Bit of Scratch Building - S-300 Reloads

 First up an apology for not posting anything for a while.  I've actually been doing plenty of painting and gaming, including running demo games at Southcon in Dunedin, but all of this has been heavily WWII focussed so I've not posted any of it here.  Cold wargaming doesn't seem to be a thing here, but it's still my go to No. 1 interest - so I'll keep plugging away when I get the chance.

Back in January - here - I posted a review of the 4D Models KrAZ-260B Tractor and the MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer.  I bought it with the intention of using it for some as yet unknown scenario as a tank transporter, but more particularly to create this:

So my first post-WWII for quite a while was to have a crack at it from scratch - just using Evergreen Plastic rod.  I'll warn you, this is the biggest and most complicated thing I've ever tried to scratch build - pretty basic I imagine by many other peoples standards - and I don't have much patience for this kind of thing - but here it is anyway.

That's the basic structure.  Now add some missile Containers:

Now add the set to the semi-trailer:

Now add the truck/tractor:

All lovingly displayed on our kitchen table!

Once the weather here clears up a little, all of this will be getting a basic paintjob and will be ready for the table.  Setting up for a solo game right now!

Thanks all.

See you sooner than this last effort!

Richard

Sticking to the Dutch 3D Print theme...

 Just as the title says, today I'm sticking to the Dutch 3D printing theme. 

As part of an ongoing, soon (I hope) to be revealed project, I needed a couple of Dutch Leopard 2A4s.  Fortunately I had a couple of very old Matchbox Leo 2 kits, which I was able to "quickly" make.  As if I do anything quickly!

One of these kits came with West German smoke dischargers, which would look like these:

Originally I thought I could convert these to look like the Dutch smoke discharger layout, which I knew to be different, but couldn't quite remember how.  So I looked it up:

or a bit closer:

So not much chance of converting what I had to look like that!

Fortunately I stumbled across a designer in Cults3D who had already designed a set for 3D printing.  It can be found here.

Now what follows are not the 2 greatest photos I've ever taken, but you should get the idea of my new Dutch Leo 2NL turrets, with proper smoke dischargers, an FN MAG (just blu-tacked in place for now), cam nets and a wire reel like in the photo above.

I will take better photos once the model is complete, but the 3D printed smoke dischargers are exquisite and came out beautifully.  Once again I'm very chuffed with the result.

Thanks

Richard

The Shape of (Dutch) Things to Come

 I've always wanted to do a Cold War Dutch force in 20mm but with no plastic kits available for their primary IFV, the YPR-765, I'd always put if off.  I'd found some resin kits out there, but these were way to expensive, and I didn't like the quality of the 3D prints I'd seen available for sale.  None of the STL files I've found looked particularly great either.  I'd even talked to a couple of 3D print designers about doing a YPR-765.  But that never went anywhere so I was happy to simply hold off.

However, after some email chatting with Mr M. Bergman of Thingiverse and Wargaming3D fame, all this is about to change.

Here's my first print of his soon to be released line of YPR variants:

This is an early version of the YPR-765 PRI 25mm.  A later variant will also be available, along with the PRAT, the PRGWT and you can easily make the PRI with the .50 cal cupola instead of the turret, the various command vehicles etc.

The print is not 100% perfect, but that's down to me (and my total lack of expertise) and the issues I'm having with my printer.  I'm going to reprint the turret to hopefully fix the rear of it, and I'll be cleaning up the lines on the side as best I can - but beyond that I'm totally chuffed with this model.

Just for comparison purposes here's the Bergman YPR beside a Bergman M113:

So if you've been holding back from running Dutch, or Belgians or any of the other nations that fielded (or min the case of Ukraine, are now fielding) these terrific little vehicles - think again and keep a look out for the STL files.

Happy hunting!

Richard

The Berlin Project - Infantry and Urban Bases - Part 3

 OK... This is a little embarrassing.  Part 1 and Part 2 of "The Berlin Project - Infantry and Urban Bases" happened back in October 2017.  Those of you paying attention to things like, time, will quickly realise that its been almost six years between parts 2 and 3!

