Saturday, June 11, 2016

Peter Pig 15mm Modern USMC - Arctic

All,

Here is the last installment (for now, at least) of my modern Peter Pig US Marines.  I'd previously done identical forces for temperate and desert climates, and here is the same force done up for the Arctic/winter.  Again, the idea is that I can follow a single platoon through their exploits against various enemies worldwide.

But let's get to the figures.

The entire force, as usual consisting of 23 men in five-man teams and a three-man HQ section.  The uniforms were spray-painted white, then I did the boots and body armor with a sand color, the weapons in black, and the gear in Italian Green.  I put a brown wash on the figures, but I didn't do the bases that way, just painting them white and adding some winter tufts.  Not sure how I feel about the tufts...

The HQ section (from left to right, as all photos will be): Corpsman, RTO, and platoon commander.

M-203 and prone SAW gunner.  Again, not a huge fan of prone figures, but these are well done.

Having said that, I dream of doing skirmish in 15mm where I have three (maybe even four) different figures for each character, so I can show they're actual action on the tabletop.  I'd like a standing, kneeling, and prone figure; if I got a fourth, I'd differentiate standing between a firing figure and a moving figure.  So far I've only identified two possible options where I can get all those poses for two different (opposing) forces, both by Peter Pig.  You could do Modern with Peter Pig USMC and "Professionals,", or you could do WWII with Germans and British; no other forces offer the ability to have all the necessary poses.  The problem is, I don't like the mathchup of USMC vs the Professionals (whichever nationality I chose for them), it just doesn't look right.  And the problem of Germans vs British is that I already have those forces (by Battlefront, I'll post them soon), and I don't really want to re-do them.  Peter Pig 'regular' US is close to having enough, but they don't yet have the prone troops.  If Martin reads this and makes those prone troops, I'm pretty sure I'll be first in line ;)

But for that matter, it wouldn't take much work to do the same for Peter Pig Modern bad guy militia (AK-47 range) or bad guy regulars; I believe it's just the prone figures that are holding it up.

A rifleman, another with an AT4, and a Designated Marksman with ACOG.

Designated Marksman, M-203 and SAW gunners.  The tufts don't look too bad here.

Two more riflemen, on right with AT4.

Rifleman, M-203, and SAW gunner.

Two riflemen.

M-203 and SAW gunner.

Rifleman and Designated Marksman (the now famous diva pose).

And the last man, a rifleman walking away.

Well, that's it for now.  The good news is, these guys are finished.  The bad news is, I don't yet have any opposition in winter gear for them to face off against...

The next post will come from Baltimore, which is where I'll be all week, leaving Sunday.  The boy and I did get another (our third) Napoleonic game with One Hour Wargames this morning, so I've got a few batreps to write up and post while I'm gone, so stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

14 comments:

  1. Those are great - excellent idea!

    The PP hardened militia are my favourite figures..a shame you can't get them prone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it would be great to have PP do some prone figs for the various weapons, even the RPGs. Not firing, but maybe lying prone firing an AK, with the RPG slung on his back.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  2. They look great Jack. I'm on the lookout for ideas for some winter WW2 Germans and Russians and your technique looks fine for snow smocks. Still working on ideas for dustings of frost and snow on regular uniforms, but dry brushing white/off-white seems the way ahead.

    Cheers, Andy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Andy, and that would be amazing to have troops with a 'dusting' of snow, but in non-white uniforms. Sounds difficult though!

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  3. Cracking stuff Jack! How did you do the "snow" on the bases? Also, what did you use fir the brown wash - it's come out just right from the photo's, giving a nice shade in the creases but not colouring the tops :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks TP. For the snow I just used my regular basing sand and painted white. I thought about giving it a black wash but ultimately just left it 'virgin.' The brown wash is army painter soft tone, not diluted but not too heavy.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  4. Both look cracking. I did similar snow in 15mm for Bulge era Americans and Germans, worked well. Been using a lot of "proper" snow flock & sodium bicarbonate recently for 28mm Frostgrave stuff - think sand & paint wouldn't look right at that scale!

    I liked the effect of the AP stuff But being turps based it was just too stinky to use in the house. And cleaning was a faff. Is that the "ink" variety that's acrylic?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TP,

      Thanks man. I'm very happy with how the snow turned out, I just need to get some bad guys for them to fight!

      Regarding the wash, I don't know if it's acrylic or not. I'm out of town right now, get home Friday. If you remind me I'll take a look.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
    2. Acrylic or not - easy enough to tell, did you need to clean the brush with turps/white spirit or just water :D

      IIRC their non-turps variant comes in little bottles whilst the chokey stuff comes in paint tins...

      Delete
    3. Ah, gotcha. I just used water to clean the brushes, and the washes come in little plastic bottles.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
    4. Ah yeah, that's the much more usable and less overwhelming variety ;)

      Delete
    5. Absolutely! They work great for me, very happy with them.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete