Sunday, April 19, 2020

Australian M113 - Empress bits.

Someone on the lead Adventure Forum asked about the Australian version of the M113 APC in Vietnam.

As I have a number of M113 kits and two assembled V100 Commando Armoured Cars which have the same turret as used by the Australian M113s, I put the two together (sort of)
The commander's cupola will need to be removed and possibly the hole enlarged.



It was noted that this was a hull for a skirted M113.

This is the hull and track units for an ACAV.


Police Office - Alternative use for Woodbury House D

When the new Out of Town shopping development was in the planning stage, one of the regularly asked questions was "where is the police station?".

There was a perfectly good police station in the centre of the town, but the Marketing Department's questionnaires and polls kept highlighting that the absence of a police presence in the development was putting people off.

So, to deal with this concern, a Police Office was included in the plans.

The Police Office would have a (civilian) receptionist during the day, and would provide facilities for the patrol officers so they would take their breaks there (rather than the doughnut shop or diner) to be a visible police presence.

The receptionist could deal with all the inquiries and local calls, contacting the patrols if required.

After a few years, there was a requirement for a communications room, so one of the locker rooms was converted.

All was fine until Joan, the receptionist received a call about a disturbance at the mini market...

Having painted four Crooked Dice Lawmen with Shotguns for The Walking Dead: All Out War, they needed a ride and a police station to defend.

As Sarissa Precision provide all the buildings for Mantic, I wanted something compatible.

With the TWD:AOW expansion Made To Suffer, there was the Woodbury Housing Estate comprising a pack of four different MDF houses.

One of them was more like an office, but unfortunately not quite right for a Police Station.
 You may note the missing cross piece in the from window in later photographs, I broke it by accident.
The small rooms at the back look almost like cells, but the location directly off the lobby would not make them very secure. The lobby is too small to fit a desk and chair so you cannot use it as a reception.
You may also spot I managed to put the partition between the two larger rooms in the wrong way round. This means that the internal door would not fit.

I had a look at other options (I even asked for suggestions on Lead Adventure Forum), but there was nothing that met my requirements.

I then remembered the concept of the Police Office (a bit like a grown up version of a Police Box) - hence the story above.

So the part completed Woodbury House D was dug out of storage and completed.

The structure as shown above had the windows and doors masked up and PlastiKote Rust Effect spray was applied to the walls and roof.

The roof was then sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer, and the outer surface with a subsequent coat of Halfords Black Primer

The roof ventilators are from Debris of War and were spray painted with Army Painter Standard Uniform Grey.

The window surrounds were sprayed with Halfords White Primer and glued to the windows. The door lintels and doors were also sprayed at the same time (masking the sockets in the lintels).

Once dry, the doors were assembled and checked that they opened correctly.

The walls and interior were then sprayed with Halfords White(ensuring the doors did not stick and did not leave shadows).

Interior walls were then painted with Humbrol 90 Beige Green.

Front view.
Three quarters view showing the air conditioning units and junction box installed when one of the locker rooms was converted. They also provide a route to the roof.
Aircon and junction box in detail.

Another air-conditioning unit to cool the two offices.

View from above. Note the  FigureBitz/Crooked Dice Computer Console fits neatly on the end wall.
 I think I might paint the floors as well.

View of the roof. I do need to add a communications rig to the roof and possibly add a roof hatch
The Lawme face up to The Herd.

Retreating inside.
They really wish that the contractors had fitted the roller shutters.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

The Walking Dead: All Out War - You look familiar...

Though each Walking Dead booster (up to wave four) and expansion pack comes with a number of unique Walkers, the Roamer and Walker booster packs have duplicates of the box set walkers, plus the Here's Negan! board game also has a duplicate set of Walkers.

So you do end up with a number of identical Walkers.

As mentioned previously, I got a free Walker at Salute one year, and eventually painted the identical one from the main box set.



Here are the three of them.




Ground Zero Game NSL Power Armour (15mm)

Sometime last century | bought rather a lot of Ground Zero Games 25mm scale figures. They were nice sculpts and there was a nice range of 25mm vehicles that went with them.

Time moved on, and I found other scars and periods that interested me.

A couple of years ago, I was at a show and decided that I should see what the Ground Zero Games 15mm ranges we're like.

Here are three of the NSL Power Armour troopers.

The pack is armed with an "Anti-Personnel" weapon and an optional twin missile pack.

I would rate that as a sustained fire machine gun (with possible grenade launcher).
The figures are on 20mm Renedra plastic bases.
They were undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray followed by Citadel Zandri Dust spray.
The camouflage pattern was spots of Citadel Dryad Bark, followed by spots of Citadel Castellan Green and finally spots of Citadel Mourning Brown.

The gun was painted with Citadel Mechanics Grey.

The visor is Citadel Screamer Pink.

The figure was then dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone.  Once that was dr, the figures were washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

The guns (and the exposed warheads of the missiles) were washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.


The suit with the missile launchers in detail.

One of the other suits.


They are very nice figures.

Now I just need to build some opposition.

Fireforge Northmen Warriors and Bowmen.

At Warfare 2019, I bought a box each of the recently released Fireforge Games  Forgotten Worlds Northmen Warriors and Northmen Bowmen.

The figures come in boxes of twelve figures with a command sprue.

Northmen Bowmen box


 Northmen Warriors box


The Sprues

Northern Warriors

In the box there are four sprues, two of one kind and two of another, and one command sprue.

As you might see, there is no marking indicating that the sprues are different, though you might notice the weapon mix is different.

The sprue with spears

The Sprue with swords.


The completely brain dead problem with the sprue layout is that each sprue - on its own - can only build TWO FIGURES!

The reason is that each sprue contains one pair of matched legs, one left leg and hips and one right leg and hips. One sprue has two left legs, the other has two right legs.


Now I will quite often build one sprue's worth of figures to see what the figures look like, so I picked a sprue at random to build the three figures.

Now there is no indication that my chosen sprue does not build three figures, so I poked and prodded the legs to get them to look correct. One was fine, the other - well not so.

Pair "one"
 Pair "two"
Pair "one" has one left and one right foot.

 Pair "two"
That does not look completely awful.
However from below, it looks awful, obviously two right feet.

If you look in detail at the sprues, the left side of the skirt has a belt. The individual legs with the belts are on the other sprue. Without testing the fit on both sprues, that is the only way to get see that the sprue layout is insane.

The Command sprue

The Command has two alternative torsos, two capes, a Standard, a musician, and for those using these for Frostgrave, two torches.


Northmen Bowman

This box has two identical sprues and the same command sprue as the Northmen Warriors.