Painting Update - 02 Hundred Hours

Hey folks,

I hope all is well on your end. While I was exercising a high degree of control for most of the year, I admittedly had a misstep and fell off the buying wagon at Cangames in May. There was a good variety of vendors at the Con, but one caught my eye as they had brought a really great selection of inventory with them. Not only that, but I had great chance to talk with the owner over the weekend, and Kamal was really great all-around. If you’re looking for an online gaming shop, then I would definitely check out Centuries Historical Miniatures & Tabletop Gaming.

I had seen a fair amount of reviews and articles on the 02 Hundred Hours game from Grey for now, but I hadn’t had a chance to check it out beyond the internet. Kamal had a great selection, so I ended up with the Starter Set and a pack of SAS/LRDG commandos (I thought I could make them fit and I’ll probably pick up the Desert Raiders later this year). Duncan also picked up a few boxes and we had been talking about giving the game a run through over the summer. 

So, for your viewing pleasure, I have just painted up the 12 SAS commandos in preparation for our first game. I have to admit, I took longer than expected but I also wanted to do the figures justice. I had found some excellent reference pictures from the British Paras museum for the Denison smocks (which I found a little intimidating) and also found an excellent tutorial for painting British Paras. I adapted the tutorial along with a guide I had from Battlefront for 15mm Paras. Ultimately I wanted something that was simple enough for my brain to replicate, something that looked good, and I really liked the idea of keeping the smocks lighter so that they didn’t get lost on the table (thanks for that Moiterei!)

The figures are from Wargames Atlantic and my main criticism of the figures so far…a lot of options (which can be good) but boy some tough decisions. But really, it comes down to how frail some of the pieces are…when I was trying to cut a Lee Enfield from the sprue, the sling broke in 2 with the centerpiece of the sling breaking off. I ended up taking another broken sling, cutting down the section I needed and splicing that in with the original piece. The dog handlers that come with the box had some similar issues with their leashes meant for the dogs…these just broke off and I will need to do some crafty MacGyvering to make them work.

Here’s the team…

Classic group shots…

Overhead shot…I took some extra care with the bases and painted up some rocks to break up the flock.

Front and centre, the 'main' group…Thompson SMG, Sten SMGs, Enfields, and a silenced pistol.

Close up shot with a few of the troops…

The artwork on the cards looked really great and I made sure to build my officer as he looked on the card. He has a really great ‘Clark Gable’ movie look to him and I really went with that.

The classic Bren gun…and another silenced pistol…I did piece together a Sten gun for the left hand of the  pistoleer…and I have to say, with the power stache he is sporting, all I can picture is a WW2 version of  old school Thomas Magnum

One of the specialized troops…radio operator on the right.

The Tommy gun…

Left to right, Radio Operator, demo-man, marksman, and silenced carbine.

Hero shot…silenced pistoleers and marksman

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          53    

28mm+        28, +12

Fabricated

     

Bought      +36 

Progress   +49

Painting Update - Team Yankee BTR-60's

Howdy everyone,

I do hope that all is well on your side of the 1's and 0's. I recently finished up the Battlefront's BTR-60 box from their Team Yankee line. I was looking for some additional or alternate transport for my Soviet Motor Rifle folks and thought that the '60 could fit in so many different Cold War settings as well.

The models went together fairly well, you can see some obvious gaps in a few of the hull seams...I think those are more operator error than anything else, but the parts were good...they came off the sprue easily and were easy to assemble. In terms of paintjob, I hit the internets and googled a few dozen pics. I ended up settling on a green/desert yellow scheme (picture from Google below). This was partly to try out a different scheme for the platoon/company, but also it let me find one that was suitably neutral or usable for real-life Cold War history and for imagi-nation Afropia history.

In the end, I based in green...either reflective green or vj 894 (can't entirely remember) with a dash of olive green and medium olive to brighten it up a bit. Looking at a few 1980's Afghan pics, I went with desert yellow 'splotches' on the hull...and I ended up lightening these to desert yellow/iraqi sand, with final highlights using straight up iraqi sand. Russian-Afghan war era photo that I found on Google as well, helped guide the painting as well. 

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          53, +7    

28mm+        16

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +73

Painting Update - Enemy Spotted Studios Moderns

Hello everyone,

Here's hoping your summer is going better than expected. This is just a quick post showcasing some great looking figures from Enemy Spotted Studios that I finished up a month or two ago, but didn't have the chance to post up or get pictures of until now. These are 2 separate packs...but I guess given the revamp of In-Country or INX and the ESS website, they may not be available anymore...

The first pack was the Advanced African militia, which I ended up painting up to fit in a variety of conflict zones. However I ended up using a bunch of shots from the current Rwanda/DRC conflict and leaning more towards the paint schemes of the belligerents there (DRC army and M23), which explains the salut to the olive/lime green rubber boots.

The second pack was a blister of 4 figures labeled Security Team Support (at least that’s what i think they were called) and was an excellent compliment to the previous blister that I had painted of the Security Team pack from ESS. Given that I had used some pics of Wagner operatives in Mali, I again hit the internet to find some suitable pictures of support troops to inspire my painting.I think they will fit in well. All together, and along with my pack of African Regulars, I think any of these packs will be able to work together as friends or enemies.

Enjoy the pics.

Advanced Militia…

A few close-up shots…

I tried to paint in some texture on all the figures with their smocks…I like how they turned out, and the varied lines give some great depth to the troops uniforms.

The support troops…anti-tank missile on the right, RPD on the left, and rifleman in the middle. Heavily influenced by various pics of Wagner operatives in Africa.

Group shot of the militia with the “Wagner” troops. I think they mix well together and could be used for a variety of scenarios.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          46    

28mm+        16, +8

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +66