Flytrap Factory 15mm Royal Marines, 2nd Generation

All,

I recently placed an order with Anton (AKA "The Enigmatic Baron Trapdoor") of Flytrap Factory, who's modern troops I've always been a fan of.  Now I already had some Royal Marines of his, but when he released an updated set of them, I just had to hop on in, so below you'll see a squad of eleven men.  Oh, and here's a link to the original set of Royal Marines:

http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/12/forces-for-modern-middle-east-part-8.html

Here they are, twelve British Royal Marines done up in the generic pattern that it seems pretty much every Western power wears.  The eleven men are broken into five poses, with two grenadiers, two SAWs, two team leaders, two riflemen advancing, and three riflemen sighting in.

Here are the three riflemen sighting in, which I used as test figures for three different versions of the camo, in order to figure out which color scheme I liked best.  Ultimately I went with the middle figure's scheme, deciding the guy on the left was too dark and the guy on the right was too bright.

Reverse.  The gear and weapons look great, the poses look natural, and I love the chunky, burdened-with-carrying-too-much equipment look to the figures.  I think all the poses are wearing gloves, several have sleeves rolled up, and most have eye protection on.

The same pose, coming atcha, going away, and quarter going away, showing off the chunkiness.

The two team leader-looking figures, though they don't have to be, could just as easily be a guy tossing a frag, or a pointman signaling a halt.

Same pose, from opposite sides.

The rifleman milling about with his head not in the game pose ;)  Not making fun of the pose, just joking about young Marines.

Opposite sides, where you can see how I painted the optics.  You can also see I went with my modern standard variation of three different skin tones within the unit.

The SAW ("Minimi" to the Brits) gunner, kneeling down and sighting in.  Great detail on the weapon and optics.

Opposite ends.

The grenadiers, also kneeling.

And the opposite sides of the grenadiers.

Some great looking troops, gotta figure out where I can get them on the table quick!

V/R,
Jack

6mm Vietnam Forces, AKA "Apocalypse Soon?"

All

I've been busy painting for awhile now but had been playing so many games I hadn't had time to post pics of recent projects I'd finished.  I'd had a hankering for some Vietnam gaming in 6mm, cavalry (both air and mechanized) style, company-sized fights on a 4' x 4' or even 6' x 4' table.  Previously I'd painted up some 6mm infantry for Vietnam (only used them in modern games so far), so I decided to add a bunch of vehicles, aircraft, and terrain.  Below documents the completed project (minus the infantry); all vehicles are 1/285 scale from GHQ.

The whole mess, ready to go.

Again.

From the front.

And from the other side.  Now let's get to the details, starting with the Army.

A platoon of Patton tanks; I think they're the wrong model, but close enough for me...

A platoon of Sheridans.

Three platoons of M-113 ACAVs.

Now on to the Navy, all of my watercraft.

From the front, you see a Monitor, two PBRs, and ten sampans (in two varieties).

Opposite.

Heading away.

Closer shot of the Navy.

And the sampans.

And the Air Force; okay, still mostly Army, but you get the picture.  I've got two OH-6 LOACHes, two UH-1 Hogs (gunships), six UH-1 Slicks (troop transports), a CH-47, and a very plainly painted F-4 Phantom.

From the front, slicks at left, guns at bottom right, LOACHes above them.

From the other direction.

The gunships.

The OH-6s (with miniguns).

The Chinook and Phantom.

Three of the slicks.

And the other three.

A "Pink" team (gunships were Red, LOACHes were White).

Slicks inbound.

And the giant Chinook.

And last but not least, the Marines.  A platoon of tracks (LVTP-5s) and a couple tanks (M-48s this time).

Again.

Off the port bow...

The other side.

Closeup of the tanks.

And the tracks.

Heading away.

And then we get to some very humble attempts at Vietnam terrain, specifically, villages.  I really don't enjoy making terrain, and I'm not good at it, and I hate paying out a bunch of money for it.  I needed the ability to form quite a few Vietnamese villages quickly and cheaply, and I had some Monopoly houses and hotels lying around, so...  I painted the sides of the houses brown and the roofs tan, like thatched huts.  Sure, if you look closely you can see the little chimneys on the roofs, can make out the fact they are Monopoly houses, but they work well enough for me.

Another look.

A little closer (man I went heavy on the wash!) view, with a tank and ACAV.

