T-90A Dissaster... though mostly my fault

well I lack experience but even so nothing like this has not happened to me before, and certainly I am sure that it cannot be totally my fault...

from this angle all seems mostly fine

Well what happened... warping and deforming on a grand scale. . :-( OK I think that perhaps the water I washed the kit in was to hot but the water must not have been much hotter than the water I used to clean my other kits, and they had no deforming, none what so ever. I am not put off Model Collect but I am going to be more cautious in future.

but on closer inspection things start to  go wrong

I do take responsibility for the water and I do know that this is mostly my fault, but even though that is the case, this is the same process I have used before with no problems, so perhaps I can ask to buy a replacement at a reduced price. Though even this might be a hard ask. I have never faced a situation like this and I am totally confused.

this part has suffered the worst... I have tried my best to correct the problems but the problems go beyond bending, the plastic itself has got weaker in some places

heat can do this but it was

 now there is far more damage that this because all the spures also bent... once again this has never happened to me before. I have no chance of righting these wrongs because when I do, even by heating up the plastic again the plastic starts to come apart!

this is the most bizarre of the damage, I have managed to straighten out the tracks as much as possible but no joy. I know that tracks must be washed with care but again no problems in the past

Well I have no clue what to do, but this is a slight warning if you get this kit watch out for the water temperature. I am going to try and sort this out myself but still some support/advice for what to do in future would be really appreciated.

well I hope you all have a better time than I have, Well perhaps the sand to mud charity run will take my mind off it, that's tomorrow I hope that I can give you some good news then.

A trip to the Museum, and some news

OK guys well for all of you who don't know I live pretty close to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and one of its former capitals. Due to both Easter weekend and schools taking a day off on Tuesday we decided that on Tuesday to go up to the Auckland war Memorial Museum, which is general museum with a large section devoted to conflicts in which New Zealanders have given their lives.

To kick things off I'll show you the pictures I took on my phone... they are crap and I would have prefered to have used my actual camera but oh well.

The old front of the Museum. New Zealand lost 1.64% of its population in WW1 a higher loss per head of population than most other countries in WW1!

we all know the lines. but this is one of the most beautiful ways to display them don't you think?

 Now we go inside to the Museum... and one of the first things we find is a model! YAY! I forgot what it was about, trust my luck to forget that, but I think (a real guess) that this diorama shows a Maori Pa from Auckland... I may be very wrong but it is only a guess

sorry the glass made these photo's terrible

 unfortunately taking these photos though glass has made them look bad.

my apologies

 Now onto the war stuff... the rest of the museum is great but up on the third level you can find out about the conflicts in which New Zealand fought. Now let me me support little New Zealand here, so often when we look at WW1 and WW2 we forget about poor New Zealand.... BUT Even more so for the Korean war and the Vietnam war! New Zealand is either not remembered because she is small and overlooked or Australia takes every scenario where the ANZAC's  fought and then saying that any crucial moment in the fighting was carried out by Australians... some even claim they lost more per-population in WW1 than New Zealand which is also a false claim. It makes me very upset as this denies almost the men who gave their lives their right to the honour they deserve. Please let us now always remember the little guys from the other nations who take part in wars. if it was not for the New Zealanders... the second battle of El Alamien could have been very different, for it was they and who made that all important charge.

TO start the war section I shall show you something that should at once be recognisable! the V1, the worlds first cruise missile. aparently during near the end of the war one of these hit (near?) the village my dad grew up in destroying part of it (I think so anyway)

ignore the crappy base... this cannon is very special! it fought at the battle of Waterloo!

 Now here is a fact I bet only a few of you knew... the best pilot of the battle of Britain was a New Zealander! yes that is right, the proudest moment for my country, and yet the best pilot was not even from my country.

a spitfire... renovated. I do believe its meant to represent the Kiwi's plane

They also have a Japanese Zero, but I didn't get to see that

this scene represents the New Zealanders fighting at Monte Cassino. they fought hard here, its one of the few battles where you will always here about them

Trial by Fire! the story of the New Zealanders in Crete. a famous battle for all the Kiwi soldiers their but also for the famous Maori Battalion, who earned the deep respect off all the other allied soldiers, for their bravery and skill

a little naval scene here a 20mm Oerlikon Anti-Aircraft gun, Originally from Switzerland but used by pretty much everyone in WW2. It's still used by many countries today even though its design comes from 1914

 Well that is it from the Museum, I hope you like it. oh and I have some cool news the T-90A arrived today so perhaps I shall paint it up over the weekend or during the upcoming holidays :-D but for now Have a good day/night and I leave you with a pretty picture I took yeasterday morning.

there we are. have a nice time everyone.

