Matchbox M24 Chaffee & Matador Models NM116 Conversion Set Review

Jumping to the next random topic - today I want to take a look at the Matchbox M24 Chaffee and the Matador Models NM116 Conversion Set.

I managed to get a hold of 2 of the Matador Models NM116 conversion sets 3 or 4 years ago, but only snagged a couple of Matchbox M24 Chaffee a couple of years back - so of course it wasn't until this year that I was able to have a crack at these.  Then once I started I was so put off by the whole thing that it probably took me all year to finish the two kits.

First off I love the NM116.  It's the epitome of a teeny weeny tank trying to take on the Soviet war machine - my kind of against all odds weapon system.  Here's a few pics of what it's meant to look like:

Here's a lovely side shot.  Some great stowage ideas as well that I will be stealing!

This is a more widely seen photo of the NM116.  A good view of the muzzle brake.

Not really an "in action" - more of a static display shot - but it does show in some detail the interesting Norwegian hard-edge cam pattern used on their vehicles.  Something I'm looking forward (ha!) to replicating. 

Now onto the models.  These are obviously not painted, and not even a "finished" build.  However I thought this was a good point to stop to show the original Matchbox Chaffee, the Matador Models conversion bits, and my dodgy add-ons.  Here's a couple of photos:

So looking at the 2 photos above, obviously the grey and green tanks are all Matchbox.  The 90mm new main gun barrel, raised engine decks, smoke dischargers and spades (which you can't see) are Matador Models. The white plastic card on the track guards cover the hole created when I cut of the large boxes that come with the Chaffee kit.  I also had to remove the sand guards (?) from these as I've not seen an NM116 photo showing a tank with these.  I added a couple of boxes from my PSC bits box on each side of the track guard - as also seen in lots of photos.

Significantly I also had to add, from plastic card, rod etc, the Simrad LV3 laser rangefinder and what I believe is the passive night vision sight for the gunner.  Before I can call it finished - in terms of converting - I also need to add a small rod in front of the commander's hatch which was an additional attachment for the turret roof mounted .50 cal.

This shot shows the Matador Models engine deck a little better:

You need to clean off any detail on the models engine deck before you can fit these.  I also need to severely trim one of them to get the turret to fit correctly.

This next photo was an attempt to get a closer shot of detail on the turret & main gun:

So I'm happy with the smoke dischargers - which are really pretty basic, but the main gun barrel is a little disappointing and I think the muzzle brake is completely wrong.  They were also very annoying to try and bend the resin barrel back into straight lines and I feel I was only partly successful.  Also I felt a bit let down that I had to make the laser range finder - something I consider to be fairly fundamental in changing the tank from the Chaffee to the NM116.

You do get a bunch of other bits and pieces - mainly WW2 stowage - from Matador Models, but these are really just to spice up the M24 Chaffee - they're not really for the NM116 - and I didn't use them at all.  I did use a big bit of stowage I made on the grey tanks glacis plate.

Final thing to say.  Even though I am a little disappointed overall with the conversion set, I am pretty happy with the overall look of the NM116.  Needless to say, I'll be liberally coving both tanks in cam netting and foliage so they'll end up more like the next photo anyway - so you won't be able to see much of the tank at all!

What tank?

So - that's it for now

Richard

4DModels KrAZ-260B Tractor and MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer Review

 Once again it's been a while.  Preparations for Christmas, visitors and then my wife managing to severely break her ankle just before New Year has meant a pretty busy couple of months for me, and not much time for anything too gamey.

I did have a couple of moments of purchase based stress relief which brings me to today's topic.  For a while now I've wanted to get some kind of Soviet tank transporter/trailer.  I've been looking at the TAKOM offering, which seems quite nice:

and also I say Trumpeter were coming out with this:

which also looked pretty nice.  The thing is, I wanted it for a very specific purpose.  To create this:

I wasn't sure that the S-300 missile tubes would fit on the back of either of the Takom or Trumpeter trailers and I wasn't really willing to pay top dollar for something that may or might not work.

