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.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We start this week with some hover vehicles with a nice paintjob from Marcus, I believe these are Old Crow vehicles.

Next up and Dave P has started on a new project with some WW2 Soviet troops.

And tanks of course, you must have tanks.

Moving on and we have a Ziggurat complex from Sean made out of various small scale scenery bits from Brigade Models.

Now we have a Vietnam village from Stephen, it’s a nice aerial shot but a bit of a teaser as to how good the buildings look. Hopefully we’ll get more shots of this.

And last for this week I’ve started work on another Dropship conversion. I’m going to turn this 15mm grav vehicle from Brigade Models into a bulky dropship for my 3mm forces. Not sure how I’m going to convert it yet. I might put legs on it, haven’t decided.

And with that we will see you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

A small but perfectly formed offering for this week. We start with Mark J having almost finished his Judge Dredd miniatures. Mark has also been employing Felix to paint up some Volksgrenadier’s.

Next and I’ve painted up a force for Xenos Rampant. These are from the old (although still in production) Critical Mass Games range. These are the Kaamados Squamata miniatures.

And lastly for this week, Tony F has been working on the bases for his Belgian guns.

We’ll see you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

The days are getting shorter but there is no shortage of effort from the society members. We start this week with Tony F who has almost finished his WW2 Belgium force. Above we can see the officers with troops and AT guns below.

Here we have a close up of the guns.

And some specialist soldiers I believe with a mortar.

Next up and I’ve been busy with dropships again. This time I made some legs and put them on a Starship model from Brigade Models. It’s completely the wrong scale for my 3mm miniatures but I think it looks the part as a dropship.

Now we have the very first contribution to WIP Wednesday from Mike, with a selection of figures destined for a D&D Dragonlance campaign.

Any finally this week Marcus has been sticking to Sci-Fi but in two different theatre’s. First we have some spaceships.

And a 15mm tank for Marcus’ Xenos Rampant army.

And with that we will see you next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another Wednesday post and we Start with Mark J and some progress for his Judge Dread game, the Fatties and CitiDef are coming along in suitably bright colours.

Next up Marcus has made progress on his Star Schlock robot.

And a 15mm tank, no doubt destined for his Xenos Rampant army.

Moving on and Tony F has been busy with his WW2 Belgium units.

Tony has added some rather fetching decals to his carriers. The weathering on these is looking very nice.

Tony has also started on the bases for some guns.

And because it was Halloween Tony has done a head swap for a suitable pumpkin.

Next up and Stephen has been painting some colourful villagers. I suspect there will be more to come so here’s the first batch.

And last for this week I’ve been continuing to paint my 3mm sci-fi miniatures. Although this time I’m using a 6mm scale Assault lander as a 3mm Dropship. I think it fits the role well.

See you next Wednesday.

A Day at the Society

This week we thought we would show you what a day at the Maidstone Wargames Society looks like.  As a reminder the society meets on the second and fourth Saturday of each month at the Linton Village Hall between 10am to 5pm, which gives members enough time to pay a couple of quick games or to play something larger.

At our 12th of October meeting there were six games covering quite a varied array of periods and scales.

We start with the game from our featured image above. Andy and Stephen have started a short campaign of the Norman conquest using the Lion Rampant ruleset.

Both have extensive 28mm dark age armies which means as well as being able to play larger battles they also have enough miniatures to represent both forces. This allows them to accommodate new players to the period or scale.

That’s always been an advantage to being in a club or society. I had no dark age miniatures when I first joined, but other members provided miniatures so I could try out new rules and games to see if I wanted to get involved.

We did this for the Saga rules and I now have a sizeable Viking and Anglo Saxon force of my own.

For that big battle feeling Paul put on a Napoleonic battle using 3mm miniatures.

Paul was trying out some home grown rules and the game was a good example of one player providing all of the forces for this epic battle.

All Paul needed were some willing volunteers and so a number of other members joined in to test the rules.

For this meeting Tony F and I had a practice game of Xenos Rampant. There’s normally a good mix of historical and fantasy or sci-fi at the society. I’d not played Xenos Rampant and asked Tony who had played a couple of games to go through the rules with me.

