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twitter.com/prichards1995/status/1101452418695479296
March 1st can only mean one thing... three brand new trucks have arrived and are out on the road! #Prichards #growingfleet #19plates #scania #suppliedbykeltruck
Ousted by the low-floor revolution, a brace of new to Manchester Volvo B10s await their fates at Lillyhall.
What happens when two models are contracted to do the same photoshoot by mistake? Harry Emmalong, the unfortunate fashion photographer found out when sisters Flambo and Gissles Lank turned up at the same time.
The plan had been a simple shot, featuring an armchair by the newly formed furniture company, Shabby Sheik. However, both women were determined they should be the model employed, not accepting it to be a back-office mistake.
Harry said "Frankly, I just let them argue it out amongst themselves. There was much squealing from the back room, and afterwards I found tufts of hair all over the floor. But I wasn't going to get involved".
Eventually, Harry took this shot of the pair trying to force themselves into the same chair. It was as good he was going to get that day, especially as they broke the chair.
Shabby Sheik were delighted with the picture, and paid both girls half the amount.
On receiving the news of this, there was much squealing from the back room.
The era of the pastoralists in the Crystal Brook area was dominated by the Bowman family. This area appealed to pastoralists as the Rocky River (which rises beyond Laura) joins the Broughton River near where Crystal Brook now stands. The first run in the district, called the Crystal Brook run (560 square miles) was taken up by William Younghusband and Peter Ferguson in 1842. It included the site of present day Port Pirie. Younghusband and Ferguson decided to survey part of their run and establish a town in 1848. They sold some of the land (85 acres) to Emmanuel Solomon and Matthew Smith, who established Solomontown. Around 1850 the leasehold was “sold” to the Bowman brothers with 25,000 sheep, 3,400 cattle and 200 horses for £50,000! The partnership between the three Bowman brothers was dissolved in 1864 following the Surveyor General’s new evaluation of their leasehold. George Goyder raised the annual lease from £514 to £3,420. One Bowman brother left for Tasmania, one for Poltalloch on Lake Alexandrina and another for Campbell Park on Lake Albert. The last remaining brother had his Crystal Brook run resumed by the government for closer settlement in 1873. The original homestead with a fine slate roof is part of Bowman Park, a state Native Fauna Park, controlled by the government. Many station buildings from the pastoral era still exist in this park. .
Surveying of the land for agriculture began in 1873 with town blocks being sold at auction shortly after this and the Hundred of Crystal Brook being declared. The town grew phenomenally in the first few years. The railway from Port Pirie arrived in 1877 sealing a prosperous future of the town. It continued on to Gladstone and to Peterborough by 1880. Many public buildings were erected in the years between 1877 and 1880. The first two storey construction in the town was completed in 1875 for E.H. Hewett, a butcher. At one stage this became the town’s bakery and it still has a basement oven. Today it is the National Trust Museum. By the time of the 1881 census Crystal Brook had 496 residents, making it the 12th largest town in the areas north of Adelaide.
At the end of the Main Street (Bowman Street) is Adelaide Square. Like Adelaide, Crystal Brook is also surrounded by parklands, although these have been used for development in places. The railway line divided the town into two parts. Some of the notable or historic buildings in the main street are:
1.The Crystal Brook Hotel on the corner of Railway Terrace was erected in 1878. The upper floor was added in 1910. For some years it was known as Knapman’s Hotel.
2.One of the large department stores was Claridge’s. It eventually became a Eudunda Farmer’s Store.
3.The National Bank site from used from 1876 but is now a private residence. The last a bank to operate here was the Savings Bank of SA. The classical looking bank structure was opened in 1936 for the SA centenary celebrations. It became a Savings Bank of SA in 1943.
4.The Royal Hotel built in 1882 with the upper floor added between 1910 and 1920.
5.Crystal Brook Institute built in 1881. Note the rounded upper windows and door quoin with the rectangular lower windows. Made of local stone. The library service started in 1878 before the Institute built.
6.The Georgian style Elders stock and station agent building was built in the 1930s. It is now a private residence. Note the perfect symmetry and the tiny portico above the front door.
7.In Adelaide Square note the Methodist Church- opened in 1877 and still in use. The unsympathetic front porch was added in 1967. Adjacent to it is a fine Sunday School building which opened in 1912 with FOUR foundation stones laid by four different local ministers and identities.
