Combat Wombat Assault Lander and Kitbashes

Another round of VTOL 15mm goodness.

First up is the Combat Wombat Assault Lander. Scotty at Combat Wombat very kindly sent this to me along with the missing pod from the first of my Bullfrogs - he's a clearly a gent of impeccable taste and refinement so I encourage you all to order oodles of his fine wares.

The combat Lander comes in 7 resin parts and 1 turned brass barrel for the nose mounted gun. The resin parts are three landing legs, the main body, two engine pods and the chin turret. There was some flash and a few bubbles on the model, but nothing that a few strokes with a file couldn't clean up, although I was rather brutal with the delicate edge of the engine intakes on one side and erased some of the raised detail. My own fault entirely.

All the parts fitted well together with minimal sanding to get the engine pods square. The gun required a small hole expanding in the chin turret to take the turned brass barrel. 

I have added a pair of missile pods to the sides to give the Assault Lander some extra teeth. The ship very much reminds me of the Raptors from the new Battlestar Galactica, and I recall there were several episodes where the normally unarmed Raptors were loaded up with missiles. The pods are actually made from a pair missile turrets designed for 6mm miniatures from Old Crow.

You can just see a chip in the resin of the lower corner of the canopy from my clumsy handling (or more accurately clumsy dropping).

Overall the assault lander makes for a really nice little model. It's generic enough that it could fit into a near-future game as an aerodyne or VTOL lander of some kind, a space opera or star-trek style game as a shuttlecraft or even some sort of combat lighter for a GrimDark game if you choose.

Next u is a kitbash of a Revell KA-50 Hokum snapfix kit.

I originally picked this up when Hobbycraft was closing down to use in Battlefield Evolution: Modern Combat as a proxy for a Chinese helicopter gunship. First game out I was chiding my nephew about being careful with his M1A2 Abrams tank models so as not to damage the delicate aerials on them when I turned around and knocked the unfortunate helicopter to the floor, snapping it's fiendishly complex contra-rotating rotor blades off and dislodging the cannon, never to be seen again. Much hilarity ensued.

Since then the chopper has languished in the bitz box. I eventually got around to doing something with it. Antigrav pods are the breech units of some spare weapons from the CMG Blackguard Mecha. The barrels have been chopped off and sanded down to leave the ribbed pods. I have some detailing parts on the way from Japan that I will use to add errr... detail to the pods before painting. Other bits include a spare cannon from my CMG ZAS tanks , rocket pods from Rebel Miniatures and spare missile clusters from Clear Horizon Miniatures excellent Raven VTOL.

I have to add the details as mentioned above, plus do some gap filling before she'll be ready for painting. I think the final decision on if the kitbash has worked will only come after she's been undercoated. At the moment the yellow/brown/green camo pattern looks juts too toy like. Watch this space.

Next we have a platoon of hovertanks kitbashed from a Battlefront PT-76 platoon that I got half price at SELWG this year (bargain!)

I have put the tracks in the bits box and replaced them with VTOL lift engines from Micropanzer. When I contacted Jason he originally had the lift engines as resin pieces and I wanted to check he'd be OK to cast up 50 of them (8 per tank plus some spares, 'cos who knows when you'll need a VTOL engine). Jason advised he was now able to produce them in metal and 50 would be no problem. As it happened I used 9 on each of the tanks anyway, so the spares came in handy.

Shots on my painting table. Sorry about the mess (flips a coin to the bartender...)

Each of the tanks got 4 lift engines on either side plus an upturned one on the rear as a drive engine. The engines had a gentle sweep down to a point behind the duct which I had to cut away. You can actually see the same piece in use on the Bullfrog Lander  from Combat Wombat as a lift engine in my previous post. I believe this is a result of Scott and Jason working together on some designs in the past.

I was originally going to replace the Battlefront supplied 76mm cannon with a 4mm steel ball bearing and a small disk of styrene to make a short barreled laser emitter, but instead I used another of Scott at Combat Wombats turned metal barrels. With just a short pilot hole drilled these fitted perfectly. I also added a pair of missile launch tubes from a die-cast toy and relocated the Dshk heavy machine-gun.

