Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Hatamoto Chi" WIP part 1

 

 Next Mech ready to deploy (apart from Sword Of Light decals not yet added): 80 ton HTM-27T "Hatamoto Chi".

 Left arm sporting a Tiegart PPC. Note the back banner that I have added, using a plastic part from Zvezda's 1/72 samurai box.

 Detail of the right arm: Katana sword (custom variant, the HTM-27T normally doesn't have one) and a second Tiegart PPC.

 

 Details of the back include the banner (sashimono) and sword+flame emblem of House Kurita's elite regiments.

Front shot reveals the two torso mounted Bical SRM-6 Missile Racks and the cherry blossom theme that I am trying to add to all Kurita Mechs so they don't end up being simply painted red all around.

Off to the painting table. The Coordinator needs more war machinery!

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Atlas" WIP part 1

Time for an update. Had some time to paint due to being sick at home. It's not yet finished though....

I always wanted to finish one force before beginning to paint the next one - however, I just couldn't resist painting the mightiest of all Inner Sphere Mechs: The "Atlas". And boy, it is HUGE.  

 A sashimono (back banner) has been added, taken from a 1/72 Zvezda Samurai warrior. The Kurita crest is a decal, the kanji are written using a fineliner. The Sword Of Light regiment's warriors are strictly following the code of the Samurai - as such, I wanted them to look a little like their ancient forefathers. The shoulders looked a little empty so I added a cherry-blossom painting on both sides.

 A little bit of warning decals here and there to break up the overall red appearance. Back details of the fusion reactor core and heat sinks.

 I wasn't sure if the strictly red paintjob of the Sword Of Light regiment will please me at the size of an N-scale Mech, but now as the job is nearly done, I really like the look.

 The side reveals another detail bit I added: the Autocannon/20 barrel was extended with a barrel from a Wh40k Meltagun.

This kit is an (all-metal) so-called Museum Scale Mech from Ral Partha Europe. I converted it a little bit though, adding a few bits here and there.

Battle For Skira: USMC infantry bits

There we are: finally there is also some US Marines for the forthcoming Battle For Skira campaign. I just started with the first few things that I was able to grab and it happens to be the second set of US specials by Elhiem (medic and breacher), the Forces Of Valor soldier with wounded comrade (again)and a M240 medium MG team consisting out of RH Liberation modern US miniatures.



 Left to right: RH Liberation modern US rfileman (standing) and M240 gunner (kneeling) to form a weapons team, FoV plastic soldier with wounded comrade, Elhiem breacher with shotgun and Elhiem medic (it would be called Navy Corpsman in this case).

 What I really like about Rolf's minis (RH Liberation) is the fact, that the rifleman actually carries a box of 7,62mm link :-) Perfect to be part of a weapons team.

This is my desperate try to bring the miniatures closer to my light source so you can have a better look at my MARPAT (woodland) pattern. I tried my best, guess it looks fine for 20mm figs.

Modern US Army: my latest additions

Like I said in my previous postings, currently I am working off all those little things that I kept buying over the years but never painted. xD
The little addition to my US Army force shown below are a couple of those items that were sitting on the "to do" list for way too long...

 From left to right: Elhiem medic, Stonewall Platoon 20 grenadier, Force of Valor wounded soldier with comrade (repainted), Stonewall Platoon 20 rifleman, Elhiem "breacher" with shotgun

The same models' back show the various loadouts from different eras. Normally you shouldn't mix them as they are representing different timeframes of action. I just placed them next to each other cause they were painted at the same time and because it shows you how they mix size-wise. All are labelled as 1/72 or 20mm.



The Dragon Rises: Lie Shou (Hunter) Air Defense System done

With some delay the Lie Shou (Hunter) ADS is finally done. Nothing too fancy, just a little mission objective marker for Force On Force. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The missiles themselves could have been painted a little better but I was in a hurry. I am on vacation and there is a LOT OF stuff that I want to get painted within the next days.
My buddy who is going to control the US forces in the campaign already said he can't wait to blow them up. Well, we'll see how he's doing when he sees what else is going to be part of the opposing forces.

The Dragon Rises: Lie Shou (Hunter) Air Defense System WIP

Progress was made over the recent days. As I already pointed out to, the next topic is SAM sites for the PLA coastal defenses. I had finished the QW-2 shoulder-launched SAM teams last year. Now its time to add the medium ranged launchpads. Funnily enough, Codemasters (who made "Dragon Rising", the PC game my campaign is based upon) seems to have made up these launchers as I was unable to find proof for their existance online.

The missile depicted does exist - its called PL-12/SD-10 - and seems to be a clone of the similar US-built AMRAAM and SPARROW air-to-air-missiles.

Just like the US have made tests with the so-called SL-AMRAAM made by Raytheon built onto a HMMWV as a launchpad, the Chinese were creating the LS-2 ADS (Lie Shou 2 Air Defense System), mounted on a DongFeng EQ2050, which is a copy of the Humvee.

