BA-10 Soviet Armored Car

 One of the first if not the first videogame I played on a computer as a kid was Codename: Panzers Phase One (2004). And I remember little from it but I remember a mission where I used a lot a BA-10 from the Red Army. There I found about this cool machine and I love it since then. I love it that much that I think it deserves its own post. So here we are!

AI generated using this 3D model: https://free3d.com/es/modelo-3d/ba-10-armored-car-4466.html?dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Between wheel vehicles and tanks there has always been a spot that has seen weird ideas and machines. One of them is the BA-10. The BA-10 is the final version of the BA-3/6 series. They were basically a GAZ AAA 6x4 chassis (front wheels doesn't have traction) with a lightly armored hull and a tank turret. The BA-10 had 15 mm in the front and 6mm in the back. I doubt if 6mm can stop some shots from a MG34 for example. The cannon of the turret is a 45mm 20-K the same of the BT series and the T-26 tanks. It could knock out all of the German tanks available in 1941. In fact I would say the turret of the BA-3/6 is the same or almost the same as the T-26 with that tail at the back to fit ammo and a radio if I'm not wrong. Later the space was redistributed and the tail wasn't necessary anymore. The costs to create and mantain a vehicle like this compared to a tank are really low but once you are out of the road in the snow or crossing a field the vehicles with wheels are in a disadvantage. I guess that's why the BA-10 was the last one with this philosophy (the 17 units produced of the BA-11 say hi) and was replaced by light tanks for scouting purposes even the Soviet army later in the war developed the BA-64 which was an small 4x4 based in the chassis of the Soviet copy of the Willys Jeep. All in all I think the design is pretty cool. I love the fact of having the fighting power of a tank in the body of a gym addicted truck. The BA-10 was produced from 1938 until 1941 and a bit more than 3300 units were made. After the end of 1941 was rarely seen. 

This is a model I have been wanting to create for a long time now. I had the doubt for years of making it 6 or 7 studs wide. Then after last year I created my BA-20 being it 6 studs wide I knew this one must be 7 studs because the BA-20 should command presence over the BA-20 as it is bigger taller and wider. The turret turns 360º and all the elements are LEGO except for the wheel rims that LEGO doesn't create in that color and 2x BrickArms U-clips to hold the front wheel fenders. I think it is one of my best designs and it deserves this post. Can't to wait to create some MOC's using it. It was used in the Winter War against Finland (and they captured some) it was used in the invasion of Iran too and in the clashes of Khalkhin Gol and the invasion of Poland and the defense of the Soviet motherland against the Axis armies so that's plenty of possibilities and scenarios to work with! 

Here with a winter crewman. The awesome coat is from Brickfabric. 

While building it I had a problem with a door since what you have to do so they look like that is put the door knob inside the hole of a 1x1 technic brick. The lenght of the door knob is the same as the diameter of the hole in the brick so once you put it inside it stays fixed inside and doesn't fall. The problem is with the left side I put it at the first try but I broke 3 door knobs before I could put it in the right side and once was inside I saw through the hole that the knob was damaged so I used glue to make sure it wouldn't fall. With the BA-20 I used the same technique to recreate the doors and I didn't have any problem. 

I created instructions for it. As you will notice the instructions are in a purist version I crate for all the people who want to keep it 100% LEGO purist. If you don't want that you can always get the remaining parts (basically the wheel rims made using a gear piece) at Brickwith and the 2x U-clips you will need in a BrickArms reseller like BrickMania in the USA and Brickizimo in Europe.

While building this I had a dilemma because the color of the Soviet vehicles from the 1930s wasn't the same as the ones of the war. Their paint got darker over time but the most appropriate color for early war and pre-war vehicles is the Olive Green I would say. I thought about sand green too but I ruled it out. I haven't seen Olive Green Soviet tanks before but oh well who cares. So I also created a partlist in case someone wants to build this vehicle in Olive Green as I will in the future. You just have to choose the parts in Olive Green or Dark Grey. You choose the color. https://www.brickwith.com/en/part-list/share/agre0zn3psn?ref=ari23_ww2

Note that the previous is a referal link and if you buy the parts using that link you are helping me as a little part of your spending will go help me create more content! (I think you only need to allow cookies). If you want a Olive Green BA-20 it also available so here is the link too: https://www.brickwith.com/en/part-list/share/ujjvn38ipcv?ref=ari23_ww2 

On both partlists there are 5-6 unavailable parts in Brickwith and they would require you get them at Bricklink for example. You can see them at the top section that says "Not available". Take care so you don't buy both the purist and "unrestricted" versions of the wheels and save some money on it!

