Braille Scale Armor Fighting Vehicles

You know, besides making a journal of my model building activities I had planned on talking a lot about my procrastinations in completing model projects in this blog. Well, it seems that my procrastination extends beyond my chosen hobby. I haven’t written anything since April 2005! Now is that a great illustration of the power of procrastination? It’s like the old joke: “I was going to stop procrastinating, but kept putting it off.” Anyway, I need to finish writing something soon and post so it won’t be a year without anything. I’m certain by now anyone who possibly read these ramblings now thinks I have abandoned it.

I like small-scale armor and military vehicles. I use to define small scale as 1/72nd scale and smaller (i.e. 1/76, 1/87, 1/100, 1/144). Now with my discovery of the Tamiya® and old 1/48th scale Bandai® AFV series I have expanded that definition. Why do I prefer small-scale? I don’t know. Just do. I realize that here in the U.S.A. 1/35th scale armor is the most popular but in other parts of the world especially Europe and Japan, small-scale is very popular. In fact there has been a recent resurgence in popularity in the U.S. because of the vast number of good kits coming out of Eastern Europe and from the Chinese companies Dragon® and Trumpeter®. I guess it is because they don’t cry out for detail the way large scale does that I build miniature scale AFVs.

Of course the wargamers who indulge in World War 2 games use small-scale armor a lot. BattleFront Hobbies® of New Zealand has a very nice and extensive line of 15mm (1/100th scale) tanks, vehicles, artillery pieces, and soldiers for their “Flames of War®” game. I’ve seen a lot of these on display at the local HobbyTown® and on the Flames of War® web site. Which brings me to my wondering why gamers want to overemphasis their weathering. Ever seen the Warhammer® or Flames of War® figures and vehicles painted up by a wargamer? Seems they like to use undiluted black ink or paint in the crevices, folds, and lines. The “shadows” are too dark and way out of scale. It must be because a wargamer needs copious amounts of figures or vehicles to represent his army. The ones who paint their stuff still have to get a lot accomplished in a short time. Well, each to their own, I guess. It’s a good thing for me I don’t play these games because I’d never have an army to field.

So what projects am I doing now? This year IPMS NCT’s group entry for the IPMS 2006 Nationals is “Pacific War 1945”. I’m doing a Hasegawa® 1/72nd scale Yokosuka MXY-7 (allied code name Baka Bomb).
For the group entry for a little group of armor model builders I belong to, the George Armstrong Custer Gin Drinking and Model Building Society, I am doing a AFV Club® 1/35th scale SdKfz 251/4 ausf C. [Now you are wondering about the 1/35th scale. Hey, that’s not my fault. That’s the scale this group always does their group entry in.]

And lastly, just for the heck of it, I have a Monogram® 1/48th scale Snap-Tite® Tiger I. Sometimes I just like to finish something so I waste my time on something like this.


[By-the-way: if you wonder about the P-51 I was building for our group entry for the IPMS 2005 Nationals…I never did finish it.]