AMMS Brisbane News

AMMS Brisbane News
Editorial (aka Rob’s Rantings)
I am currently in the process of building a DML
Early version Jagdpanther
(the one with the moulded
on Zimmerit).
Being the curious fella
that I am (yes, I know,
also slightly mad!) I have
kept each of the little plastic nodes with which DML
love to adorn their parts
as I snipped them off.
these parts only if they were
better than the corresponding parts in the kit. To date I
have used about four of the
parts (out of six sheets of
etched brass).
Hunt class escort vessel. I
think I still have some of
that sheet left, which
demonstrates if nothing
else the phenomenal
growth of after market
companies in the ensuing
period.
This is not through any reluctance on my part—it is
just that the quality of plastic
moulding has come such a
long way in the last few
years that in my opinion
there was nothing to be
I am about 50% through
gained by using most of the
the kit and already have
etched brass. Makes you
well over 100 miniscule
wonder, doesn’t it, about the
bits of plastic. Sometimes future of such companies as
I wonder if knock out pin
Aber, Griffon, Lion Roar,
marks aren’t preferable!
Eduard, et al, particularly
with the advent of 3D comWhile in my current flush
of enthusiasm, I scratched puter printing?
around in the spares box
For that matter, will the adand found some Griffon
vent of 3D printing see the
etched brass for a Panend of scratchbuilding? I can
ther G, a lot of which, I
remember (yes, in the Dark
thought, would be useful
Ages of the 1970s) purchasfor the Jagdpanther.
ing one sheet of 20 thou
Bearing in mind Andy
Reid’s comments from
last month’s newsletter, I
decided to use some of
Once again we have a 12
page newsletter. This
means that I have, of necessity, to be selective
regarding what goes into
the newsletter and what
does not.
Volume 9, Issue 5
04 May 2013
Inside this issue:
David’s drivel
2
Have a Laugh
3-4
Modeller Profile
5
Bovington Visit
6-7
Last Month’s Work in Progress
8-11
One of the main reasons
for this is that after 12
pages it simply gets too
large to successfully
email—there are already
at least two email recipients whose servers reject
large files.
Rest assured, though, all
contributions are welcome, even if I don’t use
them straight away.
plastic card to carry out
some scratchbuilding on, if I See you next time.
recall correctly, a conversion
of an Airfix destroyer into a
The photo at left was provided by Shane Black, and
comes from the ABC News
website. It shows a Japanese
WW2. Dave Scorer believes it
may be from John Belfield’s
Melbourne Tank Museum,
which would mean it is one of
two captured at Milne Bay, in
which case the restoration is
remarkably good.
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Volume 9, Issue 5
David’s Drivel
Hello & welcome...
What a weekend we've got this month, AMMS on Saturday and PX on Sunday, could it get any
better ? I hope everyone has saved their coin for PX, it'd be a shame to miss out on that
ever elusive item that you've been desperately looking for because you didn't take enough
coin of the realm now wouldn't it ?
Thanks also to David from Firestorm for attending the April meeting, it was good to see
him spread out down in the bottom room instead of cramped into a corner in the meeting
room. Similarly it was good to see a steady stream of members perusing his wares and
leaving with hefty purchases, it is his income stream and as such he relies on sales to
make his business profitable so for him to make such a lengthy interstate journey to an
AMMS meeting is quite a commitment on his behalf and seeing so many AMMS members take advantage of his attendance and making robust purchases bodes well for future visits.
To aid Firestorm, AMMS restructures its meeting timetable to suit his visit insomuch as
we defer our normal "official" side of things for as long as possible to ensure that
Firestorm has as long a trading window as possible to ensure all potential sales, which
may not suit all AMMS members. It's been noted that some members disappear as soon as the
official side of a meeting is concluded, however, I'm quite sure that those early departees would acknowledge this procedural change is warranted to ensure the continued attendance of Firestorm at AMMS meetings... I know I appreciate him attending.
This meeting sees the continuation of the dual model competition. I look forward to another well subscribed competition and say "Bon chance" to all entries... All going well
I've all but managed to finalise two entries for the technical competition and look forward to the feedback - after all, it's the opportunity to get constructive pointers to
improve my next project that does it for me competition wise. I forget who said or wrote
it, but I fully endorse the sentiment... "I'm actively improving my modelling one mistake
at a time" that just about sums up my modelling ethos perfectly... How ’bout you ? Why do
you model ? Perhaps next month someone will write something for the magazine letting us
in on their reasons for modelling and if they see competitions aiding in their future
modelling growth...
Just a thought...
Till next month, be good, be safe.. be productive.
Regards,
David Scorer
AMMS Brisbane coordinator 2013.
