Desert DevilDogs!

 Well another day down and I seem to be on a bit of a roll with the minis!  A few days ago I showed some nearly complete US Marine Corps soldiers on the 6mm Facebook page (link in the right tab) and am pretty happy with the final product, but not so happy with the photos - so I went and redid them after I realised I could get a lot more from my "lightbox" AKA 'My desk lamp bent down almost directly onto the model' by putting the model on an angle so the light hits it directly.

Because, you know, science 101 - light travels in a straight line etc and twit here didn't quite remember that for the last few shots.

Situation resolved! ;)

Anyhow, you may be wondering why the pictures of muddy, cruddy fields?  Well that is because that is the look I am aiming for with the bases on my miniatures... I want them to look like they are in a place that is going through some regular storms.  These kind of storms make a real, real fine (and really... REALLY gluey) mud that sticks to ANYTHING thanks to the fine red silt of the soil.



So my forces, in their imagi-nation not Africa/ not Australia (still NOT sure which exactly it will be!) are fighting in the onset of the "wet season" wherever they will be... it will be wet, it will be muddy... they ain't gonna feel pretty at all!  (Although I hope the painting will be!)

Painting wise, I have completed four stands of DevilDogs to date - two stands of 'Regular' Marines with Green flak jackets, and two stands of the "Marine Raider Regiment" - the reborn MARSOC - to differentiate them, they are using a 'tactical' combat vest... so in reality it just means they have a 'Luftwaffe Blue' vest and helmet cover.

One particular mod I am very happy with has been the creation of what I consider to be a "signature" weapon of the US Marine Corps - the SMAW rocket launcher.  Built around the Israeli B-300 system, the SMAW has been used by the Marines since '85 and looks like it will keep being used for quite some time!

To make the SMAW was a reasonably easy task.  As I am using GHQ's "Modern US Infantry" packages, they come with a surprisingly large number of 'Stinger' MANPADS troops - the Stinger is, at this scale, a dead ringer for the SMAW once you cut off the IFF antennae and lightly file the area flush with the missile tube.  A lick of paint, and no one would know you had modified a different system!

I think it is what will set apart my Marines from any other force, the SMAW is such a distinctive system for their use.

The trees on the bases are branches from a larger scale railway model tree snipped apart - doused in super glue, and then dipped in either a mix of clump foliage/grass or a few different dips straight into the flock grass...  The reason I have done this is that I want the trees to look like the spindly 'Chinee Apple' trees we have throughout the top end of Australia like you see down below. 

They're scrubby, shabby looking... and you never, EVER want to land in one... as a bloke who used to live on a property with these terrible, spiky bloody plants, yeah... just don't!

 I also had some very good luck with my wash (nothing crazy, just a Strong Tone 'Army Painter' wash drop bottle where I only use a drop or two in my paintbrush until it runs out) and the toner sat quite nicely within the facial features of the models... showing up real nicely for the images.

My personal favourites are the DevilDog lining up a target with his SMAW over the top of a patch of scrub, and the Marine Raider lying down with the Minimi/ M-249 SAW.

Next up, some completed Diggers to go with the DevilDogs!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

G'day everyone!

Apologies for the radio silence the last little while, it has been a hell of a ride the last few weeks.  I have had a fair bit of misfortune hit me in my personal life.  However, that has finally been resolved to a point where I now have some time again to myself and can focus on something better than the recent month!

So to celebrate having at least a bit of my life back I've got myself a few new bits and pieces...

Who am I kidding, it's a LOT more than a few bits! 

I recently re-read the 'Oz Invaded' campaign ruleset made by a fellow Aussie gamer called 'Bish', he mostly runs 3mm but he has began to get into 6mm as well - we all have our guilty pleasures right? ;)  He made a really interesting campaign for his fellow pico-armour players which I have used to help inspire me to get out there and re-start building my forces.

I found this to be quite inspirational in getting off my butt and building these Aussie forces;
and here's a link to his page if you want to have a look for yourself!


