Tuesday 21 October 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- More British in MTP, and Terrain!

Following on from Matt's British last week, I got sent some pictures from Pat of his British, with yet another way of painting MTP!

Pat painted them using Humbrol Enamels (he calls himself "old school"!) I am sure if you would like the Humbrol list (for the other enamel-painting types out there), Pat will be able to share.

A big thanks to Pat for sending the pictures through, he had this to say...

As you can see I've got two moving Fireteams & one kneeling team, although I've got more figures to paint up, plus all of Empress Brit 06 so the exact teams will change. I saw the new Empress Brit 08 & 09 at the SELWG show, really cool especially the female medic and the vallon mine sweeper- but they weren't available, real shame but will order them later along with some of the new Taliban (good Christmas present, they will beat socks!).






So there you have it, another way of painting MTP! I like the nice mix of colours that Pat has used- it certainly looks the business!

Pat also sent through some WIP shots of his next batch of British, showing off some very neat greenstuff work!



Along with his British, Pat also sent through some images of a piece of terrain he is working on...





I for one, love how this terrain looks. It is made from 5mm foam board and are mounted on 3mm White Foamed-PVC (MDF works as well). Pat went with a pan-middle eastern white stucco paintjob, which has come out really nicely. For me, it is all about the fruit stands, the tiling, the white walls, I like it right down to the three colours of doors. Apparently it is a work in progress but I think it looks darn good as it is, and with the internal details (furniture) Pat is talking about it will look even better!

This is all just reminding me that I need to make more terrain.....

So now that we have three different ways of painting British MTP, so where is the love for the other ISAF nations? Surely you can't ALL be playing British... right? We must be due some other ISAF nations, or even some more Taliban? Send us through what you have finished through to chris@skirmishsangin.com, things like AAR's, ORBATs, Scenarios, Painting, Terrain and we will share them with the whole community.

Pooch

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- British in MTP

We had been getting a few emails lately of things which people are working on. Keep them coming, it is always cool to see what people are working on for Skirmish Sangin!

Matt sent through some pictures of his Taliban a while back (we saw one at the weekend). Luckily for us, he has also sent through pictures of his British, along with a bit of how he did his take on MTP:

My aim was to give an impression of MTP, as fast as possible, and as easy to repeat as possible with my shakey hands and old eyeballs!

I did the painting on these in a day while wearing MTP trousers as a rough guide, then the next day was used to do the basing. So two days all up.

To start, I used a grey under coat, followed by a light green first coat liberally painted over all the cloth areas. I added some large dashes of light brown-always in horizontal lines where possible. Next up is thinner dark brown dashes near next to or through the light brown. Then with a khaki colour I put light dashed or splodges randomly here and there, hardly noticeable.

This was then followed by what I feel gives the multi-splodge/mtp impression- the palid flesh small dashes and dots often near where the other stripes are and the odd one randomly to kill any voids.

The rest of model (guns, boots, flesh and webbing) was worked on after this, once they were done the model was given a wash of GW's argrax earthshade mixed with games workshops medium so it flows nicer and avoids pooling.

I tried something a bit different on the guns too- they are painted a light tan colour then later dry brushed lightly with black to show where the spray has rubbed off, its becoming common now for troops out in the dirt to have coyote brown l85's












So there you have it, another way to paint MTP! The beret head comes from a Warlord Games WW2 kit (you can tell by his strong jaw!). I think Matt has done a great job on these, some great little detail touches there. Empress have just released a few new packs for their British, I for one will be picking them up to add to my forces!

Got an idea for a scenario? Or want to share some pictures of what you have been working on? Maybe an AAR of a game you have had. Send them through to chris@skirmishsangin.com and we will share them with the whole community.

Pooch


Friday 10 October 2014

Taliban Reinforcements on their way!

The next wave of our range of Taliban have been spotted on their way in to Helmand.


They are currently off with the casters, we are hoping to have the whole swathe of Taliban ready to go very, very soon!

And now for some close ups of the figures:








Now, in case you are wondering how the first wave of Taliban look painted up, here is one of ours painted by one of our Insurgent Competition winners, Matt.


