John Treadaway | 18 Nov 2013 8:29 a.m. PST |
I have finished a couple of the new Ainsty 15mm Hammer's Slammers Command Cars (in 15mm obviously).
The M9A4 Command CarThe M9A4 has a high, built up, fully enclosed rear body with no mesh splinter shield fitted. This variant massing at 40 tonnes is sometimes employed away from the front line. Sometimes seen as an armoured ambulance or other support vehicle, the most common usage is as a Command Car fitted with extensive communications equipment. The Slammers do use the Command Car in front line service. In front line use especially, the M9A4C is fitted with a roof mounted tribarrel, which can be fired via a top hatch or remotely. Of the same overall length, width and mass as the M9A1/2 Combat Car, the M9A4 has lighter armour in the enclosed, rear compartment. The M9A4C has firing ports in this area and can be used as an APC but this is rare. The Lightning Division from 340TW or so onwards began using a variant of the M9A4C: the M9A14 Crew Car. This has space for a small squad or infantry in the rear usually no more than four men and has a pair of 1cm gatling rail-gun mounted in remote turrets on the roof of the rear compartment.
I did a build on two of these using both the new decals from Ainsty and some of the new Slammers infantry from GZG. link As the vehicle has a rear door/ramp, I took the opportunity of positioning one with the door open and one with it closed and took the bases off of some of the new infantry to pose debussing the vehicle. I found the new decals, production wise, to be excellent, I will admit (they're manufactured by people who usually do model railway decals) – I only managed to louse one up, which is always a good sign! The sheet has spare shields on it, including some really small ones, and names too. Numbers and letters are all made to be immersed in water as a set of three digits so no need to position individual numerals. They go down with no visible carrier film using Microsol. The GZG figures are very nice, I have to say: Martin Baker's sculpting gets better and better. As for the painting, I know I do like my vehicles to look 'in combat' but I will admit that I might have made these just a tad too dirty, even for my tastes. I'll have to cut down on my weathering! As I've said at the bottom of the page on the Slammers site, if you use these, remember to invoke the optional rule Leading from the Front for an extra +2 Leadership Points for using a visually obvious fire magnet' vehicle like a command car! John Treadaway hammers-slammers.com |
MrHarold | 18 Nov 2013 8:38 a.m. PST |
Those look great
especially love the rear view with the troops entering/exiting. It was a little hard to tell from the pictures of just the vehicles, but the troops add a nice sense of scale to it! Really nice stuff!
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John Treadaway | 18 Nov 2013 8:41 a.m. PST |
You're right, of course, about cale Mr H: I just haven't had a chance to do a 'scenic' shot of the models with them next to Combat cars and such like on some terrain. I wanted to get to them while it was still light enough to take some quick shots. I will do some'nice' (and certainly more informative) shots later! John T |
Patrick Sexton | 18 Nov 2013 9:17 a.m. PST |
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kabrank | 18 Nov 2013 10:04 a.m. PST |
Very nice addition to the combat car range. Shame these were not at warfare as I would have picked up one in addition to the blowers, cars and transfers I picked up. |
Lion in the Stars | 18 Nov 2013 10:43 a.m. PST |
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darthfozzywig | 18 Nov 2013 11:04 a.m. PST |
Nice work, especially on the skirts. |
AVAMANGO | 18 Nov 2013 12:04 p.m. PST |
As for the painting, I know I do like my vehicles to look 'in combat' but I will admit that I might have made these just a tad too dirty, even for my tastes. I'll have to cut down on my weathering! I think you have got the weathering pretty much bang on, i wouldn't say it was over the top at all. I think that the new Command Cars look great especially the rear door with extending steps, yet again the GZG figures look fantastic and the new Hammer Slammers decals will be on order very soon
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John Treadaway | 18 Nov 2013 3:13 p.m. PST |
@Kabrank In all fairness, Andy at Ainsty has been trying to get the stocks and casting done and very kindly let me have a couple of pre productions so that I could review them in the Fantasy Facts column in Miniature Wargames*. Since that's due out in the next day or so (there'll be shots of the vehicles in there but not painted obviously!) I wanted to try and time this to be as 'simultaeneous' as possible with these shots. I would imagine they'll be available from Ainsty in the next few days. @everyone thanks for the positiveness on the painting. By the weekend I'll be able to have a look and maybe take some shots of them next to the other combat cars and tanks and get some perspective, re weathering and so forth. I like the rear door stuff as well. When this was discussed, Steve McGuire (the sculptor) was quite taken, I think, with the vehicles I'd recently painted from Antenociti with the fella hanging out of the door:
and with that and the way that the etched brass gun-shields and control panels went down on the regular Combat cars:
it was just suggested that the Command Car would benefit from some extra 'play value'- hence the rear door/ramp. Glad people seem to like it! John T * in general, it's very difficult 'stealing a march' on the internet with a column in print in a magazine: tch, didn't used to be like this thirty years ago when I was first writing for a magazine
no one had blogs or facebook pages. And the rainbows were in black and white and everything was steam powered :) |
McWong73 | 18 Nov 2013 4:37 p.m. PST |
Can we get the etched brass separately, or are the pieces only available in the combat car or blower packs? They look great btw. |
Legion 4 | 18 Nov 2013 4:57 p.m. PST |
x 10 |
MarkRyan | 18 Nov 2013 6:45 p.m. PST |
Fantastic! Thanks for keeping the Slammers project moving with the decals and now the command cars. Beautiful work on the cars. Thanks, Mark |
John Treadaway | 19 Nov 2013 1:03 a.m. PST |
McWong Drop Andy at Ainsty and email would be my suggestion John T EDIT BTW – I saw the Steve the sculptor's up-amoured Slammers vehicles at he weekend. They are getting very close! |
kabrank | 19 Nov 2013 4:13 a.m. PST |
John Thanks for the Piccies, nice guidance on what I can attempt with the two combat cars I picked up on Saturday. Great and helpful service from Ainsty at Warfare. Looking forward to this months magazine article. The sci-Fi content is one of the reasons I subscribe. |
John Treadaway | 19 Nov 2013 7:50 a.m. PST |
Thanks alot kabrank. I appreciate that :) I agree: Andy's a very nice and helpful chap :) :) John T |