Note the lighter tone of the green camo. Source: https://all-andorra.com/ba-10-soviet-medium-armored-car/

Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/BA-10

I also have published a YouTube video about it:

Many thanks for reading and see you in the next one guys!

BuildArmy Brick Action Figures Review

 This week I finally got something I was looking forward to add to my collection for some months. The awesome brick action figures from Buildarmy. 

                            

Buildarmy is toy company from the UK that sell kits of vehicles and now these action figures. They use LEGO-like parts (I don't have any so I can't talk about quality) to create tanks and other kind of vehicles mostly about World War II. Their vehicles are 1:33 scale so they are bigger than the usual scale of 1:45 used in the community and the 1:42-1:43 used by me and what I consider the minifig scale. So obviously the LEGO minifigs don't match the size of their vehicles and that's sad and for me was a problem... until now! These new figures match perfectly the size of these vehicles and any 1:35 scale vehicle you can have. The best part I see is now you can build MOCs in this "new" scale. Like playing the same videogame but in a harder difficulty now. You could build MOCs at this scale previously but without figures they look like empty. So now I'm excited to have this new road to drive it with my ideas!

The figures come disassembled and you have to assemble them. They come with some spare parts as I will show below and the minifigs are fully compatible with BrickArms and other 3rd party accessories. 

Quality seems pretty decent. The joints of the elbow and the shoulder may be a bit difficult to put in place but nothing bad. Faces may be the worst part. I don't like them at all but well could be worse. Colors of the uniforms look off. They don't resemble the real ones. But I still consider that they are worth it and I like them. You can put them in many different poses which is awesome. The German soldier has real gear while the American soldier has printed gear. I like that they are action figures and they didn't just make a oversized LEGO-like minifig. Recently on their Instagram profile they announced more figures so we will have more to choose from including Romans! You can check their Instagram profile here: https://www.instagram.com/buildarmy/

Here the figure wears a helmet I painted myself. It is not the original one.

What do you think guys? Do you want to see MOC's with them? Do want to add some to your collection? Let me know and thank you for reading!

Byzantine Tower MOC

 Welcome back to another travel in time. This time we go back to the Eastern Roman Empire to take a look at my latest MOC. It is a watchtower that controls a pathway. Let's take a look at it.

Months ago I was looking for inspiration to build an Eastern Roman Empire (from now on Byzantines) and I came across a picture that catched my eye. It was the ruins of a Byzantine tower sorrounded by plants due the pass of the time and the lack of maintenance over the centuries. Inspiration to build a tower with a pathway next to it came to my mind inmediatly. And it had to be like a mountain pass so the terrain isn't just a plain boring one. It must be as cool or even better than the tower itself! 

These towers were made to control important trails and places. The territory of the Byzantine Empire was a hard one to defend so they had to fight invasions and pirates. These kind of towers contributed to do so. The picture I found and inspired me is a tower from a wall from the castle of Rentina located in Greece. So the tower itself isn't as I represented it and mine isn't the representation of a real one this time but there were many of them across the territories of the Byzantine Empire so I bet some had designs and locations very close to that one. To learn more about the castle of Rentina you should take a look here: https://www.kastra.eu/castleen.php?kastro=redina

The picture that inspired the whole MOC. Couldn't find the picture on Google now months after I took the picture to my computer screen

Sources: Kastra.eu and TripAdvisor

Because the tower from the inspiration picture is in ruins I searched for other towers that survived better the past of the time and I found this one you see above called Nea Fokea. It is placed in Greece some kilometers to the south of the Rentina castle and it is in an awesome state! It is in the coast and looks like it was used to defend a farm from raids coming from the sea. I guess you can visit it and go inside. A place I would like to visit in the future! So I build my tower with the same shape but I made it shorter. The real ones seem to have 3 floors and the roof to shot from. I don't know if the floor under the door is able to be used as a basement or they are full of stones until the height were the door starts. Anyway mine has a floor less. I did it like that so the build looks better. The more I build the less detail I can put in my builds because I don't have that much parts as I would need to build it as best as I can. With one more floor I was afraid too that the turret looked like is too much for the little build this MOC is. I also added a tree next to it which I think improves a lot the MOC but it would be stupid in the real towers because someone could hide under the tree and you wouldn't spot them from the tower. These are the liitle changes I did this time that prioritize the LEGO build over the historical accuracy.

