I originally bought the PSC Panzer 38(t) and Marder Variants kit so I could build some Slovakian Pz. 38(t)s. However, after looking at the parts, the SPGs kind of grew on me, and I ended up making one of each type of vehicle.
The box art shows a Pz. 38(t), a Marder III Ausf. H, and a 15cm sIG 33 Grille, but the versions that can be built are actually a Pz. 38(t), a Marder III Ausf. H, and a Marder III Sd.Kfz. 139.
Outside of drilling out the barrels and travel locks I only modified the chairs of the Sd.Kfz. 139. Everything else was assembled OOB.
As with all PSC kits, there are a ton of left over parts after construction. I actually put together two different turrets for the Sd.Kfz. 139 so I can swap between the two for versions with and without canvas cover.
The models are only half painted because I ran into some issues and decided to take a break. Normally I only use rattle cans for priming, but since these were quickbuild kits, I didn't want to go through the trouble of cleaning my airbrush, so I decided to try out some Coat d'arms rattle cans that I had sitting around.
Unfortunately the spray cans gave very inconsistent results (I guess that's why they were on clearance, and no longer sold by Black Hat). I ended up having to strip the Marder III H in Simple Green and repaint it.
For the the Sd.Kfz. 139 I cut the backrest off of one of the seats and mounted it on the stowage rack.
The Pz. 38(t) was the easiest to put together, and it matches the dimensions of the Attack Pz. 38(t) perfectly, though the position of the muffler, and appearance of the rear idler seem to be different.
The models are all very robust, and perfect for wargaming purposes. With the addition of various details, they could probably make decent static models as well.
Murlocs are the colorful Deep One expys from World of Warcraft. They range in height from 3.5 feet to 6 feet, and average about 4 feet tall.
The first miniatures of murlocs came from the World of Warcraft boardgame from Fantasy Flight Games. I was able to buy a few examples of the loose murloc miniatures many years ago, before the price of the game skyrocketed to insane levels.
The next figures are from the short lived World of Warcraft Miniatures Game made by Upper Deck, and include the Marsh Murloc and Blindlight Murloc.
The miniatures are roughly the same size, and represent the upper end of the murloc height spectrum. The Upper Deck miniatures look better than the FFG figures because they have proper murloc legs, whereas the FFG murlocs have thick human-like legs.
Another miniature that looks like it came from WoW is the Mage Knight Carapace Creature (Dragon's Gate #039), which resembles a gorloc. However, what it reminds me even more of is a piscodaemon (except taller).
I cut away the prognathous jaw, and added some Kneadatite tentacles to turn it into a proper giant piscodaemon.
I'll finish this post with the Tiik Baby from the Aquatic Familiars III set (Dark Heaven Legends 03612) which I've seen painted up as murlocs.
As far as height goes, they are pretty much the ideal height for a murloc. I really hope that Reaper will eventually restart their Boneyard program, because I would really love to get more of these little guys.
The term "droid" is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd, and is the Star Wars universe equivalent of the word "robot". Star Wars droids come in a wide variety of forms, but most if not all, seem to be installed with some degree of artificial intelligence and personality.
I personally use the term loosely to refer to all cute, quirky, or comic relief robots from popular media. The majority of the various miniature versions of such robots that I've collected are droids from the Star Wars line of MicroMachines made by Galoob.
The first group of figures include four R-series astromech droids – one standalone, and three others on a single base. The fourth droid on the group base is a mining droid, followed by a gonk power droid (a couple of 1/72 resin kit from RetrokiT and Green Strawberry Models are available, but I don't know how they compare in size to the MicroMachines version). The last two figures are a LE-series repair droid and a ASP-series general-purpose labor droid.
The next image has three 3PO humanoid protocol droids and an assassin droid. The 3PO droids are tiny, and seem to be 1/87 scale. I think the E-3PO droid is a custom repaint or factory error of C-3PO since I don't think that there was an actual MicroMachines version of E-3PO.
C-3PO, C-3PO (god mode), E-3PO, IG-88
The droids that I like the most from the MicroMachines line are the B1 battle droids.
The duplicate poses are from the various playsets, and are distinguished from the standard figures by having a small hole through the middle of the base.
The battle droids are most likely 1/76 scale, so may appear somewhat under height, but overall, they still look fine with 1/72 figures.
Larger scale battle droids were made for the Star Wars Action Fleet line, but they don't have the spindly look of the droids from the films. I think that the S.T.A.P. (Single Trooper Aerial Platform) looks okay with the smaller figure riding it, so I'm fine with calling it 1/72 scale.
I have two other Action Fleet droids from the Pod Racer Hangar Bay set. Both are DUM-series pit droids. The tan colored droid has the pivoting hips of the typical Action Fleet figure, while the brown droid is a fixed pose figure.
At 21mm in height, they are about 1 scale foot taller than they should be, but I'm willing to let that pass.
In metal, Ground Zero Games makes a WorkBot pack (SG15-V13), with three small robots who are expys of R2D2, WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), and Dewey (or Louie) from Silent Running.
I misplaced the other miniatures, but had WALL•E on the workbench for quite some time awaiting modifications.
The front and rear of the model are not really close to the Pixar design, but it's not a big deal to me.
I wanted a little better detail on the models, so I added some eyes and upgraded the arms.
Then I carved out some rudimentary hands from plastic sprue and glued them to the arms, but had to widen them with plastic strip because I went overboard with my file.
I glued some plastic scraps littering the workbench into a rough square as a load of waste for my second robot to carry.
Some plastic strip that I marked with a Sharpie was added to the arms, and an unmarked strip was added to the rear.
The figure on the left fell on the floor, and the head ended up tilted, but it actually looks pretty good that way.
Not as good as the 1:1 version created by Mike McMaster, but close enough for me.
I am keeping this blog in an effort to track my building progress, document my work, and hopefully to maintain motivation to finish the projects I have started.
My scale of choice is 1/72, and the projects I paint, build, and collect cover a multitude of subjects from historical to fantasy and science fiction.
There's not much to say about myself. I work in a cubicle and stare at a monitor all day long. For recreation I paint miniatures, build models, and practice kendo.
