Shermans By Wayne

Master Model Maker Wayne Wanner is working on his Sherman collection. He has a mixture of Roco and Paul Heiser Shermans. These are nicely dirtied up! Tanks in combat get very dirty and it is hard to find a car wash on the way to the Rhine River.

Notice the markings on the tank. The standard markings should show a star on the hull side, turret side, turret top and hull deck and hull front. In real life they seldom left the markings alone and often painted over them. The white star was difficult to hide and made a good aiming point for the German anti-tank guns. The star with circle was intended as an air recognition marking, but as here, they often showed up all over the vehicles.

Shermans lined up for final preparation and assembly. Notice the Airfix Pontoon Bridge in the background. The clutter is typical of the workspace for Master Modellers, like Wayne. Thanks Wayne for showing the tanks, I look forward to seeing them in a wargame set up.

Hobby Show

Worked the booth at the kit collectors show today with Randy from Fidelis Models. They had probably 90 tables of vendors stuff there. Randy had one, and Paul Heiser Models was there with two tables. Paul and his wife Rosa were there selling Bellona Battlefields and lots of plastic 1/72nd scale figures. I remember buying Bellona Battlefields by mail from the UK in the 1970s! I was lucky enough to see several old buddies and to meet a few folks who read this blog.

I got 14 boxes of Revell Soviet Infantry, 2 boxes of Revell Soviet Cossacks (they will stay with the Soviets), 2 boxes of Revell US Infantry, 2 boxes Revell German Infantry, 1 box Caesar WWII Late War German Infantry, 7 boxes Revell German Panzer Grenadiers, 10 Eko / Roco vehicles, and 9 Trident civilian / police and fire trucks. All for less than $150.

Going to hobby shows is a good idea. I go to kit collectors shows, train shows, toy soldier shows, IMPS shows, and action figure / GI Joe shows. There is always some overlap between the shows, I got a 12 inch action figure at the toy soldier show, which is mostly 1/32 scale size figures. Often individuals will be culling their collection or shops will be getting rid of slow moving products or some people just sell at shows. One of the things I like is it is like going to 50 hobby shops in a couple hours. A pretty good deal, typically for less than $5.

Kit Show

Tomorrow I am going to the 33rd Kit Collector Show in Buena Park, CA. It is located at the UFCW Auditorium, 8550 Stanton Ave., Buena Park, Orange County, California, 90620. They charge $5 to get in unless you are under 12. Parking is free. They typically have about 100 tables set up to sell various new and collectible models. Doors open at 9:00 a.m. and the show runs until 3:00 p.m.

I will be there with Randy of Fidelis Models, we are running his table together. Stop by and say hello and tell us you are a reader of Bunker Talk. Paul Heiser of Paul Heiser Models will also be there with at least one table. Be sure to check out his great resin kits. Randy tells me he has a large number of civilian Trident HO scale vehicles he is having a special close out sale on tomorrow. I own a bunch of these and they are very nice.

Hobby shows are good places to visit once in a while to locate out of production items, rare one of a kind items that seldom get imported, or even items that are only sold at the show. They are also a good place to go for a bargain, once in a while you can get a real good deal on something that they just don't want to take home. Come early for the best selection, stay late for the best deals.

Resin Construction

Many people don't build resin models because they are intimidated by the material. Many people seem to think there is some secret alchemy going on and that resin is the realm of the master modeller. Only the most expensive and difficult kits are made in resin and the average modeller could never hope to succeed in building one, or not.





Using the same sort of tools you use for a styrene model kit you can build most resin kits. An X-Acto knife with #11 blade, a sanding stick or very fine sandpaper, a sprue cutter, cutting board all usually all you need. Depending on the kit, a pin vise and tiny drills can be helpful to drill out holes for machine guns or radio antennas. Sometimes a heavier knife is helpful, or various other grades of sanding sticks or sand paper, and maybe tweezers if there are little bits.




I like to use a five minute epoxy glue, sold in most hobby shops, similar glues are sold in most hardware stores, or even Target stores. I like the five minute because you don't have to hold it very long. Superglues work well too, but I think the epoxy is more gap filling and holds a stronger bond. In either case, just use a little bit of glue evenly spread on the surface to glue.

Resin kits often have lots of excess resin to trim off. Don't let this worry you. It is just like the excess plastic on regular kits and it actually trims off much easier than the extra plastic on soft plastic figures. I cut the bit parts, if any, with the sprue cutter. I then trim the rest down with the knife blade. Finally a brush of the sanding stick just to smooth things out. Since I don't see well close up, I like to use a magnifying glass to inspect my work. I actually wear one of those visor things. For $10 you can get on at Harbor Freight Tools or similar places. Don't spend a lot of money one.

One of the best things about resin kits is the tracks are usually one left side part and one right side part. So much easier than most model kits. Usually there is a bit of flash between the road wheels. Since this assembly will be glued to the side of the hull only part of the flash really needs to be removed. The part of the tracks that is below the lower hull should be cleaned out with your X-Acto knife, the rest you can leave in.

A Bill Jr's Custom Military Models M4A3 and M36B2 models, cleaned up in about an hour total time. The gun mantlet on the tank destroyer took a bit of time but the rest was pretty quick. So contact Fidelis Models, or Bill Jr and buy some resin kits to increase your forces. It is surprising easy.