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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Versatile Combat Wombat Vehicles

Hi, everyone. A while back I made a little forward base using Combat Wombat Defense Turrets and with pods from the Bullfrog Lander and the Command/Medic pods made for use with the Atlas LSS GEV. I was struck with all of the possiblities you can have mixing and matching the different Combat Wombat turrets, pods and other components. I've gotten a few of the Atlas LSS GEVs and some of his new additional turrets. I'm really having a lot of fun seeing what I can come up with using all of these components. I still need to paint the turrets and the new Atlas vehicles. Here's some pics.
Pic below shows a LAV GEV APC
Next pic is a LAV GEV APC with an ADA turret
Next is a LAV GEV APC with a low-profile turret

LAV GEV APC with an autocannon and ATGM turret

Here's a few pallets of cargo made from Ground Zero Games Store Pallets and JR Miniatures Fuel drums
Pic below shows a pallet of fuel drums on an Atlas

Next series of pics below show an Atlas with a Command pod with the various different turrets added.



Pic below shows an Atlas with a defense turret base. The defense turret could be cargo or perhaps part of the hull of the vehicle.
Pic below shows addition of a defense turret gun. Use it as a tank-killer?
Next two pics show a SLAM and an ATGM


It's amazing what a lot of unique vehicles you can end up with by mixing these components. I think Combat Wombat really knocked it out of the park with these. I'm looking forward to painting them up, and I still want to add some more CW Grav Vehicles, and eventually some tracked and wheeled vehicles. Thanks for looking.

15mm X-COM Snakemen


Hi, everyone. I finally finished my Snakemen crew for X-Com on the tabletop. I'm using Critical Mass Games Merc Pack 8 Astragar Fighters. I got this idea from fellow TMPer Thorlongus. His post on them was what got me into the process of making my 15mm X-Com project. Here's a link to his Snakemen. As you can see, they're much better than mine. However, I'm glad mine are finally done and I'm pleased with the outcome.
Pic below is a size comparison showing a Khurasan Minis Sepulvedan Resistance Fighter I'm using as an X-COM Trooper next to a CMG "Snakeman".
The pics below show the 5 unique poses of the Snakemen. I bought 2 packs of these Astragar Fighters and did a little bending of them to vary the poses a little.


Well, that's another X-Com Alien crew done. Thanks for looking.

Monday, March 14, 2011

15mm X-COM Farm board finished.


I got all of the scenery for the Farm board done. Stable's painted, interior for the Farmhouse is finished, even got the Mutons done.


Sectoid guarding the ship

Muton waiting in outbuilding to ambush X-Com agents

Ground floor of the farmhouse with interior walls and Muton soldier
Mutons are an evil alien race that look like muscle men in green suits with purple face masks.

Mutons made from Rebel Minis 15mm Super Hero Pack A
Size comparison with a Rebel Minis Super Hero (Muton) and Khurasan Minis Sepulvedan Resistance Fighter (X-Com Trooper)

Well, that's it for now. Scenery's done. Need to keep working the minis. Thanks for looking.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Khurasan Siler Anti-Grav or Tracked WIP

Hi, folks. I recently got one of the Khurasan Tracked Super Heavy Tanks with the Anti-Grav Conversion set, here.


In a thread on TMP there was a discussion on building the Siler with magnets to swap out the anti-grav elements with tracks. So that's what I did. I got some rare-earth magnets from K&J Magnetics. These are very powerful magnets for a very reasonable price and I've always gotten great service from K&J.


Pic below shows the Anti-Grav elements with the K&J magnets in place.
Pic below shows the Anti-Grav plates in place on the undercarriage. The white spot in the center has another magnet inset to match the flying base.
This pic below shows the flying base with the magnet in place.

Pic below demonstrates how the magnets are holding the Anti-Grav elements in place.

Pic below shows the base with the tracks glued onto it on the left and the underside of the hull with the magnets in place.


Pic below shows how well the magnets hold the flying base to the tank.
Pic below shows the Anti-Grav Siler from the side, needs the gun mounted.
Last pic is the Anti-Grav Siler from the front.

This Siler is a beautiful model and I'm very glad that Jon from Khurasan made it available as either a Tracked or Anti-Grav version. When you buy the tracked version with the Anti-Grav conversion, it's almost like getting a second Siler for just another $5. Stand by for pics of when I screw up the paint job.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

More 15mm X-Com

Hi, folks. A little update on the 15mm X-Com project. I finished the barn. It now has the interior stairs, hay bales, a corrugated roof, and I painted and stained the exterior wood on the second floor. The floors of all of the buildings are print-outs from "X-Com: Tactical", a very nice free download from BoardGame Geek. X-Com: Tactical not only has the rules for playing X-Com on the tabletop, it also has some very nice 2-d graphics of the terrain, tokens, and ships. If the authors, Paul Pounds and Evan Leybourn, see this, thank you very much for making this excellent resource available.








The farmhouse is mostly finished. I need to finish the interior walls dividing the rooms, then it is done. The interior walls are mat board (I took a page from Vampifan's book). I will glue on some wood print-outs from the Fat Dragon Rio Draco set to simulate wooden interior walls and doors. The windows used for the farmhouse are 15mm resin from GameCraft Miniatures.


The stable is the last building for the farm board. I made it from craft sticks and gave it a corrugated metal roof. The roof is cereal card run through a crimper and glued to thin plasticard (that's how I did all of the rooves).


Also did a small UFO based on print-outs from "X-COM: Tactical" and pics from the interweb. The hull was made from a mixture of 1/2 inch quarter round wooden molding from a home improvement store and some Hirst Arts sci-fi bits. The interior bits are from Hirst Arts Sci-Fi bits, also.

I just received a couple of packs of Critical Mass Games excellent Astragar Fighters to use as Snakemen. That's an idea I stole from ThorLongus when he posted his a while back. If mine come out half as nice as his I'll be happy. So far I've got them primed and based. A few of them have been included in some of the pics for size comparison.

Hay bales. I made these from green pot scrubber pads. Painted them yellow, washed with Golden Brown craft paint, used a rubber coated black wire for the bale straps. They're a little larger than the ones in the X-Com: Tactical print-outs, but they'll work.

Stairs. The stairs were made using Dis's excellent tutorial here.
This tutorial was a big help and I made 3 pretty nice stairways for the barn and farmhouse very quickly. Differences between mine and his are I needed to make my stairs much smaller to fit the template of the buildings. I used a 1/2 inch Hirst Arts brick between the stringers and only 1 thickness of thin plastic card for the stringers. Also, the scissors I used were an old pair of pinking shears my wife gave me, and I think the zig zag pattern is a little smaller than his. Otherwise, pretty much the same except his are much nicer.

I like the way you can fit the miniature's base between the steps to hold it in place. When I saw that pic of this feature on his blog I knew I had to try it. So, Thanks, Dis, for the excellent tutorial.

Well, that's all for now. I was able to pick up some extra shifts at the part-time job so I won't be blogging much for the next few days. Upcoming projects list just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Upcoming Projects:
X-COM
Post pics of Mutons
Cyberdisks
Chrysalids
Chrysalid-Zombies (These last three are gonna be from 15mm.co.uk)
Floaters
Ethereals

Thanks for looking.