Re: Alternative SG II APCs

>Hi all,
>
>For those SG II players like me who like to use APC but hate to paint
them
>here is another source of pre-painted APCs.
>
>I just picked up a Galoob Battle set M113 APC.  however, it is not a
M113,
>it is an 'Amtrack' marine amphibious APC (I've forgotten the correct
name
>for this APC).  Pics available on Galoob's site.

You beat me to it! I was going to crow about the find!

You're right--it's not an M113 (I looked up some pix of the
M113 on the the web to see what kind of variations there are.)
The CnC (1/300, 3 in pack--great minis!) almost-match I got for
Dirtside is an LVTP-7 (3 in pack). The only significant difference
is that the turret on the CnC mini has only one gun and no TOW
launcher. There are several variations on this vehicle (as
available from CnC in 1/300): LVTC-7 is a command vehicle, and
LVTR-7 is a "recovery" or engineering vehicle (2 or 3 to a pack).
Since the "real-world" military has no qualms about changing it
about, I figure we can do the same for SF!  :-)

>The APC is mouled in greeen plastic, not too gfarish, however,  a wash
with
>dark ink/paint won't hurt it too much.  Detail is excellent for a toy,
it
>is around 5 inches long by 3 wide by two and a half/three high.  I
could go
>on abit here but considersing this is a toy Galoob have pulled out all
the
>stops here, upper deck detail is crisp and plentiful.	The driver
turret
>opens, as does the turret (the turret mounts an auto grenade launcher
and
>SAW, plus a rather oversized GMS (actually you get a red plastic
missile to
>fire from it, no arguments about line of site there !).  the rear
dorsal
>hull hatch is moulded in one pice and opens, as does the rear drop
>downhatch, interior detail is fine too.  Overall detail is crisp and
>surprisingly good foa	kids toy, Presonally i think this is begging for
>superdetailing, perhaps using the half turret crew and kit from Geohex,
>plus some parts from a 1/32 kit for interior detail.

I plan to remove the (ugly!) red plastic "missile", fill in
the front of the launcher, and add 4 "missile cones" to make
it look like a TOW launcher. I'll remove the opening tab from
the dorsal clamshell doors and glue them shut (they open as
a unit from the side, not as a pair from the center). The back
drop hatch I may leave (to indicate loading/unloading), or may
glue shut. Then I'll paint the whole thing. 'Course, all that'll
have to wait until I finish some other projects....

It easily disassembles to about 10 pieces, which can be painted
separately (especially the tracks!) then reassembled without
the roller wheels (which make sense for a toy, but not a mini--
you don't want it to roll off that little hill during play).
And if you decide to glue the two rear hatches shut, you can
pull out the inner seating and front bulkhead pieces for possible
use elsewhere.

>As for relative scale, the interaior is scaled such that a GZG 25 mm
fig
>would have plenty or head room, a Grenadier FW troper also can stand
>upright, i think a GW fig may scrape its head and have to stoop a
little.

Has cargio seating for 10, so you could carry two fire teams or
a power-armor team per vehicle.

>Critisiscms:  It comes with whells which elevate it slightly above the
>tracks, however, as the thing is screwed together these are no problem
to
>remove.  The paint job could have been better, however, as this is a
kids
>toy I guess I cant be too picky.  No other real problems with it.
>
>Cost: the best bit ! I paid ten buck for mine at Toys are Us.	If you
can't
>get one locally Galoob do mail order in the US.

It was $8.95 at my local K-mart.

>Conclusions:  For me there are not enough tracked APCs in GZGs
repetiore so
>this is ideal, especially as it is very 20th C so it can easily
represent
>older technology (I'm curently planning to use mine as a Colonial
Marine
>transport which has been superceded by the M577 APC.  The tracked
carrier
>looks more able to carry something really heavy like my heavy PA unit,
or
>even as a mortar carrier as the top hatch opens up).
>
>BTW I am not a Galoob salesman, but as anyone who has seen the Aliens
>APC/dropship will know Galoob seem to have hit upon the ideal scale to
get
>into the market for little soldiers APCs.  As an aside, I can't help
but
>wonder what the folks who buy GW Rhinos, and the like, will think when
they
>see these at half the price of the GW stuff, plus they are 'painted',
plus
>they are more detailed, AND they don't look like a shoebox on tracks !
>
>Enough rant,
>
>Stuart.

- Sam

________________________________________
Samuel Reynolds
http://www.primenet.com/~reynol
reynol@primenet.com
samuel_reynolds@csgsystems.com