Cheetahs on the prowl (and Strike Squad Redux)

 

I did a partial repositioning of the Arrow Jaguar's head and missile launchers.  Initially, I wanted the model's front view to look as similar to the old RPG art as possible but unfortunately the pose overall suffered IMO.  I took off the head and missile launchers, scraped clean the superglue, and repositioned them to look a little more like I initially intended.  I imagine the advanced tracking systems on the Jaguar have the missile mount on that side turn to where his sensor cluster (the head) is pointing so I turned the one mount and left the other facing straight forward (but still at the RPG tilted angle from the vertical.

Next up, I worked on some cheetahs.  These guys were less time intensive as I didn't thankfully have to (so far!) worry about mispacks and the conversions were relatively minimal.  I clipped and repositioned the normal cheetahs arm to infront of him and added a Blitz scale dagger to liven up the pose a bit more.  As usual, I swapped out the curved rocket pack for an angular one.   Additionally, the pic showed me that I missed some spots when stripping and reposing this model so I'll have to go back and do some concentrated scrubbing tonight.

The second model from the recon squad was the strike cheetah.  Whereas the normal cheetah is a mix of Electronic Warfare and defensive capability, the strike cheetah focuses more on the latter and adds some offensive punch.  Initially, it was an aidrop capable unit but strangely it has been split up into three separate bazooka cheetahs, only one of which is airdrop capable.  Either way, here is my Metal Cat/Strike Cheetah/Para Strike Cheetah/Silver.  The changes to the stock model were adding a pack gun to the left hand, swapping out the Rapid Fire Bazooka for a Light bazooka, and the rocket launcher swap.

Next up will be the White Cat Cheetah variant and some group photos!

Strike Squad done... sort of...

I tried various possible solutions over the weekend to my issue of the mismatched Jaguar heads this weekend.  Raiding the various bits boxes didn't help and several different attempts at press moulding just ended up with the following mostly low detail and frequently unusable bits.

The two best cast pieces still had detail issues on the bottom half (although the less detailed top turned out fine) so I decided to cut off the bottom and try to convert existing blitz scale heads into the bottom portions.  Unfortunately, it just looked like the blitz heads were wearing a small hat instead of a cohesive single head.  In the end, I settled and used the two Fire Jaguar heads as the normal heads and the Thunder Arrow variant used the mispacked hunter head. 

I'm not entirely happy with the pose on the missile launcher commander model.  I was going for a "follow me, men!" type raised arm but instead it looks a bit more like a Papal wave unfortunately.  I had planned on turning the torso more but then the head wouldn't be oriented in the same direction due to the missile launchers.  I may revisit this pose in another few days after I finish the next squad.  I also converted the MAC to a bulkier version using some 40k and Robotech bits.  The MAC is one of the worst offenders in the underscaled weapon department for Rafm era models with the supposedly bigger weapon coming in smaller in volume than the LAC and even the pack gun.  Here's a side/back view of the three.

Next up will be the three gear Recon squad of cheetahs.

Forming a Strike Squad

I decided to follow the template set up by the Fire Support squad in making each model in the squad a unique variant.  The models that I had to choose from were two Fire Jaguars, a Jaguar Predator, and a stock Jaguar.  The Predator was out as it has no equivalent in the current living rulebook (LRB) so I decided to turn it into a bazooka armed Destroyer variant instead.  The stock Jaguar, while supported, was too similar in loadout for my tastes as the two Fire Jaguars (all three wielding MACs) so I decided to try and convert it to a Flash Jaguar instead.  For the Flash variant, I thought it might be nice to convert the arms into a folden across the chest position as opposed to simple at its side.  I took some cutting, pinning, and filling but I'm happy with the final result.  Finally, I decided to try and convert one of the two rocket based Fire Jaguars (the unassembled NIB model) into a missile firing Arrow Jaguar instead to stand alongside the assembled Fire Jaguar.  Picture below are the Destroyer and Flash variants.

Unfortunately, when I opened the three blisters I had (one Fire Jaguar was already assembled and painted), I noticed that every single Jaguar head was different.  One had the extended visor just as the assembled Fire Jaguar, one was angular similar to modern Jaguars, and one was oddly curvy but not very similar to the cury Fire Jaguar heads either.  Unfortunately, the engine in that pack also didn't match and it appeared that I had yet another RAFM mispack.  From looking at various pics online, I had a hunter "bits" plastic bag in my Jaguar blister instead of the correct one.  You can see the various heads in the pic above as well as the engines below.

I decided to only build three Jaguars (similar to the three Grizzlies... not including the Kodiak commander) since I only had three correct matching engines.  The heads, however, were a different story as I'm still not sure what to do.  On a lark, I figured I'd try to email Rafm and see if they had any extra bits left over from that era.  I realize it's a very long shot and hopefully they'll be able to help.  If they can't my only options will be to either use wildly different heads or try to press mould additional heads.  For now, I'll hold off on the decision about the heads and next build the last Arrow Jaguar addition to the squad.