M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Platoon

 After completing the M1 Platoon, the next logical step was to complete an M2 Platoon.  A bit of armoured infantry can never go astray and in 1/72 I can use these vehicles as either M2 BFVs or M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicles - so two platoon options for the price of 4 models - not bad.

Like the M1's I've owned these vehicles for quite some time and only just now felt confident enough to stow and paint them.  Pretty sure this lot includes 2 Dragon diecasts, 1 Trumpeter kit and 1 Revell kit.  I have a feeling the Trumpeter kit is the only one you can show with the commanders hatch open.  Could be wrong...

So here the platoon as a whole:

Now broken two to two sections.  The Platoon Commander's element:

And now the Platoon Sergeant's element:

And now some individual vehicle shots:

So that's this lot of M2's done.  Like the M1's there's plenty more left to do, but I think I'll be moving onto to more infantry of a new platoon of M113's in MERDC next.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

Soviet Trucks

It's been a while since I posted some newly completed stuff so today I'd thought I'd post up some Soviet trucks I either built & painted, repainted, or simply fixed up a bit.

I mentioned I recently had an article published in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy Issue 106.  I needed to take some photos for the article so I decided to add a few new vehicles and tried to make a couple of old vehicles look a bit more realistic.

Just over 3 years ago (hard to believe) I bought this Fabbri MAZ 535-A Artillery Truck:

Obviously I didn't want something that wouldn't have looked out of place in a May Day Parade for my photo which was supposed to be in the middle of a war in Norway.  So I repainted it.

That looks a bit better to me

I also had a what I think was a Trumpeter Jiafeng CA-30 fuel tanker which was part of a large swap I did years ago.  It had no instructions - but fortunately also came with Soviet markings.  Well it is an exact copy of a Zil-157 fuel truck.  So I built and painted it to provide fuel for the generators of my SAM Battery.

Sadly the decals were 20+ years old I reckon so they fell apart as I applied them.  All I was able to salvage is what you can see and there is a bit of silvering.

Finally I had ICM Ural Command Vehicle that I built here 10 years ago (geez) and it was very clean so I tried to weather it a little with a couple of new techniques (new to me anyway).  Here's how it came out:

So all in all I'm pretty happy with that lot.

Thanks

Richard

T-55 Platoon

Next up is a T-55 Platoon.

Obviously this is made up of 3 T-55s.  As the Britannia ones were so yucky, and I had previously built a Trumpeter kit and found it to be very straight forward and you end up with a lovely tank - I decided to go down the Trumpeter route.  I also decided to find some Easy Model T-55s which are basically diecast versions of the Trumpeter kits.  The plan was to get a couple of pre-builts and one kit which would be used as the Platoon Commander's vehicle.

I ended up picking up these two Easy Model kits quite cheaply on ebay:

These would obviously need to be repainted...

So then I built the kit - which I then realised that I had already known that the Trumpeter kits don't come with any open hatches...  Bugger!  That ruined that plan...

So my remaining option was to only repaint one of the T-55s and leave the other as the "different" looking tank - to mark it out as the Platoon leader's vehicle.  As the prime reason for doing this was for use as Soviet Naval Infantry, attacking Norway, I decided to leave the "snowy" tank as is and repaint the one with the big cross on the turret.

I did of course jazz up the "snowy" tank to try and help make it look more like the others:

Comparing the tanks of the left and right hand sides I can't tell (from simply looking at them) which is the diecast and which is the kit.  You can when you pick them up though...

While I was doing the weathering I decided to re-weather my T-55 with mine-roller tank so it looks similar:

So that, along with the PT-76's, is the start of my armour for my Soviet Naval Infantry.  Next up will be their troop transports.

Thanks

Richard

Recreate a photo/movie scene - Build Part 1

Well, instead of the planned Soviet SP Artillery Battery which are still sitting around waiting for decals and weathering, I had an attack of the "shiney syndrome" and jumped into starting my planned entry for The Guild's current build - Recreate a photo/movie scene.

I had wanted to do something that I could also use for gaming, but couldn't find the "right" picture - so the other day I was down at my local hobby store when I spied this

for just $14 - a total bargain.