Now talking about the build itself I really wanted to do this MOC for months since I pursched half a year ago some accesories from Loongbrick to create Byzantine soldiers. As you may know I love all related to Romans and even the medieval era isn't my favourite and it is not even close I really like to study the Byzantine Empire and I wanted to build some stuff about them too. The accessories you see here are from Loongbrick and the spears and shields are from AliExpress and then hand-painted by me. My Byzantine minifigs are among my favourite minifigs of the ones I can create and I love how they look in this MOC which by the way I think is my first proper medieval and Byzantine MOC. The build was fun to do. I love how the rock parts look. The tower itself too. Tree was again an improvisation and I'm happy with how it looks like.

Here you can take a look at how step the terrain is.

The building technic I used is the same I usually use with the sloped borders. This is probably the best way it looks with dark bluish gray and light bluish gray colors representing the rocky terrain of a mountain. There are normal bricks and plates behind it and tiles and slopes over them giving some overall slope to the borders. I like some studs to be seen so it looks more irregular as real mountain terrains look like. In fact you can see one side of the build looks more "clean" and regular with more slopes and tiles and the other 3 sides look more irregular specially the opposite one. Every 2 studs the parts you put at 90 degrees (a brick with a slope or plate put on one of its sides) end at the same time so when the side bricks end at odd numbers the final look isn't that good but overall I think the stepped terrain looks good and has a good height. Here you can see a couple pictures of the process. I think they can be very useful if someone wants to use it too.

The base of the tower

And now here you can see all the pictures I took in its original quality. There is as always a YouTube video for this build. At the end of this post you have it.

My new YouTube banner. Do you like it?

How to create a German M56 Helmet

The East German M56 helmet is one of the most distinctive military helmets of the Cold War and I need them for a MOC I'm planning however there are no available LEGO-compatible M56 helmets to buy. Luckily a BrickArms Japanese WWII helmet can be modified to create a surprisingly decent alternative. In this guide I will show the process I used to convert a Japanese helmet into an M56 using only basic tools and paint. Please consider this is a prototype. When I do more they will look better. I used ChatGPT to organize all the steps.

Left picture source: https://hessenantique.com/east-german-m56-steel-helmet-refurbished/

Tools and Materials

• BrickArms Japanese WWII helmet
• Nail file
• Fine sanding tool or sandpaper (not used for this prototype but helpful if you want a better result)
• Small paintbrush
• Grey paint (I used an acrylic one)
• Varnish

Original Japanese Helmet from BrickArms

Step 1 – Remove the Rim

The first step is to file away the raised rim that runs around the entire helmet.

The goal is to create a smooth, flat edge all the way around. Take your time and remove material gradually to avoid uneven spots.

Step 2 – Shape the M56 Profile

The original Japanese helmet has a rounded and symmetrical shape that will help us. It lacks some frontal slope but it is okay.

To replicate the M56 choose the front half of the helmet and carefully file a stepped transition into the profile. The rear section should sit slightly lower than the front, creating the characteristic silhouette of the East German helmet.

Check the shape frequently from the side.

Move it up and down the nail file until you create the desired step. If you apply more effort you will get it fast so be careful you don't cut too much plastic. This applies to every time you use the nail file.

Step 3 – Remove Mold Lines and Imperfections

Once the basic shape is complete remove any plastic filaments and rough edges or filing marks.

Use progressively finer sanding to round off sharp corners and achieve a smooth finish.

If you remove too much plastic or make scratches you can apply some plastic putty over it and sand it to repair the helmet surface. It isn't easy but it is worth the try. I will use in the rest of the helmets I create.

Step 4 – Painting

After cleaning the part with water and dried it apply a thin coat of grey paint.

Several thin coats usually produce a better result than one thick coat.

Now let it dry. A couple hours should be more than enough.

Step 5 – Varnish

Once the paint has fully cured apply a clear varnish to protect the finish and improve durability during handling. I use mate varnish. Sometimes I use normal one to protect more and then mate varnish over it. I'm no expert I don't know how effective it is but I like to do it.

Final Result

The finished piece captures the distinctive shape of the East German M56 while using a readily available BrickArms Japanese WWII helmet as the base. It's a simple conversion that requires only basic tools and a little patience. The final result is a 8/10 for me if you don't mess up during the process. A proper 3D printed one will look better but oh well this is cheaper at least for me. I hope it is useful!

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