JTAC

 Hello guys,

It took me a bit longer than it should, but I finally have a JTAC prepared. Joint terminal attack controller, simply put, is a guy that calls in air strikes. All the communication between him and the pilot is always in English, no matter the nationality of either or both of them.

They receive a lot of attention here lately as SAF is trying to establish a regional training centre for JTAC in Slovenia. This is interesting, I suppose, as we don't have an Air Force as such, but just an "Air component" within the Army...and even those units are armed with Pilatus PC-9M Hudournik ("Swift", the bird) airplanes.

 While they look like something that might have taken part in the Battle for Britain, Pilatus planes are apparently one of the best training aircraft you can get. Slovenia bought them early after the independence to train its future fighter pilots on them and when it was realised that jets are costly, they were simply armed. While they are used as such on practices for media, these planes can obviously not intercept an airbus and our skies are currently protected by Hungarian or Italian jets. Needless to say, there's plenty jokes going around about how we don't need jets as they "can't make a U turn without leaving the airspace".

To make me feel better,  I have to let everyone know that a "guns only" dogfight between a Slovene in Pilatus and American in F-16 took place few years back which the former won with 2:0. So if nothing else, these planes are good enough to keep the know-how and pilots trained. On the other case, taking the tanks out of operational use is making us lose the tankers and their experience.

So, from a gaming point of view, JTAC is a guy with a radio and I converted him from one. He can be used as a basic radioman, JTAC, Artillery observer etc.

 I was quite gutted to find out I have misplaced the original antennae. It was really nicely done and I KNOW I put it somewhere to make sure it wouldn't get lost. So, I replaced it with a piece of solid wire. It's not as nice but at least it won't break easily.

I also scraped off his M4 and, as his main job is to direct airplanes and not fire his rifle, put an F2000 on his backpack, while giving him binoculars. My first idea was to let him have a touch screen computer with a map on it, but working on that would be a bit complicated and had to satisfy myself with a locally produced binoculars with a laser pointer.

To make him stand out at least a bit, his vest was painted in khaki. I wish his helmet was not covered with a cloth, but as that would include way too much work, I just went with it as it is.

I hope to use him in larger games to call in some airstrikes and I am now trying to find a nice 1:144 aircraft or even a helicopter. I am sure the International forces on Evergreen Island have an Apache or two laying around!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Combat Medic

Hey guys,

moving on with the modern, I have a medic for you.

As in what can be seen, conversion work has been limited to gun swap, but it took a lot of carving to cut away the gun that was moulded to the body with most of its length.

He carries a large backpack that looks a lot like the new ones that Army purchased a year or so back, so I painted it tan and I am quite satisfied with it. It is accurate and it gives the miniature a nice contrast.

On the other hand, I got lazy and just painted a red cross on a white field on his right arm, which I believe should have some blue in it to be correct.

I could not make a good cross on the backpack even after three tries, so I gave up on it. If anyone is interested, the white is actually sandy and red is "red leather" to make it blend in a bit more.

One (and the only) thing that bothered me with this miniature was that it was apparently left unfinished! It lacks an upper arm pocket on the left arm. I can see how a thing like this can be missed out, but it bothered me to no end. As I painted it in my "hobby halt" season, I just opted for painting the insignia on it, instead of trying to sculpt a pocket.

I can not wait to play another game, where I will make sure to have someone extracted...and I need to play another game where a bomb disposal unit does something - sounds like I have a plan already!


This is it for today and I still have a JTAC left - I am saving him for the last as he was customised a bit more, but as usual - nothing went quite as planned!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Squad Leaders

 Hello guys,

I painted the last of the soldiers I currently own: two squad leader shown this week, a medic and a radioman/JTAC following in the next weeks. I decided to stretch this pack to give me more time to paint new things to show without any other two week long pauses!

In Slovenian Armed Forces, every squad of two fire teams of four is lead by a ninth member, a Squad leader.

