QUICK LOOK: GZG 8-wheel MICV

By Harold

Hi everyone,

My name is Mr. Harold and I'm a 15mm miniatures addict.   Some of you might recognize me from TMP or my blog, http://clearhorizonsalvage.blogspot.com, but now I've come to invade and contribute to Dropship Horizon...

I'm going to start up a new feature, with this as the first installment, that I'll be calling "Quick Look".  The idea is that I'll take a product and post several picture of it in an unpainted/un-built stage with some discussion of quality, price, availability, etc.  I will then post a painted/finished picture of the product.

I hope that this will allow me to contribute more often, and perhaps get to some of those miniatures that don't sometimes get reviews.  

I look forward to hearing any comments or suggestions you might have!

First up:

Quick Look,  Ground Zero Games 8-Wheel MICV


 (available at: http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1492) Price:  £7.50

This is a great vehicle model, that would be at home in anything from near future to far future.  There are four different "types": an APC, the MICV (like a Bradley), a command vehicle and a fire support/light tank.

The MICV comes with a turret that goes in the middle, you could use some system of magnets, or just not glue it on and you would be able to easily switch it out with the other top plates.

The parts include the two wheel sprues, the axles, the body, the top plate, the turret and the tank commander.  The sprue with the tank commander also includes the top hatch, in case you wanted to do a button-down look.   

I had a little bit of trouble putting the wheel on the axles and then the body, but I was told that if you glue the axles on the body first, and then glue the wheels on it's much easier.  Even though, it didn't take me very long and everything else went together nicely. 

These vehicles have a lot of character to them, and remind me very much of the Stryker class of vehicles. I have another MICV and a fire support variant that I need to finish up to make a small patrol force.  

These would work great as a patrol detail for a Planetary Defense Force, or any force that needs high-mobility, low-cost vehicles to patrol areas with roads.

I've painted this up with a three tone camo using tamyia masking tape cut into little triangles and such.  I then went the easy route and just used spray primers.   I really like how it turned out and I think the colors lend themselves to both urban environments and a "Mars" type planet. 

Thanks,

Harold

Kitbash of the Week No.4

GZG's latest 8 Wheeled MICV, V15-51A partially assembled on my painting board. It's a substantial model 70mm long, 35mm wide and approximately 35mm tall when fully assembled. About the same size as QRF's BTR80 APC.

I like the boxy light weapon turret (with gatling and missile pod) and have used it as the basis of my latest Kitbash of the Week. Maybe this week we should call this feature doodling with armour!


First up! My favourite tankette! Surely a film starring Daniel Day Lewis? In the photo above we find the MICV's light weapon turret matched to the QRF's MT05 AMX13 hull, which gives us some serious recon firepower! Though in FWC you might as well have two guys strapped to a Penny Farthing as your recce element! Never mind, this kitbash creates a nice Mid-tech fast tank suitable for jolly scrapes on newly colonised worlds.



In this photo, I've put the MICV's light weapon turret .in place of the gun system of GZG's V15-03A GunCrab quad walker. It's not a great fit, but it works better than the photo suggests. I am wondering though about the turret from GZG's V15-38A Tracked Heavy Fire Support Vehicle with Light AA cannon?

Whilst I had this spare GunCrab set up, I tried out the remote turret from GZG's V15-44A High-tech Grav Light APC/scout vehicle. Yeah, it works to a degree but is just too small for my personal liking. The Guncrabs are incredibly versatile pieces of kit and deserve more attention. It can fulfill a multitude of roles including remote or semi-autonomous weapons platform and even as an alien tank! More about them in later posts.

Cheers
Mark

New GZG AFV's - More Pics!

Hi Guys

Following a day of rest after Hammerhead on Sunday, Jon has been kind enough to send me some more pics of his new AFV's.....!!!

V15-52A 8-wheel Fire Support Vehicle/Mobile Gun System
(Tank Killer) £7.50 each

V15-51A 8-wheel MICV with light weapon turret
(with gatling and missile pod) £7.00 each

V15-50A 8-wheel APC with remote autocannon mount
£6.50 each

V15-55A Advanced Heavy Grav Tank
with High Energy Particle Cannon (HEPC)
£9.00 each

V15-57A Advanced Grav Fire Support Missile Vehicle
£8.00 each

V15-56A Advanced Grav Lift Infantry Assault Vehicle

£8.00 each

Should be on the GZG Web store and ready to order, today or tomorrow.


Cheers
Mark

Latest Sci Fi AFV's from GZG!

Jon at GZG has sent me the following news item about his latest 15mm Sci Fi AFV's!

"First off, we have some new 8-wheeled combat vehicles - the first three are a basic "battle taxi" APC, a turretted MICV and a Fire Support/Tank Killer variant with a nice long cannon. As with all our 15mm vehicle range, they are generic designs and you can use them for whatever forces you like, but we think they're especially suitable for our Eurasian (ESU) and Islamic Federation forces".

GZG new 15mm 8-wheeled combat vehicles
Fire Support/Tank Killer, turretted MICV, "battle taxi" APC

GZG 15mm 8-wheeled turretted MICV

My personal favourite, this 8 wheeled MICV could replace the Roskopf 1/87th Spahpanzer Luchs of my youth that I mentioned in an earlier post. I can already see it providing support to some new Roco Minitank Wiesals.

Jon continues..."Then, from the opposite end of the tech scale, we have some new High Tech (or should that be Ultra Tech?) Grav Armour; in a distinctly different style from our other Grav releases, these will give you a new force option if you want to do high-vs-high tech battles".

New GZG 15mm Ultra-tech AFV family
heavy tank, infantry assault carrier, missile support vehicle

"The first three items in this new "family" are a heavy tank with a huge fusion cannon, an assault infantry carrier and a missile support vehicle with two 4-round launcher units mounted in the hull. The perfect armour unit to carry and support your crack Orbital Assault Marines!"

Can 15mm Sci Fi get any sexier!

"These are all shots of some basecoated first-off castings from the new moulds; no codes or names yet, but they will be fully listed soon along with prices; the costs are not decided yet, but will probably be in the region of £6 - £7 for the wheeled vehicles and £8 - £9 for the big Gravs. As with all our 15mm range, these are ALL METAL minis in kit form, and for size reference they are all pictures on a centimetre-grid cutting mat".

Jon (GZG)

Jon will have a small number of these new vehicles at HAMMERHEAD in Newark on Sunday and they will be available online to the rest of us ground pounders in a few days time.

Cheers
Mark