Modern US Army: M113 A3 work in progress volume #3

Paining tons of stowage and equipment continued. Now I only need to apply the camo to the rucksacks (ACU pattern) and paint the actual stowage baskets themselves, clean some spots with paint (tail lights for example) and make a base and its DONE!!

Modern US Army: M113 A3 work in progress volume #2

Got some time to spare and started painting my M113 APC. I used black spray for a primer, gave the armour a first layer of Tamiya's Flat Earth to add some natural shades in the recesses and went on mixing Vallejo's Desert Yellow with Pale Sand (approx. 2:1 mix) for the actual paintjob.

I wanted to match the colour of the Dragon diecast vehicles I have and I came pretty close to their camouflage's tone.

Now I need to paint all the stowage. That's going to take longer. ;-)

Generic Iraqi Force: Reinforcements arrived! T-72 MBT work in progress

I got two Forces Of Valor diecast T-72 tanks from ebay a little while ago. They come painted but I didn't like their look. I took them apart and they will be repainted to blend in with the rest of my Iraqi vehicles.

This should give the Republican Guard some heavy hitters to deal at least a bit damage to the infidels! ;-)

Modern US Army: WIP, M113 A3 APC

Latest project that kicked off just today: M113 A3 APC. It's a kit made by Trumpeter and I will add some resin bits made by Black Dog CZ. The crew are RH Liberation Miniatures. I used a HMMWV gunner, chopped in half for the .50cal HMG cupola and one of Rolf's US tankers for the driver. You can see in one of the pictures that I modefied the driver's compartment so that the figure will pop his head out of the open hatch.

Little update 2010/03/14: gunner and driver painted, stowage added.

Generic Iraqi Force: ZSU-23 "Shilka" AAA

This is an Iraqi Anti Air Artillery gun for the use in Force-On-Force. The "Shilka" has four rapid-firing 23mm guns to blaze away at enemy aircraft and helicopters. This is a resin and white metal model made by Shaun at S&S.

It received markings as usual and a new base to fit in with the other vehicles of the army. Mark did a really good job on the colours used. Compared with photos I've seen from the original in Iraqi service, it matches totally. The miniature is only there for scale reasons so you can compare how big the tank actually is. I will do more Iraqi anti-air units with a variety of weapon systems, so stay tuned!

Generic Iraqi Force: FAC / FAO (spotter)

The guy above is my miniature for the use of a spotter in Ambush Alley Force-On-Force. He has a radio and binoculars, so that he can act either as a FAC (Forward Air Controller - directs fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters to their ground attack runs) or as a FAO (Forward Artillery Observer - directs artillery or mortar strikes on targets). In Ambush Alley FoF every squad leader can call for assets if they are available, but having dedicated controllers will improve accuracy!

The miniature is from RH Liberation's Iraqi range. Base and antenna were made by myself, the figure was painted by Mark.

Generic Iraqi Force: Mechanized infantry with BMP-2

Disclaimer: Two things I want you to know right away - a) the pictures show a BMP-2D which the Iraqis never had. This is an up-armoured version the Soviets created for the war in Afghanistan in the mid-80s. The Iraqis did have the regular BMP-2, which does not have the sideskirts and the additional armour plates on the turret! When I got my models I found out it were the wrong ones, but Mark had already painted them and I already paid him. They will be replaced with the correct ones some day. b) the pictures show eight dismounts, but the BMP-2 can only have seven. That's because I will replace the BMP-2 with the old BMP-1.

Above you can see my latest models for the Iraqi forces I create at the moment. I am going for a Mechanized Infantry platoon. Above you can see the first squad. They are miniatures made by RH Liberation and the BMP-2 is a resin wargaming model from S&S. All of them were painted by Mark from Red Line Painting Service. I added all markings and liscense plates to the vehicle (reference for that were photos I found in various magazines and bookes) and made all bases. More of these squads will follow so that I'll end up having three and a command squad.

Alongside the usual Ak-47 the squad carries a RPG-7 launcher and a RPD light machine gun.

Generic Iraqi Force: Republican Guard Command Squad

Iraqi Republican Guard command squad created with RH Liberation Miniatures from Rolf Hedges, using his Iraqi range of figures. In the first picture from above, from left to right: RPG-7 gunner, radio operator with AK-47, officer in command, SA-7 "Grail" SAM gunner, guardsman with AK-47. All of them wear a mixture of different uniform patterns like I found them doing on most pictures around the world wide web (mostly the one-tone olive drab pattern and/or desert camo). I only added little details (like the safety warnings on the SAM launcher) and did the bases. The miniatures themselves were painted for me by Mark from Red Line Painting Service who did an outstanding job on them last year.
There is a whole platoon painted already and I need to get these damn bases finished off within the next days. Pictures of them will follow. Keep your comments coming (English please).

