All,
Okay, so you've seen all my 28mm WWII stuff; well, at least everything that's painted and ready to play ;) I've also delved into some other areas; I've got a decently-sized Vietnam collection (US Marines, US Army SF, ARVN for early and late war, CIDG, VC, and NVA) in various states of readiness, I'm pondering the Korean War (definitely going to do USMC at Chosin Reservoir, just waiting on someone to come out with reasonably priced Chinese), and then I've gotten into some 'Ultramodern' stuff.
There's a series of graphic novels called "Black Powder Red Earth" (BPRE); I've looked a few of them, not really my thing, but they created their own line of 28mm rules and figures, and that's where things got interesting. They're pretty expensive, and they're a pain in my @#$ to build (I've tried four different types of glue and none has brought me joy, they just don't want to stick together in a hurry, gotta hold them for an extended period), but my Goodness are they fantastic looking!
For clarity's sake, I've broken my BPRE figures down into "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys." The books are about a Private Military Contractor (PMC) company vs bad guys in the Middle East, which consists of Middle Eastern Irregulars, Middle Eastern professionals, and North Korean advisors. To be fair, the bulk of BPRE's 'good guy' PMCs are Middle Eastern professionals with former US-SOF advisors. So here are my 'Good Guys,' bought from several of their box sets (I believe it was two of the starter sets and one of the augments with CQB weapons, another LMG, and grenade launchers).
These guys were all painted up using Contrast paints.
The whole 'Good Guy' mess: I built ten of them out as PMCs or government SOF working in civilian clothes, ten as government types wearing OCP/MTP camouflage, and ten wearing US Marine desert MARPAT camouflage. I have another team assembled and based for the arctic, but haven't painted them yet.
Here are the guys in civilian attire. Man the poses, proportions, and the detail on weapons and equipment are just amazing.
A closeup of one off the leader types. All the rifles are different M-4/16 variants (I believe this one is known as "Block 300"), carry sidearms (right hip), wear NVGs, have comms (looks like MBITRs on their backs, you can see mic on his face), and display chemlights for recognition. In reality these would be IR, but I painted them up in neon green so they'd look cooler, IR chemlights are rather dull to look at withtout NVGs ;) In keeping with BPRE, and just 'cause I think it looks cool, I painted their eyepro and everything electronic red.
Another look, from the front. I tried painting on some tattoos but couldn't get anything to look right.
Another look. You'll notice all the rifles are suppressed.
The team's machine gunner.
A pair of grenadiers. The guy on left has his in a holster on his right hip, using his rifle, while the guy on the right has dropped his rifle (it's slung on his left side) and is about to fire the grenade launcher, which appears to be an M-320.
Personally I don't understand the switch back to a standalone grenade launcher, I was completely in love with the M-203 and believe it was a fantastic weapon, wouldn't want to carry anything else.
A couple breachers with suppressed MP-7s.
A pair of 'regular' riflemen (I forget what they term them in their rules).
Good grief, these poses are awesome!!! I'll be honest, it's tough getting my boys into WWII now, all they want to play with are these... And wait until you see the terrain I've got for them!
A pair of scouts (their rifles and packs are configured slightly different to the 'regular' shooters, but damned if I know what it means; that is to say, yes, I can see these guys M-16s have different optics on them, but I don't know/understand how or why they're different from the other guys).
A look at those differently configured packs.
Opposite.
The 'temperate' team wearing the OCP/MTP camo.
The team leader.
Ha, now that I see these guys up close I am reminded that these were not painted in Contrast! I tried but it didn't work, so I had to go back and use acrylics. But the other two teams (PMC and Desert MARPAT) were done in Contrast paints.
The team's machine gunner. If his barrel looks funny it's because this one was broken off in shipping and I couldn't find it to glue it back on, so I had to grab a piece of sprue and glue in it's place...
Reverse. A strong 'assault fire' pose.
A grenadier (left, with grenade launcher holstered on his right side) and a breacher (right, with MP-7).
Reverse.
Front. I love how the breacher (right) has his weapon canted.
A pair of scouts. I think the guy on the left is actually my favorite BPRE pose, he just looks cool to me, very dynamic, realistic.
Reverse. This painting technique for OCP/MTP is the same I used on my 15mm guys; I think it looks alright, but looked better on the smaller guys.
Guy on the left (another pose I absolutely love) is a rifleman, guy on right is a scout.
Reverse. Aside from the optics, you can see the rifleman's (left) pack is flat, while the scout's looks almost like a camelbak ;)
Another pair of riflemen. These are probably my too least favorite poses. Not that they're intrinsically bad, I just don't like how the guy on left seems to be too far out over his feet, and they guy on the right is just kinda boring (though perfect for stacking on a door).
Reverse.
Front/side.
And, of course, my favorites, wearing Desert MARPAT.
The team leader.
This was surprisingly easy to paint up:
1) prime in light gray
2) toss Skeleton Horde on the whole thing
3) hit the rifle, pistol butt, and radio antenna with Basilicum Gray
4) go over the helmet, body armor, and gear with dark gray acrylic then go over it with Aggros Dunes, hit the skin, eyepro, NVG and optic lenses, and chemlights with white acrylic then go over them with Gulliman Flesh, Baal Red, and Tessaract Glow, respectively
5) do the boots with Snakebite Leather
6) apply the camo with Gore Grunta Fur
Way easier than it even sounds.
The team's machine gunner. His suppressor also broke, but I was able to find it and glue it back on, albeit not at the perfect angle, apparently ;)
Grenadier (left) and breacher (right).
A scout (left) and a rifleman (right).
Wow, these figures are just amazing. I wasn't even thinking about doing Ultramodern stuff, but then I saw a couple of these painted up on someone's blog and I just HAD to have some.
A pair of scouts. A good look at a couple flashbangs under the guy on left's arm.
And a pair of riflemen to finish this off.
Front/side.
So, even if Ultramodern isn't your thing, you can see how absolutely amazing these figures are, just too cool. It's dangerous even making me look at these guys again, it's making me want to drop WWII for a bit and bust these dudes out for some close-in, shoot some bad guys in the face-type gaming!
More to come.
V/R,
Jack
