Wednesday 17 April 2013

Gun Trucks, Technicals, and Humvees.

Since I have finally managed to finish a technical that I started some time ago in the distant past, I figured I should post the finished product here, along with some other bits and pieces that I have been working on.

As you last saw it.

And now with added paint and wash! The crew is quite the mixed bag  - Esci driver, with the figure with the M16 being a Mars  kitbash clone of Esci figures, while the Arab is of unknown make.

The view from the other side. Is it wrong that I like the Mars Mujahideen figures?

I also gave the finishing touches - a driver and a brown wash - to another diecast. This time it was a Matchbox Field Car that had survived from my childhood - although it had taken a few hard knocks in the process.

The folded down canopy at the back is a bit from a Battlefront 15mm  model. I think it works well  here!

I am rather tempted to put a passenger in the back. I am also  tempted to put  in a nice recoiless  rifle

The next diecast repaint was a Jada Toys Battle Rig from their Battle Machines line. I bought this in a Walmart sometime in 2008 thinking that I could use it in a game of Dark Future, but I am tempted to use it as technical gun truck in either AK-47 or CD 3. Of course, I would have to field a force that matches it in all its silliness glory....

Behold the beast in its original paint job! Big boomer is a very shiny  Battle Rig!
 I gave it the usual treatment of disassembly, undercoating with primer, repainting, assembly and then a wash. However I did add a gunner to the main armament as it looked somewhat empty.

I added a gunner using the driver from the Airfix Matador.

The truck is labelled as 1/87 but i think it can fudge as being 1/76.

Of course I gave it the usual brown wash.

And last of all some Johnny Lightning Humvees that I purchased second hand in around 2007. One was from the Military Muscle range of vehicles, while the other was a civilian Hummer H1. They were badly painted so I disassembled them, put them in Simple Green, and finally many years later have undercoated them with grey spray primer.


Disassembled and ready to be sprayed.

And now sprayed in Dulux grey primer!
The Johnny Lightning Humvees are meant to be 1/64 scale, but they size up fairly well to both my 1/72 scale Dragon premades, and my Matchbox diecasts, so I think this could be another example of the stated scale not always being correct. I should probably do a post comparing diecast Humvees at some stage....

11 comments:

  1. nice stuff, really nice stuff. I see no reason why liking the Marz copies is wrong, they may be copies but they have undergone some conversion. I really like the cars, they look great.

    nice stuff, will we see them if the conflict between the GDI and the khand/noddist alliance heats up?

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    1. Hi Gowan,

      First off - thanks for your kind words regards the vehicles! - and yes, some of these will be used in GDI/Khand/Nod games.

      Secondly, as to my comment about Mars figures -
      I have a love/hate relationship with Mars because on the one hand they produce a number of figure sets that are blatant ripoffs of other companies figures. They also produce sets that have a great deal of flash and require a great deal of work to get off the runner.

      That being said the Mujuhideen set is a nice blend of four old Esci sets, made at time they were all OOP, to produce a set no one else was making in 1/72 plastic. The conversions were however just recombinations of parts from figures from those four sets. No attempt was made to sculpt in additional detail, or to remove detail that looked out of place on the new figures - such as traces of US Alice webbing, and the resulting weapon mix is quite odd too - lots of M-16s - rather than AK-47s and Lee Enfields.

      That being said, the figures have a certain charm - so I am rather torn!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks Paul - I find that I really enjoy making technicals, but not as much as fielding them on the tabletop! The next batch I make will be armed with something other than Recoilless Rifles though!

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  3. I chucked a few Hummers up here;

    http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/h-is-for-hummer-humvee-hmmwv-humbug.html

    Mostly HK/China stuff!
    Hugh

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    Replies
    1. Hi Hugh,

      I checked out your post, and it was interesting to see some of the cruder models of what has become a very iconic vehicle.

      You also showed the Hornby Humvee which came as part of a train set complete with plastic soldiers - do you have any pictures of the soldiers it came with?

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    2. Actually, I think I found some pictures of them on your blog! - They look quite neat and if 20mm could be quite useful for wargaming!

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    3. Sorry UB, I didn't realise it was the same 'you', I've answered on my blog now! Been busy doing real life!!

      Hugh

      PS, those Hornby U.S. Fritz-helmet figures are easier to get in the HK/China guise, they come with a little fold-up 'bunker' carry-case like a Mighty-Max/Polly-Pocket set..look out for them on FeeBay
      H

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    4. No worries! - real life does have an unfortunate tendency to distract from one's toy soldiers! I shall check out FeeBay to try and track some down!

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  4. I seem to recall a bunch of technicals dishing out a hard time to a squadron of Saladin armoured cars I was commanding...
    I can see why they are fun, and to my mind, any highly mobile force has a military use, even if that use is merely to fascinate the enemy into overlooking the killer blow you are preparing...

    I have been developing a late WW2 East front action that you might find interesting. Plenty of kit - especially on the Russian side, which so far looks as though will comprise two Rifle Brigades - one with some tanks attached - plus a Heavy Tank regiment; The Germans a mixed Panzer Battalion, Panzer Grenadier Battalion, and some extra stuff I haven't decided upon yet.

    The game really calls for three players, I think, so we might have to hold out for 'Jacko' (Paul Jackson) to re-surface...
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    Replies
    1. Sounds very good! I have already started reorganising US equipment and troops, adding some Germans to the 'to do' pile wouldn't be a hardship...

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