1/300 Conversion in About 20 Minutes

Yesterday, I made an all out cleaning assault on my pigsty of a workbench. Despite about three hours of work, I didn't get really far, plus all the dust I kicked up made my allergies a nightmare. Under the piles of junk, I found a lone, primed, Saracen APC and a ZU-23-2 23 mm autocannon with two gunners on it. It might have a carriage for it, or it might go onto another vehicle. The APC is an old Skytrex model and the autocannon belongs to H&R. Inspiration struck! So... shaving off the MG turret, pulling out the pin vise and drilling out a hole for the gun, I now have a Saracen with a ZU-23-2 AA autocannon on top.

I think it took me all of 20 minutes to complete, including waiting for the paint to dry. The thing looks incredibly top heavy and kind of silly, but I've seen some jury-rigged technicals that looked a lot more ridiculous. One more weapon to add to the Federal Republic of Gambusia's arsenal.

1/285 Saab 105 Jets Completed

Here are the two Saab 105 trainers armed and painted up for the Federal Republic of Gambusia. The gun pods look a little better than I thought they would. They are going to be a lot simpler the next time I make them.

More Federal Republic of Gambusia AFVs

I could have sworn I posted these, but I guess I have not.

The Federal Republic of Gambusia (FRG) has an infantry battalion of made up of more modern APCs than old Saracens. It consists of Canadian 6-wheeled Cougars and Grizzlies. The Cougars have been modified into fire support vehicles and ATGM carriers.

I used the turret from a Scotia-Grendel Stingray light tank for the FSV. The ATGM were scratch built. Unfortunately, they all came out a little different on those. This is the best of them. These were my first conversions that I made when I plunged into modern gaming and I am quite happy with them.

Federal Republic of Gambusia Armored Battalion

This past week I managed to work on some projects. The rebels got a some additional firepower in the form of a Russian M1944 100mm anti-tank gun. Sorry no pictures at this time. The Federal Republic of Gambusia now has a battalion of more modern tanks in the form of the Vickers MK III MBT. Here is a thrown-together shot of the battalion:

In reality, the anti-aircraft tanks and the tank destroyers are in separate companies, but I spaced them out for ease of photographing them.

The table of organization of the FRG is somewhat similar to that of many modern nations where the largest standing unit is the battalion. Units are combined depending on the mission. The AA company is attached. The 3rd battalion's mission is dedicated to fighting such foes as Northern Chalupistan rather than going after rebels.

Each company is represented by a different colored thermal sleeve.  The command tanks are represented by having antennae and either a tank commander or just a machine gun.

Vickers Mk III MBT

 The minis are old Skytrex ones, which are now sold by Heroics & Ros. This is their second paint job. Originally, I had a wash on them, but they looked awful. So, I repainted them with a basic gloss green  that I bought at Lowe's, and decided to skip the wash. They still look pretty glossy despite the coating of Vallejo clear flat. I would spray them with Dullcoat, but it's been awfully humid out. They are not the best models, but they are the only representatives of the Vickers Mk. III, so they will have to do.

The tank destroyer company is made up of the FV 120 Spartan MCT (Milan Compact Turret). These are Heroics & Ros models and they painted up rather nicely.

The AA battery is made up of the French AMX DCA with two 30mm AA guns. These are C in C models. I painted them up a long time ago before I really decided on a paint scheme for the FRG. These are probably among my best paint jobs for micro armor in terms of highlights and shading.

Another COIN Aircraft and a RPG

It's been a long hiatus of doing much hobby stuff, but finals are now over. Today was commencement. Fortunately, I had lunch right after the ceremony with good friend and colleague. Usually, I am rather melancholy for a few days after commencement, but the lunch was a pick-me-up.

Anyway, I've started back into working on stuff. First off, a COIN aircraft for the Federal Republic of Gambusia:

It is a Hawker Sea Fury from MSD Games. They have some really nice models that are probably a little better than Heroics & Ros. 

Like the Kiowa Warriors, this plane painted green brown but now with Middlestone camo. The roundel looks like a british one, but the center is actually green. The rockets are modified C-in-C Sidewinder missiles. I have another Sea Fury that I plan to put more modern rocket pods on. I don't usually do anything with the panel lines, but this time I did and it turned out well. 

