As I suggested previously, they will simply be Mk1 and Mk2 versions of the car with different turret configuration and a couple of slight differences in the hull. Unfortunately, that is all I have to share for now.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
A Little Progress on my Rides (28mm Sc-fi Recce Cars)
Haven't had much free time lately, so I haven't been able to do much, but did manage to work on the second turret for my 28mm sci-fi recce cars.
As I suggested previously, they will simply be Mk1 and Mk2 versions of the car with different turret configuration and a couple of slight differences in the hull. Unfortunately, that is all I have to share for now.
As I suggested previously, they will simply be Mk1 and Mk2 versions of the car with different turret configuration and a couple of slight differences in the hull. Unfortunately, that is all I have to share for now.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Rides Update: 28mm Sci-fi Recce Cars and Other Progress
The second vehicle type for my old imperial guard figs is the Recce car. I went back and forth during the design between something more similar to the French VBL and something closer to a WWII armored car. I ended up opting for the more WWIIish design.
The vehicle has a three man crew with seating for 5-6 in a pinch. The small turret carries a light auto cannon and a drone for detecting the bad guys is carried on the rear deck. Here are a couple of pics of the current progress:
I've also made some progress on the wheeled APC, particularly on the hull front and sides, and a little on the smaller turret:
And the last photo with all three of my sci-fi vehicle types, including the larger tracked APC from awhile back, to give a size comparison.
I think the second recce car may get a different turret. The first one is mostly done and came out okay, but I liked the look of it better on the drawing. The other version that I sketched out looks a bit more like the turret of the BTR-80A. I figure the cars can be a Mk I and a Mk II. We'll see.
The vehicle has a three man crew with seating for 5-6 in a pinch. The small turret carries a light auto cannon and a drone for detecting the bad guys is carried on the rear deck. Here are a couple of pics of the current progress:
I've also made some progress on the wheeled APC, particularly on the hull front and sides, and a little on the smaller turret:
And the last photo with all three of my sci-fi vehicle types, including the larger tracked APC from awhile back, to give a size comparison.
I think the second recce car may get a different turret. The first one is mostly done and came out okay, but I liked the look of it better on the drawing. The other version that I sketched out looks a bit more like the turret of the BTR-80A. I figure the cars can be a Mk I and a Mk II. We'll see.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Rides for my Old Imperial Guard Figs (WIPs of a 28mm Sci-fi APC)
Been working a bunch again, but squeezing in a little hobby time, whenever I can. High on the to-do list are rides for old Imperial Guard figs.
In order to be mobile, my Guard company need a bunch of vehicles, including APCs, a command vehicle, and scout cars. I've had a number of designs setting about for a long time, so in recent days have reworked a couple of the old ideas a little.
The regular squads will get a six wheeled APC/MICV with a light auto-cannon in a low profile turret. The platoon HQs will get a version of the same vehicle with a larger turret with a heavier gun. The command vehicle will be a boxier version of the APC with raised superstructure and no turret, and the scouts will get two copies of a completely different four wheeled recce car with turret and light cannon, and will also carry a drone.
Here are a few WIPs of the APC and the two turrets, the first two photos show the PHQ turret as it was being shaped:
I need 13-14 of these things, so am going to make a master and cast it in resin. Tires, gun barrels, and hatches will be separate pieces. There may be other separate detail parts as well.
The weapon mount on the small turret will be behind and to the left of the hatch opening. The larger turret has a big weapons pod on the left side, with the entire pod moving to elevate or depress the gun.
The big turret still needs some shaping to soften the lines, but I'm not sure that I'm going to go with it. The rounded cast shape sort of clashes with the angular shape of the hull and small turret and I'm not altogether sold on the split turret idea either. After I get more done, I'll see how the hull and turret look together and decide then.
In order to be mobile, my Guard company need a bunch of vehicles, including APCs, a command vehicle, and scout cars. I've had a number of designs setting about for a long time, so in recent days have reworked a couple of the old ideas a little.
