Target Vehicle!

I've been looking around for suitable 70s-80s civilian vehicles for Ulster, a trip to my local model railway shop brought Oxford Diecasts to light. These are 1/76 scale painted and assembled diecast vehicles for use on OO gauge model railways. Very nicely done £3-£4 a shot and you could use them straight away, of course I didn't do this cause I like to tamper! On a serious note the vehicles are very, very nice but I wanted mine dirty and dull so here's how I did it. Oh by the way I managed to restrain myself from altering the number plates to NI ones. Dougie
A rather natty looking blue Ford Cortina. This is untouched straight out of the box!

A figure for scale

You remove a couple of screws and the car comes apart.

The body dirtied up and a few scratches added, not a fan of clear glass windows so they've had the treatment!

Reassembled and the glass glossed. Ready to transport some players.

The British Army in Ulster

It's not my intention to go into any excuses or hand wringing over gaming the conflict in Ulster. It was a brutal counter-insurgency war but no more so than the French experience in Indo-China and Algeria, the US effort in Vietnam or the current conflict in Helmand.
From my own experience the effort focussed in the Bandit Country of South Armagh allowed the British Army full scope of tactical deployment and was completely at odds with the public perception of the Army patrolling the streets of urban estates.
This then is what I'll be gaming, the British Army's effort in South Armagh against the Active Service Units of PIRA's South Armagh Brigade.
"The" book to read is without doubt "BANDIT COUNTRY-The IRA and South Armagh" by Toby Harnden, the Amazon link is below;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bandit-Country-The-South-Armagh/dp/034098094X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

You can only really game the Army in Armagh using a low level skirmish system, for a long time my system of choice for this sort of engagement had been Phoenix Command. The system was produced by Leading Edge Games in the 80's and 90's, its no longer in production but looking around you can still pick copies up, the link below is for the unofficial support site;
http://www.phoenixcommand.com/

Phoenix Command is a highly detailed system for playing out any modern firearms engagement but unless you're very experienced with the system it can tend to be quite slow. However I've recently picked up a copy of "Normandy Firefight" by Warwick Kinrade, this is a low level skirmish system for Normandy that actually transfers fine to South Armagh, with the Blackthorn hedgerows replacing the bocage. Warwick does mention Phoenix Command in the Designer's notes and you can see the same flavour. More details of my adaptations later.

Scale and figurewise we're at 20mm, my Falklands Brits will drop straight into South Armagh and for opposition Rolf Hedges Liberation Miniatures do some perfect figures in their Urban Terror range.
To end this post I'm recommending a BBC dramatisation from 1985, "CONTACT!" by A.F.N. Clarke. Originally a book by an Airborne officer this was aired in the mid 80's but I don't think its been repeated often, if at all, probably due to its content. I haven't been able to find it on Amazon and it may be the BBC may not have released it. The DVD copy I have was originally recorded on my VHS top loader in the 80's! If you get a chance to see this film grab it with both hands. I managed to find some information on the film on BFI Screenonline, the links below;
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/439385/index.html
As a figure tester some PIRA players, Liberation 20mm.   Dougie

Skirmish Sangin

Anyone gaming the current conflict in Afghanistan needs to check out this link for a new system in development, looks very very nice ! Dougie
http://www.radiodishdash.com/

20mm basing discs

Quite a few folks have asked me what I use for basing my 20mm figures. The product's called Premier-Grip paper fastener washers and its, well, a paper fastener. You should be able to get these at a decent stationers or online. The last box I bought was £1.69 for 200, so they're great value! The disc is metal, very thin, which I like, sticks to magnetic basing sheets and its got a diameter of 15mm which for a 20mm figure is pretty much ideal for me. I use these on all my individually based 20mm figures and one's been used on my basing tutorial which is in the figure tutorial section.  Dougie

West Side Boys Part 1

Mutineer Miniatures 20mm pack MAF05 Boy Warriors AK47 painted as West Side Boys, Sierra Leone 1999. More to follow. Dougie

Woodland Pattern Tutorial

A short tutorial on how I paint US Woodland Pattern and its derivatives. The figure in question is a Mutineer Miniatures African Militia Boy soldier. He's painted using my normal tecniques, on a black undercoat. For the tutorial I'll be painting Woodland Pattern on his 3/4 cut off combat pants. All colours are Vallejo Model Color. Dougie.

1. The base colour 922 USA Uniform is blocked in leaving black showing on clothing joins and seams.

2. Apply horozontal blotches of 875 Beige Brown, use references to capture the "look" of the pattern.

3. Apply horozontal blotches of 847 Dark Sand, again use your references to get the "look".

4. The last stage is to add the black "squiggles" that characterises the pattern and you're done!

UKSF Falklands Radio Ops

A couple of additions for my Falklands UKSF, Liberation Miniatures pack SASFALKRAD, all I've done is replace the cast aerial, if you look carefully you might be able to see the yellow electricians tape on the antenna base and aerial ! Dougie