Onto the RPG gunner.....

I noticed that my rebel units are pretty skimpy in the basic riflemen category, so I've started beefing up those. I seem to get obsessed with various weapons and this time is the Soviet/Russian RPG-29:

Source: modernfirearms.net

Pretty simple: a tube. But it's a tube that can really punch major holes in modern armor. According to Wikipedia, it has taken out MBTs such as the M1 Abrams and the Challenger 2. It's secret is that it has a tandem warhead that can defeat ERA or modern composite armor. An avid converter who posts on one of the microarmor groups on Facebook made one out of a RPG-7 gunner, so I thought I could too.Here are some pre- and post-painted pictures:

I used a RPG-7 gunner from GHQ's Bush Warrior pack. First, I tried cutting off the entire RPG off, but the gunner's head came off along with it. Then I cut off the front and back ends on another victim. I then glued two pieces of an 8 mm styrene rod. Hopefully, it won't bread off. I plan to mount this guy in the center of the base with two other figures on either side of him. That should protect him. The back part of the barrel is a little warped, but overall it looks pretty good. I think I got it pretty close to the proper length scale-wise. 

I don't really have any sort of story as to how Gambusian rebels got a hold of one. Northern Chalupistan doesn't even have them in their arsenal. It will be a one-off weapon, so probably not a battlefield game changer. 

When I get closer to completing the rebels, I will post a group portrait. 

Federal Republic of Gambusia Infantry Battalion

I finally completed the Federal Republic of Gambusia's infantry battalion, more or less.  All of the infantry is from Heroics & Ros new 80s British infantry. At first, I was going to go with GHQ's Bushfire Warriors (TW8 & 9), but I didn't want them to be armed with AK-47s. Then, I considered their 3rd World Regulars (TW12 & 13). They are armed with HK G3 rifles and sport US WW2 M1 helmets. The FRG gets most of its equipment from England and France, plus they are all armed with RPG-7s for their anti-tank weapon, so I rejected them.

When H&R came out with their 80s British Infantry, I knew that those were a perfect fit. These guys are a big improvement over older H&R infantry, not that I mind the old ones. Besides their British kit, what attracted me to them is the variety and options you can choose from. In addition to rifle armed infantry, they have troops firing a Carl Gustav, a light LAW, machines guns mounted on both bipods and tripods, snipers, scouts armed with submachine guns, light and medium mortars....you get the idea.

I follow Fist Full of TOWs 2 for making up the TO&Es. Each stand represents a platoon. On paper, the battalion is supposed to have three anti-tank platoons, being made up of either the PV-1110 recoilless rifle, or the Milan ATGM. I only managed to make one RR stand. Also, there should be a third 81mm mortar stand, but I can't seem to find the third one. Here is the group shot of the 3rd Mechanized battalion:

 APCs or transport is interchangeable. The 3rd MI uses the Alvis Saracen APC for its infantry platoons. All other support stands either uses trucks, or a RG-31 Nyala to pull the RR.

Infantry

1st Platoon; company command

Another shot of the first platon. The Carl Gustav can be better seen

The first platoon of each company is considered to be the command platoon. It's not a big deal in FFT rules, but it is for Cold War Commander, if I chose to use them. The command platoon has a 84mm Carl Gustav RR for it's anti-tank weapon. The other platoons have the M72 LAW.

Remaining platoons in each company

Besides the lighter M72 LAWs, the remaining platoons of each company has a man armed with a Bren Gun. The Bren gunner can be seen in prone position in the middle of the stand.


Heavy Weapons

Each company has a heavy weapons platoon. It is armed with a L7 GPMG medium machine gun, and a light mortar. Presumably, it also has an M72 LAW. They also make a L7 GPMG on a tripod, but I opted for the bipod. It seemed to go better with the dude firing the light mortar. Older versions of FFT had specific rules for light mortars, but in the 3rd edition, they seem to have disappeared.


Anti-tank Units

PV-1110 RR with RG-31 to tow it.

