October War - IDF - WIP - M113 command and TRV

Back to some work for my own collection, again more "back office" vehicles for the IDF in the Sinai. I have been working on the M32 TRV and the command versions of the M113.

The TRV is a basic Battlefront M51 hull with the addition of a Spare skytrex M32 superstructure/ turret. ( the remainder Skytrex M32 is destined to modified with the disc mineroller assembly, at some point.....)

As you can see there's a lot of plasticard additions, I haven't religiously copied any one reference, hopefully just enough to capture the vehicle in miniature.

Quite a bit of work required at the back end, again not up to Rivet counting standard but a good representation. I will add more detail in time, particularly the tarp covers and recognition panels, and it needs to be messier!

Not sure at the moment how to base this one, either as a standard base for game play or more of a vignette for table aesthics, either way I will need to convert some crew.

Here we have the start of two M113 command vehicles to serve as battalion and brigade commanders vehicles. The idf modified these quite heavily so there's still lots of work to do but my reference library is growing. I am finding it difficult in general to establish vehicle timelines with IDF modifications, the inevitable result of a adapting to continual war footing, so hopefully there's no '82 mods here.

I am building these with the top decks free as these will be a two part paint, interior and exterior so they are just placed on for the time being.

An interesting little detail is the commanders cupola rotated so that the hatch opens to the side. Opening to the rear will cause it to clash with the map board assembly. 

This does mean cutting the 50cal mount off, repositioning and adding a missing visor, detail that will inevitably lost!  also note the removed aerial guards another IDF mod.

I've started on the rear stowage boxes and as you can see some rudimentary benches and interior. These have been fabricated using the unused track guards! I'm not going too heavy on the interior detail, mainly what's visible through the hatches. 

These will be modelled, one as battalion command moving ( ramp up) with the top map board in use and the brigade one will be modelled stationary with two map board boxes deployed at the side, ramp down, again a dilemma on basing:

• the Battalion command will be a standard base, in keeping with rest of the battalion;
• the Brigade command will be a slightly larger ensemble, probably alongside a jeep, and at some stage a Revel Bell Huey will be painted up to represent a command "runner".  My current read ( On the Banks of the Suez :Adan) highlights the significant employment of helicopters to move officers between the various command groups.

As with all this work I will need to modify some figures but am keen to add a Peter Pig dog sculpt on brigade base !

As always, comments welcome especially to correct any build errors.

Neil

15mm - Panzer46 - Katchen Zug - Forged in Battle

Interestingly little bunch.... heavily modified Forged in Battle "Katchen" APC's.  These sport a "46" camo scheme used on some earlier work, I'm getting quite fond of the late war green base coat, nice change from dunkelgelb.

 I've mod'd this one into a command vehicle, extra radio sets, aerials, stowage and tarps/zeltbahn ( and yes I know the zelt scheme isn't authentic, it is '46 license!)

Mixture of figures used, mainly Battlefront but also some Peter Pig. As you can seen the belt sander has been used to remove those awful FiB bases,

I'm not sure the origins of this turret, it came additional with some other vehicles, so I added it to the set, I'm sure its of sc-fi origins but actually looks quite in place.

I made up a "objective" base, in all honesty in response to an oversight with the belt sander! So now its bogged down APC with the crew frantically trying to extract it, hopefully I've managed the figure flow so it looks as if they are responding to each other, always key to a successful vignette.

I have a clockgoblin german walker coming through, almost done but just not enough to catch this photo call, and a larger commission of some more Heer46 beauties with some interesting camo, which I think you'll like! watch this space.

As always more picture up on my flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/troop-of-shewe/albums/

and again, need the shelf space so POA or offers to the usual address.

 

15mm USA Walkers - Clockwork Goblin

 

 

 Two USA Walker Mech's! finally finished.....

 

 

 

I'm still on a 15mm "What-if" roll, this time with some modified Clockworkgoblin US Mech "Walkers"

 These are lovely two piece casts, and so open to modifying. Ive only done minor mods with some subtle stowage and converted crew figures ( peter pig and skytrex)

This is Ursus support walker, I think the "stars and stripes" add a nice touch, these are repurposed 28mm paratrooper decals.

I've used micro magnets to hold the body and leg sections together, this has the added advantage of being able to traverse the body slightly.

As always, loads more picture up in the usual place on flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/troop-of-shewe/albums/

 

and there's email alert functionality to the right ------>>>>

 

 Earlier WIP blog post:

http://troopofshewe.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Clockwork%20goblin

 

I've had my fun so these are up for sale, POA or offers to :

 

neil"at"troop-of-shewe.co.uk

20mm ZSU - 57 - 2 WIP ( a pig of a build!!!!)

Bit of a change this post, have included quite an extensive Work in Progress Picture board for two resin ZSU-57-2 AA tanks, destined for indo china. I forget the manufacturer, but its a pig!

These two pictures are of the paint to date, this is what I consider my base layer, all the basic airbrushing is complete prior receiving a sealer coat and then the detailing.



As you can see its a multipart build and paint due to the amount of detail required to be painted with the turret. The turret baskets are separate as I have two spent shell piles to out in them which I clearly cant paint in situ.





 These two shots show the build in progress and the complexity of etched brass, converted resin crew and replacement bits and bobs due to fragile resin breaking. Pretty ugly at this stage


What you cant see is the subassembly with the wheels, this was completed separately, and was an absolute pig, the hulls had to be drilled out to accept the turret cage and then a floor reconstituted, The tracks needed heating to conform to the shape and were very troublesome to say the least. What you wont notice was that chassis wall behind the wheels and tracks was coated with a light mud texture at this stage as its easy to apply when separate.



Here we have the test builds to prove the turret cage and superstructure fit together, I hope you note all the brass grab rails, made even more difficult as they curve around the corners of the turret.



All the bits together, you can see the fabricated chassis decks added.

 

Just to prove my point on the grab rails, note also they all need to be the same size!

 

 

Here we have some pics of the pre-shading, initial grey "plastic primer" ( Halfords) undercoat to unify all the materials, and then a black undercoat, this is then work up with greys and whites to make a pre-shade.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully you can see the effect, although not the best photo!



Here's the paint in progress, the yellow bits are Tamiya masking tape to keep the inside nice and white, without overspray. I had intended to use some MIG/AMMO specific rusky paints for this but wasn't happy with the colour so reverted to good old Tamiya mixes.



These pictures show the base coat applied, I reinforced the pre-shade with some post shade lighter mixes. The weathering process considerably darkens the initial colours, so a lot of the contrast will be lost, hopefully giving a realistic finish. So often modulation techniques are overdone resulting in a lovely technical artistic interpretation, fine as they can be, I've not seem much cubist art in my reference pictures. These are for the table top so they need to be shaded and weathering in context

 

I sneaked in a up-mod'd S&S models 15mm MT55, which you may have seen in previous posts. I used this as the guinea pig for the green tones as this will be sealed and then a top coat of middle east desert yellow will be applied, heavily chipped I think......