Imagi-Nations WIP or What I Have Been Doing Since October

Recently I obtained from Glenn, a great deal of painted Airfix figures. Some of these figures will be able to be used for the V&B Waterloo project. The rest will be used for my Duke, Elector, King (DEK) project that I have set in the nations of the known world in the D&D setting of Mystera.

More Klantyre Highlanders.

Why? Because the known world allows for a range of both European and Non-European forces, and the nations have a wealth of background material. Of course by advancing the time line by 700 years and eliminating the high magic of the setting, allows for a great deal of flexibility in ignoring items that I dislike, or won't work for a DEK campaign. (More details are located here).

In a previous post  I detailed how I intended to use painted Highlanders surplus to Napoleonic gaming. As such the forces of Klantrye in Glantri have gained another two stands of infantry. 

Yet more Highlanders. Klantrye now has a sizable infantry force.

Included in the figures from Glenn was a collection of Airfix French Artillery that at some stage had been converted with a great deal of imagination to French Imperial Guard Foot Artillery with the addition of material to the Shako in order to make bearskins.  Given that I already have plenty of purpose built figures for that unit, I decided to do something very different.

Big headgear, bright colours, and a dedicated gun! 

I decided to model an elite unite of Himaya (warriors) from the Mumlyket of  Kadesh. Kadesh has a long traditional of military excellence, so it makes sense for them to adopt the latest military systems and equipment into their army.

The gun was produced by Plastic Soldier as a game component for their remake of 'Hold the Line'.

Both units would be rated as having shock, but the dedicated gun probably gives the Kadesh troops the edge. 

I purchased years ago a set of  German G.M. 0024"British Army in Egypt: Madras Regt". PSR reviews a similar set of figures here, and their comments about the material the figures are made from is rather generous. The material crumbles easily and should not be used to make figures!

Not all modern troops in the Sind region are in the employ of the local rulers!

.These figures (and the other two stands I hope to make from the set) I plan to use both as East Indian Company Sepoys and as Sepoys of the Minroth East Sindindian Company stationed in Sambay, Mumlyket of Jalawar.

Thyatis is the major military power of the background, and I have arbitrarily decided to give the majority of their infantry white coats. This is largely due the fact that I like the look of Ancien Régime troops in white coats!

Airfix British Hussars in use as Thyatian Light Horse face some WIP Shire militia.

WIP stand of Thyatian infantry.

While Thyatis is a major military power with all the trimmings, The Five Shires are not. They are a smaller power that doesn't have a large standing army. Rather they rely on trained bands and militias raised as required. Also, they are a nation of Halflings who call themselves the Hin.

WIP FDM 3d Printed Hin troops.

Same from the rear. 

Despite being classed as militia, many of the Shire Regiments do not suffer from being treated as militia as per the V&B rules. Rather they are often treated the same as regular linear infantry. 

A Regiment of Shire troops

Glantri and the Shires enjoy less than cordial relations.

DEK has provision for naval forces, so naturally I decided I needed ships. Rather then get ships in a sensible scale, I decided to make a cartoon scale navy using a mishmash of scales unrelated to either my figure or ground scale. This has frigates in 1/144 scale, 1st Rates at 1/180ish scale, and other ships at box scale.

A 3D printed 1/181 1st Rate Ship of the Line

A rather nice view of the stern

This is not a clever approach, but it is a fun one! I have been enjoying enlarging 1/700 scale STLs to larger sizes as I have always wanted big ship models!

The Mayflower under new management!

I am still figuring out exactly what ships go where, but I am definitely enjoying myself! The Mayflower was apparently a Fluyt design, so I am planning on using her as a generic vessel of the class.

1/83 Scale Revell Mayflower next to 1/144 scale HMS Southhampton

And since I have so many ships, I clearly need a Pirate Fortress. Below are my WIP planning photos for remodeling a rather broken and gutted Tracey Island Kat purchased for me.

A toy pirate ship which could be a ketch with asperations to greatness!

The island can host multiple V&B urban areas. 

It will need defenses to cover that nice beach...

Thank you for looking, and hopefully I will have some finished items soon to post on the blog!

