Petbat, I have a slight correction to your link. I don’t know why it is labeled 1989, but the catalogue you linked was for 1999. Fortunately, that website is a treasure trove of info. I found the 1989 catalogue here:
It doesn’t have a single 120mm figure listed. I assumed that Verlinden simply manufactured the big figs all through the 1980’s. The first 120mm figures appear in the 1990 catalogue:
There are only fifteen or so 120mm figures listed in 1990. If the guidance is “prior to 1990”, then I’ll have to think up something else.
I have them in addition to a couple of others. I also have the infamous Verlinden 120mm M-113. My grand plan is to have a late war 5th Infantry Division diorama with the M-113 someday.
Regardless, shall I rule out the 120mm figures from 1990?
If so, my next thought is to do something with the readily available 1:72 scale Esci kits. I know that the Great Ones really brought 1:35 out as the dominant scale for dioramas, but I wanted to make sure that 1:72 was within the guidelines.
I don’t mean to be a pest, but what is the guidance for new aftermarket or 3D printed items for customization? I don’t have a collection of 40 year old detail sets, but I do have new aftermarket sets and 3D printed items. Thanks again.
I saw that one as well. GREAT build! Actually it was the Nats two years ago in Omaha. Are we talking about thesame one? The two pilot figures with really nicely painted helmets?
@RonW Maybe a bit of latitude to incorporate what could potentially have been late 1989 year releases could be accepted to help our fellow modellers out?
As to me. Well I have a few to finish before I jump in, but I am tossing up between Tamiya’s Carro Armato M13/40 (first moulds were 1975 but I have the 2005 release that added link and length tracks and a fix for the exhausts) or Italeri’s Horch Kfz.15 from their 1973 moulds.
The former would be OOB with some finessing of figures to depict this Aussie captured one:
The latter would require a fair bit of scratch building to correct the very simplified seats and interior. Pretty much what I did for the Tamiya Horch 108 a while back:
My local shop has like two dozen of those Verlinden 120mm figurines. They picked them up from an estate sale. i usually go there to pick up vintage Tamiya kits to put together. That’s how i got my second hand Meng T-90A kit, which i am almost done building.
I’m not going to enroll in this campaign, but I just want to say that it can be a lot of fun modifying 120mm Verlinden figures for the campaign.
Here is my 120mm Verlinden U.S. Desert Storm tanker modified into a futuristic Sci-Fi anti-drone gunner with powered exoskeleton for the “Sci-Fi Campaign 2020.” The guns are from Gundam kits that someone sent me as spare parts and the bits and pieces are from my spare parts box.
When 18 Bravo originally mentioned honoring the old time greats, my mind immediately went to the 120mm Verlinden figures. I had no idea that most of them were produced in the 1990’s.
Since that’s out the window, I suppose I’ll take the challenge of Esci/Italeri 1:72 kits. I’ll go with the small scale so all of you armor rivet counters can’t count the rivets.
I’ve yet to decide what kit to do. More to follow.
I took a drill bit and took a hairs width out of the inside diameter of the road wheels. I then drilled the holes in the hull sides. This works because Tamiya did not offset the roadwheel arms on the early Panther A
In hind sight… I should have taken into account the missing height of the rubber portion of the road wheel for the road wheels that will have the rubber burned off and have the styrene arms sit proportionally lower. Oh well, that will be OK when it is put of a diorama base.
Like I wrote… the figures are designed and produced before 1990 in order to make it into the 1990 catalogue. So they pre-date 1990, which was a requirement.
The old Tamiya Panther has quite a few holes in the bottom of the hull and mounts for a motor and gears. I took a piece of sheet plastic and covered the hull bottom.
Next comes the road wheels. This Panther only had 3 rows of road wheels, not 4 like the actual vehicle. I got some extra road wheels from another forum member and need to figure out how to add another row of wheels and still fit the track. Sorta like a clown car trick.
The third row is missing, one of the two center road wheels that should be mounted together. I took some spare center road wheels and ground the center out and glued them to the back of the original road wheel.
When I did a test fit, there was not enough space between the outer road wheel and the inner road wheel. It caused the road wheel arms to spread apart.
The space between the inner and outer road wheel is a limiting factor. To stay within those limits I notched the center road wheels so that they would fit closer to the next road wheel and allow the roadwheel arms to stay 90 degrees to the hull.