The District Council of Crystal Brook was established in 1882 and by then the town had a number of town facilities. These included the Crystal Brook School which opened in 1877; the Methodist Church which opened in 1877; and the first Catholic Church which opened in 1879. (The present Catholic Church opened in 1924 when the old church became a Catholic School.)
Growth of the town was based on its industrial development and the employment opportunities this provided. The first blacksmith was started by John & Robert Forgan who had learnt their trades with James Martin of Gawler. Their Crystal Brook foundry and implement works began operations in 1878. In 1884 the business expanded following the death of Robert. John also opened a branch in Port Pirie in 1902. The firm was still operating in 1973 when the town centenary history was written. The first flour mill was built on the corner of Railway Terrace and Cunningham Street in 1880. The flour mill burnt down in 1905 but the chaff mill part of the operations continued until the 1920s when it too burnt down. It was replaced by a motor vehicle dealership and garage.
But the biggest employer in the town was the SA government. In 1885 construction of the Beetaloo Dam, upstream on the Rocky River commenced. The government based its headquarters for the construction team in Crystal Brook. Once this project was completed work began on the Bundaleer reservoir in 1898. This was connected to the Beetaloo system. All the engineers and other workers for water in the mid north were based in Crystal Brook. Next the Baroota Reservoir was started in 1921. The Engineering and Water Supply (E & WS) office has thus been in Crystal Brook since 1892. Since the 1950s Crystal Brook has been the regional head office for E & WS with over 100 employed in the department’s workshops and offices. They are still located on the edge of Adelaide Square. The Highways Department has also had regional headquarters in Crystal Brook since 1943. In the 1970s this department employed 110 people in Crystal Brook. The railways were the other major government employer in the town before the rail standardisation of 1970 which saw the old station complex demolished. Other employment options in the town have been the northern areas radio station which was established in 1932, and the town electricity supply which began providing a service in 1922. The government has also employed health workers at the town hospital since 1925. Today Crystal Brook has a population of 1,600.
Used for an article about a pension fund for freelancers: www.24oranges.nl/2014/05/17/a-pension-for-freelancers/
Photo by Branko Collin.
It all started when the mortally wounded Arick Havoc of Avalon made a contract with The World...
"In return for my life after death... give me the strength to persevere in my course of action, let me keep breathing... One last breath... To find...
the Super Chalice."
(Coming soon. I just missed the dusk, sadly, the red sky was truly beautiful :/
There's always next time, and at the very least this is still a pretty picture with some nice little forshadowing. In fact, if you look real close you can see the character holding Chekhov's Gun. Speaking of weapons, those are placeholders, I'm bored of them but it's what I had on me :P)
There is a lot of work for any government concern done by private contractors nowadays. This process of part privatisation of public services was started during Labours tenure of No.10 during the “reign” of Mr Blair!
He was responsible for many retrograde policies, too many for me to start going on about here, but when it comes down to the NHS, the National Health Service, he introduced PPP, Public and Private Partnership to get more new hospitals and health establishments built.
Constructed by private finance then leased back to and operated by the NHS. The contacts were for very long periods, decades, and very costly rents. These locked the government organisations into exorbitant payments even when the building became redundant for some reason.
There are many empty buildings around the country that the government is still paying for and for many years to come.
Patient transport is one area that part-privatisation actually appears to be working in!
The contract between ESA and Arianespace to launch the ADM-Aeolus satellite was signed on 22 July 2016 by ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, (right) and CEO of Arianespace, Stéphane Israël, (left) in the presence of Jan Woerner, ESA Director General, (centre), at ESA headquarters in Paris, France. Aeolus will be launched on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana at the end of 2017. Using novel laser technology, this new mission will provide profiles of wind, aerosols and clouds to advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and to improve weather forecasts.
Read more: Vega to launch ESA’s wind mission
Credit: ESA–Nadia Imbert-Vier, 2016
jet's skyrocketing popularity has prompted her manager to formally request revision to her present talent retainer. negotiations continue. during this transitional period, both parties have expressed their hopes that a mutually beneficial agreement will be reached soon.
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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.
On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.
These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 27.133+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.
***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 17th 2018
CREATIVE RF gty.im/1054976078 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
This photograph became my 3,396th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres at 11:01am on Sunday 25th February 2018 looking toawards Herne Bay Pier opposite the central Parade, on the south-east of the Thames Estuary, CT6 5JN, England.