I also have had more than a little inspiration from fellow Aussie 'Tacobat' - this cat is a painting god, seriously, how the heck he can get a miniature to look how it does blows me away every time! 
A link to his page as well so you too can sit there and be amazed!

Anyway, back to what I am doing.  So following my last posts about my conversion work, I have made some 'Bushmaster' Protected Mobility Vehicles (PMV's - essentially one hell of an uparmoured truck!), some GHQ ASLAV-25's, and a number of CinC LAV-C vehicles with modifications to become ASLAV-PC's - the non-turreted armoured personnel carrier used by our Australian Army Cavalry regiments.

The Bushmasters had a small conversion done to them to give them a remote weapons station like the ones used in Afghanistan (although they also use the normal open top as well)

The weapon system I used was 'gifted' by GHQ's Israeli "Achzarit" heavy APC - it is a 'close enough' copy of the remote system used by our forces.  The Achzarit's will be previewed in a later force being operated by one of my Imagi-nations

To have the metal sit correctly meant cutting the MG away from the GHQ Bushmaster turret hatch, then very gently sanding it back so the remote turret could sit.  It didn't take the super glue well as it is a fiddly attachment, so I used some pigment heavy black-paint as a fixing agent to keep the two pieces together while the glue settled... apart from that little hiccup, it was an easy deal!

The ASLAV-25 is your standard issue GHQ ASLAV-25, they are available for purchase from GHQ right now.  A lovely model straight out of the box and I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of these get used by USMC players for the extra details!

The ASLAV-C seen here is a hybrid vehicle.  As no-one to date makes the actual ASLAV-PC in 6mm *it has a 'square' troop compartment at the back as per the images below* I had to go with a 'close enough' approach to the design.

Eventually, I settled with using CinC's LAV-C chassis, primarily for "economy of effort" as I could get them as packs of three rather than having to split GHQ LAV-C/ LAV-L packs.  However, the 'Protector' remote weapon system is the same as that used by the US Stryker vehicles, so I bought a number of these weapons kits from GHQ as a parts order alongside my usual orders.

The actual conversion was very easy... if not a little hairy at first!

1. Use a hand-drill to drill a hole at the right size for the weapons systems on the LAV-C.
2. Dry fit - realise the weapons system doesn't sit right with all the smoke grenade launchers.
3. Go back to internet images for cross-referencing, notice that 'our' RWS doesn't have any dang smoke launchers... go back and cut the bottom layer off the GHQ RWS using my Games Workshop pliers (seriously, they make some GREAT pliers...) deciding to leave some on purely for cosmetic reasons.

Dangit!  *Goes for pliers...*

4. It fits!  It fits!!!!  Have a slight giddy chuckle after cutting twelve turrets and actually having the surgery work first time!
5. Paint... now that was the hard part!

The painting for all of these vehicles is my usual mixing style of "When it looks right to me", so do not quote my mix ratios, it is purely an estimate based off what I did.  Getting the look right was quite a choice, as you can see in the two pictures below (and the ones above) the actual "Camo" can really take on any variance of tone or sheen depending on the when/where/what said vehicle has been doing...

Australian Army "Brown/ Desert Red" - VALLEJO Mahogany Brown and Vallejoy Beige - Approximately a 90 Brown/10 Beige ratio.

Australian Army "Green" - VALLEJO Russian Uniform, no change, it looked right out of the bottle.

Australian Army "Black" -  VALLEJO Black Grey/ German Camo Black Grey / Black... this one literally was a mish-mash as I was never able to get a definitive equal to the glossy/not glossy look the Black gives depending on what light it is in.  I think the final mix was about 80% Black grey, and equal measures German Camo Black Grey and Vallejo Black to try and get a mix of the slight grey/satin black look.

Remote weapon station colours - The RWS on the Bushie is VALLEJO German Camo Beige, and the RWS on the ASLAV-PC is VALLEJO German Camo Dark Green. 

Windows/ Sights/ Lights - The blue of the windows and sight systems is VALLEJO Andrea Blue, the lights on the ASLAVs (and later on the Bushies) are VALLEJO Old Gold.

