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

Building a Technical

As requested, here is a bit more information about the technical that my Taliban force had for Call to Arms.

To cut a long story short, a technical is:
a type of improvised fighting vehicle, typically a civilian or military non-combat vehicle, modified to provide an offensive capability similar to a military gun truck. It is usually an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle mounting a machine gun, light anti-aircraft gun, anti-tank weapon, or other support weapon. (Wikipedia)

Like this:

There are some good technical models out there- Empress do a nice resin one with a variety of armaments. So one could assume that I had one lying around ready to go?

Well, no. I didn't actually.

What I did have, was this kit from Airfix:

I bought this kit to go with my Irish force actually, the Snatch Landrover is 3/4 finished in a stunning shade of white for UN duties(which one day I will finish, honest!). Which leaves the WMIK, which I had always planned to turn into a technical.

I thought I would share some of the ideas and tricks I found while converting the Landrover WMIK into a Taliban Technical.

The first few steps are to simply build the chassis of the WMIK, making sure to not include the V underarmour, and removing any upper superstructure for the vehicle. With my technical was loosely based on the one above, I wanted to keep the whole vehicle structure low.

The first challenge comes in the back tray of the landrover. The back of the vehicle has next to no detailing, it is all covered by the upper superstructure of the WMIK. To correct this, I used some plasticard which had striations on one side. I think it was designed to be used to make roofing tiles, but it works perfectly as the grooved rear tray. I chose to also build up the sides as well, to make it look like a more interesting ute (pick-up) back.

Once you are happy with the plasticard, the next step is to use Greenstuff to smooth out the joins, making it look like it was always meant to be there! While the green stuff is drying it it time to make some crew.

Craig and I have always been in agreement that vehicles look cooler when they have crew. Especially when it is going to be an open-topped technical!

Luckily for me, I had a couple of spare Taliban lying around. The gunner comes from Eureka Miniatures, from the 14.5mm DsHK gun team, but had sadly lost his gun (he donated it to the ANP technical). The driver is a bit more complex. I started with an Empress Miniatures Taliban, who was last seen fleeing from Jose the Military Working Dog in Despatches 1 (page 62). Unfortunatly through the course of gaming, or maybe because of Jose (either the real one, or the model one), he broke at the ankle. So instead of trying to rebuild his ankle, I made him into my driver.

Step 1 is to remove the paint from the two of them. So into the Simple Green to soak, then cleaned up with a scalpel and an old toothbrush.

The gunner is the easier of the two conversions. The basic Eureka model is great, but I don't like how he has the gun pointed at the sky. To change the angle of his arms, using a scalpel I carefully removed his arms, keeping them as intact as possible. At this point I would recommend to remove his base, you will need to remove it for him to fit nicely on the back of the landrover.

Then it is a simple matter of using greenstuff to reattach the arms, in the lower position. You may find it useful to remove some cloth from the arms, to make it a more natural pose. It is up to you, it's just to make you happy with it. I also tended to test fit them on the bed of the vehicle too, to make sure that I wasn't pointing the 50cal at the ground, or at the driver or something odd like that.

The 50cal is the one from the WMIK kit, with a few of the optics removed (based on my dice rolling, this Taliban doesn't aim). I used a spare metal pike (I use these a lot) to form the strut to attach the gun to the landy. I deliberatly cut it longer than I needed, that way I could check it off against the gunner, and to the height of the vehicle. Once I was happy with the location, it was a simple case to drill a hole in the landy. The hole was wider than I needed, so that I could use Greenstuff to make sure I had a nice join. I glued the gunner on at the same time.

So while the gunner is easy, the driver is a bit more involved. First thing to do is to cut the poor guy in half. I used a hacksaw to do it, while I held it in place with pliers.

Brutal but effective.

The Empress Taliban that I am using as a base had his left arm moulded on at his side, and the right arm as a seperate piece. This was perfect for me, so I left the left one on, and put the right arm into the bits box for the future.

