Saturday 23 February 2019

20mm BTR-80 Repair Job

"I tried not to scream" but this thing (BTR-80) fell from a very great height. I was getting from my the loft space a BTR-80 for a RPG session that 'my eldest son and friends were playing'. This in itself caused a lot of excitement for me, as it had started out as a Dungeons and Dragons session but then I was told it was really a "modern day RPG" session that needed tanks and stuff. I had already given them orcs, snotlings and wizards but as soon as they said they needed tanks I thought "that's my boy" and was up in the loft rummaging in my "20mm moderns". Sadly the hand-off between GM and myself, me in the loft and him on on the ladder, went awry and the BTR-80 fell (tumbling) down two flights of stairs - shattering and coming apart in a myriad of pieces on teh hard flooring. Externally I did not swear - internally is another matter. Thankfully "keen young eyes" managed pretty much to spy all the little pieces and I let them play on with a T-80 instead - much to the groans of the players and GM's delight (see below, these Del Prado die cast kits are cool as "instant" models but do suffer from sensitive wheel parts/suspension breaking. Two of the wheels had to get "milliput support"):


I thought .. "In for a penny, in for a pound" (see below, this should 99% be hidden in normal play so rather than having another wheel drop off, it seemed sensible that all eight got the 'milliput treatment'):


The final restoration job complete. As an extra touch I might "black/brown wash" the underside when the milliput sets (see below, lookout kids that T-80 tank now has some Mechanised Infantry in an APC as support):


It might be time to paint up some WARSAW PACT 20mm plastic troops as they happily "made-do" with my Platoon 20, WWII British Infantry and WWII German Revell Panzer Grenadiers! Perhaps the Terminator "resistance rebels" from the Warlord Games 28mm Terminator Game might be better for them!

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