Blackhawk crew survivors

Four downed Blackhawk crew about to be extracted. MoFo figures from Gripping Beast.

Gun trucks

Two Solido die casts- a Renault TRM 2000 and an older Simca- Marmon. The TRM came with the AA gun.

I like the Sloppy Jalopy ZU-23 and was going to fit one to the Simca- Marmon, but Force of Arms are going to release a ZPU- 4 with an African gun crew so I'm holding out for one of those.

Humvee variants

Here are two more of my '£1' Humvees from a Pound shop- a command vehicle with canvas back and a special forces stripped down recce vehicle.

Zhengdefu/ Kitech M1A1 Abrams

I picked this kit up on eBay for around £5 delivered, but even new and delivered (to the UK) from China they can be had for around £6 (about the same as a packet of 4 28mm figures in International Wargaming Currency!)

The good news is that it's cheap, it's about the right scale and it does a passable imitation of an M1 Abrams for wargaming purposes.

The bad news is that the box art is from the far superior 1/35 Tamiya kit, and the kit is a complete pig to put together, with a lot of flash; mould lines, misalignments where the mould didn't join up right and divets in the plastic pieces.

The ugly are the wheels and tracks. This is because the kit is supposed to be motorised (I didn't bother- whoever had it before me had snipped half the axles off with the sprue and it was going to be hard enough getting a static model out of it, let alone have it trundle across the table...) and the manufacturers use the same chassis for ALL their tank kits and even for their Bradley AFV's, leading to complete departures from nominal scale and resemblance to the actual vehicle.

The M1A1 should have seven main road wheels per side- the kit has six. I think it looks more like a Challenger which DOES have six wheels per side. Zhengdefu also make a Challenger, so that might be worth considering. The Bradley would be horrendously out of scale and WAY too big for use with 28mm figures.

It's a shame that Zhengdefu have done this, as they also do a LAV- 25 which uses the same 8 wheel chassis as their BTR 70, and apparently their M2 and M3's are identical, despite using the (differing) box art from the accurate Tamiya kits. The Propaganda Kompany do a resin wheel and track 'upgrade' kit for 25 Euros, but at that price why would you bother when you could get a complete (and more accurate) resin model?

Still- I do have a passable M1A1 for peanuts, and it did provide a few challenging evenings in front of the TV!

:O)

US figures- latest

The first few US 1990's figures painted and based. I've gone for a bit of a generic look with mixed camo:

28mm MoFo Miniatures US Ranger test figure completed

I bought the US forces deal from Gripping Beast and am very pleased with the figures. Some of the delicate gun barrels needed reinforcing with a tiny bit of Araldite, but the miniatures are in a good variety of engaging poses and certainly look 'ready for action'!

I want to field a fairly generic force, so am doing most of my US Rangers in tri- colour desert BDU's with some choc chip helmet covers and fatigues just to add a bit of variety and interest. I also wanted a bit of a battle worn 'dusty' feel to them.

The tufts are Army Painter Highland Tufts from Arcane Scenery on ebay, and the US flag decal is from Company B and sold in the UK by theWargames Command Post. Both suppliers had the goods to me virtually the next day, so credit where it's due!

:O)

Contractor SUV

I found a cheap diecast Police car in a Pound shop and thought it would work well as an SUV for CIA agents or private contractors. I stripped it down, resprayed it black, repainted the front and rear lights and it was good to go.