Ideas started to swirl around in my head and after a bit of internet surfing I came up with these two Cold War-esque photos that I would try to recreate:

and/or

At another hobby shop I picked up this cheaply:

So putting that all together - so far I have:

Hard to believe these 2 planes are the same scale!

Now I have to start painting and the weather in Sydney at the moment is not conducive to spraying...  Lets hope showing this W-I-P isn't cursing the project from the start!

Oh well, have fun...

Richard

Trumpeter T-55 with KMT-5

In the past couple of years I've made more plastic kits than I previously did in the last 20 years.  Some have been agony (ACE Models - I'm looking at you) some have been tricky (Revell Marders and Leopard 1A5s - I'm talking about you) and just one kit really stands out in my mind as both an excellent model and incredibly easy to build.  And of course that model is the Trumpeter T-55 with the KMT-5 mine roller.

Typically I take a few days to build a model - yes I am very slow - and therefore I also normally try and build 2 models at once, which kind of mitigates some of my slowness.

However, I popped open the Trumpeter box and built this little beauty in a couple of hours.  Which - you can see - is lightning fast for me.  I had previously been thinking I would just build the mine roller (which looked a little intimidating) and attach it to a T-72, but decided in the end to just build the kit straight from the box and see what happened.

So obviously I am very chuffed with this kit - I just now have to go back and fix up the main driving light onthe hull which I painted ina quick and fairly dodgy fashion - mainly just to finish off the build.

So here are some pics of my Trumpeter T-55 w/KMT-5

That's all for now - next up my Stalwart and then onto the next build which is plodding along slowly.

Thanks and have fun

Richard

Task 3 Bits and Bobs - Completed

Well I've managed to finished my next task for the 2012 Guild group build.  The curse of the Work-In-Progress thread did not eventuate - however I had to drop off the West German Biber and the F-19 GhostRider until some later date as I needed to get some other things done before going away for a month.

So anyway - here is the completed Build:

The build includes:


At the back - S&S T-55 AVLB or MTU-55 with spare deployed bridge

In the middle from left to right - MMS Stalwart, S&S Warrior ARV, Trumpeter T-55 with KMT-5, Cromwell Models Chieftain Mk5 ARV, Cromwell Models FV434

Front - Cromwell Models (I've been informed - sorry about the misinformation Andy) Ferret

I'll post up a range of individual pics and close-ups over the course of the next week or so.
 
Thanks and have fun...
 
Richard

Bits & Bobs - A Work-In-Progress Part 3

Here's a little more progress... 

First the Soviets:

And now some BAOR vehicles:

This pic is a lot more yellow than reality - but I'll deal with that once I post up the finished pics.

That's all for now - maybe some more over the weekend.

Have fun...

Richard

Bits & Bobs - A Work-In-Progress Part 2

I was able to get a bit of work done on the build over the weekend.  Primarily spraying the undercoats and base coats, and doing the first cam stripes on the British vehicles.  Also managed to pin wash the Soviet and British vehicles.  I've decided to leave the West German Biber to last - just in case I run out of time...  Bettter to finish some than try and do them all at once and get none done!

Anyway - here are the Part 2 pics:

and

Sorry about the crap photos - but it was done very quickly.

The Ferret is actually 99% finished - I may takes some better pics of it this week.

On with the show...

Have fun

Richard

Bits & Bobs - A Work-In-Progress Part 1

As anyone who reads this blog would be aware, I'm a member of "The Guild" and am currently taking part in their year long group build.  I've completed the first two parts and now we are up to Task 3.

I've previously (well this year anyway) decided against doing work-in-progress posts for the Guild group builds, simply coz it seems to totally put the mockers on anything I'm attempting to do - but as putting the particular task together has taken so long I've had nothing particularly new to show for a while so W-I-P it has to be.

Lets hope this doesn't all end in tears...

So heres some pics of my "Bits & Bobs" Task 3 build so far:

and...

Obviously it's heavily leaning towards engineering and support vehicles with a couple of odd things like a Ferret and a F-19 Ghostrider!  Coolness!

That's all for now - wish me luck and have fun...

Richard