Left and above—a couple of unusual sights spotted by
our fearless leader in the lead-up to Anzac Day.
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Have a Laugh
(thanks Greg Neal AMMS Sydney)
Six Irishmen walk into a pet shop in Dingle, they walk over to the bird section and Gerry says to Paddy, 'Dat's dem.'
The owner comes over and asks if he can help them.
'Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere,' says Gerry.The owner puts the budgies in a
cardboard box. Paddy and Gerry pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the
ConnorPass.
At the ConnorPass , Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, 'Dis looks like a grand place...'
He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff.
Paddy watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls all the way to the bottom, killing himself stone dead. Looking
down at the remains of his best pal, Paddy shakes his head and says, 'Fook dat.
Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!'
THERE'S MORE.
Moment's later; Seamus arrives up at ConnorPass.
He's been to the pet shop too and walks up to the edge of the cliff carrying another cardboard box in one hand and a
shotgun in the other.
'Hi, Paddy, watch dis,' Seamus says. He takes a parrot from the box and lets him fly free. He then throws himself
over the edge of the cliff with the gun.
Paddy watches as half way down, Seamus takes the gun and shoots the parrot. Seamus continues to plummet down
and down until he hits the bottom and breaks every bone in his body.
Paddy shakes his head and says, 'And I'm never trying dat parrotshooting either!'
IT IS NOT OVER YET..
Paddy is just getting over the shock of losing two friends when Sean appears.
He's also been to the pet shop and is carrying a cardboard box out of which he pulls a White Leghorn.
Sean then takes the chook by its legs and hurls himself off the cliff and disappears down and down until he hits a
rock and breaks his spine.
Once more Paddy shakes his head.
'Fook dat, lads. First dere was Gerry with his budgie jumping, den Seamus parrotshooting... And now Sean and his
fook'n hengliding!'
AND STILL NOT OVER . . .
Did you hear about the fat, alcoholic transvestite - All he wanted to do was eat, drink and be Mary
I got invited to a party and was told to dress to kill. Apparently a turban, beard and a backpack wasn't what they had
in mind.
After a night of drink, drugs and wild sex, Jim woke up to find himself next to a really ugly woman. That's when he
realised he had made it home safely.
Paddy says to Mick, "Christmas is on Friday this year". Mick said, "Let's hope it's not the 13th then."
My mate just hired an Eastern European cleaner, took her 15 hours to hoover the house. Turns out she was a Slovak.
Cont’d on Page 4
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Have a Laugh
(continued from Page 3)
Since the snow came all the wife has done is look through the window. If it gets any worse, I'll have to let her in.
I've been charged with murder for killing a man with sandpaper. To be honest I only intended to rough him up a bit.
After years of research, scientists have discovered what makes women happy. Nothing.
Just had my water bill of £175 drop on my mat. That's a lot. Oxfam can supply a whole African village for just £2 a
month: time to change supplier I think.
2 women called at my door and asked what bread I ate, when I said white they gave me a lecture on the benefits of
brown bread for 30 minutes. I think they were those Hovis Witnesses.
7 wheelchair athletes have been banned from the Paralympics after they tested positive for WD40
A mummy covered in chocolate and nuts has been discovered in Egypt. Archaeologists believe it may be Pharaoh
Roche...
Just a reminder to those who stole electrical goods in last year's riots....your one year manufacturer's warranty runs
out soon.
ITS A BOY" I shouted "A BOY, I DON'T BELIEVE IT, ITS A BOY" and with tears streaming down my face I swore I'd
never visit another Thai Brothel!!!
Two Indian junkies accidentally snorted curry powder instead of cocaine. Both in hospital...one's in a korma.. The
other's got a dodgy tikka!
In the first few days of the Olympics the Romanians took gold, silver, bronze, copper & lead.
Sailing results are in, GB took gold, USA took silver and Somalia took a middle aged couple from Weymouth.
A Englishman has started his own business in Afghanistan ! He is making land Mines that look like prayer mats! It’s
doing well! Prophets are going through The roof !
Japanese scientists have created a camera with a shutter speed so fast, they can now photograph a woman with her
mouth shut.
A boy asks his granny, 'Have you seen my pills, they were labelled LSD?' Granny replies, f**k the pills, have you
seen the dragons in the kitchen?!
Little Billy asks his Dad for a telly in his room. Dad reluctantly agrees. Next day Billy comes downstairs and asks,
'Dad, what's love juice?' Dad looks horrified and tells Billy all about sex. Billy just sat there with his mouth open in
amazement. Dad says, 'So what were you watching?' Billy says, 'Wimbledon.'
A woman standing nude in front of a mirror says to her husband, I look horrible, I feel fat and ugly, pay me a compliment.' He replies, 'Your eyesight is perfect.'
