Soviet Military Police and Technicians/Drivers

In my Wargames Soldiers & Strategy scenario I needed to have a squad of Soviet Military Police manning a checkpoint near the SA-10 Battery.  I also needed some figures to represent either various drivers or armed SAM Battery technicians.  In both cases I couldn't find many options.  Elhiem has a single Soviet MP and nobody I could find did some unarmed support troop type figures.

So I had to do something a bit different.  For the MPs I relied on Elhiem figures - as the actual MP is Elhiem it seemed to make sense.  I got a second MP figure, and then painted up a couple of "random" figures to look like MPs.  Here they are

You can see that the first and third figures are actually the same figure - one just has his arm adjusted.

For the drivers/technicians I used Liberation Miniatures.  They have some chaps in a kind of relaxed summer uniform and I thought (particularly their hats) allowed them to fit the bill.  Here they are

Obviously they are armed - but that is fine - as the scenario allows for a portion of drivers or any non-technical Soviets to be on guard near their vehicles.  To be honest I really just wanted these figures for the photos for the magazine.

More on that in a future post.  That's all for now

Richard

Polish Motor Rifle Special Troops

Well I finally got around to finishing and taking photos of my Liberation Miniatures (RH Models) Polish Motor Rifle Special troops. These are the guys that fall outside the standard platoon, but are still integral in almost any game.

I'll start with my Polish Forward Observer Team:

Not 100% sure why I painted three figures for this unit.  I'm sure I had a good reason at the time!

Next up a SA-7 team:

And finally a PKM GPMG team:

So my Polish Platoon plus some support done - and very happy I am with them too.  Now I just need to get them an opponent and a game... Hmmm - I think I have some Danes that will be just the ticket!  More on that soon.

Thanks

Richard

Polish Motor Rifle Platoon

Next on the list for completion in 2017 is my Polish Motor Rifle Platoon.  It's a simple plan really - get enough troops (to begin with ☺) for a full strength platoon, and some support systems. Liberation Miniatures (RH Models) are the only real option in 20mm and it looks like they are starting to expand their Cold War NATO and WARPAC figures - which is great news.

I won't post up a full painting tutorial/guide today (as I left my notes at home) but that will come soon enough.  I found almost everything I needed to know about the Polish uniform at Camopedia which lead me to want the uniforms to look a bit like this:

The camo pattern was called "worm" and was used from 1968 until the end of the 1980's.  Osprey's Warsaw Pact Ground Forces book has a good drawing of a Polish Motor Rifle infantry man - which shows how the camo uniform looks when worn:

I decided that in 20mm I did not need to paint the wormy dots!  So this is how the Platoon Commander and 2IC turned out:

Photos are not the best - I was in a bit of a rush...

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3

Each squad has a NCO, RPK gunner, RPG gunner and 4 riflemen.  Squad 3 has one of the riflemen replaced with a designated marksmen with a SVD sniper rifle.

Together the platoon looks like this:

I have about 3 more figures to paint to finish off the FO team, PKM team and SAM team.

That's it for now

Thanks

Richard

Re-basing Soviet Motor Rifle Troops

Very short post this time.  As I rebased (and ended up largely re-painting) a bunch of BAOR troop recently - I thought it only appropriate that I rebase a heap of my Soviets.  They were probably painted 6 plus years ago (hard to believe) when I did my bases a little differently.


Now - they all look the same - not special or anything great - just the same - it's all I was going for.

So there you go.


Thanks again for all those who commented on the ATGM resupply question in the last post.  Really interesting that all of you said to limit the missile count.


I'll be playtesting a couple of options in the next few games.


Thanks


Richard

More 20mm Liberation British Figures

Getting to the last of the figures needed for the 3rd Commando Brigade build.  I'll show these in two separate lots - firstly the Liberation Miniatures or R H Models figures.

From left to right - NCO, Medic, GPMG Gunner

From left to right - Blowpipe, Carl Gustav MAW

Milan Team


Again - these guys will be used as Marines, BAOR, Paras - whatever.  It all works in my (little) mind.


Thanks


Richard

Revisiting some old BAOR

As you would have seen recently, I've been painting up a bunch of  Liberation Miniatures figures to look something like some Royal Marine Commandos.  I've been basically quite happy with how they have turned out and am pleased with how the DPM smocks look.

Fiddling around with the figures, I was trying to work out how easy it would be to form 2 platoons of the Marines, by levening them with some helmet wearing BAOR figures.  Turns out it was very easy - but the bases didn't match.  And I needed to paint a few "new" additional figures.

OK - so looking at the bases of the old figures I decided that I'd just scrap off the Woodlands Scenics turf I had on the bases, paint them up to my current standard and add some static grass.  Sounds like a 5 minute job...    Then onto the new figures.

So, that's what I did - up to the adding static grass stage.  Then the more I looked at the old figures - painted in 2010 - the more I didn't like them - or at least the more I didn't like their DPM uniforms.  So - I decided to repaint them, up to today's standard - only the DPM mind you - I mean, how long could that take!  Until that was done, I'd just put the "new" figures to one side.

As previously, the aim was to have them look something like this:

So - in order to show you how things went - here is a set of comparison photos.  Obviously my photography has improved a little, and the background and lighting has changed for the better (I think), but I've tried to match the figures in each photo.

2010 Radio Operators

2016 Radio Operators

2010 Bren gunners

2016 Bren gunners

2010 GPMG gunners

2016 GPMG gunners

2010 Carl Gustav gunners

2016 Carl Gustav Gunners

2010 Officers with Sterling SMGs

2016 Officers with Sterling SMGs

2010 Riflemen

2016 Riflemen

So there you go.  Hopefully you'll agree with me that this was not time wasted...  At least I think they look a bit better, and more importantly - they now fit in with the rest of my British forces.

Thanks

Richard

The Guild Short Build - Quick Build Kits - Work-In-Progress Day 9 (Updated)

So - I did manage to get something done today afterall - and I've finally figured out how to beat photobucket so I can actually show them.

I managed to get the decals on - not just the two S-Models kits, but also their platoon mates:

Richard

The Whole Lot (thus far)...

So a quick pic post today of all the Liberation Miniatures Royal Marines completed thus far:

So - that's it for now.

Thanks

Richard