Battle For Skira: USMC Starwolf 1-4 WIP #3 (AH-1Z Viper)

Finished painting the low-viz camo.

Next steps is painting details, weathering the fuselage, adding final payload and of course decals.

Starts to look like a helicopter finally. :-)

Battle For Skira: USMC Starwolf 1-4 WIP #2 (AH-1Z Viper)

Since there were some tragic events taking place in my family, progress wasn't as much as I had expected to achieve over the weekend.
Anyway, the modelling always helped me to clear my head and so here are at least two pics of the little progress that I made:

Cockpit canopy added, base fuselage completed (I also completed the whole flyer base, but I won't show until the bird is done), ready for the paintjob...

Battle For Skira: USMC Starwolf 1-4 WIP #1 (AH-1Z Viper)

I have started on my AH-1Z Viper (Call-Sign "Starwolf 14") that is going to escort my Venom transport helicopter and give the Marines on the ground something to call if immediate CAS is needed :-)

Finished the cockpit and crew today and put it into the main fuselage. So far it looks really like nothing to be honest, but that was the case with my Venom as well :-D
I have also started its base.

I'll post progress on this bird in little steps, just like I did the last time.

Battle For Skira: 1/72 scale UH-1Y Venom conversion finished

Today I have finished the base for my Huey conversion. I took an Italeri 1/72 scale Twin Huey and converted it into the latest UH-1Y "Venom" (Super Huey) by using parts of a Revell AH-1W Cobra, an Olimp Models Resin Whisky Cobra Upgrade Set and an Italeri Bell 412 as well as a Kitech AH-1Z Viper. The Low-Viz decals were part of the Olimp set.

The base itself is a flat oval one from Gripping Beast, with the clear plastic flyer rod coming from GW. I have used standard materiel: flock from Busch, Clump Foliage (summer) from Gale Force 9 and summer grass tufts from Noch. Colours used were black for primer, Tamiya Flat Earth followed by drybrushing with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

There is a whole "work in progress" run of posts on my blog, just click the labels underneath this post to find related contributions and pictures from the build.

Anyway, on to some pictures of the finished Venom, call-sign "Star Force 21":

"Star Force 21" dropping off USMC Force Recon "Team Razor" (all from ARMA II)

ready for a gun run with M134 minigun and Hydra rockets (SHQ Vietnam chopper door gunner)

GAU-21 heavy MG and Hydra rockets (and another SHQ door gunner)

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #8 "Weathering"

The weathering of my USMC UH-1Y "Venom", call-sign "Star Force 21" has been completed over the weekend.

The decals have been added, the details painted and then I went crazy with the oil paints. :-)

I let the pictures speak for themselves. I have to be honest, I am not completely satisfied with my painting skills. The colours are too thick in some places. Well, every project is helping to learn and improve though!

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #7

Low-Visibility scheme layer #2 added. Ready for weathering and details now.

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #6

First layers of paint added - starts to look like a proper helicopter now. :-)

AVP: the colonists' last stand figures have arrived

Lucky me - some of the original Leading Edge Games figures (20+ years old) salvaged from ebay for less than 30 Euro, unpainted in their original and undamaged box:

Got to find out how to rebase them without damaging the feet. :-/

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #5

Payload added:

.50cal machine gun and 70mm Hydra rockets

M134 minigun and 70mm Hydra rockets

That leaves me with putting black primer on the last areas and then I can finally paint this baby!

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #4

After months of stompy robots and acid-blooded Aliens here is for a change a little bit of progress on my 1/72 scale UH-1Y Venom:

FLIR turret added, laser sensors, antennas and wire cutters, chaff and flare dispensers and landing gear

changed the side of rear rotor and replaced the 2-bladed one with 4 blades. The little "wings" on the rear beam have been moved further to the back. Main rotor assembly changed from 2-bladed to 4 rotor blades.

Still needs some sanding here and there (exhaust ports) and the doors and weapon payload is still missing, but its finally showing the shape of an UH-1Y.

