Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Troposphere Relay Station vehicle for SS-25 Topol already painted

                              

The TRS vehicle is already painted. I used a camouflage close to its SS-25 partner, only using Russian Tan from MIG colours instead of Iraqi Sand from Vallejo.

 

 

Most of these vehicles I found pictured are not in fact camouflaged but camouflage also helps conceal some mistakes in the making of the model.

 

 

 

At the same time I built another ModelCollect T-72 this time a T-72B3M. This one has no camouflage to go along the Russian T-72's 3D prints I have  from Mario Laranja.

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Georgian retreat from South Ossetia...

In August 2008, the invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Georgia ended with heavy casualties on the Georgian side. Here a group of Georgian light infantry retreats from South Ossetia under the watchful eye of the Russian victors.

This imaginary scene also has some imaginary models namely the T-64AK which was not present in this conflict. The Russian 58th Army only had T-72 and T-62 in its ranks but this T-64 came out of my modelling desk this week so it had vainly to be shown.

The Georgian Land Rovers are Cararama 1/72nd scale Die-Cast models. I had a box of six hanging around for years. Originally I was planning to use them as British in the Gulf War but they ended being smuggled to the Georgian Army.

The other three are hard top Land Rovers also used by the Georgians in this conflict that I will convert and paint later on. 

I made a number of changes: placed a pair of seated figures on the rear made out of bodies from ESCI US Modern infantry and GreenStuff legs; canvas cover made of Evergreen and GreenStuff and a plastic engine cooling exhaust pipe on the right side. 

The colours are NATO colours which showed the clear interest of Georgia entering this organisation. Fortunately, NATO recognized in time that the Saakashvili leardership was not trustable and declined the Georgian intentions. 

I also tried the tricky camouflage on the uniform of my first Georgian Infantry on these three 82mm mortar stands.

I used bodies and legs of different  ESCI US Infantry and mixed them. These figures are Ok for the modern Georgians as they use much of the NATO equipment given by the peaceful G.W. Bush always eager to wage war in every part of the planet. Included was the M4 rifle which looks like the M16 rifle and thats also why I used ESCI figures for the Georgian Infantry. 

When making the rifle companies I'll use some ESCI Warsaw Pact infantry as Georgians were still using plenty of AK-47.

The T-64AK is based on the standard 1972 model from ModelCollect with a scratch built big antennae as provided for the command tanks. So this model will force me to find another six to field a full battalion for Rapid Fire!

The colours are the MIG modern Russian colours again. The figure is an own cast of an Irregular Miniature figure.

The BMD was present in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 in the Airborne units.

The Models are S-Models with the usual added crew, antennae and stowage. 

Next: more 2008 Russo-Georgian War for sure as there is a number of stuff on my table and on  the surrounding environment. 

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Painted T-80s and T-90s

The group of ModelCollect and Revell modern MBTs I've built some time ago are painted and shelved.

You can see the parent post on its construction here:

http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.pt/2016/07/contemporary-russian-wars-in-172nd_13.html

Somewhere in the Russian southern border (in fact my yard) a Russian tank force amasses waiting for orders.

The top row are T-80 BV and the nearer are T-90MS, T-90 and T-90A.  Frankly after painting the two brands are indistinguishable with only the weight showing the heavier ModelCollect.

The T-90MS is the state of the art Russian MBT (not counting the still scarce T-14 Armata...). The painting is based on the web where you can see this kind of sand and orange over green camouflage. 

The figures have GreenStuff arms so they can fit wherever I want. 

Here a PSC figure is preparing to fire its HMG with its new arms. 

The Russian flag is in all vehicles. Its an obvious exaggeration but Russian enemies also have the same material many times (Chechens, Georgians, Ucranians...) and the old style flag clears all doubts. 

Another nice feature of nowadays Russian armour is the different camouflages even within the same units.

The paints I refer in the next paragraphs are just the ones I use and not mandatory.

