Showing posts with label Modern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modern. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Sahel Conflicts: Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie


JJG Print 3D expanded their modern French offerings with a new series of armored vehicles designed by Guaro3d. I took the opportunity to up-gun my Foreign Legion with some support vehicles. First up was the Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie, which was a light wheeled tank/armored reconnaissance vehicle that was used by the FFL from the 1980s through the 2010s. The model can be purchased in 1/56 or 1/50 scale for 28mm gaming, and I went with the larger version. This came out as 10.4cm (not including the gun barrel) x 5.0cm x 4.9cm.

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D and designed by Guaro3d

For my vehicle, I based it on the appearance of these ERC-90s seen in western Africa as part Operations Serval and Barkhane, though I didn't have any of the seen stowage to add.

Source: https://twitter.com/defensenigeria/status/1383642486438981637
Source: Twitter

Source: https://twitter.com/ModernConflict/status/1221040844305850369
Source: Twitter

The kit didn't have all the surface detailing of an injection mold  scale model, but as a wargaming model, the detail was quite respectable. The only missing item that I wish was present on the kit was the machine gun for the turret railing. I didn't have an appropriate machine gun available in the bits box, so had to go without. To create an antenna, I went with some black airplane rigging rather than wire, as I figured the latter was more prone to damage during transport.

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D and designed by Guaro3d

For the camo netting, I couldn't find anything in 1/48 scale, so was forced to use 1/35. It looked less refined than I wanted, but for an issue I'll mention shortly, I felt I needed to still use it.

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D and designed by Guaro3d

The kit came in three pieces: the turret and two halves of the body, with the wheels printed in place. There were no registration pins to help with positioning and a bit of a gap in some spots, so filling and sanding were needed to get a reasonable seam. 

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D

While the print quality was good overall, there were some issues with the turret that had to be addressed. First up was a missing set of smoke launchers; the green ones were present, but the brown ones only had the mounts and no tubes. I'm not sure if they broke off somewhere or there was an uncaught printing error, but they needed to be recreated. Luckily I was able to do that fairly easily with some plastic rod and paper strips. It wasn't a perfect match, but were close enough that I think  they wouldn't be noticed on the table.

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D

The major issue with the turret was a pronounced upward curve of the gun barrel. I tried reshaping it multiple times using heat and weights, and while I made improvements, I could never get it to remain straight long term. After eventually breaking it with my efforts, I gave up and opted to fill the dip with camouflage netting.  While you can still spot the issue when you get down to tabletop level,  I felt it was much less noticeable from the usual players' vantage. 

28mm (1/56, 1/50) French  Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie for Operations Serval and Barkhane in Mali and the Sahel from JJG Print 3D

 Overall, I'm happy with the final results and am looking forward to seeing how it performs on the table. 

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Sahel Conflicts: More Terrorists, Troops, and Civilians

 I'm back with the last of my modern African figures; the storage box is finally full, so there will be no more expansions beyond this and the remaining vehicles on the painting table.

28mm modern African figures for Mali/the Sahel from Eureka, Miska, and Combat Octopus miniatures for Spectre, Bolt Action Modern, and Zona Alpha

Motorcycles seem to be a popular mode of transportation in Mali for various militias and terrorist groups, and I received a few as part of my Miksa Miniatures Kickstarter pledge. They weren't enough to field a full unit, but Eureka Miniatures had a set of Australian SAS soldiers in headscarves that I converted.

28mm modern African insurgents/terrorists from Eureka (Australian SAS conversions) and Miska miniatures

As part of the conversion work, I ordered a Russian weapon sprue from Miniature Building Authority. Unfortunately, they were more 32mm in size and looked huge on the figures, so I had to try and cut them down a bit to make them look more appropriate. In the end, they were still oversized when compared to the Miska AK47, but I think it looked ok overall. Straps for the weapons were made from thin strips of plasticard.  

28mm modern African insurgents/terrorists from Eureka (Australian SAS conversions) and Miska miniatures

One of the stretch goals from the Miska Kickstarter was an insurgent with improvised rockets. I couldn't find any real world photos to help with painting, so used some Hamas rockets as references.

28mm modern African insurgent/terrorist improvised rockets from Miska miniatures

The final items from Miska in this update were a set of civilians. They were slightly taller than the Eureka civilians, but not enough to be distracting.  For clothing, I used some photos of civilians from the Timbuktu as reference.

