Three little maids...

...from Kabul are we. 

These are without doubt probably the simplest figures I've ever had to paint. Lovely little sculpts from Elheim miniatures from their modern Afghan range. I got these through the good offices of my pal Mike Embree and hopefully they will be adorning an Afghan village before too long. 

Full to the brim with girlish glee. 

The painting itself was terribly simple. A simple wash of blue with some grey on the trousers and GW tallarn flesh on the hands. Bases were Vallejo Khaki with a British Armour Uniform highlight. 

All in all I think the entire process took about forty minutes. The internet seems to indicate that blue is the preferred colour of ladies from Kabul, while green and brown is preferred in the provinces. However, the look of the blue was too striking to mess with, so in this as in all things I painted the legend rather than the reality.  

In other news, I found these strange marks on the chimney breast recently. I was baffled. 

Until I looked a little closer and realised that they were paw prints. Which raises the question, why is Flashman trying to get into the chimney? I don't have an answer for this one, but I can't help but feel that it may have something to do with M-Isis. 

30mm base Guild Build

Cut the base from plasticard - check the measurements

The Guild runs what they call speed builds every so often. It's a silly thing really, you put a model together in order to satisfy some arbitrary criteria and you get a little medal ribbon for it, but it is fun. I always seem to forget these things, but I was determined to try and get something done in the two weeks assigned for this one. 

Crew assembled and undercoated

I chose an Elheim Soviet Dshk because I had one lying around, though curiously enough I can't seem to find much evidence in the TO&E of them being used in Motor Rifle Regiments, though I shall have to go looking again. I'm sure would use them as they're too useful not to have around, but how exactly seems a little sketchy. 

Almost finished product

A little more work needs to be done, though it was done rather quickly. I'll think of something. 

A touch of Borsch

Motor Rifleman with an RPK 

In preparation for some more Cold War shenanigans, I've been slowly tipping away at a few more Soviet Motor Riflemen. These are some rather beautiful figures from Matt at Elheim and they really are something. 

A very dapper sniper

I never tire of this chap, I just love the pose. Motor Rifle Platoons were issued a single Dragunov which was given to a Platoon Marksman. I imagine this chap thinks he's Leningrad's answer to Robert De Niro in the Deer Hunter. 

Two Riflemen 

This completes my Soviet Motor Rifle Platoon. The TOE (culled from a variety of sources) for one of those is as follows. 

Platoon Leader

Radio Operator

There are two free seats in the BMP-2, so the Platoon Leader and his radioman bunk in with one of the sections. 

BMP-2 (three of these)

Section Leader

BMP Driver

BMP Gunner

RPG-7 Gunner

RPK Gunner

Four Riflemen

And what is this???

The Old Bill & the New Firm

The Old Bill

These arrived the other day, but I've been too busy to really do anything with them. These were sculpted by Matt over at Elheim miniatures as part of his commission a range programme. The thinking behind it is that Matt is willing to sculpt and put into production a single 20mm figure for £20. Your twenty guineas (less one pound new money) gets you two copies of a bespoke sculpt and the satisfaction of having a unique and otherwise unobtainable figure. 

Now see if you can identity (from my admittedly ham fisted camera phone effort) these three thief takers. 

...and the New Firm

A bright shiny sixpence to the smart lad who can identify these four menaces to society. 

Of course, the best way to go about it is to put together a consortium, as we did on the Guild and get a number of people to chip in. We managed to do that and assemble a seven figure set without anybody breaking the bank. I think the quality of Matt's work is inarguable. My mother in law was able to identify six out of seven figures without any difficulty. 

But if you want to get some figures made, you could do a lot worse than get in touch with Mat.