Painting Update - Russian BMP/BRM 1's

Hello everyone,

I hope the day is finding you all well...the freezing rain that was supposed to hit us seems to have stayed south and/or just avoided our area all together. 

 

This is another post showing off some more 3D printed items from my buddy Duncan. He gave me a few printed BMP's to try out and throw some paint on. Admittedly, I've had them a while, but working through the palette cleanser, they made it to the painting table. I had to do a little work with the turrets as they were a little tight...I ended up filing/cutting down the turret ring on the hull of the vehicles and bringing the turret themselves down a little. It didn't take too much work, and they are now fairly free.

 

The BMP's themselves are the reconnaissance variant, the BRM and in this case the BRM 1. I'm not too overly worried on complete accuracy for how I'm going to employ them on the field, but from an OCD perspective they have a variety of subtle differences between the BMP and BRM. In terms of where these models will go, I think they will more than likely fit in the Imagi-nation world and probably find a home in Afropia as one of a number of potential belligerents for the Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF).

 

Anywho, they painted up fairly quickly and the 3D resin took the paint really well. I ended up having to snag a couple of Soviet crewmembers from my Team Yankee pile and cut them down as 2 of the BMP/BRM's had the drivers hatch open...so in went a crewmember.

 

Overall, the prints weren't too bad. I ended up snapping part of the tracks off and then gluing and refusing them to the hull...it worked well and looks like they should have the strength to stand up to the 'war'.  

 

Enjoy the pics. 

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm           9, +5    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +25

 

 

Afropian Thoughts

Hello everyone,

As some may recall, I had the idea of starting up an imagi-nation a while back, and have since been rather stuck on finer details and OCD-isms. My main intent was to give some additional motivation to help me paint through my pile of miniature shame. While I had some great initial planning and outline, I nonetheless got stuck on setting details and some gaming processes.

At the same time, I have actually been slowly progressing through portions of the pile, so that is at least a partial win. I really like the background and setting creation, so I have had fun with that part, but again I got stuck on various facets and how to represent them in a campaign. While I have had the game on pause for the past year, I do have some initial movements and engagements plotted out, but nonetheless I needed  some further inspiration. Luckily I stumbled upon the Lead Adventurer Forum and a thread dedicated to post-WW2 imaginations. Now, I admit I am late to the thread and some of the blogs referenced are no longer current or accessible, but I did find some excellent imagination elements to help me move along.

I had been stuck on physical setting and actually struggling with how to place Afropia within the physical world…my initial take was to be loose with it and just let it happen, but along the way I started to fret that small detail. I saw some excellent inspiration from the movies, Moody’s Adventures imagi-nation is incorporating the Republic of  Zubrowka from the Hotel Grand Budapest). From his work, I actually found an excellent reference and partial solution to some of my hurdles.

Thanks to Moody, I discovered a great imagi-nation generating-system by Ivan Sorensen titled Not Just a Brush War. I gotta say, I think it will help with some of the campaign mechanics…and now I just need to make a damned map…and get more painting done…and not fret the physical and imagined worlds. Just an item or two.

With that update, have a great weekend folk. Happy Spring.

Last Painting Update of 2025 - horde of Battlefront Minis

Happy pending New Year everyone,

I wasn't sure that I would get this last post of the year in or not...I don't really have a posting plan or anything like that so it is very much "take it as it goes". With that in mind, I did want to throw a few more pics into the internets. These are a smattering of boxes that I picked up some time ago at an excellent discount and thought they would be perfect for my future Afropian campaign in the role of Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF) ala 1950’s and 60’s.

The jeeps, I elected to paint them up as local police and/or military police. I ended up hand painting some tactical symbols and recognition markings (bit more in those later). Overall, I figure that if I keep up with the PDF theme and get enough units I could then set them up even earlier…maybe mid ww2 or somesuch.

Anyhow, a quick post for your end-year. Take care all!

Painted

1/200               4 

15mm          130, +45    

28mm+          38

Terrain           1

  

Bought        42

Progress   +131

Painting Update - Battlefront Shermans

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets, here’s to keeping the plague at bay. Here is a quick post on some more painting that I was able to get finished over the summer. These Shermans are from the Battlefront Open Fire starter box that I had bought years ago. The same box that one of my US airborne infantry platoons came from. If I remember correctly, I think the box came with two platoons/troops of Shermans, but to be honest, after I put these four together I was pretty damned frustrated with these models that I threw the other frames off to the side and gave them no mind.

For this group, I decided to have no markings…this way they could feel at home in any setting…WW2 or post-war or the Afropia region. I did enjoy figuring out the stowage and extra improvised armour thanks to extra track. While the assembly was a major headache, they painted up really well. I am almost convinced that I should grab that last frame and put them together…we’ll see where that takes me.

