is necessary to buy

more than one set to

ensure the easiest re-

sult.

Modelling wise, I think

we’ve had a pretty good

year—can’t wait to see

what 2015 will bring.

Bergepanther perhaps?

(yeah, right . . . .)

I hope Santa brings you

lots of plastic—may you

and yours have a happy

and safe Christmas and

a prosperous New

Year.

I give up! Some months

I have to beg for contri-

butions, this month I

have so many that I’ve

nearly filled the January

edition as well!

And no, I haven’t forgot-

ten who won the door

prize last month and

hasn’t sent me a contri-

bution.

I have been putting to-

gether a DML M4 Mor-

tar Carrier of late, and

decided to add a bit of

extra detail, as well as

some scratchbuilding

so that it looks like the

one of which I have

some nice clear photos

courtesy of Archer Fine

Transfers.

Between Eduard, Voy-

ager, Griffon and Aber I

found all the fine detail I

needed (and then

some) and it’s interest-

ing how the various

companies approach a

solution to the same

problem (eg the jer-

rycan rack on the side),

Their methods differ

wildly and ensure that it

Editorial (aka Rob’s Rantings)

6 December 2014

Volume 10, Issue 12

AMMS Brisbane News Inside this issue:

The Funnies 2

Real Life Observations 3-5

A Real Hero 6-8

Personal Profile 9-

10

Display Bases 11

The little illustration

below is courtesy of

Murray—thanks ma-

te.

The Funnies Page

Page 2

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue

Thank you Airfix Jones for the cartoon atop and at left and also

whoever sent me the one above

After spending quality time (try telling the wife that…just one more museum to go Darling, I promise..) at several German AFV & Technical museums on my recent holiday, it was interesting to note the dif-ferent kinds of wear & tear that the vehi-cles exhibited – the fact that a large per-centage of these museum vehicles are driven regularly, and can get quite grubby gives the modeler a real insight to what “Actual” wear & tear may look like.

For instance, as shown in this picture, the sdkfz 251 muffler – a common item of interest to weather on this popular vehi-

cle. It’s not a bright rusty blob, but actual-ly still displays traces of paint – this is due to the fact that although it gets warm, the muffler’s not quite hot enough to total-ly blister all the paint off. And, of course, it’s leaving a nice sooty effect on the track guard.

In another pic it shows that on a section of SWS track where the road wheels run it’s quite a dull finish– it’s more like a dull grey/gunmetal effect. Also note with the SWS how the rusty replaced wheel with the different coloured hub creates a good contrast to its plain “Gelb” counterparts.

However, as this Tiger I Steel Wheel pic proves the inner track/wheel wearing sur-faces can get quite shiny. As this vehicle is a static exhibit only, and is only occa-sionally moved, the tracks are quite uni-form in their “Rusty” appearance. Also of

note on this Tiger, it displayed obvious battle damage to the spare Track links as well as its own running tracks. This sort of damage is probably overlooked to a cer-tain degree in our hobby – the spare links were sometimes there for added protec-tion too remember…….Well, on Allied stuff anyway….it needed it!

Continued on Page 4

Real Life Observations—from the Fatherland (thanks Graham Moore)

Page 3

Volume 10, Issue AMMS Brisbane News

On this pic showing the grouser box (thingy?) on a FT17 displayed at Ko-blenz, it’s a good example how dust may settle on a WW1 tank & have an oil/grease drip effect on it. This vehicle is obviously maintained to a certain degree by the museum to be easily moved if need be – pretty gungy for a museum vehicle hey?

This Hetzer (yes yes, I know it’s not a real one Craig!….) displayed at Munster easily demonstrated how a 3-tone ca-mo may wear – on the sloping rear deck the crew’s boots have scuffed the Green & Camo Red Brown back to the Gelb – and the worn raised deck bolts are now quite prominent.

The Hetzer tracks also provided a good example as to how tracks caked in dirt may look – not just one shade of “Mud”, but light/dark & oily shades too.

What I did find interesting was examining some of the Scars of Battle that some of the larger AFV’s wore – everything from the tattoo line of bullets, small caliber, shrapnel, to the larger glancing scars.

Continued on Page 5

Real Life Observations—from the Fatherland (Cont’d from Page

3)

Page 4

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue

These pics show a series of glancing blows to the front of this Jagdpanther – but these hits weren’t the ones that put it out of action….Allegedly the smaller hole in the Mantlet caused the Panther’s demise. Was this Mantlet metal softer? I’m sure one of our knowledgeable AMMS members would have a theory.

