15mm PostWar T34/85

I know that there are a lot of nice 15mm T34/85 models already out there, but since I need a bunch of these for various armies of the Cold-War era and for my fictional African campaign, I decided to make my own. 

Over the years, I have read about various differences between wartime and postwar production vehicles, making mental notes about some of the differences.  I ended up referring to information from private owners of T34/85 postwar tanks and found that much of what I had read was not exactly true.  In the end, my T34/85 only has a couple of obvious features that might distinguish it as a postwar vehicle, but regardless, I'm pretty happy with how it is shaping up and thought I'd post a couple of pics.

The only obvious postwar details visible (almost) in the top photo is the sharp edge to the hull front and the arrangement of the headlights.

There is still a fair amount of detailing to do, and the tracks don't look like much yet, but if I can get a couple more hours free, I should have it done.  I'm not sure that there will be enough interest to offer this one for sale, but I'll probably need about 60-70 of them for all of the stuff that I want to do.



My Only Pics from Fall-In '93

Back when I had free time and less debt, I used to go to a lot of gaming conventions, up to a dozen per year.  I believe it was in '93 (though feel free to correct me if I am wrong) that HMGS-East ran their first Fall-In historical miniatures gaming convention in Gettysburg, PA.  I went to the con with a good friend , had a good time, saw lots of great games, and took a few pics. 

For anyone who went to the con, one the the memorable things was the endless rain that tried to drown the convention.  I fondly remember missing the shuttle from the hotel to the convention center, and then splishing my way across the inland sea of Pennsylvania, while trying to inhale more air than rain. 

Recently I stumbled across two pics that we took on the return trip from Gettysburg. Unfortunately, I can't find any of the pics of the games from the con, but the two that I found are not something that you see everyday.  We were heading back to US 76, but I can't remember the route that we were on.  During that leg of the trip we saw quite a number of rock slides along the highway (due to the rain), including this one:

Although we didn't get him in the photo, the most ironic thing about the sight was a county worker, just out of the view to the right, that was attempting to sweep up rocks with a push broom.  I hate to think of what this might have been like, had the driver been there a second or two sooner.  As it was, it didn't appear that there were any injuries, other than the to the car.

ERC 90 F4 Sagaie Progress

Long time, no post.   With time in short supply (as aways), I've slowly managed to near completion of my 15mm master of the French ERC 90 armored car.  I still need to finish the wheels and do some clean up work, but the beast is basically done.  Here are a couple of pics:

And an overhead for size comparison with a US M2A2 Bradley and the French VBL armored car.

This is one of my all-time favorite armored vehicles, and I will be very happy, when  I can add these to my French forces for my fictional African campaign.  It is very sleek, like a Corvette with 90mm cannon.  Check out the cool video at the bottom of the page here. 

The complete model will consist of 9 pieces; hull, turret, gun tube, and six wheels.  It will take a couple of weeks to get through the mold making, assuming that I don't stumble on to any glitches in the casting process (the gun tube may be a pain).  Next up for completion is the M-ATV and post war T34/85.

The Valley of the Goblins

This is a re-post of a page from my old website.  A couple of people have asked where I've moved my site to, and the problem is that I haven't gotten around to it yet, thus my re-posting of the pics.

My Valley of the Goblins has no green-skins, or other fantastical critters.  It was inspired by the rock formations at Goblin Valley State Park in Utah.  The park may be overlooked due the number of amazing national parks in Utah, but is well worth the stop if you have opportunity.  The photos below may also seem familiar as it was the site of the not quite abandoned mining colony in the movie Galaxy Quest.

The goblins for my tabletop came in two phases.  The first was done as part of a contest for an online discussion group.  I used the photo below as inspiration for the project...

...and built the following.

The contest called for the construction of a religious site, so I added the walkway which lead to idols, including a "giant" birdlike idol that stood in the cave.

I always try to make terrain as flexible as possible, so the various parts of the terrain piece were made in a modular fashion , breaking down into the separate pieces shown below.

A couple of years after doing the original piece, my daughter (aged 9 at the time) and I sat down and added some more goblins to the valley.

The project isn't really done yet, as there are several other unique goblin formations that I still want to add, as well as some more of the lesser "troops".

All were constructed from  blue extruded polystyrene insulation foam.  Small pieces of foam were glued up into blocks with spray adhesive (3M Styrofoam adhesive, or Florabond brand), then cut to rough shape with a hack saw blade, further shaped with a surform tool and coarse sanding block.  Deep cracks were added with the Foam Factory stylus, and the final shapes were sanded relatively smooth with a small orbital sander (Minicraft, old Black and Decker mini sander, Mouse sander, etc will work). 

They were then "primed" with an artist's acrylic paste, and painted with acrylic artist's paints, and then coated with Testor's Dullcoat.

The Goblins have served well in 28mm near future, alien world, and fantasy games in both desert and jungle settings.

15mm Laffly W15TCC WIPs

I recently delivered a master of a 15mm french Laffly W15TCC tank destroyer to Craig at Gaming Models and thought I'd post of a couple of pics.  These were taken a little before completion.

Craig is currently going through a major mold replacement project, so it might be a little while before he gets the next batch of new items added to his page, but there are more coming, in the short term, particularly for the Japanese forces.

I've been out of town for several days, but prior to that had been quite busy working on my ERC90, which is coming along nicely, and on a M-ATV for my modern 15mm forces.  Once these guys are out of the way, I'll get back to my post-apoc terrain, and probably start assembling some of the 1/100 aircraft kits for use in my modern African campaign, which has sat dormant for almost a year.

Waltzing with Matilda in 15mm

In addition to my own projects, I have made a small number of masters for Gaming Models over the years.  One such project is Craig's upcoming 15mm Matilda I.  I've actually had most of this one done for some time, but have been piddling around with making the track assemblies, which have taken more consideration than most vehicles, due to the way the mostly fenderless tracks stand out from the hull.

Anyway, I'd thought I'd share a couple of pics.  These were taken when I was near to being finished with the hull and turret, but before I had done much on the track assemblies:

This has been an interesting vehicle to build as it feels very "Victorian", similar to the French Char D1 and Char D2 that I did sometime back.  Something about these prewar designs always strikes me as being so ugly, that they are attractive.  I'll be turning the Matilda I over soon, so that I can get on to some other early war projects. 

The Matilida will be available soon along with the rest of Gaming Models 15mm line of WWII vehicles and landing craft.

ERC 90 Begins to Take Shape

When I started gaming my fictional modern African campaign, among many things I began looking for 15mm modern French armor.  And, I was really surprised to find how few modern French armored vehicles were available in 15mm. As a result, I began my quest to fill some of that gap for my French, African, and Middle Eastern forces.

I am currently working on several vehicles, including the Panhard M3 apc, the VAB, and the ERC 90 armored car.  As it turns out, I am making the most headway on ERC 90 (probably because it is just the coolest armored car out there), and thought I'd share a few WIPs of it.  So here Goes:

It is still in the early stages of construction, but with the fenders finally roughed out, it has really taken shape.  In these photos, it is setting on wheels from my VBLs, and is setting just a little lower (maybe .06 or so inches) than it will when complete.  The VBL is for size comparison.  The ERC 90 is very sleek looking, but has a noticeably larger footprint than the VBL.

This side view shows it with two Peter Pig US Marines (which are just outstanding figs if you haven't seen them).

And lastly, the overhead view shows the footprint comparison between the VBL and ERC 90.  Still bit rough, but I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend.