The Federal Grizzly - Dinky Stalwart Conversions Part 1

A while ago I did some conversion work on an old toy Stalwart from Dinky. It was a battered old toy truck that I had sitting in a box in the garage. I think it had been repainted a few times while I was young, and it may even have sat in the back garden of my parents house for a while. Anyway, it was pretty shabby, so it would have been no loss if I had ruined the vehicle.

Luckily the conversion worked out pretty good as you can see from the next photos, and as I was really happy with the end result I decided to build another.

There were a couple of failed eBay bids before I won another Stalwart. They seemed to have become a bit more popular suddenly. I received my new truck and then started the conversion... and that's as far as I got. I didn't want to do the exact same model again, but what to do?

I went through a few options in my head - an anti-aircraft version, or an engineering/recovery version? I decided on a communications and command version but just couldn't get the pieces to make this work. I think I would have had to do a much bigger conversion for what I wanted to achieve.
Then last week I picked up some plastic Gundam figures off an eBay seller from Singapore. One came with some weapon options, one of which looked good on my Stalwart.

The vehicle has now been base-coated and after some washes and highlighting, it'll be highlighted, weathered and based. Then I'll post some more pictures.
Last night I decided to put the painting aside on this and have a think about how this vehicle would look if I could rebuild it from scratch. I just wish i had the skills to either build this as a physical model or as a 3D render, but a flat design is the best I can manage at the moment.

I also spotted this while doing a bit of internet google research. I think I'll have to try a conversion to this, or something similar, at some point...

Next on the list is this lot....



Are these the droids you're looking for - Part 2

Fyoder has a growing population of robots, droids, automatons and other artificial lifeforms. While a lot of those are military, many more are worker droids, whether there to service incoming freighters and transports, or to keep the streets clean in places such as Eastway City. Below is another selection of the droids that you could encounter on Forsey.

The Droids in the pictures are;
Top picture from left to right - A space janitor from Khurasan for scale, an epic scale droid from Games Workshop, Khurasan's Duke painted as a worker bot rather than as the bounty hunter's companion, another epic scale droid from Games Workshop, and a cleaner droid from Hobby Products.
Bottom picture from left to right - A security droid from Hobby Products, another epic scale droid from Games Workshop, a 28mm droid from GW/Citadel's Paranoia range, and the space janitor from Khurasan for scale again.
I wasn't happy with the photo of the Paranoia droid so here's some individual shots...

Next up I'm going to finish my second Federal Grizzly. These are made using old old Dinky Stalwarts with the new model having an added weapon from a soft plastic Gundam model.

ROSK Infiltration Team - Test Paint

I picked up a pack of Armies Army's ROSK infantry this week - these are great figures from a new company, and for a first release I'm really impressed. You get 10 figures, an officer, two heavy weapons, and seven riflemen - all unique sculps and all at £3.50 a pack. There was very little flash on these and very slight mold lines. I've only painted one so far, just as a tester, and decided to paint it to match the recent Ground Zero DPRG figures that I'd painted (these are pictured alongside the ROSK at the bottom). I think I'm happy with the result, but any comments would be appreciated....

Also, any suggestions for a 15mm version of this guy?

DPRG (Democratic People's Republic of Glory) Regular Army

The Federal forces on Forsey were disappointed and concerned by reports that the DPRG (Democratic People's Republic of Glory) Regular Army has recently began supplying troops and arms to the Eastway Militia. DPRG sources have claimed that these forces are only there in an advisory position and that if the Federal Army can field troops for peace-keeping purposes then there is no reason why they can't.

Federal Forces have responded by stationing the Frankfurt class Escort Cruiser FSS Marshall Hemson to Forsey with a promise to reinforce with more ships if needed.

The DPRG are from the new Tomorrow's War official 15mm miniatures range that Ground Zero Games are producing in association with Ambush Alley Games. Each pack contains 10 figures; two each of 5 different sculpts (Squad Leader, kneeling and advancing riflemen, advancing SAW gunner and prone SAW gunner firing). These are a really nice set of figures and I look forward to this range being expanded. The figure were very cleanly cast, with almost no flash. The only issue seemed to that the officers helmet needed a little cleaning up. All in all, and impresive start to a range, but we are talking about GZG, so quality is to be expected.

The Cruiser is from Ground Zero's Full Thrust range.

Here is an image with the new DPRG shown alongside other popular figures for comparison.

These are, from left to right, DPRG from GZG, Sepulveda Resistance from Khurasan, ARC Rifleman from Critical Mass, Federal Army from Khurasan, Alien Bounty Hunter from Brigade Models UK, and a Traveller Militia from RAFM.

"Bounty hunters. We don't need that scum."

Hebroc's Dogs - Hunters for Hire.
You have Wanted men? The Dogs will get your Bounty.
"We call our No1 Team the "Eyes, Ears and Nose". They have the best senses in the Galaxy. Nobody can escape our men. Abaal has the muscle and the ultrasonic sensors, Gaff Renoll has the speed and olifactory senses of a bloodhound, and Oobbo Siln has the optics and sharpshooting skills to match any marksman. When you hire our men you know we will succeed."
Null Hebroc, Proprietor of Hebroc's Dogs, Bounty Hunting to Order.

Here are the new Bounty Hunters from Brigade Models, UK. I love these guys. Especially the big guy with the ears. Reminds me of Briaros from the Appleseed anime. There are another two figures in this set but unfortunately the ankle of the "captive" figure was miss-cast, which I didn't notice until I was gluing him to his base and his leg collapsed. So a bit of greenstuff needs added before I finish him off.

These are sculpted by the hugely talented PF and I haven't seen anybody else who can sculpt this delicately in 15mm. The Brigade range of his minis are great. When you look at the unpainted figures they look way too small and delicate to mix with other brands, but once painted these figures look fine. I'll be painting the Human Mercenary pack soon, so watch out for a blog posting off these.

I've also finished painting the Federal Army troops from Khurasan and I've based a couple with the last of my bases from Warbases. I need to order yet another couple of packs this week.

Are these the Droids you're looking for?

Fyoder is not only a dumping ground for all sorts of human or alien refugees hoping to make a new life, but also the destination of a variety of robots, droids, automatons and other artificial lifeforms. Many are out-moded antiques, while others are state-of-the-art scientific models.

Below are a selection of the droids that you could encounter on Forsey.

The Droids in the pictures are;
Top picture from left to right - Traveller/Rafm workbot, a tracked droid with comms array from 15mm.co.uk, Traveller/Rafm Droid, Armoured Sentry Droid from 15mm.co.uk, Mk II Law Enforcement Droid from Laserburn/15mm.co.uk, plus a laserburn civilian for scale.
Bottom picture from left to right - A four legged domestic service droid from 15mm.co.uk, Traveller/Rafm Combat Droid, Laserburn Sandar Worker Droid from 15mm.co.uk, a Starship Servo Droid with repair tools from 15mm.co.uk, a Ground Zero Games Workbot, and the Laserburn civilian again.