As regular visitors to this blog will know, I don't do much on Historical gaming for myself, and tend to do more Sci-Fi or Fantasy, that's not to say I haven't worked on historical stuff before, my first client when I started the company was MJ Figures and I worked on his Falklands range and built his Georgians and Jackal crew. So when a fellow blogger asked me if I would do a conversion for him, I jumped at the chance. Dave also known as Guru Pig over at phillipislandgamingsociety asked if I could convert a Matilda Tank to the Hedgehog variant, he sent over lots of reference pictures (very useful), after agreeing a price, Dave got a tank sent to me to work on, this came from Warlord Games. I only assembled the main body of the tank and tracks, as I needed the whole back section to be able to do the conversion, I used a mix of Plasticard and Greenstuff to create the piece as seen below.
The one are Dave's reference pictures didn't cover was the rear view, luckily on a Google search I found a larger scale model kit that covered this, here are some of the reference pictures to see what it should look like.
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Dave will be showing the painted version on his blog once done. That's all for this short post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !
Cheers Dave
Wow!! I own some of the "MJ Figures" Falklands range, having been bitten by the bug during a show once. Did you sculpt the infantry and penguins (I seem to recall buying a few packs of them!?!), Dave..? Great addition to the tank - though I was wondering how the British had a rocket-launching tank so early on, until I read its a mortar. LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Simon, I did some of his troops, the one I remember vividly id the Argentinian Bazooka Loader, as the Google search brought up some very different pictures to what I was looking for ! LOL I believe this is for Dave's Australian army and indeed it's a mortar, but you can see where the missile launcher influences cam from.
ReplyDeleteThe Canadians and Ozzie’s came up with the nutsiest vehicle conversions out of anyone in the war I feel. The PIAT Battery Carriers were just as crazy imo as this thing.
ReplyDeleteExcellent work Dave!
Thank you Dai, must admit I knew little of the history of this vehicle before sculpting it, and still probably know a lot less then a lot of others do, but was fun to work on;.
DeleteHaha I remember Mark (It was Mark, wasn't it?) from MJ he was a great bloke, into everything (and few things he shouldn't have been, if the rumours were true 😉).Didn't know you'd done work for him though, I still use paint he gave me, and have a couple of post apoc figures he passed me as samples back in my reviewing days too. Strangely a few days back I saw mention of an MJ figures or games somewhere on the net and did wonder if it was him still in the hobby as I hadn't heard anything of him for years.
ReplyDeleteNice work on the tank conversion by the way, did you get the base model direct from Warlord or did Dave send it over from Oz?
Cheers Roger.
Thank you Roger, it was indeed Mark, he did have a very eclectic range indeed, including some not Stargate miniatures which he had to change the name of, and that was all he had to do. I met him at the first Salute I did, his stall was behind mine, and one of his goals for the show was to find a new sculptor, and all he ended up with was me ! LOL Last I heard from him he was doing okay, and happy over in Ireland.
DeleteYes the base model came directly from Warlord, as it would be crazy to have gone from the UK to Oz and back again, to then return to Oz again ! LOL
Nice job on the conversion. 😀
ReplyDeleteThank you Stewart, it was a nice change to what I normally do.
DeleteNice conversion work there, Dave! :-) The design probably evolved, as the War Thunder and colour photo (I'm assuming a museum exhibit) look much less makeshift than the older black and white photo.
ReplyDeleteThank you John, your probably right about it evolving, I went with the design that I had multiple shots of so I could see all the angles.
DeleteExcellent work on this conversion and it is very kind of you to help a fellow blogger out too. I think it will look fantastic when painted up.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeff, you know me i like to help where I can, and I look forward to seeing Dave paint it up.
DeleteGreat looking ocnversion and no dobt a lot of work.NIce to see you're not averse to the occassional historic project.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joe, being mostly straight lines it wasn't too difficult, just needed to make sure it was right as it was for someone else.
DeleteNice mod! I imagine GP will give us the background on this thing, as I'm really curious what that rack on the back is for?! It looks like it could be a missile launcher, but too early and no venting. I'm going to place a bet that it's used to secretly store cold beers, haha!
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian, agreed I'm sure he'll give us the full history when he shows it, cold beer is a good shout, but I do know it was a mortar.
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