Category: Russian models
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JS-2 Tank – Part Four – Czech This One Out…

Despite indecision about the Zvezda JS-2 kit’s deficiencies, I think it has fulfilled my vision splendidly. The idea of armour and military modelling is new to me – heretofore I just collected die-cast vehicles that suited my model airfields. I admired the efforts of expert armour modellers i saw at my club and at interstate…
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JS-2 Tank – Part Three – Zvezda Economies

I am still making my mind up about the Zvezda kits. They seem curate’s eggs in many respects, but I have not built enough to be able to judge accurately. My first Russian kit was a MiG 15. It was chosen as the only kit of its type in that shop at that time –…
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JS-2 Tank – Part Two – Can Vermibus

I should have known better – but in my defence I was unsupervised in front of a computer… The Facebook group that deals with 1/35 scale tanks is quite skilled in their model building. Every day there are pictures of builds or completed models that have amazing detail, fine camouflage, and careful weathering. They far…
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JS-2 Tank – Part One – A Step Up From The TKS

I endured such a razzing from my scale model club mates when I built the tiny Polish TKS tankette that I have decided to get my revenge. And who better to provide it than the Russians. They provide excess misery for everyone else, why not harness it to my purposes. So here is a Josef…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part One – Out Of Left Field

The rise of the eastern bloc modelling industry is a blessing and a curse – the former because it gives us good models to build and the latter because it chooses some of the most obscure prototypes. At least they are obscure to a modeller in Western Australia. They might be household names in Minsk.…
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Of Course It Doesn’t Fit

It never fit in 1959, when the kit was released. It didn’t fit in 1989 when Revell bought the mould and re-issued it. It will not fit when someone east of the Urals finally gets the worn-out blocks and injects reindeer poo into them to claw back some rubles. It’s not about fit. It’s about…
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So Will We See A Flood Of Kits?

Or a drought? The Ukraine War is in full swing, if swing accurately describes improbably heavy armour floundering across muddy fields or running out of fuel on the main road. The Russian Army seems to be a different entity from that presented by the media a few decades ago, and that is a bit of…
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Austin Armoured Car – Part Two – Precision Product

Say what you will about some of the eastern bloc modelling companies turning out marginal models – and we have all see Mikro Mir and Amodel and such – there are some companies on the sharp edge of the hobby. This is the case with this Austin armoured car. There is enough detail in the…
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The 1/35th Scale Holy Grail

Or ” No glue-sniffing in church…”. I have recently joined a Facebook group associated with 1/35 scale model tanks. It’s a large group and many people send in wonderful pictures of their kits and builds. It has several members besides myself here in Perth. I sent in three posts this last week revolving around amour…
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Grumman Guardian – Part …Well… The Only Part

I confess. I got greedy. I started building and just couldn’t stop. I didn’t even take build photos. But in the end, I fell back exhausted and satisfied. I had scored a definite win in the game of scale modelling. I had contemplated this model kit for a year at a local shop. The emotion…
