Volume 13, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane · PDF fileDragon have announced a new 1/35th scale kit of...

where do we produce our

masterpieces? Where do

you work? Have you a

dedicated area or just (as

I used to do) take over the

kitchen table? Where and

how do you store your

stash? I look forward to

the responses, and

PLEASE send photos to

illustrate your situation.

See you next month,

hopefully with pics from

my visit to the Australian

Armour and Artillery Mu-

seum in Cairns.

Oh, what a great feeling.

What feeling? The feeling

you get when you are put-

ting together the newslet-

ter and have exactly the

right amount of content for

the available space.

Just what I needed on a

day when it’s bucketing

rain, the back yard resem-

bles a swamp and the dog

is complaining because

he hasn’t been for a walk

(and nor is he going to,

either!)

Thank you everybody who

contributed—your contri-

butions were appreciated.

On that subject, quite

some years ago I started

the practice of adding the

name of the contributor to

the start of each article,

but neglected to point out

one small but important

point. That is—if there is

no attribution at the start

of the article, it’s because

I wrote it.

The article on parts stor-

age was more successful

than I had hoped, which

makes me think that a

similar article in each

newsletter would be a

good idea.

OK, having had that flash

of literary genius, what will

be the topic for next

month? Workspaces—i.e.

Editorial (aka Rob’s Rantings)

1 April 2017

Volume 13, Issue 4

AMMS Brisbane News

Inside this issue:

From the Cupola 2-3

DML Panzer IV Ku-

gelblitz 3-4

Referencing Rationale 5

Nuclear Artillery 6

AMMS Mega Raffle 7

Parts Storage 8-9

Odds & Sods 10

Above—another new release from Meng, courtesy of PMMS and Terry Ashley.

CHILDHOOD MODEL KIT ACQUISITIONS - I

REMEMBER WHEN….. PART 1

Talking about older kits (this month’s meeting theme) got me reminiscing about my younger days recalling the

shops I visited to procure kits to fulfil my growing hobby needs. Ah yes, how this brings me back and all the fond

memories of a time when all we had to do was be a kid! Those were the days.

When I was a young whipper snapper I lived on the north-west side of Brisbane. When I was old enough to ac-

tually start buying kits myself (with my hard earned pocket money) I would often wander down to the local K-Mart

at Arana Hills. There wasn’t much on offer thinking back now but I didn’t really know any different either. I would

purchase 1:72 aircraft and military vehicle kits because that was my interest (and budget!) at the time. From

memory they were Hasegawa and Fujimi kits respectively.

If I was lucky on our family shopping expeditions I could venture to our local Toy Land (if I remember correctly

and later renamed Toy world) at Brookside Shopping Centre, Mitchelton. I bought Matchbox kits from there –

their 1:72 military vehicles were a favourite of mine at the time!

Occasionally my family would go to Chermside Shopping Centre. They had a different toy shop there although

the name escapes me. They had a different range of kits again. Brands like Esci and Airfix. I had never seen

these before so it was all very exciting.

When I was a bit older maybe 12 or 13, I happened across a mates’ built and painted 1:35 Tamiya King Tiger. I

was immediately impressed with the size of this kit and how good it looked under paint. This then kicked off my

interest in 1:35 kits.

K-Mart Arana Hills had a range of 4 1:35 Tamiya kits at the time - Panther, Tiger I, King Tiger and SdKfz 250/9,

oh and a 1:35 Revell Sherman. That was their entire range of 1:35 military kits as I recall. It didn’t matter to me

though – I didn’t have any of them!

So as it turned out my very first 1:35 kit purchase was the Tamiya Panther kit. After assembly and upon my next

trip to K-Mart I purchased gloss brown and gloss green spray paints from the paint section and painted my Pan-

ther. Gloss chocolate brown with gloss emerald green camouflage. Beautiful!

My next 1:35 kits were, in order, the Tamiya Tiger I, the SdKfz 250/9 and the King Tiger – all painted with Hum-

brol Ochre and Earth Brown camouflage! Hand painted of course. But then I sprayed the Tiger I white with an

aerosol paint to give it a winter white wash! Very smick!

