The Mighty Antar Pt.2

So  I've finally done some more work on the Airfix Antar tank transporter. I have given it the now customary coat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand, and painted the tyres with GW Chaos Black. I still have to do some finishing work on the headlights, put on some unit/tactical markings to improve its table candy value, but it is at a stage where I can put it on the table. I now have to make a support stand of mechanics to assist with vehicle recovery.

The Airfix Antar and a 1/72 Petrol Tanker and Trailer.

A nice view of the Antar's flatbed.

The Antar's cab. Headlights need painting...

Guess which one is the dodgy scratchbuilt replacement.

 The scratchbuilt ramp is functional, but I still need to make it look more like a dodgy field repair. My thinking is that since I can't make it look identical to the original part, I should try and make it a feature of the vehicle that adds character. I guess to put it in WH40K terms, I want it to look more orky...

The second of my Battle King 155mm SPGs has also been given a coating of Iraqi Sand, and had its stowage repainted. I'm still debating how to made the spades for both in an easy, but convincing manner. For the time being I will use them without, but I certainly will revisit putting spades on.

SPG on ramp.

SPG on Flatbed.

Stowage and Cammo netting.

 The cammo netting is mutton cloth that was painted black and dry brushed with various shades of green enamel paints many moons ago. For this repaint I simply dry bushed on various shades of brown acrylic paint.

Another view of the SPG on the Antar.

And a view from above.

Antar from above with empty flatbed.

And a closer view of the flatbed.

The view from the ramps.

 Since I have been gathering up lots of armoured units for my Harad game, I have also been trawling through the hoard for fuel tankers. So far I have found a few modern Shell tankers in 1/72 scale which I am debating leaving in their civilian colours and just weathering a little, or giving them a full repaint in Haradi Sand.

Tanker trailer combo. Maker unknown.

The trailer is quite a nice little unit.

Two more tankers in 1/72 scale. Maker unknown. Alas, no trailers..

 Fortunately, I still have plenty of teeth units to paint before I need to start repainted tanker trucks. I also need to make sure that my adaption of the fuel consumption rules from Twilight 2000 are both playable and realistic. After all, surely part of the fun of a campaign is running out of fuel.

Centurions and Pack Howitzers

I have two Airfix Attack Force Centurions that I painted in an experimential generic paint scheme. I painted them both an olive drabish green, and then sponged on some dark yellow, and some red. When I painted these two tanks it was well before I started work on the whole Harad campaign background. I just wanted to have fun painting up a couple of tanks, and see what a particular paint scheme might look like.

Splotchy Centurions.

Another view of the same.

 
 At this stage I am planning to leave them in this paint scheme, as I need to finish the paint jobs on other tanks before I start to repaint vehicles.

 Something that is going to be repainted are these Corgi Junior Field Guns. I picked these up as part of a bulk lot of toy field guns - the rest were Matchbox Field guns - in 2007. Originally the Corgi guns were released as either part of a twin pack, with tow jeep and plastic soldiers, or just as the gun with some crew. More information is available here. The gun itself is quite a nice rendition of the Otto Melara Mod 56, but in a scale larger than 1/76.

Corgi 105mm Pack Howitzers.

 My personal view is that it is close enough to bodge it, as they are a little too big, but hopefully not overwhelmingly so. I am probably going to proceed with painting and basing them up as when I look at various photos it seems that it is the wheels on the Corgi Field Gun that are slightly too large. 

Spilt trails in towing configuration.

TOW stand added for scale.

Of course at the end of the day, the point is to have items on the table that look good, and aren't too obviously wrong.

TOW Stands

I thought I would quickly post a couple of completed stands, since I have been posting mainly works in progress, and Star Wars stuff recently. A couple of years back I purchased through an internet auction site, a number of metal 20mm moderns figures. Amongst these figures was a TOW section consisting of the launcher and tripod, and three crew. One was kneeling down, while the other two were carrying reloads.

Metal figures, maker unknown, and TOW launcher.

