As these moulds would

not be able to be used

for any other kit, they

would be, in effect, a

one off, and thus the

manufacturers could

not hope to recoup the

costs without the kit be-

ing prohibitively expen-

sive.

That, apparently, is the

reason why a Berge-

panther from a major

manufacturer is about

as likely as kits reduc-

ing in cost.

Having heaved a big

sigh, I continue to as-

semble bits and pieces

which I may be able to

use at some indetermi-

nate time in the future

when I attempt to con-

struct a Bergepanther

Ausf G—watch this

space.

Reading, as I frequently

do, comments by other

modellers, particularly

regarding Bergepan-

thers or anything perti-

nent to that subject, I

recently came across a

very interesting discus-

sion.

If, by some chance, you

haven’t worked out yet

that I am somewhat(!?)

interested in Bergepan-

thers, then you are ei-

ther a new member,

have your head perma-

nently in the sand, or

don’t bother to read the

newsletter (shame on

you!)

Anyway, the subject of

the discussion was rea-

sons why we haven’t

yet seen a decent kit of

a

Bergepanther Ausf A or

G by one of the major

manufacturers.

Yes, I know CMK pro-

duced a conversion kit

some time ago which is

very nicely detailed. It

also retails for $150 and

is currently out of pro-

duction.

The reason, apparently,

that we are never likely

to see a Bergepanther

from one of the major

manufacturers has to

do with the extensive

retooling which would

be required for the inte-

rior, eg the winch, driv-

ing compartment, su-

perstructure etc.

Editorial (aka Rob’s Rantings)

3 May 2014

Volume 10, Issue 4

AMMS Brisbane News The New Format

A new year, a new

format

All articles accepted

within reason

As you can see, plen-

ty of space for snip-

pets

Suggestions for con-

tent and/or improve-

ments (within rea-

son!) will be grateful-

ly accepted

Inside this issue:

David’s Drivel 2

Kit Review 3

ANZAC Cup 4

Tech Tip 4

Researching Model-ling Subjects

5-7

Rocky Trip Pics 7

Tips from the Ex-perts

8-9

School Project 9

More Display Pics 10

Left—an example of how mod-

elling manufacturers keep reus-

ing moulds. I wonder how many

variants of the Stug III, and for

that matter, the Panzer III, Pan-

zer IV, Tiger I and II, Panther

and their various offspring DML

have produced to date? I dread

to think.

Well there appears to be another jam packed weekend ahead of us, doesn't there? Saturday

sees the monthly AMMS meeting, complete with a dual round of the mod-el competition, and don't forget Ronnels's Hobbies will be in attendance with his 'bargain packed van sale" (bring ya coin or plastic!) then there's PX Sunday morning to round it out - could you ask for more model re-lated activities in a day

& a half? You'd be hard pressed to I think. Personally, I don't have much coin to drop at PX but that's not the only reason I go - OK, so buying cheap second hand kits "IS" a large part of it, it isn't the only part, there's also the social aspect I go for, it's pretty much the only chance I get through the year to really catch up with people, whilst many members attend QMHE and make that their social

outing, I'm pretty much flat out over the QMHE weekend and whilst I en-joy what I do (please don't tell crazy Dave that!) I don't get too much stand down time to catch up - so, PX is my fix... What's yours? Till next month... Be naughty (at PX) Regards, David Scorer AMMS Brisbane coordina-tor 2014

This Saturday is the sec-ond AMMS competition for the year, with both the standard competition and the technical competition open for entries. Don’t forget all entrants to the technical comp are in with a chance to win a $50 voucher from Firestorm, Ronnels, Platypus or BNA Modelworld, with the win-ners to be drawn later in the year.

David’s Drivel

Page 2

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue 4

Gold Coast War

Museum New

Displays

(thanks Blackie)

Reminder (thanks Jamie)

Kit Review

Page 3

Volume 10, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

While building a Stug III Ausf F8

recently, I had need of some jer-

rycans, and conveniently, SWMBO

wanted to go to DFO over near the

airport, which represented a perfect

opportunity for her to browse to her

heart’s content while yours truly

escaped to Hobbyrama in the hope

of finding some jerrycans.

Fortunately, I found not one set of

jerrycans, but two, one by AFV Club

and one by Great Wall Hobby, so I

thought it would be useful to com-

pare the two sets.

AFV Club

This set comes in a box about half

the size of the other set, and con-

tains three sprues with halves for 36

cans, with separate spouts and

handles, as well as three curved

pieces of pipe for pouring spouts. In

addition, there is an etched fret with

brass inserts to be added between

each half of each can, 36 pieces in

all.

Of the 12 cans on each sprue, four

are the early type, stamped 1939,

four are stamped “Wasser 20l”, and

four are stamped “Kraftstoff 20l

Feuergefahrlich”, plus SS runes.

This last is curious as it

means that there are no

Wehrmacht fuel jerry

cans included in the set.

Dimensionally, the cans

should measure 9.7mm

wide by 13.3mm high,

and my measurements

indicate that they are

pretty much spot on.

Price was $29.95

Great Wall Hobby

This set comes in two

sprues with halves for

10 cans on each sprue for a total of

20. However, each sprue also con-

tains two blocks of five cans for use in

situations such as was frequently

seen with racks containing a number

of cans. These blocks have no

stamped details on the sides, but are

complete in all other details, just

needing spout, handles, and one of

the other stamped cans on each end

for a full set, so effectively this set

contains 40 cans.

There is also an etched fret with

brass inserts for 20 cans, and, for

those with good eyesight and lots of

patience, there are brass caps for 20

cans. For the rest of us, the caps are

also supplied in plastic.

Of the 10 cans on each sprue,

three are water, stamped 1941,

one is the early version, stamped

1939, three are Wehrmacht,

stamped 1939, and three are SS,

with no year stamp.

Dimensionally, these cans are

also spot on. An important inclu-

sion in this set is a decal sheet

containing white crosses for

each side of the six water cans.

Price was $12.95

Anzac Cup, ADF Wargaming Association (thanks Graham)

Page 4

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue 4

Tech Tip (thanks Graham)

Wet Palette Technique.

The following is a great way to get the most use acrylic paints without them drying out on you. All you need is a shallow container such as a Tupperware lid ( I use an alfoil bbq drip tray), paper towel and some baking pa-per.

In your container first put your paper towel, then the baking paper on top. Now lift a corner of the baking paper and pour in water until you can see the baking paper float on the surface tension of the water.

Now add your acrylic paint on the top of the baking pa-per. The membranes in the paper are wide to keep the paint wet but not allow the water through. This works best on Vallejo and Andrea paints, Life colour works to a lesser extent but Tamiya doesn’t work very well at all.

In summer I find you can get almost 24 hours out of your paint and in winter, with a touch of slow dry or glaze medium up to 3 days. This is great if you are mixing col-ours, so you don’t have to constantly remix to keep the right colour.

The ADFWGA is a Wargaming association from the defence forces but is open to the

public which holds regular competitions to raise funds for the charities Soldier On and

Legacy. Previously held in Townsville this is the first year in Brisbane, held at the main

gym of Enoggera Barracks. The competition is a round robin rotated amongst players

over the course of the weekend. How they actually play it is beyond me as what little I

tried to pick up is a bit like learning left handed Swahili. Brisbane figure modellers as well

as IPMS QLD put on modelling displays as well. The organisers were very impressed

with the turnout considering this is the first year in Brisbane. And, as the above picture

shows, we only used half the total area available and there was some discussion that

maybe next year it may be expanded to a combined Wargaming and modelling show.

I took heaps of photos from the Brisbane figure modellers and will get Charlie to put

them up on the website.

for them] and I will try my hand at

moulding a few to satisfy a couple

of requests as well as giving me a

few options in the number used in

future dioramas.

The other items are ARtMI figures – made in Czechoslovakia which would date them prior to 1 Janu-ary 1993 when the country sepa-rated into Czechia and Slovakia. I couldn’t locate a web page for ARtMI but the figures still appear for sale on the web. The figures are Austrian Infantry 1805, French Infantry 1805 and Russian Infan-try 1805. Having been looked over my a few members, the sculpting and detail are good and rank with Historex. (I think that is what I heard), they didn’t cost a lot, purchased from a private sell-er on eBay USA who did not ship overseas, I had them shipped with other items through Opas.com http://www.opas.com/. There are other shipping companies in the USA that offer the same service, but I have no problem in recom-mending them.

