P-38 Lightning

"During a sweep over France on 18 August, 12 Mustangs of No. 315 (Polish) engaged 60 German fighters of JG2 and JG26, which was in the process of taking off and landing near Beauvais, France. In the ensuing battle, the squadron was credited with 16 victories, 1 probable and 3 damaged for the loss of one pilot, Squadron Leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski. Conversely, German claims were that 12 aircraft had been lost and that they had themselves shot down 6 aircraft (one of which was claimed to be a Lockheed P-38 Lightning)." -Wiki

This old Revell 1/48 kit (1964) came with Richard Bong decals, but I wanted to do invasion stripes. I applied nose markings which I had lying around from the aforementioned Polish RAF unit. Voila, instant mysterious Polish Bong-doppelganger that was downed in France.

Left off the usual bits, e.g., Pitot tube, antenna, prop-blade decals, stencils, mass weights on the elevator. Put the front landing gear on backwards with crazyglue, decided to leave it as is. I think the standard invasion stripes look too wide on P-38s, so these are about 15% narrower than spec. I didn't want the white stripes butting against the bare metal surfaces, so I reversed the colors as well.

Tiger I

Tamiya's ancient 1/35 scaleTiger I. Vegetation is pampas grass stuck into holes drilled thru homemade spraycan-painted celluclay on plywood. I have a deep bookcase now, so was able to have a relatively big base to get the 'endless steppe' vibe I like so much. Back in the 70s I did my first pampas grass dio, and dutifully crushed the stalks the tank treads would have crushed. So ugly. I'll never do that again. Mural courtesy of my wife. What else...tank is assorted washes of craftstore acrylics including 4 shades of green, 3 shades of brown, 2 of yellow. Tow cables are the original soft plastic endpieces cut off and drilled out, with picture-hanging wire crazyglued into them. Minimal weather with oils and a pencil. Used the Tamiya zimmerit rakes for the first time. I trust they are to scale, but my old eyes need reading glasses to see the resulting texture. I know, men pointing in dioramas is corny, but I love that DML-Dragon cavalryman, so sue me.