The turrets were affixed using the supplied 2mm rare earth magnets. I even managed to get all the polarities round the right way so any of the turrets could be used on any of the tank chassis.

I've also added flight-stand toppers from Litko (available from Figures in Comfort in the UK) which I find to be an excellent way of supporting most flying things. I use them on my Full Thrust ships, Tumbling Dice 1/600 aircraft for Air War: C21 and as flying stands for various 15mm. I've also chopped some stands down to give a grav-floater effect, as you can see in the group shot below.

Combat Wombat Bullfrog Class Lander/VTOL

I've been hankering for one of the little VTOL Landers that Scott at Combat Wombat sells. I needed to place an order for some of Scotty's turned brass barrels for another project, so I took the opportunity to nab a couple.

The Bullfrog is a 15mm lander made in grey resin. It comes in kit form and requires a moderate amount of assembly. The parts had some flash on them, as a result of the drop casting technique, but a rub over on some 80 grit sandpaper soon cleared that up and smoothed off the slightly rounded back face of the parts. I assembled using Zap-a-Gap thick super glue and a Filla-Glue kicker pencil.

The model went together very easily and the parts fit together really well. I chopped the detail off the upper surface of the pod and fixed it straight to the spine, but you could easily leave it loose and magnetise it for additional variety if required.

Bullfrog Lander. Croak.

I washed the model in some warm, soapy water and then, in honour of the name, gave it an all-over coat of GW Gnarlock Green foundation paint straight over the resin. A lander called Bullfrog has to be green. I have found the now OOP GW foundation paints to be really good at covering, and I'm happy to use them straight onto bare resin most of the time.

Finished version and kit form sans pod.

Once the green was dry I dry-brushed Dheneb Stone straight over the top then added a few metallic areas using the newer GW Leadbelcher. I then stippled on some Khermi Brown to represent paint chips. In retrospect, this was too light and I should have used Charadon Granite or Adeptus Battlegrey. The cockpit windows were then shaded from dark to bright using Necron Abyss, Mordian Blue and a very, very old pot of Lightning Bolt Blue. The blues were blended together whilst still wet to give a fairly gradual change.

The model can be assembled with or without the lift engines on the leg struts.

A few areas of black were added around the engines and landing gear and then, as usual, I did the next bit in the wrong order. Instead of a gloss coat (or a coat of Pledge floor wax) and applying the decals from my Gundam 1/100 sets, the whole model got a a thin wash of the ever useful Devlan Mud with Nuln Oil in the metallic areas. I'll have to add the decals then dirty them up again before finally sealing the model.

GZG OUDF to the left and Armies Armies Neo-Sov on the right.

The finished model is very nice indeed. There are few bubbles here and there, but nothing really unsightly. They are also a bargain at $7 each, which works out to about £4.50 so even with postage - still a bargain! One of my landers was missing it's pod, but Scott replied promptly to my email and is sending out a replacement and a spare to act as scatter terrain, which is a very generous gesture.

Exit ramp.

I've prepared a Gruntz card for the lander. This version is unarmed, as I see it more as a utility lander than a combat asset, but I figured door guns would be possible.

15mm WW2 German Reinforced Rifle Platoon - fast and dirty paint up.

As part of our switch from Flames of War to Bolt Action MBB and I have started to collect some German troops. I've managed to do this bit by bit, picking up odds and ends of damaged blisters from bargain bins at various Salute and SELWG shows, plastic model kits from PSC and Zvezda and the few last bits from Peter Pig - mostly AT guns and crew.

In the spirit of my previous 15mm WW2 US Rifle Platoon Fast and Dirty Paint Up, I present my 15mm WW2 German Reinforced Rifle Platoon Paint up.

The paints I used for this were a mix of GW black undercoat, Tamiya XF-74 JGSDF Olive Drab, Tamiya XF-2 White and a selection of Vallejo Model (70.XXX) and Game (72,XXX) paints as shown below (excuse my crappy handwriting).

Check the paint codes below, I wrote some of them down wrong. It's XF-74, not XF-72, for instance.

