Air Defense Artillery – Rolands and Patriots
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Author Archives: Allen
Blast From The Past
Sometimes I dig around in boxes in the shop and I find old minis that I nearly forgot all about. Here are three boxes of Micro Armor from sometime in the mid to late 1980’s
Working on some Australian M1 Abrams
I’ve gotten spoiled by modern US armor being one color lately. A three color scheme like this a lot of work (about 6 hours last night) …. but the result is worth it.
In this photo I have just finished putting on the three colors and now I’m ready to paint the tracks and do some weathering and a wash.
Getting the colors mixed just right was a challenge. The green was not too bad, it’s 75% Olive Drab and 25% Dark Green. The tan color was a problem. The documentation I found says the tan is FS30219. Testors Model Master Acryl makes an FS30219 but after spraying all the units with that color I found it to WAY too brown/red for my liking. So added tan and sand until I got a color that more closely matched what I was seeing in photos of actual Australian vehicles. I’m pretty happy with the colors that I came up with. 
Back to work…
I’m back from Historicon and I’ve done just a little more to my Baghdad Parade Grounds boards. The roads are painted and now it’s time to start with the ground covering. I’m also working on a few of the buildings I’ll be needing for this.
Big Micro Armor game at Historicon 2014
Big Micro Armor game run by Chris Stockton (chrisswim on the forums). Fun game.
A Serious Truck
I made this using a GHQ M1083 FMTV chassis (GHQ #N129) with the bed from a HEMTT (Ghq #N95) and then mounted a .50 cal on the roof and two M249 SAWs in the bed along with an 81mm mortar for a little extra boom. Scraps of sheet metal were added around the rear of the bed to protect the mortar crew.
My Latest Bit Of Madness
Here is the beginnings of my latest project, the Baghdad Parade Grounds in 1/285th scale. I’ve been working on the design for this set of game boards for quite a while,,, this is actually why I originally created the “Crossed Swords” miniature that GameCraft sells.
This set of boards will be massive, it’s a total of 12 boards, each one measuring 20″ x 20″. The total size of this will be 60″ x 80″ and that 80″ number is likely to grow as I add additional boards to the east end. If I cheat a little bit in distances I can maybe extend this board to the east far enough to include the Presidential Palace (The Al Sijood Palace).
On April 7th 2003, Task Force 1-64 of the 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade rolled into the Parade Grounds after fighting their way in from the south west. Once at the Parade Grounds there was little to no resistance left in their way. I’m thinking of running a game where the US forces encounter stiff resistance at the Parade Grounds.
The first two photos show the CAD design of these boards, the second one shows the design laid over a satellite photo of the parade grounds.
A few new terrain pieces
I guess I’m sort of known for large terrain pieces (after all I did build an Eiffel Tower in 1/285th scale) and when I build pieces in 285th scale, they are actually 285th scale … not some “that looks right” scale that is in between vehicle scale and ground scale. So here are two more pieces I’m working on, a wharfside container crane and a vehicle bridge,,, pieces for two different projects. I’ll probably do two more of the cranes for a total of three.
1/285th Scale Container Crane (WIP)
I’ve been working on a 285th scale container crane. Here you can see how it’s coming along. A lot of details need to be added yet, but I think you get the idea.
Yes, I love large scenery pieces.
Allens Micro Armor Blog 