January 2018

happy
2018!
C3PO & R2D2
These are not the droids
you’re looking for...

T-55
In paradise island

Zil-131
To the rescue Two new
gifts inside
Scammell Pioneer
Tank transporter
E-100
Centaur With Krupp turret

Royal marines
fire support

Sponsored by
Is published by Coronel Caramel S.l.
CIF B54483052
Editorial office & administration
Club de fútbol Hercules 6
03008 Alicante
Spain
Te: 965112833
Email: fcmodeltips@gmail.com

Director: Federico Collada

Editor: Federico Collada
Design: Federico Collada
Graphics: Federico Collada
Models and photographs: Federico Collada
Miguel Angel Ruiz

Editorial
One year has passed entirely and the magazine is in good shape, many friends are coming
to collaborate with their own articles and help like the Spanish modeller Miguel Angel Ruiz
who presents us his ICM Zil 131, 1/35 scale in emergency squad colours, and Martin Csanadi
whose wonderful designs are well known by many modellers and will have his own space in
the magazine form now on to show his skills in designing scale accessories that we will be
able to print to use in our own projects, thank you very much Martin!
This issue includes a couple of recent models that have caught the attention for some months
since they were announced for the first time, I’m talking about the Thunder model Scammell
Pioneer TRMU30 with the TRCU30 trailer and the Miniart T-55 model 1963, I wanted to build
these two kits as soon as possible to show them finished while they’re still hot at the model
shops shelves. Another new model that arrived to the magazine is the Amusing Hobby E-100,
a massive machine that provides the modeller with some imaginative possibilities to show it in
a fictitious warfare scenario.
As most of you I’m preparing my projects for 2018 which includes more space in the
magazine for more friends’ articles, hopefully some Sci-fi which is something that I always
have liked very much.
And the last thing I want to do is to wish all of you readers, friends and supporters a very
happy and successful 2018.

Federico Collada

3
Index Page 6

Page 26

Page 32

Page 42

6 - Africa base
8 - Blitzscales previews
26 - Centaur fire support
32 - T-55 in paradise island
42 - Zil-131 emergency in Ukraine
49 - The Martin Csanadi gift galore
51 - Scammell Pioneer tank transporter
58 - C3PO & R2D2
70 - E-100 with Krupp turret

4
Page 51

Page 49

Page 58

Page 70

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 Cut & paste
1- Print the opposite page, resize if you need to fit your wood base

2- Varnsh to protect the printing

3- Glue onto a wood base using white glue

4- Press softly with a sponge to eliminate any air bubbles

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 Scale; 1/35
Producer; Tamiya

The cruiser tanks A24 Cavalier, A27 (M)

Cromwell and A27 (L) Centaur were developed to
substitute the already obsolete Crusader. The requirement
was made in 1940 and the first designs tested in 1941. The Cavalier
was dropped aside as its Liberty L-12 engine didn’t provide the
necessary power. The A27(M) series were provided with a new
engine based on the Merlin that equipped the Spitfire fighters and
some time later the Cavalier was redesigned to use the Liberty
engine but capable of receiving the new meteor engines as soon as
they were disposable. This model was called Centaur.
Both Cromwell and Centaur were produced by several factories
that provided altogether 3066 Cromwell and 950 Centaur.
The A27 were provided with a 6 pdr gun that was later replaced by
a 75mm gun capable of firing the same high explosive ammunition
than the Sherman tank.
The Centaur was used mainly for training purposes and only the
specialized versions were used in combat, the most important one
was the close infantry support that housed a 95mm howitzer; these
were used by the Royal marines support group during the D-day.
The Centaurs of the Royal Marines were supposed to provide
supporting fire while the landing craft were approaching the beach,
a complex compass arrangement markings was added to the turret
allowing the spotter to aim the gun. This was a usual naval practice
in large ships when the firing controls were not on the turrets.

26

The Vallejo Olive drab primer was
a perfect start, very similar to the
English colour and covering with
just the first hand.
The only available kit
Tamiya released this kit together with the
Cromwell back in 1999 in its very typical
fashion; few parts, vinyl tracks, easy building,
perfect fitting and included a pair of figures;
on the other side it lacked the detail quality
of other brands and didn’t provide any
photoetched parts. It was a classical kit
designed for novel modellers that could enjoy a
pleasant build work that required just a couple
of hours.
Since then no other company has ever
released again neither the Centaur nor the
Cromwell in 1/35 scale again although Bronco
chose the Comet (a A27 derivate) as one of
their first subjects in 2005.

Some highlighting
with lighter green
filters to enhance
the volumes and
imitate the zenithal
illumination.

The stowage
elements came form
the spares box plus
some vinyl gloves.

