Apache Longbow gunship

Hello guys,

Last week, I finished a Heroics and Ross 1/300 Apache Longbow. Not counting the assembly, it didn't take me long to get it painted as it only involved painting it greenish, washing it with black, painting it again, putting some black somewhere and some blue somewhere else.

I have to thank Clint again for picking one up for me - THANK YOU!

This model was my first foray into 1/300 and I did not enjoy it. The model came in several pieces and while there were no instructions added, the build was straight forward enough. The good thing was, it had a choice of 4x4 hellfire rockets or a 2x4 of the former and two canister of rockets. As the latter were a pain to attach, I went with the first choice. It also looks cooler.

Assembly was a pain. Nothing fit together, I tried making something work, but just too much work was needed to give it a nice round shapes where they had to be (for example, look just above the wheels. Do you see a large rectangle? You shouldn't.) I did forgot to attach the nose chain gun, so that's my fault, as well as breaking the tail wheel. That was a nice little detail.

Never mind the horrible photo background, I am ashamed. Another thing that I noticed is the symmetry - or the lack of it. Compare the engines below and trust me, it looks worse in real life from up close. But from a table distance, the aircraft looks just as great as it should. It also costs 2 pounds (compared to GHQ's 6,50!). It also shows that it's hand sculpted (I presume), which is always nice.

I put it on a random 25mm square base, nothing much to say about it. Attached it with a piece of wire.
It will be used to mark a presence of an air-support on the map, so having it nice and tiny is perfect.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

JTAC

 Hello guys,

It took me a bit longer than it should, but I finally have a JTAC prepared. Joint terminal attack controller, simply put, is a guy that calls in air strikes. All the communication between him and the pilot is always in English, no matter the nationality of either or both of them.

They receive a lot of attention here lately as SAF is trying to establish a regional training centre for JTAC in Slovenia. This is interesting, I suppose, as we don't have an Air Force as such, but just an "Air component" within the Army...and even those units are armed with Pilatus PC-9M Hudournik ("Swift", the bird) airplanes.

 While they look like something that might have taken part in the Battle for Britain, Pilatus planes are apparently one of the best training aircraft you can get. Slovenia bought them early after the independence to train its future fighter pilots on them and when it was realised that jets are costly, they were simply armed. While they are used as such on practices for media, these planes can obviously not intercept an airbus and our skies are currently protected by Hungarian or Italian jets. Needless to say, there's plenty jokes going around about how we don't need jets as they "can't make a U turn without leaving the airspace".

To make me feel better,  I have to let everyone know that a "guns only" dogfight between a Slovene in Pilatus and American in F-16 took place few years back which the former won with 2:0. So if nothing else, these planes are good enough to keep the know-how and pilots trained. On the other case, taking the tanks out of operational use is making us lose the tankers and their experience.

So, from a gaming point of view, JTAC is a guy with a radio and I converted him from one. He can be used as a basic radioman, JTAC, Artillery observer etc.

 I was quite gutted to find out I have misplaced the original antennae. It was really nicely done and I KNOW I put it somewhere to make sure it wouldn't get lost. So, I replaced it with a piece of solid wire. It's not as nice but at least it won't break easily.

I also scraped off his M4 and, as his main job is to direct airplanes and not fire his rifle, put an F2000 on his backpack, while giving him binoculars. My first idea was to let him have a touch screen computer with a map on it, but working on that would be a bit complicated and had to satisfy myself with a locally produced binoculars with a laser pointer.

To make him stand out at least a bit, his vest was painted in khaki. I wish his helmet was not covered with a cloth, but as that would include way too much work, I just went with it as it is.

I hope to use him in larger games to call in some airstrikes and I am now trying to find a nice 1:144 aircraft or even a helicopter. I am sure the International forces on Evergreen Island have an Apache or two laying around!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo