My First 15mm M60A2 Starship Completed

While I still don't have a production model, I did manage to paint a single M60A2 casting from my first try reject mold.  I plan to field a company of these in the same MERD-C pattern as my M113s.  Here are a couple pics:

 

It looked really dusty prior to clear coating it.  May have to go back and dirty up some more, once I get more castings painted.

My Old 6mm (1/285) Middle East Buildings

As I've been going through my stuff and finishing some old projects, I've also been rekindling some of my old interests.

I am  a long time micro armor player (some modern C-n-C miniatures being the first purpose manufactured historical miniatures that I bought), enjoying both WWII and Cold War games.  Several years ago, I made a number of simple Middle East buildings based on those in photos from the '67 and '73 Mid-East wars. 

The idea was to make simple masters that could be easily cast, and allow me to customize the buildings, hopefully yielding a diverse city in a relatively short period of time.  Like all of my projects, this is still waiting to be completed.  Here is the first batch of completed buildings:

As soon as I had some castings, I realized that I really should have made some ruined/battle damaged buildings.  So I got to work on that as well, and quickly had a set of damaged buildings.  I took some of the buildings and made minor variations as originally planned.

More of the damaged buildings below.

As soon as I had a set of damaged buildings, I started working on composite buildings made of two or more of the originals.  The building in the lower left of the above photo was the first example.

The composite building was made from the two other buildings shown above with a partial base added to it and some detailing with styrene strips.  Working backwards, I then completed the pre-battle damaged building.

Another example of  a composite building below.

 
The second batch of buildings includes a couple more complex shops, a mosque, and three more houses.  After digging out the unfinished models, I think I will finally get around to completing them in a coming months.  Though I will probably finish them as solid models, as I would rather have a little greater detail and am not concerned with placing infantry stands in the buildings, as I was a few years ago.

It was my intent to add some of these models to my site this past January, but never got around to it.   I will add the damaged buildings (or at least some of  them) to my sale site in the next few days.  Also, I'm going to re-visit the original building models and rework them into more detailed solid models to make them more interesting, ease casting, and add them as well.  I think that I can get this done in December, as I am supposed to have some time off.  Wonder how may day job will derail this one...

15mm M1115 Humvee TOW ATGM

Among the kajillian (hah!, spell checker thinks that isn't a word, silly gizmo...) unfinished gaming projects that I have setting around is an unfinished chassis for an unfinished M1167 Humvee Tow model.  As part of my now never-ending "clean up and finish unfinished projects that have been setting around my basement for way, way too long" effort, I started making a TOW missile launcher for the M1167.  Along the way, I got distracted and ended up with a TOW turret for the M1115 armored Humvee.  Don't worry, the M1167 is still going to happen, but I still need to make that goofy armored turret.  It will turn up around here soon.  Really.  What?   In the mean time, I figured that I'd post a few pics of my M1115 contraption.  So here goes:

 
The unit comes with an open hatch and a tub to fit into my Humvee model, and it may get "tweaked" a little before it is available.  But that is more or less what it will look like.

 In addition to the M1115 TOW vehicle, I will have the M1167 in the near future, and the M150 (M113 TOW) soon after that.  Now... where is that turret for the Leclerc?

 

 

Panhard M3 Personnel Carrier with TL-2i Turret in 15mm

Here are a few pics of my Panhard M3 APC.  It is just about done here, only needing to have the axles added before making the molds.

 

 

 

As shown above, the M3 is a rather small vehicle, but can carry a ten man squad.  The kit will include seven pieces; hull, turret, and five tires.  A spare will mount on the right side door.

M60A2 Master in 15mm

Here are the latest pics of my 15mm M60A2 master, more or less done.  The bottom shot is with my M113A1 for size reference.

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the Starship, and it has felt good to be working on something again. 

I'm continuing to work on old projects, and eventually my "space bubble" will get painted, but I want to get a couple more vehicles done first.   The M60A1 turret is moving along and will be done soon, and the Panhard 3 VTT personnel carrier is shaping up nicely as well.  I'll post pics of the new stuff as soon as I can.

As always, thanks for looking.

A Little Progress on my Earthbound Starship ( i.e., a 15mm M60A2 Main Battle Tank Master)

Work has taken over my life once again, but during the few moments of free time that I've had, I've been working on another old project, my 15mm M60A2 master.  I've only made a little progress on the hull and tracks, but the turret is almost done so , I 'd thought that I'd share a few WIPs.

This was originally one of several vehicles for last year's Cold War project, which is now looking more like 2016's Cold War project.  Anyway, here are the pics:

 

 

 

 

Currently, it is set to be a five piece model; turret, hull, two track units, and searchlight.  I've had to make some compromises on the detailing of the stowage basket on the rear of the turret for casting purposes, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it. 

M35 truck Model Comparison for 20mm: Academy 1/72 vs. Britannia 20mm

I received a couple 1/72 scale Academy M35 2.5 ton truck kits a couple of years ago, and only recently finished them (well, finished enough to game with).  And thought I'd offer some comparison pics with the Britannia 20mm M35 that I painted some time back.

The Britannia model is a solid model with a removable rear canvas, built for gaming.  I finished mine in OD and painted the canvas in some horrible green that suggests that I might have been drinking my paint water at the time. 

The Academy model is a finely detailed plastic model kit with quite a number of finely detailed fiddly pieces.  It builds up into a fine looking model, though may be a bit too delicate to handle  for some gamers.  It comes with a canvas top for the cab (which I did not use), but does not come with the canvas for the cargo bed. 

The Academy kit is a little longer than the Britannia model and the wheels look noticeably larger, but  either is obviously recognizable as an M35.  Here are the pics:

 

 

 

The Britannia model is to the left in the photos above, the Academy model to the right.

 

 

The Academy model is at the top in the photo above.

 

 

The Britannia model on the right with canvas cover on the cargo bed.

The academy kit comes with benches for the cargo bed, but I did not assemble them.  They are very fiddly by gamer standards. I also left the rear view mirrors off and removed the exhaust stacks from the right front fender during painting, as these parts had no hope of surviving my handling on the table top.