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.

Mechs and Technicals

I'm almost at the stage, for a generous definition of almost, of wanting to start working on formulating forces for the rules. In a fit of inspirations I realized that asymmetrical combat between first world forces and third world insurgents/freedom fighters could be an option some players might want to have.

Certainly an actual thing in my Gate Walker setting, even if I haven't written any stories specifically about such actions, though the first book does have local Mujahedin assisting the Chinese special forces company attack my heroes. 

Given that thought, and the fact I have a small stash of Peter Pig AK47 15mm miniatures I can make use of them to explore aspects of the rules I hadn't considered. 

These are two Peter Pig Toyota Hilux's that I modified.

The one on the left I lifted and put tyres from a Humvee on to beef it up, and added a Bull bar on the front. The one on the right I made into a heavy version with double wheels/

Both have wheel wells enlarged, gotta keep street legal, to add more character. I also sculpted a wooden floor for the recoilless rifle variant to better hide the figures base.

I've also undercoated some GZG robots for my Marine Corps squad with heavy support, and made up a BigDog from a GZG Quad Transport Walker from Germy's 2mm range, to carry bullets and beans.

I also converted a second GZG Quad Transport Walker, and modified a civilian robot to represent the PetMan BigDog robot exploration team, seen here with a power loader variant of the GZG civilian robot.

For those readers who read my Strike Dog novel, I'm writing a short story about what happened to Romeo Echo Tango Two after they went missing.

And, in addition to all that, my beloved designed and printed up a poseable BigDog miniature. All the joints are articulated.

Okay, that's all folks. Catch you on the bounce.

WIP: Conversion and Repose

Here's the current work in progress shots. Close-ups of the sculpting and pinning done to the middle and right hand mechs above. 

I've not yet finished the right knee on the running mech, and I've only just started cutting and pinning of the other mech on the right; also showing the pins for the base. 

Casting is still a case of practicing with molds and the sculpting mix to get good, clean casts, which is still eluding me.

As you can see above, I mucked up the canvas rolls, which broke when I split the mold. Not sure what I did wrong here as the other pieces were okay.

So that's all for this post. Catch you all on the bounce.

Conversion Casting Craziness

Oyumaru reusable thermoplastic, the blue stuff, is a pretty useful tool for those who want to replicate parts that are no longer available. Strictly speaking, my casting old RAFM parts skirts perilously close to piracy, except for the whole not available for 20+ years thing of a long defunct product.

BTW: If the owner of the RAFM original masters wants me to pay, or can supply me with castings, then I'd be happy to oblige.

So I cast a few bits & pieces, more as a way to experiment with the thermoplastic. It's a yes, no, and maybe on the results.

The tiny antennae, above left, were mostly unusable. The canvas rolls were fine. I'm going to experiment more with the mixture of the putty. Pure Kneadite is too flexible. Milliput seems okay, so far. A mixture of both is a bit hit and miss.

It's a toughness versus detail choice.

Anyway, I cast a sole from another model for the reposed leg of one of my work's in progress, because the bottom of the foot is noticeably bare of detail. You can clearly see where I am with the repose.

I'm having to build the joint and beef up detail on the casting that was worn/damaged/miscast.

And I had to go back and redo the exhaust on the other conversion I'm working on.

And I really pulled the boat out on the feet by taking the time to articulate the ankle, which will allow me to make an otherwise static pose look a bit more dynamic with the foot adjusting to irregularities in the ground.

That's all for now, because it's my birthday, and I have things to do...

OMWB: Conversion and Repose

While letting the putty on the other conversion cure, I've been working on the next conversion, a new build. Above is a Hunter I've cut apart to repose.

As I got a bit further along, I realized that the way I had parted the hips, to try and save some detail on the right leg wasn't going to work. Not because of the angle of the cut or anything, but because the leg casting I had chosen to use is one of two variants, and the angle of the legs was better on the other variant

Doh!

 

Given I have more legs spare than parts that be assembled into complete models, it seemed easier to start again.Given the model will be standing on one leg, I drilled right the way through the legs so that I could have a substantial brass rod to keep the whole assembly solid.

I then used the running Jager from the Azure Devils pack to guide the bending of the brass rod my repose. 

And as you can see things are looking promising. I actually have to bend the other rod quite a bit more than I thought I would need to to get the pose right.

Here it is balanced in place to check out the pose looked good.

