What is the purpose of the badges?

Every GB has a badge that you can pin to your sig once you join or complete your build.

I feel like such an idiot. What is a sig?

Don't worry, took me ages to figure all this out. You see where my poppy is with the writing under it. that's my signature. If you look at other guys posts, they will have their GB badges in there, plus maybe what they are currently building. I usually do but added this one for Rememberance day in Nov and havn't gotten round to changing it.

Every time you post, it shows automatically. If you select community setting, there a box there that says signature. You can enter what you want in there. But it is limited to a certain number of characters, (I have no idea what that mean) but basically, you can only put so much in there.

Okay, I see. I've noticed those badges before but didn't know that's what they were called or how they got there. That's interesting.

I might be interested, but that depends on whether I can get the 7 GBs I'm in completed by then.

I am interested.

Bish, I'll give it some serious thought. I'm definitely interested.

Bish I'm in, I'll pick something from both sides.

Bish, since I have plenty of time to prepare, I guess I'll give it a try. I think I'll just do one side since this will be my first time in a group build. I do have one question. I will probably do the German GB. Say, for example, I do a German tank. Does it have to have the markings of a specific unit that served in the West during that time or can it represent any random tank as long as it's a version that served in the West at that time?

Thanks for the interest guys.

Jim, to really fit into the GB, it should really have markings of a vehicle that was actually on the western front. Just about all German armour from this period would have been serving on both western and eastern fronts. But it will be pretty easy to achieve.  Do you have any particular vehilce in mind.

Okay, that's no problem. Just wanted to be sure about how specific it had to be.

I was looking at kits I already had. The first one to come to mind is Tamiya's Panzer IV Ausf. J Sd. Kfz. 161/2. I also have Tamiya's Jagdtiger Sd. Kfz. 186 Fruhe Produktion,  Marder III ausf. M, and the Hanomag Sd.Kfz. 251/1. I haven't checked to see if all of these would qualify as vehicles that served in the West at that time although my intuition tells me that any of them would be appropriate. If you know for sure that any or all of them would NOT be appropriate let me know and I will look to see what else I have or buy something else that will work. I listed these because they are the ones that I would be most interested in building in the near future. Of course I'm open to any suggestions you might have. I'd like to build something I already have if possible since my model stash has become pretty large and varied and I'm trying to refrain from adding any more to it until I make a serious dent in it.

The Marder comes with two sets of decals that would fit, the 346th and 348th Inf Div's. The jagdtiger and Pz IV both work depening on markings. I can chekc my Pz IV tomorrow. This is one of my options, but i have a set of AM decals for it.

As for the 251, as it says hanomag, ui am guessing thgis is the old Ausf C kit. These were replaced by the Ausf D in 1943 and would be highlky unlikely in 44, i certainly have not seen any.

But you have one definate and two probable's.

Hmm, I can root up something Anglo-American. I'm in both of the new armour GBs and a few others from last year so I'm not sure though where I'll be standing in June. I am interested though.  

No problems Gamera. Of course, you don't have to start or even be commited in June, so loads of time. Can jump in once the others have cleared.

I'm definitely in. I'm going to build a model for both GBs, probably a Panther/Jagdpanther and a Sherman.

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist lol.

Yeah, kinda obvious, wasn't it?

The Marder sounds good, then. I was actually thinking about starting it a couple months ago but never did. For now, I'll plan on building it. I'll consider the other two possibilities as well in case it turns out that they can be used.

I will be building the same Marder kit for the Hunters GB, but i won't be starting it for a few months. So if you go for that, we can compare notes as we go along.

That sounds good to me, Bish. I guess I'll be building straight from the box. I'd like to add some AM details but all I've found is the AM ammunition.

If you want to go all out, Aber do two PE sets and a barrel for that kit. I am useing those, a metal PaK 40 shield from AFV and Fruil tracks. But this is when you get to spending more on AM than for the kit. More than double in this case.

Okay, I'll look into that.

One more question for now. This is probably a really dumb question but are we supposed to wait til June to start building?

Yep, thats the norm for most GB's. Some GB allow partly started kits, 10% or so, but that usually on the grounds that they might have been started before the GB was announced.

The Aber PE sets are 35125 and 35126. The barrel is 35L05. Gun shield is AFV Club 35012 and the tracks are Fruil ATL013.

Tamiya are good kits and don't need all those extras for a nice build. I am just addicted to After Market parts

Okay. Thanks for the info on the AM parts. Doubt that I'll get all of them but I'll definitely look into the Aber sets and the barrel. And I agree about Tamiya. I've built  a couple Tamiya armor kits and a few others from other genres and I've never had any complaints.

Considering this one runs into 2015, I should be able to join, so definitely interested.

Great job with the badges.

Just a small suggestion, add a white edge to the lettering to make it more legible.

regards,

Jack

After that Sherman, it will be great to have you on board Jack.

I will look into that with the lettering, plenty of time to tinker, thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks Bish, what ever I do choose, it will definitely be in 1/35 scale this time around.

For the badge lettering, if your software program doesn't provide an outline option for the text tool, you can try creating identical text in white, and then place the same coloured text over top.  Just offset it a bit so that some of the white is visible underneath.

regards,

Jack

Wow,I can't believe I'm making plans for 2015 already,I can get involved in this for sure,have to see what I got,there is plenty of time though to decide