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. 

Paint Haul

Went to my FLGS for some Citadel base layer red and found they were having a clear out of old paint. So, I got all of the above for seventeen pounds sterling, which is a bargain.

King Cobra

This very sad looking RAFM King Cobra came up on eBay at a keen price, that forced me to acquire it. Okay, maybe forced is over-egging it, but it's King Cobra, and I don't have one.

Missing one arm, which is a problem that means either finding a spare, or making a replacement.

I don't know what I'll do yet. Anyway, the first thing to do is throw it in some Nitromors and strip all the gunk off it. Happy, happy.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Real Robo Manifesto Size Comparisons

Void Scar Miniatures Taurus APC next to RAFM HG conversion and Abrams

Shocked to find it has been six years since I posted the size comparison shots for what I call my Real Robo Manifesto here and here for the 10/12mm – 1/144th scale Scopedog and Abrams.

These pictures are showing my 15mm – 1/100th scale models.

I placed both vehicles on bases to make their ground be approximately the same. This is one good reason for basing vehicles to match them to figures, but I don't like basing vehicles.

Void Scar Miniatures Taurus APC next to RAFM HG conversion and Abrams

It bears repeating that wargame models are not built to a scale, but made to a size.

This distorts the proportions of objects, which leads to erroneous assumptions about their size. The classic example is the picture of a Sherman tank with infantry next to it in real life versus wargame models.

M4 with men of US 60th Infantry Regiment, Belgium, 9 Sep 1944. Photographer; Spangle

And here's an official picture from Warlord Games. Because figures need to be based, one can see how this starts to throw off the relationship between the size of the tank and the men.

Not helped by the fact that wargame soldiers are broader to make them more robust when being handled see here.

Mr Dave Taylor

And for even better pictures comparing 1/48th scale Tamiya Sherman and a properly proportioned infantry figure and a 1/56/28mm Bolt Action Sherman and soldier see here.

So, the Taurus APC was a spontaneous impulse purchase bought at Salute as a possible conversion to serve as a cybertank from my World of Drei series. More about this in another post.

Now back to making trees for my forest.

Salute 2024

Sidney Roundwood and Richard Clarke of TooFatLardies

I haven't been to a Salute since before Covid, so it was great to go this year. Especially so since the new Elizabeth Line makes the journey really easy.

Schmoozed (which will be the word that best describes my day at Salute) with Big Rich, Nick, and Sidney of TooFat Lardies. The lads are the biggest inspiration to my wargaming hobby.

With Nick Skinner of TooFatLardies

And then I bumped into GZG Jon; long time friend, former SFSFW original committee member, and purveyor of wargame goodness.

With Jon Tuffley

Touched base with Mel Bose, The Terrain Tutor too. He has a book that's worth checking out.

Susan and me with Mel Bose, The Terrain Tutor

And, I met Annie from Bad Squiddo, who has asked me to make her some trees for her, as she loved the ones I posted on Twitter.

With Annie Norman of Bad Squiddo Games

And my new, bestist fan ever, Gab of OrkAngel. He's asked whether or not I would like to run a model making workshop? We shall talk and try and work out something.

With Gab of OrkAngel blog

And my acquisitions, because no post about going to Salute can be without a picture of what was purchased (though I went with no intention of purchasing anything, which is a forlorn hope at Salute).

 

A God Hand sprue clipper, a Deep Cut Studio six foot long strip neoprene river, a 15mm resin Taurus APC from Void Scar Miniatures, and of course the free Pirate Annie figure.

New Dremel

My beloved decided she would buy me a new Dremel to replace the old one I broke one, which had delivered sterling service for nearly 25 years, before I busted it.

The old one was 125 watts, my new one is 175 watts. So it has a lot more oomph.

We also got a new hot glue gun because working on the trees has led me to the conclusion that sticking seafoam to Woodland Scenics armatures is tricky.

I tried E6000 plus, but it takes too long to set and the seafoam sags. I also got some spray contact adhesive to try, but it's way too messy for the confined area I have to work in.

So, hot glue it is.

Again, I'm doing fiddly small stuff so need to be able to control the flow, and my old glue gun was anything but easily controllable.

Ma.K Acquisitions

Look what arrived from Slave 2 Gaming in Australia, 15mm Ma.K miniatures. Arrived super quick. Totally Bonzer service.

What arrived in the packaget is six of each of their SDR Schwarzer Hund and Kradenvogel.

I plan to convert the Schwarzer Hund into power armor for my Subatduku.,The Kradenvogel were acquired for parts when I start building some Chinese Fatties.

