Alternate Approach Minis

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert. On anything. Whatever I write is from a position of hobby enthusiast and should be read and used as such and only as such. BACKGROUND It is latest in the line of British post-ww2 tanks after Centurion, Chieftain and Challenger 1 and shows interesting downward trend in numbers built and exported from almost 4500 units of Centurion used by 19 countries down to 420 and 447 units produced and used by Jordan and Oman respectively of Challenger 1 and 2. Compare it to 3600 Leopard 2 or 862 Leclerc tanks and it seems that British tank industry is not in all that great shape lately.  Two Dragon Challengers in the spotlight of this article. Challenger 1 entered service in 1983. and already in 1986. Vickers Defense Systems started privately working on its successor that was put in production in 1993., started replacing Challengers 1 in 1998. and completed replacement by the 2002. It is intended for it to remain in British Army inventory till...

Short entry to show my latest purchase from Model Hobbies, UK. One box of Strelets 1/72 Roman Imperial Legion (ceremonial march) to supplement my Zvezda Imperial Legionaries and to check out Strelets miniatures for the first time. One set of Strelets 1/72 Early WW2 American Soldiers 2 for my 1930s projects. And one HobbyBoss 1/700 IJN I-400 submarine aircraft carrier because it was cheap. Once they get on the construction line there will be more detailed look at them.

To begin this entry (and probably each and every subsequent one), a disclaimer. I am NOT an expert. On anything. Whatever I write is from a position of hobby enthusiast and should be read and used as such and only as such. With that out of the way let us talk about Italian MBT, the C1 Ariete and Trumpeters model of it in 1/72. BACKGROUND Putting usual derogatory rhetoric reserved for Italians and their tanks aside, I like those scrap piles (tanks not Italians) and am curious to where indiginous development would lead them beyond 1945. As it is, in years following World War 2 what was left of Italan army was equiped with mostly US and British equipment. With old allies becoming new enemies and threat of communist invasion looming over horizon Italy became part of NATO and received substantial amount of equipment among which was M47 Patton tank and later M60A1 and Leopard 1A2 which was also localy licence produced. Experience gained by Leopard production led to effort to develop...

Zvezda, Zvezda, how I loved browsing their big sets on the shelves of local store..before it closed. Before Zvezda switched to small sets of Art of War range. Box front Box back This is interesting set that focuses on specific subject, namely the testudo or turtle formation in which legionaries would arrange in square formation with shields to all sides sacrificing speed and melee power for protection against missiles. Out of 53 figures in the set, 29 are part of testudo, 12 are two poses of legionaries in combat with gladius, 8 are two poses of legionaries throwing pilums and 4 poses are of specialists: centurion, optio, standard bearer and musician. In my humble opinion, I would rather have dedicated set of 58 figures for two testudos but that's me who does not sell things. Miniatures themselves are Zvezda-beautiful with great detail and little flash but some cleaning with sharp scalpel tip is necessary still. My complaints boil down to somewhat brittle plastic Zvezd...