Here’s a good example of Track damage, this pic shows the Modeller that tracks don’t just pop their pin and lay on the ground neatly – if they go “with a Bang” this would probably more accurately depict such an occurrence.

I did try picking up a pair of KingTiger tracks – guess what, they were bloody heavy! It must have been no small feat to change an entire track run, let alone with a million bullets zing-ing past……

Real Life Observations—from the Fatherland (cont’d from Page

4)

Page 5

Volume 10, Issue AMMS Brisbane News

So Did the Soviet 122mm Gun Really Work? (thanks Blackie)

Apparently it did!

In a military career span-

ning 1899-1947, Adrian

Carton de Wiart fought in

4 wars, and survived be-

ing shot in the stomach,

groin, head, hand, ankle,

hip and leg; as surviving

well as two plane crashes

and five escape attempts

from a POW camp. He

lost an eye and a hand in

1915, but still won the Vic-

toria Cross in 1916.

It is a war story that

sounds far-fetched even

by Hollywood standards,

but Adrian Carton de Wiart

really existed.

Adrian Paul Ghislain Car-

ton de Wiart was born in

Belgium in 1880 to an Irish

mother and a Belgian aris-

tocratic father (although it

was widely rumoured he

was the illegitimate son of

the King of the Belgians,

Leopold II)

When his mother died and

his father remarried to an

Englishwoman, his new

stepmother sent Carton de

Wiart to boarding school in

England. From there he

went to Oxford University

in 1899, but dropped out

after one term to join the

British Army.

The Boer War had just

started at the time and,

after enlisting under the

false identity of ‘Trooper

Carton’, Carton de Wiart

was sent to

South Africa. However,

he was seriously wounded

in the stomach and groin

early in the war and inva-

lided home. As soon as

he had recovered, he re-

turned to action in South

Africa in 1901 as a com-

missioned officer under

his true identity.

When the First World War

broke out in 1914, Carton

de Wiart was en route to

British Somaliland in the

Horn of Africa, where the

British were engaged in a

low level war against the

“Mad Mullah“. In an attack

on an enemy fort, Carton

de Wiart was shot twice in

the face, losing his left

eye.

He wore a glass eye for a

short time after but, whilst

travelling in a taxi, threw it

out of the window and put

on a black eye patch,

which he wore for the rest

of his life.

In 1915 he embarked on a

steamer for France. As an

infantry commander on

the Western Front, he was

wounded seven more

times. Soon after his arri-

val he lost his left hand

(biting his mangled fingers

off when a doctor declined

to remove them). He was

later shot through the skull

and ankle at the Battle of

the Somme, through the

hip at the Battle of Pass-

chendaele, through the leg

at Cambrai, and through

the ear at Arras. Cont’d on

Page 7

A Real Hero

Page 6

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue

loss of various body parts,

he said: “Frankly I enjoyed

the war.”

Adrian Carton de Wiart

From 1919-1921, Carton

de Wiart saw further front

line action in Poland

against the Red Army in

the Polish-Soviet

War. On one occasion,

while out on his observa-

tion train, he was at-

tacked by a group of Red

cavalry. He fought them

off with his revolver from

the running board of the

train, at one point falling

on the track and quickly

jumping back on. He

even survived an aircraft

crash which led to a brief

period in Lithuanian cap-

tivity.

He retired from the Army

in 1923 with the honorary

rank of major-general,

and spent the next 15

years shooting waterfowl

on a friend’s 500,000 acre

marshland estate in east-

ern Poland – his home a

converted hunting lodge

on an island, only a few

miles from the Soviet bor-

der.

His peaceful life was

rudely interrupted by the

Second World War in

1939, when he was re-

called as head of the Brit-

It was during the Battle of

the Somme in July 1916

that he won the Victoria

Cross, the British Empire’s

highest award for gallantry

in combat. His citation

read:

“For most conspicuous

bravery, coolness and de-

termination during severe

operations of a prolonged

nature. It was owing in a

great measure to his

dauntless courage and

inspiring example that a

serious reverse was avert-

ed. He displayed the ut-

most energy and courage

in forcing our attack home.

After three other battalion

Commanders had become

casualties, he controlled

their commands, and en-

sured that the ground won

was maintained at all

costs. He frequently ex-

posed himself in the or-

ganisation of positions and

of supplies, passing un-

flinchingly through fire bar-

rage of the most intense

nature. His gallantry was

inspiring to all.”