I acquired two walking and four flying poses of the Hunds, which are multiple part models that require assembly.

These are not generally available for purchase from the website, but Drew Edney very kindly let me have these on the understanding that they're likely to be revised to make assembly easier before general release.

I may have some thoughts on what could be done to make them less fiddly.

However, given he's a pattern maker, and has a professional mould maker working for him to produce this range, my input, thoughts, idle musings etc. are probably unwanted.

That's all for now. Catch you on the bounce.

OMWB: Kurganets-25

I recently acquired from Badger 3D a lovely resin printed Kurganets-25. I need to clean some minor flash off before painting, but the quality of the resin print is outstanding.

You may be asking why I bought this? Well, I reckon that this IFV will be around for the foreseeable future and is therefore perfect for games in my SF setting.

Besides which, I mention the Kurganets-25 in my World of Drei series of short stories.

North American Combine Laser Towers

Don Hawthorne very kindly sent me this. I'm overjoyed to acquire these, which brings me one step closer to completing my Ogre/GEV collection.*

One of my favourite wargames ever.

I shall get these painted as soon as I can clear my workbench of the current models I'm working on. I only now need to find an Vulcan cybertank to complete my Combine force.

*And with it total world domination.... muwhahahaha!

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 y'all on the bounce.

Acquisitions: All the Shiny WIll Be Mine!

Perhaps not all, but like most wargamers I have that tendency to buy new toys that catch my eye. As an old time grognard I know one thing, all that is new now will be unavailable sooner or later.

So buy it now. Buy More!

Okay, the Evil Dead aside, hey you gotta keep up with the asides, references, and plugs here. I ain't got time to explain it all.

Ongoing work. The Russian Walkers first picture and above, and repairs to broken bits and using the excess Milliput to convert a heavy missile pack for my American force's combat armor suits below.

 

And other acquisitions. After a year of waiting, I finally acquired some Grym power armor from Hasslefree Miniatures. Six bodies with only one repeat pose, which is nice.

And, and assortment of arms and accessories to go with.

The swords and axes will be replaced with proper ranged weapons or grenades, and I also plan to add flight packs, as these miniatures are meant to represent the Chinese FATS-Cs. 

But I may change my mind as they're a lot smaller than I expected. There again they will match nicely with the Dream Pod 9 Gears I have.

I don't know, I just make it up as I go along. That's all for now.

Catch you on the bounce.

Mostly Done

And these are nearly done. Just need to put decals on, but as luck would have it (me forgetting to check), I've run low on the necessary duplicates of warning labels etc. So I had to put an order in for more decals from Shiny Games.

I've also finished three new jump-off points too (terrain that can also be objectives for the opposition to capture).

And finally, a GW paint pot holder. Printed by my beloved to prevent the pots from being easily tipped over.

And the decals and a couple of 'mistakes' arrived on Wednesday from Shiny Games (by mistakes, purchases I hadn't intended to buy, but the shiny called out to me. So, now it's time to start cutting out the decals to ready the mecha for the table.

That's it for now. Catch you all on the bounce.

OMWB: M2084 Conversion and Progress shots

I got distracted by a post on on social media, as one does, by Rattapoom Kotchapong about making a HEMTT like truck. Excited by the tease, I offered him some reference pictures (some being 36mb of pics).

So I pulled down one of my two Matchbox HEMTTs and starting working on scaling one to match my mecha by first comparing it to an old 15mm HEMTT casting from QRF. 

After comparing the length, I was satisfied I could convert the Matchbox 8x8 into a 10x10. I'm basing my M2084 HEMTT on the Oshkosh 10x10 HEMTT PLS, which is larger than the earlier 8x8 series (HEMTT portal).

After cutting the castings apart, the major job will be narrowing the cab and engine casing.

 

All I can say is that I have a lot of work ahead of me. The price of me being me.

Xmas Haul

And here are my prezzies. The MDF terrain pieces from Charlie Foxtrot Models, who I can highly recommend because he turned around not only the order, but some custom corner pieces for me.

Some Scale 75 Instant Colours that I've tried and liked, so getting some more is welcome. These were from Hobby Heaven on eBay, who also sent a Christmas Cthulhu badge. Thank you. Again, highly recommended.

Got a book by an author new to me who specializes in first contact stories.

And my big prezzie, which was a total surprise was a LED light for my camera, which I will have to practice with, but will be super useful for when a flash is not welcome.

