Work in Progress Wednesday Special

It’s Wednesday but we’ve got something different for this week. Having completed the Dropship conversion I started last week, we present a step by step guide to how I converted the miniature from 15mm APC to 6mm (or 3mm) Dropship. You can see the finished model above with some 6mm tanks and powered infantry.

The project started when I was on the hunt for a real bulk dropship for my 6mm and 3mm forces. I went for the 15mm M58 Sugama APC from Brigade Models.

The main hull is resin and the grav engines are separate metal pieces, so I had a play around with those to see how I could make them into the dropships engines.

I used the ends of 8 wall plugs to act as the engine thrusters and cut the tops at an angle so the metal engine pieces would rest at a nice angle.

I then started removing some of the model detail and replacing and adding more that would be in keeping of a space going dropship. This included domes, bits of angled putty, some turrets and even bits of paper which work quite well to break up surfaces.

I then sprayed the whole thing with a grey primer.

And because I was going to use a Vallejo Xpres color over the model, I painted some areas a different colour to provide some contrast.

I didn’t actually have a black wash and so used Vallejo Xpress color Wicked Purple. This worked fine, but was a bit tricky to cover such a big model.

After that was dry I went over the whole model with a gun metal drybrush. I thought I was going to leave it at that but decided I wanted some more colour to the model. So I did a second dry brush using grey to dull down the metal, and then painted whole sections with Tank Drab. A little bit of white for various markings and some blue for the bridge completed the paintjob.

I wanted the dropship to work for both 6mm and 3mm miniatures, here we have the finished dropship lifting off after disembarking a 3mm force of tanks and mechs.

I’ll definitely be looking for some more miniatures I can convert into dropships for the smaller scales.

Society meeting 27th January

Andy presents a short round up of the games at the second meeting of the year.

Stephen and I started our Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign. We had planned to play two games today, but actually got through three games.

First Battle: Stephen’s Ayyubid Egyptians spread out
First Battle: Nearing the end
Second Battle: Andy’s Pullani brace themselves for the attack.
Third Battle: Andy’s Pullani defend the shrine

A full report on these battles will be posted soon.

Eric ran a Darkheim – En Garde! fantasy skirmish game pitting four factions against each other in a free for all.

Barbarians and Beastmen
Cultists approach the village
Fighting around the ruined chapel
The village

Paul put on a 3mm Eastern front game set in late 1943

Aerial view of the battlefield
Soviets bypass the town

 

German ambush from the woods
Aerial view of the town

Finally, David, Alan and Chris played a Star Wars Armada game.

Imperial Star Destroyers
Rebels press the attack
“They’re behind you!”

That’s all for this week.

The diary for this year’s meetings can be found here.

Society Meeting 9th July 2022

A tad late, but here’s a short pictorial round up of the games staged at our last meeting.

Stephen and Tony G ran a game of Sword & Spear (Romans and Germans) in 15mm.

Paul also ran an Ancients game, using his own rules for 3mm figures.

 

And finally, Marcus and Eric played a game of Marcus Sci Fi adaption of What a Tanker, using 15mm tanks. There will be an article by Eric on this game shortly.

Society Meeting 28/05/2022

A brief photo round up of the games at our last meeting.

Tony & Phil staged a Lord of the Rings game…

Stephen, Eric, Justin and Andy ran some SAGA games, first of two 1 vs 1 games, followed by a 4 player free for all.

Alan staged a refight of the  skirmish at Top Malo House during the Falkland’s war.

Finally, Paul ran a solo test game of his 3mm WW2 rules.