Purchasing second hand books

through ABEBooks http://

www.abebooks.com/ and posting

to the USA address can save in

postage as often postage will be

either free or a nominal price, so

the combined shipping in one lot

is offset in savings of not having

each one posting to Australia. I

find it strange, if that is the word,

when picking up out of print sec-

ond hand books, that I can have a

book posted from the UK to Aus-

tralia for a lower price than for the

same book inside Australia. I

have a feeling it is due to the post-

age of books being handled at a

reduced cost in the UK. I know

from sellers on eBay in the USA,

that it is the case with the US

The last meeting was already quite

an enjoyable event, and then I won

the raffle as well.

I had brought along some purchases

from eBay as I had mentioned them

to a few members in the previous

meeting and they were interested in

having a look.

Apart from my main interests being -

the 25 pounder field gun and the

Quad gun tractor [my father served

in 2/3 Field Regiment] and tanks

used by Australia in North Africa and

Greece and Crete as well as the

very nice figure by Firestorm of the

commando in New Guinea [2/3

Commandos, the second part of my

father’s war service – Wau to Sala-

maua] and the APC with the T-50

turret from Vietnam having had a

family member serve in 3 Cav, I

have side tracked and have picked

up a few 1/32 – 54mm scale figures,

mainly Napoleonic era. [Who am I

kidding; I could open my own store,

almost, when I include Napoleonic

Airfix figures and various 54mm met-

al figures.]

So the first items are for a diorama –

a set of three Full Gabions [they also

make half gabions with six halves in

the packet] – to be used as part of a

gun diorama. I am currently on the

lookout for the Verlinden No. 1774

North and South 12 Pounder Canon

(Napoleon) and possibly add a fig-

ure. The Gabions are made by Ar-

mand P. Bayardi and they are still in

business out of the USA, http://

www.armandbayardi.com/brd/

index.htm. The quality and detail is

quite good, [Those that had an inter-

est in this scale appeared quite im-

pressed, so I think that speaks well

Postal Service charging a lower

price. Perhaps Australia Post will

catch up with this idea as they

shift from letters to packages as

their core business.

I was trying to decide what to write

for the newsletter, I selected the

Trumpeter British 155mm AS-90

self-propelled howitzer and

thought about a review, but that is

not my skill set, and as would be

expected there are two very good

reviews on Armorama http://

www.armorama.com/ by some-

one who knows what they are talk-

ing about. [Well done to the pur-

chaser/s for the raffles in selecting

quality kits, a task when I think

about it, would not be that easy or

straight forward.]

So, to that end, my skill set is in

searching the web for information.

My best find was in the research I

am undertaking for my father’s

war service. I wanted to include a

photo of each ship on which he

travelled to the UK, North Africa,

back to Australia and to and from

New Guinea. I won’t go into too

much detail, in brief than, the

ships were mentioned in the ser-

vice records under their convoy

number. Location of convoy lists

took a while as they tended to be

linked more to the embarkation

dates. The short story is the hard-

est to find ship was the one from

New Guinea back to Cairns, a

Liberty Class Ship – the S. Hall

Young [Sydney Hall Young]. The

hardest part in locating a photo at

the time, [around September

2009], was that no one appeared

to have taken one during its war

service. Cont’d on Page 6.

Researching Model Subjects

(thanks Gerard)

Page 5

Volume 10, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

After the war, the surviving ships

were sold and in the case of the

Hall, the name was changed as well.

To cut to the chase, I present the

Liberty Ship - S. Hall Young the pho-

to taken around 1946, with the new

name Lekkerkerk. I digressed, as I

was curious if there is now a photo

on the web, as is the nature of the

beast, with items coming and going.

Although an AWM photo, I found it

on the Northern Territory Library

page, http://www.ntlexhibit.nt.gov.au/

exhibits/show/unit/unit/item/1716 .

Who knew, if I had waited five

years it would appear, really de-

feats the whole story now, or per-

haps not, as I found it fairly quickly

this time around.

