Leopard 2 and Lynx attack of the cats

Well hello to you all! and I bet some of you are thinking what is Gowan going to post this time? well this may come as a shock but models are in the post today (crowd in disbelief). yes it's been too long but finally I have some thing to show you and I think it is a well rounded post including a Kit, Diecast and a figure, but also, a vehicle, an aircraft and and infantryman.

Well lets start off with my personal favourite the Tank! the Leopard 2 A6(M) according to the Revell box. But as with nearly all the tanks it's Oronegrean built and bred.  The kit was a bit of a hassel to build certainly the solid tracks were not nice to put together and I failed misserably at doing the whole warming and bending thing. (one worked OK but the rest snapped and have been glued into place). Another problem was the garage clear out that took place half way through construction meaning that the decals were lost and now are possibly out with the rest of the rubbish. So the tank has no markings or licence plates that would have been nice to add but one problem can be another opportunity. This tank because of its unique camouflage can be an Oronegrean tank, a German one or another nations tank. certainly what decals would have given the tank aesthetically is made up with new found usability.

a soldier for scale purposes... no decals but that doesn't bother me. it just makes this all the more usable.

This being Oronegro, the tank is clearly Oronegrean built so this is the Leoplard O3 with advanced gun, a lighter varient of the same nigh impenitrable armour of the Oronegrean Challengers and Abrams. Not to mention a ridiculous engine that makes the advanced hydrogen fuel cell of the challengers look sane. this tank is Nuclear powered! (extreme disbelief) now, now don't you worry not all are so powered many have conventional internal combustion or hydrogen fuel cell power plants but a few of these tanks incorperate nuclear powerplants... which I'll explain later and (as with the challengers) back up diesel engine.

this one was an interesting build with all the many parts... not the hardest kit I've made but not an easy one

noo the table is showing I thought I had got all shots with only white background

from behind

 Right lets talk about the engine as we're at that end of the tank (previous photo). it is nuclear but uses an element that does not exist on the normal periodic table, this element decays very slowly but gives off lots of energy, three rods are placed in the reactor which is shielded by a casing of ridicolouslydenseium  which shields the crew (though the reactor manager does wear an NBC suit for extra safety). only one of the three rods is ever active at one time, all three would potentially cause a meltdown. in case of an emergency or one of the rods going out of control the rods can be automatically loaded into special shells and fired out of the main gun (which has a shieled autoloader) these shells, if loaded into armed shells (there are two types eject, for emergencies, armed for using them as weapons) explode with a reasonably large nuclear blast. should all three rods be ejected the diesil engine can let the big cat limp away at a stately 15km/h.

the required "propoganda" shot

 Next up is a Lynx this is an advanced version based on the AH7. this one is built (wait for it) by AgustaWestland NOT IN ORONEGRO (more disbelief) this lynx has been given the most powerful, reliable engines on offer so that it can reach the top speeds of the fastest models, i.e the fastest of all helicopters. equipped with the TOE missiles (advanced version of the TOW) and a door gunner occasionally opens the door to cover the side (mostly they stay inside, its unnerving flying low at such high speeds)
Now this lynx came with helicopter magazine... I had a difficult choice as I had to choose between the lynx or a German eurotiger (would have gone well with the Leopard) but as I have an apache kit I thought another transport would be better and the missiles gave this one the edge. Now I do have a comparison shot later of both Lynx (what is the plural?) so you can see the difference.

this is a nice diecast, although I have had to cut and glue a few things here, I clearly got the runt of the litter.

 Now for the figure. Sorry about the photo's as I didn't get the lighting right. This man is Oronegrean Special forces (haven't decided which... marine?) who unusually for my figures has the Oronegrean flag painted on his shoulder. he's one of a few figures I have been working on for a while, real mixed quality as some of the figures had unexpected flash (strange for caesar figs) and were primmed with nasty Tamiya primmer (really thick sticky coat) but many are also conversions so it's interesting to see how they're turning out.

sorry about the lighting

still too dark but you can see the camo pattern reasonably well.

 Now for that comparison! Scale difference is minimal which is nice although clearly the new lynx is of better quality. I don't have any british forces in Oronegro but they along with many NATO forces were involved, so perhaps down the line I should get some. have the helicopter but no-body for it to support to transport. the old lynx is pretty generic though and despite its either Soviet or Polish origins its not too bad compated with the new one IMHO.

from above

different angle.

 All together now.

Rebels beware more forces have joined the goverments cause.

Well thats it for today.

I'm still here... a Ruin and a grand overview of Oronegro

Well first things first I am appologizing for not being active recently. I have been up to my eyeballs with work and as soon as I clear just a little, my sister leaves minecraft on the computer and it just draws me in like a fly to a light... so yes clearly I have problems to sort out there but during this time I have got some work done.

