GZG 15mm review & conversions (longish)

Several times last week I mentioned that I'd got a batch of GZG's 15mm
SG2
figs, and that I'd modified some of them various ways - but last week I
had no time to write long emails about what I did...I do now, so here
goes.

I bought 9 packs of NAC 15mm figs - they're 8 to a pack, and include 1
SAW
gunner, 1 GMS/P, and 6 riflemen. There are enought varients in the
riflemen's poses that the basic squads have no repeat figures - which is
nice.

These are very nice figs - only minute amounts of filing & trimming of
casting flash, on just a few figs. The troops are wearing partial body
armour - breast plate, shoulder, knee & shin pads - and helmets - except
for the two figure types wearing berets. The standard small arm is a
fairly short rifle-thing - a carbine or bullpup design, really. The SAW
gunner is very "Aliens" - longer gun, fired from the hip, with one hand
out front on a horizontal handle alongside the barrel. The GMS/P is
being
carried across the chest, not in firing position.

Compared to a friend's Traveller 15mm figs (RAFM, I think) these are
very
skinny troopers. The Trav figs tend to look almost portly next to these
guys - they're the same height, though.

Paint Job: After washing and grey primer coat, a medium/darkish green
was
brushed on, followed by a blotchy/drybrushed coat of brownish tan for
camo
effect. Guns were painted metallic grey, helmet visors light grey, both
had very light silver drybrushing just to pick out highlights. Black
boots, tan blanket/poncho rolls, flesh color on hands & faces, hair
where
visible finished them off for now. A wash & drybrushing to highlight the
figure will probably be added later - probably a black wash, very thin,
and pale green or pale tan drybrush.

The Converted Figs: Eight packs recieved the standard paintjob above,
with
no modifications. The ninth pack provided figs for a variety of
conversions, as follows:

SNIPERS: I like ghillie suits - so I turned 2 figs into snipers wearing
full or partial ghillie suits. (http://www.ghillie.com/ is a company
that
makes ghillie suits - lots of good photos & text on making, using &
abusing ghillie suits) So, my conversion: 
	-Added extra bits of styrene rod to the front of the standard
rifle, to extend the barrel into a more 'sniper rifle' look - details of
this addition aren't vital, as they're covered by part of the ghillie
suit.
	-Cut long, narrow (1mm wide) strips from lead
foil, then glue these strips all over the fig - one fig got a full
head-to-toe suit, the other trooper has his head & upper torso
uncovered.
After gluing the strips on, twist & bend them a bit - they need to hand
down, mostly, and look like fabric (eventually)
	-Paint the whole fig green, and while the paint is still wet,
cover it in ground-foam turf. This gives a fuzzy, foliage-like look to
the
fig - exactly the way a real ghillie suit looks. (for partial ghillie
suits, paint the uncovered part of the fig first, and let it dry - you
don't want foliage there.
	-A second coat of ground foam might be needed - use diluted
white
glue - but don't get the foam so thick you can't tell there's a guy
under
there - it'll scrape off fairly easily, though.
	-for partial ghillie suits, finish the uncovered portion of the
fig as usual - camo uniform, flesh, etc.

This is one of the more complicated conversions I made - it took the
longest, certainly. Those little bits of foil are _fiddly_...it looks
very
good, however.

MEDICS: The easiest conversion. Take a standard fig, and file the gun
down
as much as possible - the stub the fig is left holding can be a medical
scanner, or some such. Paint the same as the rest of your figs,
remembering to add several red crosses to backpacks, shoulders & stuff.

EW Troopers (Electronic Warfare): Take a standard fig. Add a larger
backpack (using styrene sheet & putty) with an antenna of some sort
coming
from the top. You might want to file his gun down as well, leaving a
handset similar to the medic's. Paint as usual.

HEAVY WEAPONS TROOPERS: I decided I wanted a crew-served RFAC/1 or
GAC/1 in my forces, a a manpack heavy weapon. Start with a GMS/P
trooper.
The NAC GMS/Ps have a sort of gunshield half way down the tube - cut off
everything forward of that sheild, and file it down a bit, just to
change
the profile. Using thin styrene & putty, add a triple-barrel gatling
style
arrangement for the business end of the gun, and enlarge the back end,
where the breech would be.

The second crewperson is carrying the tripod - a large unit, three legs
and a headplate, across his chest - just glue it on over his gun, after
filing the gun down carefully.

Third crewgrunt is spotter/gun commander - stock fig, with rifle.

All three are going to get larger backpacks, to carry ammo in. A
standard
paintjob will finish them off. The big gun & tripod will be gunmetal,
possibly with some camo bits.

I'm going to scratchbuild out of styrene bits a set-up version of the
gun,
to be put down when the gun is actually set up.

Eventually, I'll probably create a crew-served GMS/L as well, using
similar methods, to round out the heavy-weapons platoon of my company.

That's the lot - any questions/comments/whatever, let me know, either
through the list or privately.

If any of the Stargrunt website owners want to post this, let me know -
I
can produce a more polished version, if you'd like...

Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)