Well, that's it, and I'm hoping to get them on the table soon as part of my fictional "South Leon" campaign over on my Cuba Libre blog.  So, if you fancy seeing some 6mm Vietnam gaming in a very Hollywood-fashion (Hueys, tracks, and PBRs all over the place), and don't mind me calling it Cuban democratic forces in a fictional African country, stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

A Quick Update

All,

Chatting with some folks that follow my work here on the Blackhawkhet blog, it has recently come to my attention that some of my dear readers are wondering where all the batreps are.  Anymore, Blackhawkhet is mostly a painting project blog, and I've actually created several other blogs which are purely dedicated to various wargaming campaigns/conflicts.  I've been playing tons of games (I've been posting two batreps per week for as long as I can remember) and posting on these other blogs, but some of you are apparently not aware of these other blogs, so I wanted to post the title, link, and a brief description of what's going on, in case you might be interested:

Blackhawket, this blog, is the flagship, where it all started.

Cuba Libre (https://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/) I started this blog in order to do whatever kind of modern wargaming I felt like, wherever I felt like doing it.  I had a group of Cuban dissidents stage an invasion, a second "Bay of Pigs," if you will, to overthrow the Castro regime, and then create a very warlike state which constantly sends troops all over the world to fight tyranny and oppression.  So far I have posted 102 battle reports on this blog, eight of which are aerial dogfights, the rest various takes on modern wargaming, from skirmish to company level, 6mm to 15mm.

Island Hopping with the Old (Lead) Breed (https://oldleadbreed.blogspot.com/) This blog is dedicated to World War Two in the Pacific.  My initial concept was to follow a rifle platoon of US Marines from the Fall of the Philippines to the Solomons through the Central Pacific to Okinawa, but now I've added in naval gaming and air gaming as well.

Sword of Gideon (https://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/) This blog follows the creation and defense of the Jewish state of Israel, following a platoon of soldiers through time, from the War of Independence to the Suez War (1956), The Six-Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War (1973), up to the Lebanon War (1982). These games are played at the skirmish level in 15mm, though I'm toying with some armor and air gaming as well.

The Hakuna-Matata Wars (https://hakunamatatawars.blogspot.com/) This blog is centered on two warring African Imagi-Nations that just enjoy beating up on each other.  There are ground games in 3mm at the company level and air games at the flight level in 1/600.

Also, for those that visit online forums, I post everything on the Pendraken Forum and The Wargames Website; I used to post on TMP but was disinvited a couple months ago, though a Marine buddy has been kind enough to help me out by continuing to get my stuff hung up there.

So I hope this information is helpful to any of you out there that didn't know about all the gaming I'd been doing, and I apologize as for some reason I am only able to get the 'follower widget' on the first blog I created.  If anyone can help with that, I'd appreciate it, but I just haven't been able to figure out, despite having no problem doing it here on the Blackhawkhet blog.

V/R,
Jack

First Four Napoleonic Cavalry Units, Old Glory in 10mm

All,

When it comes to my perpetual Napoleonics project, I've been able to keep my nose at least occasionally in contact with the grindstone.  Fresh on the heels of finishing off twelve infantry battalions (six French and six Austrian), I have completed my first four cavalry units.  I say "units" as I'm not sure what they're supposed to be, so if you can help me steer me on the right track, please do.  Here's the deal: I'll be playing the rules "Black Powder," and/or "Drums and Shakos Large Battles," maybe some "LaSalle."  The base infantry unit is the battalion; so, to be on 'equal' footing with regards to rules and base units, would the base unit of cavalry be the squadron or the regiment?

In any case, these are great looking troops from Russ and Connie of Old Glory 25s, in 10mm Grand Scale, which I'm quite fond of.  Each unit has a command base of Officer, Colors, and Music, and then three bases of troopers.  There is one unit each of: Austrian Hussars, Austrian Cuirassiers, French Hussars, and French Line Lancers.  Enjoy!

All four units, from top: Austrian Hussars, Austrian Cuirassiers, French Line Lancers, and French Hussars, with four bases per unit.

Looking fore to aft, French on the left and Austrians on the right.

French on top, Austrians on the bottom.

And from the rear, with Austrians at left and French on the right.  Now for some closeups...

The French, showing the command stands  I actually reversed the Musics' colors, like you're supposed to.  It felt weird ;)

A blurry picture of the French troopers.

Reverse angle of the French command stands.

A better pic of the French troopers.

And now we swing over to the Austrians, starting off with their troopers, Hussars at top, Cuirassiers at bottom.

The Austrian command stands.

Some blurry Austrian troopers.

And then there were some requests for extreme closeups; I guess you guys want to see exactly how haphazardly I'm slapping paint on these guys.  I'm telling ya, they're ugly up close, but look pretty damn good en masse.

 French Hussar command.

French Line Lancer command.

Austrian Cuirassier command.

And Austrian Hussar command.  I did my best to make the green and blue 'pop.'

Anyway, hope you like them, and I continue marching towards the day I'm actually able to play a game.  Hope we're all alive to see it ;)

V/R,
Jack