Anyone of you early starters got any stories of builds to tell yet? I wish I had but the Leopard still waits patiently in its box.
If no building has begun, what do you intend to build? Mine will be a Canadian C1 Leopard. When Barbarosa is finished I hope to start this project. I will also have my airbrush then so this will be my first AB kit.

Cheers
HastyP

AHEM...well...(ok guys, the red bear must overcome again!)

First, I am going to do a M115A1...M113 with a LAV turret. I think it will be a Minnesota or North Dakota Nat. Guard vehicle.

then a nice resin kit...not sure what...I need to get a table top belt sander before I really dive into any of my full resin kits.

A goofy Idea, but legit, would be to have operable "liberated" vehicles from the Kubinka museum or such...get that German Maus out and painted for heavy guard duty...updated of course...(snigger, no I am not REALLY going to do this.)

I had thought of making a new turret for the BMP-2 based on the design of the LAV-75...a angular turret with a BIG gun.

Damn Red Bears!

Heh heh - I've got mine going too - one for the Mighty American Eagle!

I'm building the M948 LARS (Light Artillery Rocket System) - dubbed 'MLRS Junior' and 'Baby MLRS'. It is, for all intents and purposes, a scaled-down version of the MLRS mounted on the M730 chassis.

I've used the AFV Club M730 chassis from the Chaparral model kit and will mate a scratchbuilt LARS launcher box and elevation equipment to the rear deck.

Photos to come later...

Gunnie

??????

Okay there sphyrna?

Gunnie

????

That really isn't what I was looking for. LOL

Got some of the pieces...

A Ford F-150 (the AMT/Ertl Snap kit Monster Truck) will need a LOT of work. Think Irregular Unit in North American Theater...

Along with the F-150 will be a Humvee or M2 series- something from the Michigan Nat'l Guard, doing research on what units Mich NG has, had or could have had.

These vehicles will be set in a diorama that is, well it'll be different- that's the plan right now!

For now I have to put the final little touches on my CWCO entry, mere hours remain- and I have a LAV to build for a buddy of mine in the Corp. Spent the evening with him last night, he's heading to Ft. Knox for an Armor course, then to Camp Lejune (?sp) where he'll be back in command of a LAR unit. It reminded me on a personal level just exactly what we in this great country owe those of you in the military! THANKS!

Back to work on the M151A2...

Jim/ Jaster

?????
Is Twilight 2000 a soon to be started campaign I didn't catch?

p.s. HastyP - the line from Farley Mowat, which of his works is it from?

Peter

sphyrna
The twilight campaign can be seen in the campaign folder. That quote is from The Regiment or And No Birds Sang. I just can't remember which one.

Hey Gunnie, what are you using for the missile tube covers on your LARS? I have started and stopped work on one of my own due to a lack of decent ideas of what to use. And, while my skills are MUCH better than when I last worked onthe LARS, I have not the energy, with all that needs to be done yet around me, to dive back in without MUCH better ideas on how to finish!

Well... I have been totally irresponsible with my commitments in the Barbarossa Campaign, not touching much my Soviet forces, because I've been doing the Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt's now has an enlarged bustle, added the additional turret armor, and did the first up-armored skirt (gluing together 2 side skirts from 2 M1 kits, plus other modifications to make it look heavy). Will be doing the basket after finalizing on designs for it and am thinking of putting some "soft" active defenses (i.e. more smoke poppers against laser designators). Would start working on the mine plow soon.

Jacques: Re:BMP-2 with BIG gun - same idea I'm toying around. Based on the CV90120. Giving it a 125mm 55 calibre gun and sealing off the infantry compartment. Another is stretching my Dragon T-80UD and doing a Black Eagle (my T-2000), with a 152mm gun, redesigned turret. No resin. All sheet styrene. I was originally planning to do my T-2000 with a trunnion design (my surprise for this campaign) but because of lack of time, that idea was "shelved" for the mean time. Another possible entry is a BTR-70 VLS SAM vehicle, putting VLS launchers on its whole body. And lastly a BRDM-2 turned laser defense vehicle, having a small turret with a laser on it, and enlarged aft to accomodate the enlarged powerpack to power the laser. It's supposed to be an ATGM/AAA vehicle, theoretically having rapid-fire of five pulse laser shots before needing to recharge for 25-30 minutes.

Ambitious to say the least.

Hey Gennady...don't get down, keep plugging away! Nothing would lift your spirits more than to finish a nice kit, painted and all. If the painting is a hangup, paint and keep painting kits until you feel comfortable doing it. This is what helped me anyhow.

as for interesting ideas, something I came across again the other day was a BTR-70 with a upgunned, larger turret. It has what looks like a 85mm-100mm low velocity gun tube in a BMP-1 style turret.

The BTR-70 VLS sounds pretty cool, and reasonable, as the TOR system is VLS. Now lasers... I know, I know...they are in the game. I just always thought they were more of a pipe-dream for the battelfield. Now railguns are more of a realistic idea, and I ain't talking about the Leopold...

