Hi folks,
This is a recent project: my take on the Disney
Planes: Fire & Rescue Cabbie Cargo Hauler for 28mm gaming. I'd seen a few of the conversions around the web, and even bought one of the toys for my nephew a few years back. I picked this one up off Gumtree Oz for $10 Pacific pesos. It had one broken prop.
With this conversion I was trying to create the impression of a battered crate, which saw a long career in the US Air Force, has passed through the hands of Air America, at least one
Fuerza Aerea…, and a series of increasingly disreputable bush air cargo services in Africa and Central America. Each owner has been cutting more corners on maintenance and safety, doing just enough to keep it flying rubber dog-shite, livestock, drugs and weapons out of God-knows-where.
The creaking panels, slightly bent spars and battered and incomplete logbooks tell only part of a convoluted back story populated by a colourful and shady carnival of characters: one doorway looks like it once served as a gun-port, the altitude gauge is iffy, there are bullet-hole sized patches and piece of some obscure south-east Asian forest wedged hard in the wingtip…
The conversion was a simple case of peeling off the stickers, fabricating the missing prop blade and spraying silver enamel over a black primer. Apart from a bit of painting here and there, I left the markings off - not sure where to go with them, though there is a faded orange paint on the fins hinting at previous service in the Arctic, and wing panels suggest hastily obscured registration.
I can thoroughly recommend this as a gaming piece - sure, it's not an exact model but close enough and a sturdy and practical gaming piece. This one will serve in Black Ops games, lurking on the edge of a shady cartel airstrip deep in the jungle or perhaps ferry
Picaros in yet another San Theodoras
coup d'etat.
On with the pics...
As it arrived, from a short career in a toybox:
Into the paint shop:
...and back into service:
Happy gaming.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 29, 2024, 09:32:29 PM
