US Mechanized Infantry 3rd Squad

I've now finished the third squad for the US Mechanized Infantry Platoon.

Next job is to get the four Bradley IFV's finished for them so they can enter the battlefield in style...

US Mechanized Infantry 2nd Squad

Oddly inspired by "dipping" some Zulus, I dug out the remaining two squads of US Mechanized Infantry and continued work on them after something of a break, finishing the second of the three squads needed for the US Mechanized Infantry Platoon.

The figures are a mix of Esci and Revell plastics and painted using the techniques detail here...

The British Are Coming!

I really need to kick start this project to get it back on the road and to this end I picked up three pre-painted 1/72nd Warrior IFV's that come with issue 2 of Military Vehicles magazine for just £2.99...

US & Soviet Reinforcements Coming From Zvezda

It appears that Zvezda will be releasing a Cold War Art of Tactic style game this year. Whilst the AFV's will be 1/100th (15mm) and the aircraft 1/144th, there will be some useful 1/72nd (20mm) boxes of hard plastic infantry that will supplying some heavy weapons to the forces in Whirarwistan... 

Soviet Armour: Another T72

Unfortunately Whirarwistan has entered a Phoney War period but things might be about to change with Soviet reinforcements in the form of a second Altaya T72 M1. Rumours that the Soviets have a 1/72nd Mi-24 Hind undergoing repainting for the desert theatre have yet to be confirmed...

US Air Support: Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk

UK based gamers may have seen the launch of one of those interminable part-works magazines, this time Helicopter Magazine. The magazine comes with a 1/72nd scale pre-painted die-cast model each issue (which appear to be Amercom produced Altaya models), the first issue coming with a very useful UH-60L Black Hawk for the introductory price of just £2.99 (normal magazine/model price is £7.99), A quick trip to the local newsagent has seen my US Expeditionary Force in Whirarwistan reinforced with three Black Hawks for under a tenner ready to play with...

The whole series seems to be around twenty-eight models strong (four of which - including a Mi-24 Hind - are part of the subscription deal) and I am giving serious consideration to taking out a subscription as there are a lot of useful looking models in the collection (issue three comes with a Boeing MH47E Chinook!).

Soviet Armour: T72 M1

The Whirarwistan campaign has unfortunately temporarily stalled due to my suffering from wargamers "ooh shiney" disease, but in the process of painting some phalanxes of Greek hoplites my eyes alighted on an Altaya (aka Amercom aka Deagostini) T72 M1 pre-painted I picked up last year. I must confess I didn't like it when it arrived, it looked plasticy and the sand and black camo was horrid.

However, it got to the point yesterday that I was so sick of looking at the sand and black camo that whilst some shields were drying I decided to slap a bit of green over the black using Vallejo (70924) Russian Uniform WWII. This looked quite good, so I then applied a wash of GW Devlan Mud wash and et voila!

A final drybrush of sand over the tracks and bogies was all that was needed to finish the beast off and I must say I am really pleased with the end result and feel a bit more inspired to revisit Whirarwistan. Now where are the BTR's?

Painting US Mechanized Infantry (VII)

Stage Seven: the US troops were finished off with my standard 'hot climate' basing process (the same as my temperate basing process, just with different flock!). Sand was painted GW Bestial Brown and drybrushed Bleached Bone. The static grass is GW's Dead Grass. Overall I'm very pleased with how these came up, the colours may have a little too much brightness to be 100% correct but they give a good impression of US Desert BDU and look good on the tabletop. Now I just have to finish off the other two squads of the platoon!

US M247 SAW and M203 Grenadier (Revell)

US Squad Leader (Esci)

Painting US Mechanized Infantry (VI)

Stage Six: having allowed the dip 24 hours to dry I have given the miniatures a quick spray with matt varnish taking the gloss off. Have to say I'm very pleased with how they've come out, just basing now...

Painting US Mechanized Infantry (V)

Stage Five: the dip, as with the Soviet Naval Infantry I used Army Painter Strong Tone painted on rather than dipped to maintain a degree of control, checking after a few minutes to remove any heavy pooling (in crooks of arms and between the legs especially).