Armor Modeling from A to Z

While we are calling this special issue Armor Modeling A to Z, it encompasses all kinds of military vehicles from tanks and self-propelled artillery to armored personnel carriers and trucks. It also covers the gamut of modeling techniques including building straight from the box, superdetailing, scratchbuilding details and whole models, weathering, painting, groundwork, and dioramas. And it covers the history of mechanized warfare from the Western Front in World War I and every theater of World War II to the combatants of Korea and Vietnam and today’s main battle tanks. To give you all of that information we’ve enlisted some of the best authors and stories from FineScale Modeler’s history. Modeling luminaries Adam N.P. Wilder and Rick Lawler show you how modern finishing supplies can produce stunningly weathered vehicles. Speaking of finishes, Sean Lynch,…

Many generals have passed through U.S. military history, but few have been honored with a tank designation. The last was Gen. Creighton Williams Abrams, who took his place alongside generals Grant, Lee, Sherman, Pershing, Patton, and Sheridan. The namesake tanks of all the aforementioned are represented in 1/35 scale. I decided to share my workbench with Dragon’s Abrams M1A2 SEP (No. 3536), and I was well prepared — in addition to the photo-etched metal (PE) parts in the kit, I had Eduard’s PE set (No. 36006) and eight reference books!…

There is no doubt our world of instant media is having a profound influence on modeling. For example, the Ukrainian conflict is proving to be a wealth of modeling inspiration. I can’t help but wonder if my BMP-2 would even have been possible without iPhone pictures and YouTube uploads. Inspired by news photos, I chose to build a Ukrainian army BMP-2. The pictures show a dirty and combat-battered vehicle with logs fastened to its sides as makeshift add-on armor. I placed an online order for the Trumpeter kit (No. 05584) along with MasterClub tracks (No. 35042). But while waiting for my package to arrive, I happened to mention my upcoming project to a friend who said he had the same kit already built — including the aftermarket tracks — and would be…

Before Germany’s vaunted Tigers and Panthers came the Neubaufahrzeug, a developmental design ordered in 1933. Experimenting, as many other nations did, with multiturreted designs, the Wehrmacht requested a vehicle armed with low-velocity 7.5cm and antitank 3.7cm guns mounted together. Smaller turrets carrying machine guns rounded out the tank’s armament. Five were built: two soft-steel prototypes with over-and-under main armament in 1934, and three armored tanks with side-by-side guns in the turret in 1935. The latter three saw service in Norway in 1940, where one was reportedly destroyed by its crew after it became stuck. The opening days of Operation Barbarossa saw the destruction of the remaining armored Nbfzs by Soviet tanks. Lightly armored and slow, these machines were more propaganda instruments than effective combat machines. But they have an appeal. I’ve always been…

T he ZLC-2000 is the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) airborne forces. It features a one-man turret with a 30mm cannon, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and an HJ-73C antitank guided missile (ATGM) launcher with three missiles. It can be air-dropped using multiple parachutes, but this means that the armor is very thin to make the vehicle as light as possible. HobbyBoss’ 1/35 scale kit has a low parts count and comes together quickly. Although there is no interior, the detail is pretty good; I replaced solid molded grab handles with styrene rod. When it came time to paint, I decided to create the standard three-tone camouflage. On previous models, I found that my base colors looked rather lifeless. Determined to make this paint scheme pop, I…

I have always loved the little Stuart tank and was excited when Academy released its versions of the British Honey and the U.S. M3A1. The kits, overall, are nice. I have heard that some of the dimensions are off, but I don’t own a set of calipers, and I don’t measure out the parts with 1/35 scale blueprints. The kit “looks” like a Stuart. It’s an easy build, straight from the box, but has lots of room for detailing and modifying the Stuart variants, and with these two kits, you can build for days! days! I chose a post-Crusader British Stuart, getting my inspiration from a nice camouflage scheme in the Concord book, U.S. Light Tanks at War: 1941-1945. I added a brass barrel from Model Point, laser-etched .30-caliber machine gun barrels…