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sundancer 4 years, 12 months ago.
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@rayzryr I have managed to stop cutting myself again so far.
Hobby wise, I have my box of Dwarfs all clipped off the sprue, ready to start building more units.
Some character models of the Dwarfs, ready for priming, though I see I have missed mould lines on the King. They will join the ones I built on Sunday to make a Legion of Zombies. While Zombies have taken a bit of a nerf in 3rd Edition, I think they will still be useful in tying up units to justify the points they cost. Once I get these Zombies done, I will move onto building up more Ghouls.
Another 6 sprues of Zombies legs awaiting the top half
Not sure what I am going to do with the 3-Up Skeleton Rat/Dogs – probably mounts for heroes, not sure yet.
I’m done with what I pledged two weeks ago, my brother’s birthday gift:
More pics here: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project-entry/1460186/
My next pledge is to make some christmas decor with lights for my little nephew (7). Thinking about a few little houses.
Good afternoon ~ Apologies, @tuffyears … I didn’t know you were running the thread this week.
1. How did you get into the hobby – Avalon Hill’s Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, 1984.
2. Are we nearly there yet – Wake me up when we get there.
3. Whats the air speed velocity of a swallow – definitely slower than the rifle bullet I’ve just shot at it. 😀
For recent hobby:
This is a project close to my heart, and one I’ve been putting off for far too long. For almost two years now I’ve been wanting to build a US Marine Corps Team Yankee force, but instead of using them in a fictional war in Europe, I wanted to build them for 1991 historical Desert Storm.
So I finally broke down and bought it all, enough to field a respectable US Marine Corps force approximately as it would have appeared in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, along with some enemy forces I can tweak into the T-55s, Type 59s, BTRs, and other vehicles used by the Iraqi divisions holding this section of the line. Possible recreations may include part of the Battle of Khafji in January 1991.
This project will cover the construction and painting of these forces, using mostly Battlefront 15mm from Teak Yankee and Fate of a Nation.
Here are the kits I bought for this project. I’m looking to build a passable for for both sides that historically faced off in this part of the 1991 Gulf War. Nothing here is an EXACT match, there is no “Gulf War” kit. So I’ll have to figure out a way to turn those M60A1s to USMC M60A1s with ERA reactive armor panels, and update those T-54s into T-55s and Type 59s used by Iraqi Army divisions (No T-72s “Lions of Babylon,” those were Republican Guard divisions further north and west).
Start off with the USMC LAV-25 platoon. They give you a lot of choices here. I built three with the standard autocannon (one commander), one with the mortar, and one with TOW-II ATGW mount to help deal with Iraqi tanks.
The Ryan’s Leathernecks kit comes with six of the older-model HMMWVs. I made one with the TOW ATGW, one with the Mark 19 Automatic grenade launcher, and the rest with the redoubtable .50 M2HB heavy machine gun.
The kit also comes with three M60 main battle tanks. Indeed, the Marine Corps was still using M60s during the 1991 Gulf War. The only difference is the ERA reactive armor I’ll have to figure out how to fabricate and mount.
Total Marine force at this point. Long way to goon this one … 😀
Further progress (to get this closer to caught up) …
So I’ve had some real set backs on this project. Once again, I’ve forgotten how murderously finicky and fragile the dark wash can be on any desert army (or arctic for that matter, anything with a lighter base color). This is particularly true with more modern historical vehicles with such broad, flat panels.
Well, the dark wash on these Marine vehicles went down positively horribly, even though I thinned it considerably. Fortunately, I was able to save these vehicles with another light coat of desert sand. This covered the train wreck, I had to mix the airbrush paint myself using watered down craft store acrylics. Hardly an ideal solution, but it worked.
After that, pretty much a full day was spent PIN washing these vehicles again – almost an hour per vehicle. It was murderously time consuming, but I think I have a wash down I can live with. The American “desert yellow” has come out well (the temperature of the color of course changes with the wash, so you have to air brush with that in mind). and I think I’m in the home stretch of these vehicles.
MEANWHILE: Also working on my Iraqi T-54s/55s (some with side skirts, some without), and some Type 59 II Chinese imports / upgrades.
ALSO: Started on the “Ryan’s Leathernecks” infantry that come with the set. Lots of M16A2 service rifles, M249 SAWs, M203 GLs, an M72 LAW or two, even a small mortar and what looks like a Dragon ATGW. Again, this was originally for Team Yankee (mid 1980s), I’m adapting it as best I can for a 1991 Desert Storm force.
Beginnings of my Iraqi force. I’m using the Syrian T-54 Battalion from Fate of a Nation as a base. The T-54s are yes … confirmed to be small, especially against the ZSU-23-4 Shilka SPAAGs.
I’ve made three of the T-54s with side skirts, three without (the 1991 Gulf War saw a mix of these). I also made three of them as Chinese Type 59 IIs (Iraq had about 1500 of these in service for the war).
The Marine Force after the wash went badly wrong, re-colored, and re-washed.
Again, the ERA panels that were carried on the M-60A1s will have to be fabricated. I also bought the LAV-25s from another kit. Otherwise these are Ryan’s Leathernecks from Battlefront’s Team Yankee.
The LAVs come with plenty of options. I built three as standard LAV-25s (25mm autocannon in small turret), one as a mortar carrier and one with an ITV-style ATGW TOW-II launcher.
The HMMWVs also come with plenty of options. I built one with a TOW, one with a Mk 19 40mm AGL, and four with the ole’ reliable M2HB “Ma Deuce” .50 cal.
Also started the Marine Infantry. They give you 55 figures in all. Needed quite a bit of cleaning, But I will say I can recognize details like the H-Harness 782 gear, M249 SAWs, M203 GLs under some of the M16A2 service rifles, etc. Ready for prime and base coating.
Full Project Thread:
@rayzryr yeah, the Dwarfs are from Mantic. Big fan of the range – I’d need to be given I have so many of them!
more Zombies done. Just need heads and arms on these boys and I’ll have a Legion built and ready for priming.
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