Asian Experiment

This is another of those projects that I just picked up for fun and to try something different.

The figure is Misaka, one of the Ten Thunder Clan from Malifaux, but I don't play the game.  I just saw some of the poses and decided I wanted to give something different a shot.

This figure reminds me of the fight scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the courtyard at night.  One of the combatants gets thrown back against a wall and I swear she stops herself in this exact pose (body wise, she had a sword as a weapon instead).

Anyway, I chose to try and do some cherry blossom type pattern on the clothing, but not the whole thing so again drew some insperation from the movie and picked some panels before the ankles and wrists for patterns.

Lastly, while I love the pose, I wasn't sold on the anime style woosh coming from her foot to show movement.  I know it works in cartoons, but here I didn't quite know how to handle it, so painted it in pale blues, greys, and white.  I then based her on an asian garden base and tried some of the leaf foliage from Secret Weapon.  I put some on the base, and then attached it up the swoosh in an attempt to show that the wind from the movement pulled the leaves up in the air with it.

Still not sold on the overall final effect or if I managed to pull off the look I wanted... but it was an experiment and a piece just for fun. Overall, it was definately something fun and different, so that is a plus, and it was a learning experience with tiny free hand, basing, and leaves, so all that was great.

Thoughts on the overall effect?

More Pico Armor Fun

Soviet T-72 tank, BMP-2 APC and infantry section - and a Canadian penny

Over the past few years I have periodically dabbled in the Oddzial Osmy's 3mm tanks and troops (example here).  We have even played a game of Cold War Commander using them (back in 2008, I think, but I'm guessing - I couldn't find it on the blog, so it must have been a while).

Motor rifle company in BMP-2s

I am very impressed with the sculpting and casting quality of this range - these are really, really neat.  And the scale offers a chance to "air out" the game a little bit on the table, with engagement ranges that "look" more realistic on the table, and crowds of armour that don't crowd up.  But would this catch up with other gamers?

BMP command unit (round base), BRM recon track, and a platoon of BRDM AT launchers

When I had first purchased these figures I based them in groups, so each stand would literally represent a platoon. But the look still didn't quite work for me - I have always loved tons of tanks on the gaming table, but disliked the "hub to hub" effect this produced in terms of the look.  This happens even with the smaller size figures like 15mm (for examples, see nearly any Flames of War game).  

ZSU-23-4s - an essential for any Warsaw Pact commander

The hub-to-hub effect happens for a lot of reasons on the gaming table which I'm not going to drone on about here.  I thought 3mm might solve it, but the group bases still looked crowded...even allowing for the smaller scale, the tank platoon, for example, still looked crammed into the square base. 

Before on the right, after on the left

T-72 command base (20mm round)

There are certainly times when armoured vehicles mass on the battlefield, but generally they are quite spread out. How to get this on a reasonable sized table, while still playing with a ton of tanks?  I started to experiment with individual basing for the 3mm stuff last summer - example here.  Recently I finished another round of the figures, and re-based some of my previous stuff on individual bases, enough to get tonight's game going.

T-72 company

I think Oddzial Osmy has a devoted fan base - the range is very, very comprehensive and new stuff keeps coming out. Check out the Pico Armor online store to see for yourself. On forums like TMP, however, I have often seen the small scale panned on the grounds that the figures are impossibly small, and "might as well be paper counters".

Leopard C1 squadron

TMP door-knobs aside, 3mm will not be for everyone. For me, it is a lot of fun to work on these little tanks and troops.  It is a challenge to find the right colour shades to make the figures more visible, to shape the groundwork a little bit, etc. You can get a pile of them for a small sum, the range is unbelievably complete, and I even love that they mildly evoke counters - after all, I was a huge fan Avalon Hill games like "France 1940".  I'm also a big Cold War tank geek, so I can "see" the shape of the vehicles right away.  I'm not sure that will hold for the more casual participant.  These will probably need some labels to help with identification. 