In his later autobiography,

Happy Odyssey , he

made no mention of his

VC. Of the First World

War itself, and despite the

ish Military Mission to Po-

land. When Poland was at-

tacked by both Nazi Germa-

ny and Soviet Russia in Sep-

tember 1939, the estate was

overrun and all Carton de

Wiart’s possessions were

confiscated by the Soviets,

then destroyed by the Ger-

mans in later fighting. He

never saw the area again.

Carton de Wiart and his mis-

sion team escaped Poland

by road convoy, with the

Germans and the Russians

in hot pursuit. Despite being

attacked from the air by the

Luftwaffe, the convoy made

it across the Romanian bor-

der. Carton de Wiart then

made it back to England by

aircraft, travelling under a

false passport.

In 1940 he was dispatched

to Norway, where he took

charge of an Anglo-French

force with orders to take the

city of Trondheim. With few

supplies and little support, he

managed to move his forces

over the mountains and

down to Trondheim

Fjord, despite coming under

frequent attack from the Luft-

waffe, being shelled by Ger-

man naval destroyers and

machine gunned by German

ski troops. Continued on

Page 8

A Real Hero

(cont’d from Page 6)

Page 7

Volume 10, Issue AMMS Brisbane News

Unable to effectively challenge the

superior German forces, Carton de

Wiart was eventually ordered to evac-

uate. Royal Navy transports got his

men away, but they were bombed

severely on the way out. Carton de

Wiart arrived back at Scapa Flow on

his 60th birthday.

Even back on British soil, Carton de

Wiart found himself on the frontline

when his London home was bombed

by the Germans during the Blitz. All of

his medals and decorations were de-

stroyed or lost and he had to apply to

the War Office for official replace-

ments.

In 1941 he was appointed head of the

British-Yugoslavian Military Mission,

just as Hitler was preparing to invade

Yuogoslavia. After negotiating with

the Yugoslavian government in Bel-

grade, Carton de Wiart’s aircraft was

heading for Cairo when both engines

failed. The plane crash landed in the

Mediterranean off the coast of Italian-

controlled Libya. Carton de Wiart was

knocked un-

conscious in the crash, but

the cold water revived

him. When the plane sank,

he and the crew were forced

to swim a mile to shore,

where they were captured by

the Italians.

Carton de Wiart was sent to

a special prison for senior

officers at in Italy. With his

distinguished comrades, he

five escape attempts, one of

which including seven

months of tunnelling. During

one attempt, Carton de Wiart

evaded capture for eight

days disguised as an Italian

peasant – but his age, eye

patch, empty sleeve, multiple

scars and lack of Italian gave

him away.

Carton de Wiart was re-

leased from prison in 1943

and taken to Rome, where

the Italian government se-

cretly planned to leave the war and

wanted Carton de Wiart to act as

messenger to the British govern-

ment. He was accompanied by an

Italian negotiator to Portugal to meet

Allied contacts to facilitate the surren-

der. From Portugal, Carton de Wiart

made his way back to England.

Carton de Wiart was immediately

summoned by Churchill to be his per-

sonal representative in China, where

he worked for the rest of the war and

up to his retirement in 1947. On his

way back to England, he stopped off

in Rangoon as a house guest of the

local army commander. Coming

down stairs, he slipped on coconut

matting, fell, broke his back and

knocked himself unconscious. He

eventually made it back to England

and into hospital where he slowly

recovered. The doctors succeeded

in extracting an incredible amount of

shrapnel from his old wounds.

Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul

Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC KBE CB

CMG DSO finally settled in County

Cork, Ireland, where he died in 1963

at the age of 83. The Oxford Diction-

ary of National Biography described

him thus: “With his black eyepatch

and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart

looked like an elegant pirate, and

became a figure of legend.”

A Real Hero (Cont’d from Page 7)

Page 8

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue

Left—Carton de Wiart probably

needed a reinforced jacket to carry

all his medals!

My modelling career started in the late 60s at the age of about

4. My father, ex RAAF decided he would buy me a model

plane each fortnight on shopping day. I thought this was a

great idea. I was so excited the next time we went shopping

where we purchased a 1/72 scale Frog Spitfire. I could wait to

get home to start building it. The down side was, Dad thought

because I was only young, it would be best if he built it for me.

