MARPACE Platoon

Finally, a platoon of exoskeleton power armour infantry mostly done and dusted, just needing a coat of matt varnish before deploying them for a game. This expands the original six I showed here so, I now have 22 infantry and 12 combat droids to make up a full platoon.

Extra pic from above.

MARPACE stands for Marine Power Armor Combat Enhancement suit.

With the platoon of insurgents shown here I have enough figures to start play-testing the rules I've been working on.

But, in my inimitable manner that few other wargamers fall into, I've gone and taken a step back with two of my mech conversions.

I wasn't happy with the aesthetics of what I thought of as the twin comm booms on the commanders version I'd built. Also, I wanted to bring the first Marine Dog suit up to the new spec with ball joints for the arms to allow for better posing.

The white stuff is foam padding to prevent me damaging both models while drilling and filing them.

Or at least minimize damage so I don't have to do a full repaint on them.

It is what it is.

OMWB: CASE-2X Mod 1 Kneeling Conversion

 

Above is the start of my next radical conversion, which is using a Desert Sharks Hunter as the reference to make a kneeling version of a RAFM Jager. First step was to cut apart a standing Jager.

 I have a few spare old RAFM Heavy Gear random parts that I scooped up as job lots of mismatched models.

After a lot of sawing, some drilling, filing, and a casting of Hunter foot I started assembling the parts for a kneeling CASE-2X Dog. 

Oh yeah, I had to carve out the other leg, which a bit of a faff. My wrists hurt after doing it. The other original foot wasn't such a chore, and now I'm ready to bring all the parts together.

Two views to show what I have to sculpt to complete the conversion.

That's a lot of volume that needs filling with Milliput to make the model whole again. That knee joint is alone is going to take some careful sculpting.

And I also found that the assembly wasn't as rigid as I would like it to be. Therefore I added a reinforcing bar, which I would have to do before basing the model. So no big deal.

That's all for now. More work to follow.

Catch you all the bounce.

Russian Commonwealth Infantry

These are using the same colour palette to go with my walkers that a posted here.

And another two jump-off marker for my SF version Chain-of-Command games.

And that's it until later.

K'Kree Finished

Only a year from the last post showing the start of painting these, and five years from priming them, to now finishing these my Martian Metals K'Kree.

This must count as one of the longest lead pile to completion in the hobby, given that Martian Metals went out of business in the mid-eighties, and I acquired these in 1984.

Happy New Year - 2023

Decals to do, but otherwise done.

And here we are. The end of another year. And here I am slipping in the last painted miniatures of 2022.

It has been a quiet year on the blog, for reasons. Those being the need to get my arse in gear and back to writing, which has not gone as well as I would like. Add to that ongoing health issues and here we are.

But, making and painting models have been good for my general well-being. So no grumbles.

I don't make resolutions as such, though I have some goals for next year. Namely get a working draft of Big Little Wars written. The current one is a mess, bloated, over written, and not working as it should to be a set of understandable rules.

That comes from having large aspirations to be the best rules I could write. Failure to deliver said rules being its own critique. But, I can learn from that, and remain hopeful I can pull the rules together.

After all, how hard can it be? Hard, but not impossible.

So, Happy New Year to one and all. Let's hope 2023 is better than the last three years.

Seasonal Salutations

Posted a little later than I intended due to circumstances beyond my control. They say timing is everything, and this post illustrates this succinctly. Something about prior planning prevents poor performance.

This year is another low key Xmas.

Given the state of the world this seems to be a thing. The presents under the tree were all things we agreed on, at least in principle, that we both wanted to read or watch together.

That's all. Catch ya'll on the bounce.