20mm Taliban reinforcements

The rest of my Britannia Miniatures haul from WWS at Donnington Park.  Some much needed Taliban reinforcements for my insurgency campaign and to fight in Andreivia.

First up, three sniper teams.

An observer team for calling in mortars and rockets or triggering IEDs.

A hand held SAM missile team.

Three Taliban leaders.

Three RPG armed insurgents.

Three figures armed with PKM mgs.

Insurgents armed with AK47/74s.

More AK47/74 armed insurgents.

And yet more.

These were painted in the same way as the heavy weapons in the previous post.  They provide enough Taliban figures to put on table for game start up, plus a reasonable number of reinforcements to bring on during the course of each game.  These should be in use on Thursday in a FoF game, when they are going to be hunting a broken down Russian tank on the outskirts of a village, although I strongly suspect the Russian relief forces will be doing their level best to whittle down my insurgents.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Taliban heavy weapons

At the World Wargames show at Donnington Park I picked up some reinforcements for my Andreivian Turk/Taliban forces, a mixed bag of heavy weapons and AK infantry with light support weapons.  These are Britannia Miniatures Taliban from their Afghanistan range from Grubby Tanks.

First up a pair of DHsK 12.7mm HMGs in the AA role, each with three crew.  These Dushkas (Sweetie or Dear) will be providing some much needed air cover as well as some fire support in the ground role where needed.

These are three DHsK 12.7mm HMGs in the ground fire support configuration, again each with three crew.

Finally, three 81mm mortars, again, you guessed it, each with three crew.

I've used a variety of fairly drab Vallejo colours for these, mainly NATO black, basalt grey, blue grey, English uniform and Iraqi sand, with some combat jackets in US cammo green, cammo olive green and Tamiya NATO green.  Some dark reds, olive greens, white and yellow break up the more dreary colours.  All are washed in Army Painter strong tone with 2 coats of Vallejo matt varnish.

More Britannia infantry reinforcements to follow.  Thanks for looking.

Spetsnaz in 20mm

This weekend I managed to finish my Under Fire Miniatures Spetsnaz figures (UFM Mod Rus 5).  These have been hanging around on the edge of my painting table since I picked them up at WMMS back in Feb/Mar.  I slotted them in between the British and Taliban figures I'm working on for our Force on Force campaign at the club.

All five figures, three with AK74s, one of these with a UGL, one RPG and AK74 and one PKM LMG.  They are wearing the sphere helmet, although the middle figure has added a full face plate.

AK-74 with UGL figure - he is carrying a slung LAW as well.

The RPG figure with slung AK-74.

AK-74 figure with face plate.

Running AK-74 figure.

PKM LMG figure.

Rear view of the figure group.

These are really nice figures.  I'll probably pick up some of the other packs in the range and be watching the web site to see if any new codes are released.  They are painted in Vallejo Russian green with dark sand spots, helmets are brown violet, boots and weapons in NATO black dry brushed basalt grey.  Wooden kit is English uniform, RPG and LAWs are in Russian green.  All were washed in Army Painter strong tone diluted 2:1 with acrylic thinners.  Hood lining was picked out in dark sand.

Thanks for looking.

15mm Peterpig USMC

I've been tempted by the Peterpig USMC figures from their AK-47 range for ages.  Our interest in  Force on Force and Tomorrows War gave me the spur I needed to pick up a few packs and give them a try out.  I've painted them up for desert operations with a light brown base coat, English uniform for boots and body armour, black for weapons and goggle straps.  All washed in Army Painter strong tone.  Then an Iraqi Sand dry brush of packs and webbing, azure blue for goggles, basalt grey dry brush for weapons and US dark green for AT-4s and Stinger.

The complete force, two platoons, each of three sections with a section leader and two fire teams of four.  Each platoon has a command section of 5 or 6 men with officer, radio operator and medic, plus one of the platoons has a hand held stinger team added.  Each platoon is supported by a HMG and crew, and a sniper team.

1st platoon.  Each fire team comprises a SAW, M16 with UGL and 2 M16 troopers, although one M16 trooper in each section also carries an AT-4 weapon.  Two of the sections have a designated marksman in place of an M16 marine in the fire team that doesn't have the AT-4.

2nd platoon.  The sharper eyed of you may have noticed some of these marines wear US dark green body armour and carry green equipment pouches, so are better suited to Mogadishu than Afghanistan, but for my purposes, they just add to the rag tag look of infantry in combat.  This platoon isn't as well equipped as 1st platoon with only two sections carrying AT-4s and no designated marksmen.  The HQ section also lacks a stinger team.

1st platoon fire teams with AT-4s and section leaders.

2nd platoon fire teams, only the front and rear teams have AT-4s.

1st platoon HQ section.  Stinger figure is a conversion from the SAM teams package head swapped with a USMC figure.

2nd platoon HQ section.  I quite like the medic with his blood bag.

1st platoon HMG and sniper teams.  I'm going to buy another HMG pack and convert them to AGLs as well, should be a case in this scale of trimming the barrel shorter and adding a round ammunition drum.

2nd platoon supports.  I still need to finish the spotter for the sniper team.

1st platoon designated marksmen in 2nd and third fire teams (right hand figure next to section leaders).

1st platoon fire teams with AT-4s carried by far right figures.

2nd platoon basic fire teams, each team (left to right) comprises figures armed with an M16 with UGL, SAW and 2 M16s.

These are nice figures to paint, lots of crisp, raised detail.  I was really pleased with the final result.  I'll have to pick up some Hummers and AAV-P7s to get these mobile, plus some helicopter gunship or fast air support.

