T-55AMVs in 15mm Complete!

It only took a couple years from purchasing the base kit, through starting to cut my first pieces of styrene for the skirt armor and adding the first reactive armor bricks in green stuff, to painting!

But I am pleased with the results.  Not high grade sculpting, not scale model quality, but great table top gaming quality (i.e. you can touch them, and drop them, without worrying too much about damaging them much).

Details are from the third tank I did.  When I got around to this one, I had the process of sculpting the armor down to a science (or near enough), and am most happy with the level of detail I achieved.  I almost exceeded my goal of conveying these were the upgraded T-55s through a minimum of detail...  Yeah, I really wish I felt I could have spent more time to do these better.  However, I did compensate for the lack of sharp sculpted detail with some paint highlights that force the perspective, and the results are more impressive than I was looking for!

Painting included the use of Krylon Camo tan for the primer, and then my usual assortment of Delta Ceramcoat acrylics (Dark Forest Green, Trail Tan, and then highlights), and Game Color (gun metal metalic).

This platoon is ready for action in the Fulda Gap with Team Yankee, or some third world brush war in the modern era with Force on Force!

2017 Welcomed in the Dungeon, SEAL Direct Action Team with JTAC painted

New Years was spent playing the WotC boardgame Dungeon (the 2012 version anyway) with the boys.  Instead of playing with the cardboard pieces WotC uses, I pulled in some of my Khurasan Miniatures Tom Meier Collection Fantasy Master Pack 15mm Miniatures.  Not only are they top notch sculpts, with penny bases, they worked out great on the Dungeon board as well as adding excitement for a 6, 8, and 10 year old boy.

15mm Tom Meier Sculpts from Khurasan Miniatures taking on WotC's 2012 Dungeon

To match the cardboard pieces, I've painted the penny bases with the colors of each class based on the color of the cardboard counters.  Red for Wizard, Green for Rogue, Purple for Fighter, and Blue for Cleric.

I also finally finished my SEAL (or other SOCOM) 8 member team.  I decided to keep it simple and do desert colors.  This reflects the use of camo by the Dept. of Navy, be they SEALS or MARSOC, or even Army and Air Force from tri-color DCU days.  At any rate, this eight member team includes one sniper with M-14, an M-249 SAW gunner, a JTAC with radios (and whatever might be flying in a few hundred mile radius that can drop something...) and 5 members with M-4 carbines.  Given rules for most games (for example, Osprey/Ambush Alley Force on Force), even those 8 members, properly utilized, are a force to be reckoned with!

I was very pleased with the acrylic ink wash I used instead of wood stain this go around.  For one thing, drying time is minutes, not hours!  Once again, on both sets of miniatures, I mixed used, dried, coffee grounds into the burnt umber paint for the bases.  Perfect 15mm ground texture for a rocky arid environment!  I'll have to find the link of the guy who got me into doing that... 

30DEC15 ACU in 15mm Followup Comments

Here were my first choices for replicating ACU using acrylic paint.  My cover, with SFC rank (a rank I obtained with the Alaska State Defense Force, I only ever made SSgt. in the USAF on Federal Active Service) was worn a lot and reflects a bit of the UV light exposure and field conditions with some cleaning done on it.  Obviously, it was nowhere near as bad as the cover I wore in Iraq that I sent to the USAF Museum along with my ACU's....  

Delta Ceramacoat Ivory, Dark Forest Green, and Hippo Grey mixed best to replicate the 1:1 scale reference source.  Ivory was the best base coat, mixed in with drops of grey or green as looked good at the time under a full spectrum Ott Light I use at my desk.