28mm modern African civilians from Miska miniatures

To complete the civilians, I ordered a few herds of goats from Eureka. Depending on the scenario, they could either be static terrain pieces or join the civilians as moving variables/complications on the battlefield (perhaps with an IED tied to one of them).

28mm modern African goats from Eureka miniatures

Finally, I ordered some African militants off of Etsy that were designed by CombatOctopus. The figures were comparable in size with my other 3D prints, but one odd thing about them was that the head sizes were smaller than the other manufactures. To me, they looked like 25mm heads on 28mm bodies, particularly the heads in caps. However, I think they will be fine on the table. I left them as generic soldiers, and they will either function as poorly equipped Malian soldiers (they have no body armor), mercenaries, or bandits.

28mm modern African militants from Combat Octopus 3D print miniatures

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Predator (1987) Special Forces Team in 28mm

 While looking for additional Western forces for my modern games, I found an Etsy seller who had these figures from Predator (1987) and I thought these would work great as a special forces/ mercenary team, and would also make a fun stalker crew for Zona Alfa.  They normally are printed in 32mm size, but I managed to find a vendor who would scale them down to 28mm to match the rest of my figures. Some of the figures have multiple variants, with alterations to make them more compatible with the Colonial marines from Alien or WK40K. I did my best to grab the movie versions, with one error mentioned below.


28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Dutch, Dillon, Mac, Poncho, Cooper, Billy, Hawkins



Major Alan 'Dutch" Schaefer. I think the barrel of his M16 looks a little too long, but wasn't able to do much with it due to the under-barrel grenade launcher.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Blain Cooper and "Ol' Painless." I had selected the movie version of him, but didn't notice the seller had accidentally used the Colonial Marines version when he sent me the resize proofs. To make him look a bit more accurate, I removed the backpack camera mount and tried to make the armored shoulder pads looks like the sleeves of a shirt. The under-barrel grip is totally wrong, but there wasn't really anything I could do with it. Despite this I think it doesn't look too bad and people will know who it is.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Blain Cooper, Jesse Ventura

CIA Operative Al Dillon.  I think his face doesn't look exactly like Carl Weathers, but still a great sculpt.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Al Dillion, Carl Weathers

Sergeant Mac Elliot. I think the best sculpt out of the lot.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Mac Elliot, Bill Duke

Rick Hawkins

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Rick Hawkins, Shane Black

Billy Sole.  Another figure with an overly long looking M16 barrel, particularly with the under barrel shotgun mount. In this case, I was able to remove some of the length without it being obvious.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Billy Sole, Sonny Landham

Jorge "Pancho" Ramirez.  Another really good sculpt.  Unfortunately,  I got the stripes of his face makeup a bit too wide, but I thought I'd do more damage trying to clean them up rather than leaving them as is.

28mm Special Forces miniatures for Predator (1987): Jorge 'Poncho" Ramirez, Richard Chaves

I did also order one of the many Predator variants as well, trying to pick the one that seemed most accurate for this movie.  Unfortunately, even scaled down, I think it looked way oversized (probably one of the extra large Predators from the new movies), so I'll look for other options in the future.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Sahel Conflicts: Miska Miniatures African Militiamen and Size Comparisons

 Earlier this year I bought into the Miska Miniatures' Kickstarter to produce African militiamen and assorted vehicles. It was my first time joining a Kickstarter (I've always been a bit hesitant after hearing about some of their fiascos), but I felt sponsoring designs for 3D printing was fairly low risk. I don't have a 3D printer myself, so purchased the physical copies. They arrived this summer in some of the most robust packaging I have ever seen used; not a single item broke coming over the Atlantic. The sculpting quality was quite good, and the printing quality was overall acceptable. I had two infantry figures with some printing defects (I think they shifted slightly during the print) and the two technicals had some warping and cracking (they are still to be painted), but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some sanding and filling.

So first off the table were the militiamen.  I was really excited to get these, as there were so few figures actually designed specifically for the Sahel region.

28mm Miska Miniatures Modern African Militiamen/Islamic Insurgents/Terrorists for Sahel Wargaming

The commander with a Dragunov SVD sniper, AK-47 gunman, and RPK light machinegun operator. For the commander, I felt some flashy Elvis-style sunglasses were in order.  The Miska gun barrels were rather thin, and I managed to break off the end of the RPK during painting. It was rebuilt using brass rod, so hopefully will last a little longer.