Another view of the Leopard C1s

Will this work for gaming? We'll see tonight - we will be playing an imaginary WW3 game, using the overall Soviet invasion plot of the 1984 movie "Red Dawn", in which three Soviet army groups crossed the Bering Straight and tried to link up with a southern Communist pincer coming up from Mexico.  The Soviets are trying to pass through Brandon on their way to the states - and the Canadian Forces have a little something to say about it!

4CMBG Infantry

Here are some Canadian infantry for my 4CMBG force. Models are QRF West Germans with head swap from Peter Pig. The head swap was essential and I'm glad I took Greg's advice on the matter. The QRF infantry are definitely bottom rung, but the head swap makes them passable. Note the Carl Gustav models in each group. The one thing I'm intrigued by about the Canadians is just how poor some of their equipment was in the 80's. The Carl G being one example. There were better weapons than the Carl G at the time (milan for example), but the Carl G is what they got. With an effective AT range of 150m (from what I've read) it would have taken some sand to sit there while a T-72 was rolling towards you.
The rest of the infantry will have to wait until I get another batch of heads from Peter Pig. I was also going to post more pics of the Leopard's, but I realized I didn't paint the stowage tools. I'll see if I can get that done tonight and post some more pics.

4CMBG Leopard 1

Shamed by Greg's rapid progress in a challenge I proposed, I buckled down and started painting. First completed are my troop of Leopard 1's. Used in the 80's until just recently, they were our best (and most economical) answer to vast swarms of Soviet armor. Note the large box on the front of the turret. This is a camera system used in the early 80's. I believe it was moved internally in later upgrades. These models are QRF. All in all not bad models. A few casting issues, but nothing I couldn't fix.

Next up are some infantry followed by the M113's. The majority of the infantry will have to wait until I get a replacement order from Peter Pig.

15mm Soviet Cold War Paras

15mm Soviet VDV platoon

The forces of the Warsaw Pact continue to prepare for their fully-justified preventive-offensive actions in 15mm with the addition of some Soviet Paratroopers.  These are all Peter Pig 15mm castings from their AK47 modern range - the "regulars".

First squad

Another view of the first squad - only one fellow remembered his helmet...

I have no idea how viable large airborne operations would be in a modern battlefield like the imaginary Cold-War-Gone-Hot in western Europe.  The big transport planes seem awfully vulnerable to NATO SAMs, guns and interceptors.  But smaller drops - battalion strength - here and there, or appearing as infiltrators at various vulnerable points ("We thought it was a Greenpeace delegation!"), the VDV troops could help pave the way for a rapid advance of Warsaw Pact armoured formations.

Second squad

Another view of the second squad

Meant to represent the regular troops of African dictators, these Peter Pig figures are fairly reasonable proxies for Soviet paras in 15mm (or at least I think they are).  I expect the real VDV troops would wear helmets for action, but I went with mostly beret-wearing troops, feeling the blue beret, together with a relatively bright, if simple, camouflage pattern would help them "seem" like good VDV proxies.

The third squad in the platoon

There are some holes in the look - many of the troops have their sleeves rolled up, which makes sense in Africa but doesn't quite look VDV.  The other weakness is the fact that many of the soldiers carry bandoleers of ammunition, Rambo-style, wrapped around their chests.  Again, it seems appropriate for certain armies, but doesn't ring with the look of the paras.  But it doesn't disqualify them either! After all, it can get hot in Europe, and what soldier doesn't wish they had more MG ammo handy?

Support elements - a 105m recoilless rifle team, an SA-7 and a couple of command troops

This is a pretty light force - three eight-man squads, each with an RPD and RPG - supported by a trooper with an SA-7 "Strela" man-portable SAM and a 105mm recoilless rifle team.  I have no idea if the VDV used those, but I had a spare one left over from my Yom Kippur War project and thought the VDV fellows needed some kind of heavy shooting power.

