20mm Street Furniture

Just popped over to The Scene to pick up some 15mm 'You lose it here and you're in a world of hurt' US Special Forces for my Posse Commitatus project. Whilst browsing the webstore I found they now do a series of skips in their Scrap Yard range in both 15mm and 20mm and at very reasonable prices.

The Scene UK: SK2001 

£1.80 for 2 empty skips

The range includesnot just empty skips but also skips filled with various ballast, building materials and waste/scrap metal. I had planned to make some of my own skips from spare card but at these prices it's a no brainer to buy straight from The Scene!

 S&S Models: UrbanJunkandRats 1

Shaun at S&S Models has released this pack of generic urban junk with rats. Great as markers and generic battlefield debris. Like the traffic cones in particular. Next month these will be on the shopping list along with his previous urban barricade and burning debris to add to my burgeoning piles of rubbish bags to give my urban setup a much more fought over and inner city decay look about it.

 MJ Figures: Sand Wars - Clan Falcon

What are these?  Near Future/Cyber Punk cops. No, not really, they are MJ Figures new 20mm Sand Wars: Clan Falcon Sci Fi figures. Two packs of these figs and I thought in the right urban camouflage they would make great Near Future SWAT team keeping order on the streets in 2079. There are two packs of very nice figs. I'm going to get some to try out and also see if they would work with Winter of 79 with some added SLRs from my spares box.

Cheers
Mark

ps... tonights game is a joint force of SBS/Royal Marine Commandos retaking the fictional settlement at Penguin Inlet, South Georgia, 1982.

S&S Models OTO-Melara 105mm Pack Howitzer

I have to admit a soft spot for the meccano-like 105mm L5 Pack Howitzer (aka Italian OTO-Melara Mod 56). Some of you who are my age would have had a Corgi diecast model of one of these as a kid back in the early seventies. So I'm delighted that Shaun at S&S Models has released this iconic weapon in 20mm.

£5.50 inc postage to UK

April 2012 Update PDF

The L5 saw action in Aden, Borneo, Vietnam and Malaya with British and Commonwealth forces. The Argentines also deployed three batteries in the Falklands in 1982.

The pack howitzer was designed to be easily broken down (into 12? parts) by it's crew and as a result it was not suitable for being towed over long distances unless you had a REME wagon following behind to pick up the bits that fell off. I believe the offical handbook restricted road movement to a MAXIMUM of 20 miles and shows it porteed on the flatbed of a Bedford truck, though the principal means of battlefield transport was meant to be a 3/4 ton Land Rover.

The L5 was progressively replaced by the L118 Light Gun from 1974 to 1978/9. Read more about British towed artillery in the seventies in my previous article.

From a Winter of '79 perspective the L5 105mm pack howitzer, with it's compact size and ease of transportation amkes it a perfect weapon to equip rebel formations whether regular or militia. The fact that the L5 could be placed in the back of a Bedford gives us ample opportunity for building some fun hastily armoured lorry 'technicals' for Winter of '79.

The 105mm pack howitzer is also available from Skytrex but in this instance I prefer the look of Shaun's so email is on the way to order one to start off my rebel artillery park. 


Cheers
Mark

Catching Up

I needed some quiet time to clear my head after an intense week at work. So I've been relaxing by painting a few spare Platoon 20 Falklands Brits over the past couple of days as they are always a joy to paint.

I have to also confess to having fun converting a couple of packs of Tony's Falklands War Argentinians. As i handled the models, inspiration and potential just oozed out of each figure. British armed civilians/militia, a Mod revivalist gang and sundry plain clothes police/gangsters/gunmen, all are possible. It was really difficult to know where to start.....

Platoon 20: P-AG1

 Platoon 20: P-AG2

Hands up, I'm further behind than I had hoped. But I have heads lopped off, weapons moved or changed and extraneous kit removed. I aim to have at least some painted and based by end of this week. A couple of the heads were difficult to remove without destroying the the parka hood, there was blood. but the final results were more than worth it. And if you want some British post apocalypse (Twilight 2000 etc) 'survivalists' these Platoon 20 minis make a superb base for conversion.

Following on from Mike's post, I contacted Shaun at S&S Models and put my name down for two Fox armoured cars. You can see the masters for the Stalwart, Abbot SG and Centurion AVRE here: http://s513.photobucket.com/albums/t339/sandsmodels/new%20projects/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16. Shaun emailed me by return with his catalogue and to say that the Fox should be available at the end of Feb. Something definitely to look forward to.

Maff picked up a couple of additional packs of Combat Miniatures (ex-Hotspur) Mountain and Artic Warfare Cadre Marines for me. They are all in winter kit, wearing berets, scarves etc. Despite the fact they are mostly armed with M16 & 203s, plus 66mm LAW and a L4 Bren,  if you wanted one pack of miniatures to respresent rebel regular infantry - it has to be these guys. I'm going to convert them into SLRs and Sterlings and mix in with other ex-Hotspur Falklands minis kindly provided by Mike.

For now, that largely rounds off my figure purchasing for Winter of 79. Plenty to be getting on with - lot's of conversions to do, a little bit of sculpting and a wait until Rolf releases his two packs of Britain in the 'Meltdown' armed civilians (URBUKMG & URBUKSLR).


Cheers
Mark