Wife gets naked & asks hubby, 'What turns you on more, my pretty face or my sexy body?' Hubby looks her up and
down and replies, 'Your sense of humour!’
An elderly couple is attending Mass. About halfway through, the wife leans over and says to her husband, 'I just let
out a silent fart; what do you think I should do?' He replies, 'Put a new battery in your hearing aid.'
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Modeller Profile
(thanks Ross Allen)
Better late than never I guess.
It’s the best part of forty years now since I first starting modelling making all manner of things along the way, but armour has always been my favourite choice particularly US WW2 subjects. The bigger the scale the more I like it
too, sitting in my hobby shed are not one but two 1/6 scale M5 Stuarts, one M4A3 Sherman with Kelly & Big Joe,
battle Barbie figures riding on the back and a 1/6 jeep for good measure.
Have you ever thought to yourself when you walk into man cave or whatever and said to yourself "What in the world
was I thinking " when you look at your stash of kits. I'll never live long enough to build all this lot, although it seemed
like a good idea at the time.
This year I have made a decision to finish as many of the kits I've started but never completed to clear the backlog
and some space on the table. (Yeah, we all do that from time to time . . . Ed)
Over the years we have seen lots of fads and techniques come and go, some better than others, the kits themselves have come a long way with this slide mould technology and now we are starting to see 3D printed parts showing up on the Internet. What's next for our hobby I wonder ?
Every week there seems to be a new company producing kits that I thought would never see the light of day in plastic. I bet the likes of Accurate Armour wished they had a crystal ball to see into the future, dropping a lot of their kits
from the market.
Plastic kits today are just bursting at the seams with all the sprue sheets jammed inside due to the high parts count
with some verging on the ridiculous side of things. It was a real pleasure to build the Meng A39 Tortoise OTB without any fancy after market pieces and a sensible amount of parts. I open some kits up, look inside and close the lid
very quickly thinking OMG are you serious.
Who knows I might even be able to finish that 1/35 scale Dora Rail gun this year with a bit of luck, now where have
the glue and sprue cutters gone ?
Left and above—some members enjoying themselves at the last
meeting. No, Rusty, it wasn’t me!!
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Bovington Visit
(thanks Ian Cousens)
Ian won the door raffle at the March meeting and as he had recently submitted a profile, submitted the following article instead—Rob
Well, I was lucky enough to win the "door prize" last meeting and as I have already done a profile I thought I would
talk about my visit to Bovington last June/July for the annual Tankfest gathering.
So where to start. Tankfest is run over two days with displays on both Saturday and Sunday. The displays started
about 10.30 am with two Canadian Leopard 1s running around the arena followed by the British APCs 432 which
there seemed to be plenty of. After this came a selection of recovery vehicles including a FV434, Centurion and
Chieftain ARVs. The new arrivals came out next and were a mixed bag of vehicles donated to the museum including
a FV432, Marder APC, Urutu APC made in Brazil captured in Gulf War 1 and a Panhard EBR 75. Following this was
the British Army display showing off their hardware.
The speed at which the Scimitar tore around was amazing but more so was when the driver jumped on the brakes
and just about made it stand on its nose - quite spectacular. These have recently been upgraded to extend the service life. The new bits of kit came out then which were a Mastiff, Warthog which tows an APC trailer and a Panther
armoured car which looks to be much safer than the old Landrovers. Next was the "big gun" a currently serving
Challenger 2 MBT. I thought the Scimitar was fast for its size but it was dwarfed in size and ability by the Challenger
2. This tank tore around the circuit at speed with the turret constantly rotating and main gun swinging smoothly up
and down. It ended its display on top of the ramp in the centre of the arena by laying down a smoke screen, luckily
we were upwind.
At this time the displays stop for the lunch break so we went for a walk in the re-enactors zone. These guys and girls
really get into the spirit of it. Their uniforms/weapons/equipment etc on display is amazing. There were people
dressed up in attire from all different times and theatres of war - WW1 and WW2, German, Russian (with a T34),
American all set up in real life camps with foxholes, barbed wire (plastic), vehicles and weapons on show. If you
asked nicely they would let you handle their weapons which was good fun for a gun nut like me. They even had
some WW1 Australians 14th Battalion AIF there. I asked in my best aussie accent "are you real aussies or
ringins?" Well all I got was blank stares from most of them untill the sergeant spoke up and said he was from Melbourne. At least one was real and but the rest were Poms.
