Dish Dash Taliban- Packs 1 to 3

We have finally received some copies of our 28mm Taliban miniatures (some of you got them before we did!). Naturally we thought we would paint up a set, to show off how good they look. As Craig and I are more than a bit busy at the moment, we passed over a set of 15 to our good buddy Ray (you have seen his French up here before).

He dutifully painted them up, and made an absolutely cracker job of it! In fact, I am confident I couldn't have done any better!

So here they are, our first three packs of Taliban

The whole group!

Taliban pack 1

Taliban pack 2

Taliban pack 3

And now for some close ups....

So the first two packs are available now, with the third pack on it's way soon. And I know that there are yet more on their way- so more than enough to create a great Taliban force. Especially using the Taliban ORBAT from Despatches II (also available now!)- I look forward to hearing some feedback on what people think!

Pooch

Ray- Gaso-Line Vehicle Review

Ray has made all of us here very jealous by buying some of the Gasoline Vehicles. Not only that, he has been able to have enough time to assemble and paint them, and they look lovely! But I will let Ray tell you all about them....

It’s been a while since I lasted posted anything on the blog so apologies to everyone for that. Like most gamers I tend to be very easily side-tracked by anything shiny and new. This time it was my son deciding that Saga looked interesting and rushing off to buy some Anglo-Saxons. So of course Dad had to do some Vikings to take them on. Ahh well, back into the swing of things in the 21st century now so here goes with another Sangin article.

Now that I’ve painted enough infantry to do a French platoon I thought I might give a bit of a low down on the Gaso-Line vehicles.

I fell in love with these when I saw the range of vehicles these guys produce but never having bought any, and not being a huge fan of resin vehicles I was a wee bit hesitant to splash out hand earned dosh on spec. I’ve had a few bad experiences in the past with resin vehicles either not fitting together properly or being so covered in flash that you have to spend hours tidying the damn things up. I much prefer plastic kits but the modern range in 1/48th is limited to say the least.

So I bit the bullet and ordered the French VAB. The Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé (VAB) entered service with the French army in the mid 70’s and is still going strong. Admittedly it’s had more than a few upgrades over the years but its longevity really has to be admired.

I also ordered a French reconnaissance VBL. Compared with the VAB the Véhicule Blindé Léger is the baby of the army. It was developed during the late 80’s as a light, air transportable amphibious all-terrain vehicle and entered service with the French army in the early 90’s. There are lots of variants in service including some armed with Milan missile systems.

I was going intending to get the AMX10RC to provide a bit of back up I but figured that its presence at skirmish level would be a bit too overpowering. I have to say though it’s a stunning looking vehicle and I’m pretty sure I’ll succumb to temptation at some point soon and order one! (Don't worry Ray, I will write you a scenario for the AMX10RC when you buy it!- Ed)

The kits arrived quickly, much more quickly than I anticipated in fact and, as well as being impressed with the service I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the casting. There was a bit of flash on the mouldings but nothing too dramatic and half an hour tidying up the kits was time well spent.

Having been raised on a healthy diet of Airfix kits I’ve become accustomed to “Glue parts A and B to part C etc.” so one of my concerns was how easy they would be to put together. Given Gaso-Line is a French company, and with my French being non-existent, I was worried about not having any English instructions included. Luckily, this time pretty much everything was done by pictures with the only writing being a list of the parts provided. In saying that, it definitely pays to sit down for half an hour and have dry run with the kits so you are clear in your head where everything is supposed to go as some of the parts are very fiddly.

Now at this point I have to make an apology. I completely forgot to take any shots of the vehicles before completion so you’ll just have to take my word for everything!

The bulk of the kits are obviously resin however both had the smaller parts made out of brass and the VBL has rubber tyres that clip over the wheel mounts.

Everything went together remarkably easily once I had cleaned off the flash. The hull of the VAB comes in two parts (top and bottom) which fit together very well with no obvious gaps. Wheels etc. all fit snuggly onto the axles and don’t look like they are likely to fall of anytime soon.

The VAB has a couple of optional parts. The earlier versions of the vehicle have an amphibious capability so you can model it with (or without) propellers, I decided to leave them off and do the bang up to date version.

The most fiddly bits are the machine gun mountings for both kits and the other brass edged bits and pieces, particularly the wing mirror mounts. I’ve spent many frustrating hours rigging 1/1200 scale Napoleonic ships so this wasn’t too bad (masochist- Ed), but there was a reasonable amount of swearing involved.