27
 The compass markings in the
Centaur turret served an exterior
aiming control to direct the fire
support. This was a common
practice in some large ships turrets.

The stowage resin parts and

some latex tied with cotton thread.

Some easy fun

I had this kit for a very long time, possibly since

it was released nearly 20 years ago, it never
attracted me too much due to it’s simplicity and
it’s relatively short action history, anyway I like
to enjoy a weekend project form time to time
and I decided to give the kit the chance. I didn’t
have any photoetched parts for it but I did have
the trumpeter separate links tracks, although
they’re not tip top parts they surely are better
than the vinyl ones provided by Tamiya, so this
and a metal tube for the main gun were the
only upgrades that I added to the kit.

As I said, I built the whole model in a couple

of hours and spent a couple more to clean
and build the tracks that fitted to the sprocket
perfectly so there was no need for any kind of
adaptation.
I changed the plastic main gun for a same
diameter metal tube to which I fixed the kit
muzzle.

28
 Vinyl can be painted like any Some rust colours
other plastic or resin part.. drybrushing and washes.

Although the Instructions in the box suggest the Royal marines Centaurs were painted in SCC2
brown colour there are some discrepancies about this fact, in a first stage the tanks were supposed
to provide fire support from the landing crafts and don’t go any further but in the end it was decided
that they would follow the rest of the landing forces so they might be repainted in SCC15 as the rest
of the war material involved in the D-day landings.
After some time trying to decide what colour should I used I made up my mind and selected the
SCC15 version, just a matter of preference. I used the Vallejo Olive drab primer to cover the whole
model except the tracks. Next I used some lighter shades of green to highlight the model insisting
first at the centre of the bigger surfaces diluting the paint with 75% thinner, later on I prepared a
second filter, this time diluted with 85% thinner and airbrushing form above to imitate the zenithal
illumination. Once dry I airbrushed a layer of gloss to place the decals, these were a bit deteriorated
due to the passing of the years and caused me some trouble even using the Vallejo medium and fix
specific products.

29
 Although the Cromwell
and Centaur were
different tanks they were
almost indistinguishable
form the exterior. Both
were armed with the
same gun and had a fire
support version.

Pigments applied
with much thinner, they
deposit at recessed
Sponging is an easy zones and around details.
technique to replicate the
rusted chipping.

I primed the tracks sections (I made four

for each side) with a mix of dark red and black
colours and then applied some rust tone
washes for this colour to accumulate at the
recessed zones of the links, once dry I fixed
them to the tank.

After this part of the painting process I

prepared the stowage elements to fit them
to the tank shapes, I used some resin
accessories, paper boxes, latex gloves, etc.
Once I had them ready I primed them just like
the rest of the model. I fixed the stowage with
some white glue and ciano.

I wanted my Centaur to look operative but

just with a few days operating so not much
You can make washes weathering would be required, mostly some
just diluting standard dust and dirt and only a subtle chipping in
paints with water. certain zones.
30
 I begun by altering the base colour using
acrylic washes as filters that I sponged
randomly creating superposed stains that gave
the tank the chromatic variety I wanted.
Next I used a dark brown tone to drybrush
some chipping at the boxes and fenders edges;
on other parts I used the sponging technique
to deposit very little paint dots imitating the
chipping on the flat surfaces.
I stopped here to paint the details both in the
tank and the stowage; guns, belts, crates, etc.
All of them using acrylic colours and further
washes to shadow some details at them,
always using the same base colours darkened
with some black and diluted with 75% thinner. The pigments wash is a fast method
I applied some more rust tone washes to the for a general dust and dirt accumulation,
tracks using both diluted paints and thinned once dry you can eliminate any excess
pigments. with a dry brush.

A last soft and general pigment wash using

an earth tone served to create the dust and dirt
accumulation everywhere, once the wash was
dry I checked for any excess and then fixed the
layer with a turpentine wash.
The last phase was to imitate the exposed
metal using a graphite pencil and some
graphite dust rubbed with a felt pen. With this I
called the model finished

The whole job took no longer than 8 hours and

it was a very pleasant and relaxing work for the
weekend same kind of things you can do when
you’re at a modelling meeting with friends.