I reluctantly purchased the 1:35 Revell Sherman from that same K-Mart store as there was nothing else to buy.

It had a photograph of the built kit as the box top art work and it looked rather poor so I was not too excited about

this kit. And I was not disappointed at all as my assumption was correct; it was a rather poor kit in comparison to

the Tamiya offerings.

Continued on

Page 2

Volume 13, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

However upon another visit to my favourite K-Mart there was a 1:35 Tamiya M4A3 Sherman on the shelf and it

soon ended up at home as well. I figured that it must have been the latest release. I painted that one in Hum-

brol Olive Green or Olive Drab whatever it was called.

And so this is probably about the time when I started to take a serious interest in what the vehicles actually were

and when they were used (when I first started referencing ha ha!). I was in Stafford City Shopping Centre one

day and in the Book World they were selling condensed versions of an old Salamander Publication titled, The

Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World’s Tanks and Fighting Vehicles that I had more or less had on permanent

loan from the local shire council library for years it seemed! The books were titled, An Illustrated Guide to World

War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles, and the other volume was titled similarly but covered modern tanks. These

were an absolute bargain at $3.00 a piece and were quickly snapped up. These may very well have been my

very first tank books for my fledgling library. And so began my thirst for information about tanks and military ve-

hicles.

It was about this time that I saw for the first time and quickly purchased a 1985 Tamiya Catalogue probably from

the Brookside Shopping Centre Toyworld. I was in awe of the stuff in that glossy publication! I was absolutely

gobsmacked by the huge range of 1:35 kits that Tamiya had produced and bitterly disappointed that my local

shop only had a couple of them. And the catalogue showed 1:16 remote controlled tanks and other 1:25 tank

kits! Wow!

Fortunately I was able to find other kits in the Tamiya Military Miniatures collection at the specialist toy shops

around the traps. This included a Leisuretronics store at Stafford City and a fantastic toy and hobby shop on the

3rd level of the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre (I don’t recall the name of shop unfortunately). It had a large se-

lection of kits and a great range of 1:35 Tamiya and Italeri kits to boot! That shop quickly became a favourite of

mine and I used to try to get there as often as I could.

Then one day at the cinema, during the advertising before the movie, there was an advertisement for a shop

called Gabba Hobbies – radio controlled, railway, planes, cars, military, other hobbies. It looked absolutely un-

believable! I memorised the name and then looked it up in the yellow pages when I returned home. After work-

ing out how to get there by locating the closest railway station and the streets we needed to walk in the UBD,

Shane Black and I made the journey one Saturday morning and holy shit we were in heaven!

That my fellow modeller concludes part 1 of my childhood model kit acquisitions as I remember them. This has

been such a fun article to write bringing back so many memories. Hopefully some of your memories flooded

back as you read through mine– you may have even been frequenting the same haunts as me! Please share

your boyhood model purchasing expeditions with the rest of us – go on share your story, you know you want too!

Stay tuned for the conclusion of my model kit acquisition memoirs in next month’s newsletter.

Until next time, take care, stay safe, and happy modelling to all!

Kindest regards,

From the Cupola (Cont’d from Page 1)

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 13, Issue 4

DML Panzer IV Kugelblitz (Thanks Peter Battle)


Dragon have announced a new 1/35th scale kit of the ‘Kugelblitz’ FlakPanzer and have provided two CAD images of the future release. This vehicle was a progression from the Mobelwagen, Wirbelwind and Ostwind flak panzers and was designed to overcome some basic flaws of the others, being that the crew compartment was large and open leaving crew exposed, plus providing more firepower with twin 30 mm MK 103 cannon.

The Kugelblitz was based on a Panzer IV Mobelwagen Flakpanzer chassis, with a new upper hull roof designed to enclose the vehicle with an opening to allow for fitting a large ‘Ball Turret’ accommodating the 30mm MK 103 guns. Documentary evidence has been discovered on this vehicle, including a photograph of a completed vehicle in Kum-mersdorf Germany, confirming they were not ‘Paper Panzers’. At least 2 vehicles were actually built and one is known to have been destroyed in the latter stages of WW2, near Spichra, Thuringia, Germany (approx. 350 km south east of Berlin). Parts of the destroyed vehicle have been recovered from the forest (and are currently held in private collector’s hands). A second vehicle is reported to have been involved in the ‘Battle of Berlin’. A ball turret captured during the war is currently displayed in a museum in Germany.