In the next part I’ll go into a bit of detail about how I painted the kits but suffice to say I would have no hesitation about ordering more of these Gaso-Line kits. They go together excellently and the quality of the castings is first class.

In the meantime, have a look at the Gaso-Line range if you haven't already done so, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised, I certainly was!

Those are some dusty French vehicles there Ray! Now having seen these in person and in the photos, they are lovely. Gasoline make some cracking model kits, and it is taking all of my willpower to not buy any. Those who know my willpower in regard to buying model kits will know that I will be buying something from them in the next week or two, I am just that weak!

You will have to give us a picture of the whole French Platoon too, with their transports!

Ray- Painting the 2nd REP

Ray is back, and having now got a whole lot of his French figures, has been hard at work painting some up to show off! And, given the nice chap that he is, he has shared a bit of his process on how he painted them.

I love that feeling you get when a new batch of figures arrives in the post. It’s like being kid at Christmas! Well a few weeks ago it felt like all of my Christmas’s had come at once. Pooch dropped of my French Foreign Legion figures over the weekend and a few days later I received the VAB and VBL which I had ordered from Gasoline. The biggest quandary was deciding what to start first.

In the end it wasn’t that hard a decision. The Eureka figures are so nice you just have to get stuck into them.

As figures go, Eureka's French are amongst the nicest I’ve seen. Like all Eureka stuff I’ve ordered, the castings are crisp, free of flash and mould lines and need an absolute minimum of preparation before painting.

I decided a while ago that I didn’t want to paint these guys in the usual desert camouflage but in something a little more striking. From what I have seen in photos, while the desert camouflage has been worn in Afghanistan, it is much more common to see the Legion wearing the European theatre camouflage so that’s what I plumped for.

2nd REP wearing European theatre camo

Painting camouflage has never really been my strong point. I can never really seem to get it to a stage where I’m completely happy with the finished result. In saying that, I think these guys have turned out as well as I could have hoped. Camouflage is awkward stuff to paint. At 28mm, if you make the colours authentic, they tend to blend into one another and the effect gets lost. So from the outset I wanted to slightly over emphasise the colours to make the contrast more apparent. You can make your own mind up about the finished article. At this stage I should also apologise for the shots. They were all taken on my dining room table, hence the reason for the dodgy tablecloth.(It makes for a lovely base cloth!- Ed)

On to the painting:

Stage 1.
After undercoating the figures black. I started with the Flesh:

Caucasian skin: Basecoat of GW Ratskin Flesh with a wash of GW Reikland Flesh Shade then highlighted with the basecoat lightened with a little white. The darker skin is Vallejo Leather Brown , highlighted with Vallejo saddle Brown.

I’m never comfortable painting eyes at this scale. I invariably end up with my grizzled veteran looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. So I haven’t attempted to paint the eyes on most of these guys, with a couple of exceptions.

Stage 1 completed!

Stage 2.
Onto the uniform. The basecoat is Vallejo German Camouflage Beige with a wash of GW Aggrax Earthshade and highlighted as above with the basecoat and a little white added. The camouflage green is GW Castellan Green highlighted with Vallejo light olive, Brown is Vallejo leather brown and the black is (funnily enough) Black! I then went back over the basecoat areas and picked them out in basecoat and white to add to the contrast.

The webbing is GW Castellan Green highlighted with a little white mixed in with the green. For the body armour on the beret wearing figures I used Vallejo Khaki Grey. On the heavier equipped guys I used Castellan Green.

Stage 2 finished

The finishing touch is the tricolour emblem on the left shoulder of each figure which I think sets them off perfectly. I then did the bases which are sand painted with Dulux Hokitika (house paint from NZ-Ed) and washed with Aggrax Earthshade. Once this dries I highlight it with off white and add some tufts and static grass.

So that’s it, first batch done and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I’ve already ordered more from Eureka and have enough to do the rest of the Platoon now. You may also notice the VAB in the background of the last shot. I’ll go into that and it’s kid brother the VBL in the next article.

En avant mes amis!

For someone who feels that camo is not their strongpoint, those French are looking really nice! You should be happy with how they look, the balance between the skin tones and the camo has come out really well. As for the VAB and VBL? I am incredibly excited to see them, the Gasoline Kits are just super aren't they?