As I said above, the anti-tank platoons vary as far as what they are armed with.  Going over my TO&E, I noticed that some infantry battalions have the 120mm Wombat RR mounted on a jeep. This battalion happens to be armed with the PV-1110 RR. Why the PV-1110? Why not? According to Wikipedia, the Swedes made 1,600 of them, so it's conceivable that some have found their way to the FRG. I am not sure if the RG-31 would be used to carry the RR and its crew, but I figured it might as well as a truck seemed too big. Whereas the gunner as the spotter are H&R figures, the recoilless rifle and the RG-31 are from Scotia-Gendel. Scotia makes several different sized generic RRs. The PV-1110 is only a 90mm weapon, but it has a rather long barrel so their large RR fit best. When I get around to it, I will paint up and base the H&R Milan team. 

Battalion-level Artillery

Each battalion has a company of 81mm mortars stands. The third stand is probably buried somewhere under all my junk on my work bench. I should have taken a picture of, but I also had a GHQ Soviet 82mm mortar team that I was working on. The size difference is really noticeable. The GHQ mortar looks like a 120mm mortar compared to the H&R's 81mm mortar. 

Air Defence

Blowpipe MANPAD

The most pressing enemy that the FRG currently has to face is various rebel groups that persist on the borders with the two Chalupistans. Therefore, air defense is not a big priority. Nonetheless, they are reasonably prepared. The battalion HQ has a Blowpipe team, and a 40mm Bofors AA gun platoon. I plan to make a Blowpipe team based, but I see so many pictures of MANPADS being fired out of tanks and APCs that I couldn't resist mounting one on the back of the Saracen. I can't remember who makes the Bofors, but I don't think its from H&R, maybe CinC. Also, this stand is intended to be also used by Southern Chalupastan, so it's gunners are not painted the same colors as the Gambusian troops. 

The Gambusian are pretty much ready to go. Next up is to add to my rebel army. I do have some units, but they are vastly overwhelmed by the Gambusians, or everyone else for that matter. I recently primed some of GHQs Sub-Saharan Irregulars (TW14), and plan to pain them up. 

Kiowa Warrior Cockpit Cleanup

Repainted the windows. They look much better:

Kiowa Warrior #2 WIP

Disaster struck when I was trying to glue a rare earth magnet onto this Kiowa Warrior. This was the one whose Hellfire missile rack fell off. Well, the other rack fell off, the rotor broke off (at right of the chopper) and the landing skids got all bent out of shape. Morale of the story, glue the magnet one long before you complete the model.

So, I decided to make my own weapons pylons. Those at the two white things sticking off of the bottom of the chopper's body. I made them out of thin styrene.

The right one is going to get a cylindrical rocket launcher; the left will be a 50 cal machine gun. For some reason, the machine guns are required to be on the left side on a Warrior. The missile launcher will be easy to make. It probably won't be perfectly to scale, but I'm not overly picky about that. The machine gun might be another issue. Some are contained within a pod, but I am planning to have it exposed:

Source: http://www.arabic-military.com/

I am not sure how I will do the ammo feed. Also, the only free Browning 50 cals I have are from C-in-C. They are ok, but the barrels are a little spindly. Even if they are more in scale, I'd rather have a GHQ machine on it.

Kiowa Warrior

During my search for the missing painted up infantry units, I found this guy and his brother primed and sitting in a storage drawer. His bro had his Hellfire missile rack broken off, so he is still unpainted. It's from GHQ.

These are designated for the Federal Republic of Gambusia. Not sure why they would have them, but I've already painted them in the FRG's standard aviation color of Vallejo Green Brown. I really like this color and if I had paid attention to it earlier, I would have used it for Southern Chalupastan. But alas, I am not going to strip battalions of tanks and APCs. It was ugly enough doing it for about 18 APCs.

The Short and the Tall

I'm about done painting all the vehicles for the Federal Republic of Gambusia's army. Their arsenal includes both the French AML H-90 and the British Staghound III armored cars. When I put them side by side, the AML was pretty dinky compared to the Staghound.

But apparently, the AML is very small:

Source: Thomas Webber II

 whereas the Staghound is rather large:

Source: Thomas Webber II

It was describe to me by a member of the Facebook 6mm Wargaming and Terrain Group as, "The Staghound was a wheeled tank, the AML was a turret on an armoured jeep."