This was the trend that continued on for a few years. Not only

I wasn’t allowed to build them, I also wasn’t allowed to play

with them and to ensure I didn’t he placed them in a display

case out of my reach. Not only that, but he wanted to take his

time in building them and doing things like sanding parts and

waiting for glue and paint to dry, where I just wanted to slap

them together. (I see nothing has changed there.) There were

a lot of fond memories there. As I started to get older Dad

would start to let me do some minor supervised constriction

and then when I was about 7, I was finally let loose on one by

myself. It was a Matchbox half track complete with a display

base. I thought this was great because it was model in colours

so I didn’t have to paint it.

We moved from the Gold Coast to Charleville in SW Qld in the

early 70’s where my collect of Matchbox, Frog and Airfix mod-

els continued to grow. I had a temporary model building ban

applied by my mother when I was 9 after receiving 6 stitches

in a cut on my finger. Dad was working in the Ambulance and

I had access to surgical scalpels that were great to remove

parts from the sprues as well as sections from fingers. One

year we came to Brisbane for a holiday where Dad and I went

to a toy shop called Toy and Novelty at Annerley were we

found new and exciting model brands like Tamiya and Mono-

gram. He bought me two Monogram models, a 1/48 scale Lib-

erator and a 1/24 scale P51. Dad decided that he had to build

these for me because I was too inexperienced to build pro-

jects of this size, well at least that’s what he told Mum.

This trend continued for the next few years and then model-

ling started to take a backward step to sport, camping, girls,

shooting, fishing, girls, cars and did I mention girls. It wasn’t

until the mid 80s that I bought another model kit. I was off

work with a knee injury from playing football and needed

something to do. So I hobbled down to the model shop and

came home with a car kit and a rattle can of paint. Modelling

started to slowly creep back into my life from that point. I

would buy a kit and build it, and then I would buy another and

build it and before I knew it I had to build another display case

to show of my proud masterpieces. Then I would start to buy

two kits and build one etc … Today the trend has completely

changed…..Now I have heaps of display space and have to

build an extension on the house to store the

unbuilt stuff….

I have a wide verity of modelling interests how-

ever subjects from my childhood and early teen

years still top the list with Vietnam armour, SCI

FI Star wars/Star Trek (and no I can speak

Klingon) drag/ muscle cars and aircraft, espe-

cially RAAF.

Over the years I have been an active member

of many clubs by either supporting with displays

or holding down various committee positions. I

have also held various committee positions with

the QMHE.

Over the last few years my life has undergone

some changes on the personal and work front

with getting married again to a lovely lady who

total understands that I am a “Modelholic” and

suffers from a similar disorder with hand bags,

shoes and scrap booking…

On the work front the engineering company I

was managing was sold off in 2007 and I went

to work for another of the owners companies

Drake Trailer where I became the special pro-

jects & marketing manager. One of my special

project was to develop 1/50 scale diecast repli-

cas of heavy haulage equipment we manufac-

ture for marketing purposes. Four years later,

Drake Trailers now has a collectable business

that produces museum quality scale replicas of

Australia heavy haulage equipment (rated by

the experts as the world’s best heavy haulage

diecast) for worldwide distribution, and sells

scaled diecast Kenworth trucks to Kenworth. At

present my job role enables me to travel the

world for Hobby and Toy fairs to promote the

models as well as work closely with overseas

companies to develop new products. I guess I

have the ideal job…

I consider myself to be very fortunate to have

not only gained a lot of knowledge from model

clubs such as AMMS but to also gain some

great friends along the way.

Continued on Page 10

Personal Profile (thanks Bruce Hay)

Page 9

Volume 10, Issue AMMS Brisbane News

My lifelong goal is … one day I hope

that I am a good enough modeller to

tackle some of those hi grade kits I

have in the stash at home.

Some pics of Bruce’s stash are on the

rest of this page—every time my wife

complains about mine, I just show her

Bruce’s—Rob

Personal Profile (Cont’d from Page 9)

Page 10

AMMS Brisbane News Volume 10, Issue

Meets first Saturday of every month at

Loganlea Community Centre, Timms Street,

Loganlea, between 11:30am and 4:00pm

Contributions to the newsletter are always

welcome. Please email contributions to the

editor at gncw@bigpond.com

A M M S B R I S B A N E

Display Bases by Jim Young (thanks Graham McNamara)

Start Them Young . . . .

AMMS Brisbane is on

the Web at

www.ammsbrisbane.co

As launched at last month’s

meeting, Jim has turned his

hand to Jarrah display bases

to suit AFV’s, dio’s or aircraft.

Prices start from $15 for the

smallest size to $20 for the

larger sizes. I’ll be bringing

half a dozen on a regular ba-

sis for the impulse buyers

and can arrange contact with

Jim for special orders.