Badger reinforcements

 I've acquired a few more Badgers recently, one from a local model railway shop's old toy box, the other two (without radar antennae) from e-bay.  I think a couple of Peter Pig Hummer MG mounts will finish those two nicely, similar to the couple of Stoats I want to add them to.

Before and after (or so I hope...)

Replacement Badgers from the surplus depot.

Hmm... looks like this one hit a mine!

Disassembled and ready for refurbishment.

Mould lines filed and sanded (paint still to be scrubbed).

Scrubbed sanded and filed, ready for painting.

 

BLIP - Badger Life Improvement Programme

Although the loss of a DropShip at Olbuck Reach grabbed the main headlines, another aspect of the action highlighted something that troops on the ground had been complaining about for several months - the comparative fragility of the Badger patrol and liaison vehicle.

Marine de-bussing from Badgers

Originally conceived as a light armoured vehicle for urban patrol operations, the Badger is a 6-wheeled personnel carrier.  Its purpose is to provide a safe means of transport through potentially dangerous areas.  The appearance is relatively unthreatening compared to standard, armed personnel carriers and the wheeled chassis does not damage roads and pavements in the same way that a tracked vehicle would.  The interior is not as spacious as some troop carriers, but air conditioning and good suspension mean that it remains a comfortable vehicle in which to travel, and the large rear doors give fast and easy means of egress.  4 of the 6 wide-tyred wheels are powered, giving good mobility off road, and a large engine gives a good turn of speed.  Though unarmed, the Badger carries a top range communications system that has been continually upgraded throughout the life of the vehicle.

Front and rear views

The drawback of the Badger has always been its relatively thin armour. The ambush at Olbuck Reach demonstrated this.  Rebels hiding in staggered positions in buildings to either side of the main street fired anti-tank missiles into the lead Badger, instantly disabling it and injuring some of the occupants.  When the second Badger moved forward to engage the rebels, it too was disabled.  Fortunately the Marines were able to move forward and clear the rebel firing positions, but the damage had already been done.  Deprived of their transport and unable to reinforce the SAM battery defences in time, the Marines could do little more than watch in horror as the Rebels opened fire on the DropShip as it brought in reinforcements.

Badger/15mm figure size comparison

The Badger Life Improvement Programme addresses the main concern of the report, the vulnerability of the vehicle to portable and/or improvised explosive weapons.  The Badger's traditional role clearly places limits on the options available, it was not designed as a front-line combat vehicle and should never be exposed to modern heavy tank guns.  Urban security operations have recently shown that a tougher vehicle is required, so improvements are clearly needed.  Bar armour or ERA are deemed to give the vehicle too aggressive an appearance, but a detonation field significantly reduces the danger from anti-tank guided weapons, causing them to detonate prematurely before reaching the vehicle.  Countermeasures and IED countermeasures incorporate jamming systems to interfere with the targeting and electronic activation systems of ATGMs and IED/mines respectively.  Improved anti-spall linings applied to the inside of the crew and passenger compartments mean that the vehicle is hardened, and is considered a life saver by many crews.  To round the vehicle off, added to its already impressive communications and countermeasures suite are the latest state-of-the-art sensors, which should significantly reduce the chances of future ambushes being successful, especially when facing lower-tech opponents such as bandits and rebels on Gordon's Gamble.

Tomorrow's War stats:

Vehicle: Badger
Tech Level: 2
Class: Light
Type: Wheeled
 Weapons: Unarmed
MGs: None
Armour
Front: 3D8
Side: 2D8
Rear: 2D6
Deck: 1D6
Crew: 2+8
Notes:
TL3 Sensors (advanced): +1 die shift to spot enemy units, optimum range doubled
Countermeasures: +1D defence vs ATGMs
TL2 Detonation Field: -2D from ATGM firepower
IED Countermeasures: Troop Quality check to neutralise IEDs within 8"
Hardened: +1D defence againt mines, IEDs and artillery
Safe Haven: +1D die shift for bail out test

Painting notes: The Badger received a black undercoat with Humbrol matt 29 dark earth basecoat drybrushed heavily over the whole vehicle.  Humbrol 86 light olive and Humbrol 64 light grey camouflage patches are added.  Tools are Vallejo charred brown handles with Vallejo cold grey heads.  Headlights are GW mithril silver, turn indicators a mix of GW red gore & GW sunburst yellow.  Brake lights are GW red gore.  Tyres were touched up with Vallejo matt black to cover any areas where drybrushing camo onto the wheel hubs had spilled over.

Repairing the Badger

I've finally finished my second Matchbox Badger personnel carrier.  It was looking rather battered when I got it.

The model as bought

This came from a second hand shop for about 20p, so I can't really complain at the condition!  What's most important is that it still has all its parts.

A comparison between repainted & original Badgers

I knew it would need a fair bit of work to get it completely ready for action, but I think it's a great little vehicle that's well worth the effort.

Disassembled and ready for paint stripping

As usual, I drilled out the rivets and pulled it to bits.  The axles needed slight straightening with a pair of pliers and the body shell had a long soak in paint stripper.

Another view of the Badger's components

Following the paint stripper, the paint was all gone but there was still a lot of corrosion on the surface.  A week soaking in a bath of cola cleaned it up a little more, but eventually I had to resort to a good hard scrub with a Brillo pad !

A close up of the dirt and corrosion

You can see the finished result in tomorrow's post!

Badger

I haven't posted anything on my blog for a while because I've been away on my hols. Lots to do now that I'm back - including cleaning up another Matchbox Badger which I found for 10p in a charity shop on holiday. You can see the comparison between this one and the one which I have already stripped, cleaned up and re-painted! NAC Marine included for scale.


This one looks as if it has had a hard life outdoors, being muddy, scratched and also rather corroded, but hopefully it will clean up as well as my old one did.

Badger

The BADGER is an old Matchbox "rollamatic" vehicle. All the Rollamatic vehicles had some feature which was activated by a a cog as the wheels turned. In this case, the radar dish on top rotates as the vehicle drives along. Matchbox produced several fictional army vehicles, some of which were loosely based on real vehicles (the "Weasel" scout car is a vague approximation of the British Fv700 series "Ferret" scout car). No two vehicles from this series are quite the same scale as each other, but this one looks especially good with 15mm figures.

This was from my childhood toy car collection. It originally came in a metallic brown colour, but had been repainted by my Dad in Humbrol matt brown with WWII allied white star roundels, giving it a more military appearance. It served with distinction alongside my 1/72 scale WWII figures for many years.

The rivets were drilled out, enabling me to disassemble the whole vehicle. The green plastic windows were given a good clean to remove any errant brown paint spots and decades of sticky fingerprints. Large amounts of carpet fluff were cut away from the axles (which were also straightened with a pair of pliers where necessary), and the body shell was cleaned back to the bare metal with paint stripper & an old toothbrush.

Painting used Humbrol matt enamels. All the metal parts received a base/undercoat of 33 Black followed by a very heavy drybrush of 29 Dark Earth. A splotched camo pattern of 27 Sea Grey and 86 Light Olive was drybrushed over this, then the vehicle was reassembled with a spot of araldite epoxy resin and ready for action!

It now acts as a command or patrol vehicle for my NAC Marines.