Challenger 2, another stealth tank

Just when you thought it was safe to go out on the road, another tank is rolling down the tarmac bring with it a car crushing weight and an accurate, deadly gun. it is highly advised that you remain indoors and get all vehicles off the road, unless your car insurance policy covers damage caused by tanks!
if you have forgotten the last stealth Challenger 2 here is a link to the post anyway these 2 tanks are very similar, the only difference is the amount of armour on the tank.

All the following pics are taken inside the new bookcase... as you can see we need to put the books in it.

If you find yourself looking up at these tanks like this.... this is probably the last thing you will see.

one has extra armour one has a flag.... I still think the armour is a better add on to the tank.

the tanks driving away!

this is a rather faded Oronegrean flag.

in formation

not much dirt but this is mostly for urban warfare

a propaganda photo... who can stand up to the national forces when they have these?

Well, well, well there we are my friends this tank may have arrived to late for tank week but she is here now and I hope you enjoy her company. I have been busy recently, being stuck at home with illness is not fun but painting models stops me stressing about what I am missing at school. So due to that I have got a few figs done. I have got some divers done, who all sport an interesting , unique but above all experimental camouflage. I have literally just finished another fig, but I may still alter him, and a mounted man with a sub machine gun is also ready to show so plenty to present. I just have to figure out how to post it all.

have a great day guys! Now all I need to focus on is that T-90A soon the baddies will have a powerful tank to use (and as this is Oronegro, and the tank probably was made in Oronegro... it may be a match for these brutes).

both sides of the law!

well after the fun of tank week I seem to have got the joys of illness week :-( started out with a stomach bug and has ended up a a flu like virus that is ruining my week... still I have to stay positive and models help with that!
Fist up the mob!!!
How much cooler can you get than the old style mob... actually there are many ways but for the sake of not getting killed in a drive by lets say there are none!  below are pics... first of the hit men and then of a mob girl and an unfortunate bystander.
the Mob played a strange roll in the Rebellion... their power was undermined by the Soviets, who took control of nearly the whole illegal arms trade crippling the mob. the Mob was still no friend of the government but more often than not the lawless rebels found themselves at the wrong end of the mobs guns.

the hit men, Tony, Tony, Tony and Tony..... I stated painting these guys ages ago but never finished them until last week!

NOW LISTEN UP!!!!!! ABI my sister started the painting on the girl. she chose the colours I finished the figure... the man I painted a while back... I think he is a motorcyclist.... he is a figure from Esci's NATO ground crew.

I like this guy... on the front of his T-shirt it says Al Fin and on the back it has this cool pattern! unfortunately it looks like he's got himself into a bit of trouble.

 NOW for the cops!
I have seen these figures painted before by Emmett (Winttrix ) over on his blog and I decided I would copy his technique of writing Pol instead of police on the shields... its simpler and it means these guys can be police in any number of countries. actually not seen or heard anything of him in a while... any one managed to stay in contact?
Anyway here is Oronegro's Riot Police. armed with pistols these men are not really up to facing rebel insurgents but if they come up against an angry mob they should be up to the task of controlling it.

they may not be very important in the big scheme of things but these men are still ready to fight, but perhaps not die, for the nation of Oronegro

codes on their back EA and PA are little more than personal identifications A stands for their unit and the first letter who they are from that unit.

they move in on a building... ready to brake in and take out some crime lord!

Well there we are guys! another post. BUT ANOTHER TANK IS DONE AND READY TO BE SHOWN.... it will be in the next post!

have a nice day/night guys

final tank of tank week - Challenger 1

Okay guys here we go the final tank of tank week! the Challenger 1, the most modern of tank received and also in 1/76 scale! So what is smaller than a Challenge? a competition... so let me introduce the Competitor1

bringing up the rear is the Competitor 1 if the other tanks failed to remove the rebels this will!

the Competitor 1 is one of the few Light Main Battle Tanks that can still be found in large numbers within the Oronegrean armed forces! its strong composite armour and high speed make it useful even against normal sized MTB's. The tank has been a total success since its introduction in 1985 and replaced many of the chieftain tanks in the boarder units. the Competitor 1 has had no replacement as a smaller version of the challenger 2 proved unsatisfactory and efforts to make the hydrogen fuel cell tank engine (as seen in some Oronegrean tanks) consumed much of the budget for research and design in the Oronegrean Ministry of Defence.

a comparison... between the Challenger 2 and the Competitor 1

close up on some tools!

