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:











My aim was to have them look like this:



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:


Rupert - the Team CO (CAR-15)


Troopers with M16's


More Troopers with M16's


Troopers with M16/M203's



Troopers with Bren Guns



GPMG Team




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