Hi all,
For those SG II players like me who like to use APC but hate to paint them
here is another source of pre-painted APCs.
I just picked up a Galoob Battle set M113 APC. however, it is not a M113, it
is an 'Amtrack' marine amphibious APC (I've forgotten the correct name for
this APC). Pics available on Galoob's site.
The APC is mouled in greeen plastic, not too gfarish, however, a wash with
dark ink/paint won't hurt it too much. Detail is excellent for a toy,
it
is around 5 inches long by 3 wide by two and a half/three high. I could
go on abit here but considersing this is a toy Galoob have pulled out all the
stops here, upper deck detail is crisp and plentiful. The driver turret opens,
as does the turret (the turret mounts an auto grenade launcher and SAW, plus a
rather oversized GMS (actually you get a red plastic missile to fire from it,
no arguments about line of site there!). the rear dorsal hull hatch is moulded
in one pice and opens, as does the rear drop downhatch, interior detail is
fine too. Overall detail is crisp and surprisingly good foa kids toy,
Presonally i think this is begging for superdetailing, perhaps using the half
turret crew and kit from Geohex,
plus some parts from a 1/32 kit for interior detail.
As for relative scale, the interaior is scaled such that a GZG 25 mm fig would
have plenty or head room, a Grenadier FW troper also can stand upright, i
think a GW fig may scrape its head and have to stoop a little.
Critisiscms: It comes with whells which elevate it slightly above the tracks,
however, as the thing is screwed together these are no problem to remove. The
paint job could have been better, however, as this is a kids toy I guess I
cant be too picky. No other real problems with it.
Cost: the best bit! I paid ten buck for mine at Toys are Us. If you can't get
one locally Galoob do mail order in the US.
Conclusions: For me there are not enough tracked APCs in GZGs repetiore so
this is ideal, especially as it is very 20th C so it can easily represent
older technology (I'm curently planning to use mine as a Colonial Marine
transport which has been superceded by the M577 APC. The tracked carrier looks
more able to carry something really heavy like my heavy PA unit, or even as a
mortar carrier as the top hatch opens up).
BTW I am not a Galoob salesman, but as anyone who has seen the Aliens
APC/dropship will know Galoob seem to have hit upon the ideal scale to
get into the market for little soldiers APCs. As an aside, I can't help but
wonder what the folks who buy GW Rhinos, and the like, will think when they
see these at half the price of the GW stuff, plus they are 'painted', plus
they are more detailed, AND they don't look like a shoebox on tracks!
Enough rant,
Another source of sg2 armoured vehicles is the Roco Minitanks line; these
are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
modern European vehicles.
They work as big 15mm scale vehicles, and they might work (some of them) as
smaller 25mm vehicles (I only have 15mm figs personally). I have
several West German Marder A2 IFV/MICVs right now, with the tracks
removed and Das modelling clay GEV skirts installed. I'm using them as Size 4
IFVs, carrying 12 troops max. The Roco Minitanks are around Cdn $7-8.
Another source, not ready made like the Roco or the toys but good, is any
line of 1/72 armour kits - I have an Airfix model of a Brit Scorpion
light tank presently, also modified into a GEV, with some extra bits added to
make it look 'different'...These are around Cdn $5-6.
I look for foreign vehicles, which for me here in Canada means European units,
usually...no use using Yank vehicles, an M113 with a hoverskirt is
still an M113 - they're too damn common. The South African military also
has some interesting rare vehicles, if I can find models, and there's a bunch
of Japanese tank models at the local hobby store that're interesting. (Real
Japanese tanks, not magna...)
There's always scratch-building, if you're feeling adventurous...I just
started a light recon vehicle/FAV, using styrene bits and leftovers from
commercial kits. It's based on a description in Drake's 'Sharp End'
Slammer's book, a vehicle with independantly-powered wheels on the end
of
long out-rigger axles, independantly sprung for greater off-road
ability.
