Hello everyone ....

Just thought I would introduce myself now that I've finally joined up.

I've been a modeller all my life, starting off with Airfix / Frog kits bought with any pocket money I could scrounge up as a young 'un ... mainly Aircraft, as I was an Aircraft nut growing up. When I got older I moved on to radio controlled Aircraft, but now after a good few years I'm back where I started ....

As the heading says ...... Once a modeller ........ !!

Anyway, I've got interested in WW2 tanks, so for my first kit I have been building the new Tamiya Matilda in 1/35 scale. Having no airbrush experience, I have brush painted the Caunter Camo ( which I'm very pleased with ), and am now ready to tackle the decals.

Learned a lot of very useful stuff from this site BTW about painting / varnishing /
weathering, so I'm going to try ( hopefully !! ) to put some of this into practice.

I intend to make a small desert scene Diorama using an A4 size picture frame,
so we will see how it goes ... much fun being had here anyway ....

Thats all for now.

Simon.

Welcome aboard.

I'm mostly an aircraft guy, but I have been known to dabble on the dark side with armor and ships.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the welcome mate.

Nothing wrong with a dabble or two .... keeps things interesting ....

I'll see if I can get a couple of photos on the site this weekend, of my progress so far with the Matilda.

Cheers,

Simon.

Hi,

Glad you're aboard.
Think we get addicted at a young age by the glue and paint so it stays with us forever.

Cheers, Paul

Hi Simon,

Good to have another fellow countryman along.

I think we get addicted to the hobby at a young age to return when we're older and wiser

Cheers, Paul

Hi Paul,

Older maybe ....

Wiser ..........

Think its the glue ........ addles yer brain mate !!

Cheers,

Simon.

Hi again,
I have managed to upload some pics to my album of my progress so far with the Matilda.

I did try to post a pic in the previous post by pressing the img button and then pasting the url from the album into the post but it didn't quite work out ... Do I need to actually type the url into the post instead ?

Hopefully some kind soul will take pity on me and point me in the right direction.

I'm now at the Johnson Kleer / Decal stage.
I've never used this method before, but I have learned a few new tricks reading up on this site, so looking forward to trying it out.

Cheers,

Simon.

Success .... Yippee .....

Hi Simon!
nice brush paint job on tha matilda! keep up the good work!

Hi Gary,

Thanks for that mate.

I used Tamiya acrylics - Buff XF57, Light Blue XF23, and Dark Green XF73, the blue and green toned down a lot with Flat White - I thought they were a bit too bright.

As I want it to look like its been rattling around the desert for a while - not factory fresh, I'm going to try weathering it up ( something I've not tried before )
so we will see how it turns out ....

I have also made a start on the diorama base. For this I'm using an A4 size wooden picture frame with a piece of 10mm thick plywood glued in it for the base. The desert groundwork is a mixture of three grades of buff coloured scenic stones, from Woodland Scenics and Hornby ( model railway supplies ).

I'm trying to build the groundwork up in layers, also to incorporate the trackways where the tank has driven. .... ongoing at the mo'

I will post more photos asap.

Cheers mate,

Simon.