Anyway, my back up is the story of locating a copy of Stuart, a history of the American Light Tank by RP Hunnicutt which is scarce and ex-pensive, as of 24/4/2014 – the

cheapest copy on ABEBooks is US$250 [approx. AUS$269.79] plus postage US$15.50. Again, when I first searched back in Janu-ary 2013, there was only one book located through Booko, an Australi-an web page, http://booko.com.au/ and quite useful

for finding out of print books. Probably not that exciting if you have no interest in the Stuart, but I did locate the entire book in pdf format as well, and thus a saving of, from memory, the copy was listed for over AUS$300 at the time. So, as a source for accura-cy in modelling and ideas for paint and diorama options, not to mention the definitive reading on the subject, an inexpensive find, apart from time spent, the spelling of the surname I initially used was Honeycut. When no results were appearing, it wasn’t hard to guess that as the book existed, my spelling had to be the issue for no results. Once I get started in searching for something I take it on as a chal-lenge where failure is not an op-tion, at least not with a real crack and some hours in searching the topic. [Sort of ties in with my pay-ing job – that is, searching for information.] Almost forgot, if you are search-ing for a copy of an old modelling magazine, Magazine Exchange out of the UK, http://www.magazineexchange.co.uk/static-diecast/ is quite good, and again the postage is reason-able. I have picked up some old magazines for reference for Na-poleonic figures and the maga-zines have been in good order with postage times around two weeks. All said, sharing the items cer-

tainly made the meeting an en-

joyable event for me, and some-

thing I will try to do more often.

In the back of my mind when putting this together, is what Dave had said back when I joined AMMS, it’s up to you what you put into the club as to what you will get out of it [or something similar]. To that end, I have certainly taken that on board and shared a few bits and pieces by way of reference materials and finds, the Stuart was an exercise after hearing Cont’d on Page 7.

Researching Model Subjects (Cont’d from Page 5)

Page 6

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue 4

that a member was keen to have a copy. The Gabi-ons will be another, as I find it satisfying in having a shared interest and is probably for me the rea-son for belonging to a club. I think that is why for me, AMMS works, with members talking about and showing their projects and, being able to ask questions and receive an-swers that are straight forward with an easy going attitude of assisting in skill sets in a shared hobby. Anyway, I hope this has not been boring. Having come back to modelling after a long time away, I knew my skills would be probably where I left off as a twelve or thirteen year old and the best way, after buying magazines to see what I could learn from the build articles, I decided that interacting with people would be a better way of catching up with and pro-gressing the hobby. When looking at skill sets, it is great to hang around with people who have almost encyclopaedic memories about makers and kits and have seriously fantastic skills in creating to my mind works of art. Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling.

Researching Model

Subjects (Cont’d from Page 6)

Page 7

Volume 10, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

Rocky Trip Pics (Thanks Ron)

The little montage of

photos above and

left were sent in by

Ron Puttee, who

found all of the items

shown in a little mili-

tary museum in, of

all places, Childers.

I had the pleasure to inter-view (interrogate) Andy Reid our resident Sherma-holic.

Andy was born in Hamp-shire, ENGLAND , in De-cember 1947. His father was in the Territorial Army and this is one of Andy’s motivational spurs that drive his modelling inter-ests. As with most of us Baby Boomers, he first started out with the 1/72 scale offerings from Frog and Airfix. He graduated to the dark side at EAST-ER 1982 with his first sight of TAMIYA. These 1/35 scale offerings gave him another interest in models aside from fast cars, wom-en and of course alcohol. As with everything, he says, take with modera-tion.

Andy’s fascination with armour concentrated on Sherman tanks and Israeli military vehicles. TAMIYA provided the most accu-rate and affordable mod-els around. Andy still likes TAMIYA but has also in-cluded MENG, TASCA, HOBBY BOSS and some DRAGON kits in his stash (those kits that are already earmarked for that special project sometime in the future). Basically Andy now likes his Sher-mans with a dash of Rus-sian T55s, MENG D9 Dozers and odd ball Rus-sian tanks, personnel car-riers and Israeli armour.

Favoured paints are TAMIYA and VALLEJO because they are acrylics. His favourite air-brush is his faithful BADGER 200 single action. Because of Andy’s favoured model’s being mostly Shermans,

his most often used colour is Olive Drab. I asked what brand of paint he uses to achieve the colour he wants. His answer is TAMIYA’S Olive Drab used as a base coat with lightening achieved using Dark Yellow and Flesh. He got his tip from Marcus Nichols of TAMIYA Maga-zine fame many years ago and as he says you can always make your own using Dark Yellow and Black just as the Allies did in the war when shortages were the Norm. Other vari-ations to the Olive Drab spectrum also include us-ing Flat Red and Flat Green and he does his mixture in an old empty Thinners bottle to ensure that he has enough to complete his project.