Matchbox Skyhawk WIP.

Seen here with some other aircraft. all are around 1/120ish scale, so close enough for me.

I am finally starting to do some more work on my Matchbox A-4 Skyhawk. It is a rather play worn diecast from the Matchbox Sky Buster range, that had seen a great deal of of use and abuse in my childhood. Curiously enough , the diecast is meant to be a A-4F, but lacks the distinctive fuselage hump of that variant. This works out well as Argentina used A-4Bs and A-4Cs.

The presumably "Sargent Fletcher" droptanks . 

I used my Dremel to cut the wheels off the diecast. Once this is done to a Sky Buster it starts to look less toy like. I had previously replaced the missing clear canopy with some green Stuff. The next step is to use a wire brush attachment on the Dremel to remove the old paint work prior to giving it a new paint job. (Click here for information on paint schemes)

The wire brush removes the paint quite nicely.

So once this is done, and I buy some more grey spraypaint, I will begin painting it and working on building up some more 1/144 scale kits.

Parcels, Pikes, and Planes

Life has been somewhat eventful of late, but I have managed to get a few gaming related things done. recently I was generously sent a parcel of goodies by Paul (from Plastic Warriors) that contained some more Esci gabions, some more pieces from the Esci Battlefield Accessory set, and a Matchbox Saracen armoured car.

The parcel from Paul. Cheers Paul!

 I have been continuing to try and improve my BUAs by varying the size of the gables and walls, but also by trying to create a brick effect. The next step will be trying to get windows and doors cut. With the aid of someone else's very clever work I may have a solution to show in the next post.

Bigger walls and gables.

Brickwork walls and gables!

 I also attended Conquest last weekend. While there Rodger (from Rebel Barracks) kindly gave me some more gabions, some more bits of the Esci accessory set, and two sets of the Imex AWI artillery in 1/72.

More stuff for AWI V&B kindly provided by Rodger.

I also took part in a demonstration game of "Pike and Shotte" that I thoroughly enjoyed, and managed to make a few small purchases. A number of 1/144 scale jets that I plan to use for Harad games.

Four  J-35s awaiting construction.

A rather nice Sabre kit.

A pretty smart looking Saudi Lightning.

 Afterwards I went and saw Glenn and acquired a vast haul of vehicles and figures. The vehicles were in various states of disarray, but will prove a source of fun through refurbishment and use on the tabletop. Some of what I acquired I have passed on to Archduke Piccolo (click here for link), but I have greedily kept a great deal for myself! I was also meant to see Glenn on Wednesday, but events conspired against me - with luck I might be able to catch up this weekend with him?

Lots of nice bits!

Some very useful vehicles.

Figures for the WW1 project.

Some Tigers for the Archduke.

Glenn also gave me a B-17 kit to pass on to Mr K. - who is quite delighted with the addition to his air fleet!

Classic Airfix box art!

Complete with bonus 57mm gun!

Vulcan!

The Vulcan bomber has always interested me greatly, and since I am gearing up to run a few Falklands games, I figured the time was right to purchase one - especially since there was a very nice diecast one sitting at one of the local model shops.

I purchased this Adult Collectible from Play Concepts....

 On a more serious note, the staff at Play Concepts are very friendly and helpful and their prices are very good - I have been picking up 1/144 Academy kits for around NZ$6 - NZ$8 a kit! Needless to say, I will be going back as they are very local to me, have great prices, and are very friendly.

Blurry photos are a house specialty!

The die cast is a very hefty model of the Arvo Vulcan Bomber that was to have been the primary for the first Black Buck raid on the Falklands. (For more information on the Vulcan click here, and more information on the Black Buck raids, click here)

A  not-quite-final layer before I got my mitts on the Vulcan!

Under the box lid there still remained a protective plastic cover separating me from my Vulcan! Fortunately, I had the wit and means to deal with this obstacle. Of course under the plastic cover, a sheet of plastic was layered over the model to protect the paintwork.

One last layer!

RAF Vulcans visited New Zealand several times in the 1950s,'60s, and '70s. Footage of the 1956 visit can be seen here. My Father saw one of the Vulcans flying around NZ while he worked as a linesman for the New Zealand Post Office. He was up a telephone pole at the time and said that he got a very good view of the aircraft from up the pole!

