Friday, January 11, 2013

Airfix kits for the Iranians, plus a cornet.

The Airfix Scorpion tanks finally came, and I got a chance to put them together and paint one.
The construction was relatively flawless with the exception of the tracks. These weren't just vinyl rubber band tracks, these were thick, silver, inflexible, things [relax Paul, despite this, I still don't have track rot]. I ended up cutting the things into link/length parts, and super-gluing them on.

I painted them in a slightly different pattern from my Type-72Zs which have a solid brown pattern on a khaki background. I followed the pattern I see most on the Iranian Scorpions: brown/orange-brown stripes on a khaki background. The other I see is this one, all green/grey: I don't like it as much.

Photo from "Iranian Military Forum"



You will see I cheated on this part. The road wheel assembly is terrible, so I went in behind them and filled the suspension up with hot glue. You will also notice my quick reference sheet for Force on Force.


Here is the second area in which I cheated. There is no track on the top half of the suspension, it isn't noticeable when just looking at the tank I don't think.

Here you can see how tiny these things are! Don't believe me? See below :D 
Photo from "Iran Military Forum"
I have also finished an AT-14. Here you can see some very excited Syrian Rebels firing them at Assad's tanks below. Its not very high quality, but does give an indication of the ease of operation and mobility: YouTube.
The launcher is scratchbuilt, and the figures are conversions. I left the figures without a base for several reasons. This gives them a low profile on the table; I can switch the nationality of the crews in the future per scenario; and I didn't feel like basing :D
I had another go at "AusCam," an Iranian favorite for some reason.


I hope you have an excellent Friday, and weekend!

12 comments:

  1. Very nice vehicles and soldiers!
    Phil.

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    1. Thank you very much Phil! They were nice little kits, the second one is waiting to be weathered now!

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  2. Nice work Ben... its a very nice tank the Scorpion and I like that missile launcher. good idea with the swapable crew.

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    1. Thanks Gowan. I have grown to love the Scorpion so far!

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    2. hehe good old british engineering... anyway good that you like it.

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    3. I agree :D
      I envision these zipping around an urban battlefield firing off rounds at terrified US fireteams (only in 20mm that is). I'm sure you know what I mean!

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  3. Your Scorpion camo is first-rate, Ben. Your work is getting better and better! I'm going to hire you out to finish up my "Modern Warfare 2" Russians and their vehicles lol! I have a BRDM command vehicle, and am going to get some BMPs and more BTRs!!

    Also - in the picture - look at that "elite" IRGC Soldier with his hands in his pockets...dirt-bag! Even your average, run-of-the-mill US GI with a combat service support job knows that's a big no-no! So those guys are elite huh? :)

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    1. Thank you for the complement! I have a load of Russian vehicles in the mail right now, so you're not alone! On e of the kits is the new BTR-T, a very scary machine.

      I think with Iran, "elite" must imply British tanks from 1970, and US camo from 1980 lol!

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  4. Great work Ben, even without track rot issues the Scorpion is a classy looking vehicle.

    Well done on all counts with the work.

    Regards Paul

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    1. Thanks Al! I'm glad you like them. Are these supposed to have rocket launchers on them though?

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  5. Great work with this build mate the tracks on mine were short as well, love the paint scheme as well.

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    1. Thanks Rich! Other than the tracks, I was surprised with the quality of such an old kit. Thanks for looking.

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