New Trucks

 I have been rather remiss of late with updating this blog, but I have been busy with making  and painting various models. So I figure I should start by showing some trucks that I have recently acquired, some trucks I am currently working on, and some trucks that I have completed!

Chinese Tank Transporters with Fabbri T-72

 First up are a pair of Chinese made toy Chinese Tank Transporters. These were notionally 1/64 scale, but since they came with a cargo of three tiny tanks each, I suspect they are actually box scale. They bear a strong similarity to several different Chinese heavy trucks (such as the Shaanxi SX4400  or the Taian TA4360). Regardless, they seem to be about right for tank transporters, with a trailer that can take a T-72 quite happily.

Next up are some resin Ural office bodies from S&S models that I am using to convert some Fabbri BM-21s into command vehicles. While converting the Fabbri BM-21s required surgery with the Dremel, the results so far are very pleasing.

Yet another useful S&S product! Their conversion kits are very cool.

I hope to track down a couple of diecast Zil truck models so I can get the Zil office conversion kit from S&S models, as it would be a very nice addition to the collection.

I have found Shaun at S&S models to provide excellent customer service, so if you follow the above links you should have a look at the rest of his range as it is all very good!

S&S Models Man Kat 1 4x4gs truck, not an MHOV, but pretty close. 

I purchased the above resin Man truck kit as I thought I could use it as a substitute for the NZ Army Man HX 60 truck. I was hoping that between it and the Revel range of Man truck kits, Iwould have a perfect match for all the new MHOV trucks. They are very close, but not an exact match.

That being said, these models weren't intended to represent the HX range of Man trucks, but rather trucks from an earlier range - and they do a great job for representing those vehicles.

Side by side comparison.

Man truck on a heavy trailer.

Working on the twin principles of a) You can never have enough trucks (logistics is important!), and b) Close enough is good enough, I figured I should convert/repaint some 1/72 scale Mercedes trucks (That I got from S&S models) that could then be used as NZ Army Mercedes trucks, and as generic logistic elements for other forces.

Repainted Mercedes Trucks - great for use as logistic elements.

I have obtained a number of other trucks from various sources that I am in the process of repainting and converting into various logistics, command, engineering, or transport elements. With luck they, and some other interesting bits and pieces I've gotten recently, will be posted fairly soon.

Logistics Vehicles

I finished these back in August, and I have been meaning to post these pictures  for a while. The bulk of the models are either Airfix or Airfix reissues of ex JB Models kits.

I decided on a nice generic olive drab scheme for the vehicles, so I can use the for variety of forces. I am finding that the Airfix reissues of the JB Models kits are becoming harder to find - particularly the 105mm light gun kit.

Hiding in the back - a Corgi Land Rover

The view from above.

The idea is to create a pool of vehicles to represent various logistics elements on the tabletop. The next additions to the pool will hopefully be a few Unimog or MAN trucks - the S&S resin models will probably be what I use.

Land Rovers and trailers.

A different view of the Land Rovers.

I still have a couple of moderns logistics vehicles to assemble and paint, and a few diecast trucks to repaint in a common paint scheme, but finishing this lot has made a major contriution to my motor pool.

Making M-113s Part One

I've been quite busy making a variety of bits of pieces of late, but have been rather slack in actually posting anything. A while back, I started work on some cardboard M-113s  (click here if you want to know more)

A mixture of Bravo Team ready mades (at rear), Esci (unpainted front left), and cardboard model M-113s

The Esci kit was missing a few key pieces that I replaced using the usual methods of bodging out of plastic card, or finding something about right in the bits box.

One of those road wheels is not like the others.....

A wheel and tire from a jeep or light truck is given a outer ring of plastic card in order to make a new road wheel.

The green hatch is a spare from the Airfix M-113 Fire Support Vehicle kit.

