Painted Armoured Cars

In the last while I was playing the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 video games, so I didn't have much time to paint or update. (I blame Kevin's company for this)

Now I've managed to put some camouflage onto the two Sagaie armoured cars from the previous post. So here they are:

It's interesting to see the middle pair of wheels suspended in mid-air like that. On the real vehicle these are in a retracted position normally and dropped down for extra mobility.
The pair of vehicles from the back.

Overall I liked the vehicle models, but for something bigger I think I'll get resin kits with fewer pieces. That is, after I finish the Ace T-72s on my plate. Those are nightmares.

Little Armoured Cars With Big Guns

I've been building a couple of ACE models 1/72 scale Sagaie armoured cars. These are interesting modern French vehicles that look like they can be used for a low-tech sci-fi setting. However, design-wise ACE models are almost the exact opposite of the Heller VABs. Even for small models like these, there are many pieces to glue together, along with tiny etched-metal fittings. Taken together, they produce excellent detail, but are often not suitable for wargaming. I've left off many small plastic pieces as well as most of the etched-metal fitting, otherwise they'd come off the first time anyone moved them around on the gaming table.

The two armoured cars, showing their long 90mm guns in proportion to their bodies.
The front of the Sagaie, showing the detail of the turret mantlet.
The back of the Sagaie, showing the detail of the amphibious propeller housings.

Now I just have to paint them in a similar camouflage style as my VABs.

Trucks and Trucks

I've been building and painting some more vehicles recently. I'm aiming for models that will be generic enough to be useful in several settings, so I can get the most out of them.

For all guerrilla/insurgent forces modern and futuristic, they need cheap transports and weapons platforms - enter technicals. I tried doing it the cheap way by starting from some Matchbox pickup trucks, and the results don't seem bad.
I repainted a couple of Matchbox Honda Ridgelines and added Liberation Miniatures DShK heavy machine guns to them. The result looks haphazard and threatening at the same time - which is good for the intended effect.
The Matchbox die cast model has a full gray plastic interior, including cup holders, (!) and I left that all untouched.
The truck beds have boxes and packs in them, so I painted these to give the technicals a lived in look. The beds are also big enough so 1/72 figures can be placed in them to give them more flavour. All in all, this is pretty cheap and effective, considering that the trucks were $1 each at Wal-Mart.

I also built a pack of 2 Pegasus quick-build WWII US Army GMC trucks. These are very nice models, quick to build but with good detail at the same time. I painted them in a generic olive green colour that's suitable for many wars, settings, and factions.
These trucks are quick and easy to get to a gameable state, and are yet another Pegasus offering aimed at wargamers.
You can see the detailed folds of the canvas top, which I painted in a khaki colour.
The trucks also include a driver each, and I gave them a quick paintjob too.

I'm very impressed with the Pegasus trucks, and will probably get more. These will be good as both transports and objectives in gaming scenarios.

Sci-fi Miniatures and Scale, non-power armour

On the Ambush Alley forum, I was asked to post a size comparison similar to what I had done before, except with non-power armour GZG 25mm miniatures. So here they are:
A GZG 15mm Ixx, a GZG 25mm NSL Panzer Grenadier, a Caesar 1/72 modern French soldier, and a Caesar 1/72 nun.
A close-up of the Ixx, 25mm NSL Panzer Grenadier, and 1/72 French soldier.

After I took those pictures, something felt wrong, and I realized that I based the 25mm GZG figure on a washer so that the base was taller than the others. I then compensated for this by placing the other figures on washers of the same size.
These are the same as above, but with washers under the other figures so the 25mm GZG is not propped up unfairly.

What to think then? While the GZG 25mm power armour miniature can get away with being bulkier simply by virtue of being power armour, the non-power armour 25mm soldier doesn't look quite right with 1/72 miniatures. The proportions of the GZG miniature, even though it's miles better than heroic scale "28mm," still doesn't quite match the realistic proportions of 1/72s. So even as bulky sci-fi armour, it still doesn't really fit. But like always, this comes down to personal preference.

Aliens, finally

I've finally finished painting (still need to do basing) the first batch of GZG Ixx miniatures. These are nice miniatures, being 15mm but large enough to serve as aliens in 1/72 scale.
These are pictures of my first unit, a leader, 3 regular warriors, and a heavy weapon that I'll use as a flamethrower.
From left to right, a Caesar partisan, an Ixx, and a Caesar modern French soldier. This shows the size of these aliens, massive for 15mm, but a good "normal" size for 1/72.
Another shot with a Caesar modern French and an Ixx. These two will be on the same side in my campaign.
This is the second group of Ixx, with an autocannon style heavy weapon. I think two groups are enough for now in my planned campaign.

More Partisans and UAVs

Here are some more pictures of the painted partisans:
I use some Caesar modern urban resisters (insurgents) mixed with the partisans to create light machine gun teams. These fit together fairly well, and fixes the problem of the Caesar set not having a lot of support weapons.
Here are the RPG teams from the previous post, along with another light machine gun team. The Bren gun is the only support weapon included in the Caesar partisans set. Too bad they couldn't put in more.
I use an old ESCI WWII Soviet radiowoman as one of the specialists. She'll probably serve as an electronic warfare specialist or a hacker of some sort.
Another group of partisans with small arms. Their leader (on the right) is a James Bond wannabe.
Back to the regular army, I'm using some plastic Silent Death fighters as UAVs. This is a reconaissance micro-UAV.
Here's the UAV flying over an APC.
This is another fighter I'm using, as an attack UAV.

Partisans

I've painted up a mix of Caesar WWII Partisans, Orion Chechen Rebels, and ESCI WWII Russians to use as the Anarchist faction in my sci-fi campaign. They represent partisans who use a variety of civilian clothes, old military uniforms, and a mix of old and new weapons. The bulk of the group consists of Caesar's excellent WWII Partisans set. I only have a few photos here, but I'll take more tomorrow.
A few Caesar and Orion miniatures that I'll use for RPG teams.
A mixed group of partisans armed with various small arms.
A close-up of a submachingunner that shows the detail of the Caesar miniatures.