Here is the Khurasan US Army 15mm miniature that I have painted to be a USAF TACP (Tactical Air Control Party, AFSC 1C4X1 or the old 275X prior to 1994 or so) to fulfill Force on Force game role of TAC (terminal air controller).  Base coat was Ivory with some Dark Forest green (I'd venture to guess 15 parts Ivory, 1 part or less Dark Forest Green).  I used strait Trail Tan to paint the Interceptor Body Armor (IBA), boots, and backpack along with any web gear pouches.  Why?  Well, in 2005/2006 when I deployed with the 172nd Stryker Brigade, we had ACU uniforms and DCU or Coyote Tan everything else.  That means IBA covers, backpacks, web gear, and PPE (personal protective equipment like goggles and knee pads) hadn't caught up to the new ACU Universal pattern.  Boy, was there ever a mix of uniform camouflage schemes.  Wargamers simulating the "Surge" era and just prior shouldn't feel compelled to make US Army forces all wear the same gear types.  Depending upon when a Brigade Combat Team arrived in country, there were huge variations in uniforms.  Black, woodland, and DCU components can be spread liberally along with ACU Universal pattern for that period of 2005 through 2007.  Marines even had variations in uniform types, our ANGLICO counter parts wore desert pattern Marine uniforms with Coyote Tan IBA and web gear, but had the usual Marine camo backpacks as per 2nd MARDIV SOP at the time.  They go special permission, with their critical mission, to wear Coyote Tan assault packs to carry radios.  Uniformity has its limitations and disadvantages.

On my foreground mixing palette, you can see my base coat of the Ivory and Dark Forest Green.  I also tried, and I emphasis TRIED Foliage Green and found it mostly useless for the time being for ACU.  However, the gloves on the other hand might be painted with this color as it matches the Nomex or Kevlar gloves a lot of guys wore.  Gloves can vary even more so than other uniform components.  I've seen crazy mechanics gloves on Infantry grunts before.  Have fun!  

When I painted equipment, I added black to the Hippo Gray until I was happy with the color.  I figure I shouldn't use strait black on the miniatures themselves, and this will help with highlighting later.  I obviously opted for NVG's on all but my heavy weapons guys (who fires and AT-4 or Javelin with NVG's up anyway?  Well, I never did, so if you did, sorry, I ran out of NVG's and didn't put them on the Javelin guys or Sniper/Designated Marksmen).  I think they add a bit to the miniatures along with getting the point across that most, if not all, US units went out with NVG's when I was in Iraq (a result of lessons learned in Mogadishu, yes we ALL watch "Blackhawk Down").  Pardon the Transformer toy in the background.  Optimus Prime is watching over these fellas.

So far I'm pretty pleased.  I might use more green in my base for future ACU miniatures, or hit these guys with more of the green.  You really cannot see my efforts to put some of the light foliage green using a higher percentage of green in my Ivory base.  That is a problem.  Right now, they look like DCU's or Marine Desert more than ACU universal.   

29DEC15 Stryker Dismounts in the Works

As you can tell by the photo, I'm really taking some time to match my old ACU cover as I paint these guys.  Getting it just right for 15mm is interesting to say the least.  There will be no pixelated effect on these guys.  They are just too darn small (15mm foot to eye height, tall for 15mm but still tiny none the less).   Hopefully you can read the labels on the Delta Ceramacoat bottles.  Those colors are mixing beautifully and matching.  Ivory in particular provides a great base coat to add the greens to and get the desaturated colors I'm looking for. 

I will follow up with more details later as time allows.  Right now I'm blogging on my tablet and not liking the Blogger app and my lack of ability to create my content with pictures as easily as I can on the desktop/laptop.

Late Soviet/Early Post-Cold War Russian Mech Infantry Platoon

Figured I'd post progress of my first 15mm historical force. 

These are those BMP-1 dismounts I might have mentioned earlier.  I painted them using references from a late "Soviet Military Power Power" (1990, US DoD publication) an article on Turkmenistan in the mid-90's.  About that timeframe, the Late-Soviet/Early Russian Federation forces were fielding a camoflauge uniform similar to BDU to replace the aging khaki green based uniforms they had worn since about World War II. 

Clearly, I'm taking liberties.  By this time, the late 1980's to mid/late 1990's, Russian forces were more likely to be in BMP-2 or BMP-3 wearing this uniform instead of BMP-1. 