A graphite pencil and some graphite

pigment rubbed with a cloth was enough to
imitate the ploished metal at some zones.
31

The new Miniart T-55 box is cramped
with parts and weights quite a lot. Even the
finished model with all the interior parts is
much heavier than a standard tank model
in this scale.
The building starts with the engine, a replica
of the V-55 12-cylinder 4-stroke one-chamber
38.88 litre water-cooled diesel model.
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Scale; 1/35
Producer; Miniart
As a Soviet Union partner during the cold
war, Cuba received all the military material
and assistance they ever needed to keep
their forces up to the best status in South
America. The first T-55 arrived Cuba directly
from the USSR with the medium range nuclear
missiles SS4 and SS5 in 1962. Two entire
battalions were formed with these tanks at the
occident zone of the island to defend it against
a hypothetical US troops landing. The soviet
commander took in charge the training of the
Cuban forces in the modern tank warfare and
the next year they started passing their tanks to
them to substitute the older T34/85s.
The following decades the Cuban army (FAR)
received large quantities of T-55 of different
models and upgrades, they organized them in
brigades and regiments as the
Soviet army from which they
received the conception of
powerful strikes against the
landing forces using their own
armoured units assisted by the
motorized infantry.
 Following the line
Miniart has provided all the T-54 models
1/35 scale in a series that has overwhelmed
modellers due to their impressive detail and
large quantity of parts involved, mostly in the
versions that include the interior parts. Now it’s
the time to start with the T-55 family and the
chosen model is the one that was built in 1963,
prior to the T-55A.
As all the T-54 kits, this one includes complete
interior separated links tracks, workable
suspension, transparent lenses and periscopes,
photoetched parts and a large decals sheet
containing the markings for 12 different tanks
form many countries. It also includes some
optional parts that are to be used depending
on the decoration we will select for the model.
The many parts frets contains also some
unnecessary parts that belong to other versions
of the tank so take care you use the right ones.
The instructions are very clear so you should
have no problem about this at all.

The Cuban army camouflage

scheme is not too complicated,
just some random large
patches of sand and brown
colour over the standard Soviet
dark green.

The kit includes

some optiona parts
that you must choose
depending on the
decoration you want
for your model.

The engine is a kit in itself,

made of several parts that fit
perfectly and gives the modeller
an excellent opportunity in
practising all kind of weathering
painting techniques.

33
 The long building process
The building process starts wit the engine,
made of several parts that you must add to the
main block; then you build the engine cradle
and pass to the lower part of the hull where all
the suspension arms housings must be fixed in
place. After that it’s time to add all the interior
elements to the hull floor; suspension arms,
protection plates, driving levers, driver seat,
stowage boxes, ammunition, communication
systems, etc. Next we will be asked to build
the hull sides, both interior and exterior details
must be added before gluing them to the hull
floor. The same happens with the panel that
separates the crew compartment form the
engine bay, where lots of details must be added
too. Finally we build the hull aligning these parts
groups, then we add the engine and prepare
the hull front glacis where the hooks, lights and
the optional mine clearing device attachments
must be added.

The hull interior is cramped with details,

building all of them will require some time
but the result is worth the effort.
Here you can see some pictures taken
while I added more and more parts to the
hull base. The sensation of manipulating
them and watching the kit “grow” is pure
modelling.
 Before going on the instructions suggest
building the wheels and place them on the tank.
Then it’s time to close the crew compartment
with the hull upper plate.
The engine compartment is covered with
many plates and panels that require some
careful work as they are to be detailed with tiny
photoetched elements. Once ready we add
them to the hull together wit the rear plate.
Building the fenders will also require some
attention as they include many photoetched
details too, the kit provides two types of external
fuel tanks; you should choose them depending
on the decoration you have previously selected.
Before adding the fenders you’re suggested to
build and place the tracks, I omitted this part
and saved them for an easier painting. The
rear fuel drums and the snorkel are the last hull
parts to be added.

All the interior elements are very accurate

and depicts differences with the previous
T-54 series models.

As you add the interior elements you

realize how much space did the Soviet
crew have inside the tank. The U.S.S.R.
doctrine did not priorize the comfort.

35

After placing all the interior parts the
hull weights quite much and sadly it’s
time to close it, from now on very little
will be seen through the hatches.
36
Building is also a long work, first you have
to add all the interior details to the turret floor,
then you must build the inner part of the main
gun together with the cradle and add them to
the turret base. With this ready you have to add
all the inner elements to turret and turret roof
halves with their correspondent hatches. Once
you close the turret you can add the main gun
and select if you prefer to use the mantlet cover
or not. The turret interior looks really impressive
with all the details before closing it definitely
with the roof parts, once done it’s time to start
painting.
 With the hull ready it’s time to start
building the fenders and the turret,
both are plenty of elements, may of
them very sublte so some attention is
advisable when manipulating them.

The many tiny photoetched details at

the engine cover are a bit hard to work
with but some patience and a good glue
will do the job, in the end the result is
worth the effort. There is no other T-55
kit as detailed as this one.

