Grizzly Conversion Build

November 15, 2017

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Mike Siggins builds a Grizzly!

By Mike Siggins

As soon as I saw the Konflikt ’47 Grizzly kit I knew I had to make it. My local game shop (Galleon Games, Sidley) had one in stock so I set to converting it. I have a lot of AT43 spares from the now-defunct Rackham and the Grizzly would work with those nicely.

So there was a simple decision: let the mech keep its right arm, and replace the left with either a rocket pack or recoilless gun. The gun looked a lot better and in proportion.

A big gun on the arm mount means you don’t really need one on the hull, so I added an extra layer of applique armour to the front. This is just a circle of Plasticard curved in hot water over a broom handle with some added bolts cut from Plastruct hex rod.

You may think me mad, but I see the Grizzly as Russian rather than American. So I went with a Between the Wars look, as usual. I used Lifecolor UA239 which is an excellent 1930s green.

After priming, I painted a few ‘wear’ areas with Wilder Dark Rust and then masked them off with latex. I then sprayed on the Lifecolor and when completely dry, peeled off the masking fluid. This leaves some nice jagged edges that can be brushed later.

Then to get the slightly battle worn look I washed the whole mech with dark brown oils which pick put all the bolts and panel lines. Nice and grubby.

At this point, I felt something was missing so I added smoke dischargers and an exhaust pipe. I soldered up a piece of brass tube and two disks then added another piece of tube to the outlet.

This was painted with Wilder Dark Rust and Light Rust and some pigment powders. Finally, I added some very subtle dust and rust with oil washes. Transfers yet to do.