Modern US Army: WIP, using green stuff for the first time

I bought AT-4 anti-tank missile launchers from RH Liberation Miniatures when I got my 20mm figures from them. Unfortunately none of their models in the whole range does carry one of these. In order to make troops carrying them over the shoulder I had to add the shoulder straps to the launcher tube. For doing so I bought Armypainter's green stuff. Really simple. Mix yellow and blue and when it turns green: sculpt it! The other miniature in the lower left corner is from Stonewall Figures Desert Fury - Baghdad to Karbul range. Sadly it's not up-to-date with its gear and has only a flak vest instead of body armour. I tried to represent the current armour with green stuff. Go easy on commenting my sculpting - like I pointed out it's the first time ever I used this Green Stuff putty. Oh and yes, of course I will remove the mould lines before painting these guys. :-)

Modern US Army: weapons team with M2 .50cal Heavy Machine Gun

A HMG weapons team for the use in Ambush Alley or Force On Force. HMGs such as the .50cal depicted are normally only used on vehicles or static defences. For the latter I made this little base with a gunner and assist. gunner (RH Liberation Miniatures) - road block duty comes to mind. The gun itself is from elhiemfigures. The ammo boxes are resin ouf of a detailing set for an Abrams tank (Legend productions) while the sandbags are from Italeri's 1/72 scale battlefield accessoires.

Modern US Army: First squad, 2 fire teams and leader

First squad of my 20mm US Army platoon. Containing leader and two fire teams. Each fire team has a gunner with a M249 SAW and another with M203 under-barrel grenade launcher. The rest carries M4 assault rifles (some with ACOG sights). All made by RH Liberation Miniatures.

Modern US Army: Platoon Command squad

For my first task of the Guild Build 2010 I started my US Army platoon for Operation Iraqi Freedom (which will also be used on Afghanistan based scenarios) in 20mm. The miniatures shown are all made by Rolf from RH Liberation Miniatures. They represent the platoon HQ, containing my Officer-In-Command (in my case a 2nd Lieutenant), platoon sergeant (=Sergeant First Class), radio operator and two teams of M240 GPMG gunner + assist. gunner.

Two-storey Middle Eastern house: TV shop and Drinks Market

The building shown above comes from the 25mm range of pre-built/painted terrain of The Building Authority. A nice feature of these is that their rooftops can be removed to make the building look damaged or destroyed or simply to place miniatures within. I am no longer into 25mm gaming and hence the doors on this building were way to huge compared to a 2omm miniature. I used putty (Revell) and styrene sheet (1mm thick) to re-size the entrances. Once it was all dry I gave the whole house a new paintjob with colours that I found more fitting the middle east, for example the bricks are now looking more like they are made from mud. I decorated the whole thing with posters in Arab writing and added the shop signs over the doors. The air-conditioner-units are resin parts made by Shaun over at S&S Models. The satellite dish is self-made out of the bottom of plastic wrapping of fresh eggs that I bought in a supermarket (never throw away something you might need later ;-) ), its antenna is made from 1mm wire and plastic sprue left-overs. For comparison to the size of this building I placed an US Army soldier (RH Liberation) and a M2 Bradley (Dragon 1/72 scale) next to it. Comments are welcome as always - please stay with the English language when commenting.

Bringing the battlefield to life: Civilians - Afghani Goatherder and wife

2010 kicks off with a brand new Build over at the Guild forum and for most of my individual tasks (that's how we named the single entries we have to do every two month) I will need civilians, too. Civilians add a lot to Ambush Alley or Force-On-Force games as the bases they are mounted on do block line of sight and you also have to roll a dice to see if your units might have caused civilian casualties if you fire weapons near by. The latter might transform a harmless civilian mob into a mob of frenzied civis grabing their AKs to get revenge. On top of that they just look gorgeous as they really bring a tabletop game to life. Most cities or settlements are never completely deserted when the fighting kicks off and with these lovely Britannia Miniatures the games will look even better. The miniatures above are all out of one set: Goat herder, wife and five goats. You can find those in Dave's 20mm Afghan range of miniatures.

Generic Iraqi Force: RH Liberation Miniatures T-62 tank finished

The RH Liberation Miniatures T-62 resin kit is finally finished. Here are a couple of pics, together with the Britannia T-55 I do now have two tanks to oppose the American invaders in Iraq. :-) Yes, I know: the tracks are the wrong way, because stupid me didn't pay attention. Some might think I overdid the weathering, but I do like totally worn third world country tracks.

Generic Iraqi Force: T-62 MBT - work continued

Hey - no, I am not dead. Although it ain't much there actually is progress. I applied the second layer of paint to my Iraqi T-62 and what you can see in the picture above is my rather smelly workplace. Smelly because on that pic you see the tank and its wash of burnt umber oil paint drying. Thinned down with turpentine...headache-causing progress I can tell you. When the wash has dried I'll give it a light drybrush and then comes the part I enjoy the most: detailing and unit marking as well as weathering, tear and wear. Soon...