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..... Iranian Skytrex M113

The go-to 15mm M113 has to be the BF plastic offering, indeed am converting some now into IDF command posts, anyway.....

I had three skytrex in my stock pile so following on from the Armies Army  Chieftians (now drying, see below) I thought they could be usefull employed with my Iranians.

I am collecting a library of Iran Iraq war photos and the Iranian M113s seem to be fairly light on stowage generally and armed with a mixture of .50cals and russian Dshk mgs, admittedly,  probably not in the same units?

 

I'm aesthetically drawn to irregularity of the IIW, particularly in this case the Iranian forces. This usually expresses itself best in stowage, but that wasn't really an option here so it had to be the "crew", luckily the Iranians seem perfect for this.

So, using a variety of Peter pig figures, from various ranges, I started bending, cutting, filling and drilling suitable poses to resemble the infantry sitting on the m113, effectively using them as battle taxis.

You'll notice the missing heads!  these figures are awaiting a Peter Pig resupply, I will be using American ww2 helmets as that's the best I can find to represent what I think were West German m1 helmets in the main, but regardless, they lot "right" ( certainly in 15mm).

I thought I'd add some variety to the mix, with the commanders, in that there's a mixture of 50 cals and Dshk and Russian tankers helmets.

And finally for now... 

Here's the armies armies "batch" from earlier. I have performed standard prep:

- halfords primer

- halfords black base

- enamel black "touch up"

Once dry I will add the pre-shade.