Time for a Change of Gears
Recommendations: 51
About the Project
All this shit needs to be built, or refurbished, painted, fixed, repaired, and made complete. I'm tired of looking at it. I'm tired of having a box full of half-finished hobby. No more. Some of this stuff is over a year old. My own hobby has really suffered recently, and its time to get back on track.
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
New guns on the "Toy" military attack boat
Reworking the boat’s weapons and other deck components.
First, the comically-oversized “water cannon” (just a .50 cal that they toy manufacturer repainted, it still had the ammo belt hanging out of the receiver) was removed from the bow mount.
Bought a pack of 1/72 (20mm) .50 cals. Two of these were mounted on a scrap piece of unused side skirt for a T-54 tank. These were then magnet-mounted onto the bow mount so they could still swivel.
Now I have four leftover .50 cals. That’s just no good, so I built two more gun mounts on the roof of the pilot house, one port bow, one starboard bow. “Pole” mounts cut from unused gun barrels of T-55AMs.
Extra pieces for the plating cut from unused planking of 1/56 German Opel Blitz trucks. Guns based in gray and dark-washed in darker gray / black.
Again, this was a toy bought from Sea World for $10 almost two years ago, noticed it was almost exactly 1/72 in scale (measuring the doors and windows against 20mm figures) so just trying to make a fun table top piece out of it.
Boat as she stands now with her new weapons. I also have 20mm guns coming ... I hope to mount a big twin mount on the stern soon,
Front .50s. On magnets so they turn great! 
Pilot House guns. Plating made from matte board, old Opel Blitz planking. Pintle mounts made from spare tank guns from other kits. .50 cals mail-ordered, primed and dark-washed.Some Last Bits ... For Now
I have now cut and mounted the new aft deck plate on my attack boat. Work on this project is MOMENTARILY suspended as I have ordered some more parts for it. I have 1:72 .50 cals which I will double-mount on a new pintle for the bow, and two 20mm autocannon I will build into a new swivel mount for the stern gun position. These will arrive I hope by the end of the week. But for now …
Built a new flying stand for this new diecast metal Spitfire (apparently in markings for a Free Polish RAF Squadron) I bought at Historicon. Also, as cleaned up the last of my hobby table, I found where one last Halo gunner had fallen behind the table, where it had gone unpainted for almost a year. As described on the Halo project thread, this guy was formerly clear plastic (apparently some kind of holographic or AI character), so I tried to prime him as best I could, paint him in urban camoflage, give him some markings, augment his support weapon, and give him a base. There are over 100 of these guys on the Halo project thread, and I thought they were all complete. But apparently this guy was AWOL, now returned to the ranks! :D Mega Bloks toy, not really a miniature (obviously), almost 2" tall.That wraps up this project … but only for the moment. The rest of the Team Yankee / Fate of a Nation stuff will be covered in a “new” project thread as it is, well … new … and not the “clean up, fix up, finish up” old stuff here. I’ll fire this project thread up again when those guns come in for the boat.
Refurbish, Repair, Touch-up ... Wave 2
Work continues on fixing, repairing, refurbishing, repurposing, or just plan finishing all the half-completed junk I have laying around.
UH-60 Blackhawk, 1:72 scale (20mm), 9 inches long. Die case from Forces of Valor. Touched up some chipped paint and re-attached door guns that were either bent or broken off. Also reinforced the flight stand's attachment point to the underside of the fuselage.
Obviously not QUITE a miniature standard, but a mini this size would take a week to build and paint, honestly has a very limited use factor on an actual gaming table, and would be very fragile. At least as a die cast model ... it's relatively tough.
Might change some of the decals, add some additional markings, at a later date. But for now this baby's on the shelf, ready to play if ever needed.
Bought this poor boat at Sea World in January of 2018. Damn thing's been sitting around for almost two years. It cost all of $10, and thought I could turn this "wildlife rescue" boat into some kind of military attack boat, especially once I sit it up against some of my 20mm moderns and found it to be an exact match (the men would fit exactly through the aft cabin doors). Originally this was a batter-powered bathtub toy. I sawed off the bottom part of the hull to make this a "waterline" model, and used hot glue gun to create a wave / wave effect along the bow and hull sides.
This one's going to take a while. But after 22 months in limbo, she's finally underway. Primed a dark gray. Then airbrushed ocean blue and light gray for a modern maritime camo effect. 
