Just recently Dave and I had our first visit to Hammerhead where we sold some stuff and had a proper look round a show for a change!
One of the traders we came across was Urban Construct who we had never heard off but who apparently have been around for some time doing WWII & post apocalyptic bunkers, buildings and general clutter. Browsing their stall we came across a ‘technical’ cast in resin which seemed to answer our search for such to populate our Benghazi games – you may recall the abortive Butlers Models items! and it was cheap – £5! We were on a roll now so further investigation revealed a Humvee and a station wagon, both similarly priced; so guess what? we bought them!
Now don’t get me wrong, these are not the heights of craftsmanship or the casting accuracy that we’ve come to expect from the likes of Spectre Miniatures and Empress Miniatures but a Spectre Humvee rolls in at £16 and their SUV at £18 (couldn’t find a price for the technical) and the Empress Humvee is £18 and the technical £15 but for the price of one of these we did get 3 vehicles.
As you can see these are very basic, one might say crude, castings and getting rid of the excess resin is a bit of a challenge – the great big lump on the technical I only managed to reduce to a manageable size and then disguised at the painting stage, a similar one on the station wagon came away a bit easier. Scale wise they are billed as 1/56th but I doubt that, more like 1/50th but if what you are after is serviceable, basic vehicles for your figures to move around, ambush and use as cover then these have something to offer I would suggest.
Once they were de-flashed and washed I undercoated in a chocolate brown and then added the main top coat in broad strokes so the brown was left in all the creases – door shuts, wheel arches, etc then gloss blacked the windows and tyres. On to some card bases and they were already looking better!
Next the tetrion desert base mixture, which for some strange reason came out darker than usual, and a bit of dry brushing, nearly there. Although the technical comes weaponless it does have a mount which is crying out for something so a rummage around the ‘spares box’ revealed a slightly over scale .50 – appropriate given the bigness of the vehicles.
To finish off Dave took them away to add some of the stain mixture he had (can’t remember which manufacturer), add the flock strategically to hide any obvious defects and mount the .50 which in fact was the most difficult operation as resin is not very forgiving when drilled so a bit of green stuff was needed to repair where the mount broke away – as Eric Morecambe would say “you can’t see the join Ern”.
The finished articles look pretty good I would suggest, basic yes but perfectly ok for an evenings game or in fact as background for a demo game. Now I know some people out there are really into their modern vehicles and the level of detail plus variety available from the two manufacturer’s mentioned above and I completely get it but a convoy of 3 of those vehicles is £45 to £50 for things that in most games don’t do too much. On the down side these models are what they are, there is no opportunity to modify, enhance or convert, even busting one up as a wreck wont work too well as the resin just shatters.
So I guess it’s down to what you want out of your vehicles on the table top, I have no axe to grind either way and have no association with the Urban Construct team we just came across them and thought it was worth sharing.
Enjoy your gaming.
Westbury Wargamers 