The lower half and the right arm for my driver both come from the Academy MH-6 kit. One of the more odd things about that kit is that it contains 4 pilot figures, for a two pilot aircraft. It is even more odd when you think of all the number of 1:48 helicopters which come with no pilots (I'm looking at you Italieri). Crew rants aside, the spare pilot figures are great to make the seated drivers. Simply cut the pilot in half. You will need to lop the feet of the model, it just makes him sit better in the vehicle. The driver's right arm will also come from this kit.

While it may seem a simple case of a+b+c= driver, getting him to fit nicely into the technical, as well as looking right. Green stuff is your friend here again, I added a dishdash to cover up a few of my sins in the waist join, and did need to do some sculpting around his right shoulder.

Remember to keep test fitting him in the vehicle. I attached the steering wheel to the driver, and made a length of wire (from a spare pike) to connect it to the dash. It just helped to make the whole process easier, it was one less thing which I needed to make align nicely! I found that the driver sat much too high to use the steering wheel as moulded by Airfix, so creating my own attachment really helped me out in this process.

My first test fit of the two crew, without any green stuff.

One you are happy with the driver, I chose to add doors to the landy. Now the WMIK kit doesn't have doors, but the Snatch does, and it conveniently comes with two sets, open and closed. Getting them to fit is a bit trickier- you need to remove the top of the door (the bit that has the window) and also to remove a 2mm (ish) strip of the back of the door. It seems finicky, and to be fair it is a little bit, but not having the doors to me looks a bit odd. It is important to do that after the crewman, as it is a lot easier to test fit him without the door. Although, make sure you don't put his arm in the way of the door.

The fully assembled land-rover looks like this:

Note that the driver is not glued in, but the gunner is glued.

I chose to paint up the technical in a lovely pastel blue, which I then attacked with a whole lot of weathering.

This is the finished product:

The technical will hopefully be the first of a few of these models, I have a couple more vehicle kits which I plan to convert into Taliban vehicles.

But for now, more Auzzies!

Pooch

Adam- MARSOC- making Berets and Painting Commandos

Armies of Afghanistan has wound down a bit, but Adam clearly hasn't! He has sent through some tips on how to sculpt a beret, along with a few pictures of the work in progress for his MARSOC and Commando force.

Hey there, I've been pretty busy despite the break in school but I have managed to get some progress on this project. I was really stoked to get the minis and had been working on several ideas in my mind as to what to do with my minimal skills to make them look the part.

One was berets, or 'French Hats' as I jealously refer to them as! I needed to get a couple of them to signify NCO's and officers of the Afghan National Army's,(ANA) Commando Kandaks that I am portraying here. Generally they wouldn't be worn on patrol, but these are wargaming miniatures so they need to be representative as well as illustrative. So berets for the NCO's and O's. The minis have either kevlar helmets or patrol hats so some minor surgery was needed. I tried a couple different ideas and this worked the best.

The starting model:

Scalp them.

Roll out a small ball of green stuff, probably smaller than you think, see the pic. Then smash it onto the head and shape it like you care.

You will often find French hat wearers staring at mirrors trying to get that perfect look. Just saying...

Another detail was the lack of pouches and nonsense on some of the minis. Now I must say that they are excellent sculpts as well as castings from Eureka but my Commandos do a lot of foot patrols unlike the modeled Police. So I made a few pouches and packs or water bladder carriers.

Now onto the Critical Skills Operators, (CSO) of MARSOC. I've drafted a Eureka SAS troopie on a quad bike to go with my Eureka Aussie SF motorcyclist.

Chopped the head off the Aussie, swapped it with an ANZAC head with a kevlar from the Skirmish Sangin Kiwis and did a bush cover trim on the SAS boy. Those big floppy hat brims look a bit strange to Marines.

Both of these minis got a few extra pouches by milliput or hack and slash methods.

The Ranger from Pooch was disassembled and repainted a nice light khaki and them washed with Brown Tamiya model wash, I like this stuff though it's the first time I've used it. However, my first bull bar and roll bar attempts have been rejected by quality control, and I am in search of 3mm brass wire.

Everybody got a good old fashioned woodland camo scheme as well as desert boots and Commando patches. Just waiting on final dry brushing, detail bits and basing add ons. (Bases are washers, thanks Andy!)