I fielded a platoon of these at the club last night in a game of Tomorrows War, where they were doubling up as DPRG forces in the first practice scenario on p99 of the rule book.  A good game, my DPRG troops took a real pounding from the high tech USMC troopers in the scenario, but managed to distract them from the goal of rescuing the downed pilot meaning that they couldn't get the pilot off table by the end of turn 8.  We then played the 2nd practice scenario in the book, with a couple of USMC Perkins tanks ambushing a troop of 5 DPRG tanks (my Pound Shop bargains).  In that scenario, my tanks took a pounding but managed to knock out both Perkins tanks.  However, by game end I only got one tank off the table with 3 knocked out and one stuck on the edge of the forest, so lost as I didn't get enough off table.  Both were quick and fun games with some interesting tactical challenges.

As ever, thanks for looking.

Poundstretcher conversions in 15mm for Tomorrows War

Following on from the previous post, a few months back Poundstretcher were running a line of toy cars, which included some useful military vehicles - all for £1 each.

First up is a tank of some description, I'm not sure if it's meant to be an M1 or an M60 or something else all together.  It comes in a glossy green and silver camouflage scheme - on the left in the image below.  In the centre is one undercoated in Vallejo pale grey primer and on the right painted in a MERDC desert scheme of pale brown and tan earth with NATO black and Iraqi sand squiggles and the tracks picked out in gunmetal grey and the MG in NATO black.

As above, slightly more broadside on view.  The final version should do well as a heavy tank for Tomorrows War.

Also in the range were some APCs with rocket launchers, which look remarkably like 6-wheeled VABs.  They come in a sand camouflage finish with stencilled logos along the sides (left side of picture below).  Next is the same undercoated and then a version painted up in light brown and English uniform.  It is possible to unscrew the body and remove it, allowing the central axle to be removed as well as the rocket assembly , leaving a suitable command vehicle (right side of image).  I can't decide whether the socket for the rocket assembly will make a good base for a radar dish (which I'd have to scratch build) or to mount a HMG and gunner.

Close-ups of the "VABs".

For less than a tenner, I picked up enough tanks and apcs for a reasonable game of Tomorrows War.  Many thanks to Ian Shaw for alerting me to them being in stock again at Poundstretcher earlier this year.  I now find myself scanning the displays of Corgi, Matchbox, Hot Wheels and the like looking for suitable vehicle conversions.

Thanks for looking.

Pound shop bargains for Tomorrows War

Had a day off work today so decided to visit Northwich and call in at the Model Shop and mooch around the town centre.  The Model Shop is a nice find as they stock a good range of model kits and 1:72 scale soldiers of various periods and manufacturers, as well as a lot of model railway kit.  Sad to see they stock Javis scenic items, but not Woodland Scenics.  I picked myself up a Revel Sopwith Camel and a pot of Army Painter strong tone ink wash.

Anyway, I found myself in a pound shop looking at the toys and found these little packs for a pound a box.

Inside, you get two vehicles, one that looks remarkably like a French VAB, and a MBT of uncertain origin, which could be a badly rendered Leclerc, given the VAB theme, or more likely a sort of Merkava given the elongate turret and turret mounting towards the rear of the hull.  There are also two signs, which I might alter to read "Danger Mines!" and two oil drums marked with yellow and black hazard tape. Contents of three packs plus a fourth pack still in packaging below.

Details of the models in each pack.  The VAB looks pretty good for 15mm scale to me and will bring me more apc capabilities.  The MBT looks a little small, so I may classify this as a light tank or a Merkava style combined tank/apc.

Then, as a bonus, I spotted this Italeri 1:100 scale Mirage III.  This should work fine as air support for my Force on Force games in 15mm or 20mm.

Not a bad haul for £5.  Not sure whether I'll repaint the armour as it looks quite funky and futuristic to me already - maybe just an ink wash to pop the detail.

Thanks for looking.

British 16th Air Assault Brigade in 20mm

Last weekend at the Derby/Donnington Park show, I picked up a platoons worth of Britannia 20mm British Infantry from their 16th Air Assault Brigade in Afghanistan range.

The whole platoon, plus attached sniper, engineer and ATGM teams.

The sniper team.

The HQ section with (L-R) 51mm mortar, radio operator, officer studying map/documents, officer pointing and NCO pointing.

Rifle section (of which there are three), each comprising of two 4 man fire teams and a section NCO.  Each fire team comprises 3 figures with SA80 (one with a UGL) and a minimi LMG.  One fire team SA80 rifleman carries a slung AT-4 while the equivalent figure in the second fire team has replaced his SA80 for a combat shotgun.

The engineer team with NCO, mine detector and three SA80 armed figures.

AT team with two Javelin teams and an NCO.

One of the shotgun armed troopers.

The radio operator from the HQ section.

One of the NCO figures.

These figures from Britannia paint up really well.  They look a little stocky in the raw metal, but really take up the paint well and have lots of raised detail.  The uniform is painted Vallejo model air light brown with spots of a 50:50 mix of the light brown and English uniform, which is also used for the boots and body armour.  Weapons are painted Vallejo NATO black or Tamiya NATO green and flesh colours added.  Figures were washed with Army Painter strong tone ink diluted 2:1 with acrylic thinners. Once dry, they were dry brushed with Vallejo Iraqi sand, especially over equipment pouches, lapels, cuffs, webbing and to highlight folds in clothing.  Weapons were dry brushed Vallejo basalt grey.  Vallejo NATO black for goggles and straps with silver for mirrored goggle lenses and binocular lenses.  Base is Vallejo desert basing medium washed with diluted Army Painter strong tone.  The figures were finished with Vallejo matt varnish.

Looking forward to trying these out on the table top.  Presently hooked on Force on Force, so it will be a nice change to field a regular force rather than my more normal irregular Chechens and Taliban.  Now I've got to get hold of some suitable vehicles, plus GPMGs, medics and maybe a drone and crew!

Thanks for looking.