Vox Stellarum: 'I-Have-No-Idea-What-I'm-Doing' 15mm Moderns

[Ryltar Thamior]

As the title of the thread says ... there's no particular theme, period, historical force, a-historical force or anything else running through my head with these YET. But I happened to pick up a few Zvezda kits earlier this month when I was grabbing a Ratte for my alt-history Germans. Initially, i figured I might run them as part of a more-modern Team Yankee based game or something - after all, pending Battlefront's supposed investigation of establishing a "Late War" equivalent for TY, there's as-yet not glorious Kiwi-designed plastic and/or resin for things like the T-80, the Bradley, or the BTR-80 ... or even, for that matter, the mighty Challenger!



However, having done a certain amount of research [by which  i mean leafing through a few OSPREYs and browsing various frankly jaw-dropping 'hobbyist-enthusiast' blogs out there] ... actually doing a proper historical force for a decidedly non-historical conflict seemed an awful lot of work. I'm no rivet-counter, but i just wouldn't feel right simply 'making things up' on the spot.



And in any case, the most fetching camouflage I could find for much of the Soviet stuff was *Decades* later Ultra-Modern bits and pieces anyway.



Might still do some 'straight' Team Yankee forces in the future; but for the moment, am just having a bit of fun painting miniatures.



I'll show you just how ...dire my first pass at the BTR-80 was in a moment; but first, a trial camou-scheme for the Bradley. This isn't based on anything in particular [although a rather fetching Leopard II in rather more refined version of similar did cross my browser at about six a.m  this morning]; but figured it'd be a combination of Urban, and Arctic/Alpine for the helluvit. Nearly broke out the Midnight Blues [well, Kantor Blue, anyway] to turn it into night-fighting camouflage, but thought better of that.



Instead, a bit of a zebra/snow-tiger stripes pattern done in GW's Ulthuan Grey over Abaddon Black. One of the ablative plates [the left-hand side] is actually over Eshin Grey, because I was intending on using this as a test-run for the bitonal scheme I've put on one of my [Alt-]WWII Konigstigers earlier this morning ... but that wound up just going on without the tester - and perhaps ironically, sort-of ended up being a 'tester' of sorts for this!



Obviously, the edges on the pattern need 'hardening'; however my main dilemma at present is whether I add more greys and more layers of grey , or just keep to the nice and simple 'black-and-white' dazzle/distortion vibe.

Thoughts?

Oh and - here's that Leopard II camo-scheme I was taking a few points of inspiration from.



Now in terms of what'll go *inside* said Bradley ... I might just pick up a Battlefront US Mech Infantry platoon [plus a few additional vehicles, of course - I'm sure an Abrams would look pretty swish like this ], and paint em up as a sort of generic Special Ops team and say they're "monster hunters" or something for some Modern pulpish silliness in the absence of a historically-based OPFOR.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Now as for the hapless BTR ... two things went a bit pear-shaped here.



The first is, I was basically attempting to do something akin to Syrian Army camo without actually having *quite* the right colours to do so [so things are rather 'jarring' rather than either aesthetic or actually camouflaging]; and I also used Battlefront's own range of paints rather than my more usual GW bit sand pieces [which has been literally everything else before and since].

The scheme I was thinking of -

Now, obviously, this was basically a combination of colour-test and testing out Battlefront's paints before I applied them to the .. rather expensive Konigstigers; and I"m very glad I did it because that meant far less wasted time iwth the Germans. If i' been going to continue down this line, the edges of the scheme would have been hardened ,contoured etc. etc. etc. and it'd look a little more 'passable' than it does now.

But I think we'll be heading back to that imaginary mental space I occasionally use as a drawing-board, and Google Image Search to find some alternative camo patterns to paint it up in rather htan persisting with what's on there at the moment. WIll try and keep it visually distinct from the aforementioned Bradley which has come together - at this early stage - rather better, IMO.

aaanyway ... how it looks before we get back down ot basics and build up from the start again...















If anybody's got some neat modernish camo-schemes, i'm all ears/eyes/thumbs-where-there-should-be-fingers.

[Ryltar Thamior]

picked up a few bits and pieces at the flgs this afternoon:

in specia, 5x T-64s; 2x BMPs [will be assembled as 2's]; 1x M1, 1x M113, and one each of an American Mech Infantry platoon and a Soviet Motor Rifle platoon.



Tbh, not entirely sold on some of the assemblies here. As compared ot the previous round of Zvezda snap-fits, they're a helluvalot more 'fiddly'. I've left the smoke-dischargers on the BMP-2 I managed to put together off, because good grief that was a little beyond me today!



Still, good to have some decent Modern Soviet hardware in bulk.





[/img]



aaaand now the inevitable colour-scheme hunting...

[Ryltar Thamior]

Went out for a bit of a walk this afternoon...



Came back with these - of which, here's the Moderns relevant portion:



Unfortunately, no additional Bradleys on hand in-shop; but with the one already mostly painted up, that's half a platoon; and the Abrams i've assembled doesn't seem *too* incongruous iwth the Battlefront one acquired earlier in the week. Another one of those assembled, and another procured, and there'll at least be a full American Armour platoon ready to roll even if its mech infantry accompaniment isn't fully there yet. [although on the plus side, at least all the American infantry's been tidied up of flash etc ready to roll - now we just look for suitable (dark?) grey colourschemes)] [can't wait ot see how the Abrams look in the Zebra scheme I've done the M2A2 in].