So I made up a TOW stand with two of the figures, and put the spare reloader in the bits box for future use. I used a 20mm x 30mm stand to base them, as I intended to make it possible for it to be a double size stand in CD 3 terms, but also to have enough room to fit the tripod and crew on the base.

Spare gunner and reloader on left. Makers unknown.

 Some time later, I remembered that I had an orphan metal WW2 US gun crew figure in the bits box, so I thought that they could be turned into another TOW stand. All that remained was to construct a tripod out of sprue, and an optics/control unit out of plastic card. So when I was thinking recently about what anti tank weapons were in use in Harad, I thought about making up another TOW stand.

Sprue and plastic card can make all sorts of stuff,

Another view of the original TOW stand, soon to be washed and flocked.

Making the launcher was quite straight forward as it is essentially a squat trip made of sprue legs with some attached pieces of plastic card. Both stands have been painted in the olive drab that I am using as uniform of the pre civil war Haradi military. While in the photo the first TOW crew looks very green, a wash has toned that down somewhat. I am quite looking forward to seeing these stands fielded in a game against some of the armour that I have been painting up.

Haradi TOW stand. Background, Airfix Attack Force Centurion Tanks.

Another view of the washed and flocked stand.

The extra TOW stand is finished.

 Thanks again for taking the time to view my work!

Gamorreans, Rebel Fleet Troopers, and Speeder Bikes

As I am meant to be doing something else, I decided to put up a few more pictures of Micro Machines. First up are Jabba the Hutt's Gamorrean guards. The Micro Machines range only produced two Gamorrean figures that I am aware of, one was produced as part of the mini head range (and is the figure next to the Action Fleet one on the right), and the other was supplied as part of the R2-D2 Jabba's palace playset - as was the Rancor below. (Figure is the Micro Machine with the tan base)

2

L.to R. Clone Wars Risk pieces, Micro Machines Rancor, Action Fleet Gamorrean, 2 Micro Machines Gamorreans, more Risk pieces.

 The Risk pieces I got at the same time I acquired the Risk Clone Troopers. I had never seen the Risk Gamorreans before I obtained them, and had entertained hopes that they would be slightly larger. However, what they lack in terms of quality for my purposes, they have in quantity.

Lots and lots of Pigmen!

 I am tempted to build up a force of Gamorreans, using the Risk figures as, well, grunts, and the other larger figures as command figures. Of course, the bigger the figure, the more senior the rank. I am also tempted to name the commander Boss Hogg.

So the Action Fleet guy becomes the Boss Pig?

Now on to the Rebel Fleet Troopers. These were available as part of the range of figure sets produced by Micro Machines, and came with nine figures. Despite only appearing in the beginning of Star Wars, this small amount of screen time was built upon by various gaming systems, fan produced stuff, etc, until they were viewed as being the main ground forces of the Rebellion.

Rebel Fleet Troopers, with Speeder Bikes in background.

 The Speeder bike is the same as the one used by the Imperial Scout Troopers, and the Rebel rider is wearing the same uniform as the rest of the Rebel force that landed on a certain forest moon. Micro Machines did release a figure set of Endor Commandos, but these are starting to get quite scare and expensive on internet auction sites. Much like the Rebel Fleet Troopers, these were not released in NZ. Fortunately, all of the vehicle sets were, so I was able  to get the Rebel Speeder Bike.

These were released as part of Micro Machines vehicle sets.

A blurry picture showing all four poses.

 Right, off to do work, and paint tanks...

Yet more Haradi WIP - The M-48s get sprayed.

Today I experimented with using the camera on my phone to take pictures. Normally I use my camera, and then take the SD chip out, slap it in the computer and upload the pictures from there. Once I had a USB cable for connecting the camera to the computer but I lost it...

Resprayed Tanks from previous post.

The first of the Airfix Attack Force M-48s to be undercoated.

And some more M-48s. The Council recycling bin is a great spray stand.

