AK47 for a complete Duffer

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I like the moggie medley with heavy weapons 

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I've noticed AA weapons mounted on lorries... are these for use against ground targets too like the German 88mm and 'Dushkas'...
I've been eyeing up the ZPUs on the PP website (lovely looking models) but discounted them since I am unlikely to have much in the way of Aerials... I saw a photo of a ZPU-4 and a PT-76 at a Malian checkpoint c.2012 and just assumed the ZPU was intended for aerial targets... Am I being too hidebound in my thinking?

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Thanks for the clarification, Julian - yet another thing to add to my wish-list!

Hypothetic situation for my Imagi-Nation, the former French colony now the 'Republique de Senemal'...

• FFL continue to have assets in the region and surrounding area.
  
• French-backed business is being targeted by separatist rebels in a bid to protest against rapacious foreign mineral exploitation and embarrass the current Junta who ceded the mining rights and promised 'security' in exchange for generous 'voluntary contributions' to the regime.
  
• The Junta ousted the first democratically elected pro-French govt. for being too conciliatory with factions wanting self-determination. It is unpopular internally and externally and backed by the Soviets (anti-French).

Q. Do the FFL;
1) target the separatists with focused strikes/reprisals
2) seek to provide security for the mining companies
3) seek to support the Francophile former govt. in exile? (thus attempting to destabilise the Junta)

Needless to say I'm eyeballing the PP FFL figs and musing on scenarios for continued French 'interference' in the region...
This hearkens back to the similar situation in Mexico and the US Punitive expedition against Villa BUT the FFL did support the incumbent pro-French regime in Chad...

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

A warm warlord welcome awaits you on the border with La Republique de Senemal!
a little vignette to show w.i.p. on the developing Dictatorship forces with scratch-built tin shacks, border post, security fencing and K-rails...

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Thanks, Julian
And for the plug on the FB forum... I am an occasional FB lurker but now I have an excuse to visit more often!

Hopefully I'll have my Tuareg VW camper Technical off the drawing board by the Sept deadline

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Hee hee - I like it! Mine will be far less well designed... more like guys poking their heads out with HMGs and RPGs...

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

A stab at an Objective close to my heart... the wreck of the CSS Texas. Online sources quote an overall length of 217ft and a beam of 46ft. The film version had the standard sloped rectangular casemate far longer and with more gun ports than actually reported. Sources state the Texas had a far shorter, octagonal design occupying approx. 1/3 of the overall length. Armament was 2 pivot guns covering the 3 fore and aft ports and 2 guns on the sides. That means I can just squeak it onto a 9 x 6" template... 1) The core casemate on a level keel out of exp poly cut to shape, and 2) heeled over and buried up to the gunwales... the poly offcuts will be used as the base for dunes... Card cladding and detailing to follow... I'm considering using a cylinder of lead foil crumpled to create the separated wrecked smokestack. I'll use Plasticard or balsa to recreate any exposed wooden decking and fat track pins the mooring cleats...

Turns out to be a faster build than I first thought

Neil

[Hman]

Neil,

I like the idea... watching with interest 

Howard

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

CSS Texas after a card shell and applications of scrap plasticard decking and panelling to simulate the reinforced cladding... any poor joins will be either filled or obscured by sand and debris etc.
Next up mooring cleats, gun ports, some laddering, a couple of deck hatches and detailing the wheelhouse, maybe vestigial handrails before liberal applications of exp poly dunes and scree followed by sand and gravel scenic scatter...

[Colonel Kilgore]

Looking forward to how this one is going to turn out, Neil!

Are you going to add rivets that we can all count? 

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Looking at examples like the CSS Cairo I can't make out whether the vertical panels are overlapping metal plates or just sleepers bolted to the framing - either way I am going for the general look rather than accuracy. There are many speculative reconstructions of the Texas anyway - so no rivets, Simon.
I AM looking forward to experimenting with a 'distressed' lead foil cylinder for the smokestack...

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Meanwhile my first experimental homegrown oil drum rolls off the production line...
8mm square styrofoam blocks shaved into octagonal sections and smoothed with sandpaper into cylinders and cut into 10mm long sections. The ribs are shaped using a pencil...

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Its the pale green version of the high density polystyrene pink styrofoam insulation board beloved by GW terrain modellers... when sanded it goes to an almost white colour

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

On a minor note, I have 3 Panhard A/Cs for my Tuareg rebellion; an AMD 178B, an AML and an EBR. I thought I'd give them nicknames and paint them on the sides in the time honoured tradition... Because of their various sizes I was contemplating calling them the 3 bears and in deference to their French origins the French versions of 'Baby Bear', Mama Bear' and 'Papa Bear'...
Then I started thinking about other popular trios such as Huey, Dewey and Louie.
Anyone out there got any more ideas?

Neil
.

[Panzer21]

On a minor note, I have 3 Panhard A/Cs for my Tuareg rebellion; an AMD 178B, an AML and an EBR. I thought I'd give them nicknames and paint them on the sides in the time honoured tradition... Because of their various sizes I was contemplating calling them the 3 bears and in deference to their French origins the French versions of 'Baby Bear', Mama Bear' and 'Papa Bear'...
Then I started thinking about other popular trios such as Huey, Dewey and Louie.
Anyone out there got any more ideas?

Neil
.

The fox, the wolf and the horse? A traditional French fairy story.
Neil