Infinity (or other near future games) - Matchbox Drones

I found a couple of Matchbox toys which could be useful for games like Infinity. The toys are called SB94 Drones. They are diecast metal, painted in a sporty lime green, with little missiles on pylons moulded under each wing. (Not PC, Matchbox, but no worse than any other armed toy.) They were for sale at a local supermarket, for AUD 3.50 each. Bargain!

The missiles aren't very well moulded but will stand out fine with a good paintjob. The propellers and landing gear are plastic, and they can turn (or at least they would if they weren't gummed up with paint.) The other details such as cameras and panel lines are at the level you'd expect for a toy of this type, just like doors and mirrors on a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car.

Since these are fictional drone aircraft, scale is up to you - they could be anything from model aircraft to airliner size. I have included an old 28mm scale figure for comparison. In a roleplaying or miniatures game these could be props, objectives or actual UAVs.

The Matchbox paintjobs are actually quite thick. If you look closely at the starboard wing of the drone behind the figure in the overhead photo, you can see a chunk of paint is missing from a mid air collision (which happened in my car on the way back from the supermarket). If you were really keen, you could strip the paint off and start again. I didn't bother.

I gave them a coat of Tamiya grey primer, which was the only grey spraypaint I had handy. Next will come some markings, perhaps an Evil Corporation, and picking out panel lines, weapons and surveillance equipment. The underside of the drones has the usual manufacturer's and copyright information, in raised lettering. I didn't bother removing it, but you could probably file it off.

 

Lego - Set 918 rebuilt in Chrome

Lego set 918 is my all time favourite set. It was released in 1978 as part of the brand new Space Lego line and is compact, cool and very swooshable*. I have rebuilt it in chrome, using custom parts from a few different sellers on Bricklink.

Interesting notes: Lego does make chrome parts (the wing pieces for instance came from a Naboo Fighter from The Phantom Menace).  The other parts I used are chrome plated by the sellers. That means that the pieces are slightly heavier than regular Lego parts (they even 'clink'). They are also a tiny bit thicker than regular Lego, which means that they are slightly harder to click together. That shows how fine Lego's manufacturing tolerances are.

For those who like to buy Lego on Bricklink: these are the main stores selling custom chromed parts:
ChromeBricks
Bricks4All (who also did the custom engraved CR918 bricks)
ChromeBlockCity
TheChromeShop

*Swooshability is the most important characteristic of a good Space Lego set.

WH40K - Idea for Battlewagon conversion

I've had an idea. I've got the Goffik Rokkers lying around. They are older minis of WH40K Orks, as a band. I think they could 'count as' an Ork Weirdboy - but they would be a bit bigger on the table top than the Weirdboy's standard 25mm base. I've got an unbuilt Ork Battlewagon. And I've got the old bits box...
So, I will put the Rokkers on stage, and put that stage on a tower, and put that on a Battlewagon. Add amps, speakers, Grot roadies, power source of some sort, and I will have a converted, re-imagined Weirdboy Battle Tower.
The tower was originally an Epic piece, and several people have built WH40K scale conversions since then. Mine will be a rock 'n roll one. I might even put an MP3 player and speakers in. Must leave room for battery changes.
Who knows? Maybe the Weirdboy Tower will re-appear if and when the new Ork Codex is released. I hope I make it the right height. Wouldn't want to have an advantage (or disadvantage) if 'the real thing' was released as a model!

WH40K - Deadly Death Raider... of Deadly Death!!!

The Deadly Death Raider. A Games Workshop Land Raider with extra bits from Scibor Monstrous Miniatures (the rectangular and other panels) , Chapterhouse Studios (the side and front doors), Renedra (the grave markers) and assorted bits (mostly GW, random resin and styrene skulls, plus some cheap chain.)

Paint:
Sprayed in Citadel black, then Tamiya Black, then weathered with Tamiya Desert Tan (very light spray), bit of dry brushing, some silver marker pen, some actual dirt, a Tamiya weathering pencil rubbed on to some sponge and dabbed across the body, and finished with Tamiya flat clear spray.

WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks

After a long gap, here are the Ork Trukks inspired by the vehicles in Expendables 2, or as I call them:
Da Orkspendables.

They started with the Trukk chassis plus resin wheels from Kromlech. The 4 x 4 chassis were cut down, and all of them were slightly rebuilt to keep all the wheels level (theoreticaly. The trukks wobble a bit on the ground.) The bodies are mostly bits out of the bits box. I added the Ork Warbikes to give the trukks that 'Long Range Recon' look, and to make the 4 x 4 variants a bit longer, so they are about the same size as a standard Trukk in the game. The bikes are stock, with some bits trimmed off to make them a bit lighter. These are sneaky Blood Axe Orks, not yahoos like the rest of them.