So there you have it... the beginnings of my Australian Army contigent - Four ASLAV-25's, Twelve ASLAV-PCs and Five *later to expand to ten* Bushmasters.  My force will eventually expand, but I'll follow that in another post.

Anyway, end result... with a few touchups *ASLAV-PC wheels need to be finished etc* I'd say it passes the 'not bad' test from tabletop height! :) 

Thoughts when on holiday. Getting a Fistful of TOWs in a Bush War full of Nordic Weasels!

Well at the moment I am spending a bit of the Australian winter visiting friends and family in sunny Townsville... going from 2.1 degrees celsius to 21 degrees... yeah, I think I can handle that!

Unfortunately though, it has put a halt on my ongoing city production for the last two weeks, so instead I have used this time to develop the kind of rulesets I want to consider for my games in the future.


Now I really enjoy 'Not Just a Bush War' by Nordic Weasel Games, but I found the one little hiccup is that the book is focused on the before and after of wargaming - this is great for campaigns and developments, but for actual gaming... well, we need a different ruleset!

I have tested a couple of different options now, and I believe I will have come to an answer, but first, to show off what I have tested.

1. Flames Of War - both WW2 and 'Team Yankee' rulesets

   2. Force on Force.  

The original rulebook and various expansions, including the TOMORROW'S WAR expansion for sci-fi actions.

3. AK-47 Republic

4. A Fistful Of TOWs 3

Eventually, I have come to the conclusion that the best ruleset will be a mixture of different elements of rulesets, with FISTFUL OF TOWS 3 as the primary ruleset.

FFoT3 won out eventually for the following reasons:

Unique rules: The ruleset is designed for LARGE battles, and allows for combat throughout the ages.

Importantly, they allow for activities such as combat engineering, chemical warfare and even atomics.. yes, atomic warfare is definitely too high for what I want - but if I scale down the blast radius templates, I have a brilliant representation of IEDs.

Datasheets: The datasheets provided in the book (over FOUR HUNDRED pages long!) fill a majority of those pages - short of the most modern equipment, there is a ruleset for almost anything and everything.

However - like anything, I may enjoy it, but I think it is missing a few things - and a lot of those extra "things" can be found in other rulebooks I have read... and so, naturally, I am going to unashamedly "acquire" some rules from the other books for use.

AK-47 Republic - will work with my NOT JUST A BUSH WAR book to help build force composition.  AK-47 Republic has a great army dynamic capability, and while I don't like the "generic" composition (a tank is "a tank" etc), the army dynamics are extremely interesting and will be included in the composition of the future militaries within my Imagi-nation region.

Force on Force/ Tomorrow's War - this ruleset only lost out because of the fact that the game is much better suited to small unit actions.  I have seen this ruleset used quite nicely in 'larger' actions by the BIG FORCE ON FORCE lads in Brisbane when they were doing their Malakistan campaign, but it was just a little too small for what I wanted.

However, FoF/ Tomorrow's War has the following mechanics I am using:

•  Different dice to represent success on a 4+  (D6, D8, D10, D12), this will replace the simple D6 mechanic in FFoT3 and be integrated into quality checks, replacing most positive and negative dice modification mechanics involving troop skill and morale checks.

• Electronic Warfare - Network Centric Warfare.  FFoT3 doesn't accomodate the use of Electronic Warfare or Network Centric Warfare, in turn not showing what happens when "The Grid" goes down.  Tomorrow's War covers this nicely, and I will be including this into some specialised scenarios and special unit options for high command teams.

•  Event cards  - I LOVE the use of event cards in Force on Force and Tomorrow's War.  They could either have good or bad ramifications, and could lead to some really interesting outcomes!  I unashamedly will incorporate these, making a natural '6' on a die provide a positive result (choosing 6 to allow even lowest militia to have a run of good luck), and a natural 1 to result in a negative drawcard.  In Tomorrow's War and FoF it all occurs on a roll of a natural 1, but I believe fate should affect only in the best or worst cases :)  

An example of a Fog Of War cardset from Force On Force.  Other options can include anything from friendly fire, through to a new Main Battle Tank rolling onto the field!