28mm Miska Miniatures Modern African Militiamen/Islamic Insurgents/Terrorists for Sahel Wargaming

RPG, AK-47s, and PKM. Again I had issues with the thin gun parts, and managed to break the ammo belt hanging from the LMG. It took a bit of effort to glue back into place, and sadly some of the detailing was lost during the process.  The clothing on some of these figures were a bit more garish than my previous figures, but were all based on actual fighters in Mali.

28mm Miska Miniatures Modern African Militiamen/Islamic Insurgents/Terrorists for Sahel Wargaming

RPG, PKM, RPK with drum magazine, and AK-47.  These were painted to match my Quartermaster 3D martyr squad and bring some heavier weapons to that team.

28mm Miska Miniatures Modern African Militiamen/Islamic Insurgents/Terrorists for Sahel Wargaming

Overall, I was happy with these figures and they will bring some more regional character to my insurgent force. The only thing that concerned me was the rather thin gun barrels and how they were going to hold up during transport and gameplay.  I think they tried to go with realistic proportions, but only time will tell if that was a good call.

I now have figures from six different manufactures in my insurgent collection, so I thought it was worthwhile to generate a new set of comparison pics so people could see how the figures and their weapons compare to one another. Grids were 1 inch, or 25mm.

AK-47 Fighters:

28mm Modern Insurgent/Terrorist Miniatures for Wargaming in Africa: Size Comparison of Empress, The Assault Group, Eureka, Miska, Footsore, Quartermaster 3D with AK-47

PKM (and one  RP-46) Fighters:

28mm Modern Insurgent/Terrorist Miniatures for Wargaming in Africa: Size Comparison of Empress, The Assault Group, Eureka, Miska, Footsore, Quartermaster 3D with PKM light machinegun

RPG Fighters:

28mm Modern Insurgent/Terrorist Miniatures for Wargaming in Africa: Size Comparison of Empress, Eureka, Miska, Footsore, Quartermaster 3D with RPG

Dragunov SVD Snipers:

28mm Modern Insurgent/Terrorist Miniatures for Wargaming in Africa: Size Comparison of The Assault Group, Miska, Quartermaster 3D with Dragunov SVD sniper rifle

Across the lines, the figures scaled up reasonably well with one another (though the Empress ones needed modifications to bring their height down). The most notable difference were with the weapons. The Miska miniatures really stood out for their thinner weapons, particularly the RPG and SVD.  The Quartermaster 3D RPGs were also a fair amount thicker than the other lines. While I wouldn't have a problem putting them all out on the table together, I think I'll be a bit selective in how I combine the lines for the squads.

Monday, September 12, 2022

Sahel Conflicts: Quartermaster 3D Insurgents

 It seems like you can never have enough insurgents, so I've purchased and painted more. These figures were designed by Quartermaster 3D and printed in 28mm by JJG Print 3D.  The shipment I received was well packed, but some gun barrels still broken crossing the Atlantic.  Luckily, I was able to glue most of the bits back on, and I could recreate the other bits from brass wire and green stuff.

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

Martyr Squad. While I normally like to paint my insurgents in a mix of clothing and camouflage patterns, I decided to go for a more uniform appearance for elite fanatics. These were inspired by an Islamic State unit from Somalia. 

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

Snipers and AK47. I ended up with two duplicates, but did my best to vary their appearances. 

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

Bomber and RPGs. I wanted a figure to mark suicide bomber attacks, and I thought this guy carrying an IED fit the bill nicely. The RPGs being carried by the other fighters are quite thick when compared to other manufacturers, so they will look better in their own units rather than mixed.  I'll take some comparison pictures in the future, but I'm waiting until I fishing my Miska Miniatures fighters so I can compare all the lines at once (yes, I bought more insurgents LOL).

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

Machine gunners and AK47s.  The LMGs are close in size to the other manufacturers I have, so won't stand out when mixed.

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

AK47s. Since my forces include Tuareg elements, I had to throw in some blue fabric. 

28mm modern terrorist insurgent miniatures from Quartermaster 3D for wargaming western Africa/Mali/the Sahel

Overall, I am very happy with these figures.  They are on the thicker side, so depending on how picky you are, you might not want to mix them into units with some of the thinner sculpts out there (Again I'll take comparison pics in the future). But the sculpting is good and I found them fun to paint. Definitely recommend!

