I have been thinking about what to do to my Team Yankee models to make them look "better." Not saying that the models made for Team Yankee don't look good, but what can I do to make them look better on the gaming table. Well, maybe what I really trying to day is to make them look even more realistic on the battlefield. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to get at.
I remember meeting some other Team Yankee players from another state. We were getting together to start talking about the beginning of the campaign we are going to begin. However, we also were going to play some Team Yankee games.
I got to look at some of the other player's models. They were looking good and many of them were painted. The only difference between the tanks though is that the paint jobs. They did make our tanks look "different" from one another. Again, the models looked great but the only difference between player's models was the paint job.
I guess that is going to be true for many games that are based on real life. World War III did not happen, but the time period of 1985, the countries existing, and the equipment they were using were real. Basing a game during this time and using history as the guide means that all the tanks for a country would look the same between different players. So, what could be done to the models that would look "real" but also not something that would be crazy (i.e., laser guns, wings on tanks, hovertanks, etc.).
Then, I remembered what one player did with his Team Yankee tank models. He added radio antennas to his tanks. The effect was awesome in my opinion. Also, after doing some research about tanks of that time period they did have antennas attached to them. This decided it for me. I would add antennas to not only my tanks but to all my Team Yankee vehicles.
First thought was "What to create the antennas out of?" I think he used brush bristles or something like that. I decided that is what I would use also. I made a trip to the local dollar store and looked around. Finally, found a brush with black bristles. I didn't want white bristles because then I would have to paint them black anyways. Also, I thought the black would eventually wear off and then I would have white antennas and have to paint them all over again.
When I got to the checkout the line was tremendously long. I decided after a bit, and the line not really moving, that I would work on this project later. I put the brush back and headed out the store. Then, it hit me. I may already have something that will work for antennas. I opened the back of my vehicle and found what I was looking for. I had an extra ice scraper. But this ice scraper had a brush on the opposite side to remove snow from the window. They were black, thin, and flexible. Perfect for the job.
I got home and took the ice scraper in with me. After studying the Team Yankee tank models I was faced with how to attach the antennas. The other player who attached his antennas drilled small holes in the models for the antennas to attach to the model. I didn't want to do that. I did find a place on the back of the tank's turret to attach the antenna. From some of the photos I've seen antennas were attached to the tank turrets.
I cut some bristles off and trimmed them to the correct size (or the size I thought was "correct"). I knew if I was wrong I could trim them so I made them longer than I thought I needed rather than taking a chance of them being too short. I put glue in the spot I wanted the antennas to attach to on the turret and placed the antenna.
After completing the tanks I discovered while looking at photos of the other vehicles used in the Team Yankee game that the models actually did have a place to put the antennas. I then put glue in the spot and attached the antennas to their vehicles. Turns out the antennas were too long. This became evident especially with the Gopher. The antennas were in front of the rocket pods. If the antennas were too tall on a real Gopher the rockets would hit the antennas when they were launched. So I trimmed those antennas down to where they were below the rocket pods.
Using the Gophers' antennas as a reference I trimmed the other vehicles' antennas to about the same length as the Gophers'. The vehicles were then placed in their respective slots in the storage tray to be ready for transporting them to the local gaming store. Just as I thought, the antennas stuck out above the top of the storage tray.
I figured this would happen and I already had a plan to solve this problem. When I put another storage tray on top of another storage tray, I would slide the top storage tray so that antennas on the vehicles in the lower tray would bend towards the back of the vehicle they were attached to. This would make it more realist in my opinion than if the antennas were leaning towards the front of the vehicle.
Overall, I'm happy with the effect. It was an easy and cheap solution to make the models look "better," more realistic, and be a little different from other player's models. Sure, the paint job helps to make your models look different, but I also didn't want to start adding unrealistic things to my vehicles as described earlier. I'm sure in the future there will be things I will add to my vehicles. However, I know I will try to keep it "realistic."
One of the things I am working on is platoon identification. How do I identify that these tanks belong to the same platoon and those tanks belong to another platoon? Then, what if I redo my list and now take one tank from each of those platoons and put together to make a new platoon. How can I identify that these tanks now belong to the new platoon and are no longer part of the old platoons they were part of? I need to do something that would be easy to do and not permanent to the models. I haven't done it yet but that is a story for another day.
As always, have a good game.
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Light weight fishing line make good antennae too. Of course, they need to be painted. I do like your idea though..
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I haven't fished in a long time. I wonder if they make a "dark" colored fishing line?
ReplyDeleteI've used the bristles from a cheap dustpan and brush set to give my TY Soviets vehicle antennas. A simple touch that really improves the look of the vehicles.
ReplyDelete