Some years ago I watched a video of one of these giant tractors going through its paces in the mud somewhere in eastern Europe. I thought at the time, I would love to build a model of one. About a year later I discovered a resin kit was available and I ordered it, along with a double wheel set. In 2023, I finally got around to building the model. It was very challenging, certainly not for the faint-hearted. The finished model is imposing, dwarfing most tanks in the same scale. Unfortunately I was not able to correct all the problems with the kit and some alignment issues remain

Tamiya’s Quad with 25-pdr kit dates back to 1974. I bought my copy in 1975 and it stayed in the stash for 46 years until I started it in 2021. Considering it’s age, the kit is pretty good. The only changes I made were to add a winch cable and the upper guide roller. I had wanted to paint a "mickey mouse ears" camo pattern for some time and the Quad gave me the opportunity to paint the desert version of it with dark olive "ears" over desert pink. I also added five figures from a MiniArt British set - two standing figures with spades plus three seated figures inside the Quad.

I built this little known Soviet vehicle from a 3D-printed kit by SS Models which I bought on Ebay. I had to make significant changes to the angled face of the front left side of the upper hull and also reconfigure the roadwheel and return roller positions on the left side printed track/wheel assembly. The seller did send me a corrected part but I had already made the fixes by then.

I saw the mighty IS-7 at Kubinka tank museum in 2017. It was the pinnacle of Soviet WW2 heavy tank development and is exceptionally impressive in the flesh. The Trumpeter kit is good, though I replaced the 130 mm gun barrel with machined metal.

Russian and Soviet tanks from the 1930s to 1970s are my favourite genre of military vehicles. When Takom issued the SMK in 2018, it was a must-build for me.

Takom’s modern plastic kit of the massive German experimental mine clearing vehicle is an impressive beast. I built it unmodified and added a scenic base made from Tamiya diorama pastes and a Bravo 6 figure.

My primary interest in armour modelling is Soviet and Russian tanks. MiniArt’s T-70 has been around a while now and though a decent kit, it does have some accuracy issues. I replaced the turret and drivers hatch with Komplekt Zip resin alternatives and the 45 mm gun barrel and the Degtyarev (DP) machine gun barrel with Aber turned brass. The PE fret and set of winter figures included with the kit are big positives. I used Tamiya diorama paste to simulate the snow.

The Soviet T-50 was a very nice looking little tank in my opinion. Examples captured by the Finns were up-armoured with applique plates on the turret sides. I built this model from a HobbyBoss kit. I replaced the turret and drivers hatch with aftermarket resin parts by MiniArm, used Aber gun barrels and made a few other detail improvements.

I built a 1/76 scale Airfix M4 Sherman back in 1971 and discarded it long ago. It never did justice to the subject and so I decided in 2016 to make a decent M4 in 1/35 scale. This model, based on the Tamiya kit, is the result. I went to some lengths to improve the kit with aftermarket parts and realistic stowage, and used reference material extensively.

The T-72 is a great-looking tank in my opinion and I had wanted to build a model of one for many years. When I saw one up close at Saumur in 2015, I decided to get started with Tamiya’s 1/35 scale kit. To achieve greater authenticity, I replaced a number of kit parts with aftermarket alternatives from MiniArm, RB Models, Voyager, SKP and Eureka XXL. I chose the most colourful paint scheme I could find (Czech) and used decals by Echelon.

I built this experimental vehicle from a Cromwell Models resin kit which also included parts for an anti-tank version. The kit was nicely detailed but required a lot of cleanup to fill air bubble pin-holes and remove flash and mould seams. There were no instructions or decals.

Accurate Armour’s multi-media A11 has been around since the mid 1990s. It was a challenging kit to build, not least because the solid resin hull was distorted in shape. Detail on the whitemetal parts was also a little soft. I also replaced the resin kit tracks with Modelkasten T-26 individual link plastic tracks. With the addition of two lovely BEF resin figures by Passion Models, the model looks the part.

