Sunday, March 29, 2015

Ukraine Army

Here is my completed Ukraine Army (excluding armor) that will face off against My recently finished Russians.The miniatures are mostly from rhmodels  while just over a 1/4th are from elhiem. The elhiem minis are from their Syrian which have American style helmets that a number of units can be seen wearing. The rhmodels minis are all from the cold war Russian range which represents the amount of cold war equipment they are using.
I went with three different uniform camouflage patterns. This is because as the conflict wore on and the Gov. forces started going through supplies a number of European countries donated uniforms as part of non lethal aid.

The first is what I believe to be the main uniform prior to the rebellion. Here are a couple of pictures I used as reference:

Here are some of the units painted with this uniform. About 2/3 of the force is in this camo pattern though some have mixed vests and helmet covers. All the Elhime minis are painted this way as well as the six RH minis below.

Another uniform I have seen in many photos is this. It is an overall darker pattern with lots of brown. I don't know the country of origin. I painted six RH minis in this, example pictures fallow.



The last pattern is based off the multi cam used by Germany and the USA in desert/aired theaters. Though not ideal in most parts of Ukraine I imagine the donating nations simply offered them because they had a large amount in storage. 


Here is the whole force, 27 in all.
2 x radio operators
2 x medics
3 x RPG
4 x LMG
2 x HMG
4 x Sniper/designated Marksman
10 x Rfilemen
Tanks and APCs are in the mail.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Ukraine Conflict; Thoughts and Figures

Okay so first off I'd like to talk briefly about the fact that on most forums I have been told that discussing the current conflict in Ukraine is not allowed because it is affecting people who might frequent the forums and cause offense. I do not believe in "political correctness" but as Churchill once said "A gentleman never unintentional offends". Keeping that in mind I will keep my post on other forums regarding my project to re-create the current conflict on the table top battle field as vague as possible. However on here I will be very open with my thoughts and descriptions.

As a member of the US armed service I have had friends on colleges who have been affected directly by the conflicts in the middle east. Despite that I see no problem with war-gaming the theater as long as its done respectfully. I am drawn to the current conflict in Ukraine against Russian backed Separatists and in Iraq against ISIS because both are the closest there has been to a conventional war in my adult life time. The use of armor and regular (in the fighting sense) military units on both sides lends itself extremely well to the table top.

With that I have started on a number of Eastern European style buildings in 20mm as well as models to represent the Ukraine nation forces, Russian "Green Men", and Russian backed separatists. I have already finished a couple of buildings (found in last post) and will now share my Russian "Green Men"

These are some of the pictures I used as a reference for Russian Military units fighting in Ukraine

 

Here is my unit.
Modern Russians from Elhiem
Its enough to give me a leader, medic, squad of 8 (divided in to two teams of 4) and a MG team.
Here are some close up shots:

LtoR: Rifleman with optics, MG, Medic, Rifleman

LtoR: Rifleman with optics, Designated Marksman/Sniper, Grenadier

 LtoR: Rifleman with optics, Commander, Rifleman with optics

 MG gunner, assistant gunner

Close up of paint job.


Next batch of units to be finished will be the Ukraine National forces which have 6 more models left to be painted up.