An unexpected arrival - MMS Citroen Type 23

Always nice to get unexpected parcels. I ordered this so long ago I had completely forgot about it - it's a beautiful white metal MMS Citroen Type 23 (c1939ish) light truck in 1/76 scale...

The 1/76 MMS Citroen Type 23 kit (source: MMS Models). A short review of this
kit is available over at www.mondo72.com

I could have just used models of captured Soviet GAZ AAs and ZiS-5s for my light truck inventory of my Finnish collection, but as usual I wanted to illustrate the diversity of vehicles deployed by the Finns. I spotted a Citroen 23 in a photo of the Finns at war (a civilian commercial vehicle pressed into military service) and so looked for a 1/72 model version.

It was a bit of a long shot, I didn't expect to find a 1/72 plastic kit for this French WW2 truck as it's a wee bit niche, but I did come across this very nice white metal kit from MMS Models of Folkestone, UK.

It is, of course, 1/76 scale so technically should have been a wee bit smaller than I would have liked, but I decided it was still worth getting as I had a 'cunning plan' to mate the front half of this with the back half and chassis of Minairon's new 1/72 Ford AA van (which comes out at the end of September). I was thinking it would make a lovely Citroen ambulance or radio car...

The soon to be released Minairon's Ford AA ambulance.

A French Citroen Type 23 ambulance. Mating the Citroen's bonnet to the
Minairons Ford body would have made a wonderful conversion.

Anyway, when I opened the parcel I was very pleased to notice that it's actually quite a large vehicle, easily compatible with my other 1/72 light [1.5 ton] truck kits (I compared it side-by-side with the parts of my Military Wheels GAZ AA kit and they matched perfectly). So, no need to modify, it'll make a nice little model for towing my Finnish HQ 20mm AA gun!

Beautifully restored example of the Citroen Type 23 truck in French army markings.
Large numbers of these were 'acquired' by The Germans after the fall of France and
were used by the Wehrmacht

Historical note: I have been unable to find the original photo showing the Type 23 in Finnish service again so cannot absolutely validate the authenticity of using the Type 23 for this project. However, the Citroen was a very popular and successful European commercial vehicle - produced in large numbers from 1936 - and so having it as an example of civilian vehicles in use by the Finns is more apocryphal than fact.

Update: Information I have received on the Axis History Forum points towards 40 Citroen Type 23 vehicles having been imported into Finland during World War 2. So that's nice as it makes my use of the type a little less suspect!

Kit stash - Moonlite Modelwerkes resin trucks

Yes I said I wasn't spending any more money this month, but this was actually ordered a couple of months back (so there)! I recieved my order for a couple of pre/early WW2 American trucks this week and they are a couple of beauties.

My new Moonlite 1936 Ford and 1941 Chevrolet trucks in 20mm.

This is my very first order from Moonlite Modelwerkes of USA and it really was worth the wait. When you consider that these models are more or less made to order and there is some hand assembly done to them (they aren't the usual war game quality one-piece lumps of resin) then you understand why there is a bit of a delay between order and delivery. Besides that they do seem to be up to their eyeballs in orders, and I can see why.

I opted for a test order of just two truck (and now I wish I had ordered more!), a 1936 Ford V8-51 2½-ton truck and a 1941 Chevrolet MS4403 4x2 1½-ton truck. This was initially for my Finnish WW2 Rapid Fire! army project, but I have changed my mind now.

These models seem to be true 20mm (1/76) and won't fit in with my 1/72 kits - even if I kit bash them like my V3000 conversion. But they are just so nice that I may have to start a brand new project just to utilise them (in the meantime they will go into storage).

As I said these are war game quality ready-made models, with solid filled-in windows, so I would feel obliged to only use them with other similar 'ready to rolls'. Despite this the level of detail on these trucks is excellent, I particularly like the way Moonlite makes a proper chassis and wheel base for it's trucks - unlike the one-piece filled in and supported bases like those of Valiant and other resin war game model makers.

Another excellent feature of Moonlite's models is the rather unusual subjects of some of it's vehicles. Along side the usual military types they include quite a few less well know commercial types - like my 1936 Ford - that were common in early WW2 armies (like The Netherlands, Finland, France, etc).

Well, as you can tell I am very happy with my purchase and will think long and hard about how I can utilise these excellent resin models.

Here I compare my Moonlite models with a couple of resin one-piece models
I purchased from Valliant. Aside from the solid one-piece casting you will
notice a lot more fine detailing on the Moonlite vehicles. The Valliant
trucks are also closer to 1/72 scale.

To order from Moonlite you must email David Reasoner in the States and ask for a catalogue, all sales are conducted by email and you pay by PayPal. Postage was reasonable and David himself was exceptionally helpful:  hmsdiomede@aol.com

As an example, my Chevvy was $12 and my Ford was $10, which once you take the hand assembly and short run nature of these nice little models into consideration is well worth it.

Unfinished business - 1/76 Airfix Sherman Pt. 1

One of the reasons I restarted modelling again about a year or so ago was because I just happened to have a collection of Airfix kits in my attic (left by one of my daughter's ex-boyfriends). It seemed to be an opportunity to start a new hobby with the minimum of outlay so I cracked open the box - the Airfix D-Day set - and took out the first kits that came to hand.

Well, I soon learned that I didn't know that much about making kits, or painting them, and these early attempts at my new hobby have languished unfinished in a draw while I went back to the beginning again and practised basic model techniques from scratch.

Among these early amateurish attempts was an Sherman tank - the (in)famous Airfix M4 with it's undersized turret and questionable tracks. I came across it again while looking for something else and I realised that it was time I finished this little cutey off...

Now I bit off more that I could chew with this one as I jumped straight in and attempted a bit of a conversion job - I tried to improve the undersized turret and I turned the Airfix M4 version into an M4A2 version by building a whole new engine deck from scratch!

You can catch up with the whole 'story so far' by looking at the Flickr photo diary I did of this hatchet job: Airfix 1/76 scale Sherman M4 Tank gallery (opens in new browser window).

Even though I am still a kit noob I can see a lot of things in this kit that I would do differently now, but I still think there are a few bits of my work that I am proud of, especially as they were such early attempts. For example, I was particularly pleased with how the stowage turned out...

Anyway, I think I've got to the point where I can do the final stages of this build justice (I am more confident about my painting skills now), so this weekend I will get the tracks on and get some other finishing touches on the go.