For these two roles, I am using an EOD pack soldier (left) and a Command pack commander (right). I might mention that now that I am typing this, I just remembered that I planned to sculpt sidearms on them, which squad leaders would carry.  It really bothers me that I forgot about them, but that is what you get when you stop working on a project mid-way! On the other hand, I don't like going back to my miniatures after the varnish, so I might leave them as they are.

Other than the interesting poses (that are not too dynamic, but not bland, either!), there is not much to say about them. Each of the two is pretty much the same as any other solider I painted so far and carries an F2000S rifle.

For your amusement, here is a photo of a squad (I know, I know...) taken from the recruiting website. Note how the camouflage patterns of the uniforms and vests are different.

That's it for today!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Fireteam Drava

 Hello guys,

It took me longer than planned to get this batch painted. I started working on them some three weeks ago, as I have put my hobby on a side rail for a while.

Fourth letter in a Slovene alphabet is actually Č (ch as in cheese), but I decided to skip it as it wouldn't be used in international codes I presume. Drava is a river, so there is not much to add here.

This is my fourth and last fireteam, and as Empress miniatures only sell three packed teams, this one was built from various packs.
 
From left to right there is a grenadier (command pack), SAW gunner (support pack, sniper), rifleman /AT gunner (support pack AT4) and another rifleman (EOD pack).

 The conversions are mostly the usual addition of canteens, slight alternation to helmets (elastic strap for grass) and, naturally, weapon swaps.

Sniper-to-SAW-gunner conversion also included broadening of the pouches to make them a bit more accurate. Below is a sniper miniature before it was converted, with my dead-end sniper project next to it. While using sniper as a SAW gunner allowed me to get another fire team (and with that another full squad), I won't have a suitable sniper miniature until I buy sniper/ATGM teams pack in future.

Below are miniatures at an early conversion stage (Weapons in place, but hands haven't been sculpted except at SAW gunner that was done way earlier). As you can see AT4 gained some bulk, but I feel it is a tad too short. He had his right arm completely cut off and repositioned at a different angle (with AT4 he held a tube, while RGW has handles). He also had his rifle pinned to his hip, but I didn't bother sculpting straps - they are a nightmare!

This is it for today. I have 4 more miniatures to convert and paint and I will be done with what I currently own for moderns. I plan on purchasing more packs in future, but probably not in the first half of the year. After those are done, I will tackle my unpainted pile (either medieval fantasy I started a while ago or even finally paint survivors I owned for years) as I do not plan on ordering anything new.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Fireteam Celje

Hello guys,

I don't know if it is all this New Year's magic or just a coincidence, but my mojo is returning (*cheering sounds*). I painted this fireteam in just a few days and while I can't put my finger on it, I think I have been sloppy.

Moving on with naming them after the Slovene phonetic alphabet, enter Fireteam Celje, named by a city that was a home of Slovenia's most famous aristocratic family known as the Counts of Celje. As a side fact, three starts from their coat of arms are featured in our flag. Keep in mind, after Carantania lost it's independence around 8th Century, Slovene aristocracy was slowly Germanised and it is hard to tell who was of what descent, because Germanised names were used in the high circles.

On to the modern times, this fireteam is different to the two previously shown as the rifleman with the optical sight is replaced by a rifleman carrying "ordinary" version of the gun in addition to a disposable anti-tank launcher.

Now obviously, depending on a mission a squad could carry more or less of the launchers and for the gaming purposes, I decided to include one "protioklepnik" (the anti armour "guy") because they look cool.

Other than usual weapon swaps and inclusion of canteens, they are an out of a box pack of Empress US infantry "on patrol".
I can only apologise for bad photos, and I really think they look better in person. I don't know why I am unable to paint a decent face lately and their vest came out way too dark. Other than that, they will look okay on the board next to the rest of the guys.

From left to right there is a team leader, carrying an FN F2000S on his hip, talking on the radio (he is not smoking). Then there is the SAW gunner, the grenadier and the AT specialist. I was working on that bloody tube for about a year (on and off) and I was still not really happy with it in the end, but now that it is painted it looks just fine.

