ANZACS and the return of ‘Them’, ( & Cthulu Kong, Goldylocks etc!))

Well now for the fun part, more Centurions.

I have also painted an M41 and M113,  but they are still awaiting the view figures and addition of Decals.

Base colour was GW Death Guard Green, with a wash of Agrax Earthshade   then dry brushed GW Death Guard and then lightened Death Guard Green.

Decals get added  then the weathering on Tracks and boggies with large doses of Agrax Earthshade.

The crew figure is a Warlord WW2 tank crew figure, as the one supplied went horribly wrong in painting, and rather than rescue it   I replaced it.

Also during the re-organise the original 30 call on copula , broke of and got lost, so I replaced it with an M60 from M113 box left over.

Although I haven’t done anything update at all for a bit, mainly as I’ve been doing a major re-organise of the flat. Mainly as I wanted to sort out a new hobby area, for post retirement and by the gods its done.

I have though done a bit of Hobby. Starting with 1st squad of Aussies

There was some experimenting with trying to find the right green for base uniform using speed or contrast ( I will show how I worked it out later)

Anyway I settled on Speedpaints Forest Sprite for the base uniform. Although it looks darker than the Osprey prints, it looks about right when compared with Uniforms on Signal Close.

Most of the American Webbing I used the Darker GW Militarum Green Contrast, with the odd old British Webbing done in thinned out Skeleton Horde Contrast.

Although I’m mainly using Rubicon for the base units, I decided to Pulp Figures Black Sun range for Heroes and leaders. The fact they have slightly bigger proportions doesn’t matter as they are leaders/Heroes.

So for the Aussies I used GI’s with Boonie hats , as uniforms are similar.

I have been building odd figures of the Rubicons ANZACs Infantry.

Firstly the have build instructions and the parts are all numbered on the Sprue, with the instructions giving the left arm part that should be used with the chosen wpn arm. The Sprues come in a sealed plastic bag with one main Sprue, and a little Sprue with ammo packs, water bottles and Machetes.  You get a couple of body choices to go legs   plus a choice of heads and wpns  including Grenade Launchers and LAW’S.

The figures go together surprisingly easily ,  my only slight criticism is you don’t get unarmed wpns, which would be nice for the LAW and Grenade Launcher Figures.

I then went on to build Rubicon Centurion Mk 5 5/1

This was a fairly easy build apart from the Smoke Launchers which was an annoying 4 fiddly parts!

Then it was rhe 1st M113  , which I found had all the parts for a accurate scale model with internal detail etc, though I was able to leave most of it out.

For some reason this model didn’t have a simple track system   but to part wheels and some quite complicated instructions!

You do get the parts for Auzzie and American versions  including ACAV’s.

Despite some strange instructions it went together ok.

As is my way, a little force grows, and I have been making more purchases., enough for

My plan is for the ANZA’Cs

1x Platoon D company 6th RAR( I brought some command Figures from Empress Minatures.

1x Troop 3x M113’s 1st Armored Personal Squadron

2x Centurions Half Troop C Squadron Royal Australian Tank Regiment( of course there are Centurions)

3x Troops 1st SAS squadron

ARVN

1x M41 Tank

1x Platoon ARVN Rangers.

As yet there are no armoured rules for Black Suns… Shouldn’t be hard to cobble something together.

Let’s see Tanks in Vitenam

Yanks it was

M48

M551 Sheridan

M42 AA

ARVN

M48 at end

M41

Odd left over M24 Chaffee

NVA

T55 or Chinese T69

PT76

and the odd T34/85

Now as I initially as I said the idea for this Project came from watching Kong Skull Island, which gave me that weird buzz of the Vietnam War. So how do I get Anzacs involved?

Simple rather than a mysterious lost Island  , I use the Dark Suns game setting. , we’re the Long Lost Alien race of Lemuria, created pathways to various dimensions  including one from our World  of the Vietnam to to the Dark Jungle World of the Black Suns.

The game allows traditional Historical force class   but also with ancient Alien races , Dinosaurs   giant insects Cuthulu etc. So adding Kong etc is not a stretch.

So far on reading rules they look interesting . Nice touch is force cards at back of book for copying,  plus the game company Crucible Crush has a free Downloads pdf.

They don’t do Anzacs but it shouldn’t be to hard to produce my own.

You will probably be u suprised that OTT have done a 3 part I production to the game  , so here is the link to part 1

Introduction To Black Sun: Part One

Having solved the Helicopter problem, I went to Rubicon and got the Infantry and a Centurion. I would have got M113’s,  but of course they were out of stock    so had to track them on fleabay.

They have arrived and have done a couple of sample builds of the Infantry.

The figures go together well with little problems with the matching arms. They appear to be anatomically correct, now they look a little spindly compared to the BA figure, but he is in winter baggy clothing so may not be best comparison.  I have brought some Black Suns Pilots and will compare then to see if its worth getting anymore of Bob March’s figures for characters.

Well it all began when re-watching Kong Skull Island , and thinking this would be fun to play.

I’m on the wind down to retiring at the end og August  so another new project , to go with Finishing my Winter WW2 , Battletech , Dystopian Wars , Halo and Tag Match Kickstarter wasn’t a problem.

Now as I found later I could have gone for Bob March’s excellent figure range for Black Suns. ( I have later ordered rules and helicopter crews) , but wanted to go ANZAC.

Why?

3 reasons

1) I’d had a 20mm Vietnam back in the 1980’s with  ANZAC’s from Platoon 20, supported By converted Centurions, and  Skytex M113’s. All long gone, problem with Platoon 20’s metal it was very Brittle , and most were wrecked when my mother had to clean and hadn’t checked thr box they were in was shut properly when she had to clean!!.

2) I’d been tempted by Rubicon’s Anzac figures , and Centurions ( did I say Centurions) at Games Expo. Plus I’d enjoyed “Danger

Close’ recently. The excellent.movie on the Battle of Long Tan (watched it again since)

3) ANZAC   could double as British in Indonesia ( I already  have Saracens)

Anyway I originally tried to see if the old Corgi Hueys were still avail at reasonably prices. Surprisingly I managed to get two on flea bay. As I really didn’t want to have to paint Helicopters specially inside.