Urban Renewal

Christmas has been and gone, but it proved to have been a very nice one! On the wargaming front I was given a few ex JB Models Airfix kits, which will prove useful for Harad. I also received a Kindle Fire which will also prove useful on the gaming front - both for research and for in game referencing of PDFs.

Sometimes potential is rather hidden.

Whilst shopping before Christmas I came across this rather garnish toy house. I presume that it is a knockoff of another item - the main hint being that it has cast on it half a latch and hinge system but not the other half of the item. It screamed potential.

It came with furnishings. I have a plan on how to use these as well...

My plan was to see if I could turn it in to a suitable BUA for AWI Volley and Bayonet games. This meant that I could tinker with the way I left the open space open on the stand. Rather than having enough room for a full Brigade stand on the base, as I normally do, I instead left room for two Regiment stands to be side by side.

Lucky Products Hessians inspect the house.

Plenty of room on the inside.

 I removed the stickers festooning the house inside and outside, and then sprayed the the whole thing with nice brown spray paint - inside and outside!

Now in a less painful brown colour!

I then mounted it on a base after hacking off any overhanging bits and crudely applied some bogging where required.

Quickly added plastic card - My favourite cladding solution!

Some white plastic card was affixed to the back and was hacked to size.While not an elegant solution, it is a very functional one, especially give the constraints of the V&B BUA base size.

A rather more sedate colour scheme!

I then applied paint, wash, and a new white picket fence for the the front of the yard.

A closer look.

The back was painted in a way that I hope will look streaky and washed out, and hopefully drawing attention away from the neat straight up and down lines. I considered making the lines go side to side but decided that vertical would look better.

Poorly white washed at the rear with two stands of Airfix Americans.

Of course the main effort I am looking for is that of troops behind a fence, in front of a white pillared house.

A much better view - the BUA garrisoned by Airfix figures.

So a rather quick and cheerful conversion ready for the tabletop! Now I just have to paint up some more AWI troops!

Airfix Amusette - WIP

Not the most common type of skirmisher. 

I have had the idea for some time to make an amusette for my AWI British. (For more information on what an amusette is - click here EDIT Feb 2022 try this link) The idea came to me after reading this thread on TMP, and thinking that I could build one!

The business end of the stand.

The design was inspired by the very nice one produced by the Perrys(click here for link), as well as the Fife and Drum one featured on TMP.

First I needed a larger scale musket, but Ion was kind enough to provide me with one. The wheels and mantlet were from a package of useful stuff that I received from Paul a couple of months ago, while the Airfix figure is one of a number that I had received from Glenn.

One of these flintlocks is not like the other.

At the moment I am thinking of painting up as a Hessian piece, rather than a British one, so I don't have to do any head conversions as a British one should have crew in Light Infantry head gear. I have also mounted it on a skirmisher base for V&B as I intend to treat it as just being a more interesting skirmisher stand with no additional game effect - although I have thought of a number of ways of treating it under the rules.

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.....

Blue Box Trucks

A while back I made a post about some items i picked up from Glenn. Amongst the various kits were some very nice Blue box vehicles - a number of the Bedford RL trucks (for more information on Blue Box RL Bedfords look at this post over at Small Scale World), and an Austin Champ (click here for more information from Small Scale World)  that could pass as a  type of "Beep" (A nickname for the Dodge 3/4 ton truck because it looked like a 'Big Jeep') While the Champ was only 1/4 ton, this over scale model looks  like it could be suitable as a bigger vehicle.

Small Scale World is no doubt known to many of you, as it is an excellent reference guide to all manner of plastic goodness. It is one of my "Go To' sites when I am trying to identify unknown plastic.

A rather useful light truck.

The general look of the vehicles is perfect for use in my imagination moderns campaigns, as they won't look out of place in most pre-1980s Third World  style settings. I also passed a couple on to the Archduke (click here for his initial take)

Troop carrier and Ambulance

A missing door - not replacing it would fit with the general feel of my setting!

In addition to the two above trucks, I also have four trucks missing their original weapons mix, but will either get new weapons - I do like technicals! - or be tuned into cargo or troop trucks.

Four pieces of potential!

Close of the rather detailed control box on the back and the rather nice weapons mount .

Also included were these two jeeps that were in the same style as the Blue Box trucks, but I don't now if these are Blue Box or another companies product. Regardless of origin, they too shall be used to expand the pool of transport vehicles used in CD Moderns games.

Blue box Jeeps - maybe?

 Right, now back to enjoying the slackness of summer!