So the Russians turned up. Four operators in modern gear with AKs (both full length and carbine), four low profile agents in civvies and one female agent (with a certain haircut that should be familiar to fans of a certain Captain America film) in a leather jacket. Overall, I’m a big fan of them. The low profile guys should be easy to paint while the female agent should be pretty fun (as long as I get the correct paint for the hair colour). However, the operators should be a little harder. I would really prefer to not paint them in more multicam (one man can only paint so much) so I’m looking at Russian SURPAT which may end up being more of a brown mess (as opposed to the green mess that is my attempt at ACU).
In addition to painting new stuff, I actually went back over my older models and drybrush black areas. This is for two reasons. A, the raw black areas look terrible. B, as time goes on I need to update the models to the latest standard of painting. Overall they all look better, the Brits especially gain due to the black helmet bands and large spaces on the L85. In the process I did notice places where the brits had lost some definition due to crap under coating job so I may potentiall need to strip a few and repaint. Maybe once the challenge is finished.
Finally, as you can see at the top, I’ve finished painting all my Taliban fighters. 17 guys, all painted, drybrushed, based and varnished. There is a lot of brown and black so I tried to mix it up with some lighter, more vibrant colours. The Radio DishDash guys are especially nice with a level of detail closer to the Empress sets than Spectre. From painting them, I’m very excited about the upcoming Kickstarter models. Its also nice to finally finish painting a complete set of proper OPFOR. Mercs are all well and good but sometimes you need to paint what’s on the evening news.
So how is the lead mountainĀ currently standing? Items in italics have changed since the last update.
Painted, varnished and based ā 117:
- 38Ā Empress ā Modern British Infantry
- 14Ā Spectre ā UKSF (of various types)
- 6 Spectre ā Task Force Operators (painted as SAS) + 1 Spectre Dog
- 10Ā Spectre ā AK armed contractors
- 5 Spectre ā Western Contractors (being used as US Special Forces)
- 11 Spectre ā Task Force Operators (being used as US Army Rangers
- 2 Spectre ā Intelligence Agents
- 1 Spectre ā African Soldier
- 1 Empress ā Armoured Troopers
- 4 Empress ā US SEAL Team 6
- 8 Spectre ā Task Force Contractors (To be split between UKSF and Rangers)
- 17 Radio DishDash ā Ā Taliban
In the process of being painted, varnished and based ā 55 :
- 1 Empress ā Dog for Counter-IED Team ā Based, needs painting
- 1 Spectre ā Dog ā Based, needs washing
- 1 Empress ā Warrior IFV ā Basecoated, some green painted
- 4 Spectre ā African Soldiers ā partially painted
- 14 Spectre ā Insurgents ā Based, some colours painted
- 1Ā Evil Bear Wargames ā Hardsuits ā being painted in parts
- 1 Spectre ā UKSF (ghille suit with M4)
- 5 Spectre ā Western ContractorsĀ (Converted with Shemaghs)
- 4Ā Empress ā PLA Special Forces
- 3 Empress ā Armoured Troopers
- 7 Spectre ā Task Force Contractors (To be split between UKSF and Rangers)
- 4 Empress ā US Frogmen
- 5 Spectre Covert Action GRU
- 4 Spectre Direct Action GRU
Basecoated with Basing Materialā 36:
- 1Ā Evil Bear Wargames ā Hardsuits
- 2 Spectre ā Hostages
- 5 Hasslefree Miniatures ā Modern Troopers
- 8 Spectre ā SMG Armed Contractors
- Spectre ā 1 VIP and 3 Bodyguards
- 6 Spectre ā Intelligence Agents
- Spectre ā Female Contractor (Salute 2015 model)
- Spectre ā 1 Agitator and 1 Bodyguard
- 6 Spectre ā African Locals
- 2 Spectre ā Deniable Assets
Basecoated ā 1:
- 1 Spectre āĀ Contractor (being converted)
Not Arrived ā 28:
- 8 Radio DishDash DELTA Force
- 12 Radio DishDash US Army Rangers
- 8 Radio DishDash Somali Gunmen
Total Models: 238
Models finished (Based, painted and varnished): 117
Percentage of collection finished: 49.2% painted