The regular squads will get a six wheeled APC/MICV with a light auto-cannon in a low profile turret. The platoon HQs will get a version of the same vehicle with a larger turret with a heavier gun. The command vehicle will be a boxier version of the APC with raised superstructure and no turret, and the scouts will get two copies of a completely different four wheeled recce car with turret and light cannon, and will also carry a drone.
Here are a few WIPs of the APC and the two turrets, the first two photos show the PHQ turret as it was being shaped:
The PAC with the roughed out PHQ variant turret.
With PHQ turret close to final shape.
With low profile turret for regular APC
And better view of the hull.
The weapon mount on the small turret will be behind and to the left of the hatch opening. The larger turret has a big weapons pod on the left side, with the entire pod moving to elevate or depress the gun.
The big turret still needs some shaping to soften the lines, but I'm not sure that I'm going to go with it. The rounded cast shape sort of clashes with the angular shape of the hull and small turret and I'm not altogether sold on the split turret idea either. After I get more done, I'll see how the hull and turret look together and decide then.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Dawgies's Men - Part 2
Eighteen days into 2015, and I have equaled my total painting output for 2014. "Dawgie's Men", my 28mm old GW Imperial Guard (mostly) army (not for 40K) is painted. Well, the troops are painted. They still need rides, but that will come later. Right now they are table top ready, though I have one step before they are truly finished.
In addition to the troops shown in my last blog entry, I added the company headquarters (six more figs that I had left off of my painting tray originally), and a recce section (another six figs), which are also painted. The complete company now numbers 120 figs, though I am missing two figs from one platoon HQ, which I will have to find and add later in the year.
Anyway, here are Dawgie's men:
The majority are old GW Imperial Guard figures, with about half having some sort of conversion work done on them. There are also a few newer GW guard figs, and an assortment of non-GW figs sprinkled throughout.
One thing I still need to do, is to add their names back onto the bases. I've experimented with painting them on, but my brush "writing" is inconsistent, so now I'm considering doing it with a paint pen. Hopefully, I'll have that done in the next week. Then they can join battle in the wastes of the post apocalypse or defending colonies on new worlds.
In addition to the troops shown in my last blog entry, I added the company headquarters (six more figs that I had left off of my painting tray originally), and a recce section (another six figs), which are also painted. The complete company now numbers 120 figs, though I am missing two figs from one platoon HQ, which I will have to find and add later in the year.
Anyway, here are Dawgie's men:
The entire company; CHQ in front, recce on the extreme left,
1st, 2nd, and 3rd platoon left to right with PHQs in front of
the respective platoons.
Close up of the CHQ
2nd Platoon HQ
Troops from 1st Platoon
The majority are old GW Imperial Guard figures, with about half having some sort of conversion work done on them. There are also a few newer GW guard figs, and an assortment of non-GW figs sprinkled throughout.
One thing I still need to do, is to add their names back onto the bases. I've experimented with painting them on, but my brush "writing" is inconsistent, so now I'm considering doing it with a paint pen. Hopefully, I'll have that done in the next week. Then they can join battle in the wastes of the post apocalypse or defending colonies on new worlds.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Dawgie's Men: Preparing Old Imperial Guard Figs for a Return to Action
My Imperial Guard first saw action in the late 1980s, just one game before a long stasis in a box on the shelf. Every few years, they were to be reborn for a game, usually picking up a few new new troopers, only to return to stasis. Most recently, they saw action against my daughter's orks during her "Space Ork" phase. Now, the space orks are collecting dust, as she is in her "I like working on '60s and '70s muscle cars" phase.
Anyway, several years ago I bought a large number of old IG from an internet acquaintance who some of you probably knew as Baddawg6, Baddawg, or just plain Dawgie. Got about a hundred of Dawgie's old figs, mostly GW old IG with a few others worked in as well.
I bought them at a great price, without seeing them, figuring that as long as they weren't painted in winter or chocolaty brown camo, I could work them in. And worst case, I could always repaint them. I received the figs, decently painted, with lots of minor conversion that added nicely to the figs. Too bad that they were in a slightly reddish chocolate brown camo pattern. It just didn't work with my old figs, nor my terrain. I was in no rush, so repainting wasn't a big issue.