Dragon previously released a kit of this vehicle based on their ‘Imperial Series’ Panzer IV Ausf J chassis, itself a rebox based on the old Gunze Sangyo kits. The kit was very basic and had several errors and lacked a lot of de-tail, even for a kit of its time.

This ‘new’ kit is based on using Dragon’s updated Panzer IV componentry with new sprues for the Kugelblitz ball turret and a new upper hull moulding required to accommodate the larger turret ring required to fit the Ball Turret. However, despite the update with new crisper components, based on the two CAD images provided, the kit does not accurately represent the vehicles known to be built.

Available development records indicate that the Kugelblitz were built on the Mobelwagen Flakpanzer chassis, not the standard Panzer IV gun tank chassis, as this was best suited to the modifications required. In this regard, sev-eral features of the production 3.7cm armed Mobelwagen chassis are absent in the 3d images of the new Dragon kit:

The lower hull should have the extended sides projecting past the front Glassis plate with tow hook holes drilled through them, as well as the older style Panzer IV tow mounts fitted to the Glassis.

The upper hull should be perfectly rectangular, not sloped inward on the front side of the hull as…

The front hull is too narrow to accommodate the driver and radio operator hatches in the correct positions. Whilst the Dragon images show them correctly angled in relation to the hull front, not parallel as per the gun tank, the hatches in the CAD image are located too close to the turret’s outer shield. The remnant of the hull found in Spichra, is part of the upper hull and the turret ring, complete with the shield in place. It shows the hatches were located further away from the shield ring, and assuming standard hatches were used, this can only be achieved if the hull sides are wider.

In 2015 a photograph of a panzer IV hull came to light, which is now believed to be that of a second Kugelblitz in Berlin. The note on the back of the photo is quite descriptive, down to location and date, and states “turret had been knocked off”. That hull shows the flat roof, straight sides, vertical front upper hull plate and extended hull with tow-ing hook holes and old towing mounts, all as per the Mobelwagen hull. This pic shows no indication of any Jack Block mounting or spare wheel box as depicted in the new Dragon Kit, but which are commensurate to the Mobelwagen chassis, where spare wheels were located on the rear of the upper hull, etc. There are no holes in the upper hull sides for the mounting brackets for Mobelwagen shields and the half cylinder fitting visible on the driver’s side upper hull is not a Mobelwagen fitting, therefore excluding the photo as one of those vehicles. There is nothing to indicate it was an Ostwind, as that vehicle had a downward sloping hull roof based on the few pics of the vehicle known (although it is believed a ‘late’ model version may have had a flat roof). Therefore by conclusion the pic is considered to be of a Kugelblitz hull. It is notable however, that it also shows a vehicle with 3 return rollers, not 4 as per the Mobelwagen. The image of the new Dragon kit of the Kugelblitz has 4 return rollers depicted.

In the end, whilst a new more detailed kit of the Kugelblitz will be welcomed, all accounts show that this Dragon offering is sadly lacking in accuracy. Whilst the basic work to correct the kit would not be extensive, it will still be a significant fix.

Continued with pics on Page 5

DML Panzer IV Kugelblitz (continued from Page 4)


You may recall this article from a previous edition of our newsletter albeit with some minor edits. It relates to the

provision of reference/s when submitting a model for judging in competitions, or more specifically the reason why

we should consider providing references with our models.

Let’s break it right down to the facts. We’re modellers and we build models of military vehicles right? Yes. The

models we build are scale replicas of vehicles that actually existed or still exist right? Yes. We expect that the

scale models of these military vehicles are accurate right? Yes. Why? Why do they have to be accurate? Is it

because they are supposed to be scale models of factual military vehicles? Yes. Okay that makes sense doesn’t

it?

