Friday, October 11, 2013

Toys: Part 2.

Jono's World project
Along with the inventory of shiny things for the Harad affair, Brian brought around a bunch of things that were over-scale for his projects.  However, they seemed to be adaptable for the 'Jono's World' project in some way.
 Two dump trucks and a garbage collection vehicle.  Great for infantry transports or maybe road construction.  The GCV could have part of its rear removed leaving the rest as a tilt.  I'll have to investigate that.




 This trio is interesting.  I did have vague notions of constructing a 'cartooned' airfield, with airstrip, control tower, and dispersal bays.  The addition of a fire service vehicle and a couple of aircraft transporters seems just the deal.
 The Raesharn aircraft sit quite well on the carrier vehicles.  Observe the bomb stowage  above the rear wheel mudguards.
  In addition to the 'airfield' vehicles, the one in the background seems destined for the Corps of Engineers.

The two hoppers can be emptied by opening up their floors.  Looks a whole lot like road construction to me.  At any rate, this chappy will be the beginning of the Engineers' train.

The Fort Knox truck will become a battalion or battle group HQ vehicle, with aerials added.  
 An amusing feature of this vehicle is the combination locked rear door. As there are only 9 possible combinations (111 to 333) it didn't take long to open the thing (empty - just like the real Fort Knox).  I don't think I'll remove that feature, somehow...




And now for something completely ... different.  Here are three Air defence... 'pods' with quadruple AA cannon.  Obviously intended to be towed, they will require some kind of motive force - probably light trucks will do.  They can be scratchbuilt.
Harad project
Yesterday, Brian and his buddy, Kyle, turned up with some more shiny things for the Army of Tchagai.   Not this heavy truck, though.  That came from a toy sale at a well known toy store about a year ago.
 A bit of a surprise was this rather nice tank - a ROCO Chieftain.  As ROCO is quite a small 00 scale (1:87), it didn't 'fit' with Brian's inventory, and doesn't look that much like a Chieftain MBT anyhow.  We thought that we might make a persuasive case of its being an example of a private commercial venture Vickers MBT.  Now, these AFVs were a kind of 'junior Chieftain', if you like - about 90% the dimensions and 80% the weight of the Chieftain itself.  So I call it the Vickers MBT Mark 5 'Victor' tank (I'll look up the Urdu for 'Victor' to give its Tchagai cognomen).  So far as I can make out, there never was a 'real life' Mark 5 'Victor' in the Vickers tank production history.
 The pick were these nice looking APCs.  Brian thought the roof top MGs on the 4-vehicle row were considerably over-scale, and suggested they be replaced.  Although I agree on the over-scale thing, I don't think I'll have the heart to remove them.  They'll still count as a VMG.  On the 4-wheeled green number, it appears that the gun-thing was really part of a fire-fighting water or foam projection unit.  They'll stay a VMGs as well (I may remove the ends, which look like muzzle brakes.  On the other hand I may keep them as 'flash suppressors').  The rocket launcher chappy is a welcome air-defence (?) vehicle.  The 1st Rapid Response regiment is starting to look the real deal!  The attached MBT platoon will give it that extra little bit of 'heft' ...
My notion of having 3 figures per stand having met with stern disapproval from Brian and Kyle, it looks as though the Tchagai battalions will comprise 4 rifle companies (instead of my projected 3) plus a HQ company, like the British model.  Something like this;
Infantry battalion:
HQ Company with: Command stand, Signals radio stand (or vehicle), Anti-tank gun stand (?), 2 ATGM stands (splittable into 4 'patrol-sized' ATGM team stands), 1 AARL stand,  2 MMG stands, 1 recon infantry stand (splittable into 2 'patrol' stands.
A,B,C,D Rifle coys, each with:
1 command stand, 3 infantry stands.
All infantry stands have integral RPG-7 ATRL.

Perhaps that will be a topic for the near future...

9 comments:

  1. A nice haul, looking forward to seeing them fielded!

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    1. Cheers, Don. Got a fair bit of painting to do. There might be a Civil War in Tchagai some time in the 1950s, just to get my hand in...

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  2. Great kit,with loads of gaming potentiality ahead I think!
    What rules will you be using,apologies if I missed the info previously...
    Cheers
    Alan

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  3. For the Harad project, the rule set will be 'Command Decision' for post-WW2 - I think they are called 'Combined Arms'. This set scales down the formations such that 1 standard 2-figure stand represents about a platoon (50 men, say), and a vehicle or heavy weapon represents about 5 (4-6 anyway).

    So that bunch of APCs represents the transport for about a strong battalion.

    The 45mm scale 'Jono's World' will be using my own very simple one-brain cell rule set. If you trawl through the 'Jono's World' label you will find some post-battle reports using (play-testing really) this rule set (including an artillery template of my own invention).
    Cheers,
    Ion

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  4. ' Not this heavy truck, though. That came from a toy sale at a well known toy store about a year ago.'

    Do tell!!!

    It looks spot on for Cold War.

    Those SIKU wheeled APC's should be interesting to see painted up.

    A good haul al around.

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    1. The toy store in question was I think Toy World off Blenheim Road. They did seem to have all sorts of interesting stuff. I was actually looking for something for my Jono's World gig, but in the end settled on this truck for WW2 (yeah, I know). I wasn't really planning on post-WW2 at that stage.

      I haven't yet settled on a camo scheme for the vehicles. The grey on some of them is a metal undercoat, but it looks kinda cool. But probably I'll go for variations around a mustard coloured 'factory finish' - possibly olive-green/dark green patches. Decisions, decisions...

      Good haul, I agree. Brian has been very generous!

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  5. Hi Ion,

    Yes the SIKU APC's do have that massive gun (I have a few myself for 15mm games) - I could never work out what it was meant to be apart from a MG.

    Cheers
    Paul

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    1. I'm happy to leave it as an MG. The projectors on the some of the others, though - the thought crossed my mind; what about flame thrower projectors? To be honest, I'm not that keen on the idea for several reasons.

      I looked up the CA stats for the gun-armed Stryker, and, man they are something else! I was thinking of my elite mechanised unit as a 'seize and hold' outfit, and with those chappies, they would be well suited to that kind of operation. Unfortunately, they are post-2006 technology. We might be able to fudge something (I'll look up the British 'Striker' to see what they were), but something with a decent gun but more usual APC armour stats.

      The army I have been looking at so far won't be able to live on the same battlefield as Brian's Chieftains, though. The T55 group pre-1980 just won't cut it. I guess the Nabob will have to play a canny game if he thinks he might be able to carve for himself a generous slice of Haradian territory, come the Empire's dissolution...

      Paul - do you play Combined arms at all?
      Cheers,
      Ion

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  6. more really cool stuff there Ion. looking forwards to what becomes of these.

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