Irregular 6mm Chinese

A question came up on the ColonialWars Yahoo Group about 6mm Chinese troops for the period.  As luck would have it, I happened to have one of the Irregular 6mm army pack of Imperial Chinese that I picked up on a whim on eBay a few years ago.  However I found that some ants or other bugs had nested in the box I have them in.  It took a while to get them cleaned up, and you can still see some discolouration in the photos below.

First the Z38 Imperial Chinese Infantry.  These make up the bulk of the army pack that I have, with 3 units each consisting of a command base (with the flag below) and 7 regular infantry bases.

The next picture if of the cavalry in the pack.  I assume these are the Z41 Manchu Light Cavalry. There are 4 bases of these in the pack I have.  There is also a foot command base.  I’m not sure what code this is.

Finally the Z39 Imperial Chinese Tigermen.  There are two units of these in the pack, each consisting of a command base and 5 regular infantry bases.

None of the Z40 Imperial Chinese Artillery appear here unfortunately.

Random Modern Soviet Armour

Today is some random Soviet armour.
Again I was shopping for options for sci-fi vehicles and the majority of the items below are variants of the MT-LB platform.  They really didn't push my buttons like the BTR-80 variants, but the 2S6M Tunguska is going to be a bit of  a beast!

Heroics & Ros SM14 - MT-LB APC

Heroics & Ros SM13 - MT-LBu (ACRV) Command

Heroics & Ros SM43 - SA-13 Gopher (9A34 Strela 10)

The SA-13 launcher on top of the MT-LB is a separate piece of the model that I just dropped into the hole to take the picture.

Heroics & Ros SM65 - 2S6M Tunguska

The Tunguska is obviously in pieces.  When assembled I believe it will look something like this:

Victory Day Anniversary Parade Rehearsal, Tverskaya Street, Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2008.
Photo from Wikipedia taken by Leonid Dzhepko

H&R BTR-80

Right-o!
One of the MANY New Years Resolutions (more on that later) is to get more posts in this year.
To write more posts I need to do more hobby stuff, so it's actually a two-for-one package.
To assist me with that I had a couple of posts started before I went on hiatus, so it seemed like a good idea to get those finished first.

I've also given the blog itself a quick refresh, with a more modern template and a new banner.  Hope you like the changes.

But enough guff!
Here are the BTR-80 variants from Heroics and Ros.
I actually purchased these to use for some sci-fi vehicles, as I think the BTR-80A in particular with its turrent is quite "futuristic" looking.

Heroics & Ros SM66 - BTR-80

Heroics & Ros SM67 - BTR-80A + 30mm Turret

Heroics & Ros SM90 - BTR-80 UR Sn Command Vehicle

Next up, some more Russian armour from H&R...

Heroics & Ros Confederate Infantry

Let me be up front... I know nothing about the American Civil War and I have no (current) interest in gaming it.
However some of the H&R Confederates have been recommended as good substitutes for figures in bush hats.  I'm not going to pass a verdict on that until I've had a chance to paint some up and see how it goes.  I am a big fan of the good variety of poses per strip in these though.
Here they are:

MACW6 - Confederate Infantry Skirmishing
Eight Infantry Strips, plus a Command Strip and Standard Bearer Strip.

Infantry Strip (8 per code)

Command Strip (1 per code)

Standard Bearers (1 strip per code)

MACW23 - Dismounted Confederate Cavalry
Nine Infantry Strips plus a command strip in the pack

Infantry Strip (9 per code)

Command Strip (1 per code)

More Irregular Civilians

One of the things I like about Irregular is that they make civilian figures.  The Riot figures from the last post reminded me of a few more of these figures that I have at the moment.
Each of these shows the entire contents of the relevant code.  Click the images for larger versions.

VN21 - Vietnamese Civilians

CV9 - 18th Century Civilians

ME13 - Pilgrims/peasants

I though these may also have utility as Druids and Monks.

CV3 - Gladiators

A Lion, it's frightened victims, a Retiarius and a Secutor (I think?)