THERE WE GO THE FINAL TANK :-D hope you guys have a great weekend! I have more to show you either this weekend or next week! this will be my newly completed Mafia hit men (4 same pose - but the classic one) and a mounted man firing.  perhaps some more even if I have the time to finish an photograph them. busy, busy, busy all these moderns that were close to being done have been quick to complete.

have a good day/night everyone.

Tank week... tank 4 Centurion

the Centurion is the oldest of the tanks that arrived in the box. This centurion is also 1/76 scale so is also quite small. the design for the Centurion was started in 1943 and it entered service in 1945, sadly to late to see combat in WW2... But never the less the tank proved successful, its final notable action was in 1991 in the gulf war! a great British tank, with a long history, the Centurion looks its age when compared to other tanks.

this Gladiator named "long John Silver" follows the Swedish Strv 103's down the road.

Being 1/76 scale the model is not of a Centurion but a Gladiator, not a very original name but back in 1950 when Oronegro began its own production of the Centurion the name for this small tank didn't seem that important. the Gladiator like most small versions of large tanks in those days was not primarily designed for urban warfare, but jungle combat and bunker assault. Oronegro firmly believing at the time that tanks must be able to fit into the tunnel systems of underground bunkers... though this meant that the Gladiator was armed with a rather silly and infective short barrelled gun the Tank was built in large enough numbers that only in 1980 was the Gladiator finally retired from service (after 15 years being in reserve, and 20 years after the Centurion itself was retired.

the Gladiator an old relic the old Oronegrean military.

 the Gladiator turned up quite a bit during the civil war. though the government claimed that the rebels had got them from tank graveyards in cities like El Granproyecto, it seemed evident that due to the tanks good condition  that some at least came from over the boarder in the Pan Andean People's Republic, which had acquired some in the 1980's as part of a treaty. Also the fact the Government had some lent credit to the idea that the Government never really gave up tanks it saw as useful in the first place.

the rebel hides, the Gladiator may be old but the rebel is still no match for it.

There you go guys one more tank to go! the 1/76 scale Challenger 1 tank. Have a nice day guys I hope that you have enjoyed tank week so far.

Tank week... tank 3 the Strv103 S Tank

Never heard of this tank before? well no worries it's pretty obscure, yet I got 2 in the parcel from Matt and although the tank is not that common I guess Oronegro must have made some. I am not thinking up a story. hmm...

The Chieftain has cleared the way! Now the Strv 103's can play!

Usually when an order for a foreign tanks construction arrives at the desk of the national arms manufacturing minister he will see a name like "The United States of America", "The United Kingdom" or "The Federal Republic of Germany" in the box containing the name of the country which placed the order... But when the name "The Kingdom of Sweden" filled the box back in 1970 (a year before Sweden ended its own production of the tank) he thought there must have been a mistake.

called wedges by Oronegrean soldiers these tanks are not to be confused with anti-tank guns, they can do so much more than that.

Yet there was no mistake, with the country, only the number requested was wrong... two extra 0's on the end took the total to be build from 50 to 5000! the error was to say the very least huge, fortunately the mistake was seen by by then 309 were already being built and another 141 had been built! Sweden took the 50 it originally wanted but that left Oronegro with 500 tanks it needed to sell off. Sweden took 100 as spares another 100 were sold off to anonymous customers (usually western nations like the US who wanted to see its capabilities) and Oronegro was left with 300. These were then upgraded to have new composite armour, inferior to that of the Abrams or Challengers but still good, their guns were changed and eventually they all found their place in the Oronegrean army as tank destroyers, defensive tanks and "bunker busters". in Oronegrean service they were called the Wedges because of their shape. their official designation remained the Strv 103

there is the 2 "wedges" one has a cover at the back of the gun... mostly for decorative reasons but also to hide the area as if that area is damaged it can ruin the guns aim.

There you go guys another tank class down... happily these guys are 1/72 so no scale problems this time! the next 2 tanks are 1/76 so have their own class. And as always have a nice day/night.