"Battle For Skira" modern PLA vs. USMC

[sundayhero]

This is not the playing piece you'll bring in any convention demo    Or only in a glass shelter... 

[Sgt. Scream]

This is not the playing piece you'll bring in any convention demo    Or only in a glass shelter... 

Depends on how well you pack it. 

After finishing off the AH-1Z my next project for the "Battle For Skira" campaign is some ground vehicles. I picked my AAVP7A1 amtracks, call-sign "Gator", to be the next in line.

The models are one Dragon die-cast, expanded with EAAK made from resin (Black Dog CZ), and two Dragon Amtracks w/EAAK kits that got single pieces of stowage from Black Dog and other brands (S&S for example) glued all over the place. :-)

The diecast and one of the plastic kits are shown below in various stages of the current build. I need to assemble the next kit and will start painting when all are completely assembled.

[Sgt. Scream]

I promised there would be more and I shall keep that promise. :-) A long afternoon of kit building later:

Gator #3 assembled and #2 received its primer

[sundayhero]

"Combat wear" vehicles, full of gear, camo mesh, etc... is what I prefer in modern warfare historical models  

I can't wait to start my owns, but french of course  

[majorsmith]

man this thread is awesome! the helicopters are amazing but these apcs are on another level!

[Westfalia Chris]

Lovely beasties. Also, I'm fascinated how big they are. I've got a Ferret Mk2 on the painting table right now and it is such a tiny thing... and then you see this monster on the far side of the spectrum.

Any plans for an LCAC to up the ante?

[Arrigo]

I have refrained to comment on this thread until now (mainly because I had to find my jaw...), but now I canbnot resist to express my admiration for the amtracks...

Anyway, I have noticed that recently less and less baggage is seen on them, as in M1A1, Lav25 or other vehicles. I know for sure the US Army had been quite strict on external stowage recently mainly for safety reason. As much we modellers love to make our gypsy caravans and as much troops like to stow everything, it seems that stowage is fire prone in combat. One Abrams was lost when stowed fuel bladder were punctured and then spilled on the engine grill and during the thunder run into Baghdad several vehicles caught fire because the external stowage was hit. Pictures from Italian Army vehicles from Iraq and A'stan show a marked reduction of external gear. I decided to have my Bradleys and Gator clean for that reason. Just preference of course.

Again compliment for the models! I am waiting to see the good guys, the PLA (ok also the Marines are good guys but for personal reasons I have problems with all the games where the Chinese are bad...).

Arrigo

[Sgt. Scream]

Again compliment for the models! I am waiting to see the good guys, the PLA (ok also the Marines are good guys but for personal reasons I have problems with all the games where the Chinese are bad...).

Arrigo

Make the two of us.

Any plans for an LCAC to up the ante?

If I get one for Xmas.

[Ray Earle]

Brilliant work on those apc's. The lived in look works a treat.

Really like the helos too. Keeps reminding me of all the stuff I've got to build and paint yet.

[Sgt. Scream]

It took me ages to finally find a copy of the Warrior Model 1/72 scale vacu-formed/resin kit of a NanChang Q-5 on ebay. This one came to me from a guy in Poland.

The Q-5 is a close air support/ground attacker aircraft, currently deployed by both, PLAAF (Chinese Air Force) and the PLA Navy.

This one is my first vacu-formed kit that I am ever going to assemble. That means its going to be interesting...  :scratch:

If you look at the box contents, you'll see that the main fuselage and wings are vacu-formed white plastic, while weapons, cockpit and parts of the landing gear are either resin cast or white metal. The metal parts I won't need for the most part since I am going to assemble the kit "in flight" on a flight stand. I am also planning on exchanging the resin cast FAB-250 bombs with plastic ones from Dragon Models' Soviet Aircraft payload kits in 1/72 scale. I might also use my Dream Model chinese LGBs to put them under the wings instead of the 57mm rocket pods. The modern Q-5 can carry up to two of them.

Check out the pics:

Contents: decals, instructions, painting guides, resin payload and detail parts, white metal landing gear etc..


Box: includes one kit, several decals for both, PLAAF and Pakistani Air Force

[Westfalia Chris]

Ohh, now that looks like a challenge! I'm looking forward to what you'll make of it. I trust you've already "done your homework" on vacucast, but if you can find some good tutorials on how to prepare and work the stuff, I strongly suggest you use them. I've had this one bookmarked for a while and it is a good starting point:

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plasitc-model-kits-how-tos/how-to-build-vacuform-model-kits/

Removing and preparing the parts from the sheets is crucial and easy to mess up, and although it is a small-enough model, I'd suggest you think about adding some spars or bulkheads to add rigidity.

That said, it is a rather unusual piece of kit! Amazing when you consider it boils down to a souped-up MiG-19...

[Sgt. Scream]

Following a few guides on the internet on modelling vacu-form kits, the first steps I took was using a black marker and draw it around the parts in an 45° angle. I tried to mark 50% of both, the actual parts and the styrene sheet around it.


I then used scissors and hobby knife to cut out the parts. I tried not cut too close to the parts before they have been freed of the styrene sheet left overs around it. Next step will be cutting them out very closely using my hobby knife and then the sanding process will kick off.

[Nysse]

Brave man! Vacuformed kits can be a real pain to build. I've tried a few in the past and will be avoiding them in the future if there is any possibility

Great work on the helos and amtraks. Can't wait to see more from you

[Sgt. Scream]

Today I have sanded the first parts of the Fantan. I started with something small to try it and so the smaller rear wings were first to go.


The first pic shows the already sanded parts for the left rear wing. Above those you can see how the parts were looking like on top and from underneath before sanding.


After sanding them with 120 grid and 180 grid sand paper, they became really thin but to my surprise still very stiff.



At first I thought the wings will be hollow on the inside but after sanding it became clear that the two halves will have a large surface to put glue on top.

Tomorrow the sanding process will continue and I might already have a wing or two show off with. :-)

[Elbows]

Easy Model makes a J10A in 1/72nd scale...perhaps you could repaint it?

http://www.easymodel.net/index.php/Index/ProductDetail/id/258.html