20mm Early 1980's Characters

So, the "Winter of 79" forces are starting to take shape.

First up, Government/Loyalist/Royalist/Tory characters.

A pair of Commissaries to administer the West Cheshire and Deeside administrative districts.  These are dictator figures from RH Models.  The Deeside Commissary is obviously an RAF type from RAF Sealand, just across the River Dee from Deeside in England.  The West Cheshire Commissary will have set up base at the Castle in Chester.

Next up, a pair of dirty tricks Special Branch operatives - if you want someone to disappear, these are the guys to call in.  These are from Elhiem.

The happier face of Special Branch, a likely pair of lads from Platoon 20 who closely resemble Bodie and Doyle - if you are old enough to remember the Professionals.

Bobbies in body armour with SLRs on patrol (from Elhiem).  These guys would accompany army patrols to provide liaison between military and civil powers.  I am always uncomfortable when I see British police openly carrying firearms - trips through U.K. airports always freak me out!

A pair of militia leaders from Platoon 20, the black guy in the sharp suit has raised a loyalist militia in an urban environment - well he doesn't want to crease the suit.  The guy with the "mutton chops" bears a passing resemblance to a country pub landlord or local squire, who's raised a rural militia force from the local rustics.

For the Insurgents/Terrorists/Revolutionaries/Separatists/Socialists, depending on your point of view.

"Professional" terrorists armed with Uzis from the IRA or Bader Meinhoff gang assisting the cause in Britain - these are plain clothes Garda from Elhiem.

A couple of local militia cell leaders with handguns, from Platoon 20.

Another pair from Platoon 20, a skinhead armed with an Uzi and lady in trouser suit with handgun from her hand bag.

A pair of Platoon 20 emancipated females in paramilitary gear with M60s (I think).

Another pair, the one on the right is huge, so would have to be known as "Big Bertha" by her Government opposition.

Then the revolution's financiers, a pair of Platoon 20 gangsters in stocking masks, armed with a sawn off shotgun and handgun.

Another pair armed with handgun and some kind of small stubby SMG that I can't make out.

So, these guys and girls will add some characters/leader types to the upcoming "Winter of 79" campaign.  Next up will be a local militia force for Wo79, and the Argentine heavy weapons teams for the Falklands, both of which are finished but need photographing.  On the paining table are a platoon of Elhiem Cold War British infantry in patrol poses, some odds and ends and then I'll either do some more militia forces or some modern Russians - depends on how the fancy takes me or what we arrange for games at the Defenders club.  I've also got some of the Works bargains that need painting up.

As ever, thanks for looking.

20mm modern British infantry platoon

Well, what a week for my Wargaming hobby.  Early on, I wrapped up this platoon of RH Models 1980's British infantry.  I then moved on to a cell of insurgent infantry for "Winter of 79" and wrapped them up as well, before moving on to the heavy weapon supports for my Argentine/Norway force.  I've also had various civilian/police/insurgent figures occupying a corner of the painting table, which I've been working on off and on for a few weeks, and I managed to get them finished too.  Then Thursday at the club was our 10 player D-day landings game using FofW, which worked surprisingly well and looked spectacular considering it was put together in an hour and played to completion in the evening.  Then I did a deal on the Guild of Wargamers (thanks Richard and Ben) and picked up some modern British armour and my order from the Plastic Soldier Valentines Day sale arrived as well.  Oooh, and the Works had restocked with some new BTR-40s and BTR-60Ps.  More of all that in future posts.  Back to the British infantry.

These are all from the RH Models Falklands/1980's British range and are in DPU with Mk 6 helmets, although you can't tell as they are covered in skrim.  In front is the platoon command section (I need to add a 50mm mortar man), with behind them three sections, each of 4 SLR riflemen, a GPMG gunner and assistant and a Charlie G gunner and assistant.  At the back are some spare SLR figures and a pair of bren gunners.  On the left are three snipers.

One of the GPMG gunners in the middle, with Sterling SMG to left and Charlie G on right.

The Charlie G gunner in the middle with assistant on right.  Another fuzzy Charlie G in the foreground.

Troops-eye view of part of the Platoon HQ.

The three snipers.

Rear rank with bren gunners.

Some of the figures in more detail, because I like the poses, even though the close ups reveal my poor painting skills.

A section NCO.

SLR rifleman advancing.

Another one.

Sterling SMG armed.

GPMG advancing.

Bren gunner.

So, another platoon of British infantry, ready to retake the Falklands, put themselves in harms way in Europe or patrol the streets of a Britain in the grip of civil war in the late 70's.  I painted them the same way as previous DPM, but used a brighter green (German camo bright green) and lighter brown (NATO brown mixed with light brown).  I'm quite pleased with the final effect.

Thanks for looking.

6mm Roman villa

Steve Oates of the Baggage Train passed me these at the club just after Christmas.  He is building up a nice set of 6mm terrain items, suitable for ancients wargaming, especially Roman and Dark Age periods.  These are his Roman villa and Roman workshop pieces.  I thought the workshop looked  lot like an early Romano-British villa (1st-2nd Century), while the villa looks good for 3rd-4th Century courtyard villa.  I've read that as the Romano-British nouveau-riche landowners rapidly adopted Roman style and culture  after the invasion, abandoning Iron Age roundhouses and moving into rectangular villa buildings, before moving on to more luxurious courtyard premises as styles and tastes changed - so much like the property ladder today.

I've modelled this piece to show the derelict roundhouse as an irregular circle of boulders (hut circle), to the left of the villa in the image below.  The early 1st/2nd Century villa building is now used to house slaves and as a workshop, while the landowners family live in the courtyard villa with its hypocaust flooring, garden and pond.

The front entrance of the villa.  The roof of the villa is a separate casting, so the inner courtyard can be detailed, but I need to glue it down as I see it's gone a bit wonky as I was photographing it.

Another view from the less salubrious side of the complex.

Nice crisp castings, very little clean up required.  I did wash them in detergent in case there was any release agent on the surfaces.  I'm not sure how much these are selling for, but Steve's prices for his other items are more than reasonable, well worth a look if you see him at a show.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Cold War British - cap comforters

So, first up this week I tried out my first terrain piece for 20mm.  This is a 100mm square mdf base from Minibits with oil drums, wooden packing cases and a 20ft storage contaner, all from Sgts Mess.  The rubble pile is made from aquarium gravel and the base is textured with PVA glue mixed with a Cinnamon coloured household emulsion paint and sprinkled with aquarium sand.  Static grass spots were added once the textured base had dried.  This is going to represent a builders yard or outdoor storage for a small industrial workshop. 

 

I also worked on the next group of figures from my Xmas pressie, this time Falklands/1980's era British soldiers wearing cap comforters.  These are all from RH Models Liberation range.  The range extends to snipers, Carl Gustav gunners, radio operators and commander/leader types, so useful for mixing amongst figures in berets, helmets or SAS kit to give a more rag-tag mix and match look to your units.

First up, three sniper figures in the usual RH Models poses.

The Charly G gunners, two figures with a loader.

The RTO operators.  I might replace the aerials with nylon fishing line later, but for now these are fine.

The six figure leaders pack.

Nice figures that should add some variety to some of my special forces units for the Falkands and Cold War.  I can see these making an appearance in our play test of the Red Star White Lights scenario book.  They will also fit the bill as either government or rebel forces for our "Winter of 79" English civil war scenarios and I can see them appearing in Andreivia in the search for their missing SAS colleagues captured by insurgents in the hills south of Tcherbevan.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Saxon APCs

Another purchase from Paul at the club, a pair of Cromwell Models (I think!) Saxon APCs.  These are quite delicate models and had suffered from being stored for a long time with some parts cracked or broken.  A little bit of TLC and the use of some plastic spars to support the road wheels on one of the models and I finished up with these.  The vehicle mounted GPMGs were too fragile to survive storage, so I've replaced them with metal versions from Sgts Mess.  The rolled up canvas tarps in the storage bins are also from Sgts Mess.  The GPMG gunners are from RH Models and are part of the British 1980's Cold War range and wear 44 pattern helmets and DPM uniforms without webbing.  The figure were complete crouching figures and I ground off the legs and bases with a Dremel and shaped the base of the torso to fit in the hatch ways.

