Security van

This matchbox Wells Fargo bank security truck will be stripped down and re-painted in dark blue/grey as a security van for my colonial security officers. I had one already from when I were a lad, and found another for 25p in a junk shop (the one pictured here - my own childhood one is in far better condition!), so the security forces should have plenty of transport once they're both done.

Grumpy's caravan

Following my holiday, Grumpy now has a motor caravan (25p from a junk shop) to park outside his grotty colonist's shack. I'm planning to strip it down, and rebuild & repaint it as some sort of survivalist's vehicle, with mesh protecting the windows, bullbars and so on.

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.

Old Crow Models

A couple of photographs of some current items on the painting bench, in this case 15mm grav vehicles from Old Crow Models.

The Old Crow vehicles are very good value - at the time of writing, they are £5 for a main battle tank and £4 for APCs or medium tanks.

The kits are cast in a very nice resin, and are virtually bubble-free (I just had to pop a blob of epoxy in a few on the corners of the grav plates, but only 2 or 3 on each kit). They are sanded smooth on the base, and have presumably been given a quick wash during production - they don't feel sticky like some resin kits I've bought, and the moulds are obviously well-filled when casting, as there were no sunken areas where the hull sections fit together. On the majority of the kits there was no flash to clean up, and including a quick scrub with a toothbrush, they were all ready for assembly in less than half an hour. I stuck them using araldite epoxy resin - I'm sure superglue/cyanoacrylate would have worked just as well, but I prefer epoxy resin for most kits, just because the thicker mix helps smooth over uneven surfaces, giving a better bond.

Assembly is simple - the Glaive APC (seen above with a section of GZG NAC Marine deploying from the rear hatch) consists of a lower hull section and a main body, with 3 optional white metal fixtures for the top; a simple hatch, a 4-round missile launcher ot a remote gun turret. I've left mine off for now, and will attach one when most of the painting is complete.

The Gladius medium tank has several turret options which are chosen when ordering. I opted for the missile turret, but as turrets can also be ordered separately, I can always get a couple of different versions another day. The missile turret arrived with two different types of missile pod, either rectangular or angled. The rectangular pods come as 8 and 4-round units which attach to either side of the main turret mount. The angled pods (which I chose to use) come as 6 and 3-round units which attach to the turret mount in the same way. These angled pods have covers over the mouths of the launch tubes (or perhaps it's the noses of the warheads poking out), while the rectangular pods just have open launch tubes. The hull of the Gladius comes in two parts, upper hull and the grav lower hull (the same as the Glaive in fact).

The Sabre heavy tank has a one-piece hull, and the turret comes as 2 resin pieces (turret and a wide, inverted truncated cone mounting post) and a choice of 2 metal gun barrels - a single cannon or twin lighter cannon mount. The more observant among you may have noticed that the tank lacks a gun barrel at present - I dropped it while preparing the models, and only managed to find it after I'd done my gluing session!

I also have a turret base (only £1!) which will serve as a static defence turret. The Gladius tank turrets fit this turret base, and the same turret size is also used on several other heavy APCs in the Old Crow range. With extra turrets costing only £1-£2, it would be easy to create a static defence line for very little cost. The turret I have used here is a multi-missile turret, but I will be adding the 2 sets of white metal paired 4-round missile pods after the main painting is completed. The quality of the fit is so good that they simply pop into place and stay at whatever angle you put them.

Overall, I'd place the quality of these kits equal or above that of the DLD vehicles - far less cleaning up to do, and less assembly too, and much cheaper (though the exchange rate may have something to do with that).

These vehicles will be finished with a camo scheme of green and grey patches over the brown base coat, with a few final details such as ID numbers etc. Somewhere I have a box of 1/72 scale stowage, some of which will no doubt make its way onto these and other 15mm vehicles in my collection, but that's something for another day...

Detailing the Eagle

Now that the model is stripped & clean, I want to add some extra detail before re-assembling it. I'm not aiming to replicate the actual TV models precisely - I just want to give a general impression, and make some of the blank areas of the model a little more interesting.

I have used an assortment of old electronics bits from a dead radio circuit board, plus innumerable plasticard scraps of various thicknesses, and the odd bit of wire or guitar string. All have been stuck in place using superglue (cyanoacrylate).


The spine receives a pair of resistors (?) which look suitably like cryogenic tanks, and an array of plasticard pieces.

The port stern walkway side receives a small shelf with an assortment of plasticard scraps. The TV Eagles all had these small shelves inside the surrounding framework. I could have added a lot more detail here, but as they will be partially hidden inside the surrounding framework, I decided that this will do.

Forward port walkway side - plasticard and bits of wire.

Forward starboard walkway side - plasticard, guitar string. The semicircular piece was one of several hole-punched from a sheet of thin plasticard. Some were used whole, others were cut in half.

Stern starboard walkway side - plasticard, wire.

The detailing complete. Now for painting...

The Eagle progresses...

Paint stripping on the metal parts of my Eagle is now complete - here are all the bits cleaned up and laid out ready for the next stage. Mould lines have been filed away, and any rough bits smoothed with some fine grade wet & dry. After the paint stripping, the whole model (including all plastic parts) has been scrubbed in warm water with washing up liquid and an old toothbrush to make sure that it is thoroughly de-greased and all traces of paint stripper have been removed.

Here is the beaky command module. The fitting was slightly loose, so some superglue has been run around the back to fix it more firmly to the walkway connecting section.

Trial assembly to make sure that all the bits fit together cleanly.

Next... on to superdetailing the model!

DLD Kamodo AFVs

A pair of very nice Kamodo Armoured Fighting Vehicles from DLD (plus GZG NAC marine for scale). Both have been assembled with superglue, apart from the wheels. These were attached using araldite epoxy resin, so that they could be adjusted slightly to ensure they are all level and the vehicle doesn't wobble. Small cardboard spacers were inserted above each wheel while the glue set, and removed afterwards so that the tyre isn't resting directly against the top of the wheel arch.

These are almost finished - they just need some stowage added, plus a commander figure in the hatch of the IFV (left unpainted at present to provide better purchase for the glue).

They are being painted in a standard UK temperate camo scheme - Humbrol matt75 bronze green, over which black stripes will be added.