SCW, part 8

 As I have not posted anything about the 20mm Spanish Civil War project for a long while, this entry is to bring myself back up to speed and to show the readers where the projects stands at the moment.

First up are some Republicans:

 

From the left:  a section of 15 infantry; infantry support - LMGs, medic, a 50mm mortar team, and platoon command with commissar; and 3 Renault FT tanks.  The infantry force organization is based on the España supplement for Chain of Command.

As one can see, they are in various stages of completion, with the front FT almost complete, just needs a bit of touch-up.  In all, close to being a useful force on the table.  Most of these miniatures are from Minairons - the tank commander is a French WW2 TC from AB Figures/Eureka Miniatures, and the kneeling/pointing trooper on the left is a kitbashed Zvezda WW2 Russian with a Minairons helmet.

And, some Nationalists:

13 infantry figures from Minairons.  Again, close to being done although I think the green might be too dark on some as these figures have yet to get a dark wash.

More vehicles were being worked on:

2 T-26s, 3 Pz-1As, 2 L3-33s, 2 UNL-35 armored cars, and 1 Ba-FAI armored car.  These are from Minairons except the L3-33s which are S-Model, and the Ba-FAI is a diecast vehicle I found on eBay and re-primed.  The sprues are WW2 Russians from Zvezda and Plastic Soldier Company that are being used for kitbashes and bits for other needs for the Minairons troops.

Out of sight is a paper ream box with plenty of other stuff, the ever-present Pile of Potential!

Not much effort is needed to get these figures ready for games.  The big obstacle is appropriate terrain, and that is on my 'Necessaries' list for later.

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SCW tanks, part 4

Here is a quick pic of the table at the moment:

Two Panzer 1a light tanks are assembled, with a third on the way.  Three FT's in various states of completion, with the first only needing a clear coat to finish it off.

And, the usual assortment of projects!


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SCW tanks, part 3

The kit building continues!

Here is the next FT-17:

Sorry for the poor pic, but black plastic does not photograph very well.  Here is a test fit for FT #2, along with the next FT's tracks for some reason.  I have cut out the turret doors so I can place a TC figure in the turret.  

The TC will come from one of the fine selection of 20mm tanks crews from Eureka:

French AFV crewmembers

Early war German tank crew

Soviet AFV crew

Soviet AFV crew pack #2

For the French-built tanks for my Republican forces, I will be using the French crew figures, and Soviet figures for the Soviet-supplied tanks.  I have no definite proof, but it makes sense, to me at least, to use the same nationality crew for the tank.  Uniforms might not be exactly the same colors, especially for the FT-17 crews, but the headgear should be similar.


Now that the first set of FT-17's are being worked upon, I started the first of my Nationalist tanks:

One sprue has all of the parts on these simplified kits.  Two turrets are included, one for the standard twin-MG Panzer 1 and one for the field-modified turret with a 20mm cannon.


Here is a quick shot of the tank park now:

Three FT-17's in various stages of completion, and one Panzer 1a.  The panzer is completely assembled, although the turret is not glued down, and I might add some details before painting.  The second FT shows how the TC will be added to the tank - I just need to make some new doors.  The third FT is awaiting some more attention although the hull is done.  As a significant amount of the hull is covered by the tracks on the FT-17, I am leaving final assembly until painting is nearly complete.


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SCW tanks, part 2

Well now, a line has been drawn in the sand...  Over at his fine blog  20mm and then some, Gunbird has declared a month of kit building, aiming for a kit a day until June 21.  And, I wandered into his trap!  Now, getting 30 kits done in a month seems to be out of reach for me, but it is a nice dose of impetus to finally get myself into gear after the recent slump.

Right off the bat, I worked on that first 1/72 Minairons FT-17 that was half-finished so long ago:

Here it is now, with some weathering and track detail.  The tracks are not yet finished, with some more rust to be added.  The weathering was an experiment using Golden High-Flow acrylics.  The paints are just fine, but I mixed them with an airbrush extender that was glossy (and sticky even after more than 24 hrs).  I expect that the little guy will look much better after some dull coat.

One last test fit:

It is not quite finished - the exhaust needs some work, and I want to add some slogans to the hull or turret.  Those should have been painted on before weathering (decals also), but it is a learning curve and it will be all right in the end.



And moving along:

Two more FT-17's have been started.  Actual time for completion - might be some time as I have some ideas that I want to try with the turrets, but the hull will make progress.


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SCW tanks, part 1

The first of my Republican FT-17 tanks is slowly coming together:

Does not look so good, does it?  I am using Vallejo Grey Surface primer on this vehicle.  I have found in the past that gesso does not cover plastic figures very well, so I was hoping that this primer would be better.  By brush, it looks a mess.  But, I did try it on a piece of sprue first, and coverage of the paint after priming works just fine.

