Commandos 602 Cdo.Coy. Argentine Army Falklands 1982

The start of my 20mm Argentine Forces. Elements of Compania de Comando 602 initially for a refight of the raid on Top Malo House. The 4 figures below are from the very old but very good Hotspur Operation Corporate range. Originally produced in the 80's they are still available from Combat Miniatures. Now these figures are very old and you'll need to check the castings, best way is to get them at a show, they're showing their age and need to be checked, some of the packs I've had are miscast and flash covered, buyer beware. That aside there are some very good figures from the talented hands of the late Dave Alsop.
They're painted up in the Argentine copy of US Woodland pattern, for reference there's a super article in Issue 3 October/November 1986 of "Military Illustrated Past & Present", Argentine Commandos in the Falklands 1982 by Carbral with a colour plate by Paul Hannon, all you need really, Osprey 250 "Argentine Forces in the Falklands" is also useful.
Going off tack a little, "Military Illustrated Past & Present" is not the magazine it was, the first issues were superb, if you can get your hands on any of the first 100 issues of this magazine, the earlier ones tend to be the best, they're worth their weight in gold. Some bang on articles on modern forces, often written by ex-members and illustrated by the likes of Volstad and my own personal favourite Kevin Lyles. Check out eBay and second hand shops worth buying if you can get them!
Dougie

African Rebels "Oldies but Goodies"

I'm making an effort to get all my figures on the blog, these are some of my Liberation African rebels, usable as 60s onwards. I got these from Rolf at Liberation years ago, I'd guess about 15-20! from his stand at either Triples or Salute when it was at Kensington town hall. They're still nice figures, they've been tarted up a little bit, weapons and tufts but are largely as they were painted all that time ago. I think Rolf has redone these figures now, however these boys have gave sterling service fighting Rhodesians, South Africans and themselves over the years!
Later, Dougie
Command Element

A couple of shots of rank and file rebels

Support Elements

The Fallen

West Side Boys Part 2

Mutineer Miniatures 20mm pack MAF06 Boy Warriors RPG painted as West Side Boys, Sierra Leone 1999.
Later, Dougie

Falklands Classic Pose

Painted this 28mm MOFO figure quite a while ago, very nice to paint but I'm still a 20mm fan. This pose really says 1982!
Later, Dougie

Goose Green memorial

A while ago I was speaking to an elderly guy at his home near to where I live in Whitley Bay. He had a photo of a Parachute Regiment officer on his sideboard which I asked him about. He very calmly and proudly told me about his son Captain Chris Dent, A Company, 2 Para who was killed at Goose Green trying to gain momentum in the attack for his battalion. Chris is buried at San Carlos and his family have a memorial just outside their home, one of the seventeen from the battle of Goose Green.
Dougie

Top Malo House?

I haven't yet finished my 20mm Top Malo House, however when I was at Vapnartak speaking to Barrie from Timecast about his 10mm Falklands range I checked out his Top Malo House in 15mm. Now it is just about usable for 20mm and saves time scratching it, plus for about £6 its very cheap as well as being an attractive casting. The photo below shows the casting with a 20mm figure for scale. Later, Dougie.

10mm Argentinians part 2

Some Pendraken Argies, based for CWC. Dougie
An overall view

Close up of Infantry stand

Some support stands

HQ Stands

The CO

AAR Skirmish Sangin

Well the first Afghan engagement using Skirmish Sangin is under the belt and I'm impressed. The system is designed for 28mm figures, ultra low level with the ground scale equalling the figure scale so you have to be very careful calling in that support when the average table equates to about 100m x 100m!!!
My Afghan stuff is 20mm so it was easy enough to alter the rule distances. 1" = 2m for 28mm so you could go for 2cm = 2m or to simplefy it further 1cm = 2m, its up to you. Even in 28mm we're only looking at a 3' x 3' table.
The action took place on a 2' x 2' terrain tile with some compounds shoved on. As part of a larger engagement we had a 3PARA fire team engaged by 3 $10 Taliban. I'll apologise for the photos in advance as I haven't bothered to tidy them up. First off is a shot of the table, the Talibs wil be deploying at the small building where Abdul the goat is tethered underneath the Mulberry tree. The Brits are entering at the edge at the bottom of the shot.

The Brits deployed, although you can see the Talibs they're hidden and ain't been spotted yet.

Looking up the alley, possible dicker, is there any ICOM chatter?

The mobile's in use.

Terry kicks off the engagement missing but causing a morale check.

ICOM confirmed, an off table Brit sniper team takes out the dicker, the fire team skirmishes forward and the Tom with the UGL gets off a perfect shot killing one Talib seriously wounding a second.

At this point the fire team extracted off table, ENDEX!

I've purposely not gone in to all the rules but it played out very well, the system is detailed but quite elegant but if you have more than a couple of fireteams you're gonna need multiple players per side.
To reitterate if you're gaming Afghan buy these rules !!!
Later,  Dougie

Vapnartak

Thought I'd bang a message up to update about my current painting. To be honest works been getting in the way quite a bit recently, I'm currently working solely on a comission for Mutineer Miniatures, I've done some of their 20mm Africans and Islamists as well as some AB Brits, this is all I'm working on at the moment and I'll post some photos soon. The Vapnartak title comes from a fleeting visit I made today to the show in York, I was only there for an hour or so and I only managed a very quick blast round. Mrs R. was shopping in York and I was meeting her for lunch.
As normal this was a good event some nice games and a lot of traders. I had a good natter to Barrie at Timecast and parted with some cash for 10mm Falklands terrain, cracking stuff, and interestingly their 15mm Top Malo House could be used for 20mm, I'll post a pic with a 20mm figure and you can see, as normal their huge collection of buildings and scenics is very tempting, I want a 6mm Stalingrad Grain elevator and I don't know why!
Later, Dougie