AK47 Republic - Peter Pig - Part One

 I've owned these rules for years but (like so many sets!) done nothing with them. I even bought the much more complicated re-booted set, but still no joy.

Is it me or do RFCM rules from Peter Pig seem to go through fairly regular updates for no good reason? The original AK47 rules are simple to learn, well thought through and well loved by players - if a little shabbily produced. The revamped version seem to have lost that elegance for no real gain?

Anyway, enough of that. I was looking at Team Yankee figures on Firestorm Games' website and I suddenly had an idea. Could the Australian Infantry be used for AK47?

At a mere £7.20 for 30+ figures I thought I'd give it a go and took the plunge. In fact I spent another £14.50 and bought a pack of 4 x Recoiless Rifle armed Landrovers too!

While the Aussies would make good white mercenary/local landowner types, I wanted to have an indiginous element to my army, so I bought the Team Yankee Iraqi Infantry set too .... another £7.20.

Now I'd seen on the Derek's Wee Toys blog page a very clever idea of using two figures on circular bases, rather than the three on square bases as recommended by Peter Pig. This makes your figures go much further and (i think) look better too!

To base my figures I printed up a batch of 30mm diameter circles (3mm high) with a slight raised lip the same depth as the figure's base thickness. Then when the painted figures were super-glued in place the base was filled up level with their cast in bases using Vallejo White Pumice.

While I was at it, I hit upon the idea of using "Embellishment" storage boxes from Hobbycraft to keep the figures safe. They are the perfect depth for 15mm figures, but they will slide around inside in transit. To stop this I printed some simple locator boards to hold the 30mm bases in place. Happy days!

The figures were painted using  amixture of Scale 75 Instant paints (very similar in concept and feel to Citadel Contrast, but much less in cost!) and Contrast Paints - the Battlefront sculpts taking the paint very well, and looking good when completed.

For vehicle support I had the landrovers, but needed more. I decided to keep 2 Landrovers back to arm the opposition army that was yet to be planned, and started scouring Thingiverse for ideas.

I decided to go with a 1960-80's ex-British feel and sourced some interesting vehicles to match.

Not all of these would be fielded at once but it would give this army some variation in play.

They consisted of;

• 1 x Centurion Mk5 - without side skirts
• 3 x Humber Pig armoured trucks - with soft top cargo holds
• 4 x AT105 Saxon APCs
• 1 x Saladin Armoured Car
• 2 x Landrover SWB with Recoiless Rifles

These were also finished in a mixture of Instant & Contrast paint. And look like they need another coat of matt varnish as they're shining a bit in the pictures!

Well that's one army completed. What for the opposition?