Andy generally likes con-struction and starts paint-ing figures with the face first then he does the ac-coutrements. He likes weathering – but does not follow the new intense systems that are now fa-voured by so many in the modelling fraternity over-seas. He will highlight are-as with two or three coats of the base colour light-ened with yellow or flesh and then use Dry Brushing with the lightened mixture to bring out details, again all done with Acrylics.

As with all things , says Andy, do it in moderation. He believes that many believe that heavy weath-ering can be used to dis-guise modeling faults. He coats his models with a gloss coat to help with Decal setting and he uses washes to bring out detail. He doesn’t use oils much for his washes. He will use

Testors Dullcote to seal the finish on his model.

During the Construction phase of his model mak-ing Andy is in constant referral with his research notes and he makes many notations on his instruc-tions as any who has seen his instruction sheets from competitions can attest. He has an extensive li-brary, that he enjoys add-ing to, and he researches on the Web, PMMS – Perth Military Modelling Society- and their links.

Motivation in modeling Military subjects has been inspired by his Dad’s be-longing in the Territorial Army in ENGLAND after the war, being born in 1947. He has a love of reading, and while he can-not stand ‘E’ Books much, it’s a tactile thing - he likes handling the books, he will get his information from anywhere.

His subjects for modeling have extended to include RUSSIA, due to their Ro-bust Engineering ( and TAMIYA’S T55 or Vari-ants) , ISRAEL , due to their preference to using any captured Armour and improving it and HOBBY BOSS’S DAERA 155mm Cannon. Current projects include AFV Churchill- springs and wheels driving him crazy.

TASCA Firefly- first coat of paint now on it, TAMIYA Char B – built but needs paint.

2 x Russian ( a SU 122 and a KV122 Trumpeter) being built and awaiting paint and one is from CYBER HOBBY. Contin-ued on Page 9

Tips from the Experts (thanks Kerry)

Page 8

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue 4

Above—you have to ad-

mire the confidence of

the shooter AND the

horse!

. MENG Merkava 3D and so on. He always uses TAMIYA Primers, particularly the fine light grey or matt black. His use of enamel washes over a gloss coat sometimes means he doesn’t need a matt coat. But if he does he also likes GUNZE SANGYO Matt Flat.

Andy loves the solitary aspect of modelling. As he say’s its not a TEAM Sport and he cannot stand people looking over his shoulder as he works. He has his own room to house his ‘MAN CAVE’ . Modelling keeps his sanity (debatable – Ed) be-cause it is solitary and it allows him the space to ZONE OUT, while building and it allows memories to come back.

Interest with modelling also allows him to keep contact with Militaria, club connections, as well as keeping contacts with other people. He plans to keep on doing what he’s doing- reading and mod-elling- with a mind to keep dementure away by keeping his mind active. As he say’s his BEST MODEL is yet to be built but its’ out there, await-ing him. Its’ this promise that keeps him and all of us motivated.

While this article doesn’t give away too many of Andy’s secrets I think that it does offer a look into his methodology . Research, Research and then more Research. Andy has stated that a lot of his motivation has come from his reading. The rest has come from his extraordinary patience and his obvious enjoyment of the activity.

Hope that this has provided some entertainment, it was certainly a pleasure to interview Andy, and I thank him for his time and good humour.

Tips from the Experts

(Cont’d from Page 8)

Page 9

Volume 10, Issue 4 AMMS Brisbane News

On 13 April 2014 the city of Roncq in northern France held a vintage car show with various military vehicles displayed, including the vehicle shown below:

The School Project we all wish we had (Thanks Charlie)

Meets first Saturday of every month at

Loganlea Community Centre, Timms Street,

Loganlea, between 11:30am and 4:00pm

Contributions to the newsletter are always

welcome. Please email contributions to the

editor at gncw@bigpond.com

A M M S B R I S B A N E

Some More Displays

(thanks Blackie)

AMMS Brisbane is on

the Web at

www.ammsbrisbane.co