Monday 30 April 2018

Renault UE finished

Finished whoopy.

First a bit of background:
1932 France, the cavalry wanted a small scouting tank, Renault offered the UE armed with a single MG. Because of its slow speed and lack of a turret the cavalry did not like it and got the AMC-33 instead.
The early French version lacked the bulge on the right side and used a different  MG mount with 7,5mm Châtellerault M1931. I presume the 3 pictures below are the early cavalry prototype build in 1932.




In 1936 pretty much the same version was offered to China, which ordered 10, main difference was a bulge on the right side and 1936 MAC 7.7 mm was used as its armament.
My guess is that the bulge was used for extra ammo, its just the right size for a couple of racks.


These 6 grainy pictures come from Chinese news clips






 These 2 pictures are of the Chinese version but I think the pictures where taken before shipping, no prove just the background looks more European then Asian to me, it could also be 1 of the 100 ordered by the France at the start of WW2 but because of that the camo is the same as the 10 sent to China I presume its 1 build for them.


Still surviving UE of what I think is from France but it does have the bulge, because of that I think that all later models had this bulge. The MG is missing but looks like it had hinges next to the opening which both the China model and cavalry prototype lacks, so likely 1 of the 100 ordered at the start of WW2.


Start of my model, base kit is the S-Model Renault UE with a simple box scratched from sheet styrene with rivets from Archers decals, gun is also scratch.

 Tried out many things on this tiny model, oil weathering and color glazing worked pretty well, but the wash turned it a bit to dirty, tried to tone it done a bit and that only worked partly, next I gave the running gear a light dusting with pigment.
Added a couple of ammo boxes, a crate and to give it more filler a cover made of putty.










Armed UE where a popular conversion, the Germans made a lot of different versions, the 1 below is close to my version but there are some difference, I dont know if this a captured France version or that the Germans made it of standard captured UE's.
Thailand also used a couple but does differ a lot from the above version.
couple of  sources forgot to save a few
http://ost-front.ru/2013/12/17/renault_ue_indochine/
http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1143496793
https://www.39-45.org/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=44161
http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1143496793
feel free to comment
Greetings Mondria

Thursday 19 April 2018

DVL Jagdsegler

One of the more crazy late war German designs where small rocket power gliders, in this case the DVL jagdsegler and it had a pulsejet similar to the V1 rocket a lot just smaller.
Armament ranged from bombs, torpedo's or rockets. The version I first build was armed with 8 RZ65 rockets but I did not like the result so sanded of the bulges and redid the engine to fit the first drawing below, this version was armed with 4 panzerschreck rockets, I liked the pulsejet more then strait rocket engine but 4 panzerschrecks does not really make sense in this case so left does off, maybe I will add some R4M rockets, I still have a few left and would fit as a anti bomber parasite fighter.

It does still have a small problem and that is the glass, I dont have a vacuform machine and would need 1 to form the cockpit, well will need to build 1 soon and finish it all.


















source 
http://pro-samolet.ru/samolety-germany-ww2/reaktiv/834-glider-fighter-dvl
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=29043.0
Thanks for watching and greetings
Patrick Mondria

Tuesday 3 April 2018

TK series

First of the TK series, the First to Fight TKS with 20mm canon, nothing much was done with this one, placed the cannon at the correct place on the gun mantle, at 5 o'clock from center, also started at placing the rivets on the sides, used Archer decals for this, pretty easy to use but as with all rivets really boring to do and Im glad the rest of the kit does have its rivet.
They stock on pretty good, I made the surface wet and placed the rivets 1 by 1, to get the spacing right, wen dried it was fine, some spots I have been testing it with Valleyo decal fixer and softener, not sure if the fixer did anything but the softener worked nice to blend the film with the model, I left some of the film on to give it some extra surface to help stick.

thanks for watching
Mondria

Renault UE Indochina part 1


Just started with the S-model UE, I build it as a Indochina project of which 10 or so where build pre WW2 and shipped to Asia and a couple more as the war started, there are not that many pictures of this version but as it was a pretty simple conversion, just a armored box with a MG sticking out, it was not hard to build, during the war the Germans build similar conversions and maybe I will use the other UE for that or do a tank destroyer version with a 6 pounder anti tank gun.