The Jungle: The Mighty Jungle

As you can see, I received a very generous package of jungle terrain arrived from my dear friend Tamsin; a wargame sister of battle whose blog can be found here, or in my blog list in the left column of this page.

She had been building some mighty fine jungle terrain on her blog a while back, and impressed, I commented on her work. To my surprise and delight, Tamsin then offered me the surplus trees as a gift, which I was truly flattered to be offered, and grateful to receive.

The box of trees arrive yesterday.

I took a quick photo, but I was too busy until today to post it. Sorry for not emailing you immediately Tamsin, but I was busy, more like lost in writing my Big Little Wars rules, managing to add a mammoth 2,069 words to the project. Not yet finished, but closer to reaching that goal.

I see a jungle, a mighty jungle in my future. Thank you again Tamsin.

To all my readers, stay safe. Catch you all on the bounce.

Shiny from Khurasan

Huntarr Zenegg IFV and Sseventur AFV

I saw the above Khurasan models, while browsing the Facebook 15mm group, and I thought they were awesome. They arrived and the resin castings are stunningly good. Someone might now say, "Ashley, I thought you were against anti-gravity vehicles in your games?"

Even though I'm not a big fan of anti-gravity tanks, because the science nerd in me equate anti-gravity with perpetual motion machines (courtesy of Isaac Asimov), but advance repulsors that don't break the way the universe works are another matter (courtesy of Sabine Hossenfelder and Isaac Arthur).

Besides, Arthur C. Clarke pointed out that the existence of technology that is currently beyond our ability is always a possibility. Repulsor fields certainly fit in the Clarketech paradigm. 

And they're shiny. Must have the shiny.

I also ordered a bunch of 15mm figures too, which I will get around to sorting out pictures of at some point, as follows:

Five Corsair Battlesuits, which are a bit smaller than I thought they'd be, but that's better than being too large.

A pair of Downed Flyer or Mecha Pilots/Operators because, well just because.

Two Toyota Land Cruisers, with a ZSU-23-2 to add-on one Technical, for my insurgent force.

On top of that, I got a bunch of Tah-sig and Stikk aliens. An assortment of each, enough to assemble a platoon with support elements.

Yes, aliens. Because, aliens are a thing in the Gate Walker universe. I just haven't written the stories featuring the dangerous ones.

Updates and More Stripped Acquisitions

Progress being made with the rebuild of Espera's Ape suit on the left, and the running repose companion CAS-3-Mod 1 suit.

I've repositioned the minigun on Espera's ride to sit under the forearm, and I've found a suitable ammo chute to connect it to the ammo pack on the back. I've also decided to modify the missile pod to have it hang off the backpack rather than being shoulder mounted.

I have a stash of various Gears since my first acquisition off eBay. I've now added a few more.

 

Above is an Armored Hunter stripped and currently sitting on my bench waiting for me to decide what I want to do with it.  I'm pondering over making it into a Heavy armored variant of an Ape, or a light version of a Buster thereby making my current Buster a two seat variant.

Decisions, decisions.

And pictured below are two Heavy Gear Kodiaks that I acquired and now stripped ready to be built. Now do I build them as twin seater Buster variants instead of using the armored Hunter for a single seat Buster variant?

Again, decision, decisions.

 

 

That's all for now. Catch you all on the bounce.

Relief at Progress

 

Finally, I've managed get the paint on the torso and head to match the work I'd done before having to strip it. Phew. Breathe a sigh of relief at managing this. A first for me matching glazes and washes, made easier using a wet palette and additives.

Just have to do the final assembly, varnish and decal the torso and head to call Ferretti's Buster done.

In other news, I've acquired two Kodiaks and an armored Hunter. The Kodiaks will be converted into Busters to go with the one above. 

No doubt I will tinker with variant weapons loadouts on these.

The Armored Hunter was an impulse purchase that took my fancy. I'm tempted to make it the ride for my CASDA weapons specialist.

These took an awful long time to make it across the Atlantic, and at one point I thought the parcel had gone missing. Much relief now they've safely arrived. All the RAFM Gears are mine!

That's all for now. Catch you on the bounce.

Acquisitions of a Mecha Kind

I was able to snag an an old RAFM DP9 Azure Devils set off eBay a little while back. It comes with one set of running legs for a Jager, which I really wanted.

Amongst all the spare parts was the command head variant casting, which I already had, but another is always useful.

Along with a sheet of instructions etc. Eureka, or something like that. 

I have set these aside for later, because I'm still neck deep in the ongoing painting odyssey that is the bad boys on my work bench, which are taking me longer to paint than any other model I can ever remember painting.