HMS Havoc - finished pictures, page 2

[Chairface]

Let me introduce my first VSF vehicle ever, the HMS Havoc. Its base is an old toy robot/ robotic vehicle that I purchased at Value Village for $2 dollars. After serious consideration I decided take it in a VSF direction, although it would also have made a sweet looking WWW2 walker for my German force.

To get the vehicle into its present state I had to do quite a bit of work. The first alteration was that the arms originally on the model had to go. It has taken a great deal of plastic cement, plastic card, and over 1000 pins!

Here she is from the front. Thats a 28mm scale fig from Black tree in the bottom right corner for an idea of scale:



A side view. Note the liberal amount of GW vehicle bits (although not out of place for VSF)and the dollar store cannons



The back. The boiler is made out of a half of a spray paint can lid, some plastic card and a paper tube liberated from the garbage at work. I put some Bretonian Shield pieces on the top of the stack for decoration:



A shot of the foot and the 28mm fig from blacktree, for another idea of scale. The ladder is from a heroclix fig, the Black Mask, and is perfect for getting figs in and out of the hatch:



The bridge area, without the canopy. I'm going for a very naval feel. I have become much more comfortable using plastic card, and pretty much had to completely redo what was the one man cockpit, into a multifigure bridge. Note that the wheel and helmsman are not in their final positions. The rest of the visible crew, the first mate and captain are near completion  and will be in fixed places in the final version.:



And last but not least the ship name ( I scoured the internet looking for a good name - wanted to call it the HMS Cochrane, but couldn't fit it in the area provided...  )Havoc is a good, reliable ships name, that fit!



Its been a cool little project so far - I spent quite a few evenings drilling the holes and cutting pins for the rivets. I plan on painting it in a gunmetal grey metalic, with a silver emphasis on the rivets. A union jack will be going between the ship name and the "VR." I plan on putting some colour into the bridge area.

My biggest rergret is that I have been too chicken to do more to the canopy. It probably needs more of a boxy, monitor look, and it looks a little too WW2 the way it is now. That being said, I think that when she's painted up, she will look great on any VSF battlefield. 

[Calimero]

Nice work  , hope you will post some pictures of the finished project later.

...and a paper tube liberated from the garbage at work...

I used to work in a shoes factory near Sherbrooke (PQ) and every now and then I take some of my break time looking in the shop to gather some “useful stuff” for my minis. I found some nice thin cardboard “fausses semelles” that I used as a base for my wood layout and some thin rubber plate of which I sanded the hedges to make hills for 6 and 15mm figures… The hardest part, of all that scavenging, was to explain what I would do with all this junk to my co-workers! 

[Sterling Moose]

Looks great chairface, even better than when I saw it last 

[Malamute]

Nice conversion. Love all those rivets

[Regulator]

Very nice conversion! Lovely havoc 

[andekmcc]

Great stuff I must take a trip to some of these bargain shops myself some time, agree with you about the canopy, perhaps you could try some gothic style windows with small panes to make the canopy look more authentic?

[Geudens]

Nice work!!!

Talking about bargain shops: this is what happened to me last week...

We have this council sponsored system here in Belgium called "recycling shops", where people drop stuff they don't need anymore but which is too good for the bin.  The people working in the shop are men/women experiencing problems finding a job (for whatever reason) and are trained in sales, warehousing, repairing electrical appliances etc (you get the picture) instead of just receiving an allowance.  It is - in a way - a "council operated/sponsored flea market".

Nearly every town over here (Flanders) has such a shop and there are great finds to be discovered there, often at cents apiece.  Since I'm on the road most of the workweek, I always try and have a look when I pass one.  The 2 or 3 nearest to where I live, I try to visit twice a month or so.  The "toy department" (two or 3 shelves) often contains toys of no great value, but at the prices charged it is worthwhile buying a toy just for the wheels or one GI-Joe-ish plastic toy tank or the other as conversion materiel.  Sometimes, I get lucky and do a great find (e.g. 3 (new) identical Basilisk-like big guns for 50 cents each and once a pile of Megabloks dragons (36!) and much more stuff for only 20 Euros).

So, last week I picked up two plastic toy trucks and went to pay the 20 cents due at the checkout.  I saw the lady thinking "How nice of this grandfather (I'm 58) to buy some toys for his grandson here   ".  Her supervisor (standing slightly to the back) undoubtably had the same idea.  At the very moment I put my money on the counter, a voice behind me said: "These trucks will probably end up as Ork Waggons!".  I turned around and stood eye to eye with a fellow gamer I hadn't seen in years.  Appearently he had gone into the antique business (figure painters are great restorers...) and was a regular customer of the place.  The store manager assumed that I was in the same line of trade and asked "Do you also restore stuff?".  Before I could answer, the fellow gamer said "Nonono, he sort of plays with little men".  Both the manager and the lady looked again at my plastic cars and then straight in my face with eyes that seemed to shoot bullets.  I won't repeat here what I'm sure they were thinking, but it certainly had all to do with small children and toys being used as bait and very little with wargaming...  They turned around quickly and without a further look or word disappeared in the office.

Next time I visit, I'll be wearing my "I play with little lead soldiers" T-shirt... 

Rudi

[Pappa Midnight]

Excellent find!
Amazing the stuff you find in budget stores. I'm really looking forward to see this one finished.

Rudi: I often get sales staff assuming I'm looking for stuff for my kids. My wife has got a habit of asking if I want to look at the toys so everyone can hear!

Regards
PM

[Chairface]

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions guys. As soon as I finish the bridge crew and a few small details I will be painting. There is no way that this is going to end up as one of those unfinished projets. And yes I will continue visiting the bargain shops. I would love to find another of these guys that I can really go crazy with. My comfort level with plastic card has gone up about 1000% since I started this project, and the next one would be a little more VSF looking.

Andekmcc - That is an excellent suggestion. Not sure if my skill levels are up to the task, but will try to figure it out.

Geudens - I got a genuine laugh out of that one. I hope that you can bring yourself into going back to the store again.

[andekmcc]

I  must admit I suggested it without having any real idea on how to achieve it myself  , perhaps some wire with some clear plastic (blister pack type stuff) behind.  Good luck..

[Thunderchicken]

Lovely work Chairface!

Note to self: we're going to need a bigger table when I get over there!!

[Chairface]

Lovely work Chairface!

Note to self: we're going to need a bigger table when I get over there!!

I'm looking forward to showing you the best junk shops.

[Ironcladman]

I think I'm going to have to make a tank with a bigger gun! 
Brilliant conversion.

[Geudens]

Rudi: I often get sales staff assuming I'm looking for stuff for my kids. My wife has got a habit of asking if I want to look at the toys so everyone can hear!
Regards
PM

I must say that my lady friend has another approach: whenever I spot a toy dpt (and am drawn towards it by magnetic force...), she walks in the opposite direction and pretends not to know me...   

Rudi

[Chairface]

I have been painting up a storm and am excited to show the final production of the Havoc. However, I'm not quite there yet. But the crew is done, so here are a few pics:





The body is a Mordian Iron Guard. I've green stuffed the trousers and given him a headswap from a heroclix Aquaman. The rug that he is standing on is plasticard, and matches the command chair that he will be standing in front of. The Telescope is made from both ends of a space marine sniper sight attached to a drumstick.

The crewman is also made from a combination of green stuff,  heroclix and GW pieces from my bits box. I know the legs look a little weird, but I decided not to bother with them, as they will be obscured by the wheel.