I was not satisfied with the Airfix Churchill I had built in 2013 (Model 154) and decided to build a modern kit in 1/72 scale to replace it. I chose the Dragon Mk.III. Although well-moulded, with crisp detail, the fit of parts was surprisingly poor and the tracks were too short. I made a few improvements, including a turned metal barrel.

I made this tiny model (only 57 mm long) from a kit by IBG, With 170 parts, it is a surprisingly time-consuming build. There were a few fit problems and some parts required thinning for a better scale appearance. The tracks were particularly challenging, the individual links for around the sprocket and idler being very fiddly due to their tiny size. My copy of the kit arrived without decals and I was forced to improvise. I bought a separate aftermarket decal sheet by Toro, depicting a Polish vehicle.

The big German tracked mortars were very impressive machines and I was keen to build one as the centrepiece of my 1/72 armour collection. I settled on a late chassis version with the long barrel 54 cm L/11.5 gun and late war 3-colour camouflage. The HobbyBoss kit looked great in the box and is well-detailed but required quite a lot of cleanup, filling and some modifications for fit. However, by far the weakest aspect of the kit were the single piece vinyl tracks which were ~1.5 cm too short. The painting of the model did not work out as planned and overall, the model is a disappointment.

This M48 kit was originally tooled by Esci in 1988 and the shapes seem basically sound. Unfortunately, the kit tracks, roadwheels and return rollers are grossly simplified, the wheels being moulded as single thick wheels rather than pairs. I used a short-run aftermarket set by OKB Grigorov to correct this deficiency only to discover that the OKB wheels are underscale. Also, the OKB tracks have serious sink marks on both sides of nearly every link (which had to be filled) and fitting the wheels required substantial modification of the kit parts as well as the OKB components. All in all, a lot of work for a small model. The other major challenge was mixing a convincing Sinai Grey colour - it remains unclear whether I have achieved this. The photographs on a brown card background display the colour of the model most accurately, whereas the photos against a white background are distorted towards a more greenish tone.

The last GMC truck model I had built was in 1969 to 1/87 scale (Model 20). It is the oldest of my models still in existence. I decided a new one was necessary and chose the Academy 1/72 scale kit. It is a very nice kit and I made minimal changes to it.The large array of kit-supplied cargo was a big bonus and has greatly added to the look of the model.

The UM kit is a reasonably accurate depiction of the M4A4 chassis and was the natural choice for a 1/72 scale Firefly model. Unfortunately, the kit is typical Eastern European in style - a lot of parts, poor fit requiring a lot of modifications and very inconvenient positioning of sprue nubs. It was time-consuming and difficult to assemble. I made a few modifications to the kit, including an RB Models turned metal 17-pdr barrel. I decided that the green and black camouflage pattern used on some British armour would help lift the model.

I had never built a Panzer 3 before this, though the long barrel 50 mm version is my favourite of the earlier German tanks prior to the Panther. The Revell kit is finely detailed and well-engineered, except for the link and length tracks which were too short. I upgraded the model with aftermarket parts including a metal gun barrel, towing cables and some photo-etch parts. I did a lot of research for the colour scheme and eventually settled on the camo pattern in the kit instructions, which was authentic for a vehicle destined for North Africa and then re-routed to southern Russia.

I had built two T34/85 models prior to this, the first in 1/76 scale by Airfix in 1971 (Model 35) and the second in 1/35 by Tamiya (Model 50). Both models are long gone but photos of the latter survive and are included on this site. In 2014, I decided to replace them with a new model. The Revell kit is a very good representation of the flattened turret Model 1945 version and I therefore chose to use it for this project. The kit itself is a joy to build, the only significant weakness being tracks which are too short by about 2/3rds of a link and which have no edge detail.

Back in 1970, I built the Airfix 1/76th Panther (Model 31). At the time, I was happy with it but unfortunately, it melted in direct sunlight (inside a glass case) in 1971, along with a number of my other 1969-70 models. By 2014, a new Panther was long overdue and I chose Revell’s 1/72 scale kit. I decided to go all out with this model. I added a lot of aftermarket parts to improve it and chose the challenging, Ambush Pattern camouflage scheme to finish it in.

