Tinkering with ..... Battlefront Iranian Chieftains

 

Yet more Chieftains! Iranian reinforcements!

Following up on the ArmiesArmy Chieftains, I now have a load of BF plastic Chieftains and am most impressed, generally....

 

So, 

The pros.... 

• plastic format allows loads of conversion potential, 
• excellent detail, 
• nice crew set, 
• separate track guards.  

The cons...

•  ( just my opinion) the turret front angles need sanding over as they have too prominent an angle, 
• the smoke dischargers are awful. 
• Only one hatch open

 

The plastic format allows me to depict some very tired and abused vehicles as seen in reference photos of the Iran Iraq war. The mods so far...

• Removed all smoke dischargers ( am making new ones)
• Filed the turret fronts to remove the pronounced angle 
• Opened up some additional hatches
• Added crew, so far just from bits box, but more to come
• Added numerous tarpaulins and crew stowage 
• Added an initial layer of sandbag armour, more to come on this front, stalled until the dischargers are complete
• Distressed and removed track guards 

 

So very much a work in progress and a "flavour" of things to come at this stage

 

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Tinkering with..... S&S Models 15mm Ural Radio Trucks

 

Slowly getting back into the detailing after the Xmas break, tinkering with the new 15mm S&S Models Ural truck Radio / Office body for the zvedza Ural truck.

 

Speaking with Shaun the body has been designed to be deliberately generic, there are multitudes of real world options it would keep him busy for at least a year.

Strictly zvedza truck is slightly late for the October War project, so am battling with my inner rivet counter  whether to use it or not ( will try the body on a QRF Zil at some point ...) , however it will fit in nicely for my Iran Iraq project. 

I've decided to build one "as it comes" from S&S !(the one with the lime green cast) and the other two I have modified the rear doors to depict versions with a rear wheel stowage.

I anticipate modelling a large radar array on one, and I expect a radio mast on the other. 

 

As you can see I've opened up the cabs on the zvedza trucks, moderate work and I may well regret this later when I have to glaze them! 

 

Anyway just a sort intro into the build..... 

Iranian M113s - WIP - part II

My headless Iranians are no longer! The Peter Pig order arrived promptly as always and I set about added the American M1 helmets, which I think are my best option.

I got the green stuff out and added quite a few scarfs, these probably have a proper name but are prevalent in most pictures and videos of the period.

Some minor stowage work as well, usual random tarpaulin sheets and on one some make shift sandbag protection .

It's been quite a bit of work, but I think the end result will be worth it, am really liking the look of these. 

I do have the figures for a Pasdaran and a regular Infantry battalion now, but they will have to wait a bit for commission work.

That's these for now, they will migrate into a building batch ready for priming .

Neil

Tinkering with...15mm BTR-D SPAAG Armies Army (Kickstarter)

Sometimes I buy on aesthetic impulse, these BTR-D SPAAGs from Armies Army were just that! The ubiquitous ZU-23-2 has some many options, so I ordered a few. First up are two BTR-Ds with the 23mm mounted, one centrally, one at the rear. 

I added some details around the AA piece, primarily crew seats (a crewman is supplied) and mudguards, I'm not going for 100% accuracy, these are 15mm gaming items after all.

The second was mounted more traditionally, at the rear, again only minor mods just for flavour really.

Crew figures are Peter Pig and battlefront, with some additional tarps added on the rear deck.

Not entirely sure on the future for these, they don't fit in my Middle East extravaganzas, so they will probably be paint opportunities for me and then open to new homes.

I sneaked in another quick mod, this time the skytrex BT152, with mod'd Peter Pig crew ( two missed the photo-op). This will probaby embelish an Egptian HQ's element, but can slip in anywhre really.

neil

Tinkering with....15mm Chieftains - Armies Army (Kickstarter)

If you're of a certain age, and growing up in the UK then there's really only one iconic tank for us... that's the Chieftain. 

A package arrived this week with some lovely goodies from Keith Armstrong's Armies Army Kickstarter. I ordered a number of items, but will focus on the iconic Chieftains here.

If you follow my blog, you'll note my interest in the middle east, primarily '73 October War, but on the advent of Chieftains becoming available, a slight "scope creep" into the Iran Iraq War. So these two will be the first Iranian tanks, no real mods just added some crew from the spares box, I was originally going to have soviet tankers headgear, but it looks like they used American or British tankers helmets (which would make sense I suppose with electrical fits etc). I did add a Peter Pig figure in peaked cap to add some irregularity. 

Of the pictures of non-destroyed Iranian armour, there seems plenty of tarpaulins and stowage crammed on the turrets mainly. I augmented the supplied stowage and racks with some grey-stuff stowage, hopefully to make these as ramshackle as I can.

For the next two Chieftains, with something special in mind later, I built these as they came, one opened up with the AA crew, one closed down, not to much stowage, which will become apparent later.

These four are now primered and curing, it may be while before the get their livery, so watch this space, there's an email subscribe function on the right ----->

As always, any suggestions, errors or corrections welcome, Chieftains are fairly new to me, modelling wise.