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Nikon D7200 12mm 1/160s f/13.0 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Size L (6000x4000)DX, Hand held. Auto focus AF-C with 3D-tracking enabled. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.Auto Active D-lighting. Adobe sRGB. Auto distortion control enabled. Vignette control normal.
Nikkor AF-S 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED. Phot-R 77mm UV filter.Nikon MB-D15 Battery grip pack. Nikon EN-EL battery (2). Hoodman H-EYEN22S soft rubber eyecup. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 24.07s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 7m 12.60s
ALTITUDE: 7.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 69.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 25.90MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D7200 Firmware versions A 1.10 C 1.02 (9/3/17) L 2.015 (Lens distortion control version 2)
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.4 24/11/2016). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
The contract between ESA and Arianespace to launch the ADM-Aeolus satellite was signed on 22 July 2016 by ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, (left) and CEO of Arianespace, Stéphane Israël, (right) in the presence of Jan Woerner, ESA Director General, (centre), at ESA headquarters in Paris, France. Aeolus will be launched on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana at the end of 2017. Using novel laser technology, this new mission will provide profiles of wind, aerosols and clouds to advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and to improve weather forecasts.
Read more: Vega to launch ESA’s wind mission
Credit: ESA–Nadia Imbert-Vier, 2016
I spotted this a few weeks back on a visit to Brooklands Museum. It's a contracting drum brake fitted to a 1930s racing car. Unlike most brakes instead of the wheel cylinder pushing the shoes out to contact the inside of the drum - this pulls the two ends of a brake band together to grip the outside. I suppose the advantages were it had a far greater self wrapping effect than shoes and a bigger area of friction material.
TK-Hotsauce: "So, if I finish the Jedi saga, I get a Handsome Reward??"
Yes, I proposed to TK-Hotsauce an offer he couldn't refuse. He agreed to finish out the Jedi saga with TC-Jedi, TC-Gangsta, and TC-Shocktrooper, Darth Vader, and the rest of the gang... However, he did make an alteration to the contract as he wants some creative control. He insisted that if he continues with the storyline, his lightsaber would be orange, he would get to be the one to defeat Sideous, and that his handsome reward be of the "spicy" variety.
I agreed to those terms.
Kuroshitsuji II Shoot 2.0
Cosplayer: Gisella Guerrero as Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji
Photography: Arturo Pozo
Edition: Arturo Pozo
The contract between ESA and Arianespace to launch the ADM-Aeolus satellite was signed on 22 July 2016 by ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, (left) and CEO of Arianespace, Stéphane Israël, (right) in the presence of Jan Woerner, ESA Director General, (centre), at ESA headquarters in Paris, France. Aeolus will be launched on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana at the end of 2017. Using novel laser technology, this new mission will provide profiles of wind, aerosols and clouds to advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and to improve weather forecasts.
Read more: Vega to launch ESA’s wind mission
Credit: ESA–Nadia Imbert-Vier, 2016
Contract on KeyboardPlease feel free to use this image that I've created on your website or blog. If you do, I'd greatly appreciate a link back to my blog as the source: CreditDebitPro.com
Example: Photo by CreditDebitPro
Thanks!
Mike Lawrence
Ok this is the last one of the what I like to call the powder project. The rest of them were ehh and don't deserve to go up:D
Arriva London North is taking over the contract for route 106 from Stagecoach from Saturday 27th April, using brand-new VDL DB300/Wright Gemini2 allocated to Ash Grove Garage. On the Tuesday before conversion, Scania OmniCity 15018 crosses the junction at Bethnal Green Underground on the last leg of its journey to Whitechapel.
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Route 106 is a long-established route, although until 1989 it ventured further into East London; it branched off at Bethnal Green and ran to Poplar via Mile End and Limehouse (the section now covered by the D6), and at one time it reached all the way to Becontree Heath. Stagecoach acquired the route when it bought out Docklands Transit, who had taken over the route on 27th April 1996 and had converted it to midibus operation using Plaxton Pointer-bodied Dennis Darts. The operation had not been reliable and when Stagecoach bought it out in October 1997 they discovered why - the schedules were impossible to keep to, especially with single-door vehicles. Initially dual-door Darts were drafted in from Stagecoach-owned Thames Transit in Oxford, but in 2000 the route regained double-deckers in the shape of AXLX400-bodied Tridents.
