OMWB: CAS-3-Mod-1 Kneeling Conversion Progress

While drilling out the above, to add magnets, I had an oopsie moment. The drill bit in my Dremel bit into the metal resulting in a RUD event (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly), which will teach me, I guess? 

The pieces flew every which way.

As you can see, I glued the magnet in the center bottom section, mostly because it was something to do in between hunting wide and low for the parts that flew off at a rate of knots.

Eventually I found the other missing parts. Rather than reassembling everything back together I thought it would be easier to repair, and then reassemble.

So, I fixed the left leg to the base, and the right to a piece of wood to make it easier to handle. Then I started re-sculpting the damaged castings. I have a lot of work left to do.

And, now I've run out of magnets, doh! 

It never rains but it pours. My stupid fault, I miscounted the ones I had because I didn't check the sizes. I have a selection of heights and widths (3x5mm, 4x4mm, and 4x7mm), and mistook the 3x5s for 4x7s for some insane reason.

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

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 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.

Russian Walkers

Hard to believe, but it's all true, I started assembling these Heavy Gear walker back in 2016. They are suitable for both 10mm as large crewed mecha, and when used for 15mm games as smaller crewed mecha and robotic drones.

I drybrushed them first with off-white/light grey.

It's hard to see in these pictures but I've blocked in the grey on the undersides with GW Contrast Apothecary white (which is also a light grey). Then I applied brown on the sides, then green for the top surfaces.

I'm going for a simplified version of the scheme I did here.

These are meant to be what the Russian's use as combat armor in the Gate Walker universe. So I'll be using these as Russian Walkers for my Big Little Wars games. Makes sense, huh!

My intention is to paint up some power armor infantry to go along with these to make a playable army.