Clearwater Models

Monday, 18 January 2021

U.S.S. MONITOR (Life-Like)

This is the 1:210 scale model from Life-Like Hobby Kits of the U.S.S. Monitor (kit #09527). The ship is most famous for being the first turreted iron-clad warship to engage in combat with another iron-clad, the CSS Virginia, on 09 March 1862. The lower and faster Monitor had the advantage, but the Battle of Hampton Roads saw neither emerge victorious. The Monitor could fire the two Dalhgren guns every eight minutes. The battle lasted about four hours. The ship had a life of only eleven months when lost in a storm while being towed.

This kit is remarkably simple and needed almost no bodywork other than drilling out of vents and grills and boring the cannons. I added the cannon flash and smoke from the funnels and the gun. Paint is a mix of Vallejo burned iron and jet exhaust, with a mix of Tamiya reds for the iron hull. The toughest thing to paint was the flag.

This comes boxed with the CSS Merrimac (actually the CSS Virginia) in 1:300 scale. The Virginia is so much larger that the makers decided to make both hulls the same size by altering the scales.

U.S.S. Monitor

C.S.S. VIRGINIA (Life-Like)

This is the 1:300 scale model from Life-Like Hobby Kits of the Merrimac, or more properly, the C.S.S. Virginia, iron-clad steam ship (kit #09257). The Virginia was made from an older vessel, the USS Merrimack, in 1862 and had a life span of just under 90 days. It was built to break the blockade around the slave staes by ramming United States ships and sinking them. The response from the USA was to send the USS Monitor to battle the Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads on 09 March 1962 - the first ever battle of iron-clad vessels. The Virginia limped out for repairs and was eventually scuttled.

The design and moulding is atrocious. The upper structure does not fit properly at all, and the upper deck is a disaster. You need significant skills to be able to assemble this kit.

The decks were scraped and sanded to remove the iron plate and rivet raised lines, then engraved with board lines. Chains were added. Cannons were bored out.

Paint is mostly Vallejo burned iron and jet exhaust, with a mix of Tamiya paints for the hull.

C.S.S. Virginia

C.S.S. Virginia in the shipyard, which just so happens
to be in my spare bathroom!

Sunday, 10 January 2021

Inbox review KV-2 heavy cartoon tank from Xinshi Hobby

This is a first peek inbox review of the Xinshi Hobby kid's snap-tight cartoon kit of the Soviet KV-2 heavy tank from the Great Patriotic War, with decals of cute furry animals. Xinshi kit #07317Z (or a big "1" in a circle). Despite being a kid's kit, it is remarkably high-tech. This is a beautifully slide-moulded kit with lots of details in an insulated double-hulled box. Mine showed up from China by post in about 4-5 weeks. I can picture those cute furry animals rolling over Nazi scum now! It is a total delight. The inbox review video is below and at this link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=RBbw9o2Gb1Y

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

OBJECT 703, ИС-3M, IS-3M HEAVY TANK (Trumpeter)

Object 703, ИС-3M, IS-3 (Ио́сиф Ста́лин Iosef Stalin-3) heavy tank was the product of a competition between the Kirovskiy Factory No. 100 in Tankograd in Chelyabinsk (Кировский Завод No. 100), and the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory (ЧТЗ Челябинский тракторный завод) in late 1944. The final version incorporated design aspects from both teams. The first three production tanks (project name Kirovets-1) were delivered in May 1945 and sent immediately to Berlin, but arrived after the Nazi scum had been defeated. The tanks took part in the Berlin victory parade and the Moscow victory parade.

Some 2311 were built from 1945 through 1947, with most serving in the Soviet Army. The upgrade to produce the IS-3M was begun in 1948, and resulted in a better tank but a weight gain up to 49 tonnes. A tiny number were passed to Eastern European allies for tests and acclimation, yet never served in any of those armies. Several were used in the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, and were roasted in the streets of Budapest by the population. More than a hundred went to ill-trained Egyptian armoured units, and from there on to Israel due to their better wartime skills. The type continued in active service for decades until being sent into long-term storage depots in the mid-1980s. The last known use was in 2014 when a pedestal display tank was refurbished and briefly used by Russian-supported seperatists in Ukraine.

The model has been done as a tank of the 71st Guards Heavy Tank Regiment of the 2nd Guards Tank Army posted in the western USSR on the Polish border in 1960.

This is the Trumpeter 1:35 scale model (#00316) from 2002. The vinyl rubber-band tracks have great detail, but were too long, so I cut out one link on each side and used an office stapler to re-attach the loop. This worked perfectly, and the staples are painted black and hidden under the dust skirt. I added ten metal handles on the turret as the plastic ones do not fit to the holes. Also, I added glass to the headlights, and added metal protectors over the headlights. The machine gun has the sighting plate drilled out, and two holes drilled through the sides of the muzzle brake.

Paint is Tamiya XF-26 Deep Green, with an overspray of mixed X-8 Lemon Yellow and deep green with thinner; then an overspray of yellow and white with mostly thinner. This was my first attempt at spraying thinned yellow onto a paint job, and I was happy with the results. Decals sit on a layer of Future Floor Wax and used a bit of Solvaset to settle into the moulding of the cast turret so the crest and hull numbers take on a true painted look. The whole thing is matted down using a few coats of Vallejo clear matte. Dust and dirt are rubbed on Vallejo powders. I like tanks with track skirts as those hide my building errors.

Object 703, ИС-3M IS-3M (Ио́сиф Ста́лин Iosef Stalin-3M) heavy tank

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

inbox review TITANIC Seal & Iceberg Scene (Suyata)

This is a first look in the box of the new TITANIC egg/cartoon scale model from the new Suyata models released in 2020. TITANIC SEAL & ICEBERG SCENE, Suyata (HK) International Co., Ltd, of Hong Kong (kit #SL001)

The kit is not officially available in North America due to lack of a distributor, but I acquired this one from a factory in China. It arrived in about 15 days by post.

Quality and details are excellent. It can be made waterline or full hull version. All parts are moulded in appropriate colours, but any purist will of course paint most everything. Technically it is a snap-together kit, but of course purists will glue everything in place and add rigging. Overall it is 150 mm long.

The only negative is the lack of decals for the hull. This seems odd given the quality and the decal for the base/stand.

Overall this kit is far and away better than the new Meng cartoon kit of the Titanic, which has fewer parts, fewer decks, and is overall smaller.

Real wooden decks as extras are available for this Suyata kit on-line for only about $10.

This would make a great kit to do with a child over a weekend, or for an actual modeller to do up fancy.

For reasons I do not understand, all of the six seals in the kit have names. Even the small seals are the size of a funnel on the ship.

My video review on youtube is attached here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjsfoTdB2cU

This is my first in-box review, as this is one of the first of these kits to come to Canada and be reviewed in English.

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

RENAULT R-39 TANK (Heller Humbrol)

This is the 1:35 scale Heller Humbrol kit (#81133) of the Renault R-35 light infantry support tank, but with the SA 38 turret gun making it into the R-39 tank used immediately after WWII. In this model I have imagined the tank in service with the French expeditionary army trying to re-occupy and pacify Indochina (Viet Nam) after WWII until their tank force was upgraded by the USA but they were then totally defeated and humiliated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. This was France's main tank in WWII, with a production run, until the Nazi scum invasion, of about 1600 units.

I bought the kit from Bill at Hobby Centre in Ottawa as a quick Covid-19 project, and it turned out okay for a three day build. Paint is a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics. The chain comes with the kit and is most appreciated. The tracks are the rubber-band type and of acceptable quality. The drive wheel has teeth which are far too large and close together to really fit into the slots in the track links. As the tank is very small this 1:35 scale model looks like a very large 1:72 scale kit. The tank is photographed in front of a reproduction of a 1954 battle poster extolling the PAVN fight to win over the French enemy at Dien Bien Phu, Tonkin, Viet Nam.

French expeditionary army R-39 tank used in Indochina/Viet Nam 1946-1950