Artistic license on my part.  It's wargaming, not history.  Sure, the hobby mixes the two and strives for both in accuracy, but there is some give and take for flexibility of play.  Those BMP-1's can be used in lieu of BMP-2/3's even if they are visually different.  The same could be said of the infantry.  Part of why I enjoy Ambush Alley's Force on Force is it doesn't matter so much if these dismounts are armed with AK-47's or AK-74's.  They operate on the same principles.  Troop quality and morale matter more than the guns they carry. 

Game theroy aside, I enjoyed painting and basing these guys.  Both the vehicles and dismounts are Khurasan miniatures.  I'm very happy with the quality of their product, and continue to purchase items from them.  Being an American gamer, I appreciate the American (or at least North American) supplier of fine historical and science fiction/fantasy 15mm miniatures!

BMP-1's and Mech/Motorized Dismounts: http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/modern-russian.html 

Sadly, I missed the fact that Khurasan has BMP-2's under a different area along with T-72's... 

09JUN15 15mm Strykers

Before getting my BMP's from Khurasan, I received my QRF Strykers from the American dealer, Scale Creep Miniatures.

 Wasn't it nice of them to send me a couple of suckers?!  As you can see, I ordered three Stryker IFV, Infantry Fighting Vehicles (or is it Variants?).  These are your 'vanilla' Stryker variants, and the basis for all other variants.  There are lots.  But only the IFV's in 15mm for now that I have found.  At least for the moment.  Though in 10mm, I've seen the others, such as the Mortar Carriers, Engineering, Scouting, and others.  Common 15mm makers, catch up!  Lets just say, they are on my bucket list...  I'm a proud Styker Brigade Combat Veteran after all.

I'm pretty happy with the level of detail QRF put into these Strykers.  All hatches are modeled closed, and the bodies are pretty solid (they are 'hollow' in that on the underside they are open to save material and reduce weight).  This is not a limitation for me, as the rigors of the wargaming table would result in damage to any open hatches in this scale!  They certainly were made to be handled on the table.  Being pewter, once assembled, they commend the weight and respect traditional pewter gaming miniatures just feel they have.  It almost makes you want to use lead fishing weights on those plastic kits...

I cannot say the quality of casting was perfect.  There was quite a bit of cleanup required.  Just look at that Ma Deuce (Browning M2A3 machine gun) on the RWS (Remote Weapon System).  This barrel is shorter than spec, and tappers horribly.  I'm going to have to either live with it or cut it off and finagle a new barrel out of a needle or pin.  The racks along the rear of the hull (they aren't the standoff slat armor, and if they aren't racks, they got used that way anyway) required some pulling into shape.  The cooling of the pewter resulted in these being slightly warped.  Really, that was a minor nuisance.  One expect that from pewter, and even resin.  Some of the mold lines required some filing.  Based on the single piece cast in pewter, it was to be expected.  I didn't need any filler, again, a result of a single piece casting.  Small scale has its advantages.

OUCH, barrel melted...

Tires required a bit of cleanup on the bottom.  Not a big deal again considering they are cast from pewter.  These shapes don't always lend themselves to good mold lines.  I had to test fit and file a few to get them pretty level.  These miniatures almost don't need a base, but for uniformity they are likely going to all get glued to a 2.00 x 3.00 inch base (metric people, 25.4mm = 1.00 inches).  

Once cleanup was complete, assembly proceeded without any hitches other than assembler error with gluing the RWS onto the top of the first Stryker before priming and painting.  Don't do that.  You need to leave the RWS off so that you can rest the model on its top to prime and paint it fully.  

What the RWS and Ma Deuce should look like...

While there are some quirks to QRF's product, it is indeed solid and serviceable for the wargame table.  In fact, I'd say I'm very happy with the level of detail they put into these models and I won't hesitate to buy more when the time comes to expand my vehicle collection.  I just hope they make some more of the other variants.

07JUL2015 "BIMP" spotted...