So then what if the model is not accurate? As modellers, what do we do then? Well most of us go out and buy

aftermarket replacements to correct the model to make it accurate. Some of us even scratchbuild replacement

parts. Yes. We don’t have to of course but many of us do. We buy replacement gun barrels, road wheels, tracks,

turrets, hulls, etch sets, decals, et cetera. Yes. Why? To replace those parts that are not accurate of course! Fair

enough.

But how do we know that the parts in the scale model are not accurate? Word of mouth? Internet discussion

groups and forums? Kit reviews in magazines and on the internet? Checked it out for ourselves? Yes. But how

do we know that the information about the kit parts being wrong is actually right? References! Whether it was our

own personal reference material, material from the internet, publications in the library, period photographs in an

archive or photographs of surviving vehicles in museums is irrespective, or whether it was identified by you or

someone else, the information can be obtained and used to verify the accuracy of the model. This is the first step

for many of us in our quest for accuracy and somewhere along the line reference material was obtained and con-

sulted to produce the model kit of the vehicle.

Is near enough not good enough? For many modellers it is not. We have to make our models more accurate so

we buy aftermarket replacements for the parts that are inaccurate. Have we not then contributed to the effective

use of references at this point as well?

So now we have built our model as accurately as we can (or want to) based upon the kit manufacturer’s reference

material right? Yes. And where necessary or desirable with the addition of the aftermarket manufacturers’ re-

placement parts right? Yes. So to continue to make our model as accurate as possible we paint it the colour that

it was actually painted? Yes. But we don’t have to do we? We can paint our little masterpieces any way we damn

well like, but most of us choose to use an appropriate colour based on the actual vehicle. And then apply decals to

our model to depict it as it was when it was in service? Yes. And the colours and markings are determined by

what method generally? References!

So you see where this is going don’t you. Whether we have consulted reference materials ourselves or not, we

invariably build kits to a standard which we believe to be accurate. We don’t have to of course, but we usually do

anyway. After all, why call it a scale model if it is not a replica of the real vehicle? We then finish the model in a

way which we believe is historically accurate too. So then why do a percentage of modellers object to the use of

reference material during this detailing and painting stage in the finishing of their models when all along they have

willingly or unwittingly applied references to their work?

So then if you have used references to construct your model, to make your model more authentic and/or more re-

alistic, why would you not want to show a judge what references you used? Surely it would be more beneficial

than letting a judge ponder and guess at what they are looking at!

It’s not due to the cost of reference material or the inability to access reference material. Sure books can be ex-

pensive but a borrowed book costs nothing, and shared information from the internet and from other modellers via

email is free. So research your model and build them as accurately as you can, it’s also a great way to learn more

factual information about the subject your modelling. That’s if you want to of course!

The Referencing Rationale for our Modelling Masterpieces (Thanks Brad)

Volume 13, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

Nuclear Artillery (Thanks Charlie)


In the 1950s there was considerable interest in delivering nuclear warheads with artillery. This idea had some ad-vantages in that artillery is not subject to weather like planes and can deploy fairly quickly. Missiles at the time were unreliable and barely in advance of the WW2 German V-2 missile which required a long preparation time before firing.

The US Ordnance Dept developed the M65 Atomic Cannon in the early 1950s. About 20 of these were built and deployed starting in 1953. The design of the 280mm cannon was based, in part, on the WW2 German K-5 railway gun. The cannon required two six-wheel towing vehicles which made the unit very long and restricted the cannon's off road capability. The Atomic Cannon was fired only once with a nuclear projectile in 1953 at the Nevada test site.

The Soviet Union perceived a capability gap with the deployment of the M65 and began development of its own nu-clear capable artillery. It appears that Soviet engineers could not shrink nuclear weapons down as far the US could so the calibre of the Soviet nuclear artillery was much larger than the US 280mm.

The Grabin Design Bureau completed the design of a 406mm howitzer, reusing old Naval barrels, in 1955. The Ki-rov plant in Leningrad built 4 of these monstrous 64 ton guns on a chassis based on the T-10 heavy tank, The SPGs were designated 2A3 Kondensator 2P. The Kondensator and the similar 2B1 Oka, which mounted a 420mm mortar, suffered from major problems with the recoil of the massive guns damaging the vehicles to the extent they often were unable to be driven after firing the gun.

