Ambush Alley Force-On-Force: modern military forces blog

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Thanks, guys.


The chinese Sunburn Launcher has been finished. The Russian-built Kh-41 Moskit aka Sunburn is a tactical anti-ship-missile which some years ago was called the "most dangerous of its kind". China has received some of them and uses them mainly on its navy missile cruisers. However, the Kh-41 was always proposed to be lauchable from coastal defenses as well. My truck-based launchpad is one of these coastal defenses.
For my "Battle For Skira" project, the USMC force recon unit of Razor Two has to launch a series of stealthy night operations to counter this threat to coalition naval forces with "direct action" (that means, blowing $#it up). Air strikes to destroy the PLA's missile sites are impossible due to the enemy having established an umbrella of SAM sites (guess what I am building next *g*).

The scratch-built Sunburn Launcher from all angles (1/72 parts used: Diecast Himars missile launcher Truck, Gran SA-2 Launchpad, Armory kh-41 Moskit Resin missile kit):

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Progress was made over the recent days. As I already pointed out to, the next topic is SAM sites for the PLA coastal defenses. I had finished the QW-2 shoulder-launched SAM teams last year. Now its time to add the medium ranged launchpads. Funnily enough, Codemasters (who made "Dragon Rising", the PC game my campaign is based upon) seems to have made up these launchers as I was unable to find proof for their existance online.

The missile depicted does exist - its called PL-12/SD-10 - and seems to be a clone of the similar US-built AMRAAM and SPARROW air-to-air-missiles.
Just like the US have made tests with the so-called SL-AMRAAM made by Raytheon built onto a HMMWV as a launchpad, the Chinese were creating the LS-2 ADS (Lie Shou 2 Air Defense System), mounted on a DongFeng EQ2050, which is a copy of the Humvee.

Since the launcher seen in those screenshots seems not to be a real thing, I will call it Lie Shou (Hunter) ADS for my campaign (meaning its an older version of what became the Humvee-clone mounted LS 2 ADS). I really like the looks of these towed autonomous SAM sites mounted on small trailers. This is how the look in "Dragon Rising":



The Special Forces teams have to destroy various SAM sites in order to clear the airspace to call in coalition air support and troop transports via helicopter. There will be more various anti-air systems for my campaign but let's start with my scratch built version of the screenshots:





There is plenty of parts that went into this. Undercarriage from GRAN's SA-2, wheels from RH Liberations' ZPU-4, main body made from Revell Tiger HAP helo's missile pod and a Italeri Leopard 1's search light, missiles and launch rails from Hasegawa's Aircraft missile set etc.

Feel free to leave some feedback, please.

[Codsticker]

Nice conversion work.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

With some delay the Lie Shou (Hunter) ADS is finally done. Nothing too fancy, just a little mission objective marker for Force On Force. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The missiles themselves could have been painted a little better but I was in a hurry. I am on vacation and there is a LOT OF stuff that I want to get painted within the next days.






My buddy who is going to control the US forces in the campaign already said he can't wait to blow them up. Well, we'll see how he's doing when he sees what else is going to be part of the opposing forces.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Like I said in my previous postings, currently I am working off all those little things that I kept buying over the years but never painted. xD
The little addition to my US Army force shown below are a couple of those items that were sitting on the "to do" list for way too long...

From left to right: Elhiem medic, Stonewall Platoon 20 grenadier, Forces of Valor wounded soldier with comrade (repainted), Stonewall Platoon 20 rifleman, Elhiem "breacher" with shotgun

The same models' back show the various loadouts from different eras. Normally you shouldn't mix them as they are representing different timeframes of action. I just placed them next to each other cause they were painted at the same time and because it shows you how they mix size-wise. All are labelled as 1/72 or 20mm.

[Ash]

Very nice scratch build on the SAM site, and the base really finishes it off perfectly.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

There we are: finally there is also some US Marines for the forthcoming Battle For Skira campaign. I just started with the first few things that I was able to grab and it happens to be the second set of US specials by Elhiem (medic and breacher), the Forces Of Valor soldier with wounded comrade (again)and a M240 medium MG team consisting out of RH Liberation modern US miniatures.


