28 April 2010

SAS Stay-Behind-Team

But wait – there’s more… (a long one sorry)

For a bit of a change the next completed Cold War hot figure project was my Liberation Falklands era British SAS figures. I totally love these guys, all equipped with CAR-15’s, M16’s, M16/M203’s, GPMG’s and Bren guns.

Duane at Syr Hobbes Wargames sent them to me at home in Oz after I stuffed him around in the States – sorry about that Duane!

Only chaps I don’t totally love are a couple of figures with balaclavas on. Probably just because I like faces, for some reason. So in my initial run, I left those ones out – also a lovely GPMG figure, just because he didn’t fit into the force I was doing.

I made up a couple of heavy weapons teams by basing a prone GPMG gunner with a kneeling chap with an M16 and a Milan team, taking a standard British Milan team and simply doing a head swap. I now have a couple of Iraqi civilians walking around headless. I was also able to take one of the spare British heads, cut away the face and glue the helmet onto one of my Warrior MCV, next to the beret wearing Commander.

I’ve written some scenario’s for Ambush Alley Games – which hopefully will be published soonish. Without giving too much away one of the forces is an SAS stay-behind-team. Years ago I read about this in a novel – I think it was called “Chieftain” and it was a Cold War fictional battle story – along the same lines as “Red Storm Rising” and “Team Yankee” – but focused on the British. One of the story lines was about an SAS stay-behind-team and I have been intrigued by this ever since.

So when I got the opportunity to write some “SpecOps” type missions for AAG – it had to include a mission for such a team.

Here’s some useful reference pictures I found of British DPM:

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My aim was to have them look like this:

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This image was taken from “The Falkland’s War” Magazine – I think the only magazine collection that I ever managed to get every one of.

PAINTING

My biggest concern here was painting the British DPM and I don’t think I got it down pat personally. I’ve written down the colours I used this time round, but I think I would change a couple when I do more. My colours and scheme ended up looking more like US Woodlands than British colours. Again these were painted using more of what I would call – a traditional method – no fancy ‘Dip” here!

1. Black Undercoat – Citadel Spray
2. Non DPM Uniform – On the figures with hooded jackets I used Vallejo Reflective Green. Also used this on the trousers of a random selection of troops.
3. DPM Uniform – Base colour – Vallejo Luftwaffe Cam Green. Beige colour – Vallejo German Cam Beige. Brown colour – Vallejo Cam Medium Brown. Black Colour – Citadel Chaos Black. Only the base colour was painted before the magic wash.

When I do it again I think I need to have a more yellow beige colour – perhaps Vallejo Beige and a brighter brown colour – perhaps Vallejo Beige Brown.

4. Woolie hats – Chaos Black, drybrush with Vallejo Black Grey and then Vallejo Neutral Grey
5. Flesh - Vallejo Flat Flesh, washed with Citadel Orgyn
6. Webbing & Pouches - Vallejo Green Grey
7. Wood - Vallejo Beige Brown
8. Weapon's metalwork - Vallejo Black Grey, highlight with Vallejo Neutral grey. Green stripes with Vallejo Russian Green.
9. The whole figure (excluding flesh) was washed with a Black magic wash
10. Highlight pretty much everything with original colours (in this case I even highlighted the faces or hands – I wanted them to look a little better than my Russian stuff)
11. At this point I painted the DPM pattern over the highlighted DPM base uniform colour.
12. Hair - I used a variety of base colours on the hair, and I've got to say I'm pretty happy with how the straw/blond guys came out. One looks particularly Saxon!

Here are some pictures of the completed figures:

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Rupert - the Team CO (CAR-15)

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Troopers with M16's

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More Troopers with M16's

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Troopers with M16/M203's

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Troopers with Bren Guns

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GPMG Team

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Milan Team

That's all for this week probably. I have an SAS Sniper in a Ghillie Suit (a gift from Leigh) and I'll be using a Trooper in a Balaclava armed with a M16/M203 as his spotter (on two normal sized bases rather than a Weapon's team base). They are on the paint list - but I have another project that will be completed before they are.

More on that later....

Have fun

Richard

5 comments:

  1. Richard, your guides are very helpful. Now if somebody could help me get the right colors for Polish "Worm" and Pantera camo (Am doing Twilight 2000) as well as US BDU, I'd be grateful..

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  2. For US BDU I'd use the same colours used here for my SAS. I think those colours suit the US Woodlands pattern much better than British DPM.

    Not sure I'll ever get around to Polish uniforms, but you never know :-)

    Richard

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  3. BTW, Richard,

    I am writing a free scenario pack for AAA/FoF set in the conventional war phase of Twilight 2000 in Iran called "Blood Upon the Risers"..American Airborne Rangers and the 82nd against Soviet Desantniki from the 104th Guards Airborne (Yes, those guys), and I need practical advice and help in constructing AAG scenarios...I'm running into the problem that I realized, most AAG games are more "both sides are done with the maneuver, it's time to bump uglies" as it were. So I was wondering, what's the best way to restore some of that? Also, I have a devil of a time doing maps...any chance you could tell me what you do?

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  4. Happy to chat about this elsewhere. Drop me a PM on the AAG Forum or the Guild and I'll give you my email address.

    Not sure what wisdom I have to add - but happy to give it a go.

    Richard

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  5. Great post Richard. You've really caught the look of worn DPM in the field.

    Those figures will be perfect for Winter of 79. Waiting for mine to arrive from Rolf!

    Cheers
    Mark

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