Well I guess another thing to say is that if you were expecting a nice small post with a few pics I am sorry but this may just ruin your day. 17 pictures and a lot to say, so lets start it off with the RUIN!\

The Ruin is made from cork floor tiles salvaged from when we ripped up the floor in there. other materials include sticks, bamboo scewers, brown packing paper, card (various types), thin plywood, filler, wire mesh and kitchen towel (more paper). not the best built ruin I must say but for a first go its alright. the figure for scale is actually from Emmett (Winttrix) who was selling his old models. I bought a few figures, a helicopter and some Bren Carriers, which i am sending to Michael. Some of the figures were already painted with a few patches where they had been damaged, so my job was to patch them up and get them ready to go again.

I found the cork quite a nice material to work with. easy to cut and stick together.

examples of the way to get the ruin effect, breacking the cork by hand looks (left wall and front) more realistic IMHO than cutting (wall on the right)

I also decided to add some details, on the roof are some sand bags with some nasty spikes. it looks simple because it is, card wrapped in kitchen towel and some sticks. ok the painting is bad but i forgot about my colour blindness and assumed it would all look good in th end. (ps lines on wall to the left are the glue for sticking the tiles to the floor)

perhaps the best angle for viewing the ruin, the curtains are made from packing paper. nice and easy.

the ladder is very large compared to a figure but is more for show than to be 100% accurate.... its so you know there is a ladder (you can sometimes get a fig to stand on it also)

 Now lets take a closer look at our friend here! he was the least damaged of the figures and the most painted... so a simple bit of nasty Tamiya primer and some paint to cover the metal that showed through and he was ready againt to see action! since I took these photo's (a while ago now) I have fixed up a buddy for this guy and almost completed some of my own figures from the Elhiems I got sent. All very nice figures I must say.

Special forces, Merc, rebel, PMC who knows this man could be any of these.

Remember most of this is Emmett's work, I just patched him up.

well there you have it. Emmett stopped posting pictures on his blogs last year so I am happy that I can show off just one more bit of his excellent work

 Now onto the overview! these pictures are even older but still well worth a look! This is all of Modern Oronegro minus the city boards and the terrible little river boat I did ages ago... if you don't remember its the green one which I photographed with a rubber duck.

it is big! very big! and for some reason its not enough... perhaps its good I am going to university next year. that will limit how much I can do.

newer work stands by older work as we look over the National side

the lynx is there also, it was the newest part of the overview.

now to the rebel side. the Spetnaz and russian T-90A standing out against the rest of the rebel forces

rebel armour advances. this battle would A) not occur at any time except when everyone agreed to it and B) be a nightmare to be part of.

Now for some action and detail shots! first up we have some pictures of the aircraft of oronegro. then some shots of the chaos on the ground.

2 jets, 1 Spitfire and 2 helicotpers (sort of)

view along the rebel advance! I seem to have reversed the laws of stereotypical cold war style warfare by making the Russian's the blue team... well I guess that means I have to paint the US soldiers Red.

fighting back the UN Germans and other troops hold the left wing of the national army, in the distance the black angels unload and prepare for what must be the most chaotic fight in Oronegrean history.

and the view from the National right. they have the better position and armour but still this is not going to be an easy fight

Well thats all folks. hope your well and happy and I hope that I might post more frequently and visit more frequently but seeing how busy I am I cannot promise that. anyway have a good day/night everybody.

the Lynx!... or my first helicopter kit

Well if you saw it in the last post it may come as no surprise that its done. I had some problems with the old decals, namely that they disintegrated and didn't work at all. oh well its will have to be an unmarked lynx. no worries though that gives it more uses :-D Major things to note, first of all the kit didn't fit together well, bugger; the glass for the window doors fell in and was only luckily shaken into place where liberal use of glue was required to secure it, doubly bugger; one of the rear landing gear legs is longer than the other so the aircraft is leaning to one side, triple bugger; and that the cockpit was not given all the detail so I could not paint on all the struts, quadruple bugger.

oh well on with the photos!

Dropping off the Black Angels under the cover of darkness the high speed lynx is the best choice for these missions

the team leader gathers his men before setting off on another dangerous mission few others could handle

as you can see I didn't paint on all the struts, mainly because their were no lines in the "glass" for me to work with (also I had no masking tape)

without decals all details are painted on but despite the lack of detail its perhaps rather more useful with many rolls open to this aircraft

this shot shows the rather uneven joins and the tilt the aircraft has taken on

view down the side.

naturally a birds eye view of the bird. the rotors are attached in a way that makes them not so secure I had to add extra glue and paint before taking these photos

the mandatory flying shot! nice view of our lounge/living room, and the home-made book case.

and man with satellite phone. I have run out of credit on my phone quintuple bugger! and don't have the money to top it up. curse you ridiculous prices for using a mobile device, all we are using is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, are you going to make us pay for seeing certain colours? (then again I'm colour blind so I can't see some)

anyway hope your all well and not worrying about your own phones. To those of you suffering the Heat Wave in the UK (and Europe?) don't despair seasons change. though if it is part of global warming well then expect this to become normal, I also wish to include those long cold winters in that as well.

As for New Zealand well, chilly yes, had some extreme weather earlier this winter but its calmed down in recent weeks, perhaps you guys might want to come down here for the winter and cool off... don't forget to visit Waiuku and play where's Charlie.

have a good day/night everyone.

Their over. Yay no more exams + unexpected news report

I would say that right now I am celebrating and that I am planning a great list of things to do with my friends... but that would be a lie. No I am happy don't get me wrong but for crying out loud I am so exhausted that I can barely do anything. Its over! and I am glad it is.

well now that I have got up the energy for this post I may as well write something intelligent :-( hmm. Well ...

holy crap The Police helicopter just flew Low over our house. thought it was going to crash!!!!!!! I ain't joking either now it appears to be hovering over some part of the golf coarse near our house! Holy crap I was not expecting that. I guess its another training exercise as they love to fly the noisy thing over this town

notice how clear the photo is compared to UFO sightings and monster pics :-P

I really should remember that side on shots do not upright

if you look at some previous photos you will see that those trees in the corner are right near my house

and another pic... perhaps I could use them for a near future scenario???

Well I was not expecting that. I can still hear the thing buzzing so I am not sure if it is going away... hopefully a training exercise if not... well lets hope that they catch the person or people before they chose a near by house to hide in.... no sirens for police cars so that's a good sign. Still this post is going in the helicopters section.

well where was I after that sudden event. O yes... Well no I am not planning anything big just a little rest I think. if the helicopter goes away then a sleep is possible but rest assured that from now on apart from clearance day where all I do is go into school and sign my name on a sheet of paper and pay any fees before going home again. there is a came going on in the holidays for us prefects to learn our skills... remind me I need to fill in that form... so really from now until school next year Models get a higher priority :-D

Lets hope that I don't have to do (m)any more of these news report type posts this event came out of the blue and the helicopter getting so low as to sound like its going to crash into your house is not a nice experience... though at least it was only some nerves that got shredded. Pants are unspoiled before you make any rude remarks :-

Challenger 2 and a crashed helicopter.

 First up the tank :-)
well I finally got around to putting that nice trumpeter Challenger 2 MTB kit together. What a beautiful kit, my friend game me a hand painting the black base coat before assembly but my gluing ruined some of his work and in the end I had to redo the base coat... anyway onto the stories you love so much.
Oronegro is much famed for her arms building, 20% of the population (25,300,000 people total) work directly in the production and testing of arms in Oronegro. Tanks of coarse are a huge export and as such so too do they become easily available to the Oronegrean army. the newest and best tank available in the Challenger 2 O2 which is basically a challenger 2 tank given the most advanced armour and technology Oronegro produces (so pretty all the best stuff around). AND an advanced Hydrogen fuel cell!!!!!!!!!!!!! allowing the tank to travel at at least 80km/h with a range of about 700km. there is also a back up V-6 diesel engine that can propel the tank at 15 km/h with a range of only 100 km. drums on the back also contain diesel for emergencies should the hydrogen engine cut out. This tank is a match for nearly all other tanks in the globe, it was planned for British service and a "prototype" (a copy made in the UK) was made in 2020. The tank entered Oronegrean service in 2016 and by 2020 there were 135 in service by 2020.

BLACK AS NIGHT well apart from some white reactive armour, this tank is coloured to intimidate

well not that a tank is not intimidating anyway but the colour does add to its terror factor

on top are the aerials, which I made from some copper wire, also the advanced imaging systems, infrared for the gun and other systems with blue screens

there on the mud guard is the Oronegrean flag :-)

nice and dusty, not much mud because the black tanks are normally used in cities or at night, most Oronegrean tanks have camouflage

the red fuel tanks full of diesel for the back up engine

the reactive armour on the side is painted white to act as a target, which means that the untrained rebel will aim for the best defences

top view, showing the tank in all its dark glory and the grey marks from the tank tracks

Of coarse no photo shoot of a tank would be complete without views with the turret aimed sideways

you can just about see the blue periscope for the driver

one of my favourite shots

 The helicopter
the crashed helicopter, its made from a little cheap die-cast which my friend picked up at the side of the road while we were walking the dog! so a free little bit of terrain, all it needed was a bit of paint and paper to make this run-over toy into a nice little bit of scenery. I did Wonder if it was big enough but it fits in well, and it lends itself to some scenarios such as saving some news crew who were in a helicopter that was blown up or perhaps  the helicopter contains some very important documents that must not fall into rebel hands or the other way around.

some rebels use the helicopter as cover in another firefight in the city

the smoke and flames are made from kitchen towel with a bit of super glue and PVA to get them into shape

this view reveals the old run over toy that this scene was made from

hmm I don't think that its going to fly anytime soon

well there you go, I still have a selection of figs to show you but they will come soon. Holidays over :-( but only 3 weeks until study leave so then I will have time to use models as a de-stress for the small breaks between hitting the books. hopefully with pens and pencils and not my head due to frustration.

greetings to mk_Ozkir from Linen and wood, miniafv and plastic soldier he is also from turkey so another follower from that transcontinental country.