In the end I've got a suitable manoeuvre element for a Sangin game to complement my other figures or even on their own buffed out a bit. My other Afghan Police minis will be mostly more Commandos but I will keep a couple of them as Police in their grey blue.

Looking great Adam! You will have to keep sending through pictures as the painting continues- I will be very interested to see how the roll bar turns out on your Ranger! For all those who were looking lovingly at Adam's motorbike and quad bike, the rules for them you can find in Despatches II, out later this year.

Craig H- Painting the Bundeswehr

Craig H has returned, this time he is looking at how he painted his Fallschirmjäger from Eureka Miniatures. While he claims to be not much of a painter, he has done a mighty fine job on these I think! Now to persuade him to come out for a game..... Over to Craig

Let me get started by saying I’m a complete novice when it comes to painting. My only real experience was painting a Skaven Blood Bowl team back in the 1990s – and they came out looking more like a retro 80s New Wave fluro boy band than a menacing Chaos-warped football team (Chaos offers gifts in many ways....-Ed). So I approached painting my Bundeswehr force with trepidation.

I took a lot of time to do some research first. German uniforms use a disruptive camouflage pattern known as flecktarn (or flecktarnmuster). This is a combination of the words Fleck and Tarnung and together simply means ‘spotted camouflage.’ As the name suggests this is a pattern of colours to create a dithering effect, to eliminate hard boundaries. The standard Western European pattern is a 5-colour scheme of greens, browns and black.

Bundeswehr Wustentarn, or desert camouflage, is the special design utilised in Afghanistan. It cuts out two colours and goes for a simple 3-colour scheme of khaki tan, with medium brown and dark green spots. And when I say spots I mean really small ones, but more on that later…

Suprisingly, Craig has decided to go without the non-regulation headgear!

Starting out, I mounted the team on some old Warhammer bases I had lying around. I then primed the team with white primer. I thought long about whether to use black instead but white worked quite well to create the lighter look I was aiming for. Shopping around, I settled on a range of paints from Vallejo and Tamiya as well as some washes from Games Workshop.

Finding the base ‘khaki tan’ colour turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I tested a range of options and initially tried out a test figure with Tamiya Desert Yellow, and then Vallejo Iraqi Sand. However, I found these efforts resulted in a base colour that looked too brown when combined with the other camouflage colours. The tan is intended to get a lighter brown result. In the end I went with Vallejo Buff , which by itself gives the figures a butter cream look (and reminded me of a 1970s Volvo 66 my father used to own). Don’t worry though – in combination with the other two flecktarn colours it turns out quite well.

Next was painting the faces and arms in Tamiya Flat Flesh (XF-15) (with a Reikland Wash from GW), then another light layer of Flat Flesh for the cheeks, chin etc. With the weapons I sent with a black base. I intend to put highlight over the weapons , but for now that gives a good contrast colour.

So on to the tricky part, the spots. I chose Tamiya NATO Green (XF-67) and Vallejo Beige Brown. I went for a beige shade rather than a darker brown as I felt this seemed to reflect the small difference with the base colour. Looking closely at actual photos, I saw that the pattern of the dots is not uniform or random. In a lot of places, the browns and greens flow into ‘splotches’ of colour, with dots cascading from the edges. These the splotches are often seen along the pants inside leg, or on the inside of the arms, as a way of breaking up the soldier’s silhouette.

The toughest thing was to avoid adding too many spots, particularly the green ones. In reality, there are large areas that are completely clear of brown or green spots. Although it is a 3-colour scheme, the green appears a lot less than the other two colours. This makes sense in a desert environment, but getting the right distribution is tricky. A couple of times I had to repaint over areas that seemed just too predominantly green.

So, with an unsteady hand and a fine detail brush I got to work. Getting the spots as small as possible and appropriately spaced proved difficult. In the end I settled for a more general pattern. The spots may be bigger than reality, but I consider that the outcome captured the essence of the flecktarn design.

For the boots, I went with Tamiya Desert Yellow (XF-59) or Tamiya Khaki (XF-49) for the webbing and side packs etc. This served to add a little variety to the colour scheme. Finally, I used brown wash in the folds of the fatigues for shadowing and along the seams to make them stand out.

