Bad Dog Army Combat Engineering Mech

 

I promised some friends I'd post some macro shots of my RAFM conversions. Here's an Army CAS-1-Mod-1EV Ape, engineering mecha.

Rear view. Towing cables to go.

Below side view.

And, here shows all the magnetized parts, which allow me to take pictures of different poses for reference for a book cover.

 Catch you all on the bounce.

OMWB Newten Town New Direction

It has been a while, seven years it seems, since I posted anything about my buildings for wargames. How time seems to slip through ones fingers.

Anyway, I decided, after seeing what the Too Fat Lardies were doing with their terrain that I could take a leaf out of their book. My town terrain boards are super fab, but each square fixes what buildings go where in a town.

I want more flexibility, I want the freedom to arrange my towns however I gorram please.

So, after much procrastination, I decided rather than finish off the last four town boards I have to hand, I would chop them up and re-build the buildings on their own discrete base. This would have the added advantage of getting rid if the seams in the road too.

An added bonus from doing a town this way.

And while I was doing all of this I looked at one of the resin buildings and decided to file out all the scarf left by the limitations of the way they were molded.

My beloved couldn't tell the difference between the building on the left, and the one on the right. Clue, the one on the right has the window frames filed clean.

 That's all for now, catch you on the bounce.

Insurgent Technicals

I reprocessed all the pictures I took last week, because I wasn't happy with the colour balance. I usually take one picture with a white card, as my reference in the camera when taking a series of pictures, but forgot too last time.

However,  I went back with the same lighting set-up (which was quick and dirty) and took a couple of reference pictures. Using them as a baseline, I reprocessed all the originals pictures.

So, above is my crew-cab conversion of Peter Pig's Toyota.

And above is a group shot of all my PeterPig Toyota's. I still have a couple more different Toyata's technicals to assemble from Khurasan. I'm glad I bought them back before all the faff over tariffs came into force. I shall assemble them for my insurgent force in due course.

That's all for now, catch you on the bounce.

Combat Armor Groups

I had a mega photo shoot, which despite my best intentions, I still managed to forget to take some different angles on some of the models. Anyway, after so much time has passed, here they are.

Below, starting from left to right. 

My original CASE-2X conversion, running light with just a basic load-out. Main weapon is a 20x170 mm M41-AC230 autocannon, with under-barrel 40x53 mm Mk 30 grenade launcher. The left arm mounts a NATO 7.62 mm M240LC sustained fire machine gun.

Next is the CASE-2XC command variant, loaded for Bear from Ghost Dog. This adds a shoulder mounted 20 mm M21-A8 gauss rifle, and carrying a three pack of 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's to the basic load-out.

And the last CASE-2X has a shoulder mounted heavy-indirect-fire pack with a 15 pack of 140 mm MGM-240 Precision Guided Missile's, as mentioned in Bad Dog, which mounts a 12.7 mm GECAL Rotary Autocannon.

Model sans an arm, because I forgot to paint it, Oops. And below, again from left to right.

The rebuilt CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape weapons specialist with a M75 80mm lightweight high-velocity recoilless autocannon, a M134 GAU-2B/A 7.62 mm minigun on the left arm, with a shoulder mounted 15 pack of 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's. Espera's load-out from Strike Dog.

Next is a CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape with a basic load-out with a 20x102 mm M26-AC autocannon, and a shoulder mounted pack of four 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's

The kneeling CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape is communications variant with a M47-Mod-1: 40 x 53 mm Automatic Grenade Launcher (belt/drum fed). I might add a shoulder mounted NATO 7.62 mm M240LC sustained fire machine gun at some point. As and when I get round to it.

And finally, a CAS-1-Mod-1 engineering variant. It has a M121A: 120 mm Heavy Mortar for demolition work. I'll put up some close-up shots soon.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

Combine & Pan Euro Laser Towers

A little over two years after Don Hawthorne kindly sent me these, I've finished assembling them, slapped on some paint, and I've now managed to take some pictures as proof of completion.

It's super nice to now have laser towers for both the North American Combine and Pan European Federation.

I still have a number of Ogre miniatures that need painting, but I've managed to acquire a Vulcan Ogre, which is missing some parts, for my Ogre/GEV collection/ plan of world domination to come to fruition.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

OMWB: M1120A2 HEMTT LHS

I've wanted a model to represent the truck that appears in several important scenes in my novel Strike Dog. It's the main vehicle used by the team to explore Two Moons. My original plan was to convert a 1/64th scale Matchbox toy.

But, when I saw that Butlers' Printed Models now offered models of the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, I couldn't resist buying them. I got two M1120A2 LHS HEMMTs, one soft skin A kit cab, and one armored B-kit cab.

Comparing both HEMMTs, Matchbox's model is quite a bit longer than the 1/100th scale model, which is not really a problem. But, being wider than the smaller trucks container, is a problem.

 

It's a problem, because I need a bunch of Conex boxes to represent the off world Alpha site base. Getting more containers from Butlers' Printed Models is easy.

Getting more Matchbox HEMMT containers, not so much. 

I plan  to convert the HEMMT to represent a 10 x 10 M2184 HUHMTT PLS (Heavy Utility High-Mobility Tactical Truck with a palletized loading system), described as having a cabin that seats four people. 

So, either way, I have to extend the cab, and lengthen the chassis.

