I've been doing some modelling between writing and enjoying the summer. I obtained a couple very useful models for my lists, one you've seen already. The other is Warlord Games' very nice resin SU-76M. It has a quality of resin that I like quite a bit, it's softer and more pliable, perhaps to help remove it from the mold. Most resin kits that I've used in the past are very brittle and require a huge chunk of material to be filed away. As the resins are supposedly very bad for you I am loathe to do it every time. My imagination I'm sure.
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| Warlord Game's SU-76M. Copper wire mods look great. |
An easy mod that really helps is replacing the corners with wire. I had some laying around from another resin kit, the Verlinden V-100. Which incidentally had a ton of flash to get rid of. Anyway quick work with the pin vise and voila. (For you completeists, the observer's periscope and radio are missing. No big deal for me, I doubt that they all had them.) It does come with two very good crewman, but no head for a driver.
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| Tamiya and other stowage. The plastic Soviet box is very useful! |
One other bonus of the Verlinden V-100 was the excellent stowage. Very nice tarps. How is that for a line? I also had a bunch of Tamiya stowage from the very handy 1/48 Jerry Can kit. The icing on this cake is probably the weaponry assortment in the Soviet Infantry plastic box. Very useful and fun to help craft your crewmen's gear with. I plan to grab a twig to use for an extraction log on the right side of the assault gun.
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| Rubicon M5 with random stowage and M1919 MG. Note missing empty case hatch. |
The Rubicon model needed a ton of help as far as I was concerned. I am used to better detail with Tamiya and felt the need to compensate. The Tamiya Jerry Can kit helped, as did the leftovers from the V-100. The SU-76M freed up this multi-use M5 to focus on the Pacific. Goaded on by other former Marines I am going for a 1943-44 camo scheme as well as a katana and a ton of stowage. I've also modified a Warlord M1919 to fit along with a TAG infantryman to serve as a veteran TC. (This kind of thing rarely happens in real life...) I may make a tarp over the M1919...
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| Mostly Tamiya with some random bits from Pooch. Hmmn , needs paint. |
Next up is very fun stuff. Camo painting the Stuart to match some photos. Shading the SU-76M to the proper green, or I may camo it up as well! Now I need a Tamiya M4A2 next to convert into one of the very cool looking, specialised USMC tanks from Operation Detachment or Iceberg.