To start off with back then I painted 3 figures (loosely forming a Machine-gun Group) and here's the photo to prove it:

Today those figures look like this:

Not much has changed.  However, I've finally managed to finish the other members of their section - the Rifle Group, lead by their NCO.

Put them together and you have a whole section:

Here's a couple of contextual shots:

I also completed the Machine-gun Group of the next section.  It's kind of a little vignette.

That's it for now.  I have a big WW2 painting project coming up, but will still add some more Cold War models shortly.

Thanks

Richard

4DModels KrAZ-260B Tractor and MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer Review

 Once again it's been a while.  Preparations for Christmas, visitors and then my wife managing to severely break her ankle just before New Year has meant a pretty busy couple of months for me, and not much time for anything too gamey.

I did have a couple of moments of purchase based stress relief which brings me to today's topic.  For a while now I've wanted to get some kind of Soviet tank transporter/trailer.  I've been looking at the TAKOM offering, which seems quite nice:

and also I say Trumpeter were coming out with this:

which also looked pretty nice.  The thing is, I wanted it for a very specific purpose.  To create this:

I wasn't sure that the S-300 missile tubes would fit on the back of either of the Takom or Trumpeter trailers and I wasn't really willing to pay top dollar for something that may or might not work.

To cut a long story short, one day when randomly having a look around, I stumbled across this kit by 4D Models:

I was a little wary as some of the kits made but this company are basically crap, but when I saw I could get this for less than $22NZD, I thought why not give it a go.  The pics of the completed model looked OK and reviews were generally positive, so I thought the risk of the S-300 tubes not fitting was a risk worth taking.

The box arrived remarkedly quickly from China, a little battered but nothing inside was any worse off.  Here's a look at the back of the box:

Inside were 3 sealed plastic bags of parts and the instructions

Everything was there and nothing was damaged or warped.  In the first bag you got loads of tires.

As you can see they are glossy black with green hubs.  They fit together nicely and are easy to clean up.

The other parts are as below:

and

Interestingly you can see in the second photo that it comes with a transparent piece for the cab's windows and 7 metal rods for the tires.

The tractor goes together very simply and gives a nice simple wargaming standard model.

I couldn't be bothered painting inside the cab - I was in a bit of a therapeutic rush - so I'll be spraying the whole model, only after removing the wheels.  You can see the holder for the spare wheel on the back of the cab.  You end up with 3 spare wheels I think.  You have to make up 17 in all.

The trailer was actually even easier and together, I think they look pretty damn good.

Now of course I checked to see if the S-300 missiles fit on the trailer as they should - and yes indeed they do!  Just for the hell of it I also took out a T-72 to see how it looked on the trailer.

Sorry about the generally crappy photos!

So review time.  First the positives:

• Super cheap
• Ridiculously easy to put together
• Solid wargamers kit
• Scales well
• Basically does what it says on the tin
• If you were really really lazy you could almost get away with out painting it!  Oh the horror!!

Negatives

• It's pretty chunky and there is of course a lack of fine detail, but personally I think the positive of being a solid (rather than fragile) kit outweigh that
• Sink marks.  There are quite a few sink marks on this kit.  Some I'm happy to ignore, but some are in quite prominent positions.  I guess all up I can live with them and hopefully hide most of them!
• The metal rods - while perfectly useful and much better than plastic, unless I'm doing it wrong, they are to long for the wheels on the trailer.  A relatively easy fix, but until that is done it makes the trailer look a bit toy like.

So all in all, for what I want it for I am very happy with my purchase.  Really its a bit of unnecessary frippery but I do have a very minor role in a game planned for it and I just think it's cool to have it.  I'm not sure it would have any real use as a tank transporter in a standard wargame - but will be useful scenery if some "behind Soviet lines" type games.

Now I just need to sort out my many painting issues and get on and paint it.

Thanks and belated Happy New Year

Richard