CERBERUS (12)

Referenz picture from a fan made reproduction in 1/20 scale

The picture above shows another very accurate fan made reproduction of the 1/20 Cerberus. I use it for reference, since Kow’s original build is poorly documented. The close-up shows how the head section looks when finished. And this is what I got so fare in 1/40 scale... fiddly bits heaven!

CUBACAR

This is an off topic post about the marvellous cars and vehicles of Cuba:

I haven’t been on vacations for ages, but this compensated it all! I just came back from a wonderful fourteen days trip from Fidel's homeland. It was a beautiful warm experience in a meteorological and much more in a human sense. We spent a few days at Varadero’s beaches, which are very beautiful but have nothing to do with Cuba (I just say All-Inclusive!) but then we rent a car and travelled ten days around the peerless country of Cuba… but this is another story ;)

This is only a small collection of vehicles I’ve seen during my journey… and yes, it’s true… they have tons and tons of crazy amazingly beautiful classic cars, trucks, busses and other vehicles from 1960 and older, some of them incredibly well preserved, with an absolutely authentic patina and soooo much character! Of course we had to ride one by ourselves… so I start with a picture out of the window from a 1952 BUICK taxi, showing the “Malecón” – the sea front of Havana!

CERBERUS (11)

Like the original Cerberus, I used a T-62 turret for the base of the head. I found this ACE kit on eBay. The injection moulding quality is awful, but it has some very usefull parts. I didn't think of that before, but if you use the T-62 deck in your body work, you will have a nice turnable turret just like the original build. Mine will be pinned and stay movable as well.

Some scale theory: Now you can see that a 1/16 Rolls with 1/72 donor parts is almost straight proportional to the original 1/8 Rolls with 1/35 donor parts, which makes my model exactly half the size of the original kit ... and building sooo much easyer :D

The "cone" for the armor plate is from 1/20 Tamiya Pit Stop Crew accessories and the underside roll another Feldküche milk churn with tank wheels on both ends.

Now I have to bring together my spare parts for the filigree sensor head of the Cerberus, which looks quite challenging in small scale... wish me luck ;)

CERBERUS (10)

The weapon detail is made of brass tubes glued on bent styrene and which can be fited into the cannon compartment after painting.

The front detail has been reshaped with styrene and putty...

Again I used furniture end caps for the rised part in front...

Details can be added now according to the original pattern...

More gribbly bits :)

Underneath details are provided from a 1/72 T-62 tank chassis.


Reference picture from another fan made work in 1/20 scale:

P.K.30 LIBELLE (02)

I used heli blades and NITTO Fliege wings in the back...

I beefed-up the cockpit... still working on the final design.

The rear landing gear... also from a helicopter kit.