Another view of the support elements

This small platoon will be reinforced with some mortars, HMGs, AA guns and air-dropped vehicles at some point this summer. I'm hoping to add at least one infantry AT-missile team.  Finally, I'm also looking into the big AT guns the Soviets often still deployed late into the "modern" period. I'm not sure if the VDV had them, but I love the old-school look of the heavy guns on the modern battlefield.

These troops will be good in "bridge too far" type scenarios, recreating the battles in Iceland from "Red Storm Rising", or perhaps even the battle for Calumet, CO from "Red Dawn" (the 1984 original)! I look forward to getting them on to the table, where newly-painted figures are guaranteed victory - right?

Must... stop... putrefying... (more Nurgle painting)

On a roll with the Nurgle theme, the other night I painted another Nurgle Lord for the 40K army. This one is based on the new GW plastic Nurgle Lord multi-part model and "40K-ized" by adding a plasma pistol.

I really like how this model came out - I used copious amounts of the excellent Modelmates "Rust Effects" product in various ways - ranging from layering it thickly on the axe blade, to drybrushing it onto the armour.

Holstered plasma pistol as a nod to 40K usage.

Shiny entrails mandatory.

The other models I painted were a couple of the old Grenadier "Imperial Space Marines" they made for the Traveller game back in the early-mid '80s. I had the boxed set but foolishly parted with it years ago, and thought they might be a neat power-armoured supplement to my true-25mm "Hammers Slammers" infantry (actually GZG NAC).  

This guy is a heavy weapons gunner with a neat-looking missile set-up.

The other is a casualty model that will do nicely for a game objective.

I have about 9 more of these models on the way from various sources, but if you have any going spare please let me know in the comments and we can make a deal :-)

More 15mm Cold War Soviets

More Soviet/Russian forces to tackle the West

I finished a few more odds and ends for my 15mm Cold War Soviets during the long weekend. There are three QRF vehicles - another BMP-2D APC, a BRM recon vehicle and a "Tunguska" 2S6 anti-aircraft tank.  There is also a solitary infantryman with an SA-7 shoulder-fired SAM.

Another BMP-2D from QRF

The BMP-2D is an upgraded variant of the Soviet BMP-2 APC.  It is equipped with some extra armour on the skirts and the turret intended to give some extra protection against infantry AT weapons like LAW rockets or (much more likely to be faced) RPGs.  This is a very nice model from QRF.  I painted this in a "Fulda" cammo pattern to match the other AFVs in my Soviet column.

A BRM recon APC from QRF

The BRM is a recon variant of the BMP APC platform.  It has a larger turret and carries all sorts of radar and ranging/sighting equipment.  The Warsaw Pact forces will know NATO has been encountered once they watch this thing burn up a few hundred metres out from the head of the column.  This was a QRF model too, and was OK in terms of quality. Like the other vehicles, the BRM received a "Fulda" cammo scheme.

SA-7 trooper from Peter Pig

This figure is from Peter Pig's AK47 "Professionals" line

Trying to keep enemy aircraft and helicopters away from your column is a key worry for any Warsaw Pact commander.  Helpfully Peter Pig offers a pack of "regulars" from its AK47 Republic line carrying the Soviet SA-7 shoulder-fired SAMs.  I don't know how effective these weapons are but the motor rifle troops will take all the help they can get.

The Tunguska is a heavily armed anti-aircraft platform

I wish I had decals for the numbers...my free-hand isn't great

For some serious anti-air work we will have the 2S6 "Tunguska".  It lacks the charm and character of the better-known ZSU-23-4 AAA tank, but it packs more punch, carrying a pair of 30mm cannons and a set of SAMs on the turret.  I didn't add any cammo to this vehicle, figuring it would have been attached to the column from a higher-level formation.  This is a QRF casting, and it is very good - very clean, crisp lines and not much flash.  The only area where they might improve would be the tow cables stowed on the front of the hull - the detail is a little soft there.