Plastic card plating to add depth to the hull.

Another shot of the same.

The effort of plugging the USB cable in and copying the files across to the computer is about equal to the way I am currently getting images off my camera. However, since I tend to take my phone more places, I am now able to take more pictures for the blog. Excellent...

More vehicles for Harad WIP

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am still continuing work on building up forces for the Harad project. The vehicles getting undercoated with primer are some Airfix Attack Force Centurions, an Airfix Model Centurion, an Airfix Model Chieftain, and a Matchbox Battle King 155mm SPG.

Three Airfix Attack Force Centurions with added plastic card, with Airfix Chieftain.

Attack force Centurion, Battle King SPG, and Airfix Model Centurion.

 The Airfix model Centurion, and Cheiftain, are amongst the most traveled models in my collection. My wife purchased them on Norfolk Island in 2008, gave them to me as part of a Christmas gift in Pennsylvania, I assembled them in Lower Hutt, in 2009, and am finally painting them in Christchurch in early 2012. This is fairly typical timeline of model construction for me!

Airfix Chieftain kit. Soon to be painted!

Airfix Chieftain. Missing a hatch from its long travels.

Look, more plastic card! 155mm SPG lurks in the background.

At some stage the barrel broke and was replaced by sprue.

More information on the Battle King 155mm SPG is available in this earlier post. This particular example is one of my childhood toys, which has lost its original tracks and had its gun broken in the distant past. It was rebuilt for use as a M107 SPG for a wargame that I ran as part of my high school History Class. The crudely painted British artillery tactical sign was done in imitation of the original sticker markings supplied on the diecast. Very odd given it's a French vehicle.

And undercoated ....lightly as the can ran out of paint!

Guess these need more undercoat!

 So more painting and posting to happen soon. Currently I am rereading 3rd edition Harpoon rules and thinking about what cruel fate awaits the Imperial Haradian Navy.

Star Wars Figures: Gungans and Ewoks

Of all the races in Star Wars, these tend to be the least popular. I personally have always found the Ewoks to be quite vile - primarily due to their quaint cultural tradition of eating other sentient races. Gungans, I am more tolerant of, as they did exile Jar Jar Binks from their society.

The Gungan Mob - Not quite a Grand Army.

The Gungans were released in an 8 figure set, a change from the traditional 9 figure set. Other figures were available from various playsets which were produced - including one of the head of Jar Jar Binks. Alas, the Episode One releases marked the end of the Micro Machine line. The other figure sets released were the Trade Federation Battle Droids, and the Naboo Security set. To the best of my knowledge, the Naboo Security weren't released in NZ.

Boss Nass. What a great figure for a command stand.

Jar Jar Binks.

 The Gungans have a few appealing factors as a wargaming force, firstly is their usage of animals that adds quite a bit of character to the force. I would like to get hold of more Kaadu and Fambaa for them. The second is that they are in CD terms, primarily a force that will rely on getting into close assault to achieve success. This will make them very challenging to play. The final factor is that of their energy shields, finding a fair usable mechanic for this will be fun. My current thoughts are that I should adapt the approach taken in GW's 'Space Marine'. Essentially viewing the shields as being ablative in  nature, but with the ability to slowly recharge.

An underscale Fambaa Shield Generator. Fambaas stand around 9 metres tall at the shoulder.

Kaadu Cavalry in need of basing. The figure is swimming, and is from the Jar Jar Binks head playset.

 And from Naboo, we go to Endor, home of the nastiest teddy bears in the galaxy. Vile furry little buggers, that were released in the usual format of a nine figure set, with other figures available in various playsets.

Always choose the vegetarian option at an Ewok function.

Figures are from the 9 figure set, the Endor playset, and the Chewbacca head.

Stone weapons a good CA factor make...

A closer view. The glider needs mounting on a flying stand.

 An Ewok CD army would be interesting to play. Hidden movement in forest terrain, and a few other scenario special rules, make make an Endor game almost as good as Hoth.