Anyway that's all for now. Catch you all on the bounce.

OMWB: Russian 15mm Armour

I bought a few Team Yankee sprues off eBay. These are easy enough to glue together if you have the assembly instructions. As the sprues didn't come with any, I had to hunt around the Battlefront website.

Above, left to right, are a TOS-1, a T-70B, a BMP-3, and a T80U.

The TOS-1 and T-70B are for my near future modern insurgent's force. I'll probably go for a dessert scheme for these.

I got the T80U and BMP-3 to use as near future Russian reserves. I have also got a T-90MC awaiting assembly too. With the Kurganets I got earlier I think I have more than enough armour to meet my future needs.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

Not Dead; Just Resting

Okay, it has been (time-wise) a country mile, since I've posted anything on a regular basis. What can I say, life sucks!? That, and setbacks. First was the unfinished mini-gun arm for one of the previous batch of CASE-2X Dogs.

Second being the missile pod mounts. The problem was the cast metal pods drooped.

Can't have one's missile pods drooping so, after much procrastination, I came up with another way of mounting them with magnets, which involved order some more parts too. I need to add Milliput to fare the pods to the magnets to finish them, but the end is in sight.

Hence the delay in getting around to doing the work. I've also started a couple more combat armour Ape suits conversions.

And, there's more to come. Ive been beavering away, and have a bunch of stuff I need to take glamour shots of. This includes some NAC laser towers and turrets, the finished Russian quad mechs with decals, and more.

 So, watch this blog. Catch you all on the bounce. 

Chain of Command 2

My copy of version 2 of Chain of Command arrived today. Packed perfectly and just needing me to sit down and read it, which is the plan.

Then, I shall go back and revise my draft of Big Little Wars. That's the plan.

Plans don't always survive contact with reality. In my case, finding enough spoons, which have been in short supply this year, hence my lack of post.

It is what it is. Catch you all on the bounce.

Salute 2025

Went to Salute yesterday, and played with Rich and Nick of Two Fat Lardies. They were demonstrating version two of their Chain of Command rules.

I helped Nick marmalize the British Paras with our adhoc German force of reprobates in recreating an action at Arnhem. We played for about two hours, and the result were pretty much replicated the historical action, despite my dice rolling.

 

After which Susan and I had lunch, and enjoyed a much needed sit down after standing for so long.

This modern game by The Friends of General Haig called Breaking the Stalemate: Iran Iraq war, 1986 in 15mm caught my eye.

Then we looked around the show and pick up a couple of items. I had in mind getting an Osprey book, but none of the dealers had the recent Boots on the Ground by Leigh Neville, so I'll have to order it online.

I also wanted Pro Acryl's Glaze & Wash Medium, but again I came up empty handed. But, learnt that Element Games have opened a new store in London in Drury Lane. So, I intend to pop in and get the glaze medium from them come time next week.

I did buy a Artis Opis  texture palette for drybrushing.

We also came across Crow games who do STLs for Starship Troopers and some rather nice starships too.

And of course there were a ton of other wargames and traders at Salute too, but by about three o'clock my feet hurt enough that I decided to call it a day.

 So that was Salute 2025, which also felt a lot busier than last year. Catch you all on the bounce.

Addendum:

Whilst archiving the photos for this post, I rearranged the files and discovered I missed going to Salute between 2017 to 2023.

These dates coincide with my rheumatoid relapse, and also cover Covid, and my compromised immune system making me reluctant to expose myself to large crowds.

Salute is huge. It might only last a day, but it host thousands of people. So, I added this note, as I do understand why people find going overwhelming.

Herts of Lard 2025

Saturday we went to Rickmansworth to play at the Herts of Lard wargaming show. So we were up early and out the door to get there for the 09.30 start. After some confusion we arrived at the right hall to be greeted by Joe Bilton announcing the start of the games.

 

In the morning session, I played a Call of Cthulhu variant of What a Cowboy.

 

This was a skirmish game playing as faculty members of the Miskatonic University who were chasing a thief who'd stolen a page from the Necronomicon. We were intercepted by other cultists who also wanted the manuscript the thief had stolen.

 

We lost.

 

In the afternoon, I played in a Chain of Command game of US paratroops versus Fallshirmjager with Gary who posted this video on YouTube.

 

We played as the US, in a game of two halves. The first, the US doing a good job of tying up the Germans. In the second half the US advance ground to a halt due to my ineffective leadership.

 

These were the first games I've played in a long time, and I really must be more proactive about getting out and having fun, as the day made me realize what I've been missing out on.

 

Catch you all on the bounce.

Still Alive!

Catching shingles for the New Year is not the kind of present that anyone wants. A surprising amount of pain is utterly discombobulating. A lack of sleep has rather cramped my hobbies, and not wanting to move my arms much because to do so causes stabbing pain.

Anyway, still recovering, but managed to apply some decals to these models.

Now I just need to matt varnish them, and then I can all them done. Well, almost done. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed one the mecha is missing an arm.

Yeah that was an oopsie.

Forgot I needed to rebuild the arm, modify the minigun casting to feed from so the ammo belt would hang properly, and lost track of it while I was prepping the rest of the models.

I still have some other models I finished, or have managed to finish that I need to take pictures of, but shingles. Just saying, shingles takes the fun out of everything.

Catch you all later.