Soviet colours for everyone

As I mentioned earlier, Miniart provides enough
decals for 12 different tanks from the USSR,
Viet-Nam, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Finland,
Ethiopia and Cuba, I selected this last one
for my model just because I don’t remember
building a South American tank for many years
and the painting scheme was charming enough.
I started painting the whole model with a 4B0
dark green base using the Vallejo primer.
Then I used some lighter tones to airbrush
successive filters to highlight the details, next I
repeated the process painting the buff and dark
brown large areas.
With the base paint ready I applied a coat of
gloss to prepare the surface for the decals,
in order to ensure a perfect adherence and
adaptation I used the decal fix and decal
medium products.

37
 The turret is very detailed both inside
and outside. The main gun is designed
to be movable at the craddle together
with all the attachments as the MG and
scope.

Painting the model was a very

straightforward and standard
process; primers, highlights,
camouflage, decals, details
painting and weathering.
Everything done with proven
techniques that are very well
known by average modelllers..

I protected the decals with another varnish

layer, this time satin. After letting it rest for a day
I continued with some acrylic washes used as
filters, applied with a medium size brush and
a sponge accumulating subtle stains one over
the other letting them create a varied chromatic
filter that made the camouflage look aged and
spoiled.
I sponged some marks at the fenders edges
and other zones exposed to friction with a
dark rust colour trying not to exaggerate as I
didn’t want my tank to look too spoiled, in fact
I wanted it to look as if on manoeuvres so I
applied a generous amount of dirt over it using
both acrylic mud and pigment washes to cover
the lower part of the hull, wheels and tracks and
lesser at the upper part of the hull, fenders and
mudguards.
Finally I rubbed some parts with graphite dust
and applied oil and fuel stains here and there.

38
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 Scale; 1/35
Producer;ICM

The Zil-131 has been one

of the standard trucks in the
Soviet and their allied armies
during the cold war and
afterwards.

The Zil-131 it’s a Soviet truck that

has been produced since 1966. It was
designed to substitute the older Zil-157 and some
1.000.000 units have been produced. Despite its age the
Zil-131 is still in service in the Russian and other countries
armies. Weighting 3,5 ton and powered by a V8 gasoline
(carburettor) ZIL-130, the Zil-131 has been produced in
different versions for the former Soviet army including a general
cargo truck, trailer, dump, fuel, etc and it also has served as ICM has produced a very
platform for the multi-rocket launcher 9p138. Both the military nice rendition of the Zil-131
and the civilian version (Zil-130) have been upgraded constantly and is releasing many of its
and the last model Zil-131N is still in production.
versions.

42
 The cabin
interior painted
with a black
primer, then the
4B0 dashboard
and door panels
with some
lightening.

The seats
were textured
using liquid
cement and
stencilling with a
hard hair brush.

I painted the
engine just for
fun, in the end I
clsed the hood
so it’s not seen
in the finished
model.

43
 Building
The new kit form ICM depicts a Zil-131 KSHM
from the Ukrainian state emergency service.
The kit is provided in a sturdy box, safe form
any harm, the many parts that form the model
fit very well and the instructions are easy to
follow. The general detail level is high in most
of the truck zones except at the engine which is
a bit summary.
The many transparent windows fit perfectly
leaving no hollows to fill, this is something to
thank due to the many windows that the truck
has.
Although the kit provides the inside elements
of the back structure like the arm lamps, a tool
box, furniture, generator, lathe, etc, I decided
to add some photoetched tools, a warning sign
and a map, in order to let all this be seen I cut
the roof section so it could be retired easily
once finished.

The refugee
interior is
equipped with
furniture and
tools but I
added some
more details
of my own to
add some more
variety.

The back door is big

enough to see all the interior
but I decided to cut a part of
the roof too so everything in
the refugee could be seen.
 Some tool boxes painted
with a grey base and then
shadowed with dark washes
to emphasize the details.

The tools and glasses came from

a generic photoetched set, this
kind of accesories is very helpful in
military and civilian modelling

45
 The yellow colour is a bit complicated to
work with; it requires a good primed base
and then several thin airbrushed layers for
an homogeneous covering.

The rest of the colours were applied

without problems, just masking the
zones correctly with adhesive paper
and airbrushing thin layers for a correct
covering.

46
 Painting
I painted the refugee with Vallejo gray primer
74601 and then airbrushed some shadows
using red brown 70985; then I airbrushed three
thin layers of 72705 moon yellow trying not
to cover the shadows completely. Once dry I
masked to paint the red stripes using 70957.
At the cabin interior I tried to reproduce the
seats texture as the parts provided in the kit
look too flat. I moistened them with glue and
stencilled with a hard brush before they were
dry again.
I used Vallejo primer Russian green 4B0
The windows glasses were masked
73609 for the cabin and 70602 Black for the
to paint the frame the same colour, then
chassis and lower part of the body
weathered as the rest of the vehicle. I used colour 70822 German cam. Black
brown for the chipping on the metallic surfaces
applied both with a sponge and a small brush,
this is my favourite colour for this effect.
For the general dirty look I used the Ammo set
7147 paints.

