Thobes

I wanted a break from painting guys in greatcoats so I decided to take a break from the Irish Civil War. I've still got a batch of British troops to paint. They'll have to wait.

After a lot of thought I decided to go much more modern ... The War on Terror (not my favorite term, but it does apply to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq). I think this period will serve me well, Rolf makes many figures for this period, both sides and his ranges are near complete; there are loads of books in English about these wars (painting is much more fun if I'm also reading about the same era); and lastly I find the wars very interesting.

First up is a batch of figures wearing thobes and some civilian women (my first female figures). Those with weapons are meant to be Sunni insurgents. Lots of the figures have head swaps, some have their sandals replaced with shoes, one has a sculpted vest and for one guy I added an ammo pouch. For the bases I went with something different. About half have a new desert mix (art sand/fine ballast/medium ballast) painted with US Field Drab/Iraqi Sand, washed with Brown Model Wash, dry brushed with Iraqi Sand and then very lightly dry brushed with Pale Sand (all Vallejo). The other half are standing on a highway (first use of sponge painting!). A couple have a mix of both of those terrains. I wanted to paint some highway lines on the bases, but my attempts didn't come out so well ... maybe later.

Next up is a bunch of STS (shirts/trousers/sandals & sneakers) guys, including two on a dirt bike!

RH Models INSAK; ARACIVAR; INSAK with head swawp; INSAKAR

RH Models INSAK; INSSNI with head swap; ARACIVHDB; ARACIVK with head swap

RH Models INSSUP with head swap; INSAKAR; ARACIVK; ARACIVAR

RH Models INSSUP; INSRPD; INSAK with head swap

RH Models ARAWMN; ARAWMNHIJ; ARAWMNHIJ

The pictures below inspired me.

Iraqi Sunni insurgents celebrate in front of a burning US tanker (April 8th, 2004).

Iraqi Sunni insurgents closes door of a damaged house (April 24th, 2004).

Masked Iraqi insurgents keep position at a lookout (July 22nd, 2004).

Masked Iraqi insurgents keep position at a lookout (July 22nd, 2004).

Hooded armed insurgents take position near a house that was destroyed (September 5th, 2004).

Iraqi fighterse patrol the streets with an anti-aircraft gun (November 6th, 2004).

Head swaps

Things have been busy here so I haven't had as much time to paint as I'd like - we're looking for a new house ... I need more space for more miniatures. ;) I have been able to get this batch of figures done. They should add more variety to my IRA force. For each figure I did a head swap. Those figures with great coats got pants sculpted on them to cover up the puttees they came with. One figure got a swapped out hand and weapon.

Unless RH Models puts out more figures for this range I've got one more batch to do (a few more auxiliaries and Tommies) and a some vehicles, but before then I moved on for a bit to Iraq War figures. I'm halfway done a bunch of Iraqi's with thobes.

RH Models EERG8AK with head swap; ICW1 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap

RH Models ICW7 with head swap; ICW7 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap; ICW7 with head swap

RH Models ICW1 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap; ICW1 with head swap

RH Models ICW7 with head, hand and gun swap; ICW7 with head swap; ICW7 with head swap; ICW7 with head swap

I used the following images for ideas - especially for the IRA in great coats. They are all pictures of re-enactors.

Black & Tans + Civilians

Wow it has been a while since my last post. I guess summer vacation reduced my painting time. :/ This batch of figures are the last of the new-sculpts-to-me I had to do from RH Models' ICW range. Next I have some more British troops I've been working on, some Auxiliaries and then lastly some IRA fighters with lots of head swaps.

Firstly, I painting a bag of Black and Tan figures. These are some of RH Models' oldest figures still for sale I think. All are a bit on the large side, half are really big. To counter this I shaved their bases down to something that was almost paper thin. This led to my dremel slipping on a few so I had to fix up some shoes, but otherwise these figures were done with no modifications.

RH Models ICW1; ICW1; ICW1

RH Models ICW1; ICW1; ICW1

RH Models ICW1; ICW1; ICW1

Secondly, I worked on two bags of civilians from the same range. The figures with caps I did straight, but for three of the figures without caps I swapped their heads as I wanted more figures with straight hair.

RH Models ICWCIVCAP; ICWCIVCAP; ICWCIVCAP; ICWCIVCAP

RH Models ICWCIVCAP; ICWCIV with head swap; ICWCIV with head swap; ICWCIV

RH Models ICWCIV; ICWCIV with head swap

I used the following images for colors of the Black and Tans, although I went more for the look of the costumes in The Wind that Shakes the Barley. It's a great movie after all! For the civilians I used a lot of the same pictures I've used for IRA fighters.

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

IRA

Continuing my Anglo-Irish diversion I wrapped up my work on this double batch of IRA fighters. There's no conversions here, all were painted as-is from the bag. I tried to choose accurate colors, lots of browns, grays, etc. for their clothing. It took a bit to paint every figure with a different set of colors, but I think the effect is worth it.

Sometime soon I have another batch of these to do with lots of head swaps for variety, but for now I'm on to a group of Black & Tans and civilians.

Next up is a double batch of IRA fighters. I'm looking forward to varied civilian clothing.

RH Models ICW4; ICW4; ICW4; ICW4

RH Models ICW4; ICW4; ICW4; ICW5A

RH Models ICW4; ICW5; ICW4; ICW4

RH Models ICW4; ICW5; ICW5

RH Models ICW5 & ICW5A

For inspiration, especially color choices I used photos of reenactors and stills from The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006).

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Still from The Wind that Shakes the Barkley

Reenactors

Reenactors

Reenactors

Auxiliaries

This morning I finished basing the 2nd of what I hope to be four groups of Anglo-Irish wars figures. This little set of nine are meant to represent Auxiliary forces. I didn't do any modifications to the figures (although I did have to replace the upper half of the rifle held by figure with an ammo box). The dark green I used for most of their coats didn't give much contrast so it's not a favorite color of mine to use, but it's reasonably accurate. To give them some variety I painted two wearing some sort of civilian long coat. Auxiliaries typically had a badge on their cap. For now I decided not to paint this on as the tam-o-shanter Rolf has sculpted on these guys doesn't present the surface this badge was affixed to. (I can always change my mind later, I reason.) My second batch will probably include some wearing British army greatcoats and perhaps a conversion involving a Lewis gun and/or handgun.

Next up is a double batch of IRA fighters. I'm looking forward to varied civilian clothing.

RH Models ICW7; ICW7; ICW7; ICW7

RH Models ICW7; ICW7; ICW7; ICW7

RH Models ICW7;

I found just a few pictures of Auxiliary forces wearing long coats.

An auxiliary on duty in Dublin. (1920/1921)

An auxiliary on duty in Dublin. (colorized, 1920/1921)
Auxiliaries in Dublin with captured motorcycle. (1920/1921)