As always, too many projects, not enough time. Years passed. One day, Dawgie posted on the Post Apoc Wargames forum that he was going in for some medical stuff, and we might not hear from him for a little while. Dawgie was special, and I miss him greatly.
When I finally sat down to repaint them, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum. Dawgie had named his troops, I mean like named the individual troopers. I already felt bad about repainting the figs, but the idea of erasing the names of his troops really bothered me even more. Silly, I know. So, his troops sat on the shelf a bit longer.
Recently, I finally decided to repaint them, and organized the figs, mixing my old figs with Dawgie's to building a company of 114 figures. The figs were sorted on a painting tray. I filled out a chart, noting names and details of the figs, so that their identities won't be lost while receiving their new uniforms.
As it turns out, 74 of Dawgies old figs are in my new unit, which really sort of makes it his unit. As such, the "Old Dawg" will be the First Sergeant of this company, thus they will always be Dawgie's men".
Over the span of several weeks, I managed to strip the figs of paint, using a combination of Easy Off oven cleaner and Simple Green. Free time has been scarce in recent months, so I found myself getting up at 5:00am, excited to be working on my hobby, scraping paint off of little men before going to work. Sad really.
The Easy Off works pretty quickly, loosening a lot of the paint, but not getting into deeper crevices very well. It is also really unpleasant to work with. I only used it, when I first got started, to allow me to work on a small number of figs during the first couple of days. After the topical cleaning, the dozen of so "Easy Off figs" went into the vat of Simple Green with the others.
Figs were soaked for anything from about six hours to six days, requiring varying degrees of attention with paper towels, a couple different dental picks, and/or a toothbrush. Some required two or three rounds in the Simple Green. By the way, Simple Green breaks down the super glue joints and softens the green stuff putty.
While preparing to paint, I discovered that I was long out of the original Polly S green that I used for the uniforms. So, the basic paint scheme will involve cloth portions of the uniforms getting a coat of Vallejo Russian Uniform (very close to the original) with armor and gear generally being Model Master Dark Green. Some will get a yellow/tan irregular "ring" (almost leopard spots) camouflage on the green cloth. My old figs will get some additional gear and updated uniforms with more shading to better match the "new" figs. Below is a photo showing a couple of my old figs in the original uniform (circa 1987), pretty basic.
I'm guessing that it will take until some time in January to complete the painting and will post a follow up then.
In time I plan to add a recon section and a support section from battalion, maybe another 15-20 figs total. They will all need rides as well, but those will come later, a good 2015 project.
Anyway, several years ago I bought a large number of old IG from an internet acquaintance who some of you probably knew as Baddawg6, Baddawg, or just plain Dawgie. Got about a hundred of Dawgie's old figs, mostly GW old IG with a few others worked in as well.
I bought them at a great price, without seeing them, figuring that as long as they weren't painted in winter or chocolaty brown camo, I could work them in. And worst case, I could always repaint them. I received the figs, decently painted, with lots of minor conversion that added nicely to the figs. Too bad that they were in a slightly reddish chocolate brown camo pattern. It just didn't work with my old figs, nor my terrain. I was in no rush, so repainting wasn't a big issue.
As always, too many projects, not enough time. Years passed. One day, Dawgie posted on the Post Apoc Wargames forum that he was going in for some medical stuff, and we might not hear from him for a little while. Dawgie was special, and I miss him greatly.
When I finally sat down to repaint them, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum. Dawgie had named his troops, I mean like named the individual troopers. I already felt bad about repainting the figs, but the idea of erasing the names of his troops really bothered me even more. Silly, I know. So, his troops sat on the shelf a bit longer.
Recently, I finally decided to repaint them, and organized the figs, mixing my old figs with Dawgie's to building a company of 114 figures. The figs were sorted on a painting tray. I filled out a chart, noting names and details of the figs, so that their identities won't be lost while receiving their new uniforms.
As it turns out, 74 of Dawgies old figs are in my new unit, which really sort of makes it his unit. As such, the "Old Dawg" will be the First Sergeant of this company, thus they will always be Dawgie's men".