I didn't have the equivalent Vallejo paint for the uniform base colour, Feldgrau, but after a little searching I found a recommendation for the Tamiya XF-74. The Tamiya website shows a very, very bright green colour for the XF-74 so I was initially sceptical. After I painted up a few test figures I was much more comfortable, though. The combination of a black base coat, heavy drybrush of XF-74 and then drybrush of XF-74/XF-2 mix as a highlight looked very good with a solid grey-green colour and not nearly as bright green as I had expected.

Black undercoat

XF-74 drybrush uniform base coat

Uniform highlight - 80/20 XF-74/XF2

Helmet, Gasmask holder and mess tin painted Heavy Charcoal (72.115)

Water bottle cover painted Beige Brown (70.875)

Camo cape and bread bag painted Brown Violet (70.887 - not 877 as indicated on chart above)

Rifle stocks and camo patches painted Flat Brown (70.984)

Ammo pouches and knapsack painted German Camo Black Brown (70.822)

Flesh painted with Flat Flesh (70.955)

Boots, Belts and Y-straps painted Black (70.950)

Any equipment, such as infantry mortars, ammo boxes, Panzerfausts was then painted with German Camo Orange Ochre. Mortar rounds were painted Cavalry Brown, as I'd read that German hi-explosive rounds were painted red somewhere. My Cavalry Brown is much more of a deep red than brown.

Once these steps were complete the figures got a generous wash with peat brown ink, allowing it to settle into the hollows but making sure it didn't pool anywhere. It's the same effect as you'd get from using one of the pre-made stains such as the Vallejo Washes, Army Painter strong/soft tone, a polyurethane wood stain any of the various recipes for "dip" using floor polish except much less sticky and smelly.  

Washed with Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink

Completed platoon including Goliath, Panzershreks and support mortars and the materials and tools used.

The figures were then gently prized from the lolly sticks and based individually or in groups of 2-3 for the support weapons. For bases I used 2mm thick MDF circles in 20, 30 and 40mm diamter from Warbases

The figures still need to have their basing texture added and then be varnished, which I will do after I have painted the ATG's, IG's and various other bits that need to be based. AT the moment the ATG's are all loose, and I'm debating whether to base the motorbike teams, scout cars and Kubelwagens. I'm tempted to get a Kettenkrad and Schwimmwagen just for the lolz.

Here's the full platoon with an assortment of attachments. I have another 2 of the Zvezda Sdkf 251 halftracks to build, and a long barrelled PzIV on the way to me. The barrels on the Wiebelwind at the top right had to be replaced with brass rod as they were just too flimsy. I built up the muzzle brakes by dipping them into super-glue to get a blob on the end and then squirting it with accelerator to get it to dry fast, leaving behind a blob I could sand into shape easily.

Expensive lesson learnt - Ion Age Adders

I recently purchased a brace of Adder Support Sleds from Ion Age. I picked them up as part of the early supporter package, so they were a bargain at £3 each. I got 3 of the railgun armed ones, 3 of the gatling ones, a mortar and a missile launcher. The package arrived in good time and the models were really well protected. I also got the free early bird figure, a nice female adventurer.

I planned to paint them in a Berlin Brigade inspired urban camouflage of rust red, grey and white, like this:

picture sourced from the web - but I believe it's from Bovington Tank Museum

When the British army arrived in segregated Berlin in the 1960's with their green painted tanks, they realised they stuck out like a sore thumb on the streets of the city. All of the tanks got this distinctive urban pattern, in exactly the same style and design on each tank, so the East German secret police couldn't count how many tanks there were by comparing different camouflage patterns. It works quite well in a city environment:

So, my plan was to use a trusty can of Halfords Red undercoat for the red parts (also makes a quite good Rotbraun for WW2 tanks), then use my Anarchy Models HD stencil sheets to mask off the pattern, then over-spray with grey, repeat the masking and then spray with white. I could do all three from rattle cans - I could do all three with Halfords undercoat in fact as these are the three colours they come in.

Neat idea. However, I did lots of things wrong.

I didn't wash the models before assembly and then I didn't wash them before spraying them. Washing in warm water and washing up liquid removes any build up of grease and oil from handling during construction, and it also removes any of the mould release agent that is used to stop the model from sticking to the mould it is cast in. You can also use a good soaking in white vinegar to do the same thing.

