Sniper team

This week in between working on the pot fields, I finished the last of my Elheim figures, my sniper team from the battle group's I&R (Intelligence and Recce) platoon.

I'm not sure if ghillie suits were used much in Afghanistan, but that's the way these guys came, so I did a proper scenic base for them to add to the atmosphere.

Taliban view

Although I imagine they are an off table support option in Fighting Season. But they look cool.

Tea time!

It's no secret that tea is my drug of choice. So when Artizan released this fellow for their North West Frontier line, I had to get him.

I finally got this version of General Sir Pelham Gronville Wooster at his ease painted up this past week.

The building is a gift from Pasha Dan. It is a resin aquarium piece but also makes a great tomb/palace/whathaveyou for the Frontier.

Saturday Night on the Road to Damascus

Last night Pasha Dan was over to try out a scenario he is thinking of for Hotlead 2016 next March.

It's an ancient Roman variation on his massively popular multi-sided Pulp adventure trust me games with hidden agendas, bribery and back-stabbing. But this time with pila and sword instead of Tommy guns.

We had the local cohort (me) holding a bandit chief, waiting for the convoy with the pay for my troops which would take the prisoner back to Palmyra. There were some gladiators on a tear looking for loot. A local noble hoping to exploit things for private gain. Another local merchant wanting revenge on the prisoner. The bandit chief's gang wanting to break him out. Hilarious hijinks ensue in this desert hive of scum and villainy. With more players he could add another 2 or 3 groups into the mix.

Dan set up quite an extensive town (reusing a lot of his colonial buildings), featuring a mix of Miniature Building Authority, a plastic Italeri kit, a repainted  souvenir, towers from an old toy pirates game, foam core buildings and some buildings carved out of the dense foam used for flower arranging (including the Fort) plus resin aquarium pieces.

Just another day in Canis Minor

"You pesky kids keep out of my amphorae!"

"Thanks folks, we'll be here all week! Try the fish."

After a bit of initial circling things got nasty when the bandits made a try for the pay chests.

Gladiators sally out to find trouble

Local merchant arrives seeking revenge

Pay convoy and escort

One of my patrols returns from the desert to reinforce the convoy

Bandits ambush the pay convoy!

And grab the camel with the pay chests!

But the bandit got a scorpion bolt from the fort through his shoulders and the rest of the bandits got cut down trying to flee into the alley

Gladiators ambush local equestrian

Merchant has shot down the prisoner after I handed him over to the convoy, now we face off in the street

Gladiators and equestrian's guards face off after exchanging a lot of blood

With the bandit chief dead we called the game and discussed who had been able to achieve  their objectives and what sort of excusing reports and angry letters would be getting sent to the governor.

Dan has been running these games for years. We met many many years ago when he was running a similar game at MIGSCON (when it was in it's heydays at the Hamilton Holiday Inn) and I was also commanding the dromedary troops chasing a bnadit chief.

Pot Field WIP

Spent a couple of nights trying out my idea for pot fields. After a bit of time trying various arrangements on my gridded cutting mat I decided on 50x50mm squares.

Then it was a simple matter of cutting out the squares, gluing on a thin layer of sand and then using a hot glue gun to stick down the pot plants. After the glue set I painted over it with some khaki paint.

Tonight I banged out 10 squares from uncut card stock and greenery to taking the pictures in just under an hour and twenty minutes.

A small field to start

Compare Christmas decoration on left and plastic boughs on the right

Patrolling through the fields

Bringing in a LAV

Why Not Throwing Anything Out Can Be a Good Thing

As I get to the end of painting the figures and vehicles for my Afghanistan project, I am pondering the terrain they will fight over more and more.

Some of that terrain could be marijuana fields, which is a big cash crop in the region.

Canadian soldiers establish an OP in a ruined Grape hut surrounded by marijuana

Tall dense fields of marijuana provided significant cover for the Taliban during Task Force Orion's (TF 1-06) Battle of the White School House in the late summer of 2006, allowing them to enfilade and ambush the attacking troops.

I had been thinking of something along the lines of Mikey's ACW corn fields:

But with the stems inverted and cut into more of a cone like tiny pine trees. I was thinking I would wait for the cheap artificial Christmas decorations to arrive in stores in the fall and get something small to be cut up. Then I remembered some ugly plastic plant bits Mikey had thought about turning into trees, didn't like the thought after all and unloaded them onto me. I shoved them into my yellow tub of odd bits where I left them, occasionally thinking I ought to throw them out but never getting around to it.

Then today I remembered them and discovered that I had quite the pile shoved in among useful bits of plastic tubing, steel wire and a stack of obsolete computer CDs.

Pile of junk turned hidden treasure?

As you can see they are quite long and I should be able to get 2 or more pot plants out of each stem. I also have a few artificial Christmas greenery bits (on the left) in the pile too.

There are also some cheap cake decoration pine trees, which might do as well. The one on the left looks like a pot plant already!

So I guess the next step is to decide on the size of bases for optimal flexibility and start cutting.

Afghan Security Forces

Since Canadian operations in the Panjwayi were mostly in support of Afghan government forces, I decided early on to include some ANA and ANP as options for my Canadian platoon.

I have finished a second quartet of Elheim figures ANP:

I painted these fellows with black belts and ammo pouches. The first four got tan pouches.

To give them a ride they have an S&S technical mounting a heavy machine gun:

I have also done some Afghan National Army as well, using Elheim's Syrian infantry:

Google Images showed both a digital cam pattern and a woodland green-brown-khaki patter.  I opted for the woodland pattern.  I probably should have gotten two support packs. I now realise that an ANA section is probably organised into two four man fireteams like the western armies training them. Someday I will fix that and maybe get them a Humvee as well.

The irony is of course that when our first troops arrived in Kabul there was much criticism of their green combats. And after getting arid pattern cadpats we're supporting local troops wearing green camo.

I also have a few Afghan civilians. One pack of men and one of women, mostly in the amazing blue burkas that seem to be most common.

It's down to a few bits now. The biggest will be turning a die cast pickup into a burned out wreck.

Bookshelves

Mrs. Rabbitman and I are both liberal arts majors, so our house has books all over naturally. Each bed room has a bookcase. There is a big, hand made bookcase at the top of the stairs with everything from my medieval lit books to murder mysteries.

In my proto-mancave of a basement are my history books. Three bookcases all arranged by historical period. Now that the shelves of J&M boxes are out of the way I can see them and get to them.

And they need a good dusting.... :-\

Ancient to Medieval

Samurai, SYW, Napoleon, lots of Colonial and some WW1

Ospreys, WW2, Canadian military and historical fiction

Cupboard stuffed with gaming magazines

Science, Literary Criticism other stuff including a box of university essays to remind me I used to think Big Thoughts