I haven't decided whether to paint them maroon to match the rest of the army, or sandy coloured to make them look like the movie. Either way, the paintwork will be very 'bashed up'. I know that I have left the drivers in which will make them harder to paint, but I wanted to see what the whole vehicles looked like rather than build sub-assemblies and glue them together later. Either way, I will paint to tabletop standard, not GD winner so it won't be that much of a hassle. Also, it looks like it would be hard to fit 12 boyz (or 6 Mega Armoured Nobz) in those trukks, but they just hang on as best they can.

Dust Warfare - Allies Walkers in 'Mickey Mouse' Camouflage

Two MCW-2 Walkers, painted in 'Mickey Mouse' camouflage. I just cut circular shapes out of masking tape and masked off the walkers. I separated the legs, hulls and turrets (easy to do on these models) and painted them with Citadel Black undercoat and a dash of Tamiya NATO Black, both straight from the spray can.

Painters with more skill and time (and patience) than I have would have done a better job, but I am happy with these. Any overspray or missed bits will be covered with weathering, 'battle damage' etc. That's the easy part of painting armoured vehicles over, say, aircraft.

I will also paint weapons and mechanical bits in appropriate colours, and then decided how to decorate the bases.

[Some notes on realism: because I rushed this job, I didn't try to make each vehicle's camouflage paint job identical (poor OPSEC!). I also didn't try to replicate the original 'Mickey Mouse' camouflage scheme; rather, I went for what was easier to do and looked OK. Remember - this is a game about WW2 robot tanks, Nazi Zombies and rocket men!]

Dust Warfare - Headswaps

I bought some British Army style heads from the Victoria Miniatures webstore. Victoria Lamb is a superb miniatures painter and designer, and well known in Australia for her work. She sells miniatures and conversion parts to turn 30mm toy soldier minis into Victorian era heroes, including Highlander style kilts and bagpipes!

I bought a selection of Victoria's 'Brody Helmet' heads as well as some heads with Tam O'Shanters and berets, to convert my Dust Warfare Allied troops from US Army (and USMC) into British Army. It won't change them from a game rules point of view, but it will personalise my army. The next step will be painting them in khaki and similar colours.

Since the heads are all moulded on a sprue of white metal, I clipped each head off with a 'spike' of metal running from the neck down. This made it much easier to place the heads in the neck holes of the orginal miniatures.

Allied Command Squad

 
Allied Recon Squad.






Who's in command here? Robin Hood? When did your men last shave?

At least these chaps have remembered their helmets.

Once I've finished painting these guys (yeah, right) I want to paint my Allied Walker models in the WW2 'Mickey Mouse' colour scheme, of black circular shapes over olive or dark green camouflage paint. I will be going for more style than historical accuracy, but Dust Warfare is a game with walking tanks, heroic rocket men and Nazi Zombies, so historical accuracy is lower priority.

Below is an example of a model truck in Mickey Mouse camouflage, which I found on the model making website www.miniatures.de (The model in the photo is not mine; I am impressed by it and want to follow the example of the person who made it!)

http://www.miniatures.de/mickey-mouse-pattern.html

WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks with Kromlech Wheels

Not much work done on these in the meantime, but here are some pictures that better show the wheels. I added some brass tubing to the 4 x 4 Trukks to represent transmission shafts.

The rear view shows the little plastic blocks I added to raise the body from the rear axles. This brings the body roughly level, now that there are wheels of the same size all the way around. (In the original model kit, the front wheels have a smaller diameter, so their axles are lower than the rear ones.)

This view shows how the tyres come in left and right varieties. Because I bought 14 wheels (in the four styles sold by Kromlech), I ended up with one extra right hand wheel and missing one left hand wheel. That's only important if you care which way around the tread goes, and I decided that the Orks didn't care about one wheel. So, the centre left wheel (middle of this picture) is the 'wrong' way around.

If you do care, just buy an even number of wheel sets from Kromlech!

WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks with Kromlech Wheels

Here are the wheels I am using for my Ork Trukks, inspired by Expendables 2: The Expendening. These resin wheels are from Kromlech miniatures. The Trukk chassis are just resting on the wheels for now. Because the original design of the Trukk has smaller wheels at the front (and I have adjusted the height of the rear suspension pieces) I will use styrene tubing to make sure that all the axles are the same width. Once they are glued to the Trukks, I will be able to add more plastic bits around the bodies to make that Land Rover shape I am (sort of) after.


Here's the range of four different wheels. Note the relatively small area where the resin mould stub has been removed. A quick bit of filing and a lick of paint and that won't be visible.

You can also see the front and rear of each wheel. The wheels are about the same size as the originals from the Trukk models, with 4mm axle holes.

These wheels are nicely moulded. The detail is reasonably good, for what is supposed to be rubber tyres made from scraps and bolts. There are no bubbles in the resin, and they should paint up very nicely.

The wheels are called 'Raider Wheels'. Kromlech sell them in their eBay store, in two different packs of two (so 14 wheels makes 7 packs.)

 Kromlech also threw in some free samples: an Ork Nob head with German style cap,  a power armour shoulder pad adorned with chainmail and a chaos style head suitable for power armour or a hefty rebel type figure.