I then sprayed in the middle of a hot day in direct sunlight. The paint dries very quickly from spray cans. In warm weather it can dry in the air before it hits a model, which can lead to poor adhesion and a rough, grainy surface. Spraying in strong, direct sunlight means the model itself can heat up, further speeding the drying time and lessening the adhesion. I also sprayed too much, too quickly. A single, thick coat is also less likely to adhere. Multiple thin coats are better than one thick one.

I left the models to dry for a while and then started to apply the stencils. I was just finishing my third model when I needed to reposition a stencil. The Anarchy Models stencils are made from a thin, vinyl film and have a good "stickiness" so they'll bend round corners and stay stuck down, instead of lifting off. As I peeled this one away to reposition it, it pulled a huge flake of the red paint away with it. A quick test showed the same problem on all the models - the usually brilliant Halfords paint hadn't adhered at all well. It needed to be removed and re-sprayed.

The Adders are made of a fine, grey resin with a few white metal accessories. My usual method of removing paint from resin and metal models is to dunk it in nail varnish remover for 24 hours then scrub with a toothbrush. I've had great results from this on any number of resin models so far, but mostly the "white chocolate" type resin, as AGG calls it. I separated the parts, arranged them in a suitable container and poured over the nail varnish remover, tightly sealed the lid to keep the stinky fumes down and went to watch The Lego Movie ("Everything is awesome!").

This morning I returned to the models to begin the scrubbing. However, the resin had reacted badly to the nail varnish remover and the tanks had softened and split in many places. The thinnest parts of the resin are the worst affected, with the thin walls of the turret wells in the main body especially bad - not a single one remains intact.Many of the details like the tool boxes and headlight clusters have softened and a few have broken off. The vehicle bodies themselves are also bulgy and distorted, as though they have expanded slightly. The glacis plate has split on another and a third has a big chunk of resin that has sloughed off from the underneath, where it looks like there was an air bubble just below the surface. The turrets seem OK, apart from one of the missiles on the launcher turret hace split off and one of the rail gun turrets has bulged and split underneath where I had drilled out a hole for a pin to keep the nose-heavy rail guns from pitching the turret forward.

The nail varnish remover also seems not to have removed the paint that well - in fact it seems like the paint has actually seeped into the resin. This would make sense if the resin became softened and porous as it reacted to and absorbed some of the nail varnish remover.

The vehicles are currently drying out in the sun to see if they can be salvaged, but I'm not hopeful. If the resin remain soft they won't accept any paint and will just have to be binned. If it does harden back up and the red paint isn't still a gooey mess I may be able to salvage a couple, but the remainder may only be good as burnt out wrecks.

So, a lesson learnt. I'm not sure why, but the softer, grey resin reacts badly with nail varnish remover. Possibly it may be that it has a higher plastic content similar to the new "restic" miniatures ranges such as the Reaper Bones and Sedition Wars figures.

The Adders are lovely models, and if I can't salvage them I probably will replace them in due course. The most annoying thing for me is that all of this could have been avoided had I just remembered all the things I should have, and usually would have, done.

GRUNTZ AAR - Action at Valin Farm

TGP and I played a game of Gruntz today based on a scenario from the Tomorrows War rulebook. I modified the background to match my Gruntz forces and translated the units from one to the other as best I could. I added a few extra units on each side to up the points values slightly.

We also used two house rues for our Gruntz game. Firstly, we used the random dice draw for unit activation from Bolt Action. Each side uses different coloured dice (mine were green, TGP was red). Each unit on the table has a single activation dice, and all the dice are added to a pot and drawn one by one. If a green die was drawn, I activated a previously inactive unit, if a red was drawn, TGP activated one of his units. If a unit suffered a compulsory move action, like a condition brown move, they immediately forfeit their next activation dice, so if they haven't been yet, their dice are removed from the pot and if they have already been activated their die was left on the table at the end of the turn, so there would be one less die in the pot. Once all the dice are drawn, the turn is over and all the dice are returned to the pot, excepting destroyed units, units on overwatch (who keep their dice) and units who made compulsory moves AFTER they had activated. It worked well, and I think it will probably become our standard method of initiative for Gruntz.

