Project Star Wars part 20: AT-AT

 I bought one! A 1:53 scale AT-AT. Because of the damaged box it came at a discount.

The head and legs are articulated. Which is great since storage of big things is a problem in my house...

Assembled model

Fits in a suitcase with room to spare for my other Imperial SW stuff

Here are a few comparison pictures of the finished model and some Imperial Star Wars miniatures (the Legion stormtrooper is mounted on a thin base to fit in better with the Imperial Assault stormtroopers):

Imperial Assault Stormtrooper

SW Legion Stormtrooper

With an Imperial Assault AT-ST

I painted a few bits, mainly weathering with GW Nuln Oil.

When I was looking for pictures online as a reference for painting I found out I fitted the "cheek" guns upside down. The short range finder should be above the longer gun barrel. That explained why that part didn't fit well (the rest fit perfectly). 

I checked the assembly guide to see where I went wrong. Turns out there's an error in the assemby guide. While the box art shows the correct position, the guide instructs you to mount it upside down.

Magnum PI

 

I really loved the series back in the eighties and thought it would be great to play Magnum PI games using Fistful of Lead rules.

There are two 28mm Thomas Magnum miniatures that I'm aware of: one by Crooked dice and one from the Zombicide game, but I didn't like them. After a lot of browsing I bought a pack from Artizan designs Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang range (KKBB202 - Field Agents). Two miniatures from the pack were suitable for Magnum and Rick (swapped Rick's pistol for a spare UZI from the Project Z women survivors sprue). For TC, I used a Warlord Games USMC plastic mini with a head from the Project Z survivors sprue.

I'm still looking for a suitable Higgins miniature. Preferably in desert/tropical British uniform:

Thought about using a Copplestone figure (with a head swap) but it's too big when standing next to Magnum and Rick:

Dobermanns I have (I think from Black Cat miniatures):

And of course the Ferrari (die cast Western Models WP110 Ferrari 308 GTSI):

This Academy kit provided TC's chopper:

Still searching for a suitable Higgins figure though.

Project WW2 Pacific Part 6

Finished painting the Japanese. I'm not that happy with how they turned out, but they'll do. I found them a bit cumbersome to paint (quite soft detail) and struggled finding the "right" color scheme. Apparently Japanese uniform colors varied considerably. In the end I chose a really faded green look for jungle fighters that have been in field a long time.

The entire platoon plus support

MMG support

Grenade discharger squad

Rifle squad plus LMG squad

Engineer team

Chui and Gunso

Specialists

Infantry gun support

Spider holes

Everything in a box

Project Star Wars part 19: Mandalorians

The final batch (I think....) of Star Wars miniatures has exited the painting queue.

I bought a Star Wars Legion Boba Fett, intending to convert him to Din Djarin, but ended up buying the Legion Din Djarin anyway. Because I already had an Imperial Assault Boba, I painted the extra one as one of Din Djarin's Mandalorian brethren (base is still to be done).

The Anvil Industry Brotherhood figures caught my eye and I thought they would look good as additional Mandalorian support.

The Anvil Industry miniatures are listed as "heroic scale" so I thought that they wouldn't look too small next to Legion miniatures. I was wrong.

I've tried to obscure the scale difference by mounting the Anvil Industry miniatures on Legion bases and (as I did with almost all the Legion miniatures) mount Din Djarin on a standard Warlord games base. Of course it can also be explained as natural height differences between people on the same planet (e.g. Dutch vs Timor-Lestians).

And last (but not least): The two Grogu miniatures that came in the Din Djarin box and a Legion Yoda (you can build two Yoda's with the contents of the box).

And that's it!

For now. 😉

Project WW2 Pacific Part 5

 Even more Japanese:

Senior leaders and guy with flag (probably to be used as a marker):

Tank killer team:

Third squad:

Infantry gun:

Sniper and extras for the MMG. The sniper is actually a figure from the WW2 Italian range, but he'll be partly covered with foliage to obscure this.

More support options and an additional marker figure (the bugler). The rifle grenade is from the WW2 French infantry box. The historically accurate type 100 Japanese rifle grenade looked too flimsy to scratchbuild myself. The Japanese made ample use of material left behind by retreating or overrun allied forces so who's to say that they didn't pick up some French VB launchers in Indochina.

Spider holes:

And the multi-role engineer team:

Plus one final addition to the Australians: the fuzzy wuzzy angels.

All of the minis are now in my painting queue. Let's hope the Chain of Command Pacific handbook is also forthcoming!