Armenian Fighters

Below is my latest batch of figures. They are meant to represent Armenian fighters during the early part of the war over Nagorno Karabakh in winter garb. Later fighters would have more camouflage. To prep these I did a lot head swaps. I would have done less had I had a pack of Rolf's multipurpose figures with fur caps, but I didn't have any of those left and I had spare ushanka heads to use. RH Models new multi-purpose pack with bald heads and bare heads with beards came in handy. I wanted one of these figures to have a hat I've seen many pictures of (see below). It looks like a hood without a jacket. To create this hat I trimmed a brim off one from another pack and filled it in a bit. I carved off some pants pockets and some equipment too.

After the figures were prepped I went to work with my trusty green stuff. A lot of these figures got jacket extensions and big collars. The figure with the hood had his hood extended. My biggest leap forward was with the sculpted hair (or lack thereof). To accurately depict soldiers of this conflict I need figures with lots of facial hair with all manner of hats (and not hats) and since many middle-aged men were involved in the conflict guys with thinning hair.

When choosing paints I went with a flesh color that was slightly darker than my usual color and stuck with dark colored hair. I mixed up lots of varieties of khaki too, some yellowish, some brownish, etc. I've got a big cheat sheet of my mixes for next time. I even got to use my bright yellow to paint one of the camouflage jackets - I'm just not sure where this jacket would blend in.

RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; MULTBHRPG; MULTBABESQU

RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; MULTBHRPG; MOSCOM

RH Models MULTBABESQU; MULT20SKS with head swap; EERKESTAK; MULTBABESQU

RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; EERKESTAK; EER14

RH Models MULT*RPK with head swap; MULT*AK with head swap; MULTBHAK; MULT*AK with head swap

RH Models MULTBHPKM; MOSAK; *SA7 with head swap

This last figure is my 20mm rendition of Monte Melkonian (1957-1993) in winter clothing. To quote Wikipedia Melkonian was an American born "Armenian left-wing nationalist militant, revolutionary, and commander. He was the leader of an offshoot of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in the 1980s and the most celebrated commander during the Nagorno-Karabakh War in the early 1990s. I highly recommend a biography his brother wrote My Brother's Road, An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia.

RH Models MULT*COM with head swap

Below are a few of the images that inspired me.

Armenian volunteers display homemade RPGs (January 19th, 1990).

Armenian fighters in the Agdam Region (1992).

Armenians aboard aircraft with coffin (~1992).

Armenian fighter in village of Askeran (March, 1992).

Armenian firing PKM (March 6th, 1992).

Monte Melonian with fellow Armenian fighters (March 1993).

Monte Melonian (March 1993).

Armenian fighters evacuate wounded (~1992-1993).

Armenian solider holds modified machine gun (~1992-1993).

Armenian soldiers preparing positions in the mountains while transporting a Dhsk heavy machine gun (January 1992).

Armenian fighter near Nakhchivan (January 8th, 1992).

Armenian transporting SA-18 during the winter of 1993.