The second house rule was fairly simple one - the weapon ranges were treated as range bands, with each one after the 1st conferring a -2 modifier. The Mortar got -2 within the first range band (hard to hit close by with a mortar) and nothing in the second, -2 in the third and so on.

The scenario description was as follows:

Glory, in the Foix Gap, 2298

The long-standing feud between Zydek Adaptive Systems (ZAS) and the New Kiev Defence Force (NKDF) has finally erupted into war! ZAS forces have plunged deeply into the Foix Gap, only to find their advances blocked by advance NKDF National Guard and militia elements. Sharp engagements are being fought wherever the two forces come into contact. One such meeting engagement occurred at the tiny farming village of Valin Farm.

The picture above shows the table, with the village of Valin Farm in the centre (I really need to finish basing those trees...). The ZAS forces would deploy from the table edge at the bottom of the picture and have to head up table to exit off the far edge. The NKDF got hidden set-up for some of their units, who would be dug in to prepared positions (+2 guard and soak). On turn 2 the NKDF would recieve reinforcments arriving on the top left table corner.

Woods were delineated by the areas bounded by the hexes, and were impassable to all vehicles. Hedgerows blocked movement for the vehicles (think space bocage).

NKDF Forces

Objective:
ZAS Forces have broken through all across the border. One of our militia units has established a defensive position in the village of Valin Farm. They are not strong enough to halt a concerted ZAS advance. Due to the importance of the road connection from Valin Farm to the critical bridge over the Resolution River, you must reinforce the militia and destroy or ablate any advances by ZAS forces! We have very little armour to allocate to this operation, but we do not believe they are aware of our advances in powered armour. You should be able to deliver a surprise blow that will leave ZAS reeling and perhaps blunt the speed of their advance across the breadth of the frontier.

Starting forces:

5 x NKDF Militia Squad

2 x Specialist NKDF - Fusion Gun Team

1 x Specialist NKDF - Mortar team

Arrive on Turn 2 at point 2:

1 xM233 Cossack APC with:

                                2 x Dragoon PA squads

            3 x RGM 85 Exosuits

            1 x M-64 Wolverine tank

    

  

ZAS Forces:

Objective:
It is important to maintain the timeline of attack while simultaneously reducing any NKDF forces encountered. Assault past Vallin Farm and join up with your flanking units at the Resolution River Bridge. Try not to bog down in a toe to toe fight with expected NKDF resistance, but do not leave a strong NKDF force behind you to threaten your communications or menace follow on units!

3 x ZM-55 APC  each  with:

2 x ZAS Fireteam

3 x ZM-89 MBT

2 x ZA-2 “Purifier” Light Mecha

1 x ZMQ-1 Attack Drone

    

Unfortunately I don't have any in-progress shots of the battle, only the aftermath. The ZAS forces deployed to the left flank, shielded by the farmhouse and woods at the left side of their deployment. they moved upo the left flank, taking fire from the fusion guns emplaced in the village. The drone made a pass over the hedge line to the right hand side of Valins Farm, dropping it's guided bomb on two of the Militia units. It circled around the village, firing missiles at the fusion guns. The ZAS Mecha deployed in the enclosed field on the baseline and moved up through the centre, taking pot shots at the fusion guns. The ZAS APC deployed behind the tanks. Two of them dropped off infantry into the woods and hedgerow, then split up, one heading around the woods to the left and the other two heading up the centre through the road, following the tanks.

The NKDF militia split into two, with two squads heading into the woods on the left, and the remains of the two bombed squads and one full strength squad deploying for flank shots on the vehicles passing through the village. On turn two the NKDF reinforcements arrived. The tank drove up the left flank and, in concert with the fusion guns and mortar, destroyed two of the ZAS tanks at the edge of the woodlands on the left. The APC dropped it's two squads of powered armour off in the copse of trees to the left of the village, along with the two militia squads, then pushed up to assist the tank. The three exosuits split up, one following the tank and two heading around the back of the village to face off any units that made it through.