Matt's Taliban have a real mix of colours, a mix of blues, greys, yellows and browns. They should be a nice contrast to the black ninja uniform of his ISIS commander!

Now, no excuses, off you go to the Skirmish Sangin website and order your Taliban now, and get ready to order the next set very soon! So soon in fact, that Skirmish Sangin USA actually has the first reinforcements now!

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Armies of Afghanistan- Dougie is back for Part 7!

After a while spent incommunicado, Dougie has sent through just a couple of little teaser pictures of the things he is working on. Mainly, that he is finishing up the second fire team he started a wee while back. You should also rejoice that his blog is back updating, if you don't know where to look, head here

First off gotta say sorry for the delay in this update, due entirely to my retirement and holidays with my good lady wife! Any hoo work on the second fireteam has progressed with the flesh and Multicam completed, I’ve just started on the boots so there’s not too much left to do.


I’ve also started a Eureka Talib, nice figures but I must get some DishDash examples!


Dougie

I hope you had a wonderful set of travels Dougie, but I must say that it is nice to have more pictures of that gorgeous multi-cam to grace our blog! Look forward to seeing the next set of Paras finished, as well as their opposition.

Friday 3 October 2014

After Action Report- SEALs hunting a bomb maker

Last weekend Colin and I played through another of the scenarios from the forthcoming Despatches II. This time, the scenario was all about a SEAL team ambushing a bomb maker as he lays an IED. The ambush is happening at night, so the SEALs have the advantage of their NVGs.

I brought the SEAL team you saw earlier in the week:


The scenario was that the SEALs started the game on table, lying in wait for the bomb maker, who had to come out and lay two IEDs.

SEALs in position:


The bomb maker advancing into position, then beginning to lay the bomb:

Now, reading the one sentence introduction, you might be thinking "That sounds odd Pooch, why would he be setting up 2 IEDs? How could the Taliban win the game? Well, those are both very good points. And that is where Colin and I got to very quickly! Basically the bomb maker walked on, then he got shot at, and then ran off the table.

Game over.

Was it fun? No.

So Colin and I took the scenario apart, and rewrote it. While we might consider ourselves to be rules writing super heroes, more often than not how we think things work in our heads, really isn't how things work on table. You can't be too precious about it, sometimes, things just don't make for a fun game!

Game Take 2

The bomb maker is just finishing up laying an IED, with his small protection team around him. Unbeknownst to them, a team of SEALs is lying in ambush positions, ready to capture the bomb maker.

The SEALs moved into position, getting eyes on the bomb maker.

Unfortunately, one of the Taliban had been eating all his carrots, and spotted one of the SEALs as he moved into position. The eagle-eyed Taliban shot.... and rolled a 12 to hit. When he needed a 14. Sigh. Damage? Lots. Armour Save? Not lots. Net result? One SEAL down, and the Talibs know that there are SEALs about!

Colin is becoming alarmingly good at shooting first!

With the first shots fired, the bomb maker saw his opportunity to escape. With his reserves arriving at one end of the road, he thought he would leg it the other way while the SEALs were distracted.

Pictured: A distracted SEAL, as he engages multiple hostiles, picking off the heavy weapons

The bomb makers escape was somewhat cut short as his attempt at running full pace was met with a crowd of civilians, tripping him up...
Yes, he really did trip up, right next to the civilians!

While this was going on, one of the Taliban had managed to bring a PKM to bear, engaging the SEALs, who's light body armour no help against the heavy caliber bullets.

The bomb maker had managed to disentangle himself from the civlians, and continued his mad dash away from the SEALs. He didn't count on the SEALs superior fitness, one of the team was able to not only run the bomb maker down, but also managed to subdue him.
Behind you!

While the bomb maker was being quickly escorted off the table, the remaining SEAL slipped quietly away.

And with that, the game was over!

The mission is much better now (you will be pleased to hear!), it is a quick and easy game, one which can easily be played due to the small numbers of troops on table. I know that you are going to love playing this one, it is pretty darn fun trying to chase down the bomb maker and arrest him!

Hoping to get another game in next weekend, there are still a couple of scenarios which we haven't shared yet. There is one in particular which I really think you are going to like.....

Pooch