The decision to not fully assemble the FT-17 was deliberate, as the tracks have some details on the other side, and painting the hull sides would have tough if the tracks were mounted first.  Also, the issue of the turret was still undecided at the time of this pic.  It might have been possible to leave the turret unglued to the hull, but test-fitting of the turret showed that it does not always go on in a level fashion.  After the base coats and basic weathering steps are done, I will glue the turret onto the hull.


Here is a pic of the FT-17 after the beginning of base-coating: 

The base coat went on surprisingly smoothly, after the awkward primer coat.  I need to experiment with a color for the tracks, as I do not have anything that looks like rust right out of the bottle.

Also included in the above pic - infantry!  The first section of Republicans is almost done, just need to finish off the weapons.  And the first section of Nationalists is coming along...


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Tanks!

Despite the lack of painting progress, I have been getting some stuff done.  Or, just getting some stuff.  Fortunately, the new stuff is for a project that is already well-founded...

First up is one of my favorites:

This is a pack of 3 FT-17 tanks from Minairons.  Spain had possession of dozens of these WW1 veterans at the beginning of the war, and received more (from Poland) early in 1937.

The back of the box has the assembly instructions and a brief painting guide.

And, here are the contents - three tanks with a choice of either round or polygonal turrets, weapon choices - machine gun or short 37mm cannon - and a multitude of decals.  The black plastic makes it difficult to see, but these models are well-detailed, but not loaded with many delicate parts.


Something for my Nationalist forces:

The Germans sent many Panzer 1 light tanks to Spain.  This kit, once again, contains enough parts to build three tanks, with a choice of turrets.  The grey plastic makes it a bit easier to see the details, but it is similar to the FT-17 with a lack of delicate details, perfect for gaming.


Now, it remains to be seen if I can get this done...


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Entomolians for MAATAC

Splashed a bit more paint on some tanks today:

The larger vehicles are Fire Ant class light war machines, while the smaller pair are Black Widow class destroyers.

MAATAC, maybe?

In a sudden fit of inspiration, I dug out those long-abused MAATAC miniatures of mine and subjected them to more torture:

Two views of the same thing!  Two Terrans, one Carnivoran, and two Entomolian vehicles wearing some snowy paint.  I did make the mistake of giving the center Terran a grey wash before putting down the camo pattern, and the Entomolian camo is not quite finished.

Terran Light War Machine for MAATAC

Yet another pic:

Terran Monarch class Light war machine.  The turret is a separate piece.


And, a top-down pic of the Terran light war machine, destroyer, and APC:

Terran Destroyer class for MAATAC

I am slowly progressing through the collection; here is one more installment:

This is the Terran Thunder class destroyer.  There are three beam weapons, and two of the Terran-standard small turrets, used I believe for close-in protection from infantry and missiles.

Terran Heavy War Machine for MAATAC

After a bit of digging, I found two of these:

Two views of the Terran Devastation class Heavy war machine for MAATAC.  This is a good sized piece of pewter, with two twin-barrel turrets, a commander's cupola weapon, a bow-mounted weapon, and plenty of small anti-personnel/close defense turrets.

MAATAC

(NOTE:  This is a copy of a previous post on one of my other blogs)


The recent announcement of five (yes five!) new vehicles for the venerable MAATAC miniatures line from Monday Knight Productions (see this link) got me to digging into my boxes of old gaming stuff, and, indeed, I do have some dusty, old, half-forgotten MAATAC minis. First up, Terrans:

This is the Conqueror class Medium war machine. This mini, and the entire MAATAC line, is nominally 1/300 scale, but as one can observe in the pics, they are large. The detailing is good, and this particular tank has twin turret-mounted cannons, a large bow-mounted weapon, and small turrets on the hull sides.

This is a Carnivoran Gnasher class Light war machine. Tracked, like the Terran above, with one main gun in the turret, this vehicle has a low profile.

Two views of the Carnivoran Fang class Destroyer. Low and wide, with an abundance of hull-mounted weapons (no turret) - if I remember the original MAATAC rules correctly these are torpedo (missile) launchers. Nice detailing, if you can get by the mold lines that I forgot to remove many years ago!

An Entomolian Black Widow class Destroyer. Again, legs instead of tracks, and a large fixed hull-mounted cannon.

An Entomolian Fire Ant class Light war machine. High profile, with legs instead of tracks. Lots of hull and turret detail on this one.

The group shot:

These vehicles are big, and I do not have any of the heavy war machines! Hmmm, I thought that I did have some, and some of the robot infantry (RAATACs); more digging for me then.
I am not sure what to do with them however. I do like tanks, but I would need appropriate rules and of course many more minis, including infantry and maybe even some sort of aerial support. And, interesting terrain. I have long thought to myself that if I was to launch a micro-armour style project, it would be in a very specific environment, with desert or snowy conditions being the major contenders.