Model Citizen

There used to be a time when the Mod Shockwave for Zero Hour was THE MOD to have, it's still an excellent play, but these days it doesn't stand out so much from the other runners. Here are 3 of the best that will give you hours more gameplay for the Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour expansion:

COLD WAR CRISIS

This turns gameplay on it's head. Forget gathering supplies, it all about fuel. How much you have depends on how many vehicles, each needing varying amounts. An extremely difficult game, forget any other levels and just try easy.

1 point, if you download this Mod, you will need special CWC maps to play. Normal ones wont work.

DESTRUCTIVE FORCES

This has a lot of great vehicles, buildings etc. It's main difference straight away though is the greater height of play, it really helps. If you happen to be up against the General with the Harmageddon Nuclear Weapon though, throw everything you have at it. If it's fired at you it's game over!

lastly:

RISE OF THE REDS

A superb new army of Russia with some deadly attributes.

These 3 Mods should keep you going...and of course, theyr'e all free! just download.

If you can still find the old Shockwave  and you haven't got it, get it at once.

All Finished.

It was a lovely day, and with a model this size I reckoned I could take the pictures on the grass in the garden.

I'll probably do some post work on them for the modelling forum etc but here's unadulterated images.

Well you can decide for yourself whether the hassle with the hinges was worth it. I've seen some more posts on the net complaining about lack of detail on this kit. For the money my opnion is it's superb.

p.s. all the mud was painted with an old toothbrush and a credit card :)

It's all sprayed Silver. This is also the amount of parts I'm leaving it at before final asembly. Ypu'll notice a few tiny parts on the table too which I think will be placed on when the cabin is attached.

Well, guess what? I forgot to put any latex on. Doh! So I'll have to add the silver the old fashioned way with drybrushing. I've sprayed it all olive green and added the decals. I always add some Johnsons Klear to the decals after to help strengthen them and stop them peeling. There were loads of decals left over, with different number markings. Also, there were some screws left over and a couple of hinges, so there are spares.

I've taken the wheels off to make life a bit easier as well. Windows and clear parts will be put on last.

I've got quite a bit done now as you'll see so here's a couple of updates put together.

Tricky bit here. See the small wheels on seperate bogeys, they're held in place by a spindle that just touches the outer carriage. Thing is, a slight shake and they all fall off. I got round this by adding more tension to the assembly, and I did by that by boiling a cup of water, dipping the carriage in the water and while hot bringing the carriage closer together. So when the bogey goes in it's held under greater tension and is a lot more stable.

This is the lower assembly pretty much done. P.S., see the tweezers on the right? You'll need those!

And here is where my trouble began.

It's those blooming hinges. I had 3 attempts to get this right. Instructions say use super glue, and those are tiny rivets that stick through into both pieces. The hinges just wouldn't stop peeling off as I tried to open and close the doors after it dried. The hinges are pretty stiff, I'm not using oil on them though! So, super glue didn't work, next I tried just plastic gle, allowing the rivets to hold the hinge in place. That also didn't work, again the hinges are just too stiff and pulled away again. Patience, remember patience.

Lastly I tried the hot glue gun. It's a very unweildly way to work but I managed to just rub the hinges on the nozzle getting enough glue on them to allow to stick. Remember, your dealing with a piece of hinged metal the size of a baby's fingernail here! I could have I suppose just glued all the hinges in place without worrying about them ever opening, butI bought a kit that will show interior and I'm going for it!

So, the hot glue worked, but was a bit messy. it holds strongly enough to allow open and closing. The doors aren't the only places hinges are present so it's important to get this working right. I haven't got the rivets though, but I'm going to live with that. Working with a hot glue gun and tweezers will test anyone's patience to the max.

Lot's done here. I've completed the cabin assembly, can you see the hinged bonnet? That has another 12 hinges to sort out! Also the gun assembly is almost finished. This has options for 2 different type of gun (with carrying handle or without).

I must tell you something else at this point, I didn't bother using all the metal etch parts. Some were just not worth the hassle. There are lots of boxes with adequate looking hinges moulded onto them, I didn't want to scrape them off just to put metal ones on, to me that was asking for trouble. Large areas of metal against plastic I now used hot glue. Strange, but metal against plastic with super glue is just not as good a bond as plastic against plastic.

Last picture for now. It's on the table ready for spraying. The plan is to spray it all silver first as a metal undercoat, then the top coat and allow the paint to be chipped to see the metal underneath. I might use some latex on big areas, we'll see what happens.

I've just loaded on Command & Conquer Zero hour after 2 years of not playing. I dont know if anybody still plays this game anymore (I hope so, it's great fun) but if you do I've compiled my map pack. These maps were made years ago and are in varying degrees of accomplishment.

File can be downloaded HERE for free. Click the Download button on the left.