I haven't decided whether or not to put the rocket covers on - or - to model the rockets in the tubes ready to launch - yet. If I go with covers, I'm going to make a master and vacform it. If I go with "ready to launch rockets" then I'm going to come up with something that makes the rocket(s) appear to be nuclear tipped...

Gunnie

NUKES??!!! Geeze, talk about upping the ante. I suppose I will have to scratchbuild that behemoth of a ICBM carrier the SS-25 or something...you MONSTER!

hey gunnie..sounds like an interesting project..cant wait to see you do an article on it
ray

Can anyone please post pics of your Twilight 2000 project? I'll be taking the latest pics of my monster later and posting it here. It now has it's basket, lengthened bustle, and added add-on spaced-armor to one of the skirts. It's a monster.

As promised in immediately preceding post, here are the latest pix of the formally designated M1A2E1 Thunderbolt:



Turret close-up. Note the black sandpaper taped using double-sided mounting tape as the anti-slip matting on the additional armor panels, plus the lengthened bustle and blast panels to accomodate the longer and larger 155mm ammunition as well as the under-armor turret APU. I haven't installed the both .50-calibre HMGs and the Mk. 19 --


A view to show just how large the turret is with reference to the hull width --


The add-on armor panels on the skirts. The skirts are not only double the thickness (due to gluing together of two skirts), but added with spaced-armor blocks against HEAT and sabot rounds. The thicker base skirts are for further proof against sabot rounds. The thicker skirts will go through the entire length of the vehicle, whilst the box armor will reach only up to engine area, not the sprocket wheel area --



A comparison shot of the M1A2E1 and a USMC M1A1. Notice the larger gun which dwarfs the M256 120mm, and the larger basket and bustle of the A2E1 --



Another comparison shot this time showing the over hang of each tank's turret


The scatchbuilt basket. Ain't complete yet. The railings are stiff wire. Made of sheet styrene, I have yet to put the mesh. The under-armor turret APU can be seen here, with the top covering containing the air vents, which are the 4 small black holes (actually, there is wire mesh to simulate the grill) --

GIBeregovoy

Once I start building, probably next week I will start posting. Can't wait to try my new airbrush out!

HastyP

Heh heh - soon. I have a couple of gun trucks in the painting booth now that I have to wrap-up quickly. My M948 LARS will be up next - I've already constructed the M730 Transported - for the most part...

I love Thunderbolt at this stage - looks like an Abrams on steroids!

Gunnie

Superb looking monster Abrams there GI!

I'm planning on doing something with the Academy KIFV and Eduard PE. It looks so much like a modern M113. I'm not sure what will become of it, but I hope it turns out nearly half as good as your tank.

Thanks for the kind words GunTruck and Sabot!

GunTruck: Looking forward to see pics of the LARS. You planning to do a Russian vehicle?

Sabot: KIFV... how 'bout a multiple ATGM launcher? That is, unlike the TOW carrier, turn it into a LOSAT carrier, replace the crew compartment with a retractable LOSAT launcher (stowed where the infantry passengers would normally be) capable of carrying 8 ATGMs, something like that Scorpion variant the Brits have, or a SAM vehicle.

[enter mindless insanity state]
MWUHAHAHAHA! My ambition knows no bounds! This is the final Order Of Battle to be spewed out by Gennady's Iron and Steel Works (Armor Division)

Planning on doing the following during/after the A2E1:

T-2000 Black Eagle - 152mm gun, Drozd-2 defenses, the latest ERA. Based on Dragon's T-80UD and inspired by the real Black Eagle prototype at Omsk

T-2001 - 125mm 55-cal. low-recoil gun on a BMP-1 or BMP-2 chassis, seal off the infantry compartment to accomodate an autoloading system

SA-100 - BTR-70 modified to have 10 or 12 short-ranged, IR SAMs mounted in VLS "Quick Pack" module

And another for the West, using Italeri's HEMTT fuel truck (surprise surprise!)

Of course, all that, if TIME and FUNDING permits. Hehehehehe Fortunately, the T-80UD and the HEMTT are already with me - just waiting to go under the knife, saw and blowtorch

Ooooh do I just LOVE doing sci-fi conversions![/exit mindless insanity state]

Please post yer pix! I jus' canna' wait!

Oh yeah! I have narrowed the base vehicle down to the URAL 4320 - and have an idea for uparmoring it - and....

Gunnie

So far it looks as if both the side of freedom and the Red Bear may be balenced. I may have to build two for Nato to help freedom shine.

Lol

Hasty

Freedom? In a T2000 world, I think the prevailing situation is one of sheer anarchy. #:-) (with matching soviet tanks rumbling through all of NATO member countries' capitals hehehehe - so starts the Soviet Agitprop which reared it's ugly head during the Cold War Cook-Off Campaign thanks to zampolit me hehehehehe) #:-)