Friday 27 March 2015

ACAV M113 (1/300th scale.)

Being honest I don't know what these are for! I got them so long ago and have now painted or should I say repainted and based these 4 vehicles. The problem is now that they are done I cannot find them in the cold war era German Army lists. (I have also checked the Canadian and Greek lists) So while I am sure I shall find a use for them I just don't know what yet. DOH!

So while I figure it out here are 4 M113 ACAV personal carriers. But they are done now and despite the fact that 2 and facing the wrong way in the pics I am quite pleased with them. So Pleased in fact that they have sidetraked me into refreshing my 20mm Vietnam war figures. So expect them in a week or two. But for now I will finish painting some WW1 figures for Matt, and you can also expect them soon.

But Back to these, With the exception of starting a 1/300th scale Vietnam force (or 2, one for each side) I may have to use them as cold war era US National Guard. There is nothing wrong with doing this of course but it does not help my German cold war troops one little bit!

Thanks for stopping by today and with luck I will be able to focus on a more productive project next time.

Take care and get some painting done.
Cheers Clint

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Atlas and Hermes

No not a comedy double act. But 2 more Battle tech "Mechs" painted. It has been a LONG while since I painted any mechs one of the reasons is I never know what colour to paint them. One school of thought is to paint them camouflage patterns and colours as they are fighting vehicles. The other line of thought is to use heraldic colours. Personally I do like both approaches and being totally inconsistent will flit between both with different mechs as the mood takes me. But this time I have settled on a hybrid scheme that is both heraldic and camouflage in nature. I used a sandy colour up to the waist and a light blue for the torso head and arms. You can see the camouflage colouring on the right. I will not do very many mechs this colour but you can see it might just work!

The models are that very nasty plastic and not the metals of yesteryear. They were included in the 25th anniversary box set of Battletech I bought a couple of years ago. And these were the first things started AFTER the Analogue painting challenge. The plastic has lots of casting issues and quite a bit of "Flash" overall I am not impressed with the choice of materials. The Mechs however are just about the same as the metal ones from when I was just a tad younger.

Firstly we have a 100 ton Atlas class mech,  it is just about the largest Inner Sphere mech you can get. It does not carry the scary PPC, but does have the more devastating Ac20 for close in work. This does not mean you  can stand off at long range and snipe kill it either as it also has a LRM 20 for those long range shots. As one of the biggest and most powerfull inner sphere mechs you knew it was not going to be so easy to deal with.

Secondly we have the Hermes class mech. It is only 40 tons so we cannot expect too much from it. But it has a running speed of 9 so it can move about quite well, OK very well despite the fact that it is not jump capable. It is one of the rare mechs that has a flamer and while that does not do oh so much damage to other mechs and only has a 3 hex range it can cause the opponent to "Run hot" which as battletch players we all know is not good. It also has an AC5 for long range work and a medium laser for closer in and when ammo consumption is an issue. Not as lightly armoured as some other mechs of this 40 ton weight limit but for the weight I would go for a "Whitworth" but it really is personal choice when it comes to Battltech mechs.. Some mechs are just horrid but most can be good if you choose to play them in the right way. And that is what I like about Battletech even 25 years on, it can be quite balanced if the weight classes are the same. I still don't fancy 4 "Urban Mechs2 against a single "Awesome" though.

I apologise for using some of the slang from the game as if you have never played Battletech most of it will be a foreign language to you. But if you are a battletech player the slang is like music to your ears.

Thanks for looking today and I hope to have some more new stuff by Friday. (Working on it now). But most importantly have fun take care and get some painting done.

Cheers Clint

Monday 23 March 2015

28mm Viking-es

 Yes a female Viking. Hence the "word" 'Viking-es' I do not think that is a proper word so be very careful about using it. This figure is one of Colonel Bills "Beltfed" miniatures range which are a selection of saucily clad females in various historical costumes. And this one is of course a female Viking. As I want to do some Conan style wargames this year she seemed to be just the right type of figure and for £2.50 I thought a bargain.

She was also the last figure I painted for the Analogue painting challenge and was mostly done for some fun and relaxation. I can honestly say I did muck hers skin up on the first try and it came out looking somewhat grey and dirty. Which was not my intention so I did paint her twice out of necessity.

While I did find the sculpt and casting very nice my only pet gripe is that her trousers came with the vertical markings for the stripes scratched in. While not a problem as such it does limit her to having striped trousers as to paint them in another way might show the sculptors marks. While I will only ever get one of this figure it is not a huge issue but I will forever feel that the choice has been taken from me and that everyone will paint stripes on her bow. That really is my only quibble with the miniature.

I am not totally happy with the shield I have painted either. I might re-paint the end part of the tail so that it is in line with the head, it might give it a better balance. What I do like is the shield design though and the colours. It is only where I have put the end part of the tail upwards. That is a very minor issue and I can change that in moments when I start painting today. What I do like about the design is the ambiguity between is it a "Longship" or a sea serpent. I can take very little credit for that either as I saw the design on a re-enactors shield once long ago. So credit should go to them, or the source they used for it.

Overall I am happy with the figure and for the price would struggle to find a better one.

Thanks for looking. One more post to go to catch up so expect that about Wednesday. Take care have some fun and may your paint pallet never run dry or your inspiration wane.

Cheers Clint