980 and he donated me a selection of WW2 NZ Home Guard, Territorial Army figure stands. Blooming useful they are as well. Quite a nice haul I think.

Model on!

Airfix Spitfire VB

 Dave being Dave managed to knock this together over a couple of days.

 Manufactured 1986 and brought for $2.50 NZD off an online auction site.

Super effort Dave

Pre-Xmas Haul Pt2

 More of the pre Christmas haul, along with the Railway buildings and associated item I picked up were these Modern 70's-80's trucks. They will fit right in with the Cold war era. Above a Mercedes Benz or Damiler Benz 2632 (I think) Concrete mixer. Perfect for a Engineer Troop stand vehicle. The hubs on this have been glued the wrong way and try as I might I cannot get them off. The green paint will hide this. I think the Manufacturer is Kibri. 

 Again another concrete mixer, but the tractor unit can be used for other taskings. Maybe another 2632 or perhaps a 2628. Really good detail on this model.

 More Mercedes/ Damiler Benz hardware here, a 1632 looking at it. The tralier is a star here, just right for Engineering units Bailey Bridges. Herpa maybe?

 But wait another Mercedes/ Damiler Benz. canopy covered decks make it suitable to go straight into a Transport Troop after painting. Maybe a 1320?

 Scania 112 with lowboy trailer, just right for transporting armour.

 DAF 2600 or 2800, freakingly ugly unit, which will stay as it is.

 A switch point for eye candy

And lastly a decent size box of spare vehicle parts. This is very welcome, you can never have enough spare parts.

Matchbox M16 Conversion Complete

 I finished this off the other night with the application of some decals and a good old fashioned dirty up.

 I hate putting the star on the bonnet, but it looks rather naked with it.

 Not much modelling carried out yesterday, in fact none other than a 1:1 scale trampoline.

Seen here with the Airfix rebuild I carried out earlier in the month.

Model on dudes! And remember to post your model hauls so I can drool over them.

Airfix Gurkha's

 The last in Daves trio of World War Two far eastern figure fest ends with Airfix's well intentioned but maligned Gurkhas. Again Dave has painted them up a treat, but the fact they are wearing a tunic spoils the actual figures.

 Safari suits aside these are well thought out figures for the most part with only a couple of questionable poses.

 Since it's 5 minutes to Christmas day I had better wrap this up.

Cheers again Dave, and well painted. Merry Christmas!

Airfix Australian Infantry

As a companion to the Matchbox ANZAC set, Dave has rustled up a few Airfix Australians. I do enjoy the early model Thompson gun and the inclusion of the US supplied gaiters. 

 These blend into the Matchbox figures with ease, not surprisingly as Hugh from the very informative 

http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/ as pointed out the sculpture work was carried out by the same person. And a pat on the back is deserved to this man for his wonderful work. 

Again Dave has used a lovely faded shade for the military denims. Super stuff Dave...But wait there's more to come!

Matchbox ANZAC's

 Dave again has sent me a plethora of photos of his latest projects, with the first post of three I am hoping to squeeze in before Christmas we have Matchbox (Soon to be re-released from Revell) ANZAC's. 

 Bren gun team with the No1 reaching for the spare barrel, which the No2 should be carrying, after all that's what a No2 is supposed to be for.

 Charging rifleman with SMLE. Lovely detail on these poses, probably the first set to include rifle bandoleers on the pose.

 Vickers MMG, super looking gun moulding, and much better than Matchbox's British Infantry.

 Officer/NCO and Signaler type along with another rifleman. One of the best Signaler poses out there I think.

 Unfortunately the only weak links in the set are I believe the actual Mortar, which is a rather clumsy affair like all Matchbox Mortars and the wounded fella which takes up a pose while not actually being very useful. Super moulding again however.

 More charging and another Officer type, the best thing about all these poses is that they all seem to fit together.

 Firing poses with another Bren pose. The amount of poses in this set is flippin fantastic.

The bloke on the left is missing his mule Dave where's his mule?

Great work Dave, with the faded jungle green look perfectly carried out. Well done.