When the contract was re-awarded in April 2008, the Stagecoach operation in London had been sold to the MacQuarie Group as the East London Bus Group, and allegiance was switched to the Scania Omnidekka. These were several months late in arriving (not unusual for new buses in London at the time) and the 248, a gain from Blue Triangle, was prioritised, so the first examples did not appear until the end of the year. Stagecoach reacquired ELBG in 2010, paying considerably less than they had sold it for.
The immediate future for the redundant Scanias is unclear, however they will be needed later in the year at Rainham Garage for routes 252 and 365, which Stagecoach takes over from First on 28th September. The original plan was to allocate them to Leyton for route 179 (another Stagecoach gain from First, to take effect from 19th October) but this will now have new Enviro400s instead - apparently this is to concentrate all the early Euro4-engined OmniCitys at one depot.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The KV-1 was the unsuspecting winner of a Soviet contract for a new heavy tank to replace the obsolete T-35A Multi Turreted Heavy Tank. The KV tank beat the SMK and T-100 to make it to mass production. Immediately prior to the invasion of the USSR in June 1941, roughly 508 KV-1 tanks were in Red Army service.
The KV-1 was an unpleasant surprise to the advancing Germans in June 1941, due to its excellent armor protection. The KV-1 quickly gained a fearsome reputation on the battlefield, being able to withstand point-blank shots from the standard 37mm anti-tank guns fielded by Germany. Many KV-1s returned from combat peppered with dents and gouges from ricochets which had failed to penetrate its armor. However, the KV-1s made little impact on the actual fighting during the months of Operation Barbarossa, with the exception of a small number of engagements. Poor crew training, poor logistical support and inept command and control meant that the Soviet tanks, including the mighty KV-1, where deployed in small packets that were easily swallowed and terminated by the better organized German units.
The KV-1 tank weighed 45 tons and was powered by the 660hp V2K engine. The suspension was the first Soviet use of torsion bars, and it consisted of six road wheels, a rear drive wheel, a large front idler wheel and three return rollers. The tank had a crew of five. Soviet engineers constantly updated the tank and, between 1941 and 1942, the armor was thickened from 90mm to 200mm in places. The firepower was improved too, from the 30.2 caliber long F-32 76.2mm gun, to the 42.5 caliber long 76.2mm Zis-5 gun. The F-32 gun could penetrate 50mm of armor at 1,000m, whereas the Zis-5 gun could penetrate 60mm of armor at the same range. In 1942, this made the gun a significant threat to most German tanks. However, the gun was similar to the one on the T-34 medium tank, which was far more mobile and far cheaper to build.
When the Wehrmacht first encountered the KV-1, they were horrified and greatly impressed with its capability to take extreme punishment from the main German tank and anti-tank guns of the time. Contrary to popular belief, there were only a handful of KV-1 tanks that were ever pressed into German service. The captured tanks were known as ‘Beutepanzer’ or trophy tanks.
In 1941, the Germans had a categorizing system for those units captured from the enemy, this was an “Ebeuten” number. The number for KV tanks of all sub-types was “E I”. The overwhelming majority of these tanks were either dismantled at the roadside or returned to the Reich for museums or testing. However, there were some KV tanks pressed into Wehrmacht service.
The earliest known Beutepanzer KV-1s, which in the German numbering system were known as the Pz.KpfW KV-1a 753 (r) (r = Russia) were deployed in the Autumn of 1941. German changes were minimal, with most Beutepanzer KV-1s retaining the original Soviet radio and equipment, however, occasionally German radios and tool sets were issued. The most interesting German acquisitions were the two OKV-1 tanks pressed into service. The Kirov works in Leningrad had manufactured six prototype flame throwing KV tanks, with a flame unit in the hull. All were used in combat, and two were subsequently pressed into Wehrmacht service after their capture.
Between 1941 and 1943, the German army likely dealt with thousands of lost KV tanks, of which perhaps several hundred were captured in working condition. It is thought however that less than 50 KV-1 tanks were pressed into German service. A multitude of factors can explain this, from lack of spare parts, to German overconfidence in their own tanks, to ideological doctrine that viewed anything manufactured by a Slavic race to be inferior.