To cut a long story short, one day when randomly having a look around, I stumbled across this kit by 4D Models:

I was a little wary as some of the kits made but this company are basically crap, but when I saw I could get this for less than $22NZD, I thought why not give it a go.  The pics of the completed model looked OK and reviews were generally positive, so I thought the risk of the S-300 tubes not fitting was a risk worth taking.

The box arrived remarkedly quickly from China, a little battered but nothing inside was any worse off.  Here's a look at the back of the box:

Inside were 3 sealed plastic bags of parts and the instructions

Everything was there and nothing was damaged or warped.  In the first bag you got loads of tires.

As you can see they are glossy black with green hubs.  They fit together nicely and are easy to clean up.

The other parts are as below:

and

Interestingly you can see in the second photo that it comes with a transparent piece for the cab's windows and 7 metal rods for the tires.

The tractor goes together very simply and gives a nice simple wargaming standard model.

I couldn't be bothered painting inside the cab - I was in a bit of a therapeutic rush - so I'll be spraying the whole model, only after removing the wheels.  You can see the holder for the spare wheel on the back of the cab.  You end up with 3 spare wheels I think.  You have to make up 17 in all.

The trailer was actually even easier and together, I think they look pretty damn good.

Now of course I checked to see if the S-300 missiles fit on the trailer as they should - and yes indeed they do!  Just for the hell of it I also took out a T-72 to see how it looked on the trailer.

Sorry about the generally crappy photos!

So review time.  First the positives:

• Super cheap
• Ridiculously easy to put together
• Solid wargamers kit
• Scales well
• Basically does what it says on the tin
• If you were really really lazy you could almost get away with out painting it!  Oh the horror!!

Negatives

• It's pretty chunky and there is of course a lack of fine detail, but personally I think the positive of being a solid (rather than fragile) kit outweigh that
• Sink marks.  There are quite a few sink marks on this kit.  Some I'm happy to ignore, but some are in quite prominent positions.  I guess all up I can live with them and hopefully hide most of them!
• The metal rods - while perfectly useful and much better than plastic, unless I'm doing it wrong, they are to long for the wheels on the trailer.  A relatively easy fix, but until that is done it makes the trailer look a bit toy like.

So all in all, for what I want it for I am very happy with my purchase.  Really its a bit of unnecessary frippery but I do have a very minor role in a game planned for it and I just think it's cool to have it.  I'm not sure it would have any real use as a tank transporter in a standard wargame - but will be useful scenery if some "behind Soviet lines" type games.

Now I just need to sort out my many painting issues and get on and paint it.

Thanks and belated Happy New Year

Richard

Matador Models - FV432/20 (Fox Turret) Build and Review

OK - so I was very chuffed recently to get this little goodie as one of my final purchases to round out my Berlin Brigade.  It's a Matador Models FV432/20 (Fox Turret) and it comes like this:

Opening the box reveals a couple of plastic baggies:

Which opened up reveal the following:

As you can see some pretty crisp molding here and options to have every hatch open - which is very good in my book.  Flipping the hull and tracks over you can see there is still a little work to be done:

So I cleaned it all up and the parts looked like this:

So now were we on to assembly.  I'd like to say it all went together smoothly, but I'd be lying.  I don't know if it was my superglue or the kind of resin used by Matador Models, but for some reason things just wouldn't stick together - at least not in the short term.  After some hair pulling, a lot of crying and a little cursing it started to go my way and this is the end result:

I think you end up with a pretty smashing model of a FV432/20.  There are a couple of negatives.  First up - no plans whatsoever.  When you pay 23 quid for a model I feel there should at least be a decent drawing of what it should look like from a couple of different angles.  At least...

