Research Advice ?

[Guest]

Hi Guys , Still working on my 1st dio ( mopping up ) but have had a couple of days off , but I am already planning my next dio , I would like to do something based in the Ardennes ( after watching the whole series of Band of Brothers again ) but this is not set in stone - I`ve been on www.worldwar2database.com and they have some great photos , is there any other sites you guys use to research WW2 stuff.

Cheers lads

Richy

:thinking:

[spanner570]

Richy, I always look on google images....nothing better in my book. No words just great photos.

Ron

[Guest]

Same as Ron, and then a little bit of imagination for good measure! I do like to check that the background is correct though-for instance I wanted to show a Jagdtiger in the Ardenne until I discovered none of them made it to the battlezone! Always worth doing your research Patrick

[Guest]

wiki pedia ? just a thought?

[stona]

Google is your friend though I have built up a library of references as well.I only have one book on the Ju88 so I did a bit of googling and found literally dozens of decent images all of which were good general references.

Steve

[Guest]

Odd that this thread should come up at this moment. I posted in my Sea Harrier 'Under Construction' that I had a problem with the cockpit canopy. The rear canopy does have moulding issues but the front one, I said had a flatish 'panel' on it that looked like a mistake on the mould. I had looked at pics of the Harrier and could find nothing to change my mind about it. However, a trip to Matalan (used to be a cheap clothes shop) for some new work trousers brought to light a book called the "Encyclopaedia of Modern Military Jets, Combat Aircraft from 1945 to the Present Day" A grand title for a coffee table book but it is a big book and was only £10 so I thought, why not.

Anyway, just to make a short story long (?) I was looking at it while I ate my dinner and there was a huge illustration of a 'Falklands period' Sea Harrier FRS1 and blow me, there on the centre to starboard side of the front canopy is a big painted flat area, looks like a panel.....

The point of all this is look, look again and keep looking. There is bound to be contradictory info on the internet, let's face it, it is not known to be the most factual place but get enough info supporting no matter what it's source and you can be fairly confident that it is OK

[Guest]

Just had a look there is a fair few vids on you tube

[stona]

The joy of the internet is that it is of course free and there is a lot of good material available. It does however suffer the inevitable pitfalls of any unregulated source. Opinions often become facts by repetition! ("All Luftwaffe interiors were in RLM02 before 1941" is often quoted as a fact when it is simply not true). As far a photographs go they are often out of context. I frequently see Luftwaffe aircraft,units and even pilots mis-identified. For real in depth information you still need a well researched reference by a reputable author. You can of course go to Kew,or a similar archive,and dig for the information yourself. This can be rewarding but is time consuming and often frustrating.I have a trip planned to try and dig out details of a Spitfire flown by a pilot from Trinidad which I hope to build for one of his descendants.I will be at the mercy of his Squadron intelligence officer and his handwriting, if I can find the relevant ORB (operations record book)!

One other thing that is becoming more common is colourised photographs. These may be a good reference but obviously not for colour as they are effectively an artists impression. Good ones can be hard to spot,I've only been aware of some because I know the original (black and white) image.

As long as you are aware of the problems it is still by far the best source of free material around.

Happy googling

Steve

[Guest]

Wise words there Steve! It's the same with WW2 German armour-the idea that late war tanks were painted panzer grey still persists even though this was never ordered, nor did stocks of Dunkelgelb ever run out. Admittedly some late panzers wore a coat of red primer & not much else but that was because camoflauge had largely become pointless & the need to get tanks to the front-line outweighed the time spent painting them!

Patrick

[stona]

There are obvious paralells between different areas of late war German production. I'm sure tanks heading for the front in primer was brought about by the same circumstances that led the RLM to order a stop to the painting of the lower surfaces of some aircraft (though some plants continued anyway.) It didn't compromise camouflage and any consideration of corrosion was irrelevant as noone expected the things to last for very long.

It is well known that the pilots of the "pink" PRU Spitfires felt highly visible even though the colour (really almost white) was an effective camouflage for the height/time of day they flew at. I'm not so sure about a red tank!

Steve

[yak face]

Hi all, ive found google images to be really useful too . Ive always found too,that you cant beat a good book on a particular subject, a perfect example is the sam publications modellers datafile series-great reference aimed squarely at modellers ,well worth £15! If i had a luftwaffe query ,however, i would simply ask steve (stona) !! similarly if i had a question about armour i would ask my mates on here, i trust you lot more than any unsubstantiated internet reference!( wow, big word!!) One last thing if anyone else is into wartime russian aircraft, a fantastic site is - vvs.hobbyvista.com- a great resource on 1917-1950 soviet aircraft. cheers tony

[Guest]

Thanks for the ideas Gents , Google images was great , Right then Ardennes it is going to be , as much as I`m loving doing my mopping up dio I`m find the miniarts base is quite small to get all my ideas into the space availible , so once thats finnished my next dio will be roughly 500mm x 500mm with fox holes , bomb holes , bomb blasted trees ( lots of them ) , all snow covered and mud etc , American 101st on the defensive and the Germans on the offensive as normal , I`m going to use Wonderland models as they seem to have all that I want which will be 1/35 - Dragon King tiger-battle of the bulge , photo etched and comes with 8 figures , Dragon 101st US airbourne 4 figures , Tamiya German winter assault infantry , Tamiya US assault infantry , Tamiya US gun and mortar team , the figures seem excessive but will only use the ones that fit the scene ,

For my 2nd dio I may be biting of more than I can chew , but hey in for a penny in for a pound and I know with the advice and help from you guys I just might be able to pull this one off ,

Cheers Lads

Richy

[spanner570]

Richy, I was going to offer you the loan of my snowman from my recent Ardenne dio. but I don't think you will have any room!!!!!LOL

Ron

[Guest]

I look forward to seeing it Richy but one word of caution-make sure you check and dry-fit the parts on the Dragon kit before glueing them coz my experience is they can be tricky! Patrick

[Guest]

Hi Ron , the offer of your snowman is much apprecited but as you say even with a dio that size I`m going to run out of room , on a serious note I plan it to be very suttle - the Tiger will be used and only certain figures will be used but only if it looks right , I will be posting photos as I go but never having done a scenic dio I will be asking many many questions so be ready mate.

Richy