My 15mm miniatures now have bases.

 I wanted to use washers for the bases of my 15mm troops.  I did some research and it was suggested  fender washers are the best, the hole in the center is smaller.  And the size that wash was suggested was 3/4 inch.  I went to our local building supply big box store(Lowes).  I priced the washers and I said to myself, "self there has to be a cheaper source on line".  I posted on The Miniatures Page, a query on a online washer resources.  Rodrick Campbell sculptor and owner of Highlander Studios, Inc.  

Rodrick suggested that I use Bolt depot .  He was right.  I got 1,000 for $32, including shipping.   I ordered them on the evening of the 19th and they arrived on my doorstop on the 22nd.

So I have a butt ton of washers now,  I got them cheap though. 

Thank you for reading,

Mike

Khurasan Miniatures finished, or two out of three ain't bad

 In an earlier post I stated that I was going to show you all the finished miniatures I am done with two of the the three vehicles.  The Nova Respublik BTR3000 wheeled APC camo scheme that I painted, Idid not like.  I stripped the paint off of it.  The stripping  and painting process will be on a later post.  In regards to the stripping of the paint.  I will be doing a comparison between Simple Green and Purple Power in an upcoming post.  So a few photos of the BTR will show up and a little commentary too.

Assembly was quite easy, the first photo is of the    15mm Grifon-T Advanced Tracked APC, mostly assembled.

The weapon assembly was straight forward too. You can see the Drakon's secondary gun is in the background. 

Here are several photos of the Drakon assembly.  A couple of things to note and I did not notice it at once.  There was an air bubble on the right side track housing and it left quite a hole.  I am sure that I could have gotten it replaced, because Khurasan Miniatures would just do that.  It then occurred to me, I will use it as battle damage.  I just had to build up the track on the inside.  Also the fit was not perfect, it had a little gap.   But a little plastic putty filled it right in. This took me all of two minutes.

I then went on the prime all three vehicles and I pre-shaded them too.

I have to get better with my airbrush, there is a bit of splatter on the pre-shade.  I just got the airbrush and I have to work on the thickness of the paint that I am spraying and the consistency of the paint coverage. A word of warning.  Do not glue the wheels on the BTR until the vehicle is painted and the wheels are painted too.  I did not do this and it is going to be a pain to paint the wheels.  The wheels are very close to the hull of the vehicle.

 The following photos reflect one coat of US Field drab.  It is a little hard to see the preshading.  This is both due to the photograph in general and I hard trouble with paint coverage i.e. too thick of coat.    Again this will come with practice.  You can see it best on the gun barrel.

I then put lines using Vallejo Russian Green Model Air.  As a wash I used Vallejo Model Wash Dark Brown. I also used a Vallejo Pigment, Dark Yellow Ocre to make the vehicle feel a little dirty. And this will take a lot of practice to use.  I did not think I used them properly.  One side on the Drakon-T turned out ok with the pigment and I will note that photo.  For the number decals I used decals from I-94 Enterprises.

I think this was my best attempt at pigment use and it was the last side that I did.

You can see the area of battle damage in this photo.

These are the first 15mm vehicles that I have ever painted and I think they turned out OK,especially as table top standards go.  There are things that I will try on the next go.  In closing, I really like these miniatures and I will be buying more Khurasan Miniatures.  I will put up a separate post on the finished BTR-3000.


As always, thank you for reading.

Mike






 

Fall Pro or Con Convention

Fall Pro or Con Convention at the Lutheran High School in Westland.  As we were leaving the convention, one of our group made the observation that it was a good thing it was not a Quaker High School.    It is always a top notch convention with great games.  The food is also great and good venders.

In the 1st session I had the pleasure of playing a Modern 20mm game run by Mike Erisman.  It was based on the Rapid Fire rule system.  We had mixed command of Ukrainian and US units vs. a rogue Russian General.   I can say an American Calvary unit acquitted itself quite well.

I had a bad week and I was really tired, so I just Kibitzed in the second session.  We did not stay for the third session.  We stopped at the Model Cave in Ypsilanti MI on the way home to get some paint.

Here are a few photo's and a link to a bunch more.

A link to my other photos of the convention

Thank You for reading.

Mike

15mm Khurasan Miniature Vehicles and a thank you

As from a lot of previous posts, I mainly collect and paint 6mm/1/285/1/300 miniatures, both aircraft and vehicles.  I am now going to be delving into the world of 15mm miniatures, mainly Sci-Fi.  I am going to be using Tomorrows War by Ambush Alley Games.

 I bought a new airbrush, an Aztek.  I had a Paasche airbrush and hated it,  I had heard good things about the Aztek from my local Hobby Store, the Model Cave in Ypsilanti MI and I bought an Aztek.
Well I digress, I bought some Khurasan Miniature vehicles so I could use my new Aztek airbrush.

I bought three vehicles a  Drakon-T Advanced Tracked Tank, Grifon-T Advanced Tracked APC and a  Nova Respublik BTR3000 wheeled APC. They were shipped with care and promptly.

They are beautiful miniatures.  The Drakon-T, as you can see in the photos, has two small flash/sprue  on each track section.  To be honest, it took me about three minutes with a hobby knife and a file to take care of it. You get a bunch of bits and bobs.   You also get your choice of two different turret weapons too.

The Grifon-T had absolutely no flash and the BTR had a little bit at the end of the tires.

I had heard that Khurasan vehicles were great and they are.  I will start assembling them and painting them soon.  I will keep you updated.

As a side note.  I went over 20K hits on my blog this weekend and I want to thank you all who have read my posts.

Thank you for reading,

Mike