Zvezda 1:72 "Art of Tactics" Soviet 122mm Howitzer

I wanted to continue this blog after more than 7 years and while I was preparing a new post, I found this unposted draft from the past.

The gun and it's crew and the infantry troops come from Zvezda's "Art of tactics" and went well together (as far I remember). I think there are more built and painted Zvezda guns and mini somewhere in my old stuff .

Some Kind Of Advertising For RBmodels

Two weeks ago I made an order at RBmodels. Its is a company based in Poland that offers metal barrels for tanks in 1:72 and 1:35 and some other stuff. 

I needed 10 barrels for the T34/76 tank and some metal barrels for the Revell S-100 boat (if you could see my future projects list, it is sooo long), and after some research on the web, this shop was the one with the lowest prices.

I made an order on thursday and payed with paypal, the stuff arrived two days later what is my new personal record for ordering from outsde of Germany. This is so WOW, that I wanted to share my experience with this shop/manufacturer. 

Their website is https://www.rbmodel.com

I always wanted to keep any advertising out of this blog but sometimes there are some shops worth to be mentioned. I do not receive any bonus for this.

Italeri 1:72 Soviet ZIS-3 Gun And Anti Tank Team

Pictures of the Soviet ZIS 3 antitank gun and crew from Italeri (#6097). It's a nice kit without flash and with only minimal mould lines.

The figures were painted in the usual Soviet scheme, the only additions of colors were GW Snakebite leather (#61-64) and Revell Aquacolor beige (#36314) for the winter hats, and Revell Aquacolor Dark Earth (#36182)  and GW Devlan Mud wash (#68-25) for the greatcoat. The gun was painted with Revell Aquacolor Seagreen (#) followed by a wash with GW Thraka Green (68-21), them I did a light drybrush with a light grey.

All figures and the ammo box are based on 1 cent coins.

The only negative point of this kit is that the barrel can't be moved up and down, becaus the ZIS 3 gun was not only used for fighting tanks, it was used as normal field artillery too.

Lots of informations and pictures about Soviet field artillery can be found in the Waffenarsenal journal about the Soviet field artillery (ISBN 3-7909-0540-2) that can be found for a low price at Amozon. 

And a view on the Italeri antitank team (#6131). All figures were painted my usual Soviet scheme, that can be found on this blog. Additional colors for hats and greatcoats can be found above.

The machine gunner got his cape painted in a snow camo style, I think that fits very good in a Winter setting. All these minis are based on 1 or 2 cent coins.

Great figures by Italeri, these figures mix very well with the Soviet Winter Soviets (#6069).

Orion 1:72 Anti Air Quad Maxim And DSHK

Here are some pictures of the new Soviet figure sets by Orion, "Soviet Quad Maxim AA MG and Crew" (#72037) and "Soviet DShK AA MG and Crew" (#72038).

First the Maxim Quad, it can be used well for early war scenarios, the figures wear their field hats and are armed with rifles, the equipment of them is mostly light.

All figures are out of the box, the only modification was to base the lieing rifleman, he got a new base and is now shooting straight. The figures are painted in my usual Soviet color style, the colors I used can be found in this post.

The gun itself was a tough build, I can't remember that I ever used more glue on a gun than on this, and my personal carpet monster got a new sacrifice, that's why the gunsight is missing.

The DshK kit is more a late war set, all figures wear helmets and the gunners are equipped with the PPSh machine gun which depicted in the later war.

These figures were painted in my Soviet scheme, too.

The machine gun was build without any problems.

One of these two kits had a lot of flash and mould lines, but I can't remember which of them, but it made no fun to build the quad Maxim.

Update:
Booth sets contain 3 identical sprues each with 5 different figures and one gun. Pictures of the unpainted sets and sprues can be found on Plastic Soldier Review.

Fleamarket Discoveries

I love fleamarkets, there can be found a lot of useful and useless stuff, that's the shit I need. Whenever I hear of a fleamarket in my town, I try to visit it. I always wanted to write about my fleamarket finds since I started this blog and now it is the time to do it, I will not include any prices for it, but when it was bought, be sure it was cheap.

We have a big monthly fleamarket in the local exhibition hall and I visit it everytime, I think the best time ist right when it starts (8a.m.), there are less visitors than later and the best things (lol) are still available. Sometimes I make a second visit just before it closes, I think than you can get the best prices, most sellers are happy for every piece that they will not have to carry back home.

Let's take a look, what I found today:

- Body Counts first debut album, I remember this record was the killer when it came out while I was a teenager.

- some comics, one anthology of the Freak Brothers and three issues of Judge Dredd (he is the law).

- 2 diecast cars and a diecast helicopter for a future project

and, last but not least, an old boardgame called Anno 4000, I don't know if I will ever find more players for this, but I couldn't resist when the seller told me the price.

I am happy with my new stuff, and on the way back I bought some fresh buns for breakfast. Can a day start better ?

Maybe the list will be updated, I will visit the market with a friend before it closes, I will see, how much I can drop the prices of some things that interested me.