Some 20mm Caesar miniatures (US Marines, Iraqi Freedom / War on Terror) used as scale. Next steps will be replacing the aft deck plate where the battery pack used to go, and mounting some new weapons. That "water cannon" on the bow was shamelessly left as a chunky .50 cal painted silver (the Sea World people hoped no one would notice) and I might mount twin 20mm autocannon if I can find or fabricate them. Refurbish, Repair, Touch-up ...
Underway on cleaning up some of this mess. Some items are old toys, kits, minis, that are in bad shape, re-gifted to me, bought damaged at a discount, etc. Many of these parts have to be scratch-built as complete replacements. The idea is just to make the collection whole so I can put it on the shelf and be finished with it.
Okay, first patient.This 1:32 (54mm approx? 11 inches long) M41 Walker Bull Dog tank I bought at Historicon for just $10 ... because it was completely missing a rear road wheel and the .50 cal was broken off its pintle.
The back road wheel was been rebuilt from two pennies, two wooden discs, two strips of card stock, a piece of wooden dowel that connects it / mounts it to the hull. Definitely not perfect, but at least the tank "sits up straight now."
This small (10mm - the whole vehicle is barely 1.25" long) DZC tank lost its turret completely. Built a new one from a small piece of wooden dowel, German 28mm infantry e-tool, 28mm MG-34 barrel, a bristle from plastic broom, and a shoulder armor piece from my Halo Megablocks guys.
Not supposed to be a "canon" vehicle from DZC, obviously, I only bought these to use as ground vehicles in Battletech.
The USMC 1991 Desert Storm M60 MBT with reactive armor panels (ERA). 1:32, 12" long. This thing was recently sent to me for my birthday by my brother Ben. He admitted it needed a little help. Cleaned (it had been in storage for a verrry long time), and two of the individually-sprung suspension cylinders were broken. So the suspension was fixed. Also, some of the stowage had broken off and had to be repaired. The biggest part was some of the missing ERA, which had broken off and was completely missing. So three mountings of this ERA had to be rebuilt from scratch.
So the mountings on the left are original. The ERA mountings on right I made with matt board, tiny bits of plastic broom bristle. Also, mixed up some interferon blue/gray to paint the periscope ports on the TC cupola.
In all, three bracket mountings, 11 panels had to be fabricated and painted. 
Iraqi T-72, 1991 Gulf War, 1:72 / 20mm, Forces of Valor. Fixed the broken DShK on the turret and touched up the paint. 
Fixed the broken DShK on the turret and touched up the paint. 
M42 Duster AA Tank, approximately 15mm / 1:100 (a little smaller - but close enough) - bought for ONE DOLLAR at Wally's Basement at Historicon. 
Fixed the gun mount (loose and shaky) and repaired broken stowage bins.So I have two piles of hobby here ... time to put a dent in both of them.
So I have two piles of hobby here … time to put a dent in both of them.
The big M60A1 (USMC – Desert Storm) – gifted to my by my brother Ben. 1:36 scale (54mm approx). Needs a lot of cleanup, repair on broken suspension, touch up on paint, and replacement reactive ERA panels fabricated.
The big M41 Walker … also needs a new wheel fabricated.
The small US M24 Duster AA tank (15mm approx) to add to my 15mm Vietnam army, needs some repair on stowage bins.
T-72, Iraqi, 1991 Gulf War, 20mm. Needs a little repair on the DShK and other touch up, add to my 20mm Moderns Collection.
UH-60 Blackhawk, 20mm (yes, that sucker is the same scale as the T-72!) Needs a little repair on the MGs and landing gear. add to my 20mm Moderns Collection.
Tiny 10mm DZC commander tank – I have to fabricate a new turret of some kind with it.
Boat – originally a Sea World “wildlife rescue” boat or some such, it’s perfect 20mm scale, started conversion to a military boat of some sort … time to finish that ****er up as well.
Finally, the new Desert Storm Army I’ve been talking about for the better part of a year and still haven’t done. Includes Team Yankee’s RYAN’S LEATHERNECKS (I’ll have to build ERA panels for the M60A1s and of course paint them in desert scheme) – a Marine Infantry Platoon – a Marine LAV-25 platoon, and a box of Syrian Armor and APCs/IFVs I can convert into the T-55s / Tyoe 59s the Marines encountered at places like Al-Khafji and the southern approaches into Kuwait – February 1991
Oh, and booze. Yeah, booze. It’s been that kind of week, that kind of month, that kind of year. I’m putting a dent in that sumbitch as well.
And I’m going to keep dent both of these piles until both are gone, as fast as possible.