The games were played using 15mm miniatures, but my Xeno Rampant army was still on the painting table and so I used some of my other sci-fi miniatures that would work at any scale.

Namely some 6mm scale mechs and some 28mm powered armour that also double up as suitable armoured mechs for 15mm.

Tony F provided the terrain for the games and we managed to really test the rules and get two games in on the day.

Mark J and Felix had been painting like mad to get ready for the Vietnam game they were putting on. Often at the society someone will put on a larger game that can accommodate a number of players. I believe this game had six members playing on the day.

Again a great advantage of being a member. When real life gets in the way it’s great to be able to just turn up an play. No need to prepare anything, you don’t even need to bring dice or a tape measure, although there is always a shortage of the latter!

The Vietnam game was a nice big one using several of the tables available, giving the US forces lots of jungle to get through.

I didn’t ask who won, but each time I looked over the table there were a number of concerned faces.

John La was also testing out some rules he is writing covering the notorious boarder reiver period along the Anglo-Scottish boarder.

A number of members have been regularly helping John with the rules, I’ve not played it myself, but I do believe the games are now flowing very well.

Also nice to have games that are more scenario based and not just a straight forward battle to challenge players in other ways to achieve victory.

Speaking of scenarios the sixth game at the meeting was provided by Eric who put on a Call of Cthulhu role playing session.  A number of members jumped at the chance of a bit of RPG action. In recent times the society has seen a number of members run role playing games.

If you are interested in joining the society or just want to come and have a look at what we do, either to learn more about the hobby or re-kindle your enthusiasm for miniature wargaming check out the details on our about the Maidstone Wargames Society page., or come down to one of our meetings, you can see what we currently have planned on our diary page.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s another Wednesday and so we have some more progress from the membership.

We start this week with Marcus and some Star Schlock miniatures. Marcus has also been working on some GZG sci-fi Japanese miniatures, with an interesting camo pattern. There is a trend with members to go for brighter colours rather than the drab khaki for sci-fi miniatures.

Which I completely agree with having gone for a fetching blue for my Executive forces. These are Atlas Combat suits from Brigade Models that I’ve painted up and based to act as light mechs next to my 3mm sci-fi forces.

Moving on and Mark J has started on some ‘Fatties’ and more Citi-Def for his upcoming Judge Dredd game.

And lastly for this week Andy has been making progress on some terrain. Firstly his fences are done.

And his been working on an unusual little model of a tomb.

That’s it for this week, see you at the next one.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s work in progress Wednesday and we star this week with some Ashigaru from Felix. I’ve never played games from that era, should really try and do that.

Next up and Charlotte has made some progress on their church, just the windows and doors to add detail to.

Charlotte has also decided to get on the property ladder with the purchase of an MDF castle. This looks like it’s going to be a lot of work to paint and detail, will be interested to see the progress on this.

Now we move onto Tony F who has been working on his universal carriers and towed guns.

We see a new project from Andy next with some Einherjar … nope me neither. I see now they are essentially space dwarves from Wargames Atlantic.

And finally this week also from Andy are some headless Dark age cavalry. I have it on good authority they won’t be staying headless.

That’s it for this week, see you at the next one.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We start this weeks post with some 2, 3 and 6mm sci-fi from me. I’m mixing it up a bit here by finally getting round to painting up some 2mm sci-fi desert buildings from Brigade Models. In the background you can see a 6mm Mech (also from Brigade) and some of my 3mm sci-fi miniatures.

I think the scales mix quite well.

Next up and Peter M has been building some sci-fi walls and I’ll let him describe the construction “The walls are foamboard, covered with cut-up sections of a cheap PVC mat; the black plastic top strip is a slide-in document holder; and the critical ‘connector’ pieces are 3D prints.”

Now we move onto Andy who’s still got his painting mojo it seems with some fence work.

And his completed GZG Japanese Xenos Rampant force.

Marcus has also been painting up some GZG Japanese sci-fi miniatures

And yet more Star Schlock miniatures, I dread to think how big the collection is now.

And last but by no means least this week, Tony F has painted up some portaloo’s that will no doubt make it into the next game of Stargrave.

See you at the next work in progress post.