DORA Railway cannon Trumpeter 1/72 huge WW2 gun largest in history

 With a bit of free holiday time, I thought, why not post the largest model kit I've been involved in the construction of? I really don't know why I didn't post it before. Mainly built by my father, a good more than 10 years ago, but my and my brother we did help in various parts, painting never ending grey bits, building and painting the figures, helping holding things to be glued together, and the myriad of doubts a kit of this size brings about.

After it's completion, we got two Dapol trams, and we converted them as best we could into the would be german electric locomotives. Sounds incredible but it was indeed just towed around by that, at least in short distances, like aiming, as it could not aim by any other way than building a round train section, and going round it :) . 

The later figures are slightly on the bigger side, which only shows the ridiculously gigantic proportions of this epic beast. The Thor is dwarfed to a ridiculous size at it's side!

It was even, fitted with air tube to realy shoot it's shells, but I can't remember if we did a video of it, so maybe for a later post. 

Lippish P.13 A PM Model 1/72 built and painted model kit

 This is an unusual little kit, one I saw discounted and couldn't resist buying it even if my stash is sky high (and keeps on growing!). A coal powered jet that was built in WW2 is just too tempting! followed a nice what-if camo plate that I found on internet, and sculpted the pilot myself.

 

BAC Jet Provost Airfix 1/72 model kit built painted Singapur air force

 After many years without posting, here I am back, with a nice little plane, the BAC Jet Provost. Originally wanted to make the Omani or Yemeni versions, but all the hassle of making and printing my own decals, I went for the Singaporean version which is quite different and fun too.

I painted on purpose the discoloured orange.  Next to the end, photo of the camo I based on.

Some time after, I read the book about the SAS intervention in Oman, and the Strikemaster crucial intervention, now I've got to make another one for Oman! 

THE ZENGIDS Seljuk Cavalry Painted Strelets figures miniatures 1/72 25mm medieval arab nomadic crusades wargaming

 At last I manage to finish some project, fully, succesfully and completely!

I wanted to paint something, and hence I gave a look at my various boxes. The set that more needed a painting was the Seljuk Cavalry, as they are almost identical as the Arab Cavalry from Strelets (so much I had to recheck on PSR who was who!) and for wargaming this is very annoying. I preferred to keep the Arab Cavalry as it was for the moment, and hence paint the Seljuks to enhance their "seljukicity"  :P .

While looking at them it struck me they were not completely fitting for me what I would understand as Seljuks. Call me picky, but I would imagine them more nomadic and slim. These, hence, suggested me something later, and much more arabic.

Hence with a bit of research I decided to paint them as Zengids, which was a Beylik, a small state loosely under the Seljuk authority, of Seljuk ethnicity but quite mixed with arabic influence, based in Mosul. They fought against the Crusaders taking Edessa most famously.

They fitted inside what one would call Seljuk, and it's quite impossible nobody releases a set of Zengids proper, hence perfect  :-) .

So, I applied mainly yellow-orange-maroon, with some touches of nomadic blue and dark colours.

Once finished the painting, they struck me as much too clean, and hence I used Games Workshops inkings, that while not wonderful, they give a good sense of realism, and they give a bit of varnish protection too, which allowed me to skip that tedious phase.

As a bonus, I did a small foot archer  :-) .

The highlight of them, is I believe, the chrome paint. I used a marker, and so I painted two swords and the masked seljuk.

Hope you like them and would love to read your impressions  :P .

The Seleucids; 1/72 conversion of Bum Spartans - Hytty Carthaginian mercenaries

This was, really, my first conversion project. I bought a box of Bum "Spartans", as the title just hooked me :P . I was rather flabbergasted by the contents inside, puzzled, with very mixed sensations. I inmediately saw that was hardly Spartans, although a roughly similar shield was provided. Upon searching I learned their true identity as Carthaginian Mercenaries of Hytty. But I wasn't very convinced either, considering some of the strange looks of a few soldiers, which even now I couldn't hope to identify (celtiberians? italic peoples?). I was given by Christmas another box of them, and this definitely only enlarged the puzzle and doubts about what to do with them! the shields and weapons falling apart were also a big part. Anyway, after much debating in those so far away times, I decided they could pass as Seleucids, with some able modifications, considering a good few of the poses were definitely greek, and the rest could be mercenaries used by the Seleucids. I printed shields from the Hat website, did some slight conversions with epoxy putty, and made some other shields. This was done about 20 years ago! hope you find them amusing to see ;-) .