One visiting Vulcan had its RAF roundrel replaced with the RNZAF roundrel - which looks rather good on it! More details can be found here, and more pictures can be found here.

Even a 1/144 scale 'Tin Triangle' is quite large!

And it is quite heavy, but then there is a lot of  model aircraft  here!

I thought that I should also do some comparision shots with one of the Pucaras. As you can see, the Vulcan is much bigger!

Two rather different bombers!

The Vulcan is massive!

For those interested, South Atlantic War gives the CA stats for the Vulcan as Punishment 7, Ordnance 21 and a SAM mod. of -1. If only one aircraft is used - such as was historically during the Black Buck raids -, ordnance drops to 5. So even a single Vulcan can ruin your day in CD! Still, better than being on the wrong end of a tactical nuke!

1/144 Shapeway Pucaras

As part of the building up of figures and models needed to run the Goose Green scenario given in both the old CD CPs, and in the Harpoon supplement 'South Atlantic War', I acquired some 1/144 scale Pucaras from Shapeways (More details are given in an earlier post here)

The canopies are glued into place after been cut off the runners.

On the weekend I converted them to being 'in flight' rather than the wheels down version they where supplied as. Once I removed the undercarriage, I then used GW Liquid Green Stuff to bog the resulting gaps. I hadn't used liquid green stuff before, but after this I am very impressed with its performance, and can see myself using it a great deal.

Brushing in the Green Stuff was the easiest bogging job I have ever done!

I decided to give both aircraft the same style of paint scheme, and that I would do one similar to that found on an aircraft from III Brigada Aerea. Apart from the usual Googling for pictures, I also dragged out my copy of the Airplane magazine that featured the Pucara. The article was very interesting, particularly over the claim that Iraq had looked at purchasing some in 1985.

And two Pucaras are now  ready for the table!

 The paint job is very simple and basic, and I don't currently have any transfers for them, but I believe they are now table worthy!

Side view.

The underside of both are painted grey.

All I need now is some ground troops for them to support!

So all that is needed now is to paint up the Argentinian ground forces, and for the 1/144 Corgi  Diecast GR3s to arrive .

Stuff from Shapeways.

One of the CP scenarios that I have wanted to run for a number of years now, has been the Battle of Goose Green. I have been quietly acquiring the bits and pieces needed to run it. So far I have the British forces - bar the Harrier air support - all painted (bar the final basing), and with the Matchbox NATO Paratroopers set being reissued this year I should be able to produce the Argentinean forces by using these and figures from other sets.

But the most elusive item has been finding Pucara ground attack aircraft. Originally I was going to try and find a 1/72 scale model, but since I have moved to 1/144 scale for modern fixed wing aircraft I have opted to use a model produced by 3D printing.

This is how it shipped  from the Netherlands to NZ. Of course it was in a bag surrounded by bubblewrap!

 I ordered them here from Shapeways - a site that contains quite a great deal of interesting items for gamers. I am sure that i will be purchasing more items from them in the future.

I ordered two as I figured it was a useful number. One suffered a minor breakage  of a broken prop blade. 

I also decided to purchase some ships to add into my existing 1/1800 scale fleet. I decided that this time I would get ships and boats that would increase the amphibious capability of my US fleet.

Two Bayfield class APAs. Both models still have runners attached that are  not part of the finished model.

I don't think my photos give justice to the detail of these models, nor how hardy the material they are printed out of actually is.

12 LCIs still attached to their runner.

Once I get these painted up I will post pictures of my current USN fleet.

The view underneath showing the runner frame.

Of course, if I am getting LCIs, I had to get some LCVPs too. These are also a very nice clean and crisp model. In fact, none of the Shapeways products had any imperfections as a result of manufacture that I noticed. I guess 3D printing eliminates flash and  lines!

LCVPs - four bases of two craft. APAs included to give a sense of scale.

The various models - all 1:1800 scale with a 20mm square GW base to  give an idea of  actual model size.

I am very happy with my purchases from Shapeways and will be looking to put them up on the tabletop soon.