I recommend this model kit to any modeller,

it’s really easy building and very amusing and
its colourful painting scheme is very attractive
once finished. The only disadvantage I would
mention is the rubber tires that are a bit hard to
sand.

The position lights and indicators

are provided in transparent plastic so
I nailed the tyres with metal
translucent paints are the adequate for
pins trying to press them to
them.
imitate the flattened surface
of the wheels under the truck
weight.

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48
 Our friend from
The Martin Germany shares his
beautiful designs.
Another altruist
Csanadi gift modeller that joins
Blitzscales to provide
us with some very
galore useful stuff for our
models, just print and
enjoy.

1/35 scale
Alpenmark cheese boxes WWII era.

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Scale; 1/35
Producer; THUNDER MODEL

After long waiting we finally

have this iconic British tank
transporter in plastic 1/35
scale. The allied military
modellers can be happy
Thunder Model has done a
good job.

The Scammell Pioneer was a British

6x4 tractor used during WWII in different
configurations such as artillery tractor,
recovery vehicle and tank transporter. This
last one had longer chassis and a larger
cabin with a special space for the tank
crew, the rear wheels were also larger than
the standard ones used in the tractor and
recovery versions. This model was called
TRCU20.
The tractor and trailer combination
TRCU30/TRMU30 was delivered to the
army as a single vehicle and the trailer
could not be separated as easily as they’re
in modern vehicles. The tractor winch
could pull an immobilized tank onto the
trailer platform if needed. The tractor/
trailer combination proved to be too tall to
pass with some tanks under bridges and
was replaced by the US Diamond T tank
transporter from 1941.

51
 The kit comprises
lots of parts, many
of them photoetched
so some care and
patience is advisable.

All together, all of a sudden

Thunder Model has released all the British
truck versions this year; together with IBG they
surprised every modeller as these Pioneers
were not available in plastic 1/35 scale before.
The Chinese company offers both tractor and
trailer in the same box for a very inexpensive
price so if you’re an allied fan and like this kind
of vehicles here is your perfect chance to get an
impressive kit.
The box contains 19 grey plastic parts frames,
photoetched frets, nylon threads and decals
for four different trucks operating in Africa
and Europe. The painting instructions are
provided by AMMO so just their own colour are
suggested, anyway the British colours charts
are well known by modellers so other brands
equivalences are easy to find.

The chassis and

engine before adding
the cabin, most of
these details will be
hidden afterwards.
The fit of the plastic parts is very
good and they don’t need any
preparation aside of some somere
sanding where they are connected
to the general parts panel.

52
 Having some British tanks that I wanted
to paint as operative in the African campaign
I decided to use this scheme for the truck too
considering a possible scene in the near future.
With this idea in mind I started building the truck
following the instructions; beginning with the
engine not knowing for sure if I was to leave the
hood panels open or closed. The instructions
are easy to follow and the parts fit well enough
so the building process is amusing and only The large trailer
some care must be taken when the small is easy to build and
photoetched parts are involved. soon is ready to be
The chassis frame has many elements that primed.
must be aligned correctly or else some of them
will not fit well. All the parts have very good
detail and the photoetched fret provides the
more subtle ones.
The cabin building is very straightforward and
soon is prepared to be closed; I left the doors
and roof aside for a more comfortable painting.
With the fuel tank, side big basket and other
outer details the tractor was ready for painting
so I begun with the trailer.
This can be considered as another kit, the
trailer has its own instructions and painting guide
although is included in the same box. Building
the TRCU30 is easy, even if it has a very large
part for the platform; this is well presented
without any kind of bending or defect so more
or less everything consists in adding parts to
this one. Some PE parts are also involved in the
building but all of them are easy handling so you
should have no problem placing them.

I used a light sand

colour primer for the
whole model and as
it is too light I decided
not to apply any
lightening filter, just
some shadowing.

53
 To enhance the
Desert colours details I used a
medium brown tone
I started painting the model withy Vallejo primer acrylic wash.
73613 Desert tan as I completed some of the
parts groups so I could be sure that every little
corner of the model was painted this base
colour. As it’s a very light tone I didn’t want to
lighten it even more with filters to imitate any
kind of illumination or enhancing details and
volumes, instead I proceeded to emphasize
the shadows using a mid brown acrylic wash.
I applied it with a medium brush and soon
eliminated the excess with a thinner moistened
cotton swab.
I replicated some chipping drybrushing a dark
brown colour, sometimes mixed with some black
trying not to exaggerate the effect except on
the upper side of the trailer where the constant
rubbing of the tanks metal tracks would logically
cause this effect.
The cabin seats were painted in a medium
brown colour and later shadowed with darker
tones using both acrylic washes and standard
paints heavily diluted.
I insisted the outlining of some shadows with a Some drybrushing
dark earth pigment wash that was applied with with different brown
a brush, once dry I cleaned the excess with a tones served to
cotton swab. create the chipping.
For the wheels tires I used the colours of the
new specific paints set for this task, first applying
a dark grey colour and then successive brown
filters.

