Luft46's Blog

Unlike some people over on Facebook I usually leave my yearly review until the last day, not before Christmas!

So here it is – all the kits I finished this year

So what happened, well seven weeks Europe vacation that I can’t complain about, heaps of house renovations including my new indoor model room. The new model room can’t be complained about but again I didn’t do much modelling. And then of course there was the FW Ta183 disaster that killed that kit. On top of all that was some family stuff and managing to cut the back of my leg did not help either.

The last month or so has been better and I have made some real progress on the U19 KV1 conversion. Unlike previous years there has been a serious determination not to rush things to get a model finished by year end.

Today the missing piece from the conversion turned up with another KV1 project turret from bolddivision so it will be full steam ahead on that.

And lastly another BNA delivery with some varnish, sanding sticks and etched brass for my next KV2 and one for a 1/48 Okha.

And well this says it all about many parts of 2025.

you’re partner/children/friends etc bring you tricky modelling adjacent projects.

Today’s effort was this – ” I really like this champagne style bottle but I want to put this stopper in the top to replace the original cork. Of course the cork on the stopper is too large for the bottle and needs the diameter reduced.

Cue scalpel work then the  advice that it will need to look nice so it will need to be sanded.

Anyway the job is now complete!

For Christmas I got the Bovington book on tanks and a Ugear assembly for a marble run which will get a start sometime. And it’s patriotic as it’s made in Ukraine.

At 355 parts and a 71 page instruction sheet this may be a long build in the new year.

And now a cartoon that summarises AI well.

And a blast from the past

So reading the instructions confirms this is very what if being based on a proposal that never materialised in steel.

Despite that it’s a nice resin kit that is easy to cut out and clean up. I’m impressed that rifling on the barrel is included although a tiny smear of filler is required on the barrel to fill a hole. There is a slight step that needs sanding out.

A bit of fettling is required to get the mantlet to fit and will need some filler. Dissapointingly the barrel cover was missing. I contacted bolddivision.de directly and got a very quick reply offering the missing part free and with a little encouragement from them another KV2 turret variant was also purchased.

I still think the KV2 is a stupid tank from a military standpoint but the ugly beauty of the turret designs is unsurpassed!

I’m going to get a Tamiya KV2 to go with this as I expect their tracks will have less moulding pins to remove compared to the Trumpeter kit.

With Christmas looming fast I’ll be taking a break for a few days. The conversion does not come with any turret steps so research is needed to add these. If the weather improves I intend to spray the turret with black Vallejo and the body with Tamiya primer.

I need to hunt for some Russian decals, maybe the old set of rub down ones I have will do. I think  a fair bit of weathering will be appropriate on this.

The front part of the E100 is on but it needs some filler and cleanup but that’s been a bit of a mojo killer.

I’ve switched glues recently from mainly super glue to Tamiya’s new Low odor thin glue combined with the quicker acting normal thin glue. I use the latter in my spray booth to cope with the smell. The low odor with open windows makes this a better option for gluing plastic.

The KV1 from Trumpeter is moving along quite well but the resin conversion is untouched do far. On the whole the kit isn’t bad with the instructions being ok. What probably distinguishes this from the Tamiya kit is that it probably wouldn’t have mearly as many moulding pins to sand back. I’ve cheated by only doing the ones on the outside that are visible.

It’s still the thing I least like about doing 1.35 scale tanks. The tracks have a large top run with sag moulded in. As this is such a characteristic of the KV1/2 series its nice to not have to induce this as I had to do in the 1/72 version with rubber band tracks. The bottom is also mostly one run and two small pieces with lots of individual tracks for around the wheels at either end.

This is the usual tedium relieved by YouTube or movies on my tablet.