These 20mm figures from Liberation miniatures were speed painted by me in a couple of days. The simple uniform that is being modelled here (good for the Iran- Iraq war, Gulf War and right up to the 2003 invasion) combined with the great painting style made for an enjoyable painting experience, even though I was painting so many at once.
The full group of 32 figures.
A Squad with a representative and varied mix of weapons.
Cheers,
Pete.
I was in town today looking for craft supplies for my nephews and popped into the Works shop. I noticed that there are limited restocks of the cheap £2 diecast tanks and vehicles.
By way of illustrating that these are new models with different paint jobs here is a pic of what I bought:
The Challenger II is especially nice and I’ve now got enough BTR40s to carry a platoon for skirmish games.
Keep an eye out in your local shops.
Cheers,
Pete.
Here are the finished Gun Trucks.
Not much to add to what I’ve written earlier. Weathering was done with oils and pigments and the crew figure is from Liberation Miniatures.
I have piced up some more insurgent figures that will be ideal to go against these so I guess it is time to work on the scenario.
Cheers,
Pete.
Ages ago I bought 4 toy trucks from one of the Pound shops in town; they bear an uncanny resembalance to the US M939 6 by 6 truck. I thoughht I’d do a recap of my earlier posts and bring things together. A few other gamers on forums I visit had also bought lots of them too- noticing like many cheap toy vehicles the wheels are the weakest part of the kit; this inspired Sand S models to do a replacement wheel set. I ordered enough replacement wheels for the trucks I had bought (at this point I wished I had bought considerably more of them) and propmtly stashed them in the shed a semi- forgot about them. Recently I was having a clear up in there and found the box again, so after several months delay I got round to making them up. A big inspiration in my project was this rather nice photo book: http://www.tankograd.com/cms/website.php?id=/en/index/publikationen/american_spezial/gun_trucks_irak.htm I can definately recommed it if you fancy trying something similar yourself.
The basic truck with the tilt removed and the replacement white metal wheels addded.
The gun truck was converted witha spare .50 cal Machine Gun I had in the spares box as well as pieces of plasticard to represent the add on armour plates.
The basic paint jobs. 3 were painted in NATO 3 colour camo, the last in a MERDC scheme (which according to my photo references could still be seen in Iraq in 2003).
The next post should see them finished…. Cheers, Pete.
I have a fondness for armed light vehicles, jeeps, trucks what have you. I find them fun to convert up too- bits of plastic card and cheap diecasts with bits from the spares box… that will keep me happily occupied in the shed for a few hours.
Ages ago I found some trucks in the Pound Shop in town that were a passable representation of the US M939, to improve them I gort some replacement wheels from S and S models. Like so much they were boxed up and put in the shed and half forgotten about. But now the weather is improving I’m trying to tidy it up and I was fed up of kicking the box around so I decided to get cracking with them.
I bought 4 trucks (now I wish I had bought significantly more of them) with the idea of forming a convoy for games set in the early part of the Iraq War 2003/4. Three of the trucks would remain as cargo trucks but I couldn’t help playing around with one of them:
This is the basic truck with the tilt removed and the wheels replaced with the white metal alternatives.
Plating was added with plastic card to represent the armour shets that were added inthe early pre MRAP days- the so called ‘hillbilly armour’. The gun is the venerable M2 HMG with came from the spares box, as did the plastic ammo boxes and tarp.
This top view shows off the ammo boxes and tarp better.
A coat of grey primer (also from the pound shop) ties it all together nicely before painting, which will be the next step….
Cheers,
Pete.
A while back the ModernAfricanBushwars yahoo group ran a quick competition- first to answer three questions correctly wins 50 Euros at Hobby Den model store. I saw the email whilst sat in my favourite cafe in town, fortunately the questions were on the Rhodesian War (the conflict in Africa I know most about) so I rattle off my answers and luckily little old me won.
Deciding what to get was a nice experience and today I picked up my parcel from the Post Office.
I like getting parcels, I’m quick to open them up…
… and tip the contents out.
I got 3 open backed Unimogs, a M1117 armoured car, a Shorland armoured car and an M47 Patton. All of these models were from Hobby Den’s in house range of resins.
A quick shot of the hulls and turrets, photographing pale resin never really brings out the best in the models (well not with my barely functioning level of skill in photography).
Hobby Den’s own range of resins are very nice and they do fill some useful gaps in the market- they come highly recommended from me.
Their website can be found here: http://www.thehobbyden.com/
On the topic of URLs the yahoo group can be found here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ModernAfricanBushwars/info – worth joining for access to the photo albums alone.
You might be wondering what I plan to do with my new resins..?
Well, the 3 Unimogs will be painted up to be added to my Rhodesian Bush War collection- though I’ll need to find some crew for them, the M1117 will be a sand colour for service in Iraq ( they were mostly used by the Military Police for convoy protection duties and I have been planning a game along those lines for ages), the M47 will be painted in Croat colours as I’ve got a decal sheet with a nice scheme on that I want to replicated and as for the Shorland I’m not so sure, I’m a big fan of them as they are basically armoured Landrovers with a turret on, I may do it in a Syrian camo scheme or possible a plain grey.
Typing that last paragraph made me realize I’ve a complete lack of focus as I’ve covered 4 different projects there. If I could concentrate on one thing at once I’d probably get a lot more done but where would the fun be in that.
Cheers,
Pete.
SP's Projects Blog 