Cold War gone hot air support

Some time ago I ordered a bunch of 1980s vintage air support for Cold War Europe wargames - these are 1/600 models by Tumbling Dice ordered from Dom's Decals. They are very nice, and I prefer to look of aircraft that are smaller scale than the ground troops - in this case intended for 1/285 micro armour stuff. These are lovely little planes - very fun to paint for a change. I used rare earth magnets to mount them on removable flight stands.

Nato forces:

 Luftwaffe F4s:

 US AH-64s

 US A-10s

 Soviet Air Force

 Su-17 Fitters

 MiG-21 Fishbeds

 Soviet Helos:

 MiG-8 Hips

 MiG-24 Hinds

Vietnam stuff - Viet Cong, terrain and M113s

I have been away for a bit, but before I left I painted a platoon of Viet Cong and some M113s to do a scenario found in the Arc of Fire rulebook that describes the attempt to rescue a downed helicopter crew in unfriendly territory. I also managed to pick up some of the very nice GF9/Battlefront terrain on sale - rice paddies and huts. I added some water effects to the rice paddies. Nice stuff overall.

Thinking of trying Force on Force for the scenario next week at the local club night.

Repainting a UH-1 Slick

I picked up a couple of UH-1 die-cast models for cheap at Target a few months back that are 1:100 in scale, perfect match for my 15mm Vietnam project. In fact, their purchase inspired the purchase of the 15mm stuff.

I finally gathered the courage to attempt a repaint. I used Army Painter "army green" spray then picked out the details, and applied a few decals from my bits box. I decided not to mask the windows and just paint them over. One of the main goals was to reduce the "shinyness" of the die-cast.

Here it is- the green is a bit light and I would prefer a more olive drab, but I always find that lighter colours work okay in smaller scales. A good find for the price ($5 each).

Feudal French DBA army

Received this army of Essex and Battle Honours figs from a mate in a trade. They paint up nicely, I went for a very uniform theme of bright blue, white and red with lots of fleur-de-lys everywhere.

The army is characterized by a ponderance of heavy foot and knights with some bows and psiloi options. I would describe it as "crunchy" to play - it is slow but packs a wallop. While I like the mix of heavy types, I prefer a bit more of a nimble army. But this one is very forgiving to play when you roll well in particular.

US rifle platoon from Vietnam

At Christmas I picked up a few of the Battlefront Vietnam kits after the inspiration of finding a couple of 1:100 scale matchbox Huey slicks to play with. I just finished the blister of US infantry and now have local forces and NVA to look forward to. I also need to find some platoon - company scale rules I like for this setting. I have been thinking of adapting Fireball Forward.

ACW bits and bobs

Some remaining accessories for running an Alter of Freedom game, including 2 HQs populated with stretcher bearers, ambulance wagons and bystanders. I also completed 20 fatigue or casualty markers. All are 10mm by Pendraken.

Yankees in 10mm

And here are the Union forces for Pea Ridge - 7 brigades of infantry, 2 of cavalry, 4 artillery stands and two commanders. 10mm figures are mostly Pendraken with some Old Glory strips making up the back ranks of the infantry stands.

Union troops are by the far the easiest force to paint I have yet encountered.