ANZACS and the return of ‘Them’, ( & Cthulu Kong, Goldylocks etc!))

There I was thinking, finished current HALO Collection so can get back to Black Sun’s Fantasy Nam  when I catch a you tube video on the ideal pairing of Wargames Atlantic Operators with Modifeus’s Forgotten Ruins Rule Book

I had caught the weekender discussion on mixing the new Atlantic Operators , and forthcoming Agents to do an SG team for SG1, one of my favourite shows. I have Jaffa, , and was intrigued on this fantasy world  in could elements be merged into Black Sun. I already thought maybe use Stargate rather than random portals.

Anyway on getting my copy  realised that it was based on a series of books , with the 2st having same name as the Rule set.

Although there was a World Map, and a bestiary   not much background, so I Kindled the 1st book.

Now I can and will play it with my Vietnam figures. But , did like the Idea of Ultra Modern forces in Fantasy World  having watched odd episodes of The Anima ‘The Gate’.

Not that I needed much prompting, so rather than U.S. Rangers , I went for British Para’s,.

Of course I couldn’t just use the figures in Agents Box,, as they only had 4 or 5 SA80′, so I did quick order to Empress Minatures again!

12 British Infanrty and 4 SAS ( I have a unpainted Mortar Team from previous project) later, with a few extras from the operators box, and the ‘good guys’ are sorted.

Now how to paint them, particularly their Cammo uniforms?

I was not going to be able to paint that fine to match it, best would be doing them so they looked approximately right from normal table distance for 28mm figures.

My work on Arnies Predator squad gave me an idea for the base colour,  which is what I gave the figures a base coat( Including boots.) GW Contrast Gutrrippa Flesh, in 2 part paints to one water mix.

Finally to merge it all together, zI coated it in liquid talent  with  a coat of Agrax Earthshade wash., thinned 50/50.

Now I do agree with Geryy that the wash can sometimes darken and detract from original colour shading,  but I  this case it does seem to bring it altogether.

With our 1st Monster and the finishing of Ozzy Heroes, it was only right that I did some Vietnamese Heroes. Again I used a couple of packs of Crucible Crushes Pulp Figures to represent these slightly larger than life characters.

I was able to pick out 4 for the NVA.

I then had 6 Vietcong Heroes

If anyone is wondering why they get more, there are 2 reasons.

1)The Vietcong were often working on  their own away in small cares, which gave more scope for heroics (in theory)

2) (and main reason) there were more figures that looked Viet Kong than NVA.

Ben asked about what would be the likely local monstrosities,  that would face my protagonists and their Armour, So before painting new models I had  look through my Collection.

Firstly I had 2 nicely pre painted Dinosaurs.

In Black Suns there is a long Lost Pre WW2 lost Expedition, so I dug through my old  Incursion figures from Grindhouse games and found.:

So using reverse Engineering and dark science even dead Germans can have their brains preserved and continue to service the Reich.

In addition having seen signs of Giant Apes experiments have been made on various specimens collected before they were trapped on the Black Sun’s World.

One of the M113 had been built and semi painted some time but as with the M41, had been awaiting a crew figure. When I got the ARVN tanker I did a vehicle crew painting session, which helped with the rapid finishing of the bulk of my planned Australian Armour. ( 1x M557 command and M106 mortar carrier to do)

The 2nd Centurion as with the 1st had the 30 cal on commanders hatch replaced with M60, further Vietnamesed with a ‘borrowed armoured Sheild from the ACV M113. I reasoned  need that being cut off from regular re-supply in the  Black Sun World,  they would have reserved the 30 cal ammo for the co ax, and replaced the cupula gun with the more available M60.

Main difference in painting with these units was the Nuln Oil Wash used in the M48/M41, was replace with thinned out Agrax  Eartshade.

Interesting there is a you tube video of one of the Centurions from the Vietnam, war been found preserved, in  Australia and was reunited with its crew:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14ToAScrBeT/

The M113’s are of the earlier standard early version with the Gun shielded 50 cal as used at the Battle of Long Tan, later they were converted with the Cadilac Guage Turret, which genrally had 2x 30 cal machine guns or the .50 and 30 cal command version  (which ad John Pointed out in his rev of thr M48, tended to be pulled out of the turret and remove mounted above) but.they are not available yet.

I have a sneaking feeling  I maybe using one vehicle’s troop no, but as it was the only one for that  Troop decided to live with it, Vehicle names for M113’s are from UK Centurions. Decal sheet  I didn’t have any suitable Aussie vehicle names on decal sheet, most of the ones I have seen in period photos had Woman’s names, but the ones picked tended to fit on the whole with Ozzy humour.

Well with the ARVN squad being done I couldn’t forget the North’s Army  so again using Rubicons set for a base did my 1st, 9 man squad of NVA.

Using the thinned out GW Gutrippa Flesh Contrast as the base for their almost Khaki Drill uniforms.

As with the Vietkong Webbing was done in GW Mantis Warrior Green.

The Ak,s had wpns done in Enchanted Steel from Speed Paint range, with stocks and woodwork done in GW Snakebite Leather, Base Flesh tone is Gulliman Flesh with Speed Paint yellow mixed in.

I hadn’t forgotten the poor old ARVN, in fact I had  semi completed  M41,  I had brought  from Empress miniatures  some time ago  , completion  was delayed  as Empress had to do a casting g session  for my order of suitable crew figures .

I had to have one of these for my collection as the M41 Walker Bulldog was a tank I had to heavily convert from a Matchbox  Chaffee , back I  the day  doing Vietnam in 20mm back in the 80’s. I remember involved a lot of milliput and sanding, and it never looked really right.  I don’t know of any other models of it other than in 1/35th and 1/16th Radio Control.

I imagine it struggles to find a period for gaming as it only appeared at end of Korean War and was used by ARVN I  Vietnam. Strangely enough like the Chaffee it has appeared I  numerous War and Science Fiction Movies ( often as a Panzer 4).

Painting it pretty much followed the process used for the M48. The Decals used on it were ‘pinched’ from a KoreanWar Version of the Rubicon Pershing.

Using Rubicons ARVN Infantry set, as a base for the Infantry I have completed my 1st 8 man section  of ARVN Infantry. Unfortunately hitdoesn’t have any M60’s in it. This maybe due to.lack of space as you get upper bodies and wpns for both early WW2 equipped troops or later M16 units.  For my 1st squad I went for M16 equipped troops, so had to go to Empress Minatures range for suitable M60 armed Figures.

Painting very much followed the techniques and paints used in painting the Australian’s , without the Initial phaffing over getting the correct colour of uniforms.

Two of the above figures have cammo covers, so I tried an experimental shading ready for when I do my US Marines.

This consisted of a very thinned out GW Gutrippa Flesh  , with dabs of Speed paints Forest Sprite, and GW Snakebite Leather.

The decals I picked were for USMC ,as I had decided on doing a Marine force for my Americans.. It’s markings on the model are from  mix of vehicles I found from various Sources. I was going for a Cross on searchlight  but couldn’t get it right so reverted to painting it white with provided decal Ace of Spades.

Once applied and set  I  liberally applied neat GW Agrax Earthshade to the lower half of model, for weathering , based on idea Vietnam is pretty muddy . Hopefully this will represent the grime from driving through mud.

Finally I dry brushes Game Colour Desert Yellow. Mainly on lower half again , but gave upper hull and Turret a light dusting.

For final base colouring I put a paint I got from thr Halo paint set by army Painter, UNSC white which is a good one coat white on headlight lens and vision suits.

The sand on the canvas gun mantle  cover is then coated with GW Seraphim Sepia wash  to give it a  khaki tint to it and provide shading.

Then a thinned out Army Painter speedpaint Magic blue is put over headlight lens and vision ports previously painted white.

I’m now ready to apply decals, I won’t shade the tracks etc and do any weathering till decals have set.