One is the other difficulty I previously mentioned, which turned a half hour job into a several hour job.  The third is the metal RARDEN 30mm gun barrel.  You get two options - one standard, one with a cover.  I went with the standard gun and compared to the rest of the kit, I looks a little naff.  If I had a spare Scimitar or Warrior RARDEN barrel - I'd definitely use them.

My only other concern was the smoke dischargers.  They look great, but I'm pretty sure I've placed them in the wrong spot...  I'll have a think about removing them and placing them slightly differently, but due to the glue issues I'm not sure I'm up to it.

Finally, I thought a comparison shot might be worthwhile:

From left to right we have an S&S FV438 Swingfire, Cromwell Models FV434, Matador Fv432/20 and a Britannia FV432 APC.  As you can see they all fit together very nicely.

So one day if I'm very lucky this new Matador model might just end up looking something like this!

Thanks

Richard

Photo Review of Liberation Miniatures BTR-60PB

Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on 3 Liberation Miniatures (or RH Models) Soviet BTR-60PBs.

I have pretty much avoided BTRs up to this point as I have plenty of BMPs, and who want to play Category B units (I thought), but after being stung by the Soviet Naval Infantry bug, the need became much greater.  So I succumbed...

...and was amazed at the quality of these little beauties.  These are extremely crisply cast models, with nary an air hole or bubble in sight.  Awesome detail and only 10 peices.  1 resin hull, 8 metal wheels and the turret, which is all 1 peice.

Everything goes together very simply and this is what you end up with:

As you can see - really well cast models - totally in love with these little guys - so much so they've already been sprayed and I hope to have them finished before the new year.

So heartily endorsed!  2 thumbs up!

Have fun

Richard

Wargames Illustrated - Issue 324 - Modern Warfare

I've been incredibly busy lately - both at work and at home, so have had literally no time for my own hobby work.  However I did see that the next issue (or current issue) of Wargames Illustrated was to be on modern warfare - with at least some coverage of the Cold War Gone Hot theme.

As I knew I'd have difficulty finding it in Oz, and I've been relatively impressed with how they are putting together their ipad versions of the magazine - I decided to download.  In Oz this is also a cheaper option.

Like most wargaming magazines, Modern Warfare is a theme - so amongst the other articles there are about 5 articles that have somethingt o do with that theme.  They are:

1.  Whatever happened to 20mm Moderns? - This is quite a clever photo-spread article covering 1 wargaming club in the UK and their various 20mm modern collections/games.  It provides a little commentary, plus lets the reader know what manufacturer vehicles and miniatures are used etc.  It covers a Yom Kippur battle, a standard Soviets vs Brits CWGH engagement, Russians vs Georgians in South Ossetia and another Israeli led skirmish in 2013.

The article has loads of pics - which somewhat annoyingly continue to scroll through whilst you are trying to read the blurb.  I found that a little distracting - but like most WI articles - beautiful pics. Interestingly the bottom line from the article is that 20mm moderns are alive and well and are a great to game in.  Totally agree!

The article also includes an outline of a new game Third Generation Warfare - more info about it can be found here.  It looks very interesting.

2.  Setting the scene for the Cold War Turned Hot - This is a kind of two part article.  Part 1 is a small article by Harvey Black - author of The Red, Blue and Black Effect trilogy.  It talks about why he is facinated in the CWGH period.  The second part is the outline(?) of a Soviet river crossing scenario.  It is not for any particular game, and on my ipad it has no map, force list etc etc.  In fact I kept swiping this way and that, trying to find the rest of the scenario....

3.  Missile Away! - This is an excellent article on Modern Naval Warfare - including rules and miniature choices.  Modern naval gaming holds a special place in my gamer heart so I very much enjoyed this article.

4.  Converting a 15mm M113 to a M113A3 - I've only briefly looked at this article as I don't operate in 15mm, however it would certainly be useful for anyone who does (and could be bothered doing the conversion).  The end model is lovely - so he does a great job.