However, sometimes those cards do make me feel like I'm back at work again ;-)

Finally, there is Team Yankee - at the moment, I must admit I haven't taken anything from TY yet... as it just seems like it doesn't have enough scope for my liking. Maybe in the future, but until then, well, we just wait and see!


On the model front, I have to say I am really impressed by the designs coming online at the moment!  With Heroic and Ros returning to service sometime around July 4 (so July 5 for us Aussies), they will be coming back in style with a fantastic model of the Mil Mi-26 HALO heavy helicopter and a number of other models coming online.

There is also this year's GHQ production line - this year's lines are VERY interesting as well.  I cannot wait to get some T-72B3Ms, the BM-27's are a godsend, and the T-55 ENIGMA model coming down the pipes couldn't have arrived sooner!

What is even better, there will finally be western style civilians available... and Zombies...

6mm just got a little spookier ;)

Conversion Corner! - Now with 200% extra random bits and pieces!

Well the weekend so far has been very productive for me, albeit not the way I originally intended!

I like to convert my models into things that may otherwise be unavailable in stores, or simply don't have enough pull in the gaming market to ever be considered for an actual release, so I have a thing I like to do with my miniatures where if a model has a turret, or some other removable part/ assembly I will run that piece across a gamut of different chassis' I have in various stages of construction.

I do this to test out whether I can find any particular setups that provide either a solid representation of a real-world military unit, provide something that wins out on the "Rule of Cool" principle (the second rule one should always obey, the first being "Be awesome to one another" courtesy of Bill and Ted) and finally to see if I can kickstart my imaginative streak to find something else.

Well, today my imagination went into overdrive, and through some hacking, card cutting and simple chopping and changing of turrets, I now have some very interesting and diverse designs!

The first two designs - A GHQ M6 Linebacker hull, with GHQ ADATS turret. 

Behind it is a semi-trailer truck I have made using a Scotia "Patriot Missile Launcher" battery, a piece of plastic card underneath the cargo container to level the floor (you can see the card in the next photo), and a Ground Zero Games 15mm "small trunk" terrain scenic.  I could have gone with waiting for a dedicated 6mm piece, but I like the bulkiness of these GZG pieces.

The M-5 Quarterback is the first of a new series of Rapid Development Air Defence Vehicles.  Rapidly brought into production following the loss of air control across the Asia-Pacific with the denial or outright destruction of key high-value aircraft and airfields by enemy forces - the Quarterback utilised upgraded and updated ADATS missile systems on a refurbished M6 Linebacker chassis.  The design would prove, like most of the RD-ADV series, to be a critical system in the coming years, and was surprisingly effective considering the unexpected development history.



These next two are both based off of "SGT York" anti-aircraft turrets, but they come from different designers.

The model on the left is a GHQ M6 Linebacker hull (I bought a few seperate for the ADATS tank... this kind of happened on a whim and looked awesome) with a SGT York turret from Scotia minis.  I used a GHQ ADATS radar to replace the funny old APG radar as used on the M1 Tank in this case... I like the mre modern appearance.

The SGT York turret on the M1 tank, and the M1 tank hull itself, both come from CinC minis.  This is one of my first conversions I did when I started 6mm about six months ago.

Amazingly, the Scotia models SGT York Turret actually fits brilliantly scale wise, it is a tiny bit skinnier than the CinC model, but it has much, much better detail in my personal opinion - and the cannons are also MUCH stronger!  I cannot tell you how much I cursed those cannons on the CinC model - yes, it looks great, but when one of them snapped like a twig as I was straightening them I almost took a hammer to all of the conversions! ;) 

Sorry CinC, Scotia wins this round, I'll definitely be using the Scotia turrets from here in!

