16 Aug 2014

Vehicle crew - finished?

Hello guys,

There is still nothing painted, but I was converting my Empress figures in the past week. I have mostly finished my SAW gunners, I only have to fill in some of the helmet holes (sculpted this way!) and fix something around the weapon. Other than that, unless I get an inspiration to do SOMETHING to them, they are done and will be showcased in the next post. I am a bit reluctant to keep showing them as you'll see them over and over again. I should get my guns later this week, which means I will be showing a lot of similar stuff!

So, it is no secret that I wanted my Empress British downed pilots to look like a crew members of some sort. This were options I considered:
a) Helicopter/Plane pilots. This would work, but I wasn't sure about having pilots with the vest and armed. Now that I am not satisfied with my work, I might want to add some putty to the helmet and make them pilots after all.
b) Tank crew. They wear overalls like the two miniatures, but, again, I'm not sure about the rifles. I'd imagine they'd have some sort of weapons as Scorpion automatic pistols were used back in the days. I just never saw any photos of them with rifles.
c) APC crew. APC are the most modern vehicles we got in our fleet and the most used. So they would make sense. Plus, they got a crew of 2 so the numbers add!

It's a minor thing, but I like to overthink stuff like this, makes me feel really involved. Yoo-hoo.

Below is a bad photo of tank crews in one of ours M-84s (it's a Yugoslav T-72 and they have been in and out of operational use. New tanks are sort of expensive venture, but no tanks means the knowledge dies, and this is bad. Very bad.) They got one colour overall, which is what I want to paint my miniatures as (for the sake of diversity), and they got those cool looking soft helmets. I  always liked the goofy look of those.


 You can also see them on Svarun 8x8 APC (or Patria AMV if you wish), our newest vehicle. Some 120 were ordered in all sorts of armaments. Something went wrong, we got some, none armed with anything heavier than 40mm GL or .50 cal (so no mortars and 30mm chain cannons for us!). The "funny" thing is, we just might return them all now, as politicians involved in the purchase got convicted. As I'm in the mood for telling you jokes, one of them ran on the parliamentary elections and now goes to parliament debates from jail. Really.
 Those funky hats look even cooler with a hard shell on top of them, which is what I went for in the end:

Below on Valuk 6x6 APC (Slovene version of Austrian Pandur):
 And here a closer look of the helmet. As you can see, they are armed, which works for me, but as those crews are actually part of infantry platoon (or at least they were, last year infantry battalions were reorganised into regiments (but still regiments that consist of companies, it's complicated), and vehicles were pooled. So a platoon doesn't have it's vehicles anymore, but they "borrow" them along with a crew. This makes crew and infantry less coherent, but it saves infantry platoon a time they would spent taking care for vehicles and they can do more push-ups instead!). Anyways, it looks cool so I decided to give it a go.

It didn't really work out as I wanted, but I have attached a bad photo below. If I crack and decide to call them "pilots" after all, all I'd need to do is add a visor and bulky up the headset area.  Decisions, decisions.

Well, just a "short" post for today. I will hopefully muster enough courage to start them painting as soon as I'm done with what I'm painting at the moment.


Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

16 comments:

  1. I think Our politicians are no better! They all seem to be as bad as each other.

    Your figures are looking good though and I like the inspirational photos. very atmospheric.

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    1. Ha, I believe you. I knew I shouldn't mention it, but you know...it's all related so it all matters!
      And no problem regarding the photos, I picked some from the internet here and there and I'll be including them when I'll get more converted (or, god forbid, painted!) to give an idea of what I'm after.

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  2. I wish most of our politicians were imprisoned for the damage and harm they have inflicted on so many!
    I loved the photos you have included here, Mathyoo. As for what to do with your two "pilots" I'd opt for making them APC drivers. I think you'd get a lot more use out of them that way. But it's your decision and I'm sure they'll look good whatever you decide.

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    1. Thanks!
      Yes, they would probably work better as such. I mean, it's just a helmet on one guy at this point (but I am itching to give the other one a helmet as well) and it wouldn't really matter at the end - but I think I'd find a broken tank in my collection easier than a broken helicopter!

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  3. Politicians....Sigh....Same category as pirates....Not thinking Johnny Depp!!!

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  4. I think they would pass for helicopter pilots with much more ease than for fast jets. I've seen photos of the Brit Apache pilots have vests and carry the carbine version of the SA80.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Ha, you are funny! Jet pilots were never considered as we don't really "do" jets :P. Those miniatures are actually made to represent downed Apache pilots and the guy with an F2000S had an SA80 carbine!
      What I'm deciding is if I keep the helmet I've sculpted or I add something to it and make call them pilots, it's really just a nonsense to keep me occupied :P

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  5. "Perfect is the enemy of good" (Voltaire). Don't try to over-think these things :-) !

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    1. But then, good is the enemy of perfect and we're back to square one :P

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  6. They look good I think the helmet needs another layer of gs and it need to come over the front and sides a bit more. Mainly so it shadows the eyes.like the pic directly above it. Once you add on the side pieces it will look the part.

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    1. Well spotted - I tried to make it shadow the eyes but was afraid I might cover them all together. I know the arch for the head set is too small, but I just couldn't figure what exactly was I doing wrong (I blamed it on a sculpted head then, maybe it has odd ear position :D).
      Either way, I sculpted pilot helmets on both of them yesterday - I didn't mix milliput well enough so it never cured and off it went. Now I can REALLY decide which ones to do yet again :D

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  7. Politicians, at least Dick Turpin had a mask.
    They look fine Mathyoo, get some paint on them!

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    1. Thanks Bob, I will as soon as I fix them now! :D

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  8. The APC drivers idea sounds like a good one Mathyoo

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    1. Cheers mate. I'm reworking them since (of course), but I think this is a better choice than overdone pilots :P

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