01JAN2021 Paper BMP continued (Part III)

 As promised, albeit too many months later (and at 2AM on the first day of a new year), I have returned to bring some more paper craft goodness to the blog.

Today, I'm going to show some photos of my laminating process and some of the details that worked, and some that didn't go as planned...

Figured I'd show a couple things that didn't initially go well, namely the vents.  For these I attempted to use regular typing paper of my templates and slice slots where I would insert a flat object while the paper was wet and drying on the hull.  It sorta looks like vents, that got stomped on by a careless soldier during a hail storm...  Yeah, I'll find a way to make good looking paper vents...  Someday...  Until then, don't do this.

Next up, this is what worked.  I guessed, and made a good assumption, about the thickness of card the next few details needed to be when they got glued onto the hull, and on top of each other.  Wicked simple, realistic, and just damn good looking.  Sometimes you just have to wing it and guess how thick you want each layer in a detail to be, or replace the paper with a found object like a cotton swab stick, toothpick section, or candy stick (for cylinders).  Next up I used a toothpick to carefully dab a drop of glue onto each rivet head detail of each layer of detail.  Again, you have to think ahead a few parts and try to add such rivets to the lower level of lamination before adding parts on top, otherwise you might not be able come back and get those rivets in place because your tool wont fit in some spots!

Tracks were pretty easy and strait forward, just tedious.  I cut out the strip on a single sheet of index card stock for the base of the track.  For each tread, I cut a strip from my cereal box stock the with of the tread pad, and then cut hundreds of strips to glue into place on the track before wrapping them around the road wheel/drive/idler assembly (thankfully those weren't individual details as well...).

Finally, we get to start making magic happen.  Here I used a dark burnt umber while assembling to get the lower recesses that gave me a hard time the first time I built this model (seen in the background in a few places).  By the time I got to the third one, I just left the tracks assemblies off completely until everything was painted!  Learning to think ahead by pre-assembling saves time later as you find these recessed areas and pre-paint before assembly (especially the insides of gun barrels and exhaust tubes...).

24NOV19 Continuing and Finishing the Fire Giant

So, continuing reight along here I have my lower body painting process documented with pictures.  My chain mail rendering leaves much to be desired at this point, and so far...  My dry brushing got away from me and got into the depressions and didn't stay on the surface as desired...  So, going to bac to learn that method in the future, at least with chain mail!

I was quite happy with my mix of orange and yellow for the bronze and the use of three layers of turqoise for the gems.  Sure, being a Fire Giant maybe I should have gone for reds and other warmer colors...  But I like the contrast better this way.  Blame too many hours of Skyrim?

Here is the euipment belt with the knife in detail.  Three shades of just about everything but the leather.  I lighted all the paint with Ivory instead of white, and so far have never been upset at the results.  Always tends to leave me the option to highlight (either the color I mixed with Ivory mixed with white instead, or in the case of the knife handle that was painted Ivory, just white on the Ivory) with white paint later for the really shiny materials later!

Pre-final assembly, Giant and his loot for the discerning delving party to (try) to aquire from him.

Assembled and looking pretty sharp there!  Pardon my poor photography here.  That is in the works...  Base is pretty basic, just a simple 50mm round I found on Thingiverse and 3D printed for now.  I'll try to find, or make, a suitable dungeon style base in the future!

Detail of his face.  Hair was a base of Raw Sienna with orange (fire) highlights to drive home the Fire Giant heritage along with the red eyes and soot black skin.

Fire Giant stands heand and shoulders over the others!  Looks better than the earliest miniature I painted (up front, a GW LotR, second row back would be Reaper, with a WizKids Deep Cuts Fire Elemental [posted earlier] on the left and a Reaper Bones Minotaur on the Right).

23NOV2018 Tossing stones!

Tossing stones with a Wizkids Deepcuts Medium Earth Elemental!

T-55 AMV in 15mm Udate! 08SEP18

So, a while back I mentioned picking up platoon of Battlefront Miniatures Arab/Israeli Wars "Fate of a Nation" T-54/55 tanks for us on the Arab side of that conflict in 15mm game form.

Well, I have an update!

You can see I printed out Takom/Mig's free paint guide, and I scaled a photocopy of George Bradford's "AFV Plans: Cold War Armored Fighting Vehicles" from Stackpole Books.  In this case, it was the older T-55AM update to the venerable system (skirt armor, additional turret armor, electronics) which was the update closet to what I was looking at.  At any rate, the scale drawing gave me a great template from which to measure.

