Another Progress Report

All,

As I've mentioned previously, I've been working on knocking out troops and equipment, with a bit of painting, some putting an actual scale model together, and a whole lot of prying 10mm guys off pennies, gluing them to bigger bases, then flocking them.

First up is a bunch of Warsaw Pact troops.  It can be one big force, or split into two opposing forces.  Most of the troops are Minifigs, with some Pendraken Falklands Brits (command types in berets and machine guns) and German FJ (80mm mortars), and fill out two forces, each with one command stand, five rifle stands, four rifle/RPG stands, two AT5 ATGMs, one SA7 SAM, two heavy machine guns, and four individuals for 'heroes.'  One group is green with yellow camo (green berets), the other green and brown camo (dark blue berets).

The blue beret force, green and brown camo force.

The green beret, green and yellow camo force.

Green and brown cammie RPG teams.

Heavy weapons, MGs on left, ATGMs in middle, and mortar and SAM on right.  The MGs really such for these forces: I didn't have anything else so I used Pendraken Falklands Brits dug-in .50 cals...

The green and brown command stand and heroes.

Green and brown rifle teams.

Green and yellow RPG teams.

Heavy weapons.

Command stand and heroes.

Rifle squads.  I like the green and yellow camo much better than the green and brown camo.

Three more forces I finished up.

Pendraken Falklands range Argentinians, which I'll use as various bad guys in Central/South America and Europe, maybe even some Africa and Asia.  Who knows, maybe someday I'll even use them as Argentinians for some Falklands fighting.  You can see the command stand at bottom right, rifle squads on the left.

 This is really pathetic, but I had a boatload of Argentinian Blowpipes, and no Argentinian anti-tank weapons, so guess what?  Three of them got painted up (green, with yellow on the tail end) at RPG-type weapons, and two got painted up as SAMs (black with yellow on nose).  I can live with it.

Argentinian machine guns squads.

I also have an identical force I painted up for the desert, which I'll use for various Middle East and North African troops (with the M1 helmets they really remind me of Iraqis, though the FNs are good for Iran, right?).  You'll see a long distance photo later.

I finally got my temperate FFL re-based, command stand front and center.

A look at some Legion squads, some with AT rockets.

More rifle squads.  I'm really aggravated as its not finished; I don't have ATGMs or machine guns, though I do for their partner force in desert uniforms.

And then we get to my modern USMC, looking at the command stand and some rifle squads.

USMC rifle squads.

USMC heavy weapons, clockwise from top left: TOW ATGM, 60mm mortar, Stinger SAM, and SMAW.

More attachments: TOW and 60mm mortar again at bottom, with sniper at top left and M-240 at top right.  I absolutely love the MG sculp, which is actually from Minifigs' modern Brits.

Next in the queue: desert FFL (at top left you can see a bunch of them I've already done), the desert USMC, and desert Pendraken Argentinians.

More 'green' stuff waiting to be flocked: on left are Pendraken Falklands Range Brits and Argentine Special Forces, which I've got painted as irregulars for stuff like paramilitaries in Europe and drug cartels in Central/South America; on right are US troops for Vietnam.

Then I did up a ride for my modern Marines, a CH-53.  This is not one of my usual little metal minis, this was an old-fashioned plastic scale model that I had to put together (using Gorilla Glue as I didn't think to buy any model cement, and I certainly didn't have any on hand).  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

The flash is washing it out quite a bit, but it was spray-painted gray, then I put insignia on the back left quarter in a low-vis, darker gray, along with a 'USMC.'

The other side.

From the front (you can see the plane number I put on the nose).

I tried it without flash; sorry, the lighting sucks...

I've had two LAV-25s for quite awhile, but wanted a full platoon so I finally sprung for a third, got it painted up and washed.

Now on to something quite a bit different...

I have been wanting to do some modern-ish dogfighting, so I went and grabbed some 1/600 aircraft from Picoarmor.  First up is a flight of four USMC/USN (depending on what I need) F-18 Hornets.

Another shot.

Four Iraqi MiG-29s.

Again.

Four Israeli F-16s.

Again.

And four Syrian MiG-23s for them to beat up on.

And one last photo.

So, that's what I've been up to, working my butt off to get projects done (I'm assuming you've seen my previous post on my completed 6mm forces).  I'm still waiting on more bases so I can work on my 6mm NATO forces, and I'm really not looking forward to doing all that desert basing for my modern 10mm stuff.  It's one thing to paint grass onto bases, it's another to glue sand on, paint it, throw a wash on it, then glue bushes on every single base...

And there are still forces I have lying around that need to be painted, like my NVA and VC and WWII US, German mid-war, German late-war, and Soviets in winter clothing, a boatload more British desert armor (I have Crusaders, Cruisers, and Valentines that need to be finished, then I just bought some Grants and Stuarts), and I want to re-base my 10mm Napoleonic forces, and I need to flock my 10mm ACW stuff, and I've got more modern, Vietnam, and WWII aircraft to work on.  Oh, and a mountain of 20mm troops and vehicles.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack