Luft46's Blog

With 20 of these to construct for the 2 rear wheels this was always going to be a little tedious. This is also the only dissapointment on the kit. Each of the links that the pads attach to has a mould seam running through it, not terribly visible but it makes the fit too tight so they have to be removed, this fault is common to all copies of these kits as googling has shown.
See the photo below. Having said that the tracks on all tanks are tedious and usually require a fair bit of cleanup.

Adding the rear wheels was quick and easy, helped by very well thought out instructions and moulding, i would definitely buy more Meng kits based on my experience so far.

Despite the rather cold days and nights recently I have managed some modelling. The top deck apart from the turret is complete. After the annoyance of losing a few parts eventually recovered it proceeded well.

The Kubinka example has obviously not been well looked after and I am attempting to replicate this neglect without being dogmatic. The engine deck cover is missing over one lot of louvres and the other is bent. I could have duplicated the scale thickness of this cover but opteju

st to bend with finger pressure the plastic part to create the dimple in the middle. This did splay out the four suport posts so these were bent back to fit. The other visible set of louvres shows a pipe underneath that was quickly duplicated with some platic tube painted dark brown and bent to shape.

Another point of difference is a set of doors on the upper deck that has one side placed over the other rather than closed. The kit parts have the tongue on the wrong side but I left this as I was more concerned with effect than accuracy. Ive almost reached the point of choosing the painting sequence and it looks like the front wheel will be the crunch point as the steerung cover is in two parts that mustbe joined along a mould split line and glue together to trap the wheel assembly.

Im gonna need to do the paintingof themain body parts soon as a result of that but need to determine the right colour as it looks like they used some horrible non standard colour, certainly not Panzer grey and the photos seem to vary based on position and light source showing various different shades

I got this kit underway yesterday. The first stage is attaching 7 hooks to their small mounting brackets and assesmbling the cab armour. I chose to attach the mounting brackets first to the body and then attaching the hooks as I thought the hooks would make the whole process fiddly if done the recommended way, glad I did in the end. You get 8 hooks and mounting brackets and of course I lost one of each, being lucky to not ping any more into the carpet. Just as bad as etched brass.

Stage 2 is adding the brackets and some hinges for hatches as well as engine covers. The engine grilles are just a pattern in the plastic but a little black followed by GW Boltgun Metal makes the grilles look quite good and allowed me to resist the urge to added metal screens in a fit of AMS.

This is the Meng 1/35 Minenraumer which is injection moulded with a tiny bit of wire and chain. The tractor shoes are moulded with metal weights inside to give it an authentic feel. Mine will be based on the Kubinka sole survivor. The kit appears well thought out with good instructions and was well packaged with seperate sprues and cardboard dividers between parts. Surprisingly the inside half of each back wheel had come off the sprue. Other than that it looks like a good kit, especially as I got it for $55 from Hobby HQ at Expo. My intention is to start this tomorrow, reviews seem to say it willbe a quick build.

d.

The two main sprues

After an arvo and night of AFL on Sat it was a quietish Sunday visiting a few more bookshops including Minotuar and some favourite cafes. Mon morning it was up early again for a drive out to Expo. i took the chance and got the rest of my photos. I’ll upload a few favourites later. Next port of call after waiting for the crush to die down a bit it was off to the Swap and Sell or Swap and smell, given some modellers personal hygiene habits. It was interesting to see some of the same old people selling off their stuff again, obviously they had bought more in the last year that needed to be offloaded. I only bought one kit and that was a Helldiver on behalf of John B and it wasthe Academy one for $10 in 1/72 which is for his alternate RAAF scenario. some more chatting and it was time to head back home.

I managed to get away with only buying 2 kits this trip being the bu 181 andthe Minenraumer in 1/35. More on that kit later.

The rest of yesterday was mostly looking at modelling type shops. I visited Hobby P**** which was closing down, not really that sorry to see it go. The owner was busy shredding paperwork with the aid of scissors, a litle sad with someone suggesting that he use a shredder but he shrugged that off. The shop had halved in size when I visited it last year and now was mostly empty apart from junk he was unlikely to ever sell.  He was generally an unfriendly guy who was not interested in the average modeller, more so in tourists who’d buy any old junk.

Next stop was Hylands and I bought my usual one book from there, the Midlands book on Schlactflieger which has a Panzerfaust armed Bu 181 in it. Following that it was Showcase Models a small operation on the 3rd floor down Little Bourke Street. the floor is shared with an accountant and some other business. The layout is basic but tidy and all the kits are well displayed with a friendly owner.  I bought the AZ Models version on the Panzerfaust
bu 181.
After all that shopping I had a last coffee at the GPO cafe and headed back to my hotel and a room service meal. I passed on Mag Nation and Minotaur through tiredness.

Today started with John picking me up from the hotel at 8.10 with a slow wet trip out to Sanddown. It’s a greyish day in Melbourne which has been a rarity. I pitched in and helped unpack a few books for Hylands and arrange these and put out a few I had bought down to get rid of. One of these sold for $3 to balance out tye $95 I spent with John! The rest of my time was occupied with photos and checking out the traders, buying the Meng Minenraumer in 1/35. I intend this to be displayed as if it is at Kubinka Museum and I’ve got areference for this. The Soviets repainted it in a glossy light blue grey IIRC.

Off on the train now to the MCG to watch Richmond play Freo followed by the Swans and Essendon at Etihad tonight.

Back in Melbourne again for the umpteenth time and still loving it. I’m sitting here at my favourite cafe C & B which still has the same maitre d. A skinny man of average height with a red brown Abe Lincoln style beard in his 70’s style floral shirt who presides over the whole place with a gentle air of control.  In the manner of new cafes there is  a touch screen that he uses to control what is going on and keeps a track of all the orders. The chairs are comfortable and if you get the right chair you can watch the passingparade.

Having scored  a window seat on the way down I could see all that was going on in the control surfaces in front of me. You realise how big the Airbus 380 is when you see it with 2 storeys of cabin windows compared to even the 747 which only has these in the front portion. Taxiing in the plane I was on screeched to an abrupt halt as someone else had taken our parking spot, we waited a while till a tractor could come and move the plane elsewhere. No dramas really.

I’ve been to both Hearns and Vic Hobby and have only bought 3 paints at VHC for my LOTR figures and some reasonably priced brushes at the Uni art shop. The bloke at VHC was just starting his packing for Expo with Hearns as usual not attending. Unusually he was not entering any models and he indicated other friends of his were not also so it will be interesting to see whether kit numbers are down. None of the models were new to me or must have so it was a cheap visit for a change. The slow rate of kits geting to Australia still makes it more likely that the internet is a quicker option.
Not sure it will be that good when going to Minotaur.