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Author Topic: A War in The East  (Read 74026 times)

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #210 on: June 17, 2018, 03:18:07 PM »
After an unannounced break to go off and play with my Elder Scrolls models (you may not have noticed me posting over on the Frostgrave board) I'm back to pick up where I left off here.

I'd had a few things in the works when I last touched my moderns. Not much of that has advanced really, though most of it was already done.

First off, here's this contraption. I don't know if it should really have an official designation, but the Soviets called at least some of their's BTR-ZD/ DG.




There's maybe a bit too much going on here for one model – slat armour, an improvised gun mount and the crew/ stowage at the back. Which I suppose is fine, as well, real combat vehicles don't go out of their way to look pretty. Something else to fit in with a column of soldiers driving to a battle perhaps? I'm not sure how practical having those guys on the back there is (like, there's guys fighting all around them and they're just sitting there), but it gives you something else to look at.

I'd like to give the ZU-23-2 a gun shield, but felt that there was already too much going on, and wanted to stay true to the more common types of this conversion based on the chassis. I need to tell myself that having a dozen vehicles with Anti-Aircraft guns on the back isn't too viable for games, and to go make some more atypical things instead (boring!).

Here's this guy as well.



My order from Siberia Miniatures arrived fairly promptly, so I went ahead and make this guy with his 100 year old gun immediately. Of that company's offerings I found that the slightly more expensive of the two choices for PM M1910 guns offered the best level of detail and parts options.

I used the second of those M1910 guns as part of this beauty.



This old Corgi Series III Land Rover looks just the part for a technical. Using parts from Spectre's Technical Upgrade set along with some minor detailing I think its been brought up to snuff as a gaming piece (someone obviously adding after market parts to this old vehicle). I'd have liked to have added a driver in the cab, but cutting off the pop rivets holding the thing together seemed like tempting fate a bit too much. The inside's probably caked in rust looking at the original set of wheels.

The shop had a second one, which I didn't buy at the time, so I may head back at some point and make another of these. Maybe with the gun facing forward over the cab (a DshK perhaps). A lucky find regardless considering I was looking at Spectre's Toyota pickup, and this is perhaps a bit more "European" looking. A pity that Soviet Diecasts aren't that available here, or in the proper scale. :/

That's about all the soldiers which I'd managed. The rest's been terrain.

Here's another shed. Everyone likes sheds.




Its a bit green. Blame the guy who owns it, not everyone paints their shed in contrasting colours that make them easier for gaming. ...And they have other priorities now, with the whole war thing going on. :)


Ah, and then there's a wall thing. ...I pass this thing on the train every day and thought it'd work as a terrain piece, just to ...well be wall like.



I'd made pavement segments to go along with a set of asphalt roads for my Fallout collection. Those have since been re-used for other things. The issue with them however is that they're rather post-apocalyptic. So, I took it upon myself to make some less garish looking pavements which look a bit less thrown together. They may not be Post-Apocalyptic, but they're definitely representative of the state of British pavements. :P



(Tsk, and yeah, I forgot to add detail to the curb. I'll cut some etches into the balsa wood to make it look like bricks. ...If I can remember that is)
« Last Edit: June 17, 2018, 03:19:39 PM by Wyrmalla »

Offline racm32

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #211 on: June 17, 2018, 06:42:50 PM »
I love this thread and the amazing work you are doing, it's a real inspiration for my project.
Question for you: what are you using to make slat armour?

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #212 on: June 17, 2018, 07:10:01 PM »
Its exactly how it looks. Frames made out of plastic rod. So I don't run out of one particular type I make the base structure out of square rod (which is also easier to stick together flush), then the horizontal bars out of round tubes.

If I wanted to be more realistic it'd be all square rod and interleaved instead of the horizontal bars sitting on top of the frame. What I have is easier to make though, and looks fine for my purposes (that and its not like someone making slat armour out of spare metal is going to be picky).

Just work out the basic shape for each panel, then make the outside pieces. Then mark along the length where the vertical bars will go before gluing those on first for rigidity, before marking out the positions of the horizontal bars (probably just a mark at each end and one in the middle) and sticking those on.

Personally I'm not 100% sold on slat armour from a modelling perspective. In reality (when applied properly) its a practical addition to most vehicles, but when just looking at it on a model I find that it completely obscures what the actual vehicle is. You wind up with a fleet of boxes with guns sticking out, though I guess that's maybe the look of our times when it comes to military vehicles.

I suppose its better than covering the vehicles in rubber sheets. I could probably get away with finding a spare set of tracks and just make a box with rubber mats all over it and nobody would be any the wiser that there wasn't a resin model beneath them.




Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #213 on: June 17, 2018, 09:59:42 PM »
Nice models. I have missed seeing your work (only venturing into Frostgrave occasionally).

I see what you mean on the slat armour. Having seen your work I am tempted to try and build on, but it would hide by it was I was building. Plus even though Humber Pigs had slat armour, it seem to have been forgotten again and might look out of place on kit for Twilight 2000.

