The Comanche can be purchased separately or as a part of the US Starter Set. It is a multi-piece metal kit that comes with a round beveled base. The pieces are shown to the left. The basic Comanche comes with a machinegun arm and a close combat arm. At the time of my modeling these, the flamethrower and anti-tank variants were not available (but that one man sculpting machine Andy Cooper has since turned out two more exquisite battlesuit variants - here and here. I think the size of the flamethrower qualifies Andy for honorary Texian Citizen status as it fits in well with trhe kinds of things Texians like!)

I wanted to have the commander looking out of one of the Battlesuits so used the commander I had from the German mecha. He had to be cut down some or he would have extended too far above the rim of the hatch. I used a hacksaw but had difficulty holding it still enough to get it cut all the way through. In the end I gave up on it and used my flush cutter to cut chunks off and then sanded the bottom to the point where it would fit.

The first Battlesuit was going to be a stock model with only a few modifications - the hatch with commander and modular arms. After the commander was fitted into the hatch, I glued him onto a bottle cap and painted him. I glued the hatch in the up position. Having the commander look out the front was a bit boring so once painted I turned his body to the side as if he was scanning the battlefield.

I wanted to be able to swap left arms out so I took the packaged left arm and drilled out the place where it fit into body. I took a magnet from Amazing Magnets and glued it in this hole and glued it solidly in place with super glue. On the shoulder of the mecha I filed away a spot to make it flat and glued a piece of metal on. Much to my dismay, the arm would not stay in the upright position as it was too heavy. I had to come up with an alternative plan. Since I had planned on making this a machine gun and AT equipped mecha, I looked into how to add the AT capability. In pawing through my bits boxes I came across a wooden button that was light and hemi-spherical. I chopped off one portion of it so I could add the missles. Once again I dove into the bits. Out came several pieces of thin plasticard, a brush tip protector, and some toothpicks. I cut out the four sides of a square container and glued them together, cut one end off of the toothpicks, and mounted them on the wooden button. The brush protector was mounted on the top for the gun barrel. The idea was to give the impression of kinetic energy rounds moving into the gun as it was fired. But the best news was that the magnet held this on with no problem.

Using green stuff I made a rock for the miniature to stand on. I drilled into the feet of the mecha and then drilled down into the green stuff and through the base. I cut off a couple of straight pins and ran them through the holes I drilled. No way this was going to come off of the base! I'll address painting details below.

Next up was the flamethrower variant. Thanks to GW I had a whole lot of things I could draw from to make this. I wanted a low tech looking solution that was a little rattle-trapish. Removing the machine gun would have been a major undertaking so I just made it look like a field modification. The tanks underneath came from one of the Leman Russ kits and the radiator on the back from an Ork kit of some kind! I saw this as either a pressure reservoir or a cooling tank. The valves are a nice extra. The hoses leading from the radiator to the tanks was made from wire I have had since I was a Boy Scout working on the electricity Merit Badge. I cut them, twisted them, and then cut the ends to the appropriate lengths. The flames were made from green stuff  molded around a stiff piece of wire placed into a hole drilled into the plastic.

I finished off by mounting the miniature on a piece of bark I found walking home one day. I drilled holes into the bark and through the base and glued pins in the holes. Then I dipped the bark into the tint I used for the US miniatures I dipped. When dry, this was not as durable as I had hoped so I knew I needed to add something. I then painted some clear polyeurethane onto the miniature and that seemed to seal it. Then I drilled *more* holes into the model's feet and through the bark and mounted the mecha.I did not add any more color to the bark as I liked the look.

The final model was put together with no modifications other than a rifle mount added to the back. The standard version fits together well an requires only a small amount of scraping to remove errant mark or to add battle damage.

Two of the nice features are the star on the chest and the USA banner beneath it. They are cut well enough that they are a snap to paint. I used a blackundercoat and then painted the plates and hinges with a Vallejo Olive Drab. I dusted all of the miniatures with the silver chalk from the Tamiya Weathering kit and then wet the sponge tip to add silver around the edges. I used the rust from the Tamiya kit around the feet and then the mud pen to finish the weathering.

Overall I am pleased with how these look. There are some areas where I could have added some touiches but I was aiming for a better than average wargame look.

Here are some photos of the finished squad.