These were undercoated light grey and then spray painted Tamiya NATO Green as a base coat, highlighted with a little white added.  NATO black splodges to the bodywork were added by brush along with wheels and GPMGs, these latter being highlighted with basalt grey.  The interior, where visible, and inside of hatch covers, was painted ivory.  Vision blocks are sky blue, tarps are field grey or English uniform.  Flat yellow for the bridge weight sign and indicator lenses, red for rear reflectors and brake lights.

I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out.  I've got two more on order from RH Models to complete mobility for a full platoon.  These will be ferrying troops to the front in Cold War games and patrolling the streets of England in a Winter of 79 style scenario, as well as patrolling downtown Tcherbevan in the sad history of the fictional Black Sea country of Andreivia.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Argentine troops for the Falklands

The Falklands campaign of 1982 has re-emerged at the club as another set of scenarios for all those Cold War British infantry in our collections.  With the Top Malo scenario in the Force on Force rule book, there is a ready made scenario just waiting for the table top.

As the Argentine forces were, with some variation, largely kitted out in what appears to be US kit of the 60's and 70's, very similar to several NATO armies of the 70's and 80's.  This means that the generic NATO infantry produced by Elhiem should fit the bill as one option and, if not, then they will be useful as troops for Denmark, Norway and West Germany.

I've painted them with Russian uniform as the base colour, heavily dry brushed green grey and then lightly dusted green grey with a little white.  Helmets are olive drab, boots and weapons are NATO black dry brushed basalt grey.

These are NATO NCOs with Uzi SMGs.  Front view.

Rear view.

A mix of riflemen with G3 and FAL - I ordered mixed packs so took pot luck as to what was included as I wanted to try these figures out.  Front view.

Rear view.

LAW armed troopers, with a single Carl Gustav.

GPMG gunners for fire support.  Front view.

Rear view.

In the run up to Christmas, my other half asked me what I wanted as a pressie, so I came up with a list of gear from R H Models (Liberation range).  The Yolasite lists several packs of Argentines, but unfortunately most are labelled as not yet available.  However, there are three packs of FN riflemen listed, each of 10 figures, including 3 suitable for NCOs (pointing poses).  These are really nice crisp castings, but the range is crying out for some heavy weapon support.

First up, figures wearing parkas, with canvas covered helmets and goggles.  Front view.

And the second pack, very similar, but no goggles.  Front view.

Rear view.

The last pack in soft winter caps with ear flaps, some folded up and some down covering the ears.  Front view.

Rear view.

Finally, from the RH Models multipurpose range is a medic and figure carrying a wounded comrade, both wearing baseball caps but looking close enough to the soft winter caps figures to blend in well.  Front view.

Rear view.

 

These figures should work well for Argentine troops for the Falklands, but I think they will also work well for Norwegian and Danish troops in a hypothetical Cold War scenario, which is handy as I plan to try out some of the scenarios in the "Red Star, White Lights" scenario book which was published recently.  They came as something of a relief to paint, after working on DPM for the last couple of months, because of the simplicity of the monochrome scheme.  So, the basis there for a couple of platoons, which I might consider bringing up to company strength at some point.  Support weapons are a little thin on the ground, unless RH Models complete their list.  I've seen suggestions that 106mm recoilless rifles from the Platoon 20 US Vietnam range would be suitable, as well as .50 cals and may be even mortar support and WW2 bazooka teams.  For NATO, I'll have to add some of the Elhiem generic NATO Milan teams.

 

Thanks for looking.