Anywho, please enjoy the pics.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          65, +6    

28mm+        36

Terrain           1

Fabricated

     

Bought        42

Progress   +64

Painting Update - Six pack of Assault Guns

Howdy everyone,

I hope November is finding everyone well. It was great to see the snow hit relatively early this year, and not as great to see it go away...although there is a little left on the ground and the temperatures are at least within the norms. As the current year has gone by I see that my blog-fu or steadfastness has waned a little with less posts than I would like. Rest assured, I have continued painting...perhaps at a lower rate, but I am still wading through the crowd on the painting table.

I wanted to throw a quick post at the internets with some models that I completed earlier this year. These are a bunch of SU85's that my buddy Duncan gave to me which he had 3d printed. They were very clean and didn't present any annoying lines and whatnot. I elected to paint them up moreso for post-WW2 than a pure Soviet WW2 unit. 

So, with that as my intent, I went with an olive brown/brown violet base. If I'm honest, I had them socked away for a bit, pulled them out and had SU-122 on the brain and thought, hey I can just paint these up for some possible Cubans as part of Team Yankee Red Dawn...research corrected me rather quickly, but I still painted them up that way. Not only will they serve as fine proxies should I need, but I thought they would do well in the Afropian theatre of operations. Some post-45 Soviet military aid to a developing nation in dire need of a solid ride for their imperious leader.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          59, +6    

28mm+        36

Terrain           1

Fabricated

     

Bought        42, +6 (I recently bought some Marvel Crisis Protocol figs on sale...couldn't resist). 

Progress   +58

Painting Update - Team Yankee BTR-60's

Howdy everyone,

I do hope that all is well on your side of the 1's and 0's. I recently finished up the Battlefront's BTR-60 box from their Team Yankee line. I was looking for some additional or alternate transport for my Soviet Motor Rifle folks and thought that the '60 could fit in so many different Cold War settings as well.

The models went together fairly well, you can see some obvious gaps in a few of the hull seams...I think those are more operator error than anything else, but the parts were good...they came off the sprue easily and were easy to assemble. In terms of paintjob, I hit the internets and googled a few dozen pics. I ended up settling on a green/desert yellow scheme (picture from Google below). This was partly to try out a different scheme for the platoon/company, but also it let me find one that was suitably neutral or usable for real-life Cold War history and for imagi-nation Afropia history.

In the end, I based in green...either reflective green or vj 894 (can't entirely remember) with a dash of olive green and medium olive to brighten it up a bit. Looking at a few 1980's Afghan pics, I went with desert yellow 'splotches' on the hull...and I ended up lightening these to desert yellow/iraqi sand, with final highlights using straight up iraqi sand. Russian-Afghan war era photo that I found on Google as well, helped guide the painting as well. 

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          53, +7    

28mm+        16

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +73

Blood Red Skies - MiG Alley painting

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets! I thought I would do a quick painting update post today with the last starter box of MiG Alley jets that I had purchased back in the fall. So far I had finished 2 boxes and also received a replacement MiG from Warlord cause of breakage issues I had with the first box I received. 

So all in all, I had painted up 5 x MiG 15’s and 4 x F86 Sabres. The painting overall went really well but the decals were rather finicky. So this time, rather than paint up my last 4 jets in standard colours, I thought that I would find some alternate schemes. For the Sabres I thought I would tryout the Northwest Europe NATO scheme that the Canadian Air Force used in the 1950s. It is only 2 colours so it was pretty quick to get on the jets. For the MiGs, I found a few references with colour plates showing a fairly wide variety. In this case I ended up adapting a 3 colour pattern used by either the Chinese or North Koreans during the war…and it wasn’t metallic or silver…so, bonus!

I figure that these will work well for MiG Alley and Korean War gaming, but should also work for some smaller scale Cold War and maybe Afropia air battles as well.

Enjoy.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4, +4 (BRS MiG Alley box)     

15mm          46    

28mm+          8

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +58

Painting Update - 15mm Odds & Sods

Howdy folks,

I hope your end of summer is going well. I know some folks are literally wading through a buttload of precipitation and rainfall, so best of luck to them, here’s to keeping dry in challenging times. This is a quick post to showcase some pieces that I was able to get off the painting table recently…and it’s kinda neat because the majority of them are some old-school Battlefront/Flames of War ‘bailed-out’ crew markers/figures.

I was rooting through my bits boxes in the past few months and found a few figures from various US, UK, Soviet, and Germany blisters from the early years of my dip into the hobby. Anywho, given that FoW stopped including bailed crew, I thought I’d paint these up for Force on Force and themed to include Afropia as well as the standard modern warfare settings. 

You can see a few of these figures are sporting Desert Yellow coloured headgear…that’s in line with FoF to discriminate the leaders from the line troops. I think these figs will do great as resistance fighters for WW2 or postwar, criminal elements, or militants for Afropia.