The final two turns saw the ZAS forces loose two tanks on the left flank to the fusion gun, tank and APC fire. A further ZAS APC made a break on the left flank, but an ENG critical denied it the double move it needed to get off-table. It was then destroyed by a combination of exosuit and tank fire. The drone passed over the village and made a strafing runs on a militia team and PA suit squad redeploying into the town, only to be brought down by accurate and effective fire from the other PA suit squad in the tree line. The remaining ZAS tank charged through the village, taking flank shots from militia squads and exosuits and downing an exosuit and the mortar squad on the way through in return. An empty APC followed, finishing off the mortar team. The third APC halted at the hedgerow, risking point blank shots from the fusion gun, to deploy it's two infantry squads. It then rammed and destroyed the third exosuit after surviving a hail of fire from all sides.

Meanwhile the ZAS infantry from the hedgerow advanced behind the tanks and APC's to assault the left most fusion gun. The ZAS infantry in the woods exchanged a few rounds of fire with the militia units in the woods to the left of the village before the tank arrived. An attempt to assault the tank was largely ineffectual, and one fire team were slowly whittled down by the tanks hull MG. A later attempt by the other fire team to assault the exosuit was likewise ineffective, with the exosuits demolition ram smushing one of the ZAS soldiers.

The final actions of the game were the assaults on the fusion guns. The one to the right of the road was successfully assaulted and it's gun crew captured. The assault to the left of the road was a dismal show all round, with the assaulting team scoring just one hit that was soaked, and the gun and a supporting squad of infantry failing to counter assault then failing a condition brown test. The supporting infantry ran away, after the ZAS infantry failed their free assault, as did the gun crew.

The final outcome was a victory to the NKDF on points. They had blunted the ZAS attack, but taken quite a beating in the process. If the ZAS force had managed to get the APC with the engine critical off the board, and the drone hadn't been shot down, it would have gone the other way.

Final dispositions.

ZAS troops assaulting exosuit - less one smushed trooper. Tank has it's turret traversed to rear to shoot at fleeing APC.

Captured gun crew from right fusion gun.

RPG alley. Multiple militia units in place for flank shots. Downed exosuit has just been rammed by the ZAS APC.

The two decisive kills, the drone and the crippled APC.

PA suit squad.

ZAS Mecha.

Left fusion gun after fleeing from assaulting troops - not in a great position...

Rear view of RPG alley, just visible at top right is the PA squad who shot down the drone.

ZAS ZMQ-1 Drone. Effective spotting and missile work made it one of the ZAS most effective units.

A few observations we made after the game were that the skill/shooting levels of the troops were possibly too low - we seemed to do a lot of rolling, but not much hitting. I had statted the units as seasoned/veteran, apart from the ZAS APC's which were average. On the other hand, it may be that we are just used to an unrealistic casualty rate. If you read modern combat reports and compare them with wargame AAR's where it's not unusual to see entire forces wiped out, the modern reports have very low casualty rates in comparison. Perhaps the volume of fire versus the hit rate is actually about right but we are just used to a more unrealistic baseline.

The other observation was that the assault rules didn't seem to work well. I did suggest to TGP that lightly armed troops assaulting a tank or a heavily armoured exosuit can't expect to do well. Neither of us was really happy with the way that the assault on the left hand fusion gun had gone, but couldn't really point out a problem with the system - it just seemed like the fusion gun team wouldn't have dragged the gun with them when they ran off. I did advise TGP that the fusion gun model was a proxy as my NVL heavy weapons team were on the windowsill unpainted. TGP also wasn't happy with mortars attacking tanks, but I suggested that hi-tech mortar rounds could easily be variable role frangible or self forging anti-tank. He accepted that idea, grudgingly.

But, overall we had a really fun game and will certainly be using the Gruntz rules again with a few tweaks.

Miniatures used were CMG ZAS for the ZAS tanks, infantry and APC's. The ZAS mechas were converted and now OOP GZG Landmate figures. The Drone was a Matchbox die-cat toy repainted and slightly modified.

The NKDF infantry were Oddzial Osmy New Vistula Legion. Tank and APC were by Old Crow. Exosuits are Khurusan Miniatures and the PA suits were Brigade Models. The fusion guns were kitbashed from spare cannons from the Rebel Miniatures Sabre gunship.

Terrain was a mix of scratch built (the domes, bocage and the white building) and 4-Ground laser cut MDF for the two farmhouses. The coloured containers are also now OOP GZG.