Time to get the Kneadite and Milliput out. I find Kneadite is not as easy to file as Milliput, but Milliput can be a bit harder to sculpt with. So I mix about two thirds Kneadite to one third Milliput together.

The mix results in a less sticky putty, which can be easily shaped, and when cured can be filed.

So, on that note, it's onward to work on the my other combat armor conversion.

Stripped and Rebuilding to Magnetize

Onward, ever onward, I'm prepping the next batch of combat armour mechs. Yes, for those who ask, this one is a rebuild that I had painted and near completion, but I stripped it because the magnetize everything bug has hit me. I'm sorry, I just can't help it.

Besides, I have learnt so much over the last year of doing these that I'm bringing ideas to fruition that I would never have bothered with before.

And as you can see, I've changed my mind and decided that the open cockpit showing the pilot. This will also clue viewers about the size of my combat armor, and the whole Real-Robo mecha genre.

 

 

 

Besides, as I like to remind myself, it's much easier to commission artists to do covers that convey the size of the machines they're illustrating, made easier if you can give them good pictures to work from.

I'm not just magnetizing the torso, head, and arms to increase poseability for photographs, but also sculpting parts to restore some depth lost when the casting process from damage to molds, or poor metal flow etc. making the end result less sharp looking than it could be.

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

CAS-4CP Buster Done!

Eureka. As the Rod Stewart song goes, It's been a long road, Getting from there to here..."

But now witness the completed combat armor model, fully magnetized and poseable ready to be deployed on the tabletop (imagine this said in Emperor Palpatine's voice). 

And yes, I'm pleased. In case that wasn't obvious.

So when will I get to play with my conversions?

Well, there's still no date because I haven't finished the first draft of the rules. But, progress is being made. I was talking on Zoom with my colleague who has so generously volunteered to help come up with how to design stuff within the Gate Walker – Bad Dog universe that I can say we've taken another step forward.

Obviously, it's easier to talk a good game than deliver a good game. I learnt a lot from writing OHMU War Machine, and what it takes to make or break a game.

I'm committed, now it's just a matter of the time it takes, because I won't publish a set of rules until I know they deliver what they promise. That's all for now.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Takara 1/48 Fattys

 

I managed to score four Takara Fattys off eBay via a dealer in Japan. These are Takara 1/48th scale Arctic Gear mecha from VOTOMS. Not as popular as the ScopeDogs, and other mecha that the hero drives, because these are what the mooks ride around in at the service of the bad guys.

But I rather like the esthetic of the Fattys.

So much so that I named the Chinese mecha in Bad Dog as FATS-Cs: for Flying All Terrain Suits-Chinese. Not their Chinese designation, which was Fireflies, but what the American forces called them.

So, super excited to get my hands on these.

As an unexpected bonus, I received three with shoulder mounted multiple missile rack, and one with a smaller number of larger missiles. I'll designated the small pack as ATGMs and the others as generic rockets. So now I have enough 1/48th come 28mm scale mecha for a small skirmish style game. 

In addition, when the Bad Dog rules come out, I will be able to feature pictures of these, and my RAFM and DP9 Gears, to show the different sized mecha models you can play the game with. That has got to be good? Amirite? ;-)

Okay, that's all for now. Catch you 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.

A Retrospective

Magnetized the backpack because previous idea interfered with the head.

Last year, when I posted A Light Ahead, I remarked on how unproductive 2019 had been. Little did I know then what I know now. I only played one game this year due to all the craziness going on in the world.

But every cloud has a silver lining, because, in retrospect I was far more productive this year. I've managed to make more models. I've learnt a bunch of cool painting techniques.

Overall I did more, which has meant I've posted more pieces on the blog.

I'll call that a win.

Most of the blog has been about covering my path to acquiring all the old RAFM Heavy Gear sculpts I could lay my hands on. No doubt, some old Heavy Gear grognards watched in horror as I butchered converted them into proxy mecha for my Gate Walker universe. 

Cue manic laughter.

And I've also acquired a bunch of 1/48th Scopedogs too.I plan to photograph all the models for pictures for the set of mecha rules I'm writing. That's the plan. Whether the plan survives contact with the demands of the year ahead is another matter.

For one thing, it is taking me a lot longer to write the infantry TO&Es to pass onto a collaborator than I thought. Such is life.

Catch y'all later.