The Soviets/Russians/Whatever are proceeding at an eeever so slightly slower pace - a few T-64s in various states of completion; the BMP-2 now waiting for camouflage applique, the BTR-80 repainted to a similar grey for camo-testing [*again* ]; and now some handy air-asset and anti-air asset and logistical bits and pieces to go iwth.

[von Lucky]

Deja vu. Interesting project, will follow your project with... interest.

The Zvezda Abrams can do with stowage to cover up the lack of detail (compared to their Russian kit and the Battlefront Abrams).

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Another nice collection of stuff.

The Zvezda Abrams can do with stowage to cover up the lack of detail (compared to their Russian kit and the Battlefront Abrams).

I was going to ask if you could do a comparison shot.

[von Lucky]

I should. I have painted the Zvezda ones, but not the Battlefront ones (just undercoated). Gimme the weekend (It's Melbourne Cup weekend, so that's Tuesday).

[Ryltar Thamior]

Went for another walk this afternoon...



The Moderns acquisitions:



1x Zvezda US M109A2 155mm self-propelled howitzer; 2x Zvezda Soviet Gvozdika 122mm self-propelled howitzers; 1x Battlefront M1 Abrams, 1x Battlefront M113 [can be assembled in a number of variants], 1x Battlefront German Marder IFV, 1x Battlefront T-72, 2x Battlefront BMP [can be assembled as a BMP-1 or 2].

I've nearly finished the Zvezda BTR-80 and the previous Zvezda Abrams as well as the BMP-2, so might get on to posting those a bit later.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Went for another walk...



The Moderns part of the haul:



And, to prove *some* progress is happening on the plasti-crack mountain to justify new expenditure ...



2x BMP-2s mostly done in fine Soviet green [aka GW Castellan Green], just requiring a bit of a tidy-up, unit-numbering and other iconography, and inking; 2x 2S1 Gvozdika / 'Carnation' self-propelled guns [which have been named 'Svarog' and 'Dazbog' after two pre-Christian deities of the Slavic iteration of Indo-European religion], also just about done minus inking and unit iconography [I've had a stab at that with the turret on 'Svarog' - a hammer striking an anvil, producing sparks .. although the sparks are obviously too yellow on the pale-grey background, so will perhaps amend to a nice dashing *red* ] [I guess it isn't just Flames of War where the Russians have 'God of War' artillery ]; and finally a T-72A that's part-way through painting in progress.

Also, just a word on the T-72 ... far be it from me to knock Kiwi-designed produce [patriot that I am], but I do think there's a few areas Battlefront could have done a bit better on with it [the stowage bins are a bit dimpled, those smoke-launchers nearly wound up at "bane of my existence" territory, and from online reviews i've read, i'm a little worried about the de-ditching pole being a little precarious. Also vaguely unimpressed about the lack of guide-mounts for the mine-ploughs, which is why they're as-yet unaffixed.

Still, already looks pretty decent from a distance .. so that's something. Will be interesting to see how it compares to the Zvezda T-72B [with the ERA that Battlefront *mysteriously* hasn't allowed as an option in its own Team Yankee lists] kit I picked up this afternoon.

Oh, also put together a Marder earlier in the week that's now undercoated and waiting on me deciding on a camo-schme for it. I'm sorely tempted to do one of the rather dashing German Late-War ones I've seen on schwere panzers about the place.

[von Lucky]

Looking good, yes Zvezda a better T-72 and Battlefront did a better job on the Abrams. (And I still need to take photos.)

[Dr. Zombie]

Looks like you go on some expensive walks.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Looking good, yes Zvezda a better T-72 and Battlefront did a better job on the Abrams. (And I still need to take photos.)

Having just assembled one of the Zvezda Shilkas and uh ... *mostly* managed to pull it off despite being down one periscope somewhere in the carpet [with the gun assembly becoming a future contender for "bane of my existence"]; any idea how the Battlefront ones compare?

[von Lucky]

Unfortunately not, but there's a few reviews online.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Since it was asked for earlier ... comparison-shot of the Zvezda M1A1 [on the left] and the Battlefront M1 assembled as an A1 [on the right]. [both painting very much in progress]



As you can see, there are a few immediately-noticeable differences around stowage, anad hte side-skirting is markedly thicker and more detailed on the Battlefront offering [entirely unsurprisingly]. Looking more closely, the turrets are actually slightly different sizes and shapes, with the cannon on each being immediately obviously different length. I'm possibly putting this down to these actually representing slightly different iterations of the M1, due to some of the other differences such as the circular projection on the other side of the turret to the rangefinder on the Zvezda tank.

Shouldn't really worry toooo much on a table-top, of course, but there is a bit of a difference, and if you're finnicky about having everything match up, then it will be a bit noticeable.

Having said that, I *might* mount the spare MGs that come with the Battlefront kit on the relevant positions on the Zvezda model to see if that helps with visual coterminity a bit - and certainly wtih an arguably rather needed anti-infantry firepower boost.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks.

The M1 used the venerable ROF L7 105mm gun, the M1A1 uses the Rhinemetal 120mm smoothbore.