Bit of Scratch Building - S-300 Reloads

First up an apology for not posting anything for a while.  I've actually been doing plenty of painting and gaming, including running demo games at Southcon in Dunedin, but all of this has been heavily WWII focussed so I've not posted any of it here.  Cold wargaming doesn't seem to be a thing here, but it's still my go to No. 1 interest - so I'll keep plugging away when I get the chance.

Back in January - here - I posted a review of the 4D Models KrAZ-260B Tractor and the MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer.  I bought it with the intention of using it for some as yet unknown scenario as a tank transporter, but more particularly to create this:

So my first post-WWII for quite a while was to have a crack at it from scratch - just using Evergreen Plastic rod.  I'll warn you, this is the biggest and most complicated thing I've ever tried to scratch build - pretty basic I imagine by many other peoples standards - and I don't have much patience for this kind of thing - but here it is anyway.

That's the basic structure.  Now add some missile Containers:

Now add the set to the semi-trailer:

Now add the truck/tractor:

All lovingly displayed on our kitchen table!

Once the weather here clears up a little, all of this will be getting a basic paintjob and will be ready for the table.  Setting up for a solo game right now!

Thanks all.

See you sooner than this last effort!

Richard

4DModels KrAZ-260B Tractor and MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer Review

 Once again it's been a while.  Preparations for Christmas, visitors and then my wife managing to severely break her ankle just before New Year has meant a pretty busy couple of months for me, and not much time for anything too gamey.

I did have a couple of moments of purchase based stress relief which brings me to today's topic.  For a while now I've wanted to get some kind of Soviet tank transporter/trailer.  I've been looking at the TAKOM offering, which seems quite nice:

and also I say Trumpeter were coming out with this:

which also looked pretty nice.  The thing is, I wanted it for a very specific purpose.  To create this:

I wasn't sure that the S-300 missile tubes would fit on the back of either of the Takom or Trumpeter trailers and I wasn't really willing to pay top dollar for something that may or might not work.

To cut a long story short, one day when randomly having a look around, I stumbled across this kit by 4D Models:

I was a little wary as some of the kits made but this company are basically crap, but when I saw I could get this for less than $22NZD, I thought why not give it a go.  The pics of the completed model looked OK and reviews were generally positive, so I thought the risk of the S-300 tubes not fitting was a risk worth taking.

The box arrived remarkedly quickly from China, a little battered but nothing inside was any worse off.  Here's a look at the back of the box:

Inside were 3 sealed plastic bags of parts and the instructions

Everything was there and nothing was damaged or warped.  In the first bag you got loads of tires.

As you can see they are glossy black with green hubs.  They fit together nicely and are easy to clean up.

The other parts are as below:

and

Interestingly you can see in the second photo that it comes with a transparent piece for the cab's windows and 7 metal rods for the tires.

The tractor goes together very simply and gives a nice simple wargaming standard model.

I couldn't be bothered painting inside the cab - I was in a bit of a therapeutic rush - so I'll be spraying the whole model, only after removing the wheels.  You can see the holder for the spare wheel on the back of the cab.  You end up with 3 spare wheels I think.  You have to make up 17 in all.

The trailer was actually even easier and together, I think they look pretty damn good.

Now of course I checked to see if the S-300 missiles fit on the trailer as they should - and yes indeed they do!  Just for the hell of it I also took out a T-72 to see how it looked on the trailer.

Sorry about the generally crappy photos!

So review time.  First the positives:

• Super cheap
• Ridiculously easy to put together
• Solid wargamers kit
• Scales well
• Basically does what it says on the tin
• If you were really really lazy you could almost get away with out painting it!  Oh the horror!!

Negatives

• It's pretty chunky and there is of course a lack of fine detail, but personally I think the positive of being a solid (rather than fragile) kit outweigh that
• Sink marks.  There are quite a few sink marks on this kit.  Some I'm happy to ignore, but some are in quite prominent positions.  I guess all up I can live with them and hopefully hide most of them!
• The metal rods - while perfectly useful and much better than plastic, unless I'm doing it wrong, they are to long for the wheels on the trailer.  A relatively easy fix, but until that is done it makes the trailer look a bit toy like.

So all in all, for what I want it for I am very happy with my purchase.  Really its a bit of unnecessary frippery but I do have a very minor role in a game planned for it and I just think it's cool to have it.  I'm not sure it would have any real use as a tank transporter in a standard wargame - but will be useful scenery if some "behind Soviet lines" type games.

Now I just need to sort out my many painting issues and get on and paint it.

Thanks and belated Happy New Year

Richard

Land Rover 101 Hard Top

I actually finished this BW Models (I think) vehicle a few weeks ago, but had always planned to weather it and put some stowage in the roof rack - but as it appeared unlikely that I would get around to actually doing that - I decided to take some photos and just get on with it!




So here they are:

Anyway - this is the last of the vehicles I have, that were needed to complete my 3 Commando Brigade build.  Now I just have a few miniatures to paint and that project is done.




Thanks




Richard

Airfix Land Rover 1 Tonne FC Truck GS Body

OK - so without any further delay - onto the models.  Here is the first plain Land Rover:

And now the second, slightly more jazzy Land Rover:

Now the two of them together:

And now together performing a couple of roles I'll be using them for my Royal Marines on the tabletop.  First up as a light gun tow:

And as a Milan Firing Post Carrier:

Please note all the figures shown with them are from Elhiem

So that's them done.  I'll be posting up the BW Models Land Rover 101 Signals Van next - once I've done a little more work on it.

Thanks

Richard

Land Rover 101 FC - Painting Guide Pics

Over the last few days I've been painting some Airfix and BW Models (I think) Land Rover 101 FC models for my Royal Marines (and whomever else might need them).  This is the Airfix kit box so you'll recognise it if you stumble over it in a shop (or your stash!):

Sadly this excellent little kit seems to be rare as hen's teeth and the one I recently found on ebay was asking for a ridiculous price.  This is extra sad because I could easily live with a couple more of these little guys.  So if see one going cheap - buy it!

You will recall that this is where I was up to a few weeks back:

Well - to be honest it remained where they were up to until last weekend...

So I did some digging and came up with so photos to help me paint them - sourced through Google Images of course.  Here they are.

This is what I consider to be the classic image of the 101 FC and how I wanted at least one of them to look.

A number of photos showed the canvas soft top also painted - so I guess the other one will look like this.

And here's a couple of photos of the hard top radio van variant - which is a pretty slick looking vehicle.

So - next up - the completed models - starting with the two soft tops.

Thanks for your patience

Richard

S&S 1/2 Ton Land Rover FFR with Elhiem Crew

So this is the last post on my S&S 1/2 Ton Land Rovers.  This particular version is the FFR variant (Fitted For Radio).

I'm not 100% sure why I got two of them.  My original thought was to get one to act a a Recce Command vehicle - then I must have had some kind of mini brain explosion and got two.  As I'm still not sure what to use the other one for (and I did not plan for it's crew) I decided to have one crewed and one un-crewed.  I can always change that in the future.

In an attempt to make the crewed FFR even more easy to tell apart from the Recce Landies, the driver is wearing a green beret and the front passenger gunner is armed with a Bren rather than a GPMG.  The rear is very different to the Recce ones as you will see.

 

The last photo gives you a bit of a clue of some of the radio equipment in the back.

I suppose I should at some point add aerials for effect - may do, but I have mixed experience with aerials (either breaking them or stabbing myself in the finger with them mid game) - so I'm not sure.

That's it for Landies for at least a while - next up a slight change in direction.

Thanks

Richard