The German 8-wheel armoured cars are favourites subjects of mine ever since I built a crude, HO scale Roco Minitanks Puma in 1969. I chose the 1/72 Hasegawa kit based on favourable reviews compared with the alternatives. I did however replace the kit wheels with aftermarket resin parts. The kit was easy and enjoyable to assemble though some filling was necessary. I thoroughly researched the colours / mixes for the German three-colour camouflage scheme on the internet and I chose to brush paint the pattern (which was sprayed on the actual vehicles) because an air-brushed finish would not have turned out well at 1/72nd scale.

I have long been a fan of Soviet and Russian armour. In 1972 I made a 1/76 T-54 (Model 37) from a very basic Midori kit. In 2014, I decided to replace it with a much better early T-54 in 1/72 scale and chose to build it from the PST kit which I had in my stash. I attempted to improve the accuracy of the kit with a metal gun barrel, a resin replacement turret and photo-etch parts. It was a major job and took far longer than any small-scale armour kit I had ever built. I am reasonably satisfied with the outcome, other than the roadwheels which are not a good representation of the early T-54 wheels.

This model is a replacement for a 1/76 Airfix Mark 1 that I built in 1970-71 (Model 36) and binned over 40 years ago. I built the new model from a brand new MasterBox tooling in 1/72 scale. The kit is good though the main hull pieces were badly warped. I researched the colour scheme on the internet and went to some effort to get the colours and the pattern authentic, though I have little doubt there are differences of opinion on that subject. The model represents the first use of tanks, on 15 September 1916 at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.

The old Airfix Churchill kit, exactly the same as the one I built in 1970 (Model 30) other than the moulds having degraded significantly after 43 years. It is a fiddly little kit to build and requires care to get the wheel / track assemblies fitted correctly. It was a trip down memory lane to build it again after all that time but sadly, the finished model has soft detail and just looks old fashioned. The one concession to modernity that I made was to replace the kit gun barrel with an RB turned aluminium barrel and machined brass muzzle brake.

In 2013 I bought this 1/72 scale Cromwell Models kit on the strength of their very nice 1/76 scale resin kits I had bought in the early 1990s. Sadly, the casting quality had gone down a lot and this kit arrived with massive lumps of excess resin between the wheels and seriously misaligned seams at the back of the turret and under the hull along with lots of air bubbles holes. With a bit of work it came up OK, though the gun barrel was short by 2 mm.

In late 2013, my interest in building small scale armour returned after over 18 years of having abandoned the scale in 1995 and then selling nearly all my unbuilt kits. This renewed interest was largely driven by a nostalgic desire to recreate the collection of small scale armour models I had built from 1969 to 1972. The first armour model I ever built was a Roco Minitanks M-40 in HO scale (Model 18), back in 1969. This Matchbox M-40 is a better kit than the old Minitanks model but the detail is a little soft. I made a few improvements to the kit to improve the scale appearance but nothing major.

The German 8-wheel armoured cars of WW2 were very impressive-looking machines. I built a liitle Roco 1/87 scale one in 1969 and had long wanted to build another in the big scale (1/35) but I didn’t get around to it until 2002. Tamiya’s Sd.Kfz 232 is an old but still sound kit. The tooling was from 1974 and I bought my copy in 1975. I decided to go all out to detail this model with modern aftermarket parts. That decision certainly slowed the build down and after 2002, I made almost no progress for 9 years until a major push to finish it in 2012.

Trumpeter’s series of WW2 armoured train kits make large and impressive models. I had wanted to build these as soon as they were released. My plan was to have an armoured locomotive and two units behind it. The first, and only one I have built so far is this ATG-3 unit, though I have completed a 1.35 m section of track on a base with simulated railway ballast. That is long enough to fit the planned three units.

This model was initially released in monthly instalments as an accompaniment with three successive issues of a Japanese magazine, Armor Modelling (Nov 2010 to Jan 2011). As I like 1930s tanks, I bought the magazines/model instalments and started work on the model soon after. This kit is very well-engineered and was a joy to build. The colour scheme was a challenge however. The model came first in the armour category at a club competition in 2012.

