Return to days of old

You may have noticed me posting pics of the odd tank every now and then , I am collecting the Deagostini Combats Tanks Collection which consists of over 100 1/72 scale model armoured fighting vehicles dating from WW2 onwards.
I joined the collections'forum and have been amazed by some of the static models that the members build , back when I was a kid my favourite hobby was to save up $2.50 and go to Ettalong newsagents or the toy store at Woy Woy and buy a good old Airfix model.
I built models for years and some of the last ones I built in the 70's were Star Wars ones.
Then I discovered girls and surfing , a couple of weeks back I was in the toy store at Erina and decided to buy a few kits and have a crack at it again.
I had already been working on a large scale remote control tank , I have 2 of these and they are a large scale at 1/24.
This project is the conversion of a VS Tanks Abrams M1A2 to and Australian M1A1 AIM , I decided to build Australian armour as there are few if any ready to build examples on the market and I enjoy the research that goes with it.
The Abrams required removal of some pieces and addition of some sfter market accessories , I am still waiting on some red kangaroo decals for it before I finish painting the model , here's a pic of it so far



Next project was the making of a diorama for the 1/72 scale German " Maus " , I bought the Maus as a pre made model ( Easymodels ) and painted it up , as all my other small scale tanks are in plastic display cases I decided to whack this one in one as well , found some at the model shop for a reasonable price.
As the case was rather largish I decided to make a diorama and bought a packet of tiny German ( Italeri Anti Tank Crews ) soldiers to go on it as well.
The Maus was the largest tank built during WW2 and 2 of them were made , both broke down before they got into battle and were blown up by their crews , the Russians nicked one and it is on display at the Kubinka Tanks Museum



Back to the Aussie theme my next project was the Crusader Mk 11 , these tanks were used by the Aussies in WW2 in North Africa ,so it is painted up in desert colours , it is a 1/72 scale kit from Hasegawa and was fun to build , I had to modify the turret a bit as it was a Mk III.
I plan on doing another diorama for this and have ordered an Stuart Light Tank to accompany it as there is plenty room.



This weekends project was the Matilda Mk 11 ( 1/72 Italeri ) as used by the Aussies in New Guinea in WW2 , again I had to modify it a bit to represent the type we had and I am quite happy with the result , this one will go in a diorama as well and I have something cool in mind this time.



Next project will be the ASLAV-25 , this is a current vehicle and I think I will do the version that was used early on in Iraq and it is in a bigger scale of 1/35 which will give my poor old eyes a break



I was thinking of doing another blog just for the modelling , can I be arsed tho ?

While on tanks , my story called Grandads Tank helped out Mike from the USA who owns a shell casing similar to mine