Saturday 22 October 2016

More 20mm Falklands stuff

Recently received a nice package from Rolf Hedges at Liberation Miniatures with some of his latest 20mm Falklands stuff in. This included Argentine GPMG teams, prone and SF versions, and 2 further packs of Argentines, 1 with googles on helmets and 1 with the pile lined field cap to add a bit variety. British wise was a pack each of intantry, 1 with berets and 1 with cap comforter. Again to add variety to the units. Looking forward to painting up some samples! All Rolf needs to do Argentine wise now is a .50cal team and the Longdon scenarios are looking good !
Dougie

Friday 7 October 2016

28mm MultiCam

Well here’s how I paint MultiCam in 28mm. At each stage I’ve included front and back views of the figure.

These are the paints I have used...
VMC Medium Grey 987
VMC Buff 976
VMC English Uniform 921
VMC Golden Olive 857
VMC USA Uniform 922
VMC SS Cam Blk Brown 822
VMC Ivory 918
and finally Daler Rowney Acrylic Artists Ink Sepia 251.

It’s an 8 stage process so here goes!

Stage 1 is to paint the whole uniform, body armour and webbing/load carrying equipment in VMC Medium Grey 987. Leave a small amount of black showing at the clothing joins.


Stage 2 is to highlight this colour with VMC Buff 976 as below.


Stage 3 is to lay on the first camo colour, VMC English Uniform 921 in a horizontal pattern, as below


Stage 4 we add VMC Golden Olive 857, again in a horizontal pattern as below


Stage 5 we add smaller areas of VMC USA Uniform 922, as below


Stage 6 we add flecks/swirls of VMC SS Cam Blk Brown 822, as below


Stage 7 is to add flecks/swirls of VMC Ivory 918, as below


Stage 8 is the last stage in my MultiCam method, we use Daler Rowney Acrylic Artists Ink Sepia 251 and a fine brush to line out and edge all joins and uniform seams, as below


It is a bit time comsuming but I’m quite pleased with the result.
Dougie

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Spectre Operations

Spectre Operations is the newly produced set of modern skirmish rules by Spectre Miniatures .
It can arguably handle platoon actions with figures performing actions on an individual or sometime group basis. I'm not intending to review the rules here, but to give an AAR of a game we played recently and my thoughts on how the system performed. Dougie
Somewhere in Sudan an AQ affiliated group have captured an individual who they want to trade. They have an interest in keeping him alive, the west have an interest in freeing him. 
The game was set up on a 3' x 3' board. A adobe is in the centre of the table with irrigation/drainage ditches and crop fields surrounding it, a compound is nearby.
Myself, Alex and Karl were playing, the system is fully pointed up but I'm not a big fan of points so we ignored this and made the sides up. The points system is useful if you want to get a balanced game and I may possibly use it on occasion.
The AQ rebels consisted of a team leader and 10 militiamen, they were armed with AKs, an RPG7 and a PKM.
 The Operators attempting the rescue consisted of a 4 man team armed with HK416s, with full SOF spec, so red dot, laser sights, suppressors, stun and frag grenades as well as breaching equipment and night vision.
Karl had the AQ rebels, me and Alex the Tier one operators, the scenario took place at night, Karl placed his guys first then me and Alex deployed.
The hostage and 2 guards were housed in the adobe, 2 guys were out patrolling and the remainder were crashed out in the nearby compound all started the scenario "unalert". The 2 shots below show the AQ deployment, the hostage and 2 guys are inside the building, its roof isn't removable ! so ignore them! the 2 guys outside are the patrolling guards with a set pattern they are following until something kicks off. the guys in the compound are crashed out asleep.
Myself and Alex deploy

  The night, detection and alertness rules worked well we moved tactically towards the objective.
 First guard eliminated with a double tap, opposition not alerted!
3 of the team stacked at the target building, the 4th operator had tried to take out the 2nd patrolling guard but unfortunately he raised the alarm before being eliminated, Alex then pulled the operator back slightly into a drainage ditch and went onto overwatch covering the compound. Its about to go noisy.
The breaching rules worked like a dream, 1st operator achieved the breach, 2nd deployed a stun grenade, 3rd and 4th entered the building, 1 of Karls AQ guys was on overwatch but due to the negative effects of the stun grenade, fired at the operators, missed but caused suppression. This however was insufficient to halt the operators who shot dead both guards and marshalled the captive. By this stage the AQ guys in the compound had roused themselves and were heading towards the building to see what all the racket was about. Alex had deployed a pair of operators in cover on overwatch while my 2 guys escorted the hostage out and towards the extraction point.

Karls AQ guys put a brave face on deploying but the quality of the operators and their tactical and tech edge, night vision, made this a lost cause and the operators successfully exfilled.
We discussed the system at length after the game and we were all of the opinion that Spectre has done a cracking job in producing a fast playable set of modern skirmish rules, I could go on at length about all the nice touches that work together to give a really rounded simulation but all I'll say is that if you are at all interested in this period buy these rules!

Monday 3 October 2016

28mm African Militia

Some of the very tidy African militia from Spectre Miniatures. Dougie

28mm Afghan Civilians

A couple of tester figures from the Eureka Miniatures pack. Dougie