From SteveM: 15mm Soviet Infantry in U.S. Lend-Lease Armoured Cars (90 points)

Steve sends in this great unit of Soviet reconnaissance infantry mounted in Lend-Lease U.S. armoured cars.

From Steve:

The us300 Armored cars were previously painted but thanks to the lend-lease program my Soviets were able to hitch a ride.  I used the mounted razvedki crew blister (su748) and the company hq blister (su701) to find the right mix of figures that show action and movement as the recon trucks find new prey. The trucks are painted in an amoeba camo which is normally found on the infantry uniforms but it looks pretty cool on the trucks and sets these apart from plain US trucks with red stars.  It should make these pieces fairly unique but at the same time historically plausible. The force composition is taken from a list out of the Red Bear army list book produced by Battlefront for Flames of War.

How: Primed grey, Vallejo acrylics, MIG pigments, and washes, Testors dull cote.

I agree, that is a pretty neat camo scheme.

This group will give Steve 90 points. Very nice work.

From JuanM: Late Romans and a Pillaging Hun (35 points)

As per his usual habit, Juan sends us a small, but very nicely executed entry for us to enjoy. This time we have a Hum taking some liberties with the locals and a stand of four Late Romans. 

The Late Romans are from Musketeer Miniatures, while the Hun vignette is from Wargames Foundry. All are 28mm. I really like Juan's choice of colours for the Hun's pony - it looks like it comes from the Steppes, very nicely done.

This group will give Juan 35 points. Beautiful work, Juan!

From Curt: 20mm Vietnam-Era American GIs

I've been reading through 'Force on Force' and overall have been fairly impressed by its mechanics and its treatment of modern combat (as much as I know of it anyway). Though it seems primarily focused on more contemporary engagements (i.e. post 9/11) it can also be used for earlier conflicts such as the Bush Wars in Africa, the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan and the Vietnam War to name but a few. 

I did my graduate studies on the Vietnam war and have always maintained a keen interest in that divisive conflict (though, admittedly, a little bit burned-out studying it). As such I've been sitting on these 20mm SHQ castings for years and thought I'd finally dig them up and do something with them. So I downloaded Stanley Karnow's superb 'Vietnam: A History' onto my ipod, put on my headphones and started painting.

Overall these were very nice sculpts to paint. I enjoyed the little details on these figures like the bug juice and Marlboroughs tucked-in the helmet strap and the draping of ammo belts and  various equipment on the figures. 

I've been torn between doing this in 15mm or 20mm. I like all the stuff you can pack on a table scaled for 15mm, but I also really enjoy the nice figures you can get in 20mm (not to mention the wide assortment of 1:72 diecast vehicles). I'll have to mull it over some more before I go whole hog in one scale.

This squad will give me 36 points. Next I'm going to try some Viet Cong and I've also started a big push on a BIG Napoleonic unit. More on that soon...