From PeterB - Empress Miniatures Moderns (50 Points)

Hello All. It has been a fair while since my last entry as the return to work after Christmas saw a whole-scale change/re-structuring get underway at work, and thus all hopes of keeping up with the Challenge had to be abandoned. This last week though I have managed to get some painting done - a squad of  Empress Miniatures Modern US Infantry and 2 Humvees, also from Empress Minis.

Previously I had painted some of these figures in the older 3-colour desert BDU with Woodland pattern bodyarmour, but didn't have the patience this time around, so instead have gone with a 'representative' (i.e. quick) effort at UCP. This much reviled pattern is now being replaced by a Multicam variant similar to what British troops are wearing now (having already been abandoned by US troops in Afghanistan since about 2009/10, after concerns about its efficacy had surfaced among troops and politicians). So these figures will feature in Skirmish Sangin or Force on Force games set in 2004-2009, as well as the eagerly awaited Chain of Command adaptation for modern COIN ops, Fighting Season.

Fire Team Alpha plus Squad Leader

Fire Team Bravo

I have another squad of these, plus a Platoon HQ element, a couple of MG teams and a sniper team on the go; some might even get finished for today!

From Curt:

Excellent work Peter! I really like these castings from Empress and you've done a very nice job on them. I was unaware that this earlier US camo pattern had caused such a fracas both with the troops and politicians - very interesting. I like that you've included the oddly coloured buff boots that seem like such a signature piece of kit from this period.

Where are the Humvees you mentioned?

I'm not huge into modern gaming but I still sucumbed to a few castings from this range, just because they look so good. With Too Fat Lardies coming out with a modern version of Chain of Command maybe I'll get some much-needed impetus to get them done.

Good job!