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'.