Tiger Paint

I painted the Tiger II over all with a product called Rustall. It makes everything look rusty. Hence the name, Rustall.

I gave the highlights with a small dry brush of Testors Silver. That can simulate the wear and tear of heavy use, rubbing off the paint.

The whole vehicle got an over all Blackwash from Rustall. Blackwash will fill in the details to make the raised portions stand out more.

I used Tamiya Smoke X-19 to fill in the areas where smoke damage would be apparent.

Once the painting was done, I did an over all wash with Dead Flat, also from Rustall. Then the entire scene, including the flocking was sprayed with Testors Dullcote.

Roco Tiger II

My friend Randy of Fidelis Models gave me a small box of old, worn out Roco. This Tiger II was in the box. It is actually two different Tiger II tanks. The first one had extensive heat damage to the turret and the second had heat damage to the hull.

I heated the turret and pulled the turret back into something close to the original shape. The hull was too far gone to do much good trying to fix it. So I decided to make this one into a derlict tank that has suffered a major hull hit, internal explosion and fire.

Tanks that have burned out don't get recovered, the heat will damage the armor and make it useless.

This Tiger II has been hit and left on the battlefield. It is mounted on a sheet of styrene that was flocked and has a few bits of debris tossed in.

Helmet, packs, and gear indicate the crew may have escaped. Three empty tank gun cases are on the ground at the rear of the tank.

More Shermans

An HO scale, 1/87 Sherman tank turret from Paul Heiser Models. this is the mid-production 75mm gun version. It has the oblong loaders hatch opening.

This is the T-23 turret with loaders oblong hatch. The indent shows where the hatch goes, it lays flat on the roof to avoid a shot trap. Paul has made these masters using resin copies of his own models, bits of plastic from his own kits and masters he has carved.

Here are all three of the new Paul Heiser Sherman turrets. The one on the left is the early production T-23 turret. It had a large loader hatch that was round. They actually used the old split hatch commanders cupola and then replaced the commanders cupola with a new cupola with vision blocks all the way around. These two cupola were the same size and were interchangeable. I have been looking for a photo that would show a tank with two of the same kinds of cupola. It is mechanically possible, but as far as I know was not an "authorized" version of the Sherman.

Photos were taken by me at Paul Heisers World Headquarters and Factory in Lakewood, CA. Models should be available from Fidelis Models as soon as January, 2010.

British WWII HaT

In the movie A Bridge Too Far the British troops use a flamethrower to attack a German bunker. Now thanks to HaT we finally have a British soldier with a proper British flamethrower.

Rather than the two big and one small cylinders familiar to American flamethrower fans, the British one is this round apparatus shown here.

This Bren gun is so well done you can see the space between the barrel and the bipod.

The machine gunner without his machine gun. Good figure, he even stands up without the gun and without a base. That is evidence of good design and good sculpting.

The HaT machine gun with water can. A great little model. This works from WWI to about 1970. A great model.