It should make an interesting model - very spidery, with those long
axles.
Scratch-building is dead cheap, of course - styrene rods, sheets and
beams
can be found at any model-train store, and if you build any kits at all
you can use leftover scrap bits from them...
You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
Stargrunt - I think 1/35 is the scale you want.
(There's actually a South African wheeled heavy artillery vehicle that
would make a very cool sg2 centerpiece - it already looks SFish. Can't
recall the name...I've seen 1/35 models of it, but no 1/72.)
Later,
Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Stuart Murray wrote:
> Hi all,
> At 12:40 PM -0500 3/23/98, Stuart Murray wrote:
<SNIP lots of stuff>
Galoob also have/had released a similar sized M1/M3 bradley. It has
opening doors and swivelling guns and mine came from K Mart here in Australia
for 20 dollars or so. Excellent size for SG2 but hard to find.
MarkS
All the way from GallifreyÂ
Hi,
> Another source of sg2 armoured vehicles is the Roco Minitanks line;
these
> are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
Does Roco have a web site with piccies?
> I look for foreign vehicles, which for me here in Canada means European
For me one of the best 'Sci-Fi' look tanks of today is the Israeli
Merkava.
> You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
I agree some of the South African stuff looks realy funky. Other sci-fi
looking stuff includes the Fuchs APC (German), Swiss MBT project (forgot
its name), the french four wheel APC/light vehicle (again I've forgotten
its name).
> Stuart Murray wrote:
I picked up a couple of these, too. You're right -- they're very nice!
I don't remember the exact designation, but they're
LVTP-something-or-others.
> Galoob also have/had released a similar sized M1/M3 bradley. It has
Hi Mark,
Is the Bradley an action fleet model or is this the one with the drop down
sections for micromachines? I've seen the latter but have been wary of buying
it as the box art was a bit naff.
> Stuart Murray wrote:
> Swiss MBT project (forgot its name),
Ahh, the S-Tank? (Where S is some Swedish word that I can't pronounce,
much less spell. (8-) ) You're talking about the tank without the
turret; more a self-propelled gun then anything else, with the
'kneeling' suspension, right?
Totally random trivia,
J.
> Stuart Murray wrote:
That's the one! I've seen some video footage of it and I saw a model kit for
it once, it looked really cool.
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Stuart Murray wrote:
> Hi,
these
> >are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
I don't know about pictures (I use a text-based browser most of the
time)
but go to http://www.rocousa.com/ for a catalog - and some really cheap
prices, as they're selling all Roco stock.
There's also the Roco homepage, which I haven't got the URL for -
searching for 'Roco Minitanks' on Infoseek turned it up.
> >I look for foreign vehicles, which for me here in Canada means
No arguement here - the latest mods of the M1a2 are also pretty SF
looking, it's just that EVERYONE can recognize American vehicles, whereas
European and other military's vehicles have recived less press. (here, at
least...)
Anyone know of any SF-looking wheeled APCs available in model form?
Later,
Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
> >You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for
Can't
> >recall the name...I've seen 1/35 models of it, but no 1/72.)
Actually, the Swedish S-tank is already very old. It's been around
since the 70's I believe. Now the Swedes are using Leopard 2's and
strange-looking up-armored Leopard 2's. (the kind with the *really*
bulging turret front)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Even the engineers are not *this* depraved. This must be the work of the Med.
students.
- A friend of mine
> Stuart and Jerry wrote:
> > >> Swiss MBT project (forgot its name),
Ahem. Swizterland and Sweden are two different countries, so calling the
S-tank "Swiss" is completely wrong. 'Course, Mexicans like Stuart
wouldn't
know the difference ;-)
> Then Chen-Song Qin wrote:
> Actually, the Swedish S-tank is already very old. It's been around
Yes, the S-tank is old. It is still in use, though (together with some
tanks from just after WWII - heavily upgraded, but still); buying
Leopard 2's has been discussed for a long time, but AFAIK very few have been
delivered/built so far.
