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!

28AUG10 N-scale/10mm vehicle discussion

I've recently discovered that N-scale works great for the 10mm wargamer in some respects, and vice versa; depending on the company making the product! However, I obtained these N-scale 1:160th scale vehicles due to my wife and father in law being into N-scale layouts (which also make good wargame tables... or wargames tables make good places to set up N-scale layouts... Good justification to the wife for setting up a 10mm armor collection and playing surfaces!). Besides, thats been a dichotomy between two hobbies for decades. I'm behind the times in learning these little tricks! For more on scale, check out the Wikipedia article about wargaming and hobby scales! I know I've got to put a bookmark there myself...

First off, lets knock out vehicles that are okay for wargaming, but really, really, really would piss off the most precise type A personality realism N-scale hobbyist! Noble Miniatures makes some N-scale "Trackside Treasures" vehicles of which my wife purchased me the WWII US Jeeps (TT-2101) and 1940's Studabaker 2 1/2 Ton Trucks (TT-2117).




What I like about these, is that they are durable enough that I can probably transport them and play games with them without concern about anything breaking. For the N-scale model railroader, the molding will drive you insane! I had a mold mark 1/16 of an inch halfway up the canvas cover on the back of the deuce and a half i assembled! However, for the wargamer, this is a minor problem. We like realism and quality molds too, but its not as critical to wargaming as it is to realistic model railroading. Both of these vehicles took me only a few minutes to clean up and assemble with some CA glue. Do be aware, they do contain lead. Don't let your kids play with them like toys, and take precautions you always take with lead (though I'm sure the EPA will ban these figures someday...). You'll best find these kits at your local model retailer as if you go to the manufacturers website, its not entirely user friendly and geared toward the dealer and not the modeler... Not a bad thing as its intended to give your local dealer your business!

Finally, we come to the masterpiece. I doubt there is a more experienced company producing high quality kits and accessories for both wargamers and model railroaders than GHQ! While I know them best for their Microarmor, I was pleasantly surprised when I ran across their M1A2 kit (GHQ Stock # 58003) at my father in laws favorite train store in Omaha NE. I've known about the kit, just didn't see it until I was there. My jaw just about hit the floor, and I had to buy two kits... and a flat car... and some chain... And I had the intention of mounting them to said flat car for my wife's train. Until I assembled one!

Now I think I'll need to get a few more... At least to start an Armor Company, and get some Bradley IFV's and Modern US Infantry to go with them! Then I'll make a flat car load...

The stainless steel photo etched racks were intimidating to me at first, mainly because I've got very limited experience with photo etched parts (see my Stryker article for my first experiences!). However, for as small as they were, they went together VERY WELL, and were indeed pre-scored at the fold points where required for ease of construction. The casting on the turret was darn near perfect and required little clean-up. I had no problem finding the small holes for the photo etched parts to be glued to!

I'll take the GHQ vehicles on and off the wargames table any day! The detail they can pack into that small package, and the fact that the PE parts are stainless, makes it both highly realistic and durable for the wargamer. Obviously, the most type-A realism model railroader would be exceedingly happy with the minimal work they will have to put into super detailing these tanks for their railroad!

Here are all of the vehicles for a good realistic size comparison. Each square of the cutting mat is 1/2".

Not bad, obviously the Abrams dwarfs them both! I remember my days as a 'crunchy' as the tankers would call anyone not in an Abrams! Anytime I was out in the field at Ft. Riley or the National Training Center and heard the sound of an Abrams approach, I'd wake from a dead slumber and ensure that they weren't coming at my humvee without noticing I was there!

09JUN09 AFV Club's M1130 CV TACP Stryker in 1:35th scale!

A recent trip to my local hobby shop, Models Enterprises in Fairbanks, surprised me immensely. I found a 1:35th scale M1130 CV Stryker by AFV Club. That in and of itself is no surprise. What did surprise me however was the fact that they included parts to turn the CV into the TACP Stryker! I was one of the first Airmen in the Air Force to work out of one of those variants, my squadron at the time, the 3rd ASOS, and our brigade the 172nd Stryker Brigade were the first to receive this particular variant! Here is the AF.mil article dated 05MAY2005!

USAF Photo

Personal Photo

Let me give you some of the details about the TACP variant rollout that the AF.mil article, and the Pentagon News Channel didn't go over. Or actually, the fallout from the rollout footage and article...


USAF Photo


Personal Photo

As you can see by the camera man on the left side of the photo in between Strykers, the Pentagon News Channel filmed the event also! However, that lead to CMSgt of the Air Force (at the time) Murray seeing his Airmen wearing 'a damn Army uniform'. This resulted in a phone call to the 354th Operations Group Commander bitching about "What the hell are my Airmen doing wearing a damned Army uniform" (rumor... call is true however) which resulted in our squadron being informed NOT to wear ACU's and get DCU uniforms ready for the deployment. Fun, my DCU's were from 2002 and still had my Airman First Class stripes on them along with my Ft. Riley 1st Armor Division (3rd BDE was there in 2002 until recently when the 1st Infantry Division returned to Ft. Riley). I remember running around on Eielson AFB in DCU's for a couple weeks until a call came down informing us that we could wear the ACU's that were issued to us for this deployment!


Personal Photo

Now, on to the kit!

The four shock absorber covers on the lower hull, parts P-10 and P-11. Somehow, I managed to fold them correctly...


I assembled the photo etched parts (P-10 and P-11 respectively) that go over the shock absorbers pretty easily. The highlighted part is P-7, the photo etched bolt and washer. As long as you cut them out carefully, on a piece of wood and use your finger nail to hold them in place, they don't go flying. I managed to use moisture on my finger tip to pick them up and place them roughly in the right spot, then used my hobby knife to get them right where I wanted them before the CA glue dried up.


Here are some styrene bolt/washers that came attached to the side of the parts sprue A. These were the worst to attempt to work with mainly because I had to carefully shave them off without losing them! After that, aligning them was the hardest part. However, as you can see here, the results were rather rewarding!


This is as far as I am right now, I do have a large portion of the lower hull completed as far as drive train and axles in place, that will be another article here shortly.