Once finished the tractor & trailer

combo is quite large and need space
to be exhibited and to take the
pictures for this article. I can`t wait to
put a Matilda or Valentine on top!

The interior details

were painted using
both standard paint
and acrylic washes.

54
 I used a pigment wash
to create more shadows at
the recessed zones, this
technique is very appropiate
as the pigment tends to
deposit in such zones very
well.

A good
assortment of grey
and brown colour is
perfect for the tyres
painting. Once
painted a pigment
wash is all you
need to dirty them.

After placing the decals I varnished the

whole model with satin and let it dry for 24
hours. Then I sponged some heavily diluted
filters using light yellow, cream and sand colour
to imitate the effect of the intense sun and
weather elements on the truck and trailer paint. Once I painted the shadows and
With that part of the painting finished chipping I used the mapping technique
I proceeded to create the dust and dirt
to create some staining on the roof
accumulation; mainly on the wheels and lower
part of the vehicle but also on the horizontal and hood.
surfaces and recessed zones. For this I used
a pigment wash selecting sand tones that I
alternated in successive applications to vary the
effect.
Some graphite pigment rubbed with a cloth
provided the metallic look at some zones; this
effect was again more exaggerated at the trailer
upper surface.
The last touches were the grease, oil and fuel
stains that I replicated using the specific paints
for these effects, with that I called the model
finished.

55
 The grease and oil stains
and accumulations at the
back of the truck were
created using both special
effects paints and pigments.
Again, the acrylic washes
were used at the trailer to
create some shadows around
the details and to enhance
the wood grain texture of the
planks.

A light sand pigment wash at the

wheels, once dry I eliminated some
excess with a brush.

Tank transport models have a certain charm

that many modellers appreciate, I specially like
the WWII ones and the Scammell is certainly
one I was expecting to build 1/35 scale and
finally I had the chance to do it as soon as the kit
was ready, thanks to the Thunder Model guys.

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Scale; 1/6
Producer;R2D2 ERTL
C3PO unknown

C3PO and R2D2 has become a pop icon

for a whole generation that has grown watching
the Star Wars movies in which they have lived
all kind of adventures side to side with the main
characters. Even when their relevance in all the
stories in which they have participated is not as
important as the ones from other characters they
certainly have won the hearts of the fans all over
the world. Logically, C3PO and R2D2 has been
the target of the licensing companies since the
very beginning and the two droids have been
reproduced in all kind of formats form toy figures
to school bags, etc. If we speak about modelling
there are some different releases too that have
been available from time to time.

Is not unusual to have old

and poor quality kits among
our “reserves” Although
they’re not up to nowadays
standards they still can
provide some fun.

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 These are not the droids you’re
looking for
In recent times Bandai has released a
couple of beautiful kits of the famous droids
but before them the only ones available
were the MPC plastic ones and the vinyl
figures that were marketed through different
labels, both kits very old and showing
poor quality if compared with nowadays
standards.
I had the MPC plastic R2D2 and the vinyl
C3PO largely stored waiting for some
inspiration that never seemed to came but one day I
realized that even being poor quality kits they could be
a nice Christmas present for a Star Wars fan friend of
mine so I decided to build them adding a bit of scratch
built details and paint them in some unusual way.

Combining
different
metallic tones
can provide
interesting
textures.

Building the MPC kit was a

question of minutes, cleaning
the parts, filling with putty
and sanding took hours. After
adding some details of my own
I had a decent R2D2.

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 R2D2
As soon as I opened the R2D2 kit box I
realized that there was a missing part, a cover
of the main body front that was supposed to
be movable; instead of making a new one I
decided to do without it and show some part
of the robot “guts” so I prepared an inner
camera where to place a lot of tiny plastic
and photoetched parts imitating circuits and
delicate machinery.
The rest of the building was
straightforward following the
instructions, some cables here, some
plastic card there, a lot of putty and
sanding and the parts were ready for
the painting. I left the hemispheric head
and arms aside for a more comfortable
painting as they could be easily fixed
afterwards.
I thought that it could be interesting
to paint both droids as if they would
have survived an adventure in some
inhospitable environment.

