Posts from the Sangin Community- Matt's Marines

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

I must apologise to all of those people who have been sending me images and blog links over the past few weeks. I have been more than a bit snowed under with my actual work (which sadly is not Sangin!). However, I will endeavor to get all of your hard work up here on the blog, and I am sorry this has taken so long.

Anyway, here we have another post from the community, showing off some of the excellent Empress US Marines and the Empress MRAP, painted up by Matt. He did them all in a single sitting, which is just making me feel far too easily distracted when I paint. Probably doesn't help that I am always painting 2 or 3 things at once....

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Keep sending through the cool things you have been working on, send them to chris@skirmishsangin.com.

Pooch

Armies of Afghanistan- Dougies' Painted British

Dougie is back, with a further finished fireteam of British. While it may not have answered my call for different nationalities, they are too gorgeous not to post up!

Over to Dougie...

Second fireteam now complete so I’ve a handy little force to start with, same organisation and weapon mix as the first.

I’ve just ordered some of the latest Brits from Empress as well as the first pack of Dish Dash Talibs to have a crack at.

Later, Dougie

Proving that Dougie isn't just awesome at painting Multi-Cam, here is a Taliban from Eureka that he has painted.

I for one can't wait to see what he makes of our Taliban- don't forget to pick up your set from the Skirmish Sangin website!

Next post is something VERY different....

Pooch

Posts from the Sangin Community- Painted Taliban!

So after complaining last week that all people send me is British in MTP (like that is actually a problem!), it is nice that people listened to my pleas. Since then, my inbox has been flooded with all sorts of different forces, which I will be sharing with you over the next wee while.

Let's get started with some Taliban painted by Steve, one of our competition winners earlier this year (remember his motorbikes? I do!). Steve sent through the set of our Taliban painted up, he has made a cracking job of them!

Don't forget, head the Skirmish Sangin UK or US website to pick up your full set of 15 Taliban, if only to give that horde of British we have been seeing something to fight!

I am loving what has been sent through, keep updating me on what you are working on at chris@skirmishsangin.com.

Pooch

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

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

Posts from the Sangin Community- 20mm Chinook!

During the Insurgent competition, I got chatting with a few of those who are playing Skirmish Sangin around the world.

One of them, Carvel, got me thinking about 20mm. There are some great manufacturers out there doing some awesome stuff in that scale, and it had never even occurred to me. Perhaps it was willful blindness? While I was doing a good job of resisting yet another scale of miniatures, he did send through some awesome pictures of an RAF CH-47 Chinook he recently finished.

The first shot is of a squad of Royal Marines disembarking from the Chinook- two nice neat, orderly lines.

Carvel used weathering powders to good effect- this Chinook definitely looks like it needs a thorough scrub down!

The last image shows off what I think is a pretty cool basing option. Rather than go for a tall flight stand, the Chinook is hovering just above the ground, disembarking onto a raised area. Although Chinook pilots like to land the aircraft to disembark troops, they are able to hold it at a hover, with the door touching the ground. This is useful when deploying troops into places which don't have enough space for a proper LZ, such as up on mountain ridges.

With cool pictures like these of helicopters (I might be slightly helicopter obsessed), any bets on how long I will be able to resist 20mm? I do like the appeal of having access to more helicopter models!

Don't forget to get in touch with us if you have After Action Reports, game ideas, scenarios, painting or whatever to share, we love hearing from you!

Pooch

Insurgents Competition - Results!

Our competition celebrating the release of our first four Taliban (details on how to buy some here) ended last week, and after some time taken to collate all of the results, we have been left with no less than 8 entrants who will be sent a pack of our four brand new Taliban miniatures to add to their forces!

So these are the first four Taliban, painted by Craig. The next wave of Taliban will be available VERY soon (we will let you know, don't worry!), and they will be followed by yet another wave of Taliban after that. After all, what is a game in Afghanistan without some cracking good Taliban miniatures?

Below are just some of the awesome pictures that we were sent of Insurgents painted by people out there in the Sangin Community!

First up is two Empress Miniatures Taliban Motorcyclists, by Steve E. You have to admire the lovely blue and red bikes, such a good contrast to the more muted colours of the riders.

Spyros has sent some Empress Taliban, he has opted for an interesting combination of muted browns, punctuated with some brighter whites and blues. Like before, we have a cool blue motorcycle- Am I sensing a theme?

James of Scotland has sent through two close ups of some Empress Taliban. One rocking a splendid blue dishdash, which I am unashamedly going to copy for my Call to Arms Taliban.

"Can you hear me now? No I don't want to upgrade my long distance plan. All I want is some mortar support! Don't you dare put me on hold!"

Darren has sent through a picture of what can only be described as a horde of Empress Taliban! Those are some lovely browns and yellows on the cloth, Darren has done a cracking job on them!

Pat sent through not just pictures of his Taliban, but also a picture of them in a game! He assured me that the Taliban were completly victorious. Or maybe they weren't, but I choose to remember it as a glorious victory for the Taliban forces!

Check out those sweet sneakers on the sniper!

Matt H has sent through a miniature from Battlefield Evolution, from Mongoose Publishing. Now I can't seem to be able to find the miniatures anywhere (although, clearly I need to try harder). He has painted him up as a member of ISIS, although Matt has complained that he looks too "ninja", I think the black clothing works well!

Peter T went with a different manufacturer, option to bring Taliban from The Assault Group. Peter has done a great job with them, including the Osama figure! Operation Geronimo anyone?

And rounding out our winners this time is some cool 20mm Taliban from Underfire Miniatures, sent through to us by Carvel. Not only did we get cool pictures of the 20mm Taliban, but what Carvel did with the Renedra building is awesome too! I have been resisting 20mm, but Carvel is slowly breaking me down.....

A huge thanks to all those who sent us pictures, we always enjoying seeing what those in the Sangin Community are up to with their games. Don't forget that we are always looking for more content for our books and our blog, After Action Reports, articles, things you have painted, or even just to tell us how awesome we are, don't hesitate to drop us an email, we look forward to hearing from you!

Pooch