Post Colonial Imagi-Nations part 2

This will mostly be show casing the forces of West mBrosia and looking at the ways in which I intend to expand the army.

It currently stands at 6 T-55s one platoon of Revolutionary Guard and two platoons of Militia. There are also four unmade T-34/85s and two unmade SU-100s. It’s much smaller than the Beitland force due to it only having been started in the past six months. The eventual plan is for two platoons of Revolutionary Guard transported in BTR-60. I’m not entirely sure what model BTR-60 to use. I like the turret of the PB but it’s rather late in the chronology whereas the P/PB would give me a few more years to work with. It is, however, a rather moot point as I’m primarily concerned with the aesthetics of the force rather than hard and fast dates. I’d also like to include some kind of artillery, be it the 160mm mortars or some kind of Katyusha or Grad. This combined with a few BRDM-2 as a recce element give the feeling a professional force.

For the Miltia I think a far more rag-tag approach using Gaz-67/69 technicals and local/civilian lorries. This gives them some mobility and firepower while still keeping them relatively ‘light’ in terms of equipment. They would also form the core of the anti –aircraft weapons, mostly stationary ZSUs.

I would also like to include one helicopter for the Soviet backed forces, most probably a Mil-8 along with some East German ‘advisors’ although part of me feels this may be straying from the Bush War themes. 

Anyway the pictures of what is currently being done are to be found below! One troop of T-55s are pretty much done including revolutionary slogans in Swahili.

  

The almost complete T-55s. The slogans say 'Colonialism Out!' and 'Revolution!'

Another Angle showing one of the slogans better.

The other three T-55s, just base coated and washed at the moment.

The platoon of Revolutionary Guard with machine gun section and two 'regular' sections.
The bases still require a bit more shrubbery/bush.

A closer shot of the Revolutionary Guard. The platoon requires some RPGs but
I did not have suitable figures at the time.

The platoon of Militia, they carry a rather varied assortment of weapons as befits their
ad hoc nature.

Another angle of the Militia.

Not pictured is the other platoon of militia but they are even less finished than the one posted here so I thought it best to leave them off.

Post Colonial Imagi-Nations

Alongside ARISTEIA I’ve also been working on my African Imagi-Nations. This has been a project stretching back a few years now but it’s rather slow to develop as sourcing figures and the like can be rather time consuming. Actually finding what I want a force to BE is also a large time sink, how I want them to look/what equipment they would use etc. The forces came from an interest in African history as a whole, due to family connections and events, as well as a love of late WWII and early Cold War equipment that is a hallmark of such conflicts.

At the moment there are currently two nations/forces, those of Beitland (a South Africa/Rhodesia/Colonial Power analogue) and West mBrosia (an independent majority ruled post-colonial nation). The former uses mostly late WWII British equipment mixed with Early Cold War Nato/British and the latter is your more common Soviet/Warsaw Pact materiel. I am quite happy with the direction both forces have taken although I am a little unsure how to expand the mBrosian forces while keeping the 1950’s to 70’s African theme.

Both armies represent (mostly) regular troops as I have little desire to wargame insurgencies, at least for these Imagi-Nations, as I don’t feel it was be particularly exciting or necessarily allow me to use the miniatures and equipment that I would like.

There will likely be more posts in the future detailing the nations and challenges of finding/adapting a ruleset that captures the nature of such a conflict.

All miniatures that are posted are 15mm/1:100.
 

A Platoon of Beitland Light Infantry

A Troop of Beitland Centurion 5/2s

Beitland Armoured Car patrol with 2 Staghound IIIs and Daimler Dingo

More Armoured Cars, this time Daimler Ferret Mk 2s

The majority of figures posted above are complete, although they may need a few touch ups to the bases and the odd highlight here and there. The miniatures are mostly Battlefront (Vietnam Australians) with a smattering of Peter Pig (for the short shorts and FN MAGs) and QRF (the Ferrets).

This is the whole, painted, Beitland force alas it is too big for my shoddy lightbox.

The West mBrosian forces shall be shown in a forth coming post. They are, however, in a far greater state of 'work in progress'.

Aristeia

  My current project is an Ancient Greek Epic/Mythological wargame named Aristeia. It focuses on small bands of warriors and heroes with mythological components, much like the Ancient Greek Epics. I envisage the game as a mix of Muskets and Tomahawks/Dux Britanorum/Saga with an emphasis on customisability and narrative campaign play. The idea is for the game to be very much ‘your dudes’ and the evolving story of your group.  A core element is the fact that your warband is dedicated to an Ancient god that grants various abilities and bonuses. It is currently early days for the project but work is progressing swiftly, I hope to have a playtest ruleset available relatively shortly.
 

Enough about that, let us focus on the miniatures! There are currently two work in progress warbands, one ‘generic’ Greek dedicated to Athene and another of ‘Spartans’ dedicated to Ares (I am well aware that the patron deity of Sparta was also Athene but having two warbands dedicated to same god would make for rather less interesting games!). The figures are all Victrix, with the heroes mildly converted/kit bashed for interests sake. Some wargames foundry figures should also be on their way very soon for a few of the other test warbands. The figures will/have a level of uniformity not seen in early Classical Greek forces, this is purely a stylistic choice to separate different warbands and give a sense of ‘flavour’ or identity to each force.

The game is also designed to be used with Mycenean-era figures, capturing the ‘true’ nature of the Epics rather than the more classical or ‘ceramic’ depictions. For my own use however is vastly prefer the late archaic/early classical material culture and have gone with that.

Below you'll find a selection of rather work in progress images. These are the most complete miniatures althought they are still far from done.

The Hero of the Athenian Band. Name as of yet undecided, answers on a post card please.

The First Champion

The Second Champion.

Introductions!

Hello and Welcome!

This is my blog, I’m a little slow at the take up but I thought I’d show you all my projects and ideas. The main purpose of this blog is to show off all of my wargaming miniatures and projects, including terrain and rule sets. However it may also include various rants and ramblings about history and archaeology including depictions of such things and other interests of mine.

I have a great number of projects on the go at the moment (who doesn’t?) but I’d like to explain the main things you’ll see relatively soon. There will be 28mm late Roman/Athurians/Romano British and their Saxon/Germanic adversaries, 15 and 28mm WWII (mostly North Africa related but not always), 28mm Colonial Sudan/Mahdist war, 15mm Moderns for AK47 as well as some 28mm ancients and moderns for skirmish games of my own design (these will have more detailed posts shortly). Quite a varied range of periods I think you’d agree however while I am primarily a historical wargamer nowadays it’s not always the case and sometimes my fantasy or sci-fi ventures will pop up.

My main focus at the moment is 28mm Ancient/Mythological Greece and in the coming days a number of posts with work in progress figures shall be uploaded. I hope you enjoy them!

Finally a little about myself. I’m (quite clearly) an avid wargamer and ‘gamer’ in general be it board, card or role playing. Outside the game-o-drome, as to be expected, I’m an avid historian and archaeologist with a passion for the early and later medieval periods although no period is off limits.