Minifigs US 12mm- Based for BKC II

 Finished these figures the other day for use with my Late war US AFVs.

As mentioned before, I chose the Minifigs WW2 US Paras & Support weapons as their uniforms bear a resemblance to the late war M43 Combat Gear.

To suit BKC II I created a Command and HQ base with figures and vehicles and a two figure FOO/FAC base with a seperate Jeep.

The infantry pack stretched to 7 bases (each of four figures) together with two mortar and two MMG bases. All the bases have the addition of a 7mm die to enable lives/hits to be recorded when using the figures for a variety of different WW2 rule sets.

There were several more MMG & Mortar bases than I required, but I will repurpose these for my upcoming IDF army bases.

Minifigs are a good alternative/supplement to Pendraken figures. They are good value for money, well proportioned and detailed. If you don't need too many, they are a good way to collect a variety of figures without having too many left over.

12mm Scale 1967-73 Arab-Israeli Forces for CWC

 Whilst creating my late war armies it got me thinking about some of those post-war conflicts that used a mixture of WW2 and Cold-War equipment.

One that piqued my interest was the 1974 invasion of Cyprus.

A couple of my work colleagues from the 1980-90's had been serving at UK bases when this happened and had many interesting tales from their time spent as part of the UN peacekeeping force.

There weren't many armoured encounters, but those that happened involved some interesting vehicles. On the Turkish side there were M47's and M113's and on the Greek side a handful of T34/85's and some very old Marmon Herrington armoured cars. Could be an interesting excursion?

Similarly, the early India/Pakistan Wars with Centurions taking on M48s and Chaffee's, AMX13's, Shermans and of course the Vickers MBT.

But to start off I decided to go with the Arab/Israeli conflicts of 1967-73. 

Whilst the generic Arab army was made up of mainly straight forward late Soviet WW2 & Warpac vehicles from Bergman's 1-100 files the only unique addition was the 122mm SPG on a T34 chassis that I found elsewhere in Thingiverse.

The Israeli forces however, presented lots of opportunities to try out some simple 3D sculpting!

Obviously the M3 Half track is easy enough to come by, but it offers lots of variations you can add to your army. In my case a 90mm SPG (actually a Pak 40!), a ATGW version with SS10's (Taken from a BRDM1), 120mm Soltan Mortars (from a SDKFz251 mortar carrier) and a 20mm Anti-Aircraft Maxon Turret. All had additional storage added to the vehicle sides.

Other vehicles were found elsewhere on-line like the AMX13 and some were specifically IDF versions that had already been modified and uploaded i.e. replacement Diesel engined M48's and Centurions. I even found a couple of Fast Jets for air support!

Minifigs have provided infantry suitable for the two sides which one day I'll get around to basing......

Desert War - 'N' Gauge - Part Four

After much deliberation I finally ordered my 12mm figures from Minifigs (Caliver Books).

I ordered the following;-

1 x pack 8th Army (28 figures)

1 x pack British Infantry Support (28 figures)

1 x pack Afrika Korps (28 figures)

1 x pack German Infantry Support (28 figures)

1 x 50mm PAK 38 Anti-Tank Gun (2 guns & crews)

1 x 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun (2 guns & crews)

This little lot came to about £28 delivered, which under current circumstances took about 2 weeks from order to delivery.

I went with this option rather than my usual go-to 12mm source (Pendraken) because of the way they are packaged. I only wanted limited numbers of certain figure groups, but you are committed to packs of 10 figures from Pendraken that would have left me with surplus figures and an overall higher cost.

At this scale, the fact that the gun crews and support troops are wearing temperate uniforms is immaterial. They can easily be painted up to look the same as the dedicated Tropical uniformed infantry.

Minifigs 12mm figures are nicely cast (though they do need surplus metal clipping away from bases etc.) and are detailed and well proportioned. 

The 8th Army pack contained around 10 different poses of a mixture of rifle and Bren armed figures plus a couple of pistol armed officers. In fact there were 31 in the pack which was a nice bonus.

The support pack included Vickers teams (x2), 3" Mortar Teams (x2), more Bren guns, PIAT teams (x2) and a Flame Thrower (x1). All but the latter two were useful for the Desert scenario (don't worry the others will come in for future projects I'm sure).

The 6 Pounders were simple three part kits with three man crews and are very nice models.

For the Afrika Korps, the pack contained 10 mixed poses armed with either rifles or MP40s - No MGs. In addition there were 2 pistol armed officers.

The Support pack contained Light Role MG teams (x3), Medium Role MG teams (x2), 81mm Mortar teams (x2), Panzerfausts, Panzerschrecks and flamethrower. Again not all are usable for the desert scenario, but they wont be wasted.

The Pak 38 is a two part kit with a team of three crew, another very nice model.

Now the big question .... how to base them.

Usually I'd mount them on mdf (50x25mm for infantry, 25x25mm for support and 30x30mm for the guns) for use with BKC II.

I wanted to give myself maximum flexibility with these armies so I could potentially use the models for as many WW2 rules as possible. This meant that I needed some way to record casualties/hits on the bases so I could still get away with multiple figure bases.

I experimented with a 3D printed FOW style base with two recesses and mini magnets, to hold 2 x 1 penny coins that I could mount 2 figures on each. This came out OK but I felt was probably a bit "over-engineered" for this problem.

I then remembered the bases I'd done for PSC's the Great War. On these I used Minibits dice frames to hold small dice to indicate the number of casualties taken. I thought I could probably design printable versions of these.

So that is what I did. I tried a few prototypes before finalising on three base sizes.

• 50 x 27mm - for four infantry figures
• 27 x 27mm - for a MG or Mortar
• 36 x 36mm - for a towed gun.

This was the outer dimensions - with the bevelled base the actual area for figures is slightly smaller. The bases were 3.5mm deep with a hole to hold the 7mm dice recessed 2.5mm into the base. I also let the base top 0.5mm into the top of the base (creating a fine lip around the top edge) to allow for the figures base thickness.

Once printed up, the figures were glued in place with superglue and the bases textured up to the lip with Vallejo White pumice.

When dried, the models were primed with Wilko's matt white primer before the figures were finished using Citadel Contrast paints. The base surface was painted in Vallejo Yellow Tan and dry-brushed with Iraqi Sand.

The 7 mm dice came from eBay - £2.49 for 50...Bargain.

I think this approach should give me the maximum flexibility with these figures. With the dice removed, the hole is barely visible at table top distances. The dice in place can record hits (in the case of BKC II) or remaining figures in the case of say Rapid Fire or IABSM.