Return to Zikanga.... African Militia Men.

Another good day on the brushes and last of the insurgents from Spectre's Kickstarter going back several years now. They had been under coated and been sitting on the to do table for months.

The Spectre sculpts are great, full of character and dressed in an assortment of clothing including the occasional cross dresser which came to prominence in Liberia as the National Patriotic Front pushed on Monrovia in the 1990's.

Charles Taylor's force's believed that the wedding dresses, wigs and commencement gowns together with 'Voodoo' regalia which would protect them from being killed.

This squad is armed with a mixture of AK's and RPG's the barrels are a little fragile so be careful.

The chap in the wedding dress I am sure was modelled on one of the characters from the film Johnny Mad Dog, a 2008 film about child soldiers in an unnamed African country, but all to common in a number of West and Central African conflicts.

Another project complete albeit several years in play or so I thought......

I unpacked the trays to put the reinforcements away and found a few more stay behinds that will need finishing... Darn I really thought I had them all done... These will definitely have to wait until the Infamy Infamy project is underway.

120 African militia might be a few too many for the Visitors to handle next time there is a trip to Zikanga.

Spectre Miniatures - African Militia #2

More from the cupboard of shame whilst I wade my way through the rebasing of Korean Micro armour and buildings I wanted to clear up more of the African Militia. 

Another interesting bunch in T shirts and civilian attire - I am loving the graduate, I think he must have passed his GCSE in weapon handling.....

Next week back to the small toys and more 6mm.....

Spectre Miniatures - African Militia

Way back in December 2014 my kickstarter arrived from Spectre Miniatures.
https://dusttears.blogspot.com/2014/12/spectre-miniatures-christmas-comes-early.html

It was one of those kickstarter projects that was delayed and by the time the package arrived the butterfly effect had taken hold and I was off on another project and these guys sat for the next 4 years in the cupboard of shame.

However the recent "V" project and the War of Insurgency rules got me thinking it was time they made it on on to the paint table.

They are slightly skinnier than others in my Congo collection but really capture the chaotic fighters in central Africa including the adoption of fancy dress which gives them a very Liberian feel.

With 30 or so African militia, PMC's and Delta force to get through they are a small distraction from yet more Haiti line troops.

Until next time....

V The Original Miniseries - Crooked Dice.

These are the last ones honest....

I know I should be painting more Haitians but after finishing the first batch of Alien Invaders I had the urge to swap a couple of heads and paint up some security troopers. With only 8 figures in the original release these adaptions should bolster the Visitor force to make them a worth putting on the tabletop.

Putting a Shock Trooper Head on "John" gives me an extra commander and "Johns" head is a good fit on one of the troopers to give me another Trooper wearing sunglasses. I could have used the lizard heads supplied but you rarely show these in the show from the 80's.

On the far right is a cap wearing engineer armed with a laser rifle.

Crooked Dice do some spare heads wearing Sunglasses and whilst not true to the series are a good fit to act as proxy Security personnel.

The full "Visitor" detachment - No Rodent is safe.

I have enough now to put on a reasonable skirmish, with the promise of resistance in the future who knows where this will go.

A close up of the Engineers, Shock Troopers, Commanders and Security Personnel. 

I am really pleased with how these have turned out, colour seems just right to replicate the original mini series.

Right back to some serious painting now I have got these out of my system.

Crooked Dice - "Alien Invaders" - V is for Visitors

Well that was fun...
Being a child of the 80's how could I resist... for those a little younger, V was a Sci-fi Mini Series from the early 80's where aliens or "Visitors" arrived on earth to steal our water and farm us for food. They looked like humans but were in fact reptiles - who knew :-)

Crooked Dice have done a great job with their latest alien releases - they bear a great similarity to the Visitors of the 80's mini series.

Wonderful sculpts and a great selection of iconic characters from the series. My biggest challenge was finding a colour that matched the TV show, it was a off an orange/red colour which can be tricky to replicate as it could very easily turn into bright red. But I am really happy with how these have turned out.

A present there are only 8 separate figures in the range, but I have a couple of head swaps planned to bolster the Visitor contingent and give me some additional security troops.

Brian - Leader of the Friends of the Vistors together with a couple of distinctive shock troopers.

A couple of Visitor Engineers armed with laser pistols and wearing their distinctive glasses.

 

Finally the Visitor leadership, Lydia (L) - Head of Security and arch rival of Diana (C) who started out as the Second in Command before replacing John (R) as the Supreme Commander.

Looking forward to giving these a roll out one evening,with plenty of modern and civilian types boxed away it should make for a fun game.

The Green Street Boyz defend their turf from a Vistior raid.

The guys from Crooked Dice tell me that resistance and spare heads are planned together with maybe a Shuttle Craft so who knows where this might end up, but they were certainly fun to paint up.

War of Insurgency Rule Review - Chechen War.

A break from black power. I have been on the hunt for a while for a modern set of large scale skirmish rules, many of the sets on offer either only need a handful of figures or you are getting into Company and sized games so I thought I would give these a run out. Aimed at the wars in Africa which suits my stalled Serria Leone Project, they could work for the Chechen conflict.

Mike Demana rules cover the period from around 1950's through to present day, the core rules are only around 10 pages and split troops into three classes, Militia, Regular and Professional.weapon classes are either small arms or LMG's perfect for 15mm, where you can't see the difference between an AK47 & M16.

In our run through it was a small scenario- a Russian Tank had broken down at a petrol station (well I had to give the petrol station a run out evenually.) and the crew had to defend it until reinforcements made it to the village and they called in the mechanics. Meanwhile the local insurgents move in for the kill.

Initiative is a simple dice off but to actually order your troops, each player puts a numbered marker down for each squad face down. The numbering shows which order they move in. This means each player doesn’t know who which squads are going to move forcing some careful planning. Surprising thought provoking given it's such a simple mechanism. If you squad gets split you introduce a dummy counter which means one of your sections won't move, your opponet won't know which one.

  

The troops quality impacts both the troops firing ability, effective range and defence capability nice and simple and very easy to remember. Fire fights are resolved with an attack roll and a defence roll with attackers hitting on a 4,5 or 6 and deenders a 5 or 6. You add defence dice for cover which is pretty good against Small Arms, but my tank crew faired less well when an RPG round hit them, whilst defending the petrol station.

Squads below half strength need to start taking morale checks which has the potential to lock them in place by forcing them prone. Before they can attempt an action another morale test is taken if failed they run for the nearest table edge.

We played with around 30 Chechen fighters facing off against around 25 Russians split into around 5 units apiece, which gave a good evenings entertainment.

The campaign rules included are reminiscent of those of Peter Pigs AK47 but at this stage I am only interested in the table top rules. But can see the appeal.

They won't be for everyone but do give a quick and easy game and the end result seemed reasonable with professionals defeating regulars by about 5:1. The Professionals long range fire stopped many of the regulars before they could get into decent defensive positions.