Enjoy the pics…

I had found a couple of random leftover figs…front rank has SMG packing soviet soldat and Commonwealth warrior from Battlefront’s Monte Cassino warrior pack.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         49, +22 

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +86

Hello There 20-24

Hey everyone,

Winter is finally upon us…we made it until the second week of January before we saw any snow to follow-up our original snowfall back in mid November. Depending on where you are in Canada right now you are potentially feeling some -40 to -50 Celsius weather, and in some areas that very rarely get any subzero temps…so stay warm Canada.

So, with the dawning of the new year, I guess its time for the mandatory review and some forward thought…last year, my plan was fairly straight forward (I think): paint up more figures, focus on 15mm, get some more gaming in, try some new games, and work through the pile of lead (shame). By year’s end, I was sitting around 133 x 15mm figs painted (vehicle and troops) and 62 x 28mm figs…not my best output, and certainly not my worst output. I worked through a bunch of moderns and Team Yankee figs and I was happy that I started to get into some old starter/expansion boxes that I had laying about.

I didn’t game as much as I wanted to, but I was really happy that I got to give Marvel Crisis Protocol a shot and really enjoyed the game and mechanics. It was pretty cool, finally seeing some figs on the table. 

I had intended on working towards some set projects, but admittedly, I just couldn’t muster the focus. I put plenty of thought towards Afropia, but most of it stayed in the brain pan…although, I did work through some 15mm Team Yankee Red Dawn Insurgents/Militia that will fit in nicely. Funny enough, in the last week before end-year, I ended up looking through some of my terrain collection, put some thoughts towards potential actions, and am thinking that I may need to do a re-think and sync on the project.

So, that leads into the soothsaying and what will the next year hold. Painting more is an ongoing objective, I have plenty in the pile to work through, and some great looking MCP characters to bring to life. So that will continue to be a thing. With the release of NATO Forces, I have some Canadian Airborne Regiment and Special Service Force troops to put together for a continental Canada force. I had started a Cold War scenario some time ago, so I will continue developing that. I have been painting up a good amount of moderns over the last 2 years, so I would like to see them get to the table.

I think I will try to focus my efforts around the following projects and see how it goes:

1. Work on a proper Red/Northern Dawn scenario, ideally 2 of them, and that includes the terrain to get it to the table. So, I would like to work through the VDV starter box, and fill out my Cdn Abn Regt;

2. Work on a 15mm scenario inspired by some of the Bush War actions, I think this will be a good kickstart for me to push som progress on the greater Afropia idea - and really work on some of the wider mechanics and construct of that verse; 

3. I’d like to get some moderns to the table, so thinking of either Danger Close, Spectre Ops, or Force on Force, but moreso a limited small action scenario; and

4. Continue with MCP…and get my Hoth force for Star Wars Legion moving.

I think that covers enough variance over genre…and approaches more of the lead pile. So, we’ll see how we go over the next few months and start getting onto the verse’s.

Take care folks.

Team Yankee - painting update

Howdy folks,

I hope you are able to take some time to rest and recharge over the holidays. I’m still catching up on my backlog of finished minis…almost there, and I thought that I would post some 15mm’s. These are from Battlefront (definitely my 15mm go-to), the Team Yankee and Red Dawn side of the house. The Abram’s come from the Hammerfall box (2 x M1 Abram’s and 3 x T64), the troops are the remainder of the Red Dawn insurgents that I started on earlier this year, and the lone UN ‘blue helmet’ is a leftover Canadian infantry model from the Team Yankee Canuck mech platoon pack.

While I haven’t put a whole lot of thought towards it, I should have no problem fitting the Abram’s into an army list for Team Yankee or Red Dawn. I do have a USMC LAV company that could use some high powered support, and I have my 4CMBG crew that could also do with some more Allied support, not to mention this gives me some heavy metal for any Force Mobile Command list that I might put together for a Canadian homeland force.

The insurgents should find a home in any Force on Force scenario, and in spite of my idleness with Afropia, they could fit in there. Certainly that is where I’m anticipating an appearance from the UN.

Enjoy the pics. 

Painted 

15mm          133, +15

28mm+          55

Bought         131

Progress      +57

More Battlefront 15’s - Red Dawn & Team Yankee

Hey everyone,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets. I’m working on getting through more of the backlog as well as keep up momentum on the Red Dawn figures that I picked up earlier this year. I managed to work through a portion of the second pack of Battlefront’s Red Dawn US Militia as well as the extra’s I had remaining from my Soviet Motor Rifle Company figs. Again, keeping these in mind for other rule sets and Afropia, I based them for Force on Force more than anything else.

I elected to go with a variety of base colours and textures…makes them fit in any FoF game set in Europe or Afghanistan (for the Sov’s) or Afropia. 

I do enjoy the figures, really like the Wolverines sculpts. Enjoy the pics. 

A couple of test paints for my Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF) infantry. Thought I would try out a different camo pattern to see how they it would look…not too bad, I think I’ll tweak and go with a darker green (I went with Green Grey)…

Painted 

15mm          118, +25

28mm+          42

Bought         131

Progress      +29