With 607 parts, this unusual kit was an exercise in endless cleanup of track links and bridge planks. The kit did not include any mounting structures to support the bridge in travelling mode and I could not find any reference material to help with this question. I designed and made some parts to fulfill this function but they are purely speculative. I also used Vallejo water-based paints for the first (and only) time. I found them to be too soft and easily damaged.

When Tamiya released their JS-3 kit in 1996, I thought Christmas had come early. Since 1970, it had been my favourite tank. I had struggled with the old Airfix 1/76 kit for 20 years (M63 - see below). Unfortunately, the Tamiya kit does not represent the main production version and it took a lot of work detailing it to bring it up to standard. I used reference work by Steve Zaloga extensively, in particular an article he wrote in Military Modelling in September 1997 entitled Upgrading Tamiya’s Stalin. I used Eduard’s PE set for details (though some parts were overscale and had to be modified) and a Verlinden figure and cobblestone base.

Zvezda’s first 1/35 scale armour kit and to be blunt, a total dog - crude and lacking detail. In 1999, after completing the model 3 years earlier, I noticed that the vinyl track material was reacting with and melting the polystyrene of the running gear. I replaced the roadwheels, sprockets and idlers with superior parts from an Aeroplast T-60 kit but left the Zvezda return rollers which were too firmly glued in place to remove. l also used the Aeroplast link and length tracks. The model is still quite ordinary but at least it is not being eaten by its tracks now.

An eastern European kit of a little-known Polish armoured car. I chose the model because of its colourful camouflage scheme and its cute shape. I added the base in 2016.

Completion of a Fujimi kit partially started by another modeler. Other than drilling out the gun barrel and modifying the sprocket teeth to fit the tracks, I built it unmodified as a simple project while I was working away from home.

The Fujimi 38t built and modified to a different version by another modeler. He altered the glacis plate and the idlers quite skillfully - all I did was modify the sprocket teeth to accept the tracks and paint the vehicle. This was the last of these 2nd hand, away from home projects, that I started. It was an unsatisfying process that resulted in an unsatisfying model.

Another simple project for when I was working away from home. This old Fujimi kit had been fully assembled by another modeler. It was part of a collection I had been given. I strengthened some of the axles with brass rod, fitted the tracks and painted it.

A simple project to keep me occupied at night while I was working away from home. It is a rebuild of a Fujimi kit which had been built by another modeler. I fitted brass rod stub axles to the roadwheels, idlers and sprockets so they could handle the tension of the vinyl tracks.

I made this model from Tamiya’s earliest Sherman. The upper hull and turret date from their 1966 M4A3E2 and the HVSS and lower hull were tooled in 1970. I bought it in late 1971 and started it in 1972. It stayed in a partly built state for 19 years and travelled with me to different cities and countries before I finally got back to working on it in 1991-93. The model is overscale and relatively inaccurate, a product of the ancient tooling, but I am still happy with the finish.

A straightforward build of the Dragon kit from 1991. I made a few corrections and improvements to the kit. I added the base in 2015.

I rebuilt this model from a 2nd hand, partly-built Fujimi kit and added handmade stowage and a towing cable.

I built this BT-7 from a resin and vacform kit by Lunar Models. At the time, it was the only 1/35 BT-7 available. The kit was crude and poorly cast due to RTV moulds which were well past their use-by date. The hull was mis-shapen and it took a lot of work to make a reasonable model from the kit. I learned a lot about working with resin as a result.

In 1990 I became aware of resin armour kits. This is one from the UK made by Cromwell Models. It was a simple build with only 9 parts. The sharpness of detail was a pleasant surprise after building 1/76 plastic kits.

This model is a completion of a Tamiya kit that was given to me in a built state. The original build quality was good, so I simply repainted and weathered the model and added stowage.

