The Starting Point (Cobra Army To Date)

As I am stuck in class this week finishing my last course for my Masters this week, I am sadly not using my school holidays to their hobby potential, which is always sad! That said, this has given me a lot of time during breaks to consider the army and how I am going to put it together.

In my last post I showed pictures of 18 Cobra troopers that I had built out of Warlord Games' Blitzkrieg Germans. Since then I have acquired another pile of these models second hand that I can convert up when the time allows. I have also found another baggie of 10 metal assault rifles from the Assault Group to convert these guys over. Sooooo progress is slowly being made.

What I really wanted to show today though was the vehicles. Infantry aside, this is what my force looks like at the moment:

The white VAMP jeep and the cycle above are from the Arctic Skunk Shapeways store. I also have a HISS tank from that shop. 

Here are a few side by side comparison to Warlord Games Bolt Action models to show the scale of these vehicles. The VAMP or the COBRA version in this case, the Stinger, is almost a perfect match size wise as a Horch field car which is convenient because that is what I had originally considered using it as. But converting it to look like it hold more than two people is the subject of another blog post. 

This also give you an idea of my painting style and the level of painting I plan of using on this army. I tend to use a very cartoony style that I think "pops" on the tabletop.

The VAMP/Stinger has always been one of my favourite GI JOE vehicles and I cannot wait to paint this bad boy up!

I got a RAM motorcycle at the same time as the VAMP and I am not sure if I am going to paint it up in COBRA colours or if I will hold onto it until I start my opposition GI JOE forces.

The details on these models are great but they do require a little sanding to smooth out the finish. You can see the graininess on the RAM below.

The "Arctic Skunk," 3D printed HISS tank is a better kit with more detail than the mini-toys (that I have 4 of in the picture at the top of this post) but I can get 4 of the HISS toys (which are almost the perfect scale) for the same price as one white 3D print. Plus to be honest the toys are more durable too. I have been playing around with plasticard and green stuff to make the toys more "realistic" looking and I will post how I am modifying them soon.

If you look carefully at the picture of my 4 toys, one has a smashed turret. I broke one in storage and that has me thinking about turning one of my HISS tanks into a 28mm version of one of these:

Well, it looks like my lecture is about to start. More soon! Thank you for checking out my progress!