Later,
> At 5:18 PM -0500 3/23/98, Stuart Murray wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Stuart Murray wrote:
these
> >are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
Heller, the French model firm, did (a short while back) a couple of items
in their "Cliclac" (clip-together simple kits for kids) range, which
were
different versions of the French VAB 6 -wheel AFV family in about 1/48
or
1/43 scale - very "SF" and perfect for SGII. I think they came in an AA
gun and armoured car versions, either of which could be used as an APC by
replacing the turrets. Only a few quid each, and worth searching for in toy
or model shops - they may even still be in production - look for some
very
garish toy-like box art.
For 6mm stuff, someone mentioned South African equipment - the Ratel APC
family is available from Scotia (and probably other makers by now) and
looks very SF - the cargo-carrying logistics variant in particular makes
a great SF wheeled loadcarrier.
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 11:56:39 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
> <burger00@camosun.bc.ca> wrote:
> Another source of sg2 armoured vehicles is the Roco Minitanks line;
these
> are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
I concur!
> They work as big 15mm scale vehicles, and they might work (some of
I picked the Marder as well! I bought some of the training variant, removed
the treads, and closed over the track wells. This converted them into grav
APCs. I did the same thing with American Sheridans (which are old enough that
most laymen don't get that, "it's a
modified Abrams/M113/Bradley" feel.
I didn't actually think of putting skirts on them for GEVs, though. Do you
have any pictures of the skirts, or any tips in creating them?
> You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
1/48 is probably closer. However, I think 1/48 tanks are hard to come
by these days. They used to be more popular when I was a kid. 1/48 is
still a fairly popular aircraft scale, though.
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:40:54 -0500, Stuart Murray
> <smurray@aecom.yu.edu> wrote:
> I just picked up a Galoob Battle set M113 APC. however, it is not a
Thanks for the confirmation! I thought this would work, too. And they are
quite affordable.
> On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Allan Goodall wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 11:56:39 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
these
> >are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
I'm using the regular turretted Marder IFV, as (surprise) an IFV.
> I didn't actually think of putting skirts on them for GEVs, though. Do
No pictures, but here's how I turned Marders into GEVs: Remove the treads
- easy enough, as the hull comes apart. Leave the tread openings alone,
and put a styrene plastic beam (I used.040 thickness) around all four sides of
the bottom of the vehicle. This raises the unit just enough that the rear door
hinges aren't dragging on the ground.
I then used Das white modelling clay, the air-drying stuff, for the
skirts. Roll and squeeze lengths of Das long enough to fill each long tread
well, and stick it into the well, rounding it from the bottom of the tread
skirts to the bottom of the beams under the vehicle. Add a shorter bit of Das
across the front to fill that gap, and leave the thing alone for a few hours.
Taking the clay pieces out after they're a bit dry makes
them dry faster - and Das has enough flex when dry to make re-installing
the bits easy.
There's no need to fill the whole tread well with Das - just cover the
opening. You use less of it, and it dries faster.
Superglue in place, paint as suits you, and you're done...
For the Scorpion tank, I cut part of the front fender off (no tread skirt) and
added a basic straight tread skirt of sheet styrene. After that, just do as
with the Marders...
Any model-train/modelling store will have styrene plastic shapes, and
any craft store (some modelling stores too) will have Das clay. It's actually
German, I think, so this is one product that should be available to Euros
and North Americans alike. (there's other air-drying clays, Das is what
I happened to have around)
Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
> >You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998 23:24:57 GMT agoodall@sympatico.ca (Allan Goodall) writes:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 11:56:39 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
Well, I can tell you want I did on the SdKfz 250 halftrack I converted
when the rubber tracks broke while building it. :-) I used some sprue to
build a frame around the bottom of the area where the track would go--
______________________
/
\
______/ ________________/ <glue top of skirt under
lip here
/ ______\ /_______________/
> ------------- \_____/-------------------------/ <--the sprue went
Then I glued Kleenex(TM) under the lip of the area where the tracks went, and
glued it around the sprue at the bottom. I used undiluted Elmer's glue for
this part. After it had dried, I made a thinned down mixture of Elmer's glue
and water, and dabbed it onto the tissue and let it dry. When it was done, it
was pretty solid, and painted up nicely.
> You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
1/48 would be closer, but you're right, it's hard to come by. I've had
pretty good luck with the 1/35 scale vehicles I've bought, though. It
seems to vary from kit to kit. The Hammerhead LAV (a 6-wheeld armored
car
used by the USMC) was about the size I expected--a little bit big. But
the SdKfz mentioned above was surprisingly small. And I have a Universal
carrier that I'm still building which looks nice, too. It's one of those
vehicles that is hard to judge the scale on. Oh, and I've got 4 computer
mice that I'll be converting into scout cars soon, too. :-) If I can
work out the bugs with my digital camera, I might even document the steps and
put them on a web page.
> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 17:46:54 -0500 Jerry Han <jhan@idigital.net> writes:
Swedish tank is "Stridsvagn 103 MBT" by Bofors commonly called an
S-Tank.
105mm main gun, auto loader, hydropnuematic suspension (driver is also gunner,
as it uses the suspension to aim its fixed gun) recessed dozer blade and lyran
rockets. Height 2.43M; length 7.04M width 3.63Meter per Jane's Tank
recognition guide.
This is the tank with the "really sloped" front glacis plate!!!
> Hi all,
You beat me to it! I was going to crow about the find!
You're right--it's not an M113 (I looked up some pix of the
M113 on the the web to see what kind of variations there are.)
The CnC (1/300, 3 in pack--great minis!) almost-match I got for
Dirtside is an LVTP-7 (3 in pack). The only significant difference
is that the turret on the CnC mini has only one gun and no TOW launcher. There
are several variations on this vehicle (as
available from CnC in 1/300): LVTC-7 is a command vehicle, and
LVTR-7 is a "recovery" or engineering vehicle (2 or 3 to a pack).
Since the "real-world" military has no qualms about changing it
about, I figure we can do the same for SF! :-)
> The APC is mouled in greeen plastic, not too gfarish, however, a wash
I plan to remove the (ugly!) red plastic "missile", fill in the front of the
launcher, and add 4 "missile cones" to make it look like a TOW launcher. I'll
remove the opening tab from the dorsal clamshell doors and glue them shut
(they open as a unit from the side, not as a pair from the center). The back
drop hatch I may leave (to indicate loading/unloading), or may
glue shut. Then I'll paint the whole thing. 'Course, all that'll have to wait
until I finish some other projects....
It easily disassembles to about 10 pieces, which can be painted separately
(especially the tracks!) then reassembled without
the roller wheels (which make sense for a toy, but not a mini--
you don't want it to roll off that little hill during play). And if you decide
to glue the two rear hatches shut, you can pull out the inner seating and
front bulkhead pieces for possible use elsewhere.
> As for relative scale, the interaior is scaled such that a GZG 25 mm
Has cargio seating for 10, so you could carry two fire teams or
a power-armor team per vehicle.
> Critisiscms: It comes with whells which elevate it slightly above the
It was $8.95 at my local K-mart.
> Conclusions: For me there are not enough tracked APCs in GZGs
- Sam
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998 16:25:44 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
> <burger00@camosun.bc.ca> wrote:
> No pictures, but here's how I turned Marders into GEVs:
Thanks for the info, Brian. I'm filing this away for later use!
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998 19:39:33 -0500, carlparl@juno.com (Carl J
Parlagreco) wrote:
> Then I glued Kleenex(TM) under the lip of the area where the tracks
Now that's a cool idea. I have some decopage stuff lying around (my wife
introduced me to it and I've used it for gluing flock to figure bases). It's
essentially watered-down white glue. It should work just as well.