For the skirt armor I used .042" sheet styrene (Evergreen).  I approximately scored the the seams where the skirt plates are separate with carbide tipped scribing tool (mostly used for machining where you layout your metal parts, but re-purposed for the hobby bench like most other hobby tools).  These sat around for a couple years with the rest of the kit.  Finally, a couple weeks ago they got pulled out and super glued to the resin body assembly of the Battlefront kit.  After these parts dried, I pulled out good ol' green stuff two part epoxy and went to town sculpting the ERA (explosive reactive armor bricks).  While the green stuff was curing on the hull assembly, I worked on the turret ERA and laser designator/enhanced optics over the main gun.  I had done  the main gun a while back with the skirt armor.  It was by far one of the easiest tasks for this project.

I'm not entirely happy with my lack of detail.  But then, they are 15mm game miniatures.  There must be a bit of compromise between detail and ability to pick it up and move it around on the tabletop battlefield.  That, and I just wasn't up to the task with my life in its current state of perpetual busyness.  I wouldn't compromise the parenting part of that for the world.  After all, my older sons follow along to the game shop and play games, that or pester me at home!  So, I'm 1/3rd complete on the conversion side!  Sure, it takes me more time to do so these days, but that is fine.  The point is to keep doing it because I love it.  It's a hobby, not a job.

Red Forces now include insurgents!

One would perhaps think it odd that someone like myself would be painting 15mm miniatures of enemies he faced in Iraq about 10 years ago, mostly because those same enemies still occupy parts of Iraq under a different name (but from the same root organization)...  But somehow, I'm not bothered by that as much.  I figure that gives me a slight edge in knowing how to paint and play them using various rules systems and exploiting the advantages of being an insurgent as opposed to a uniformed force.  

That, and I can paint them how I want, and justify it by personal experience...

These are the awesome Khurasan Miniatures modern middle east line (http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/modern-middle-eastern.html), starting with AFGHAN-WEP-COM, which are the PK and RPG armed squad.  I figure they can form the basis of what I call the CAKTs, or Chechen Armor Kill Teams (for further reading, anything by Lester A. Grau is recommend: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/rusav/rusav.htm & http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Rusn_leslrn.htm).  I plan on following the concept of teaming RPG/PK gunner teams across an urban landscape some day in the future on the war games tables.

What can I say, I'm a student of history, and that is the biggest draw of wargaming for me.  Simulate history, and see how you react.  

Here are more detailed miniatures in Central Asian (i.e. Afghan/Pakistani/Caucus region garb) from Khurasan Modern Combat series (Item MOD-2) containing a terror cell leader hiding in the mountains (BinLaden style) and a stereotypical hostage (screaming objective marker, because capturing hostages feels better than smashing a terror cell just for a laptop the might contain real world intel worth seizing more a stupid journalist who sympathized with sociopathic murdering 13th century religious fanatics just to get a scoop for the Times...).  Sorry, can't help with the commentary sometimes...

As we have come to expect, Khurasan hires great sculptors and casting companies, and my photography attempts and poor paint job do no real justice the incredible detail of the miniatures.

I unified my red force irregulars with khaki trousers (you know, the old school Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment type from the 70's/80's that were left lying around...) and either desert style or woodland style camo jackets (again, more eastern European style camo, left lying around after a withdraw from the region in the late 80's/early 90's).  So, early war stuff.  Digital camo is hard to capture in 15mm.  But even the dots of paint can be construed as that at this scale!

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.

11DEC13 Where is Sudsy?!

Well, I just wanted to let my followers know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (yet, though I keep trying to convince my wife we need to take the kids and exit the earth gravity well and live on the Moon or Mars...).

Obviously, not much time for games and the like.  I took to continuing my education and am currently in the Winter Quarter of my first year in obtaining my Associates Degree in Applied Science.  I'm going into Precision Machine and am going nail down a job as a machinist.  Considering the way 3D printing is going...  That is going to be where I'm going to try to grow.  I already see 3D printing in the gaming world alongside sculpting and resin casting!

Speaking of sculpting, I've become addicted to Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary web comic.  Here is a fan sculpture and learning sculpture of a 28mm version of on of his characters, a Unioc named Lt. "Ebby".  If you read the strip, you'll know who...  If not, well I'm not telling you much beyond that to get you as hooked as myself!

 Nearly finished green

 Phase 2

Phase 1