Westwind Stug Mech

At Salute I bought two of Westwind's recent Weird War 2 mechs. They come in unlabelled black boxes.

This mech comes as seven resin and four white metal pieces.

The integral base is a bit annoying and there are large mould marks across some faces (note the right leg and the pelvis).

 The leg mouldings are slightly odd, not sure how the knee joint works.

Wild West Exodus - Gunfight At Red Oak Starter Set: Doc Holliday

So, finally I have completed one of the Wild West Exodus figures, the Lawman "Face" Doc Holliday.

 He is definitely the easiest figure to paint, the others have more straps than Ann Summers.

 Here he is with the two K9 Attack Dog automata from the starter set.

Warlord Games Resin M24 Chaffee

Earlier I posted photographs of the Empress Post War French Paratroopers. To provide them with some support, I dug out an ancient Warlord M24 I bought from Salute many years ago (possibly when it was released).

It had initially been sprayed with Humbrol Dark Green. A later decision was made to over paint it with Vallejo US Olive Drab. It was then abandoned.

The hull machine gun had been lost in the mists of time (or quite possibly it had not been supplied - no heavy machine gun was found in the original package). A replacement was fabricated out of brass rod.

Lifting rings have been added to the front of the turret, a second pair are required toward the back of the turret, A tow cable (with ends from the Rubicon German Stowage Sets) has been added on the right hand side. An additional cable needs to be added to the left hand side. A stowage box has been added on the left hand mudguard (hidden behind the turret).

The first set of soft stowage has been added on the rear right mudguard.

There is much still to be done.

Rubicon Waffenträger - Put together

The Rubicon Waffenträger is such a well moulded resin kit that it can be dry fitted together.

 The only part of this kit that is glued together is the rear part of the gun's breech.

Holes have been drilled in the rear hull plate and plastic rods added as formers for a tarpaulin.

A hole was also drilled to pin a Rubicon German Jerry Can on the rear hull plate.

Crooked Dice Tortuga Truck - part three

Size comparison with Empress SAS Operators.

Crooked Dice Tortuga Truck - part two

Having assembled the transmission, axles and parts of the cab, here are slightly more representative photographs. The cab roof is just sitting on the main part of the cab (which has just been glued together and needs a little filling).

Games Workshop Cadian infantry for scale.

And William Killian for scale.

The cab doors are still to be added.

Crooked Dice Tortuga Truck

This is the new Tortuga truck from Crooked Dice.

I have not assembled it yet, but this is a scale shot with a Games Workshop Cadian trooper.

Rubicon Waffenträger - Breech detailing

Though the interior of the Waffenträger turret is very small, I have started work on adding some details such as the guard protecting the gunner from the recoiling breech.

I positioned the separate spent round buffer then drilled the holes (the one in the trunnion parallel to the barrel much deeper than required) in the parts. I then bent a piece of 0.7mm brass rod into a right angle, the short end being slightly longer than the distance between the back of the trunnion and the hole in the spent round buffer. I could then assemble the three parts at once with Superglue. Once set, the long end of the rod was cut back to the bottom of the spent round buffer.

Once I have the mounting point assembled in the turret I can add the gun sight to the barrel assembly.

Salute 2018 - Rubicon Models part two

Also at Salute I bought the Sherman I, Sherman I Hybrid, Sherman III and the 15cwt CMP truck.

Not sure in what order I will start building them.

Rubicon Waffenträger - crew test

I was testing the crew figures from the Warlord Games SDKFZ 139 Marder III in the new resin Waffenträger.

The gunner is sitting in the turret in position.

I suspect it might interfere with the elevation of the gun.

Currently the bits are just in place, not glued.

Wild West Exodus - Gunfight At Red Oak Starter Set unboxing

At Salute I bought the Wild West Exodus : Gunfight At Red Oak Starter Set.

It is a hefty (813 grammes) if small box.

 The contents are quite densely packed.

The box contains ten multipart plastic kits on three sprues.

The main sprue has six figures on it, two foot figures and one bike for both sides.

 There is one box of Action and Adventure cards, four dice, equipment and character cards and special bases.

As you can see the bases are very tall.

 119 page Rulebook and a template.

 Condition tokens (and a ruler).

First figure off the sprue (yes, the legs are the wrong way round).
Jesse James (Outlaw).

By Yan Lo's Beard! two part heads are standard for these figures.

 Wyatt Earp (Lawman).

Doc Holliday (Lawman).

Frank James (Outlaw).

Empress Modern British vehicle crew and Jeep

Empress make a four man vehicle crew set. It is intended to be used to "rescale" Airfix 1/48 scale British vehicles.

Thought they would work with the Empress WW2 American jeep.

here is the contents of the pack.

Here are two of the figures perched on the seats of the Jeep.

A side view showing how well they fit.

Crooked Dice are doing a Post Apocalypse range and they have crew figures which might also be of use.

Mantic Games Hellboy game preview at Salute.

A painted example of the Hellboy figure from the forthcoming Mantic Games Hellboy game (photographed at Salute).

Johan.

A very blurry photograph of Liz Sherman.