Soviet designed, and very first, Mechanized Infantry Fighting Vehicle (MICV) BMP-1 that is.  This one is a Khurasan Miniatures  15mm/1:100 scale version.  I ordered these back in May, and they were worth the wait.  Khurasan is a small miniature company based out of New York (the state, not  the city).  While small in corporate footprint, their work is nothing less than spectacular in the world of 15mm wargaming on this side of the pond (as the majority of the hobby is produced in merry ol' England).

Being a fan of Osprey's publication of Ambush Alley Games "Force on Force" and "Tomorrows War" I jumped at the chance to spend my tax return money (thankfully I got one this year...) on a good force.  Having spent some time in service in the USAF TACP training to hunt Soviet trained and equipped forces (no matter how long the Cold War ended, American and Soviet methods and equipment are still the two most proliferated in the world, even with local modifications and upgrades), I decided to dig up some TO&E from an old manual (FM-100-2-3) and make a Mechanized Rifle Regiment (MRR) rifle company.  Another good reference is the suggested force list in the back of "Force on Force".  I like the FM reference a bit more, with some added information from sources that have come forward since the end of the Cold War.  I've read about extra machine gunners attached to platoons, and in the Warsaw Pact Forward Area MRRs facing NATO, a couple of extra BMPs at the company level carrying laser/optic jamming gear.   Such variations are to be expected, as any good military organization can be that flexible.

Good cast parts on the BMP, with some 15mm QRF Strykers
in the background...

I ordered three BMP-1s from Khurasan along with their Motorized Rifle Platoon set of miniatures.  I look forward to getting the miniatures done next.  Today I'm going to discuss my building of the first BMP.  Upon opening the plastic bag and pouring out the parts, I must say I'm very impressed by the quality of the resin casting from this small company.  Very little cleanup was needed compared to other resin parts I've worked with from bigger manufacturers.  Just some slight mold lines here and there to tidy up, and the mold sprue lines were sized just right to make them easy to remove with just a No. 11 hobby blade and not have to grind with a rotary tool.  Mold lines were so well chosen on all the parts, including the pewter, that I hardly spent any time scraping or filing.  I did have to clean a bit of the sprue from the rear of the vehicle to make room for the doors.  If you look closely enough, you will see that Khurasan made the master with a very good 3D print.  This does not effect the detail in any way, as being familiar with armored vehicles, slight imperfections are only going to add to the realism when they are painted.

A close inspection of the deck shows the 3D printed pattern of the master, dwarfed by many fine details
including the drivers periscopes and screws holding the vents and other panels in place.

Only a little cleanup needed here.

Assembly was pretty easy.  I did have to reference some photos of BMPs to ensure I got the right door in the right spot.  I thought about making the doors open and getting some crew figures, but the rigors of handling during a game would make that a bit labor intensive on the constant repair side.  Last thing I want to do in a game is fix a miniature or lose a part.  I am only worried about the the AT-3 on the turret over the barrel.  In 15mm, these are TINY and don't have a lot of surface area for glue to form a bead and hold it in place.  Caution will need to be exercised when handling this piece!  Keep the super glue solvent handy along with tweezers, this is a part you will likely glue to Mr. Hand during assembly.  For once, luck was with me and I did not glue myself to the project leaving 1:1 scale finger prints.

Assembly went well with the tracks fitting the body of the BMP with a tighter tolerance than some more expensive plastic kits I've built in the past.  The only gaps were the along seams that exist on the real vehicle.  No filler putty was required.  Each of the road wheels could be glued into place along the bottom of the body, however I like the way the tracks were flexed slightly on the bottom.  This can add to the model when based on the appropriate terrain, as few armored vehicles I've ever seen have perfectly level tracks in contact with the earth.

Pewter parts attached to resin with good points of contact along hatch edges and hinge points.  Troop commanders door was a bit rough though, being a half moon shape, it fell into the hatch a few times.  Good candidate for gluing open for those who choose to do so.

I look forward to priming and painting this kit.  Khurasan Miniatures are well worth every penny and any wait to receive.

BMP-1 from Khurasan completed

BMP-1 from Khurasan, rear troop doors.