Ray- French Equipment

Ray is back, looking at some of the French Equipment in Afghanistan

In this article I thought I’d take a look at the equipment currently in use by the 2nd REP and by the French army in general. I haven’t made this list exhaustive but simply picked out the items that seem unusual or have that distinctive French feel to them.

The obvious place to start is with the standard issue infantry assault rifle, the very distinctive looking FAMAS (Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne). If there is anything in his equipment that gives the French soldier a distinctive look then it has to be the FAMAS. Something that has grabbed my attention when studying the war in Afghanistan is how very similar all of the ISAF forces actually are (at least in appearance), however you only have to see someone carrying a FAMAS and he’s instantly recognisable as a French soldier. The rifle itself follows the Bullpup design with the magazine and action lying behind the trigger in line with the firers face. It was first adapted by the French army in 1978 and (with a few refinements and additions) has remained in service ever since. As assault rifles go it’s nothing startling (I reckon it's pretty startling!- Ed). It has its drawbacks but seems to be generally liked by the troops who use it and is affectionately known as “le clarion” (the bugle) by the Legionnaires.

When it comes to section support, there are two options used by the Foreign Legion: The standard FN Minimi – as used by many other ISAF forces and the AA NF1. Originally issued in 1952, the NF1 been on the way out since 2010 but is still in use with the Legion.

There are two options available to the French soldier when it comes to sniper rifles; The FR-F2 (a standard 7.62mm bolt action rifle) and the PGM Hecate heavy sniper rifle, a fearsome looking 12.7mm beast that would make a sizeable hole in anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end.

Soldier of the 2nd REP carrying an AA NF1 in Mali and a 2nd REP soldier carrying a PGM Hecate

If the FAMAS gives a French soldier that certain “je ne sais quoi” then the LGI-F1 is another distinctly French take on light infantry support. It’s basically a light one man mortar (very similar to the Japanese knee mortar used in WW2). It uses a form of propulsion called FLY-K which basically reduces the muzzle flash and smoke discharge to a point where it is very difficult to detect and because it does not heat up, it is capable of very rapid rates of fire.

Legionnaire of the 2e REI using the LGI in Afghanistan

The Legion uses the fairly standard AT4 - one shot anti tank missile as its standard bunker buster in Afghanistan. Alongside that they also still use the older LRAC-F1 which is steadily being phased out.

Legionnaire firing LRAC-F1, compared to an AT4 CS

Anyway, that’s enough for the small stuff, now to get to the real “boys toys” and take a look at the vehicles currently in use by the Legion.

There are three light 4x4’s that the Legion either uses currently, or did use during its service in Afghanistan.
The Peugeot P4 is an unarmoured 4x4 that has been in use with the army since the mid 1980’s It’s slowly being replaced by the PVP (Petit Véhicule Protégé – Small protected vehicle) produced by Panhard. This is lightly armoured 4x4 The PVP has been in use with the Legion since 2012

Peugeot P4 and Panhard PVP

The third light recce vehicle is the VBL (Véhicule Blindé Léger – Light armoured vehicle). A useful little amphibious ATV, it’s been in use with the legion since the mid 1990’s and comes in a variety of guises with various weapons platforms and roles. It is currently in service with the reconnaissance units of the 1er REC and 2e REI.

VBL

When it comes to troop carriers the VAB (Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé – Armoured Vanguard Vehicle) has been the workhorse of the French army since the mid 70’s and is still going strong. It is slowly being replaced however by the more modern VBCI (Véhicule Blindé de Combat d’Infanterie – Infantry combat armoured vehicle). This 8x8 is produced by Nexter systems and Renault and is currently in service with units of the 2nd REI.

VAB and VBCI

Finally the heavy support: This comes in the shape of the ERC-90 Sagaie, a 6 wheeled armoured reconnaissance vehicle mounting a 90mm gun and the AMX10. It’s bigger brother armed with a formidable 105mm gun. It’s main role is that of tank destroyer but it also fulfils a reconnaissance role. Both vehicles are currently in service with the 1er REC.(The AMX10 comes in a very close second in my "favourite wheeled vehicles with ridiculous guns competition", I just love the Stryker MGS too much-Ed)

ERC 90 and AMX10 RC

So that’s it, a brief look at what the Legion is using. In the next post, (god willing), I will take a look at the Eureka figures and see how they paint up. In the meantime, I’ve succumbed to the inevitable and ordered a VAB and a VBL from Gasoline. So if they arrive first I may even do a brief review of the kits.

