The Armored Cav platoon vehicles

Just so we undestand what I'm trying to find infantry to fill, here are the vehicles of the armored cavalry (motorized) task force.

Vehicles are a mix of Rebel Miniatures, Rafm and Matchbox. The GZG mid-techers still looking like a good choice?

Light Scout cars. Rebel Miniatures on left, Matchbox with spare gun fitted.

Medium APC - RAFM "Imp" 6X6 wheeled with dual cannon/tube launchers

Matchbox Stryker given a primer coat of gray.

If one is good, two are better, right?

The Stryker is large - much larger than the Imp. But it's sci-fi so it's okay. A combo APC/FSV needs to be bigger.

I'd forgotten that the rear hatch actually can be dropped.

Getting that old 15mm itch again...

...and I need to scratch it!

I've got a bunch of stuff sort of done, but I think it's time to get my mid-tech wheeled 'armored cav' force painted up and ready for the tabletop. I think I'll find the time to pull everything out and rough out the organization, then I can tackle starting the painting.

Vehicles I've got in spades - I suspect they'll mostly be mounted in Matchbox vehicles. Where I think I'll come up short are suitable infantry figures. I've got loads of RAFM troops in combat armor, but I think I want something a little less bulky. Something like BDU and body armor with small arms and maybe a couple of heavier support weapons.  Guess I'll have to start perusing the available 15mm infantry. If anyone has any suggestions, throw 'em my way!

If you didn't laugh, you'd cry...

I've got a good sized collection of 25-28mm Sikhs from Foundry and Old Glory. About 10 years ago, I painted most everything up and based it for Volley and Bayonet. I put on the Battle of Ferozeshah about once every year at local conventions. It's a fun game and it's visually impressive.

A few years ago, I realized that all the Sikh infantry had been painted with white cross brace straps across their chests. While it looked good and it match the British uniform style...it was also wrong. Those straps should have been black for the winter uniform and white for the summer uniform (and these guys were not painted for summer!). But, I told myself, it doesn't really matter.It's a minor thing and the period is so obscure it's not likely to be noticed.


Then came today.

I sat down to paint those new figures I got from Studio Miniatures. It had been a while and I wanted to check the color of the horizontal piping across the uniform jacket. So I pulled out my old Opsrey book on the Sikh Army and thumbed through the pages. Ten minutes later, I got a shock.

Somehow, I'd used the wrong plate as the basis for the Sikh infantry. I'd painted all those years ago. I'd been painting the line infantry with red jackets and white trousers.

My typical paint choices for the Sikh infantry.

But there in the Osprey were the plates for the Sikh regulars - in blue trousers!

A bit more prototypical uniform colors.

So what had I done? I'd painted up my entire Sikh Army as if they were wearing the uniform of the elite "French Legion" (also known as the "Guard Brigade".Imagine you've got a big collection of French Napoleonics and you just discovered you had painted every single solider as if he were a member of the Imperial Guard!

All I can say is...D'oh!

So I caught it early enough with these figure to correct the painting before I based the figures. What it means for the games is that I'll end up with two distinct groups of figures - those painted historically and those that are...not. I'm not planning on repainting anything at this time (getting the figures off their V&B bases would be a horrible chore - I used Woodlands Scenic Flexpaste to attach them and that stuff is tenacious!) So they'll soldier on in their incorrect uniforms for the foreseeable future.

Account locked out of the miniatures page....

Title says it all - locked from the miniatures page and without even a "so long and thanks for all the fish" from the site management. It's not like I even post that much to the thing. Must have gored someone's ox in the 2014 Tango...tango.

So, so long TMP - it was fun while it lasted.