Painted Resin

Well, I managed to paint the resin vehicles to a gaming level pretty quickly. The resin material seems to have taken Gesso (which I use to prime) and paint fairly well.
Here is the AMX-10RC from its left, rear, and right. I used the same camouflage pattern as the Sagaies and the APCs. The vehicle is a very solid piece of resin, quite a bit heavier than plastic kits. I hope the paint job will hold up well against bumps and bruises. The vehicle is in 20mm (1/76) scale, but looks fine enough compared to the 1/72 plastic kits, and is suitably intimidating.
Here are the VBLs. I painted the windows a dark blue colour to represent the glass, since this is what I've seen other people do for solid resin vehicles. The effect seems fine enough.
Here's a close-up of one of the VBLs. The kit is quite functional, probably with less detail than a plastic kit would have, but it's good enough for me and builds up a lot faster. Hopefully it will also turn out to be more durable in gaming.

Overall, this is has been a very positive experience for me. I'll definitely be getting more resin vehicles for gaming.

Into the Unknown

Frustrated with plastic kits that have too many parts, I recently purchased some resin vehicle miniatures from S&S models. These are designed for wargaming and have very few pieces. Although marketed as 20mm (1/76) scale, they seem close enough to fit well with 1/72s too. Since I've never worked with or painted resin models before, I'm in unknown territory.

These resin models have flash and excess bits that need to be trimmed, but because of the very few parts, the overall preparation time was far less than plastic models.

I bought 2 VBL models. As you can see, these are a combination of resin and metal, but they do seem to take super glue well enough. I'm thinking of making removable upper torsos of crewmen for all my vehicles to indicate buttoned/unbuttoned status in Ambush Alley games.

This is an uparmoured AMX-10RC, and it will be the heavy hitter in my games. It's got the same resin/metal combination as the VBLs. I'll have to see how well these materials take paint.

Well, on to priming.

Even More Partisans and Some Terrain

I've been doing more painting and building in the last while, mainly for the upcoming Mayday Ambush Alley game I'll be running. I've done up more partisans and some terrain.

I've painted up some more partisans from Caesar's first WWII partisans box. This set has a different group of poses, including an interesting man with an explosive detonator. In addition, I painted some more Caesar modern insurgents, for the RPG and SAW support.

Another interesting figure is an Orion modern Chechen fighter I painted up, for use as a Person of Interest in games. The Orion sets are not as detailed as Caesar, but match up fairly well in size, as can be seen in this comparison with the Caesar nun.
I've also made some simple mud walls from styrofoam. These are just strips of foam with drywall compound texture and a simple painting scheme. They are low walls that offer cover.
Also, I painted some Liberation Miniatures DShK heavy machine guns. These are generic enough that I can use them for several settings. Here, some partisans are reloading theirs.

I finally managed to base the GZG Ixx miniatures properly, and now they look quite a bit better. I'm getting to like them more and more, since they fit so well with 1/72s.

Squadron Strike!

I recently bought the starship combat game Squadron Strike. This is a fast-play, beer-and-pretzels game from a company called Ad Astra Games. It's meant to capture all the cool space combat you see in the movies, with no regard to newtonian physics or actual science at all. Sounds like a lot of fun!

I plan on kitbashing a lot of 1/72 scale space craft miniatures and bringing them to the Tuesday games. (It's a board game, but miniatures can be used on the hex board) The rules are fast and simple, so games shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes. Whole tournaments can probably be done in the Tuesday night time frame.

Hey, I should check out Squadron Strike's even simpler cousin - Attack Vector: Tactical.

Gribblies and Suits

I went to a major sale at a local hobby shop recently, and they had some Confrontation pre-painted miniatures marked at half price. I'm not a player of any Rackham game, but some of the miniatures interested me. There was a box of "Scorpion Phemera Omega" miniatures for $15, so I bought those.
There are 8 in the box, and these creatures remind me of hormagaunts from Warhammer 40k, but in a size appropriate for 1/72 miniatures. For pre-paints these are not bad, although they have rather large bases that I may have to replace.
As you can see in this comparison, they are a decent size to go with modern 1/72 miniatures.
Another angle shows some of their detail. You can easily imagine a horde of these attacking.

I'll probably look around for more sales to buy more of these creatures. It seems appropriate for them to come in a large group.

Also, inspired by Eric at 1/72 Multiverse, I bought some reduced-price AT-43 Red Blok battlesuits from the War Store. These are nice miniatures, especially at their price of $13US for a box of 3.
This shot shows the type with a machine gun and a flame thrower next to a 1/72 scale VAB. These are meant to be powered armour in 28 mm scale, but they seem to fit nicely as battlesuits or mini-mechs in 1/72.
Another shot with one next to a Sagaie.
Two of them next to a Caesar 1/72 scale nun. They are suitably imposing compared to 1/72 scale humans, and should put a good sci-fi element into games when mixed with moderns. I may repaint these to a colour scheme more appropriate to my setting.

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.