Joint Task Force Pope

[panzergator]

You know I was rattling. I am well on record in this forum favoring tracks over wheels. That said, ease and rapidity of manufacture and the resulting qualities of strategic maneuver and quantity are significant. We need that. We also need the ballast provided by heavier, tracked armor including artillery.

[redleg]

I have the first gun finished! I tried some lighter colors for green and brown than I had been using. I also tried a dark gray instead of black in an attempt to lighten the whole thing, but it just didn't look very good so I went over the gray with black. It still looks a little dark to me in the photo. I've settled on the colors now so I'll do the other 2 guns shortly and see if I can improve on the technique!

And I swear the cab is on straight, even though this pic makes it look like it's crooked!

[foxbat]

Beautiful gun, Redleg. Thanks for sharing.

Your black looks fine IMO. But when I did some GHQ modern armor for Cold War Commander, I went your way : very dark gray, and a black wash over it. Now, these are the best pics I found back, and well, I used outdoors lighting at the time, so everything looks a bit shiny.

[redleg]

Great looking French kit, Foxbat! That's some good inspiration for me to keep building up my French forces. And I see that the VAB-VCI is on special right now too!

I had a productive Saturday so far. I finally finished all 6 books in the Dune series (took me almost 2 years!) and I also finished some micro armor! I did finish the other 2 Caesars and I think they turned out OK. Interesting that I did the wash before painting the glass on one gun, and the other 2 guns had the wash applied on top.



I also finished up some mortar carriers for the DD-214 project. These are for 2 BCT / 1 ID and they will be assigned to the mortar platoons of 1-18 IN, 1-26 IN, and 1-77 AR. I'm getting so close to finally finishing this project - gotta keep the momentum up!

[chrisswim]

Looking nice Mike. Keep going. I like your micro kit. Nice camo and painting.

[pmskaar]

Great looking vehicles, Redleg! It is nice to see them all painted up.

As as aside, I did a couple of French vehicles for the GHQ catalog a few years ago. Here is my interpretation of the French 3 color NATO scheme.





As I recall, I used a very dark gray for the black camouflage parts. This was done by mixing some Humbrol #33 Matt Black in with #67 Tank Gray which is basically Panzer Gray. The tires were done with just the straight Tank Gray which is my go-to tire color and seems to look right in 1/285th scale to me at least.

[redleg]

Holy cow Pete! Those are amazing! OK, let me give the dark gray another shot

[chrisswim]

Pete, that is wonderful info, perspective on the tires. I may try to emulate that somewhere….

[redleg]

When I think back on my time in the Army, I realize that I spent A LOT of time in and around M577s. Here are 15 tracks that I'm working on for the DD-214 project!

[pmskaar]

Looking good, Redleg! I did spend a little time in and around M-577s myself although that was usually when I was visiting the upper echelon folks for briefings etc.

[panzergator]

Seems like it was a 577, A 1/4ton or a range tower. Little time for garrison, no time for tents.

[panzergator]

Oh yeah. Also the motor pool and the battalion commander's office for mastication of my gluteus maximus. (That's why I have to wear suspenders theses days.

[redleg]

Just finished up another piece of the DD-214 project! Just a little piece, but it's still progress! This is 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry "Vanguard". I'm not doing support vehicles for this project, so it's just the 44 Bradleys, 10 scout HMMWVs of the Scout Platoon, the tracks of the Mortar Platoon, and 3 command tracks for the TOC. Please forgive the crappy photography! I expect the next battalion (1-26 Infantry) to be done by the end of the week!

[panzergator]

It does my li'l OCD heart good to see those vehicles so dressed on the concrete pad...

[pmskaar]

WOW! That is an impressive array of military might you have there, Redleg! Nice to see it all at once or at least in large groups like that.