Offline ChargeDog

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #214 on: June 17, 2018, 10:43:08 PM »
Thanks for the hints on the slat armour - looks really effective. The two strkyers sat on my desk waiting to be finished look a bit wrong without the extra four miles of width added by the slat armour so I'm tempted to try it.

Offline racm32

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #215 on: June 17, 2018, 11:39:07 PM »
I agree it looks like it hides the model but might try it on 1 or 2.
An additional question: originally I was distinguishing between Gov and separatist vehicles with yellow and white lines respectively. Is that accurate? What methods are you using to distinguish faction?

Offline cuprum

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #216 on: June 18, 2018, 01:24:12 AM »
Ukrainian military equipment has white vertical stripes in front and sides. The number of bands indicates one of the fronts. Slogans and images of the national flag are possible.
The technique of the insurgents usually has just the inscriptions "DNR" and "LNR" (Donetsk or Lugansk Republic respectively), as well as slogans and flags, both Russian national and the flags of these territories. Also, the symbol of the rebels at the first stage was the St. George ribbon and the flag of Novorossia (a term meaning the united territory of both unrecognized republics) - this flag is similar to the banner of Southerners during the American Civil War.
Both sides widely used the usual fabric flags.

This information was relevant for the period of intensive military operations.

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #217 on: June 18, 2018, 07:00:16 AM »
I'm not going out of my way to distinguish the sides much. Missing out National Flags on most models so that they can be used as either side, and possibly for other purposes. Outside of the Little Green Men most of the other models could be used to represent fighters from various conflicts, which helps if I want to play a game set in America for instance (where the guys are wearing after market camo). As curprum said, the white "invasion stripes" should denote various fronts, though I've not been keeping those consistent (only that Acacia SPG and a BMP-2 have them from what I can remember though).

Offline racm32

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #218 on: June 18, 2018, 04:00:51 PM »
I do plan on using most the vehicles in both European and Middle Eastern theaters (don't need to be tan to be playable) so will keep faction markings to a minimum.

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #219 on: June 18, 2018, 09:09:30 PM »
Spoiler: This "War in the East" is actually representing a fictional Ukrainian intervention in Moldova. :P

Pft, you know that feeling when you want to make something, but realise that you used up the kit you bought to make that thing years ago for spares? I'm back to wanting a tank monument, though managed to use both the T-34/76 and the KV-1 I shortly purchased afterwards (after I'd used half the T-34's parts for something else) in the projects I've had since my original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. thread. Looking at my terrain collection I'd like a tank monument as the centre piece for an urban table (rather than that one with the brass figures from earlier in this current thread, which works more for a rural village).

...I mean last night I was actually thinking about how great it would be to have some Soviet era apartment blocks, ah, though as I type this my eyes are looking sideways at that restaurant which is still needing finished. Heh, then upwards to that GNR building from Fallout 3 that I started years ago (which I was kind of wondering if I should finish up as an old news station or office block). ...That thing quickly became too unfeasible to use as a gaming piece considering most of my games are on 4x4 tables and that thing would completely dominate any game (thus why my mind then drifted to having some apartment blocks ...then expanding games out to a 6x6 table for wargames shows, which my wargaming club have been considering running again).

Right, back to painting men in silly hats. :P

Offline von Lucky

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #220 on: June 19, 2018, 12:41:20 PM »
You're thinking too small - you could have a 6x24 foot table if you really made the effort.
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Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #221 on: June 19, 2018, 01:26:05 PM »
You're thinking too small - you could have a 6x24 foot table if you really made the effort.
Follow Rich H's plans.
[Edit - damn you autocorrect]
« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 07:34:42 AM by Ultravanillasmurf »

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #222 on: June 19, 2018, 04:56:32 PM »
I've seen Cold War gone hot boards at a couple of gaming shows before. ...Though they really pack far too many models onto those. Well, the terrain's sparse, but I'm not into filling up every available space in a deployment zone with vehicles (reminiscent of that one scene with the British convoy at the start of A Bridge Too Far). I would like to cover games featuring a bit more of a realistic sized playing area though. By that I mean that tanks don't really operate at the range you see on a 4x4 table unless its urban combat and that sort of thing, and everything winds up looking a bit bunched in as you try and add some variety. In reality a 4x4 table representing a rural residential area would be one house, a decent sized garden, bushes and maybe a phone box ...not a half dozen homes, but well, one seems more fun to play than the other (especially using rulesets like Spectre: Operations "oh you're out in the open? Should I really even roll to see if my guy kills you or do you just want to remove the model?). :)

Offline Wyrmalla

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #223 on: June 25, 2018, 08:00:39 PM »
Well my week's been partying and ...well work. One of those was more productive than the other, though both have been detrimental to my modelling time. :)

For the sake of keeping this thread solvent I did throw this guy together over the weekend.





He has a face only a mother could love beneath that rag...

I'm noticing that my pictures tend to look blurry due to how I'm liking them. They're 4K images, but are being scaled down oddly. Hopefully these are better now. :P




Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: A War in The East
« Reply #224 on: June 26, 2018, 07:36:32 AM »
Nice sculpt.

 

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