En Avent mes enfant!

Well Ray you will be pleased to hear that the French have arrived, although there were a LOT of French vehicles in that article, are you preparing for an armoured incursion? Looking forward to seeing the Gasoline kits too, I have heard very, very good things about them. You will definitely need to do a review of them!

Ray - 2nd REP History

Ray presents "A brief History of the 2e Régiment Etranger de Parachutistes"

As a first stage of this project I wanted gather some background information on the Regiment, its equipment and its combat history.
I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of information out there on the Legion in general and in particular on the 2nd Foreign Parachute regiment.

The 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment is the only airborne unit of the Legion and is generally considered to be the elite unit of an already elite arm of the French army. It was originally created in October 1948 as the 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion in Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria. North Africa remained as the Units base until 1967 when it moved to Camp Rafalli on the Island of Corsica, where it remains to this day.
The Unit served during the Indochina War from 1949. It fought in the first battle of Nghia Lo in October 1951 and shortly after at Black River and Hoa Binh. It’s final battle in the war was at Dien Bien Phu, where it was dropped in to bolster the French garrison prior to the surrender to the communist forces. Fewer than 100 Legionnaires survived the battle!

Soldiers of the 2nd BEP involved in a firefight in Indochina - 1952

In December 1955 the battalion was reconstituted as a full regiment and designated 2e Régiment Etranger de Parachutistes . It served throughout the Algerian War of Independence suffering more than 700 casualties in the process. After the armistice on March 1962 the regiment was moved to Telergma and in September to Mers-el-Kebir. At this time the demoralised force was taken over by Colonel Caillaud who planned to rebuild the regiment as an elite airborne commando force. After it’s move to Corsica in 1967 it was assigned the French 11th Division and became part of the nation’s rapid deployment force.

Legionnaires of the 2e REP during an operation in the Collo region (1961)

From 1962 onwards the Regiment has served in most of the conflicts that France has found itself involved in including Chad in the late 60’s and 70’s, Lebanon in 1982 and back to Chad, Rwanda and Gabon between 1984 and 1991. Since then the Regiment has been involved in the Gulf War, and, of course as part of ISAF in Afghanistan. As well as this, it has been posted to Sarajevo, Congo, Ivory Coast, Kosovo and Mali.

Legionnaires of the 2e REP with a French commando in Mali (2013)

So it’s become apparent to me that these guys have seen a bit of action over the years!

It’s been interesting and informative studying these guys. If nothing else I’ve gained a healthy respect for them as a fighting force. In my next article I’ll take a look at the organisation of the regiment and the equipment it uses. All I need now are the figures to arrive from Eureka and I can get stuck into them. Can’t wait…..

Ray

Armies of Afghanistan- Ray (French Foreign Legion)

Who am I?
My name is Ray, I’m an expat Scotsman living in Wellington. I’ve been Wargaming for more years than I care to remember and have been playing Skirmish Sangin since being introduced to the system by Colin and Craig a year or so before it was published. The different approach to rules mechanics these guys had taken appealed to me and I have to say I haven’t been disappointed.
So far I’ve painted up a small British force and some Taliban to oppose them and have also been working on some terrain (some of which you will see in Despatches 1- Ed).

What Army am I playing?
Like most people with an interest in military history I’ve always been fascinated by the French Foreign Legion and the whole mystique surrounding them. This project therefore is a perfect opportunity to do a bit of research into them, fulfil a long time ambition and have some fun painting up a couple of units.
I have to say that, at this stage I don’t really know a great deal about the current structure or organisation of the Legion Etrangere but I intend to have some fun finding out.
I have read enough to know that I want to base my units on the 2eme Regiment Etranger de Parechutistes who were based in Afghanistan during 2010 and 2011 as part of operation “Altor”
And let’s face it, apart from anything else what’s cooler than Foreign Legion Paras! (I wonder how many readers have loudly disagreed with you- Ed)




What am I getting with my starting funds?
I want to start with the basics; initially I’ll be getting enough troops to do a couple of sections. Eureka do an excellent range of Foreign Legionnaires, so they are first on the shopping list Obviously I’ll need some support so after getting the basics out of the way I’ll be looking to add some of the excellent Gasoline vehicles including at least one of these babies!



La Legion Marche!