The obvious solution was to use a gun with much reduced recoil although, at the time, there was no experience con-structing large calibre recoilless guns. Undaunted V. G. Grabin and his team designed two recoilless guns of 280mm and 420mm calibres. The propellant charge was loaded into a special chamber and produced pressures up to 2000 atmospheres when fired. Part of the gas from the propellant charge pushed out the projectile the rest was fed through a complex system of rearward facing nozzles to balance the recoil forces. The 420mm barrel was com-pleted first and mounted on a T-10 tank chassis like the Kondensator and Oka. The device was given the designa-tion C-103. In January 1956 the recoilless gun fired six shots and then the barrel and breech separated due to a failure in the threaded joint at the base of the barrel. In September 1956 firing trials resumed with a new breech. Af-ter a further 95 shots the gun exploded destroying not only the gun but damaging the tracked chassis. The idea of a large calibre recoilless nuclear gun was abandoned.

Nuclear artillery did not survive the 1950s – the Kondensator and Oka never made it general service and the M65 Atomic Cannon was out of service by 1963. The nuclear projectiles were replaced by even smaller projectiles which could be fired by standard 155mm and 203mm guns. Short range nuclear capable missiles also became cheaper and more reliable than the monster tracked guns so the reason for their existence vanished.

Unfortunately no videos seem to have survived of the C-103 firing – the flash from rear of the gun would have been very impressive.

There's no model of the C-103, or, as far as I know, the 2A3 Kondensator and 2B1 Oka. I believe there's re-released Renwall M65 Atomic Annie, the original model dates back to the 1960s.

Left—drawing of 406mm Kondensator

Bottom left—420mm Kondensator

Below—Atomic Annie at Yuma Proving Ground

AMMS 2017 Mega Raffle (Thanks Russell Hall)


For those of you who were able to make the March meeting you would have heard the announcement of a Mega

Raffle prize that the club was going to run with it rolling out at the April meeting. Well, here it is -

Takoms V-2 Rocket, Meillerwagen and Hanomag SS-100

About the kit and brief history

The kit consists of its own transport truck, trailer system

and of course a V-2 Rocket. This was designed to make

these large missiles transportable and able to fire well

away from the heavily targeted launch pads of places like

Peenemunde. The kit can be assembles either in

transport or firing modes.

It is rather a large box consisting of all grey plastic, rubber

tyres, instruction booklets, decal sheets, a small etch fret

and some chain

The Hanomag SS-100 was a heavy tractor multipurpose vehicle with a D85 diesel, 6 cylinder, 8550 cc engine and

was manufactured from 1936 to 1945 and after 1945 as the French ST-100

The trailer launcher “ Meillerwagen “ consisted of 2 major components, the transport frame and the erecting frame.

The elevating assembly was powered by a hydraulic ram. The Meillerwagen would transport the V-2 to the firing

site, raise it and then be used in fueling and servicing the rocket.

The German A-4/V-2 was a single stage ballistic missile that heralded the start of space research. The V-2 or Ag-

gregat 4 was the 1st long range ballistic missile used in combat. The missile propelled a 1 tonne warhead 50 miles

high and hundreds of miles down range to its target.

So there it is. This separate raffle will run alongside the current door and existing raffle and tickets will be $ 5.00

each. The drawing will be made once sufficient tickets have been sold so this may drag into the May meeting so be

in to win

We do realize that this subject may not be ” every ones cup of tea “ so to speak – but if you were to win it and didn’t

want to keep it then I am certain that others wouldn’t mind taking it off your hands for some folding stuff. Proceeds of

this venture will go into the club funds so it is every ones interest to participate so thank you in advance for your con-

tribution.

The raffle and prizes in general

AMMS over the years has prided itself on the “ quality “ of its raffle prizes and within limitations, its variety of sub-

jects. The club does want this to continue so that interest is maintained but as time goes by there are governing fac-

tors which are out of our control. Kits are continually going up in price and you don’t have to be shopping on the in-

ternet to see that. Increasing postage and freight charges also has to be considered. Some brands of kits unless

found on special somewhere are simply too much even though they may be a great subject so in all we are now

having to be very selective as to what we purchase and where we purchase it from.