CWM5 - Florence Nightingale with nurse and wounded soldier

CV14 - Native porters

Irregular Riot Range

While we're looking at moderns, here is a novel range from Irregular; their Riot range.
There's even a set of rules and they sell packs with rioting figures from different periods and the rules together.  I have never seen the rules, but here are the specific Riot figures:

SIR3 - Base of two mounted police (one base per code)

SIR2 - Base of two policemen (two bases per code)

SIR1 - Base of two rioters (two bases per code)

SIR4 - Reporter (2 per code) and SIR5 Camera Crew (2 per code)

I have a few ideas for these figures in the back of my mind that will hopefully (one day) see fruition...

Irregular Modern Arabs

Continuing in a similar vein with Moderns, here are the codes from the Irregular Miniatures 6mm Modern Arab range.
As with the Afghan range, and most of the moderns these come with 3 bases per code.  I have only pictured two to give you a front and back view.  Click for larger versions.
I think that these could also be used as special forces (SAS, etc.) troops.

MAF66 - Arab Infantry Advancing

MAF67 - Arab Infantry Firing

MAF68 - 3 Arab Infantry with HMG

MAF69 - 3 Arab Infantry with Rocket

MAF70 - 3 Arab infantry with Mortar

MAF71 - 3 Arab Infantry HQ

Irregular Modern Afghans

Since we did the H&R Modern Brits last, that I intend to use in Modern Afghanistan, I thought it might be worthwhile looking at the Irregular Modern Afghan Range.
Below are samples of the five codes available.

The pictures below show the front of one base and the back of another from the same code.  You get 3 bases per code.

MAF24 - Afghan HQ

MAF20 - Afghan Tribal Infantry

MAF23 - Afghan missile launchers

MAF22 - Afghan Mortars plus crew

MAF21 - Afghan Infantry with Rocket Launcher

Note that the Irregular Moderns are taller and bulkier than some of the other Irregular ranges and so don't blend well directly with H&R.  I've done the comparison earlier with the H&R US (below), but I haven't directly tried these against the Brit figures.

H&R M18 - Modern British Infantry In Action

Today we have the Heroics & Ros M18 Modern British Infantry in Action - New Helmets code.
The code consists of eight strips - four each of two types.

Standing  Infantry Strip - 4 per pack

Prone Infantry Strip - 4 per pack

Romano British Elites

I decided to try to paint the Romano British Elite unit first up, as it has a uniformity that is easier to paint than the more rag-tag Levy units.
Here are my efforts:

It still needs a coat of clear lacquer to seal everything in but other than that, the unit is done.
You can click on the image for a larger version, but that's only going to show up my poor painting skills.
I'm reasonably happy with the grey undercoat approach, and I also experimented with "dipping" these figures as well, which turned out pretty well also.  I plan to put up a quick guide (more as an aide memoir for myself) on how I did these.  At table distance, I think they look very convincing.

As I SLOWLY get the rest of the units ready for MicroDux; I'll be putting them up here.

In the interim, I still have a vast number of detail shots, that I need to post, of predominantly Heroics & Ros and Irregular Miniatures figures and vehicles that I have sampled over the last 12 months looking for items for this project and other future projects.  So expect a rather eclectic mix of these as well...

Irregular WW2 Posh Pack

As a final item for the current push on World War 2 codes, I have below images of the contents of the Irregular Miniatures Posh Pack PP7 - WW2 Germans in mainly off duty poses.

A few quite useful figures here...
I particularly like the "gestapo-esque" figure on the end of the centre row.  He will definitely have a role as a villian in future.  I accidentally snapped the motorcyclist in the bottom row off his base, hence the block to hold him in place for the photo.  He'd gotten bent right over in transit.

H&R BR3 - British Paratroops

The BR3 - British Paratroops is another mixed infantry and weapons code similar to the German Paratroops code from Heroics & Ros.
This time we have:

• 4 Infantry Strips,
• 2 Mortar Strips, 
• An Anti-Tank Gun and Crew, and
• an MG Strip

Detailed pics of the individual strips are below.  Click on the images for larger versions.

MG Strip (1 per code)
On the right we have 3 Bren teams.  I'm not sure what the left-most team with the longer gun is?  I'm open to suggestions...

Anti-Tank Gun and Crew (1 per code)

Mortar team, with radio operator (2 strips per code)

Parachute Infantry (4 strips per code)
A mix of Rifles and Sten SMGs