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.

Kitbash Part 6 - Ka-299 "Hexen" Assault Transport

Back in August last year I started work on a kitbash of a Revell 1/72 Ka-29 "Helix" helicopter kit, to turn it into a squad-lifter/dropship for my NKDF 15mm forces. I've now finished and am pretty pleased with the results.

Lots and lots of MicroSol and MicroSet were used to get the transfers to conform over the rivets - especially on the  rudders.

The actual finish is a good deal duller than the photos suggest - I'm still not getting the best from my lightbox.

Decals are a mixture of the ones from the kit, Fighting Piranha and 1/100 Gundam Detailing sets 

The donor kit, the Ka-29, is an assault transport with capacity for 13, which makes it ideal for a medium sized 15mm ship.

The nozzle on the rear of the tail boom is on gimbals and rotates to provide directional control whilst hovering. 

Side mounted lift engines 

Underside view showing lift engines and bombardment turret

Weathering on the nose and intakes works particularly well, I think.

The original kit was a Revell 1/72 Ka-29 "Marine". The side mounted lift engines were from Micropanzer/Combat Wombat and, I think, are now OOP - which is a shame. The large podded engines are from a Revell Easykit A-10 and the Radome that covers the rotor hole is from an Easykit AH-64D Apache Longbow. The bombardment cannon is an Old Crow twin autocannon turret.

Edit: A couple of people over at TMP asked for pictures with some 15mm minis for scale:

I've also statted it our for Gruntz:

Kitbash Part 5

Long time without a post, so you get a great big one now. The lightbox is also still kaput, so apologies for the murky photos.

First of all, a couple of kit bashes for my 15mm Scifi. I was recently inspired by the Khurasan Miniatures soon to be released Doe Gunship to try and build a squad lifter for my NKDF forces. A number of threads on TMP suggested various donor vehicles, but I eventually settled on a Revell 1/72 model of a Revell Kamov Ka-29 "Helix" helicopter:

The model itself is quite nice, with good detail on the various kit parts. It fits together well, even the spindly support struts for the rocket pods and under carriage.

To convert this from a helicopter to a VTOL shuttle I used several additional parts, engines from an Revell Easykit A-10, a LONGBOW radome from a Revell Easykit Apache, a Twin Gun turret from Old Crow and two side mounted thruster pods from Combat Wombat/Micropanzer (although I can't seem to find the thruster pods on either Combat Wombat or Micropanzer's sites now).

The conversion was fairly straightforward. I built up the model to the point where the hull was sealed but no external fixtures added. I then cut down the A-10 engine pods and attached them upside down on either side of the top rear fuselage. There was a handy rail on one side above the large crew door that acted as a brace, but nothing on the other side. In Hindsight, I could have added a piece of scrap styrene here to make my life easier, but ho hum. I then  glued the Micropanzer thrusters to either side between the locating lugs for the weapon wings. I then cut the middle braces out of the weapon wings and glued them over the top of the thruster pods. The wheels and undercarriage was then added, as were the various nose sensor devices. Remembering that this is going to be a gaming model and not a display piece, I left of the various fiddly and delicate aerials and grab handles (bitz box fodder). The final addition was the large Old Crow turret added to the bottom as a kind of remote bombardment turret for fire support, a bit like the AC130 gunship.

Once complete it was given an all-over undercoat of Army Painter Army Green - a very versatile green base coat that covers well - that tied all the parts together nicely. Next step is to paint it up to match the rest of my NKDF vehicles, so darker green stripes with grey and black offset "chocolate chip" patterns.

The next kitbash is of the old Matchbox Personnel Carrier inspired by the updates done over on Mini Metal Mayhem of the old Matchbox Stoat armoured car 

I had one of these from my childhood, and managed to pick up three more, all in pretty bad states of repair. I disassembled them, binned the two rows of seated passengers and the bendy plastic guns and dunked them in a pot of nail varnish remover for a week to try and get rid of the worst of the grime and old, flaky paint. It didn't totally work - when they painted something in the 1970's it was designed to stay painted, dammit! A lot of the paint did come off, but some of it is so welded on, I'm just going to paint over it.

Originally I was going to keep them wheeled, but swap out the big slicks for something a bit more rugged. However, when I saw the grav engines from Micropanzer, I decided to give them a go. You can see the engines on this thread at TMP (you can also see the thruster pods that I used on the Helix conversion on the shuttle in that same thread).

The wheel wells were filled in with some strip styrene and the grav engines glued in place. More strip styrene adds a few gubbins details besides the engines and the top deck was selaed over with sheet styrene. Details were added with half-round and tread plate styrene and a top hatch was also added. The bendy plastic gun was replaced by a spare from a GZG 6mm hovertank (The Rommel)

I've only completed one so far, and it's yet to be painted, but I'm really pleased with the progress.

Finally we have another 15mm Scifi piece, not a kit bash this time. This is a Khurasan Miniatures PA-3 Python Powered Armour Suit. This is again for my NKDF forces, to give them some light mecha support to compliment their big stompy robot.

Simple green/tan camo this time, as the green/dark green didn't totally work on the last NKDF Mecha. These are very nice little robots with a selection of arm poses. I have 3 more to finish off which will make a nice little strike team, or allow them to split up to add a bit of punch to individual platoons.