So – please consider the following

What would you like to see MORE of or what would you like to see LESS of ?

Please do give it some thought and pass these on either to Brad or myself. No idea is too silly as to what we present

or how we present it so please bring your ideas forward.

Parts Storage


It was recently when I was looking for a spare part through my large amount of storage that it occurred to me to wonder how everybody else stored theirs. Why was I looking for a spare part? ‘Cos the one I had been using had pinged off into the wild blue yonder, of course. Fortunately, it was a part for an Sd.Kfz. 251, and I have no shortage of parts for those.

So I asked the question, and received responses from those below.

Al Kelly

My spares are organised generically mostly in old kit boxes distributed within my stash and usually collocated with or near their own genre eg Japanese tank spares are stored with the Japanese tank kits. There are boxes of car parts, decals and military vehicle bits, and even one that sits close to hand on the work bench that contains offcuts of plastic sheet and rod etc – very handy for scratcbuilding. I’ve also got one of those small cabinets with little plas-tic drawers for things like tools, weapons, helmets, lights etc. One of my general spares boxes dates back to the 1960s and it’s always a nostalgia trip trawling through it for the part I want. I hate to throw out anything!

Peter Battle

I store my spares in either the boxes of the kits I have already made, or in plastic cases that have compartments to keep related parts sepa-

rate. I try to keep related items together i.e. Panzer IV parts in one box, Sherman parts in another, etc. Sometimes I will put parts in Ziploc bags and store them in the boxes to keep all the parts together.

Some of my spares box is made up of part built kits... stuffed back in the box for some reason or other.

Having had a clear out prior to our move last year, several boxes of items that were never going to be used due to the age of the donor kit and/or poor quality of the parts, were discarded but I still hold several boxes of spare parts - just in case. The attached photo is some of the spares boxes I have.

Then of course, there are the 'future spares' that could be found in my stash of unbuilt kits... often modellers forget the little treasures still lurking in their boxes of unbuilt models when they need to replace a part eaten by the Carpet Monster (or black Dish Licker...)

Having been involved in some online modelling fraternities for years, I have been able to supply other modellers around the world with parts to replace missing or damaged items they had. I have also been able to supply our club members from time to time. With that in mind. with the Facebook page up and running, we could use that for the occasional 'does anyone have a spare 'X'?" so we can check what we have and bring it in to the next meeting if we do.

PS Great idea for an article. Maybe next month you can do an update on who has actually used items from their spares box? Continued on Page 10

Parts Storage (continued from Page 9)


Shane Black

Interesting thought Rob. Never had that question come my way before so here's some pics of my 20+ years of left overs. Stored (appropriately) in old kit boxes.

I intend one day to sort it out properly and put German bits in one box (heaps of Dragon light grey plastic there) Al-lied with Allied and Modern with Modern.

Wingy boxes have wingy bits naturally enough. I sort of have a separate Sherman stash, but there's plenty more M4 bits amongst the rest to sort out.

Ian Cousins

I used to just put all the left over sprues into a big box but now I “bag up” each kits left overs and mark on the bag what kit it was. Makes it a lot easier to look for things now. Hope this is of use.

Mine

Maybe I’m a bit OCD (be quiet Rusty—you too, Ken!) but I store my spare parts in drawers and boxes. For this pur-pose, the products produced by Tactix and available from Bunnings are not horrendously expensive.

The drawers in the picture on the left contain mainly figure equipment and weapons. The ones in the picture on the right contain myriad small bits for vehicles, diorama bits, etc. The black and orange boxes at top right (Tactix) con-tain larger vehicle parts and tracks. The sign is courtesy of my grandchildren!

Meets first Saturday of every month at

Loganlea Community Centre, Timms Street,

Loganlea, between 11:30am and 4:00pm

Contributions to the newsletter are always

welcome. Please email contributions to the

editor at [email protected]

A M M S B R I S B A N E

Figures from the 80s (thanks Airfix)

AMMS Brisbane is on the

Web at

www.ammsbrisbane.com

.

Below—and finally, a few funnies from Wayne Nelson

Volume 13, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane · PDF fileDragon have announced a new 1/35th scale kit of...

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