Over the span of several weeks, I managed to strip the figs of paint, using a combination of Easy Off oven cleaner and Simple Green. Free time has been scarce in recent months, so I found myself getting up at 5:00am, excited to be working on my hobby, scraping paint off of little men before going to work. Sad really.
The Easy Off works pretty quickly, loosening a lot of the paint, but not getting into deeper crevices very well. It is also really unpleasant to work with. I only used it, when I first got started, to allow me to work on a small number of figs during the first couple of days. After the topical cleaning, the dozen of so "Easy Off figs" went into the vat of Simple Green with the others.
Figs were soaked for anything from about six hours to six days, requiring varying degrees of attention with paper towels, a couple different dental picks, and/or a toothbrush. Some required two or three rounds in the Simple Green. By the way, Simple Green breaks down the super glue joints and softens the green stuff putty.
While preparing to paint, I discovered that I was long out of the original Polly S green that I used for the uniforms. So, the basic paint scheme will involve cloth portions of the uniforms getting a coat of Vallejo Russian Uniform (very close to the original) with armor and gear generally being Model Master Dark Green. Some will get a yellow/tan irregular "ring" (almost leopard spots) camouflage on the green cloth. My old figs will get some additional gear and updated uniforms with more shading to better match the "new" figs. Below is a photo showing a couple of my old figs in the original uniform (circa 1987), pretty basic.
I'm guessing that it will take until some time in January to complete the painting and will post a follow up then.
In time I plan to add a recon section and a support section from battalion, maybe another 15-20 figs total. They will all need rides as well, but those will come later, a good 2015 project.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Finally Painted Something
Since my last post, I've been squeezing in a few minutes here and there, when I can, for either cleaning old miniatures or painting new ones. It is my painting after all, so understandably, nothing special. But, I have finally painted something this year, and am celebrating with a blog post.
First up is a batch of nine Bradleys.
Still need to do one more to complete my company. As it turned out, I didn't have a set of usable tracks for the last one.
Next is a batch of Soviet vehicles which will see double duty in Mugabia (one of my African Imagi-nations).
The BTR152s and T34/85 are my own castings, while the BTR60s, GAZ 66, and GAZ 69 are from QRF (all very nice castings by the way).
And lastly, some M60A2s, VBLs, and ERC90s.
First up is a batch of nine Bradleys.
Still need to do one more to complete my company. As it turned out, I didn't have a set of usable tracks for the last one.
Next is a batch of Soviet vehicles which will see double duty in Mugabia (one of my African Imagi-nations).
The BTR152s and T34/85 are my own castings, while the BTR60s, GAZ 66, and GAZ 69 are from QRF (all very nice castings by the way).
And lastly, some M60A2s, VBLs, and ERC90s.
Many of my resin castings were rejects with some sort of casting defect. Most were easy to fix, though a few, I just let go. Despite either getting up at 5:30 am, or on a couple of occasions, pushing myself to paint after 12+ hour days at work, it felt good to finally get something done.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Resurrection of My Painting Table
Didn't do much gaming related this weekend, but did have a bit of a resurrection of my painting table. It has been lying dormant since my Christmas debacle ten months ago, and today I plugged it in, and, it still runs. Didn't really paint anything yet, but took a little time to assemble and prime 13 or 14 vehicles today. Now I have just enough space to start painting in the next few days.
Quite a menagerie; 15mm Bradleys, M60A2s, various Panhard armored cars and APCs, a few BTR152s, some QRF BTR60s, Eureka modern Russians, a 28mm ranch style house, a 1/72 OV-10 that needs decals, two 1/100 OH58s waiting to be built under the OV-10, a couple masters for casting in the middle (M-ATV and Gaz TIGR), a few SFB (Kzinti, Lyran, and Klingon) ships in that pile in the center along with some 15mm civilian cars, a 28mm sci-fi police hover car waiting for "Police" decals, old Imperial Guard waiting to be stripped and repainted on the tray to the right, some space maroons needing some work just beyond the IG, and quite a number of other things covered with so much dust that I don't recognize them yet.
Lets see if I can finish one of them this year.
Lets see if I can finish one of them this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
