'Toy Story' fom TeemuL: Centurion Mk III

 I was kid at 1980s and I spent lots of time on the sandbox with my friend building battlefields and fighting battles with our plastic soldiers. I guess they had some sort of name or brand, but they were simply called "plastic soldiers" and they were bought in plastic bags, there were usually two different coloured soldiers, tank or two and maybe planes or guns.. And flag poles. Considering miniature standards they were pure toys, soft details, lots of flash and so on. I guess you are familiar with them. So my entry for the Toy Story bonus round is one tank from those childhood sets, Centurion Mk III, I believe. At least it seems to have some details of Centurion Mk III, but it might not be exactly that. I guess the plastic soldiers are stored somewhere or forwarded to my younger relatives, but at some point I put the tanks and guns to different box - idea was to use them as WH40K terrain pieces, wrecks or something. Obviously very little was done.

This tank was first sprayed black and then painted green with couple of coats to get and even finish. Green wash, and light green highlights. Grey tracks on lots of mud. Some transfers from WW2 tank sets to add details. They were at least 20 years old, but worked without any issues - some of them were Revell, some were unknown.

The beauty of this project is that I can actually use this in my games! I measured the tank and compared the length to the actual Centurion Mk III and it is exactly 1/64 scale - at least sizewise, don't know about the details. 1/64 is the same as 25mm if that would be a scale. Yes, this Centurion will join the green painted DAK soldiers I painted for Wars of Insurgency couple of weeks ago! The rules doesn't cover tanks, if I recall correctly, but it can be used as objetive for example. Or I remember incorrectly, then the bazookas at least have something to shoot at. Because my whole Delmonteland project is done with a bit of tongue in the cheek, this tank fits the theme perfectly. Similartly, all the transfer make completely sense, because the setting is alternative history or imagination.

I didn't glue the parts together, so the turret moves and the tank can be opened and troops can be put inside - a very important feature of tanks in sandbox battles was the ability to transfer troops! Regarding the battles, if I remember correctly, they were usually very narrative. I guess we both were kind of umpires, there were not necessarily my army and your army, we built the battlefield together and deployed the forces and then started the battle, moving soldiers here and there, explaining what they do. Quite often the end was a situation of Last Man Standing, and the last soldier then bravely killed all the opposition or was killed in glorious charge. Those were the days. I guess there were different battles, too, but since we didn't have any rules, dice or anything, it was more of a play than a game. I still envy those kids, I'd like to be able to play like that again... :)

Yes, this is 28mm vehicle for 20 points.

The before photo