Progress Report

I've finished painting the SADF/32 Battalion/Portuguese mercenary weapons & crews - HMGs, RRs and mortars. I'll post some pictures over the weekend. I'm particularly pleased with the camouflage uniforms and will note the colours I used here before I forget. Undercoat was black, then a base coat of Vajello Khaki, then patches and 'swirls' of Vajello  Camouflage Dark Green, then the same of Vajello Flat Earth. I painted the webbing olive green.


All I have to paint now are 16 'dead markers' i.e. figures and base up this week's work.

I've ordered some objective markers from Peter Pig - a destroyed T34, T55 and a Mercedes saloon as well as a few buildings from their AK47 Scenery Range. These should arrive in the next week or so.

  

I've also ordered some buildings from Timecast http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_30/range_30.html - shanties from their SE Asia range which look like they'll do equally well for Africa. This should give me more than enough buildings to represent a small town in rural Angola. As an experiment I've ordered a 15mm village of 'round grass huts' from Paper Terrain: http://www.paperterrain.com/

This should provide all the buildings I'll need for the short term. I may have a go at making some generic damaged modern city blocks should the campaign move into Luanda - the South Africans or FNLA might get there in late '75 or early '76.

As far as figures and vehicles are concerned I have more than enough to play some test games. I have a few odds and ends of terrain to get but I'm on track to play my first game in mid February.

I'm tossing up whether to buy a few T34s for my Cuban/FAPLA army - I know these featured in some of the early battles and I'm definitely buying some SADF Ratel ICVs from QRF  for when I start gaming the '80s. Aside from that I fancy getting some odds and ends from Peter Pig like the Mr Arms Dealer, Media Crew and civilians (both rioting and peaceable) as I can use these for some scenarios I have in mind.

Back to work next week so progress on this project will inevitably slow but it's been a productive month.

RPG Stands Painted Up

Here are my first efforts at RPG stands.

These troops could be Cuban, FAPLA, FNLA or UNITA - although I think the FNLA had more NATO type kit - G3 rifles and LAWs etc.

I've deliberately painted these guys up in a variety of khaki and olive drab and camouflage clothing as I think that an army that spent any time in the field would quickly lose any uniformity. I'm not sure about the bases - I used a textured paint and model railway ballast and painted this with acrylic terracotta paint then drybrushed with acrylic sand before adding Army Painter tufts and static grass. I wanted to give the impression of dry ground and red earth. It's growing on me - no pun intended.

More to follow- I'm working on 14 small arms bases over the next few days. 

Mobilising the troops

This is the photograph of the 'greens' of the Command Decision 15mm African Irregulars supplied on the Old Glory website. I've a packet of these as well as a packet each of the African Irregular Command & Support Weapons; Middle Eastern Regulars; and Middle Eastern Command & Support Weapons. The latter are helmeted and, mixed in with the irregulars will represent Cuban and FAPLA troops.

The figures are disappointing at first glance, at least in comparison to the Peter Pig range, but I think they'll paint up well and are a relatively cheap way of massing 200 or so figures. I also have half a dozen each of T-55s and BTR 60s from Command Decision.

The next task, apart from painting up these, is to order technicals, URAL trucks and other odds and ends to make up a Cuban/FAPLA army.