The SGT York system has a varied and not-so-effective past in the Coalition air defence story.  Originally designed towards the end of the cold war and found to be sorely wanting.  Interest was again raised in the design as part of the Rapid Development - Air Defence Vehicle plan of 2017.  Rebuilt with modern electronics and fitted with radar technologies similar to that used in the Swedish CV9040 self-propelled AA vehicle, the SGT York turret finally proved successful, and when mated with M1A1 hulls returned from theatres for repair, proved to be an excellent anti-aircraft platform and a brilliant surface fire vehicle with its new sensor-fused 40mm ammunition.  The M1A1-ADV "Gunny Hathcock" became a common asset for divisional headquarters and specialised heavy anti-aircraft lead elements in armoured brigades.

However, the SGT York's original design still didn't quite meet immediate requirements, especially regarding weapon type - and although the 40mm was effective, it was the only 40mm Bofors in US use.  A slightly smaller, rebuit variant, with new 35mm Bushmaster III cannons and new fire control radar, was equipped on M6 LineBacker hulls in early 2018.  The "Sgt Waldron" system was equally successful like its Gunny Hathcock forebear, and could carry much more ammunition due to the increased room within the hull.  However, this was a double edged sword, and the vehicle was found to be top heavy and hard to conceal in hull down positions - these limitations were seen as little real consequence considering the platform was not intended to be required to situate itself directly on the front lines, although the stability issues with being top heavy were never fully resolved - the vehicle being speed limited in turns and on hilly terrain throughout its career.

Next up I have something which I found purely be chance, and am so glad I did!  This is my take on the NONA B-52K or SORA truck mounted artillery system.  As you can see below, the NORA (8 wheeler) and SORA (6 wheeler) systems are reasonably simple designs.  I still need to find some support struts... I think I may use some from the Patriot missile launchers...

The design of this vehicle is two seperate  models, the first one being a BM-27 MLRS truck (I must admit that I think the BM-27 MLRS launcher looks terrible on the intended truck... but put it on a Scotia G6 Howitzer chassis and it looks VERY awesome, like some Sci-fi MLRS! - anyway...)  I am not sure who the truck is from, either Scotia or Heroic and Ros.  The launcher is simply too stubby to actually look right, but of course, they are a hard model to do.

So yes, a BM-27 MLRS truck body, and the cannon position from a Scotia KS-19 100mm anti-aircraft gun.

When the Carter Regime (more on them in the future!) began to rearm its military in 2008, it began to look for cheap, but effective artillery systems.  As the regime had very few friends due to its militaristic and overly fascist ways, the regime began to acquire designs and technology through subterfuge.  One of the greatest achievments of their cloak-and-dagger acquisition techniques was the purchase of two NONA B-52 truck mounted artillery pieces from the Serbians.  The design itself was examined and evaluated, and the Carter regime devised their own version with the materials available to them.  Using the KS-19 anti-aircraft gun, readily available in large numbers, and the chassis for elderly FROG-7 missile vehicles that were no longer considered effective (even by Regime standards) the regime fused the two together into the "Iwisa" as it supposedly had a look like the clubbed walking stick, and could deliver a painful blow once it had "thrown" shells at the target.

These vehicles, limited in numbers, were surprisingly active and proved a constant thorn in both Coalition and NewPact sides throughout their respective African campaigns.

After making the above vehicles, I realised I still had a fully functional PATRIOT missile system ready to go... but no vehicles to put it on.  By now I had already wanted to make either a WS-32, or, as above, a DT-1G replica (seriously, the launchers couldn't be any closer if I tried!) However without a HEMTT or similar to work with, I turned to the next best thing - the Scotia KS19 chassis! 

I now have two towed versions of the DT-1G Guided super-heavy MLRS... I like the idea of the launchers, and now just need to find some suitable towing vehicles!

This model to the right was actually one of the hardest to design, and the final product came about purely by chance!  The vehicle is a Heroic and Ros MAZ Tank Transporter with a Ground Zero Games 15mm "Shanty Shack" chimney - and an old super glue bottle cap shoved onto the open end of the Chimey! :)

I had seen what I would call a "Super IED" made by one of the people on the "6mm wargaming and terrain" Facebook page, and it looked great!

Just one problem, the maker had used a 9mm shell casing as the body for the IED - and not having a gun of my own, well, that made it a little difficult to get a hold of some 9mm shell casings here (legally anyway - and as much as I love this hobby, I'm not going to lockup for it!)

So, I was stuck for a body.  I tried a greenstuff body first, but that just looked ridiculous.  Then finally, luck came upon me a few weeks later when I was dallying about and had the glue cap and the chimney top in my hand... I pushed them together because they looked like they might fit... and it turned out the whole contraption not only looked like some MASSIVE bomb, but it fit snugly onto the tank transporter as well!  Happy days! 

My rules for the Super IED will be explained later, probably when I present the finished model :)

Finally, there is this little guy - the amalgamation of the remnants of the CinC M1 Abrams hull and the Sgt york turret.  I was very surprised to find that the CinC M1 Turret and the M48 hull actually look really nice together!

I named these vehicles the K-3 Black Dragon - as South Korea has M-48's in storage in case North Korea goes hot... and the potential for a rapid overhaul if needed shouldn't be out of the question in that case!

In my universe, these K-3's will be put to work by a Private Military Company who operate alongside the New Zealand Defence Force as part of a combined ANZAC brigade during the battle for Australia - They will be called "The Grey Ghosts", with the names Horse, Dog, Pongo and Bitches' Box.  (I'll be pretty impressed if anyone who isn't Aussie or Kiwi know out what those names mean without looking it up!)

Anyway, that's quite the upload, hope you liked it!

Pulling out my "An-22" for everyone to see... (Insert wildly immature comments here)

A few weeks ago, I made an order with Armaments In Miniature for a number of their large transport aircraft - AIM are a fantastic little company that makes some interesting selections of aircraft.  Granted the selection for 6mm is still a little on the small side (oh man, this post is going to be so full of dad jokes and immature chuckles at an aircraft name it's ridiculous ;) ) the small selection they have certainly has some VERY BIG aircraft in it!

And so, with that in mind I went ahead and purchased for myself a number of aircraft:

AN-12 Cub transports which will also do nicely as Y-8 transports for my future Chinese forces,

C-130H-model Hercules aircraft for my USMC *No J-model is available yet*,

Some C-17 Globemaster III's, and finally

some IL-76 Candid transport aircraft as well.

As you can see from the pis, most of AIM aircraft come with some limited assembly required, usually the larger aircraft needing engines or tailplanes attached - a simple clean up with some detergent, a tiny bit of filing here and there - and with a bit of super glue *I always, and only, use Zap-A-Gap Slo set glue on my models of any type* they're ready for priming and painting!

Finally, we come to the most awesome of the aircraft available - The Antonov An-22 'Cock'... or as I like to call it "Runner up for the most awkwardly codenamed aircraft made by the Russians", only the MiG-15 with its (nowadays) 'interesting' nickname has it worse off.  Gotta love what happens when words take on totally different meanings over the years :)

 

Yes, that is a GHQ T-55... just an example of the size!

Anyhow, jokes aside - this thing is HUGE!  It definitely lives up to its real world equivalent and genuinely looks like it could indeed take a small army within itself!  It literally does not fit in the palm of my hands, and they aren't exactly small.

 

My AN-22 is so big it won't fit when I whip it out...

...okay, okay!  Fine, I'll stop! ;)

At the moment the An-22 is the biggest AIM make, I think... they might have the C-5 Galaxy as well, but I am not sure as the site is down for the count at time of writing.

A serious note though: These models are resin, and can come slightly warped due to the thin wings... for your own sanity do NOT try to flex them into shape without first putting them under some hot water for a while - the offending area will soften enough to let you bend and flex it safely for the model - and avoid you having the moment where you sit there in horror as the model you were trying to flex into place suddenly snaps under tension.

Thankfully that didn't happen here, I learnt that lesson years ago on a Forgeworld model... that was not a happy day! ;)

The AIM website is here if you want to have a look when it is up again.  Hopefully soon!

Before I head off, one last shot of some future air support on the way - A Mi-28 Havoc, an F-4 Phantom that will be in my not-Iranian Air Force colours, an A-10 Warthog and an Su-24 Fencer.  All nice models, and all going to be doing their bit for their respective armies!