Gneric Iraqi force: Surface-to-Air-Missiles SA-2 Guideline / SA-3 Goa

I recently won two auctions on ebay that are now providing my Iraqi force project with some serious anti-air firepower. They will also make some good pieces of terrain to act as mission objectives for my opposing force(s). I had a quick look at the sprues and they look not too bad although friends in different forums I am member in said that they do require some work. They are short-run 1/72 scale injection kits from the East European producer "Voca Gran" . Once I am done with most of my ground vehicles these SAM sites are going to be assembled side by side together with my air units.

Generic Iraqi force: ZIL-157 with ZU-23-2 Anti Air gun

This ZIL-157 truck is another of Britannia's great wargaming resin models. It's a bit crude if used as delivered so I was trying to convert it a little and add some details. It comes as a kind of resupply truck with a huge cargo compartment and in one of the pictures above you can see what I was going to cut off the model. Plans have been to add a 1/72 scale kit of a ZU-23-2 AA gun (from ACE) to the back. I had seen pictures that this has been done on various occasions and those little ZU-23-2 guns have been added to a lot of different vehicles like the GAZ 66 for example. I didn't see any reason why it should not also have occured being strapped to the back of a Russian-made ZIL truck.

So I cut off those walls of the cargo area and constructed a false floor from 1mm plastic sheet to place the AA gun on top. Doing so will allow me to remove the gun and use the ZIL as a supply truck at any time. I get two models out of one-superb!

I was using the mirrors of an older Revell kit to add some detail to the truck, as well as 0,8mm brass wire to add some handrails and steps. Above mentioned plastic sheet also was put into place to act as fog lights, tail lights and liscence plates for the ZIL.

The ACE kit of the ZU-23-2 was a bit of work though. It requires some advanced skills in modelling and a lot of sanding to remove flash. But although it takes some time to finish it in a decent quality its well worth the effort.

The picture in which I already have placed the whole model on a base and sanded the latter and finally also added the black primer should give you an idea of how its going to look like once I paint it.

Generic Iraqi force: T-55 Medium Battle Tank

This is going to be the lightest of all tanks I am planning to add to my generic Iraqi force. T-55 tanks were in use in large numbers throughout both, the Iraqi Regular Army and the Republican Guard. The model shown above is a 20mm resin wargaming model from Britannia Miniatures.
This small and simple kit has a good quality for only consisting out of five parts (hull, turret, tank commander, barrel and machine gun).
The only thing I did with this vehicle was adding the base and a flag that hangs over the fuel drums. The flag is simply a piece of a tissue handkerchief that I soaked in watered down PVA glue and placed upon the model. Once the glue has dried, it becomes hard as a rock and can easily be painted in Iraq's colours.

Generic Iraqi force: UAZ 469 with 12,7mm Heavy MG

I finished another session of converting the standard UAZ 469 kit into what I call a weapons carrier version. This one was given a 12,7mm Heavy Machine Gun instead of the AGS-17.
I hope to be able to completely assemble the final UAZ with 106mm gun today. I am not sure if shall get myself some Britannia PT-76 light tanks for an additional armoured recoinassance force?

Generic Iraqi force: UAZ 469 with AGS-17 "Plamyja"

After the rear roll bar cage had been assembled I had to think about the weapons I am going to mount. The kit of the UAZ offered a wide range of possible weapons but I had different plans. Being a huge fan of the explosive potential of an American Mk.19 40mm Automatic Grenade Launcher I came up with the plan of adding the Russian counterpart of this weapon to my UAZ.
The Russian AGS-17 "Plamyja" is a 30mm fully automatic grenade launcher that can toss the 29 linked rounds of its drum magazin over distances of more than 1700m in less than a minute! There is no plastic model for this weapon - so I had to come up with a full scratchbuild. Believe it or not, it consists out of nine individual parts. After I was fitting the weapon into place I sanded the base and used black primer spray to give the whole thing its undercoat. In my own opinion it turned out great. Now I only need to paint it in a decent way. Next vehicle will be another UAZ weapons carrier. But that one is going to feature a HMG.

Generic Iraqi force: UAZ 469 "weapons carrier" conversion

A bit of progress on the UAZ 469 weapons carrier:

If you look at the box cover, you'll see they have the weapons simply pole-mounted. To be honest - I don't like that look at all. It might be a good way to mount a recoilless rifle, but now imagine to try to hang on that thing while the driver is doing something like 60km/h cross country.

The way the British military fits its guns to their Landrover WMIKs is what I want for my UAZ 469s as well. I found some inspiration in a pc game that features the UAZ and came up with these little conversions (see pics).

I've added a platform from 1mm plastic sheet to the back behind the seats, used 1mm wire to construct the rear roll bar cage that features a well in which a gunner can stand and swing his weapon in a 360 degree arc of fire around on a rail and a weapons mount made from pieces of a Revell Dingo kit (I used its hatch for the latter.)

Now its time for sanding and to put some primer on. And depending on how fast the other two UAZ kits are sent to my house I will either come up with assembling those next or with painting something of those vehicles. The latter I make bet on people are waiting for the most. :-D

Building a generic Iraqi force in 20mm

In this Blog I want to show my progress (as slow as its going to be :D ) with my project of building a generic Iraqi force, suitable to handle game scenarios from way back in the Iran/Iraq War, going over to Desert Storm, all the way up to the last engagements in early 2003. It will feature infantry (from RH Liberation), vehicles (various brands) and also some mission objectives/terrain.

I am a huge fan of all Cold War era Russian-built vehicles. Lucky me, as the Iraqis fielded a lot of them. More or less I am going to add most of the units simply because I like them, not because they are the most combat effective in the TO&E.

I will start with some small and reliable vehicles that are going to be for recce purposes or flanking maneuvres - the UAZ 469.

Checking the web and the projects of others around The Guild Forum I found out that there is way more than just one kit available. There are resin kits from various companies such as S&S models or RH Liberation miniatures, but I wanted something different. What I mean with "different" is plastic, because I don't like the standard look of things and will try to convert my models. I found some cheap plastic kits in 1/72 scale from a producer in Czech Republic called MAC. Although there is three different variants, the plastic sprues withing the boxes are all the same. All kits come with some brass etch parts which is rather impressive for a price lower than 9€ a piece!! It has become a rare item - so check on ebay from time to time if interested..

The sprues offer a wide selection of UAZ 469 variants that can be built. There is the unarmed variant with its folding top closed and six different armed ones, to include a 106mm gun, 73mm SPG-9 recoilless rifle, PKT 7,62mm GPMG, DshK 12,7mm HMG, KPV 14,5mm HMG and an AT-14 "Kornet" ATGM. In addition to that the kit comes with a 82mm mortar, but I don't think that one is for the vehicle itself in particular.

My first variant is going to be the heaviest weapon: the powerful 106mm gun! (pictures above)

The models was built directly out of the box without adding anything but the 1,5mm thick plastic sheet base.