After some reading about Russian camouflages you can settle with this:

As base colours, they have two different shades of green, one lighter olive ( Citadel Loren Forest) and another darker (Vallejo 114 Russian Green, yes, yes, aviation colour).

As camouflage colours you can find two tones of yellow sand ( Vallejo 819 Iraqi Sand and Citadel Tausept Ochre), brown (Citadel Mournfang Brown), black (whatever you have),  grey ( Vallejo Light grey and (more recently) orange (Citadel Macharius Solar Orange).

For better results I advise the excellent Mig paints specially designed for these conflicts.

Rapid Fire! Contemporary Russian Wars in 1/72nd scale - The T-80 and T-90, comparing Modelcollect and Revell

Believe me I looked. I looked in several sites, asked friends and searched in shops. I found two in OLX but they wanted to sell the whole collection. Besides my e-bay account doesn't work...

What is he talking about? Is he still under some mysterious substance influence after the awesome win of Portugal in the Euro 2016?

No. I'm just talking about my quest for finding more Die-cast modern Russian tanks and AFV's. Tired of looking I drove to Maceda, in the north, to a nice Model shop called Bigcat, and brought a big supply of model kits both Modelcollect and Revell.

Well, of course you get a more detailed model than Die-cast but each takes two days of your life, with such small pieces so enervating that they look like the extra-time of the Euro 2016 final - that Portugal won by the way.

After opening the boxes you get 100 to 150 pieces each and you start to feel sorry for not having tried harder the Die-cast solution. On the other hand these models are expensive, between 17 euros for Revell and 25 euros for the most expensive Modelcollect, so stop crying and start gluing the damned things! You can order Modelcollect from China directly and much cheaper but post cost levels the final price.

It is funny how after building hundreds of Airfix, Matchbox, Esci and alike you get more lazy because of the recent flood of Altaya and such Die-cast models...does the same happen to you?

The problem - or advantage - is that nowadays models can be scaled down from 1/35th scale without loosing detail. That drives you crazy as you try to to glue 6 or 7 pieces just to have the turret machine gun!

Stop complaining, Portugal was European Champion of Football! (did I already mentioned it?) And lets try a small review.

In the above picture you have the Revell T-80BV to your right and two Modelcollect T-80BV. The Revell model already has some years. Years ago I bought several of them which I turned into T-72's serving Saddam Hussein. It's a simple kit but not very detailed. On the contrary the Modelcollect is all about detail, too much some times, enhanced by PE  and really thin parts.

Both T-90's, Modelcollect to the left and Revell to the right, are similar in accuracy and detail as the Revell model belongs to the more recent fashion of downsizing the bigger scales on the contrary of their T-80. The ModelCollect offers the new tracks you can glue with normal plastic glue and a metal one-piece down hull. But this makes the Modelcollect more expensive in some 5 euros.

The Modelcollect T-90MS to the left is fortunately the least complicated model of the collection, mainly due to the simple lines Merkava type of the real thing. The Revell T-90A to the right is again a nice model with clever and simple hard tracks that you only need to dip into hot water before gluing. 

I turned one of the Modelcollect T-90 into the K version for command with an extra antennae and two figures from WWII models. I'm nowadays making all arms of tank crew with GreenStuff in order two avoid having tank crew that looks like puppets in a string or Karate athlets. Like this the arms sit beautifully doing whatever you want.  

Modelcollect new tracks and metal hull.

One last thing: Revell instructions are more clear than Modelcollect and you need have some years of modelling practice to build the later.

As a final conclusion only from these seven models I can say Modelcollect is more detailed, more modern in solutions like the track and hull but it's more expensive; Revell keeps a good level of detail, better instructions and it's cheaper which for wargaming is very important. Important is of course the win of Portugal in the Euro 2016 with nothing less than 11  players formed in Sporting some of them not very well known like Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Rui Patricio, Moutinho and many others. 

Next: T-72 fleet, BMP-3 and new variants of the T-80.