I still have three more of the Esci kits to build, and I plan to build them as the straight APC version without any additional stowage. With the cardboard models, I have tried to add clutter and stowage to the vehicles in order to try and disguise any shortcomings in the models, and to see if I could pass them off as vehicles used by support elements, rather than teeth elements, while still maintaining flexibility to use them as such as needed.

Esci vs. Cardboard.

I don't think I have really succeeded in doing this - at best I have made three M-113s that have a certain air of clutter to them. I suspect I need to put more stowage on them, and/or items of auxiliary equipment that will earmark the vehicle into a support role.

Needs more stowage.....

And the tracks aren't quite right....

I could have put more effort into the rear doors, but I figured this was good enough...

On the cardboard front I have benefited from the generosity of Paul from Plastic Warriors sending me three rather nice scratch-built APCs (click here for details)

Esci vs Cardboard part II.

Now for my purposes, these M-113s from Paul being a little large is not a problem, as an imagination background allows for the creation of plausible back stories that can explain away a number of sins.

The fact that there existed earlier APCs, such as the M-75 and the M-44 (click here for details). that were somewhat larger than the M-113, makes it easier to declare these to be a hitherto unknown vehicle of a similar ilk.

Spot the Esci!

That, or field them in force with no other M-113s!

Battle Kings K-116 Artillery Truck

Matchbox Battle Kings have been one of my favourite things since childhood, and I will admit that I enjoy having been able to refurbish some of my childhood toys for use in my current games. The process is quite simple, drill out rivets, replace missing heads on commanders and gunners, prime, repaint, reassemble, and wash.

Two Battle Kings Artillery Trucks.

 One of the things I have enjoyed about the refurbishment process is discovering what real world vehicles and weapon systems the Battle Kings with generic titles were based on (Such as in this post about the Battle King K-107 155mm SPG click here for details)

Haradian Artillery Prime Mover or Heavy Transport Truck?

I had thought that the Artillery truck was without any basis in the real world until I saw these pictures of International ACCO trucks (click here and here to see them). I was inspired to look for them after seeing a painting of similar trucks towing 5.5inch guns. While the grill of the Battle King is quite different from the ACCO trucks, it is very similar to a grill on a 1970s International Harvester concept vehicle (click here for the picture)  So was the Battle King Artillery Truck based on a concept truck?

Repainted and washed. Now waiting for a name, stats and purpose.

In CD terms in is at least a class IV vehicle, possibly even a class V, but I will leave the stating out the vehicle for another day.

Reworked and original model.

 The photos for this post were taken on my phone, so are even worse quality than usual, but I have used Paul's (From over at Plastic Warriors - If you haven't checked his stuff out already, you really should) trick of cropping them in paint to try and bring the models in as the centre of attention to the photo.

The current collection: 1 to keep, 1 repainted, 1 in process of being repainted.

The plan is to add two of these big behemoths to the Haradi motorpool and as I rather like the look of them, and the nice thing about an imagination is that large possible concept vehicles can occasionally find their way on to the tabletop:)

18th Century Teeth and Tail Round Up!

I'm been painting up some more bits and pieces for my AWI Volley and Bayonet forces - a project which is probably going to morph into something much larger no doubt - and have been attempting to finish items that are sitting on my work bench.

Some field works from an Italeri set.

An Airfix Hessian Jager Amusette - a view of the business end.

And the view from behind.

Currently these Jagers are amongst the very few stands of AWI Airfix that I have painted from bare plastic. (Click here for the previous post on these)So far I have been able to produce stands by refurbishing figures painted by others. On that note I would like to thank Geoff (via Glenn) for providing the figures for the below stand. All I needed to do was touch up the very nice existing paint job, wash them, and then base them. Easy!

Another stand of Airfix AWI for V&B!

The same stand, but from behind.

So that's the teeth part of the round up done, now on for the tail! First up I have a canoe from Nexus reissue of the Atlantic "Davy Crockett" set. (As always here is the link for the review from PSR). The set contains a number of very useful items for making up logistic and transport stands for both 18th and 19th century North American games.

A trapper in a small canoe.  I have another to paint up.

Another view of the canoe. This will be dwarfed by the big canoes from BUM.

 And of course I have more wagons. First up are an Airfix wagon that I got from Glenn. I replaced the team of small horses with two from the Revell Thirty Years War Artillery set. The second is a rather cart like wagon from one of the ranches in the Bum Wild West Town range. It has gained a driver from the Airfix Wagon set, and a horse from the French Artillery set.

Wagons? Or a wagon and a cart?

 I am also trying to make up my stockpile of Conestoga wagons before I start on my other wagons. The reason being that they are the most 18th century American wagon I have, and I figure I should make them up before I start on the others. So I finished the one I had started on here - and this time I managed to put the driver/rider in the correct place!

Another completed Conestoga Wagon., and the one I made previously....

Two more Conestoga await construction..... 

 And naturally, I have started another project before I have finished any of the others, but I have managed to have a cull of surplus items (look here for such items) - or use the shiney new tab at the top!

New stuff via Glenn - Alexander and some friends...

Matchbox Juggernaut and MPCVs

Back in July of 2012 I made a post about some Matchbox toys that I would be repainting with a view for using them for gaming.(click here to see that post) I have just recently finished painting them.

A rather large vehicle.

My normal method of repainting die casts is to drill the rivets out, disassemble, and then spray the appropriate sections with grey primer. These had the added step in between the disassembly and priming stage of sitting in a box for a year and a half.

Close up on the large yellow thing.

I still plan to use this beast to run some linked games loosely based on the premise of the novel "Juggernaut" (click here for more information on the novel) In CD terms the truck and trailer will be around half a mile long, so I intend to have it represent a small convoy of associated cargo and pilot vehicles.

The view from the front. 

The Matchbox MPCV is quite a nice die cast vehicle which has been produced to box scale. as such it is difficult to give a scale any closer than "Large HO' or "Looks workable". Various reviews on the internet have given it a variety of scales - the major commonality of the reviews has been that it is very usable for the reviewers preferred figure size-  be it 15mm or 20mm. Such is the joy of box scale!

A rather useful addition to my forces!

Two of them parked side by side.

All of these were dry bushed with Vallejo Dark Sand, and then given a brown wash. I just need to hunt through the plastic stash to find some suitable figures to create some engineer stands to go with them. I think  a suitable figure might be the one in the EOD suit from the "German Crisis Reaction Forces (KRK)" set by Revel (click here for the PSR review)

Another view of the two MPCVs.

Now I have to get back to making buildings!

Vertical Envelopment, or "I can't believe it's not an Osprey!"

Back in September of 2012 I made a post about my small collection of Aircraft Carriers (Click here for that post), and the glacial speed at that I was progressing with that particular project.

Some Not-Ospreys.

In around 2006/2007 I found that Matchbox had released some large cartoon scaled aircraft as part of their Sky Busters range. These were the "Sky Busters: Missions" sets that seemed to have some potential for wargaming. The Rescue Ranger set (click here for a link containing product information) was snapped up by me when I saw some on sale at The Warehouse. It also has cool lights and sounds....

Esci Modern NATO German for comparsion

A closer look.

Group shot with figure for size comparison

Another set in the collection "Coast Patrol" provided another usable aircraft - that I was originally going to convert to use as a Dune style Carry-All, but will use as a more conventional Sky-Hook style heavy helicopter.

Side by side with figure for size comparison.

It is rather a big beast.

 Of course the reason I got them was to allow for vertical envelopment during the moderns amphibious game, which requires them to to be put on one of the toy carriers that will be converted to an amphibious warfare vessel of some type.

Not Ospreys on the not  LPH 

Another view.

Looking down the deck.

 The current plan is to finish bogging the various screw holes, remove the stickers on the aircraft, and then spray them a base grey and then paint on additional detail, such as cockpit windows With luck, I might be able to do this after Christmas Day. Once that's done I will continue slowly working towards doing more on this project.....