I started painting the whole model with Vallejo

77711 Magnesium then I sponged 77724 silver
over it. Once dry I applied a coat of chipping
medium with the airbrush and let it dry. I
airbrushed then the white colour and after a
minute I took part of it with a brush and warm
water letting the scratches show the metallic
texture under it. I masked then with adhesive
paper to paint the blue panels using a mid blue
paint. With that done the only thing left was just
adding some shadows and dirt using acrylic
washes and
pigments.
I protected
the work with
a layer of
satin varnish
and glued the
parts groups
together with
the translucent
parts to finish
the model.

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 Working with vinyl is not
easy, even if the figure is
made of just a few parts,
After finishing the building
all of them need a careful
and adding a few detailsof
preparation and cleaning,
my own I primed the figure
filling them with some rigid
with a satin black spray to
material can be a good idea.
be the base for the further
golden paint layers.

The Vallejo metallic paints

are great; they cover the kit
very homogeneously even if
they’re applied with a brush.
After airbrushing a couple of
layers the look was neat.

I didn’t want my C3Po

look like an Oscar prize,
instead I decided to spoil
the golden look with lots of
littel stains of many other
metallic colours.

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 Working with felt pens is
really easy and wherever
you make a mistake you
can clean it with a cloth and
go on.

Once finished the figure had some mobile

head and shoulders, the rest of the joints
had to be fixed to secure the vinyl parts
union. This was really not very important as
the figures were thought to be displayed in
a showing case and not to be used as toys.

C3PO
If the R2D2 kit was pretty basic, the vinyl C3PO was even worse. The first thing was to eliminate
the vinyl excess with a sharp knife taking care not to cut too much, then I warmed the legs parts in
heated water to soften the material so they could be adapted correctly to a standing posture as they
were completely deformed.
I filled the parts with spray foam to give them soundness and prepared some metal rods to act as
union between the filled parts. After some putty filling and eliminating the foam residues form the kit
surface I added the actuators made by myself with some metal tubes.
I primed the figure with a satin black spray and then airbrushed several diluted coats of 77725
Gold paint. After letting it dry for an hour I started speckling other metallic tones diluted with thinner
at 50% to imitate the staining and abrasion under extreme weather.
In order to remark the details on the figure I used a black felt pen, one advantage of this method
is that you can easily clean any error with a cloth. Once happy with the result I airbrushed a coat of
satin varnish.
Then I painted the cables, eyes and other details and finally varnished again the gold parts with
diluted gloss with a brush.

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 I’m quite happy I could finally build these
two droids, even when they’re old and toy-like
kits they still can be a heartfelt present for a
friend with just a little work and care.

Even when these kits were not tip top

quality the project was fun, I like to tackle
these kind of model from time to time and I
still got some other Star Wars vinyl figures
waiting for their turn, maybe I’ll show you
another one in a future “not so far away”

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www.fcmodeltrend.com
Scale; 1/35
Producer; Amusing hobby
As massive as the Maus, the
E-100 was the “other” giant panzer
project that was discarded without
even a single prototype finished.
When in 1942 the Hitler approved
Ferdinand Porsche project for a super
heavy tank that was supposed to be ready
next year, the Maus tank would be a steel
monster with 200mm armour at the front,
weighting 100 ton and armed with parallel
128mm and 75mm guns. The Krupp factory
would be involved in the 10 vehicles per
month productions rate providing the hull,
armament and turret while Alkett would
do the assembly. While Porsche begun
working on the prototype the German army
asked Krupp to develop a similar vehicle
that would share as many components with
other vehicles of the E series and would
serve as a basis for a heavy artillery system,
an anti-aircraft vehicle, and a heavy tank
destroyer.
In July 1944 Hitler ordered the super
heavy tanks development to stop as the
German military factories means where
already saturated and they needed to
concentrate in the production of the
available proven tank models.
When the war ceased only two hulls
and one turret for the Maus and just an
unfinished hull of the E-100 were found by
the Soviet and US troops respectively.
Although these colossus tanks were
never put into production to take part
in any fighting of the war they still have
always attracted the attention of the
military modellers and thus the model kits
producers that have released both vehicles
and other paper panzer derivates more or
less constantly during the last decades.
 In 1/35 scale producers like Dragon,
Trumpeter and Takom have produced their
versions of the Maus and E-100 series and
now Amusing Hobby have joined them
providing a new approach to the E-100
providing it with the Krupp designed turret
instead of the Maus one.

Big box, big kit

The model is provided in a quite big box that
is fully cramped with the plastic parts that even
when there are not too many they still are big
enough to need a lot of space for them.
Building the kit is rather easy as the parts
involved are well designed to be manipulated
even by the less experienced modellers and
only six photoetched parts are needed for the
The new Amusing Hobby kit is
engine cover grilles.
easy building thanks to some well
engineered parts that fit very well.

I decided to add
some details to my
model; the infra-
red vision device
came form a Tamiya
panther kit, the smoke
dischargers and tools
came from the spares
box.