5.  20 Years From Now - Not exactly what I expected, but again an interesting article thinking about how to wargame a conflict around 2040 or so, going into what figures, vehicles and rules you could use.  A good read.

So all up - it was great to see so many of the vehicles and manufacturers I support in another wargaming magazine - so more and more gamers can see how good their products are.  As I learnt from the previous magazine I reviewed, you're not going to get a comprehensive, everything you'll ever need to know look at a CWGH in 1 magazine.  But I see it as spreading the good word so I'm all for it.  It still had some articles that I was a little disappointed with - like the scenario - how hard is it for magazine to publish a playable scenario with maps etc for CWGH!!??

Anyway - I rate it 7 out of 10 (again) but consider it well worth getting.

Thanks

Richard

Review - Elhiem Figures NBC Soviets

As part of a large figure/vehicle purchase from a mate of mine a year or so ago I also managed to snag some of Elhiem Figures NBC Soviets.  I never really needed them so they just sat their in one of my boxes... as things tend too.

Then last year I finally managed to make this:

which you can read more about here.
So if I had a NBC Recce vehicle, I needed a few chaps to jump out and scout about in an NBC environment.  So I got painting...

Very quick and simple paint jobs.  I understand that Soviet NBC outfits came in a variety of colours (not camouflaged though) but all had a slimy, rubberised kind of look or sheen.  I went for a lighter colour, and gave them a "Dip" which even when dull-coated, still had a nice sheen.  So I was pretty happy with them - so much so I ordered a couple more from Matt, so I could get the soldier with the NBC sampler kit.  I'll get around to him later when I remember what colour I used in the first place!

Anyway - where are the lads with their ride:

And here they are in situ:

That's all for now

Richard

Zvezda Soviet Motorised Infantry - A Review

I thought it was about time I reviewed something again - and this time something a little different.  For about a year now Zvezda have been previewing and releasing new Hot War figures, vehicles and aircraft.  In typical Zvezda fashion (which to me at least, is somewhat confusing - but I'm sure it works for them), the figures are in 1/72, the vehicles are in 1/100 and the aircraft - read helicopters only I think at the moment - are in 1/44.

Not a great deal of help in you work in 20mm, but at least the figures are the right scale.  All those 15mm gamers out there are pretty chuffed with at least some of the vehicles as well.

So far, figures-wise, Zvezda have only released Soviet Motorised Infantry and US Mechanised Infantry.  I had a good look at both on line and decided that the US troops so far did not suit my needs.  I actually thought they were a bit all over the place in terms of the weapons provided - too much was missing, like no SAW to be of much use for me at this point in time.

The soviets were better in my opinion.  The weapons were much more representative and better "balanced" for a squad.  Their only difference to what I already have was they all have body armour.  Not a problem - this helps differentiate them and in my mind, makes them perfect for my engineer squad.

So anyway - here is the box art:

And here are my painted chaps:

As you can see I only painted 1 NCO, 1 RPK and 1 RPG as you only need 1 in each squad.

Next up I have some comparison photos.  First are standing figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Now walking/running figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

Officers/NCOs:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

RPGs/Pzf 44

From left to right: Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Finally some "Action" shots:

So - my overall impression is that these are very nice figures.  Compared with some Zvezda stuff that I have literally been reduced to tears whilst trying to stick together, these fit fairly simply.  They took paint and "dip" easily as well.  The figures look natural, anatomically right and come with a good selection of excellent looking weapons.  Price - very cheap - I think I got these for about 3 quid each plus postage.  Sadly I have not seen these in Australia.

My only negative would be that although you get 5 figures in a pack, if you are trying to put together a squad, you will need at least 2 packs, and some of those figures (NCO, RPG & RPK) won't be able to be used twice.  Not really much of a negative really.

Best of all, there are some really nice sets coming out like a US Dragon missile box, which I'm very much looking forward to.  Come on Zvezda - bring 'em on!

Richard