The bases I painted in Vallejo Iraqi Sand, and added some desert flocking as a layer. Finally with a fine detail brush I added a German flag in black, red and gold.

All in all I’m reasonably happy with the outcome, for what was only my second effort at painting. More practice and less caffeine would have probably ended up with smaller, closer grouped spots, and a finer level of detail but I think that these are a good representation of what a Bundeswehr combat team would look like. There are a few touch-ups required, such as buckles, and getting the combat canine right but for now I think they’re ready for combat.

While I haven’t gotten the painting bug (yet) I am already thinking about a new project. There’s an Empress Miniatures Force Recon team on my shelf that, with a couple of conversions, would look good in Polish GROM colours. Already back to hitting the websites for some research…

Craig

So there you have it, a good way to paint those desert Germans you have lying around! Now Craig, it is time to get those Germans out on patrol!

Lasercut Card Casspir

At Sangin HQ, we are always on the look out for cool new models. Many email conversations go back and forth every day, about this new miniature, or have we seen this or that. When Colin sent around a link to a company out of South Africa that was making laser cut card vehicles, I was incredibly curious to say the least! Now, I have built many plastic kits in my time, but building card aeroplanes was something I did as a kid, and I do definitely remember the card HMS Invincible that I got with a Quest magazine ages ago (wish I still had it to be honest!).

On to these card vehicles. The company Laser Cut Card are a South African based company, who make laser cut card products (clever naming on their part). Their products range from containers, buildings, right up to Warhammer 40k-esque guns and a selection of South African armoured vehicles.

The vehicle that particularly caught my eye was the Casspir. A 4x4, Mine Resistant Infantry Mobility Vehicle. With it's V-shaped hull and massive wheels it seemed like something which should be able to survive the wilds of Afghanistan! According to Wiki, the US have 68 of them, as well as the Buffalo EOD vehicle, which is a derivative of the Casspir. As to who (and if anyone)has deployed them in Afghanistan, and in what capacity, I am not totally sure. If anyone has any insider info, let me know!

What I do have, is this picture here,

Which is of a Casspir de-mining the area around Bagram Airbase. Now that Casspir in the image has steel wheels, and is specially designed to undertake de-landmining operations (driving round and blowing them up it seems), which is a bit different to the card-model, but I think it is not too much of a stretch that there are Casspirs used.

So armed with a sketchy concept about whether it had deployed in Afghanistan and all of the enthusiasm contained in a hyperactive puppy, I ordered myself a Casspir. Not knowing what to expect when shipping from South Africa, I was really happy to have immediate contact from the guys at Laser Cut Card, and had the Casspir a week later. Needless to say, I was super impressed.

It's here!

So upon opening the pack, I was greeted with multiple sheets of flimsy looking card, a small sheet of 3mm MDF pieces and some plastic tubing. This raised some questions about whether this was a good investment for me.

Not pictured: My uninspired and confused facial expression

All of the pieces on the card had been cut so that there was only a small tab of card keeping it attached to the frame, additionally the folds in the card have already been pre-scored, which was a definite bonus.

The instructions for the Casspir are on the Laser Cut Card website, I kept them open in front of me while I was working. The instructions are easy to follow, although a couple of times they skipped some simple steps. This wasn't a massive issue, as it was easy enough to figure out what needed to happen (for example they never said attach the cab to the passenger cabin, or to attach the front grill).  

Tools wise, you need a sharp knife (I used a scalpel with a fresh blade) and superglue. You will want a ruler as well later on. I suppose you could use PVA glue to assemble it, but Superglue was quick to set, and you don't want to be sitting there waiting for every join to glue, because it will drive you mad.Or madder, depending on how mad you were to begin with.

The assembly begins with the cab of the Casspir....

First side glued! And some nice product placement for Selley's.

The way Laser Cut Card have designed it is with two major pieces (the cab and the passenger cabin) which you then stick details to. 