Nevertheless, a small number of selected KV-1 was converted for field tests at the front, and in order to develop a standardized pattern. This specific model was called the the Sd.Kfz 756(r) and based upon the 1942 KV-1B model, manufactured at Factory 100 Chelyabinsk (ChTZ). It was fitted with the applique armor on the nose and on the glacis plate which increased the armor up to 200mm (7.9 in) thick in places. It was equipped with the lightweight cast turret. Sometimes, this model also carried a heavyweight cast, or simplified welded turret. Standard armament remained the same, being the 76mm ZiS-5 gun. The construction work was carried out by the maintenance battalion of Panzer Regiment 204 of the 22nd Panzer Division.
The most drastic modification was the alteration made to the main armament. The original Soviet 76mm ZiS-5 gun was removed to make way for the German’s own 7.5cm KwK 40 L/43. This gun was derived from the 7.5cm PaK 40, a towed anti-tank gun that entered service in 1942. In 1942-43, the gun was also mounted on Germany’s main medium tank, the Panzerkampfwagen IV, replacing the short barreled 7.5cm KwK 37 howitzer. It was a deadly weapon, with a wide range of ammunition types that included Armor Piercing Capped Ballistic Cap (APCBC), Armor-Piercing Composite Rigid (APCR) and High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT). The APCBC was its most deadly round, with a 990 m/sec muzzle velocity, capable of piercing 80 mm (3.15 in) of armor at 2.000 m. At this time, the 7.5cm KwK L/43 was a rare gun, as only 135 Panzers were equipped with it, and probably the weapons used for the Sd.Kfz 756(r) conversion were salvaged from other tanks that had been irreparably damaged in action, but retained an operable gun. With this modification, the Sd.Kfz 756(r) was intended as somewhat of an ‘Anti-KV’ or ‘Anti-T-34’ vehicle. The Soviets’ own 76mm Gun could not penetrate the front of a standard KV-1 (without 200mm armor) or T-34 at 1000m, but the German 7.5cm could handle both. Putting this gun on a chassis the 76mm could not penetrate would prove deadly to any Soviet vehicle facing it.
Though the ZiS gun was removed, the mantlet was retained. The new gun was posted through the void breach first and mounted into position, complete with its coaxial MG 34 machine gun. It is unknown as to what internal modifications took place concerning the placement of the trunnions and elevation/depression gears, since neither vehicle nor any construction drawings survived.
Being the more powerful gun, the KwK 40 was larger in the breach than the ZiS. The 7.5cm shell was 100mm longer than the 76mm shell of the ZiS, meaning the breach was also 100mm longer, and considerably less rounds (78 vs. 114) could be stored. Recoil length would also have been longer, meaning there was even less room behind the gun, and the KV-1’s turret was – despite the tank’s huge bulk - not very spacious.
However, minor modifications were also made to the turret. Salvaged commander’s cupola from either a Panzer III or Panzer IV were added atop the turret, but this was not added over the original commander’s hatch at the rear of the turret. A new hole was cut in the roof towards the right front of the turret, and the cupola added above it. This cupola gave the commander far better visibility, allowing him to spot targets, navigate terrain and observe friendly units easier. On the left, a protected air filter was added, another German standard piece.
At least one Sd.Kfz 756(r)s was operated by German forces at the Eastern front and took actively part at Kursk, even though details of the deployment remain obscure. However, the tests must have been successful, because the Sd.Kfz 756(r) was standardized. It was not adopted by the German army, though, because German doctrine would not allow the KV-1 as a standard panzer within the own ranks. Instead, complete conversion kits were produced in a limited number for allied forces. The Germans already had a number of captured examples in their arsenal which they were more than willing to part with. With this background, Hungary became the biggest operator or the Sd.Kfz 756(r). About 25 conversion kits were delivered to the Institute of Military Technology of the Hungarian Army (HTI) and the DIMÁVAG factory, where KV-1s of various standards, both captured by Hungarian forces, but mostly delivered from Germany, were revamped in the course of late 1943 until summer 1944. The only local adaptation was the use of Hungarian 8 mm Gebauer 34/40.M machine guns instead of Soviet or German weapons.
Within the Royal Hungarian Army, the tank was known as 756M "Kalapács" (= Hammer) and served alongside weaker and obsolete vehicles like the indigenous 40M "Turán" medium tank, light Panzer 38(t)s delivered from Germany or the light 38M "Toldi" tank. The total number of conversions remains unclear, but less than twenty (probably only a dozen) modified tanks reached frontline units. The 756Ms primarily served in the defense of Budapest in late 1943 and, after its fall, in the defense of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
The supply of usable KV-1 hulls for conversions was unreliable, though, and resources for the modifications scarce, so that 756M production was rather erratic, even though the 756M's firepower and armor was direly needed. Hungary also worked on an indigenous heavy tank with promising potential, the 44M "Tas", but it did not proceed beyond the mock-up stage and only two were partially built until August 1944. With the advance of the Red Army into Hungary the project was eventually dropped.