The moulds for Airfix’s SAM-2 were either damaged beyond repair or went missing sometime in the late 1970s - early 1980s. In 1987 I was given a large collection of old 1/76 models and parts by an older modeler. The bags of parts included partly-built components, partial sprues plus loose SAM-2 kit parts, some of them painted. Fortunately, the kit instructions were there, but a number of parts, including 6 wheels, were missing. As the kit was very hard to find (pre-Ebay days), in 1990 I decided to build a model from the kit parts I had and make replacements for those that were missing.

Tamiya’s SU-100 was tooled in 1966 -one of their original motorised tanks with rubber-band tracks. I bought it by mail-order from the UK in 1972. It arrived in a crushed box and the upper hull was broken into many pieces. I repaired it and then worked on it intermittently during the 1980s until an intense effort to finish it in 1989-90. My earlier attempts to build old rubber band motorised tanks by Nichimo and Tamiya, up until 1982, had not been very satisfying in terms of accuracy and realism. For this last one, I went all out to make something decent from it. That is why the build took over 180 hours. I proved it could be done but it was probably not a sensible use of time.

The Airfix Chieftain kit, tooled in 1971, was one of their better small scale armour kits. Although started in 1971, I built the model almost entirely in 1990. I made a few detail changes to the turret and finished the paint in a novel way by lightly dry-brushing Humbrol brass metallic over the bronze green finish on the upper cast surfaces. Someone must have liked it because it came 1st in class at a National Comp in 1991.

After starting this old Airfix kit as a teenager, the partly built model travelled around with me from house to house, city to city, job to job, country to country for 20 years. It was in the too-hard basket but I was reluctant to chuck it out and so instead I finished it in a burst of enthusiasm. I made a major error with the Dushka ring mount, and the vinyl tracks look terrible, but it still looks like a JS-3.

In 1987, I was given a collection of kits and built, partly built and scratchbuilt models by a former German (WW2) soldier. Amongst them was this old Monogram M29 Weasel made by his son. It was unpainted but in poor condition with glue damage. I disassembled, rebuilt and painted it, based on photos of an actual vehicle in the Korean war. Pity about the driver’s crazy eyes. I made the scenic base in 2015.

This is a Roco Minitanks kit which I built on and off over a 5 year period. It was the first armour kit I had finished in 8 years, since 1982. Although the kit is basic, I made a particular effort to weather it effectively and to correctly represent a specific vehicle in the Vietnam War.

A Roco Minitanks wargamer’s model, with the toy wheels removed.

One of Tamiya’s old range of 1/48 scale motorised mini tanks from 50+ years ago. I went to some effort to improve the model with extra detail and lower hull corrections. The first set of rubber tracks perished by the late 80s. Tamiya kindly provided a new set, and they remain intact after 30+ years thanks to leaving them unpainted.

I built this model from Tamiya’s original motorised T34 kit which was tooled in 1965. It originally had rubber band tracks which I replaced with a set of vinyl tracks from their new tool 1974 T34/76 kit. I made various other improvements to the kit but it remained terribly inaccurate and I junked it in 1999. The images are re-photographed old analog photos.

Bandai started releasing a range of detailed static armour models in 1/48th scale in 1972. I built up quite a collection of them but only built one - this Kubelwagen. The kit was very nice and assembled easily. I abandoned 1/48 scale armour in the mid 1990s (preferring 1/35 and 1/72) and sold the entire unbuilt collection of 30+ Bandai kits. Tragic.

Tamiya’s antique T-10, tooled in 1964. The kit was motorised and was the 9th in their 1/35 series, which began in 1961 with a Panther. When I bought this model in 1971, it was the only T-10 or JS-3 kit available. By modern standards, it is pretty awful. The rubber tracks perished in the mid 80s.

This model is based on Tamiya’s very early M8 kit which was first released in 1966. It came with motorizing gear and coarse rubber wheels. It is one of the earliest relics in my collection. The rubber tyres perished in the early 80s so I made an RTV mould of one and cast resin replacements in the mid 80s.

The earliest of my models still in existence, a simple Roco Minitanks model, unmodified since 1969.