Completed Cab, waiting for adornments

I would recommend patience when assembling these, the adage of "measure twice, cut (glue) once" definitely applies here, especially when fitting the rounded edges of the big pieces, or when lining up the window frames etc.

The embellishments are simple enough to attach, they have all pretty clear places to go. It is a bit fiddly to line up the window frames, but even if it is wrong, it is a simple matter of using the scalpel to remove it and have another go (which happened with me once or twice).

Cab with embellishments. Note it is missing the front grill, because I forgot to add it at this stage!

Once the Cab is assembled, it is on to the passenger cabin. Here is where I had my only disagreement with the kit- I could not for love nor money get the sides to line up nicely. I think there would certainly be a case for it being operator (my) error, rather than a design fault. The net result was that I was left with a 2mm gap in the cabin. 

The simple solution was to make up a long snake of greenstuff to putty over the gap. Not a big issue at all, and as I say, I think it was me doing something wrong, rather than there being an issue with the Casspir design.

Greenstuff covering (some of) my sins....

Once the shell of the passenger cabin is assembled, it is a pretty simple matter of attaching the window frames, doors, rifle ports, top hatches, suspension etc to round out the model.

One of the really interesting things for me, was the wheels. Basically the wheels are split into 7 discs each (with 6 wheels, that makes 42 wheel circles, plus wheel hub bits) the discs are attached in layers, which then form the whole of the wheel.

Rear wheels in progress, with discs about to be attached

This system is incredibly simple, and looks damn good when it is done. What might have looked like a dog's breakfast is saved by the fact that they have put tread on the wheels, basically it means that the joins are how it should look. I made sure to always assemble the wheels with the axle running through them, to help to line them up, but again, it was a simple matter to get them lined up and attached. I was getting good at the assembly by this stage, so that will have helped too.

With the Cab, Passenger Cabin and Wheels all done, then you have to put it all together. This basically involves cutting two axles of plastic tubing, as well as two pieces to be the differential. Which makes the underside look like this...

Good shot of how the wheels show tread, and the V-shaped hull too

With the wheels attached, the core model is complete!

The micky-mouse ears of the spare wheels entertains me....

The kit also comes with a couple of heavy machine-guns, again assembled using laser cut card and plastic tubing. Given the couple of Casspir pictures I have are unarmed, I decided to use a spare GPMG from an Airfix Landrover kit and mounted it on the top hatch, rather than using the heavy machine guns from the kit.

To be fair, the GPMG now looks tiny.....

 Worth noting also, is that the Casspir is a BIG vehicle. I figured given it is an MRAP, it seemed only right to compare it in scale to the excellent EOD team from Empress Miniatures which I finished recently....

The Casspir ain't small!

Now. I said that I was underwhelmed when I got my flimsy card sheets. And boy was I COMPLETELY WRONG TO FEEL LIKE THAT. I had to put that in capitals, because I have to emphasise how good the Casspir was to assemble. I did it over two nights, and it took about an equivalent time to making a plastic kit I think.

Assembly aside, on to the painting. I was a touch worried with how well painting card would go. I mused over whether to use some form of a sealant, but in the end, I used a simple black spray paint, then opted for an overall desert scheme like the rest of my US vehicles. I was tempted to paint it white, but thought my weathering skills would not be up to the task of doing it justice! I think I need to black line the model yet, but the paint has not done anything weird for being painted on card.

Below is Casspir compared against the Tamiya 1/48 Humvee and the Airfix 1/48 Jackal. The Casspir is a big vehicle (7m compared to the Jackal's 5m). I haven't done the actual measuring, but it looks maybe a touch big? Not terribly so, but it is a touch on the big side.

I have to say, the guys at Laser Cut Card have done a sterling service, I am thoroughly impressed. Don't do what I did and write off card as not being a durable material, the Casspir is well designed and has good structural strength, possibly owing to the shape of the model, but I want to give the Laser Cut Card guys all the credit for the design in creating what is a faithful representation of the Casspir, all in card!

As for me? I need to stop looking at their website. They have some great terrain (containers!) and some more South African vehicles (the Ratel 90 looks fantastic). I will definitely not be hesitating to buy more. 

Pooch