Germany, in order to mend the situation, supplied the Hungarian Army in 1944 with the heavy tanks it needed to fight Soviet T-34s and heavier/new types, in the form of a small number of the famed Tiger tanks, even though this was rather a symbolic gesture. In German service, the Tiger had, despite its firepower and heavy armor, turned out to be technically complex, and therefore unreliable and expensive to build and maintain, so that the original Tiger was quickly replaced with the more sophisticated Tiger II and the medium and heavy tanks of the E-Series. The former German Tigers, which had served on the Eastern front beforehand, gradually replaced the leftover 756Ms and other captured KV-1s in Hungarian service. By early 1945, no Hungarian 756M remained operational.
Specifications:
Crew: Five (commander, gunner, loader, driver, radio-operator/hull machine gunner)
Weight: 45 tonnes
Length: 7.70 m (25 ft 2 ¾ in) incl. gun facing forward
6.75 m (22 ft 2 in) hull only
Width: 3.32 m (10 ft 11 in)
Height: 2.81 m (9 ft 2 1/2 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar
Armor:
30 – 90 mm (1.18 – 3.54 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 38 km/h (26 mph)
Off-road speed: 24 km/h (15 mph)
Operational range: 200 km (140 mi) on road
Power/weight: 13 hp/tonne
Engine:
1× Model V2 V12 diesel engine, 600 bhp (400 kW)
Armament:
1× 7.5cm KwK 40 L/43 gun with 78 rounds
2-3× 8 mm Gebauer 34/40.M machine guns with a total of 3.000 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
The first entry for the “Captured!” group build at whatifmodellers.com in late 2020. I decided to start with something simple, and the topic actually did not ring too many bells. However, I came across Trumpeter’s 1:72 kit of the rather obscure SdKfz. 756(r), a vehicle that actually existed but probably only as a single specimen that was tested during the Battle of Kursk. But what if that conversion had persisted, or offered to allies…?
So I settled for Hungary as more or less logical operator, and the kit was – since it represents the final conversion package – built OOB. Fit is good, only on the turret some PSR was necessary. I also added some scratched tarpaulins and a headlight cover.
Painting and markings:
The paint scheme is quite colorful - inspired by Hungarian benchmark tanks and the Turan II exhibited at the Kubinka tank museum in Russia. Yes, such exhibits have to be taken with a grit of salt, but I wanted something unusual – and the museum tank sports this kind of spotty scheme and pretty bright colors. Normally, Hungarian tanks around 1943/44 were painted in an overall dark olive drab with streaks in red brown and sand added, but this more integral scheme was also used.
Basic colors are Humbrol 62, 105 and 10, the latter with a little 180 added for a more reddish hue (Sand, Marine Green and Service Brown Gloss with Red Leather, respectively). The model received a washing with highly thinned dark-brown acrylic paint plus post-shading with lighter hues of the basic tones.
Decals came next. The Hungarian white crosses were scratched from generic black and white decal sheet material (TL Modellbau), because I wanted oversized markings to avoid friendly fire incidents. The white line around the turret top is a marking I found on a picture of a captured Hungarian T-34. The tactical codes come from an IGB Turan II kit (the “license plates” and the unit symbols on front and back) and a Zvezda IS-2 sheet (the white “348” on the turret sides) – these are a bit untypical, because Hungarian tanks rather carried only a single individual tactical code at the back of the turret. But because of the rear-facing machine gun mount, this doesn’t work properly on the KV-1, so I went for a different solution.
After some dry-brushing with khaki drill and light grey the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and after final assembly I also added mineral pigments to simulate dust, esp. around the lower areas.
A rather simple project, but the outcome looks good. The bright camouflage is unusual for a KV-1 (somehow looks a little Japan-esque?), and the Hungarian markings add to this exotic look. Not unbelievable, I think?
I photographed some of my lawn contracts the last couple of days. I'm pretty happy with how nice my lawns are looking. I am also still learning the settings on my camera so not all the photos took as well as I would have liked but all things in time. :D