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 The kit includes the
photoetched grilles for the
engine cover. I looked through
my PE spares box for smoe
more elements I could use.

The Vallejo 73604

Dark yellow primer
is one of the paints I
use more often.

The instructions suggest

beginning with the suspension
elements at the hull, all of which
they will be hidden once the wheels
and fenders are in place so you can
decide how much attention you want
to pay to these parts. I stopped here
to paint the wheels and lower part
of the hull with a dark yellow primer
before I couldn’t reach these parts
once assembled.
Next I added the rear hull plate with
the exhausts, and finally the upper
part with the engine cover elements The turret assembling is very fast and the
and other attachments. I decided to up main gun needs little preparation, just some
detail a little bit the kit using parts form the sanding of the mould marks. I added a Panther
spares box as tools and some photoetched smoke dischargers at the turret sides front and
parts. The side skits cover the upper part a night vision device mounted on a Panther
of the tracks completely so I didn’t use that G cupola for the commander instead of the
length, instead I used the links to add some flat access door provided in the kit to give
spare ones to the turret as seen on the King the model a more advanced look as if it was
Tiger tanks. upgraded during some imaginary
war extension.

Before
deciding the
camouflage
scheme I made
some tests
in Photoshop
using a picture
of the kit primed
with the dark
yellow colour.
 Once primed I added
some more elements to the
kit so another primer coat
was needed. I applied it in
thin layers to avoid a gross
paint accumulation.

Before painting the

rest of the camouflage The camouflage is
colours I highlighted completed with two shades of
the dark yellow base. green and dark brown.
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 The E-100 would have been
a very impressive machine,
What if tank, what if painting a terrifying adversary for the
allied most capable tanks.
The kit includes decals and four camouflage
schemes based on some German examples
of late war heavy tanks, all of them illustrated
in colour profiles and indicating the AMMO
paints range as they’re the ones that provided
Amusing Hobby the painting instructions.
Anyway is easy for any average modeller to find
other producers matching colours as they are
the typical German ones used at the late stage
of the war. For my tank I decided to go one step
beyond and prepare a different scheme using
the dark yellow base, two green tones large
sprayed patches and dark brown smaller ones.

The Decal medium and decal fix are very

important products that ensure the decal
adaption to uneven surfaces and avoid the
silvering. I always use them independently of
the decals brand. Once fixed and dry I protect
them with a varnish layer.
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 the fact is that it can be used with any kind of
paints, the key is drying the brush as much as
possible with the cloth so most of the humidity
can be absorbed before painting.

The painting then was very standard with the

base colour enlightened with an ivory filter and
then airbrushed colours 71094 Zinc green,
71093 NATO green and 71015 Olive brown.
After that I painted the tracks with a black brown
colour and placed them on the model. Next I
airbrushed gloss varnish to prepare the surface
for the decals, in order to adapt them to the
surface and avoid silvering I used the Vallejo
decals set and decal medium products. Once
the decals were dry I protected the model with Acrylic washes are very useful for
another layer of varnish, this time matt.
shadowing, if applied on gloss or
I used a mix of paints 71115 Blue grey and dark
satin surfaces they run easily and any
brown to imitate the chipping using the drybrush
technique, some friends still believe that this excess can be cleaned with a cotton
technique is only suitable for enamel paints but swab moistened in thinner.

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 Steel and silver
colours provided the
I used both acrylic metallic look at the
washes and pigments tracks where the links
to reproduce stains and rub the wheels.
strikes all over the hull and
turret. Pigments are very
useful for this as they’re
very easy to clean.

Some earth tone

pigments washes
provided the dust
accumulation at the
horizontal surfaces.
After that I used dark acrylic washes to
emphasize the shadows around the details
and recessed lines. Later on I used them again
to paint some strikes and stains on the hull
together with some pigment washes.
I used some metallic tones to imitate the
exposed metal at the tracks links where the
contact with the wheels is constant. Then
I applied several rust washes using acrylic
paints and pigments. To imitate the dust and
dirt accumulation I applied a generous pigment
wash insisting on the lower part of the hull,
wheels and horizontal surfaces, on the inclined
one I blurred part of the already dry wash with a
cotton swab to add some more stains.
 Using different tones
pigments is important to
achieve a natural dust and
dirt effect.

The oil, grease and fuel special

effects paints are very useful to imitate
these kind of stains, you can use them
as any other paint, diluted, mixed with
Some pigments....
oil, fuel and grease stains were added using
the Vallejo special paints for this
effects and a small pointed brush,
sometimes I applied them as
standard paints, some other diluted
with water at 50% and some times
speckled.
The last touch was rubbing the
friction exposed zones with a
graphite pencil to imitate the bare
metal.

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