Monday, September 5, 2022

Spectre Operations: African Warlord Capture and Extraction

 My friend Steve was passing through town, so we met up to try another game of Spectre Operations. In this scenario, French special forces were tasked with capturing the notorious warlord, General Assimi. Informants had alerted the French that the general would be making a propaganda appearance at the local market, and that he would only have a few bodyguards with him at the time. The French hid a small capture team in one of the shops and waited for their informant's call.

At the start of the game, the location of my French and their informant were hidden from Steve, and Steve could then place the general at any starting location in the market that he wanted. We then rolled a scatter die to determine the entry points for the reserve militia and the exit point for the French.


Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

With a propaganda cameraman in tow, the general came out to meet his people and accept their generous "donations" for his army.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The townsfolk rushed to see the general in person. However, one of his bodyguards noticed a man in blue making a suspicious phone call and demanded to know what he was doing.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

With a positive ID of the general, and knowing the life of their informant was now in danger, the French team burst from their hiding spot and swarmed through the market.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

As the civilians began fleeing, the bodyguard in pursuit of the informant saw the French and realized he now had much bigger problems.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Leaving one bodyguard in the market to cover his retreat, the general made a run for a money transfer store and barricaded himself inside as he called for reinforcements.  Another bodyguard too far way to reach him took up a position in a neighboring butcher shop. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The French were able to save their informant with a well placed shot, but could not risk further fire with all the civilians still in the area.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

However, the general's bodyguards did not have similar concerns and opened fire in the market, severely wounding one of the French riflemen.  With the medic attending to his wounded comrade, the rest of the French pushed through the market and screamed at the civilians to flee. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The bodyguard in the market joined his general in the money transfer shop, but was quickly eliminated by the French machine gunner. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The French sergeant also eliminated the bodyguard in the butcher shop.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The medic managed to get his wounded comrade to his feet (though with reduced stats for the rest of the game) while another rifleman eliminated the wounded bodyguard. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

General Assimi proved to be a good shot and critically wounded the French machine gunner.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The sound of an approaching vehicle could be heard, so the French deployed smoke grenades to cover their movement out of the market towards the general's hiding place. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

When the heavily armed technical arrived, it's view of the combat zone was fully obscured.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

From a command perspective, the French had held the initiative so far in the game, but the tide finally turned in the general's favor. 

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Two groups of militia on foot arrived from opposite sides of town.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Hiding in the smoke, the French decided to assault the money transfer shop through the roof rather than attempt to break through the gated door.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

At the other end of the table, the smoke dissipated faster than expected, and the technical laid down suppressing fire on the French. The French grenadier countered with an under-barrel grenade, but did not hit the technical.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

However, the wounded French rifleman was still hiding in the market stalls, and successfully lobbed a frag grenade into the truck bed. He managed to kill not only the gunner, but incapacitated the truck's driver.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

With the remaining smoke dissipating, the French sergeant ran for the roof hatch, with his close assault specialist just behind.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Unfortunately, he was not able to get the drop on General Assimi, who fled the building and ran towards his militiamen.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The French deployed more smoke as the medic reached the injured machine gunner.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Two of the rescuing militiamen, including one armed with an RPG, were picked off by by the French before they could reach the general.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The sergeant managed to taser the general, while one of the French riflemen provided cover from the roof.  The medic succeeded in getting the critically injured machine gunner stable (again with reduced stats), but had to watch as the grenadier was severely injured in a new round of attacks.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Militiamen continued their advance across the market square and succeed in wounding another French soldier.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

The medic and wounded machine gunner moved to their newly shot comrades and dragged them towards the exit point. Meanwhile, the rooftop riflemen dropped down to assist the sergeant in extracting the general.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

They managed to eliminate two of the pursuing militiamen.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

After patching up the other wounded, the French medic covered their withdrawal. Unfortunately, a militia machine gunner spotted and wounded him.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

Collecting their wounded, the French successfully got General Assisi to their exit point. Though they were successful in their mission, four of the six French soldiers would wounded on the mission, two of them severely. Thanks to the heroism of their medic, all managed to survive their encounter.

Spectre Operations 28mm modern wargaming. French special forces capture and extract a warlord in Mali, western  Africa

It had been a year since Steve and I last played Spectre, but for this second game, I felt more comfortable with the play style of the rules and found them to be quite fun for small scale actions. So I think I'll add them to my Christmas wish list and see what other scenarios they can support.