Since the last update, I’ve been cracking on with
some more Cold War offerings from both Elhiem and S&S Models.
One of the first
Elhiem releases of the new year (and on the swanky new site)
was CWR 18, Soviet Support Weapons. This nifty little booster pack provides an
SA-7 Grail SAM operator, a soldier armed with a couple of RPG-18 disposable
anti-tank weapons (handy for increasing the pose count in one’s infantry
squads) and also a sniper firing his Dragunov SVD.
I decided to use the RPG-18 soldier in the first
BMP dismount team, so he’ll be based as normal, however the SA-7 operator will
be double based with a No.2, mirroring the BAOR Blowpipe team as an AD element,
and the sniper will also be double based with a spotter, to be used as an
actual, dedicated sniper weapons team, as opposed o the platoon marksman in the
3rd BMP team, who also has an SVD, but is based singly. To highlight the
difference, I decided that the “proper” sniper and his spotter would be in
camouflage smocks and trousers. This necessitated adding a hood to the figure
with some green stuff (sacrilege as it is to bugger about with Matt Hingley’s
sculpts…)
All three are now finished and ready for basing.
Camouflage pattern on the sniper's overalls is the "solnechnye zaychiki " or "sunshine rays", sometimes known as "sun bunnies". Just need the second figures for the sniper and SA-7 teams, who will be
provided courtesy of the Soviet NCO pack, which has a couple of suitably pointy
figures…
Next up,
S&S Models’ CVR(W) Fox Armoured Car. This
chap will form my entry to the current Guild “Armour” group
build.
Unfortunately a few rogue air bubbles had attacked
some of the protruding detail on my example, so this was rebuilt (to the best
of my somewhat meagre abilities) with green stuff.
Then added some stowage, a mixture of things
from Elhiem and
Kingfisher (current holders of much of the old CMSC range,
minus the figures, which seem to have gone to
Friendship Models), and the Fox
was ready for the paint shop.
I’ve now finished the basic painting of the
vehicle, and I’m now on to the fun bit; the detailing! Picking out all those
little bits and pieces of contrasting colours that should make an otherwise
drab paintjob stand out a bit…
Next job will be trawling through my stock of old
decals to find some suitable markings, before mounting it (and the Ferret from
a few months ago) on a suitable base now I’ve acquired some from Warbases.
Cheers
Iain