By this time the afternoon displays were going to restart. At 2pm out came a collection of eight Chieftain based tanks
with different layouts - bridgelayers, driver training tank with no turret, fascine bundle and experimental types. Next
up were late/post WW2 British tanks with a Comet and Centurion doing circuits but the Black Prince, which looks like
a Churchill on steroids had blown a head gasket early in the week and had to be towed around. Then came the
WW2 armour with Matilda 1 and 2s, Valentine, Churchill and then the star of the show - the world's only running
Tiger 1 #131 captured in Tunisia in 1943. Due to its rarity #131 only does a short lap around the arena but it was still
great to see and hear it running.
Following this were post war wheeled armour from different countries then the Americans turned up with a range of
US AFVs ranging from a Stuart M3, Sherman and M60 MBT. On Saturday the M3 broke down mid display and was
towed away by the museums 432 ARV. The number of vehicles on display running around was quite surprising and
had a good mix of old and new. Once the running vehicles had finished, there was a display put on by the WW1 reenactors showing how the battle changed with the introduction of armour in WW1. A first "attack" was put on by the
Aussie and Scot re-enactors against the entrenched German re-enactors showing how they went "over the
top". They all died a glorious death against the wire being mown down by the Hun. As in the real thing they attacked
again but this time with armour support.
The replica Mark IV from the War Horse movie trundled out with the infantry walking behind and firing their SMLE's
and a Lewis at the entrenched Hun. The Mark IV crawled along over the "wire' and up to the Hun who were despatched or surrendered. The re-enactors put on a good show with plenty of blanks firing including the Lewis and the
Hun Maxim plus lots of pyrotechnics and smoke. The day’s displays ended with the Challenger 2 MBT coming out
again, this time lining up with the Mark IV. A good example of how military technology has evolved. On the way out
we walked around the "parking lot" for the shows AFV's and as we came up to Tiger 131 it started up and moved off
to the workshops. The noise was unbelievable - rumbling Maybach, smoke and clicking tracks give you a idea of
what it would have been like to be a foot soldier attacking one of these beasts. Very scary I reckon.
The wife and I spent both Saturday and Sunday at Tankfest which we both enjoyed. Your Tankfest ticket also gets
you free entry into the museum, which we used later in the week to have a look around and get photos without the
crowds. Talking about photos, I went to do a "walk around" photo shoot of Tiger 131 and found that it was still in the
workshops getting some maintenance. After asking about it, later on in the day one of the volunteers said he would
take us up to the workshop for a look. We got a personal tour with two other couples to the workshop and were allowed to get up the access ladders but not on to 131 to take photos. This was one of the highlights of my visit to Bovington. I highly recommend going to Tankfest as it is well run and organised and also visiting the museum. It is a
great place for tank nuts and military buffs alike. Pictures next page
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Bovington Visit Photos
(Thanks Ian Cousens)
Photos from Ian’s visit to Tankfest clockwise from top left -MWW1 Mk IV
replica, Challenger blowing smoke,
Challenger 2 and Mk IV, and that Tiger.
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Last Month’s Works in Progress
(Thanks Peter Battle)
Graham McNamara’s Trumpeter ASLAV Phase 3 built out of the box, painted with Mouse House’s Aussie enamels.
Crew is from the Arms Corps Models ASLAV crew set.
Ross Allen’s Tamiya M26 Dragon Wagon 40 ton Tank Transporter painted in Tamiya acrylics and weathered with
pigments.
Ron Puttee’s Tamiya MiA1 with mine plough
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Last Month’s Works in Progress
(Cont’d from Page 8)
Accurate Armour Diamond T M19 tank transporter with M5A1 from AFV Club, both by Ross Allen.
Don’t know whose this is, but by the scale I would suspect Dogboy’s
Don’t know whose this is either, but you have to admit, even at small scale, Dora was one BIG gun!
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Last Month’s Comp Entries
(Cont’d from Page 9)
Andy Reid’s Tamiya Iraqui Enigma. Fruil tracks, Aber turned metak barrel, Armo antenna base, and miscellaneous
Verlinden T55 items. Painted with Tamiya acrylics, Mig oils and Lifecolour rust and dust.
Daryl (Dogboy) Slight’s Vickers Mk 2 in Aussie markings, Egypt 1941. We were given these worn out tanks by Britain
and they were the first tanks we used in WW2 Note—1:144 scale!
Another one of Dogboy’s—this is a Planet resin kit of the Swedish Army’s 1940 version of the famous little Praga
tankette. Also 1:144 scale.
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Volume 9, Issue 5
Last Month’s Comp Entries
(Cont’d from Page 10)
Dogboy’s Shot Kal (Israeli Centurion) during peace for Galilee 1982. Cromwell resin kit with extra details. 1:144
scale.
Dogboy’s “Soviet Army Korean Intervention Force 1950”. Cromwell resin kit with Part metal barrel, minor details and
AB figures.
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Volume 9, Issue 5
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