Ed seeing how the other side did things, inspecting an M10 at Fort Knox.

Former head of IPMS London and the driving force behind the London Scale Model Show for its first five years, Ed's passion is 1/35 German World War II armour, although he has been known to dabble in other things occasionally. As well as a formidable knowledge of panzers, Ed also has the Free World's third largest collection of individual track links. Ed can best describe the modifications to his models himself.

Tamiya StuG IV (a.k.a "The Spice Tank")

Yes, this is the ORIGINAL kit as molded by Tamiya, circa the late 1970's. The modifications that I made to the kit are as listed below:

- Replaced Track with DML/Dragon Super Detail Set
- Resin cast Final Drive Housing and Drive Sprocket
- Replaced Rear Idler
- Narrowed kit Road Wheels
- Resin cast Fuel Filler Covers & Suspension Dampening Units
- Resin cast Track Tensioning Units
- Scratchbuilt Muffler
- Scratchbuilt Spare Track Hanger
- Replaced kit Tools with Tamiya "On Vehicle Set"
- Replaced Muzzle Brake
- Replaced Driver's Periscope Covers
- Applied Zimmerit with Epoxy Putty
- Replaced Schurzen Mounting Rails
- Scratchbuilt Schurzen Plates (That was Hard!)
- Replaced Loader's M.G.
- Replaced Grab Handles with Wire
- Foliage made with Pepper Grass
- Other Miscellaneous Details

At the time that I built this kit, Dragon had just released their version of the StuG IV Late. I was able to use this as a reference to help improve "the old dog". The model made the model show circuit and picked up a few awards along the way. It won a Bronze medal in the "Intermediate" category at AMPS in 1998, a second place in Closed Top, Non-Turreted Vehicles up to 1945 at Buffcon 1998, a second place in Closed Top, Non-Turreted Vehicles up to 1945 at WELLCOME II, and most recently a Silver medal in the same category at BluewaterCon 2000. Love it or hate it, the "Spice Tank" or "Parsley Tank" as it became known by some competitors managed to put a few kill rings on its barrel before retiring to my display case!!

Dragon SiG 33 auf Pz. III

This kit is pretty much OOTB with the exception of the Fruillmodellismo track. Some other fine details were added, such as stretched sprue wire guard around the gunsight opening, brass photo-etch runner for the antenna mount and stowage box stand-offs and removal of part of the front fender on the MG's side. The vehicle was going to form part of a Stalingrad diorama but I later learned that the paint was not appropriate for the time period (as erroneously shown in the kit instructions). The vehicle will be reassigned to the 23rd Panzer Div. for the summer after Stalingrad. It still needs to be weathered and have some figures added. Overall, the kit was a joy to build and a much better rendition of this vehicle than some of the earlier resin conversions that were available. As a footnote, I would caution anybody wishing to build this kit to be aware of the slight misalignment of the superstructure to the upper hull. The superstructure is off center by approx. 2mm and is quite noticeable once the fenders are in place. I noticed my error too late to correct it.

Did I mention that Ed has a thing for track links? In response to much good-natured ribbing over the years, Ed built this magnificent collection showing the evolution of track for the Panzer IV family.

Ed's current project is the DML Jagdpanzer IV/L48. As you can see, Ed is doing a lot of work to this kit, including SIG Epoxolite zimmerit, Aber photoetched pieces, Model Kasten wheel hubs, and lots of reworking, rebuilding, and detailing. As soon as it's done, we'll have photos here!

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