Thursday 14 June 2012

28mm Falklands War British



The Falklands War ended thirty years ago today with the surrender of the Argentine forces to Major General Jeremy Moore.  It seems incredulous that time has passed so quickly and when perusing the various trade stands at ‘Salute’ in April, I came across these ‘Mongrel Miniatures’ on the ‘Newline Designs’ stand.  They are diplomatically labelled as NATO forces, but are wearing suitable attire to represent the British forces at the time of the conflict.

  


I had hoped to produce a little vignette for the occasion but simply ran out of time, but I'm hopeful to complete the project over the weekend.  These are my first attempt at a camouflaged uniform and I have to admit to being a little apprehensive at the start.  In the end I had to dig out my old cadet force smock from the loft of ‘Awdry Towers’ in a bid to try and fathom out in which order the colours went down to create the  DPM look.





When I first started to clean up and prepare the miniatures I didn’t think they were particularly well sculpted - the barrels of the SLRs seemed a little stunted, that sort of thing, but I soon changed my mind when the undercoat went on!  As with so many things, they are what you make of them and these proved to be no exception to the rule.  There were some lowly little touches like the binoculars tucked into the officer's smock and the first field dressing taped to the '58 webbing of one of the riflemen. They really were tremendous little miniatures and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I assume will be a very brief jaunt into the modern era; but then again!

35 comments:

  1. Modern camo's one thing I haven't yet had to confront! :)

    You've done a great job with these, Michael. And you're right; the Falklands war did seem just like yesterday!

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  2. Great looking figures as usual. Difficult to paint 'random' patterns but that camo looks spot on.

    Regards,
    Matt

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  3. They're amazing works of art Michael, amazing!

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  4. This is a real change of pace for you, but you have done a wonderful job.
    I'm just not sure the Falklands is a period I'd be comfortable playing, still a bit too fresh, even if it was 30 years ago, it certainly still seems very recent in my memory.

    I still recall BBC news showing "Russian ships" active in the area, and being alarmed enough to ask my dad if this was the start of WWIII. I was 12 yrs old...

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    1. I know exactly what you mean Scott, i was the same age and I found the whole thing very unsettling and very confusing.

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  5. Nice figures and up to your usual high standard of painting sir. Any thoughts on how these scale up to gripping beasts mofo range?

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    1. I'm afraid I've no idea. I had hoped to pick some of those up as well, knowing that they did some rather splendid head variants. Unfortunately they didn't have them at Salute. :(

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    2. I have some of the Mo-Fo Royal Marines and I'd say they work very well alongside the Mongrel figures.

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  6. Beautiful job on these Michael, the camo looks great!

    It's funny, I decided not to include this "event" on my Military History post because it is too modern. I still remember the news reports on the TV like it was only a few years ago, but then realize 30 years has passed. Where does the time go?...

    Jason

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    1. Thank you Jason, I'm as baffled as you! Thirty years in the blink of an eye.

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  7. Excellent job on the camo, finished off with some great bases.

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  8. Super job! I've yet to paint any type of camo pattern on a figure, and would be pleased to to have a finished product as sweet as yours. On another note, I really like the detailed work you performed on the helmets...great job on the dry brushing of the netting.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Jay, I actually spent far too long making sure that there was varied colour palette on each one - madness!

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  9. Really nice painting as always but different as well!!!!


    Ian

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  10. Nice mate. Camo is quite intimidating and you've done a good job here. Nice work sir!

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  11. Very good, Theyé even got NI gloves on and the excelent old SLR...great bit of kit..why did they ever replace it wth that pop gun?
    Cheers
    Paul

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    Replies
    1. I'm thrilled you spotted the gloves, I painted the padding on the back of the hand. It just seemed the thing to do!

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  12. Very nice. I quite like the classic pose of the squadie advancing with his SLR tucked to his shoulder.

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  13. They look very good and I can not wait to see the vignette

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  14. 30 years! I can't believe it! I was in my third year at Oxford- living out and the guy in the room downstairs was Argentinean so was constantly being interviewed by the local radio stations. He was a great chap and it made you realise how stupid war was.

    Great work on the camouflage on these...

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  15. great looking figs and an interesting period

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  16. Looking very good Michael!

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  17. Wonderful looking figures Michael. Great painting.

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  18. Excellent job - you certainly are a talented painter.

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  19. Top notch work sir, great figures the ol' Mongrels. Done 'em justice.

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  20. I have some of these and they are excellent figures - you've made a very nice job of them!

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