+ Cool Stuff From Theme Parks Part 2. (WARNING: Contains a spoiler for Terminator 2!)
I tried out Terminator Genisys The Miniatures Game at a convention several years ago. I wrote about it on this blog, giving it a less than glowing review. My mate Richard and I played with only the basic rules though, and, as he bought a load of stuff for it, I thought I'd give it another chance. The original cost of the game in retail stores, even ones that offered a discount, was pretty high, I seem to remember around £80! That, coupled with the film being appalling, was, I think, why the game flopped. Due to this, I've been able to pick up a fair bit of stuff for it at discounted prices. The other thing that got me buying into the game was that River Horse (the company that created the game), released versions of Kyle Reese and Sarah Conor based on the likenesses of Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton respectively (the actors who played these characters in the original film). That original movie, 1984's The Terminator, is my second favourite film, coming in just after another James Cameron classic, Aliens. (If you're wondering what my third favourite is, it's Hanna-Bi by Takeshi Kitano.)
One of the units in the game that the Human Resistance can take is an Abrams Main Battle Tank. Upon reading this, I got it into my head that I wanted an Abrams in the correct scale for the game (28mm (which refers to the height of an average human sized model, measured from the bottom of its feet to its eye level) or 1:56). So for the last few years, I had been looking, on and off, for an Abrams that would work in the game. I finally found one at a wargames show called Warfare, last year. (Warfare is an annual show run by the Wargames Association Of Reading, and is held at Farnborough Exhibition Centre in England.) The model I purchased is by Empress Miniatures (Here is a link to their website).
The model is made of resin and, after giving it a good scrub with warm water and washing up liquid, to remove any mould release agent on it, it came out like this.
It consisted of six pieces of resin, plus some metal parts including the guns and hatches.
The model went together fairly well and, once I'd built it how I liked, looked like this.
I base coated the hull and turret with The Army Painter's, Army Green Colour Primer (here's their website). I over did it a bit with the spray on the hull in an attempt to get to all the nooks and crannies of the tracks. In the end, I used the analogous Army Green bottled paint (also by The Army painter) to get the bits I'd missed with the spray. If you're building one of these tanks and using a spray primer, I recommend applying the paint initially, before your stick on the side armour, then going over the newly glued on pieces once they're in place.
I used Blu-Tack to affix the turret to an old desert pot, and then more to stick the pot to a tray, before applying the base coat.
After the base coat was dry, I painted a little bit of detail on the rear and sides of the turret using Cote d' Arms, Leather Brown, and The Army Painter, Tree Ancient paints. Then I went over the entirety of the hull and turret with another product from The Army Painter, their Military Shader wash. (You can find the Coat d' Arms paints here.)
Below is another view of the turret with the paint and wash products (excluding the spray primer) that I used to get it to this point.
It was now time to make the tank look like it came from a post-apocalyptic wasteland, so suitable for use in Terminator Genisys The Miniatures Game. A number of years ago, my mate Dave sent me a picture of a World War II Jeep miniature that he was working on. He had used a couple of Citadel products on it, namely Typhus Corrosion and Ryza rust. The two products, when used together, gave the impression that the vehicle had been left in a leaky barn since the war. I was so impressed with the result, that I bought a pot of them each. I haven't checked until now but Games Workshop AKA Warhammer, still sell them. You can find the GW/WH website here. When using them, you first paint over the bits you want to look rusted with Typhus Corrosion, then, when that has dried, using a drybrush, apply the Ryza Rust to the same areas. Below is what the hull and turret looked like after applying the Typhus Corrosion.
After the Ryza Rust was applied to the turret, it looked like this. (Also in this picture are the two products I used for the rust effect.)
With these last two steps complete, the tank was done.
I've been fortunate to go to Florida in The United States Of America a number of times, visiting the theme parks that the area is famous for. By far my favourite of all the rides/experiences that I've been to was the Terminator 2: 3D attraction at Universal Studios. Unfortunately the attraction, also known as T2-3D: Battle Across Time, closed on the 8th of October 2017. I only found out that it had closed when researching this blog post and am actually fairly sad that I will never experience it again.
The premise of the attraction was that, as specially invited guests of Cyberdyne (the company that created Skynet) you are attending a show and tell. What could possibly go wrong, right?
I took the next two pictures while queuing to enter the "Miles Bennet Dyson Memorial Auditorium", where the action takes place!
The shop, into which you are disgorged, after the show has ended (a feature typical of nearly all theme park attractions, an Universal Studios, Universal Islands Of Adventure and the various Disney parks) had some very cool stuff. Here are some pictures from it.
The head and neck of a T-800 Endoskeleton from the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and the head and neck of a T-700 from the aforementioned Terminator Salvation.
And the final picture from the shop, me (when I was a lot heavier) and a T-800 Endoskeleton. I did, jokingly, ask if it was for sale, and was told, yes. However, the $6000 price tag was well above my budget...let alone shipping it home To the UK.
Not to be left out of the Terminator 2 action, Disney also had the following on display in a shop in their Hollywood Studios theme park. I'm pretty sure that it's not an actual prop from the movie though, as an identical replica could be seen in Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs. It's a model of the T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in that movie.
