Dad's Guys: June 2019

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

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;

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)

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Something a little bit older

For a change of pace I decided to work on a small number of figures for the Irish War of Independence (and possibly the Irish Civil War as well). So far I've enjoyed doing something 70-80 years older than my normal period, no AKs and no camouflage! I really don't know much about this history, but I'm slowly learning about it as I work on a small stack of books I have.

I did no conversions on these figures. They took a bit of work to prepare as they are older figures in RH Models' range, but nothing too bad. For reference colors I used photos of reenactors and reenactor gear. I definitely miss having thousands of color photographs to look through for inspiration; I'm just not accustomed to using black and white photos. In the future I hope to do another batch with some slightly different colored equipment and some sculpted on helmet covers for a little variation. If I'm feeling really ambitious I might work on a Lewis gun conversion.

Next up is some Black & Tans in greatcoats.

RH Models ICW3; ICW3; ICW3; ICW3

RH Models ICW3; ICW3

I found these pictures of British troops serving in Ireland and wearing great coats.

British army vehicle checkpoint in Dublin city during the Irish War of Independence.

British troops move in on Irish civilians at an anti-British demostration in Dublin city during the Irish War of Independence.

British troops during the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921.

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Summer Azeris

Yesterday I finally got around to photographing these big batch of figures I've been working on. They took quite a while for me to do. I've been too busy. They are meant to represent Azeri soldiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in summer dress. I know have about 40-60 such troops.

I didn't customize these figures too much - was great to use the newer RMR figures Rolf has recently released. I swapped a few heads and cut a few pockets here and there. As usual such soldiers require a lot of different camouflage schemes and khaki variations. It's fun, but takes a long time.

Next up - just about finished, probably post in a day or two - is the first in a few quick batch of figures suitable for the Anglo-Irish Wars. A 100 year shift!

RH Models EERKESTAK; MULTBHCOM; HDBRPK; RMRAK* with head swap