The pride of my work on this conversion: the new rotor dome which was sculpted with green stuff. It will look a lot better once it has been sprayed with primer - that's going to blend everything together.

AVP: The girls' kill count: a 126 dead Xenomorphs

Hudson: "Man, its a shooting gallery down there!"

Wednesday evening the girls were on their next mission: the (fan made) "Sentry Gun" scenario.

I have set up the board, explained the rules and off we went with 15 rounds of shredding the Aliens to pieces. I don't know how they do it, probably with lots of luck rolling those dice, but I did not manage to get a single Xeno through the shooting alley. The kill count of the two girls in total after 15 rounds of heat management and aiming: 126 dead Xenos, not a single one made it alive to "Operations". oO

Although I could claim it only worked that well for them because I have used a roll of "0" as a zero instead of a ten. They both said it would not have made any difference of course *blink*

Some pics (taken by the girls themselves)

Set up, ready to fire, aiming.....killing!

"run Forrest, run....erm. I meant, Alien"

For some reason I kept rolling for the spawn points on the very end of the hallway. Quite annoying I have to say.

A: "oh, out of free actions, heat rising and you still got two of them pretty darn close" (little gesture added) M: "how about minding your own corridor, sweety?"

The game was a blast (no pun intended). :-)
Up to "Operations".

AVP: "B" gun is dry. Twenty on "A". Testing the Senty Gun Scenario.

Before I'll continue the campaign of Aliens with the girls, I wanted to try out Michael's Sentry Gun scenario. After all, I don't want to look like I don't know the rules when we will play tomorrow :-)

So, I've set up the board and took some (rather sloppy) pics on the way through the game.

Guns deployed, temperature counters on zero, 20 Alien models to pick from.

The scenario is rather straight forward. Hicks orders Hudson and Vasquez to set up sentry guns in the tunnel leading to "Operations". Some of the barricades made by the colonists are still there, slowing down the Xenomorph's movement (they do not block LOS).

Basicly, you take control over four sentry guns A, B, C and D and fire them just like a regular Marine's action. The sentry guns cannot move, however, they can freely decide whether to "cool down" one point one the temperature level or spend the action for aiming. Each gun has three actions per round which are for free. The controlling player can decide to keep aiming and firing after those three free actions. Every such action raises the temperature by 1. The Sentry Guns can be kept firing by using additional actions, until they reach 10 on the heat scale which will lead to their shut-down. Only the free actions may be used to "cool down". Sentry Guns make use of the machine gun special rules.
The Aliens have to try to overcome the Sentry Guns and run towards the tunnel named "To Operations". Each bug doing so will be kept in a pool of additional Aliens available in "Operations / Air Ducts". The game lasts for 15 rounds.
Twenty Aliens are available in this scenario. For each tunnel you roll a D10 with the result showing the amount of Xenomorphs entering that hallway. Roll for the exact spawn location for every Alien Warrior.

Beginning with round two, you roll the D10 again for each of the two hallways, using the results to determine how many will spawn there. Should the results be higher than the currently available models (20 in total), you instead split them evenly for both hallways and in addition to that, all Aliens already on the board gain a bonus activation that they must spend to run closer to the guns.

This bonus action may not be used to overcome the guns. Aliens using bonus actions will stop in front of the Sentry Guns. This leads to extreme tension in this scenario!

An extremly high die roll on spawning Aliens leads to "C" gun's raising temperature right from the start.

After a few turns, the Aliens reached their first bonus activation, leading to a Xenomorph wave attack on guns "C" and "D".

Good to hit rolls on guns "C" and "D" ease the tension, but now the other hallway gets rushed and temperature raises.

I am looking forward to see how many Aliens the girls are going to shred and if any will be able to bypass the guns. They rescued all Marines in "The Reactor Room". It will be fun to watch if they can rescue Newt and Ripley through the "Air Ducts" scenario.