Since the launcher seen in those screenshots seems not to be a real thing, I will call it Lie Shou (Hunter) ADS for my campaign (meaning its an older version of what became the Humvee-clone mounted LS 2 ADS). I really like the looks of these towed autonomous SAM sites mounted on small trailers. This is how they look in "Dragon Rising":

The Special Forces teams have to destroy various SAM sites in order to clear the airspace to call in coalition air support and troop transports via helicopter. There will be more various anti-air systems for my campaign but let's start with my scratch built version of the screenshots:

There is plenty of parts that went into this. Undercarriage from GRAN's SA-2, wheels from RH Liberations' ZPU-4, main body made from Revell Tiger HAP helo's missile pod and a Italeri Leopard 1's search light, missiles and launch rails from Hasegawa's Aircraft missile set etc.

Feel free to leave some feedback, please.
 
 

The Dragon Rises: Kh-41 Moskit (Sunburn) launcher finished!

The chinese Sunburn Launcher has been finished. The Russian-built Kh-41 Moskit aka Sunburn is a tactical anti-ship-missile which some years ago was called the "most dangerous of its kind". China has received some of them and uses them mainly on its navy missile cruisers. However, the Kh-41 was always proposed to be lauchable from coastal defenses as well. My truck-based launchpad is one of these coastal defenses.

For my "Battle For Skira" project, the USMC force recon unit of Razor Two has to launch a series of stealthy night operations to counter this threat to coalition naval forces with "direct action" (that means, blowing shit up). Air strikes to destroy the PLA's missile sites are impossible due to the enemy having established an umbrella of SAM sites (guess what I am building next *g*).

The scratch-built Sunburn Launcher from all angles (1/72 parts used: Diecast Himars missile launcher Truck, Gran SA-2 Launchpad, Armory kh-41 Moskit Resin missile kit):

The Dragon Rises: Kh-41 Moskit (Sunburn) launcher WIP part 3

A little more work has been done to the Kh-41 Launcher. There is still plenty to add and lots of detail to be painted, but here is how it looks as of now.

The Dragon Rises: Kh-41 Moskit (Sunburn) launcher WIP part 2

Today I only found the time to assemble the Armory resin kit of the Kh-41 "Moskit" aka Sunburn. And while I know the thing is really big I haven't expected it to be such an enormous monster of a missile. Mind you - its normally carried by a SU-33 fighter jet!
Now I know why it is called a "tactical" anti-ship missile. In reality it would be 9.38 meters in length, have a range of more than a 100km and carry 300kg of explosives. I can't wait to see my launcher finished. :-)

The Dragon Rises: Kh-41 Moskit (Sunburn) launcher WIP

I finally have gathered all the components to realise mission objectives for my Battle For Skira project. The "Sunburn Site".

In the campaign USMC Force Recon units are supposed to neutralize the threat composed of Chinese Anti-Ship missiles (Kh-41 Moskit alias "Sunburn"), so the fleet is able to establish a bridgehead on the shores of Skira and land heavier units. I want my mission objective to look like the screenshot of the PC game "Dragon Rising":

 
I use a diecast 1/72 HIMARS system to resemble the truck, combined with a launch pad for an 1/72 S-2 Redline SAM (GRAN) and the resin missile of Armory's 1/72 Kh-41 Moskit kit.

This is how its more or less going to look like:

Obviously that's not final. The rubber tires are missing to allow easier painting and the missile has not been removed of any flash yet.

stay tuned!
Chris

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: Clan Wolf Beta Galaxy "Kit Fox" B

Time for the next minor update on Clan forces. Another Kit Fox (Uller), this time in configuration "B". This is a heavily converted former Mechwarrior Clix figure that I have re-based.

 With only 30 tons this Mech sports an enormous AC/10 Ultra in its right arm, combined with a SRM 6 launcher. The arm is a combination of various Mechwarrior Dark Age Mech parts.

 Details of the AC/10 Ultra.

 The back doesn't look any different compared to my Kit Fox "A".

 The business end of the Clan Mech shows the broader shoulders compared to the "A" configuration.

The laser arm is the same as on version "A". It contains a Medium and a Small Laser.

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: Clan Wolf Beta Galaxy "Mad Dog" Prime

The second one of my finished Ral Partha Europe Museum Scale Mechs is the "Mad Dog" Clan OmniMech.

It's going to reinforce the Clan Wolf Beta Galaxy with some long range firepower. This model is a re-based multi-part pewter miniature.

from Sarna.net

The Mad Dog is a heavy Clan OmniMech used for long-range indirect fire support. With hunched shoulders, a protruding head, and reverse-jointed legs, the Mad Dog resembles a vulture, so much so that it was codenamed Vulture and Hagetaka ("Vulture" in Japanese) by the Inner Sphere forces which first encountered it. The name also fits the battlefield role of the Mad Dog; the main role of the Mad Dog is to act as a support 'Mech, and it often holds a hill maintaining constant watch over the entire battlefield, like a vulture waiting for its prey. With its ample firepower and decent speed of 86.4 km/h, it makes a highly mobile firing platform, and as such has spread to near ubiquity among the forces deployed by the Clans.

I really like the Museum Scale pewter kits as they have an awesome amount of detail and really nice panel lines. This kit was painted, using a combination of GW colours and oil paints.

This side shot reveals detail of the arm mounted combo of Large and Medium Pulse Lasers.

Mounted to the shoulder, left and right of the cockpit are the huge LRM-20 racks.

The Mech's pilot has a rather small cockpit, but mounted high on top of the torso it also provides a good view over the battlefield.

The Mad Dog's back shows the large ammo storage in its shoulders the heat sink ports.