28mm Pacific WW2 - part 3 (of 6)

Pacific 28mm - Part 3

I spotted a bargain on e bay...£8 for a bunch of spare US Infantry parts (heads, arms etc.). for our Pacific game we plan to have US Marines wading into shore.

So here is how the project went...

I first took some green stuff and moulded it into a half upper body then added some arms and weapons then a head, then added packs etc. I then undercoated it, painted it, dipped it with a wash, dry brushed to highlight and finished the faces and packs using a nice thin insane detail brush from Games Workshop.

And here's the finished look 

                      

The e- bay bargain buy of bits...

The bases are clear to allow them to blend into the mat or board. 

You can get a good few "half guys" using this principle and its cheap. 

We also use casualty markers on the beach when playing - to trace our efforts during the game. I therefore also made up some water casualty markers. 

The extra arms, heads etc.  fit the purpose.

You can smooth out the green stuff before it gets hard. But just make sure the arms sit at the right height and blend to the body. If your good with green stuff you can try adding back packs, bed rolls etc.

I now have around 60 new troop markers. 

                             

Next I tried out some water shell splashes. So I drilled some bases to take cocktails sticks added some white grab glue and pulled it out to add movement. They turned out ok. So I then thought I'll add some green stuff half guys. This is the result.

 

So  we now have bout 60 markers/waders and 30 causalities. 

 So we also recently bought a few editions of Wargames Illustrated for the free spue frame for our Pacific game I will post some pics APAP. The extra spues are to be used for hand to hand fighting vignettes and medical corpsmen.

The hand to hand stuff...

Whaalop !!

Some old school Sword against machete (and bayonet!)..

28mm Pacific wargame part 2 (of 6)

Pacific Game

So our Pacific theatre game is getting there and for the last few weeks here's what we have been up to...

P.S.   Storage Tip:
If you are stuck for storage and you like he taste of Ferro Roche chocolate - the empty boxes are a great fit for 28mm  LVT's...LOL

So with them safe in storage we moved to Sherman tanks....

First we needed to find a M4a2 Sherman. The Warlord Games version has all the extra armour on it....so we couldn't use it for our island.

There are some great online pics for some great inspiration...especially the Tanks in Hell book.

       

So we once again took to the 3d printer. I found a file and started printing . It was printed in three parts turret, chassis and tracks.

So the first tank I printed was actually an logistical error ....I actually thought the Zippo Sherman was used in our battle - but I found out later it wasn't. But it still printed out well and I can always use it later..

Check out Thingyverse for 3d prints.

So back to the Sherman M4a2' s...

 So in the picture above the 3d print is sitting next to a Warlord M4a2. You can still see the print lines but a brush with acetone and and then sno pak....and it usually cleans up. So now onto mass production! Well at least 5 more.

 So these are my six Sherman 3d prints painted (not finished but getting there)..

The actual tanks on our beach game have a very unusual image on the side. See picture below. But strangely the Shermans had no white stars on the vehicle ...these were removed by the Army when the tanks were given to the navy (Marines).

The company then painted their own tank names...

So I had to get creative and get a clear waterslide decal set. The name of the tank crew sits underneath a charging elephant. 

Below: This is a picture of my self made decals with a black background (which can be deleted). I will print these and apply to the tanks.

More pics of the decals on the tanks below...

Hint - The decals did not work on the clear decal water slide paper The decal disappeared when placed onto the tank. This sometimes occurs when doing home decals -the tank colour overpowered the white and yellow colours. - I then had to redo them on white decal paper and print them with a green background. Then re-paint and weather to match the tank. But they eventually turned out ok.

The green background now needs blended...

First - i repainted the original tank colour around the elephant and tank name...this took some time and a small brush! Those letters were murder!

Below: Then I blended the colour back into the tank

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 Picture below has a two pence for scale. The tanks now look very similar to the actual ones used on our beach. I still find it strange that they did not carry the usual white stars. 

We have six complete tanks, two swimmers (upper hull only), an engineers tank, and another two in shell holes (see text below).

So next I tried to simulate the tank in the sand/shell hole. For this I took a 3d file of a Sherman and tilted it on two axis in Tinkercad. Then placed  a 3d "hole" underneath it. It turned out ok.

Above - the actual photo of a tank at our battle....

Below a Sherman in the CAD package. I did two Shermans at different angles..

Below: The 3d print (which will sit in the sea hence the water effects).

Below - I then also did some "swimming" Sherman's for game markers as the tanks head towards the beach.

Note the usual rear snorkels kits were not used in our battle. Tanks were "thought " to  be going in at low tide.

I have now also added some Stuarts to the landing force as back to the Shermans

So that's were we are at the moment... would welcome comments or any information.

Any thoughts on which island the Shermans and Stuarts are headed for?

We did some Japanese 20mm AA in a enclosure.These are mounted on clear plastic -with some added ammo crates and oil drums.

28mm Pacific The beginning.of a Pacific game....Part 1 of 6

28mm Pacific.(see other posts)

So we had an idea about the next game...we thought let's change theatre to...the Pacific.

But the beach we want to play has some pretty strange looking vehicles on it (if your not familiar with theatre!).Yes we talking Landing Vehicle tracked.

But here's our problem Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) were used more specifically mark 1's. Most company's like Rubicon or Warlord only start at LVT1 A. Which is the armoured and longer version of the LVT1.

So out came Tinkercad.  

The picture below shows our version of the LVT 1 with a 3d printed next to a LVT 2

Still needs some firepower on the front.

Any guess where we are heading yet ????? (guesses welcome ...in the comments section)

So here what ended up with...

So this is a 3d print with some US Marines on board. Looks ok..I think..

So we got some Rubicon stuff as well back row right 3. 

We also did two waterline versions...with troops made from either cut back Warlord Marine torso's and green stuff. The pics a little blurry sorry! But you get the idea.

Any guesses on that beach yet...

I did this LVT1...with some troops exiting the vehicle. It's crazy that with this model marines need to climb over the side...there was no door. So climbing over the side under fire was the normal.

The palm trees are tricky... we need lots but these were the result of an initial test. It's pipe cleaners with crepe paper. The base is clear plastic with tubes glued on. This will allow us to pack them away. But we are still working on these...

The trees above are still to be taped and painted...
We also needed a sea wall...so out came the blue foam and hot wire cutter.
I cut the foam into blocks and then shaped the tree wall. This meant finishing with an engraver to buff down the foam to make it look circular.

 The trees are now taped and painted.
Grass turfs were also added.

It's starting to shape up...
What do you think...any suggestions welcome...

p.s. in the end we just used plastic trees! see final Tarawa post.

More pics to follow as we build the forces over the next months...

See the other 6 Pacific posts.