Left to right: RH Liberation modern US rfileman (standing) and M240 gunner (kneeling) to form a weapons team, FoV plastic soldier with wounded comrade, Elhiem breacher with shotgun and Elhiem medic (it would be called Navy Corpsman in this case).


What I really like about Rolf's minis (RH Liberation) is the fact, that the rifleman actually carries a box of 7,62mm link :-) Perfect to be part of a weapons team.


This is my desperate try to bring the miniatures closer to my light source so you can have a better look at my MARPAT (woodland) pattern. I tried my best, guess it looks fine for 20mm figs.

[Idle Scholar]

They look excellent, especially given the scale and sculpts. And so many so quickly!

[sigur]

Looking very nice. Force on Force is getting soo tempting once again. I found someone in my area (well, two hours drive or so) who also plays. I should pay him a visit some time. Anyhow, I really like the guy carrying the wounded comrade.

[Harry]

What an incredible log. Wonderful painting, fantastic bases. What a great collection of beautifully painted minis.

Not my period at all but blown away by your work.

[warriorpoet1]

This log is amazing. I'm also working on modern stuff, but in 28mm, and your stuff is very inspiring. Keep up the awesome work!

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Since 2011 there was plenty of stuff built and painted for my Dragon Rising Project (which I now call "Battle For Skira" on my blog). The latest addition were Chinese vehicles a couple of months back.
I have now started a new build for the project. It's a conversion of the 1/72 scale UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter into a UH-1Y Venom.

It is going to be called "Star Force 21", the call sign of the Venom that was part of the missions in the pc game ARMA 2. It was the chopper that picked up Team Razor (which I also have minis for).

Base kit for the conversion was the Italeri UH-1N. To complete the build I will kit-bash it with combining this Italeri kit with an AH-1W Whiskey Cobra, a Bell 412 (also Italeri) and an AH-1Z from KiTech (which, BTW is NOT a correct Viper helicopter - its rather an updated trial AH-1W testbed). Resin parts will then be added from the "AH-1W Iraq Update" kit by Olimp Models (bad quality cast though) and Armycast M&M payload (ie Miniguns etc). As you can see its quite costly
Crew will be added using SHQ Vietnam chopper pilots and door gunners (as they are the correct size to fit exactly into the Huey fuselage). I am going to add weapons, chaff/flare dispensers, rader warning sensors, payload (Hydra, M134 and .50cal) as well as FLIR turret.

work in progress:



Top needs still parts for the rotor and turbine housing isn't completed yet.




Lot of work with putty to follow....

[Caiphas Cain]

I've missed your updates! Good to see you back here. Your chopper looks to be shaping up nicely.

[precinctomega]

Brilliant as always - I love the conversions.

R.

[fluffy05]

Where did you find the flight crew for the chopper?

I have a few 1/72 Helicopter kits without crew (looking for US pilots).

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Where did you find the flight crew for the chopper?

I have a few 1/72 Helicopter kits without crew (looking for US pilots).

Does anyone ever read posts? SHQ does make some that fit.

[folnjir]

Does anyone ever read posts? SHQ does make some that fit.

No we just look at the pictures

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

No we just look at the pictures

I wouldn't have expected anything else to begin with.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

upper turbine/rotor-shaft housing added, green-stuffed and brought into shape. Needs some filler and sanding and then I can finally start adding all the small details.


After hours of hacking, cutting and exhausting work with a saw, I salvaged an AH-1W Cobra sprue for the upper rotor-shaft and turbine housing to add it to my Venom. Slowly things come into place and the whole chopper starts to look like an UH-1Y...
Some green stuff was added to shape transitions between panels that I couldn't close with anything but putty. It has to dry now for at least 24 hours until work can continue (which means even more fine putty over the rather rough green stuff :shock: ).

[Grimmnar]

Does anyone ever read posts? SHQ does make some that fit.

No we just look at the pictures

I wouldn't have expected anything else to begin with.

Read? What is this read you speak of? I only heare to look at the preety piktures. :-)

Grimm