Escalation in Tumoria

All,

Well, no gaming this weekend, but I was very productive.  I sat my butt down and made myself finish the painting, basing, re-painting, and re-basing that needed to be done, and I'm actually going to split the results up into three different blog posts so that there's some sort of coherency to why things are together.

So, first up is a bunch of moderns that I finally finished up.

 First up are some British Royal Marines in desert gear.  They're bringing to the fight: two infantry teams with Gustav recoiless rifles, three infantry teams with GPMGs (I think they call them MAG-58s?  We call them M-240s, same gun), three 'regular' rifle teams, a MILAN ATGM team, a 60mm mortar team, a SAM team (I believe it's a Blowpipe?), and four leaders.

 Closeups of some infantry teams, with 'regular' teams at top, bottom right are MGs, and bottom left the Charlie Gs.

 Milan at left, mortar at top left, SAM at right, and two of the officers at bottom right.

 Here are some USMC.  They are painted in desert MARPAT, but not really.  I tried and tried and tried, then tried some more; I must have tried 15 different color combinations trying to get desert MARPAT.  I got so frustrated I tried doing temperate MARPAT, and even Muticam, but just couldn't get any of them to work.  So, I took them outside and sprayed them khaki, and left that as the base uniform color.

So, the Marines are bringing six rifle teams, a MG team (M-240G, borrowed from the Brit Support Wpns pack), a SMAW (also borrowed from the Brit Wpns pack), a 60mm mortar, and four leaders.

 A closeup of one of the rifle teams.  I love it because it's actually set up like a real fireteam: Corporal with M-203, scout (or nowadays Designated Marksman) with M-16, automatic rifleman with M-249 (though this is being phased out), and A-gunner with M-16.  Some of the figures are badly miscast; I've got some horrible looking M-16s, a couple where guys are missing half an arm, and a few that barely have a foot.  Those are the manufacturer's fault.  But, if you're looking at these and thinking they are kind of soft on detail, that is not the manufacturer's fault, that is my fault.

As I mentioned previously, I tried a lot of different color combos, so some of these guys have about six coats of paint on them, and I was too lazy (frustrated, just wanted to get them done) to strip them and start over...

 Look at the weapons teams on left and leaders on right.

 Israelis!  For my Perplakistan/Tumoria project they will most likely be host nation forces, not Israelis, though you never know.  In any case, there are a total of eight rifle teams, four of which have light AT weapons (they are Dragons borrowed form the US Support Weapons pack), and two leaders.

 Closeup of one of the leaders and a couple rifle teams with AT.

 The other leader and and two of the 'regular' rifle teams.  Really great figures, just love the look of them.

 Lastly for the good guys we have these lovely figures.  What are they?  Well, in 'real' life they're Australians from the Vietnam era.  What will they serve as?  Whatever I want/need.  I'm thinking they can easily be tier 1 type special operations folks (SEALS/Delta/SAS), various types of recon folks, various types of irregular warfare folks (SF A or B teams).  To be honest, they were kind of inspired by the new movie "Sole Survivor" (though I haven't seen it yet).  I was too lazy (in too big a hurry) to do it, but I thought about putting some in desert cammies, have some mixed in both woodland and desert, and camo'ing the weapons.  Maybe I will at some point.  In any case, they've got seven rifle teams and one leader.

 A close up.  I love the fact they are humping so much gear.  Finally toys that look like real troops.  The reason there's bright green on their chests is that I was trying to show flak jackets.  I love the guy at bottom right humping the pig with ammo belts around his neck, and love that some of the guys have LAWs strapped on (left side, second from bottom).

 Now for some bad guys.  Here we have some Taliban types (Minifigs' "Mountain Insurgents").  Not sure what I'll use them for in Perplaki/Tumoria; maybe foreign fighters coming to aid Tumoria, or maybe even Tumorians unhappy with their government and helping coalition forces.  Eight rifle teams (four with RPGs) and two leaders.

 Closeup of two rifle teams with RPG, and the leaders (at right).

 And here we have the Tumorian regular army.  These are a mix of Minifigs' NVA and insurgents (the same type I've been using against the French Foreign Legion in my previous batreps).  They will be Tumorian regulars, though I figure I could use them for plenty of different Middle Eastern regulars/paramilitaries.  They're bringing 13 rifle teams, an 82mm mortar team, and four leaders to the fight.

 Closeup of two of the rifle teams, with RPGs.  Helmeted guys are NVA, keffiyehs are insurgent range.

Closeup of a couple of the leaders.  I always crack up at the fact he looks to me like he's running while talking on the cellphone.  "No, I said no Ahmed, we're getting our asses kicked, get me out of here!"

For all that, I did not finish my modern forces.  I still have a bunch of US and USSR regulars I need to finish (not for Tumoria), and then I have a set of guys I need to finish for Tumoria.  They're going to be 'special' bad guys, something along the lines of IRGC, Basij, or Fedayeen types.  I painted them and based them, then decided I didn't like the paintjobs, so I need to revisit them in order to finish.  Lastly, I have some Minifigs US Vietnam range laying around that I'm not sure what to do with; I'm thinking of basing them up for Tumoria and painting their helmets blue for UN forces.

Stick around, I finished a bunch of WWII forces as well.

V/R,
Jack