Thanks MkI ( I think

Moderators: dnichols, GHQ, Mk 1
Moderns? Why didn't you say so?Ben wrote:As I am mainly after moderns, have to say these models look very cool!!
Shhhh! Don't say that's a Bedford QLR! I tell all my gaming buddies it's an Israeli Egged Bus!HMSDiomede wrote:Lovely shade of baby blue on that GHQ Bedford QLR radio van in the lower right of the bottom picture.![]()
SHHHH! Don't say that's a Sikorsky S-55! I tell all my gaming buddies it's a Mil Mi-4 ... in Aeroflot colors! After all, the S-55 had a 3-blade prop, and a fillet under the tailboom. (Such SIMPLE mods!)...the cute little Sikorsky S-55 helicopter.![]()
Among the items in the picture ...Do I detect a couple of GAZ-AA in the shot as well? But where did the rest of the lot come from?
Sorry man, didn't mean to make you lose face or anythingMk 1 wrote:Shhhh! Don't say that's a Bedford QLR! I tell all my gaming buddies it's an Israeli Egged Bus!
SHHHH! Don't say that's a Sikorsky S-55! I tell all my gaming buddies it's a Mil Mi-4 ... in Aeroflot colors! After all, the S-55 had a 3-blade prop, and a fillet under the tailboom. (Such SIMPLE mods!)
A very reasonable practice. Ex-military vehicles in civvy paint were a very common sight in post-war Europe. Lots of surplus vehicles were provided to civilian users as foreign aid. I kind of wonder how common ex-Soviet trucks are today with Eastern European civilian users. Cheap and readily available?Mk 1 wrote:Trucks in general: Almost every time I buy military trucks, I take one out of the set and paint it up as a civvy. I find this works well with all but the MOST recognizable military trucks (like the US GMC "deuce-and-a-half"). If the model makes it possible, I'll leave off the canvas covers, and often fill the cargo bed with something. When that's not possible, I'll often file the sides of the canvas cover to be smooth and flat, and fill the opening in the back (if it's there) with putty, so that it resembles a civvy panel truck. So you'll see a variety of GAZ and ZIL trucks, as well as more Bedfords.
Neat conversions. And here I was wondering where you had gotten those Citroen sedans from!Mk 1 wrote: UAZ-469s: Several. Makes a good starting point for civvy conversions. Cut off the spare tire, and with a little different painting you have a civvy hatchback (like the Police car near the 'copter). Add some putty and you have a compact sedan. All that I bought were from UK vendors, as GHQ didn't yet offer them when I was buying.
Brand-C jeeps: The other major U.S. vendor makes jeeps that have such an ugly canvas top that, with it, they are unusable. So again, razor off the spare wheel, hit it with putty (to fill in the open doors and to extend the hood over the front fenders) and you have a hatchback. Add putty on the back to make a sedan. An almost-orange taxi made this way is just about the enter the round-about.
Wow, I'm impressed.Mk 1 wrote: BA-10: Back to some of my old "oy, they're too ugly to use" Skytrex models. Razored / filed off the turrets, and the third axle/roadwheels, applied generous amounts of putty, and wound up with several diffrerent civvy vehicles. For example the blue SUV with the white roof in the round-about, and the red and white van that has just exited the round-about.
As per my earlier remark about postwar surplus vehicles. Cool!!!!!Mk 1 wrote: Bofors Quad: Another Skytrex "too ugly" model of the Quad chassis mounting a 40mm Bofors. Snipped off the guns and used as the basis for early kit-bashed M6 TDs (since replaced by "Brand-C"), and puttied up the chassis for a variety of one-off vehicles.
ShortRound70 wrote:Great pics. & great work.
Tunisia is one of the areas I focus on. Such an interesting campaign in so many ways ... so many forces involved (US, Brit, French, Italian and German), and such an amazing variety of unit types: On the US side, not just T-19s, but T-30s, M3 and M6 TDs, M3 Scout Cars, M3 Lee Mediums, as well as the more mundane M4 Shermans and M5 Stuarts; and then one finds French S-35s, Italian M13/40s and Semoventes, British Crusader MkIIIs, Valentines, Churchills, and of course German Mk IIIs, Mk IVs (D, F1, F2, and G) and even the occasional TIGER! How could an armored collector NOT love it?I especially appreciate the T-19's. My father served in them in North Africa.
Not done to any particular ground scale. I was really trying to make it both visually appealing and "tight" enough for condensed scales. I had to work really hard to keep it under 5 inches wide. So if a 1:2000 scale is used, it winds up being almost a Km wide. My preferred ground scale, 1:1000, makes it about 450m wide.About the emplacement, is it laid out to any particular ground scale for gaming? It has a lot of possibilities.