I have one more fire team (the one that was built up with "leftovers" from other packs) in need of basing before I can start painting it and I am already working on the command pack as well. If I keep the momentum going, I should have them all painted by end of January!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Fireteam Bled

Hello guys,

I am day late, but I finished another Slovene fire team, Bled. It is, again, made up of rifleman, grenadier, saw gunner and a rifleman with optics, so it would not be in the same squad as the last one, if we're being picky.

Below is a pre-painting photo. Conversion work, as usual, is limited to weapon swaps, added canteens and remodeled hand where necessary.

It took me a bit to paint them and I'm quite happy with the camo, but I am disappointed in the skin. I am fairly certain I used to be better at painting faces.
This fire team is in a "firefight" poses, so two of them are firing their weapons, one seems to be out of place and is resting and the fourth is shouting (orders).

 To add to a variation, this time knee pads are painted black (green in previous team), 40mm grenade pouches are tan (green in previous team) and one guy is wearing desert boots.

 Below is a single shot of the optics rifleman. You can see how lazy I became and I didn't bother with properly positioning his rifle. I am a bit disappointed with myself for doing that, but I suppose we could say he is observing or just starting to aim.

 SAW gunner is nothing to write home about, except his weapon has a folded stock, again, for the sake of variety.

 Lastly, grenadier is "firing his GL". To be really fair, his rifle should be pointing upwards, but there is a limit to what I can do without completely resculpting arms. Also, his head should be tilted over the gun, as grenade launcher sights are on the "starboard" (I blame Clint's naval game for the term!) side of the gun, so the side you see on the photo below.
Grenade launcher on F2000 is accessibly by "simply" extending your finger further  (as opposed to most weapons, where you'd grab a handle or magazine to fire it), so the position of his finger is very subtle.

This is all I have for this week and I will hopefully play another game next week. I will not be painting any modern soldiers for a while now as I haven't yet converted the rest. Both fire teams need anti tank launchers made mostly from scrap. I might leave those for later and start converting command figures instead (radioman, medic and two riflemen that will take the role of squad leaders).

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Fireteam Ankaran

Hello guys,

I managed to paint my first actual SAF fireteam, Ankaran. The name comes from SAF phonetic alphabet. Ankaran, a coastal settlement and would be an equivalent of the famous "Alpha".

Infantry team in Slovenian army is pretty standardised. It consists of (from left to right):
a rifleman with F2000S (that would also carry a LAW that I never sculpted to a satisfactory degree)
a SAW gunner, armed with FN Minimi
a grenadier, armed with F2000S with an under slung GL
a section sharpshooter, armed with F2000S with optics (whereas other rifles are armed with red dot sight)

Only one fireteam in a section (that consists 2 teams and a section leader) would have a sharpshooter, but I might just put one in every team for the sake of using them.

I don't have a pre-painting photo unfortunately, but they had their weapons swapped, canteens added on two of them and camo strap fitted to their helmets. Two of them have helmet cams, which I'm not too fond of, but I didn't really feel like removing them, either.

I only one complaint about Empress figures at this point. A lot of my miniatures have leg halves not matching (the mould probably slipped). It's not too visible when painted, but it irritated the hell out of me when I was working on them. I did contact the guys at Empress and I was offered replacements, so that is not a rant over service. In the end, I just kept mine as I couldn't send back half massacred miniatures, could I now?

As you probably can NOT see on the photo below, the camo on them has larger blotches, but also a lot more of white. It's hard to photo standing and prone figures together, but I have to admit I'm quite satisfied with how they all look like, even if there is a lot I wish I'd do different.

Lastly, a random patrol photo below. I wish I didn't paint camo on the Humvee gunner's face, but to be perfectly honest, I wish I'd paint camo on everyone else's instead!

That is it for today, I have only one more team ready to be painted and then I'll have to start converting them again as I took a bit of a break from cutting all the metal. I am thinking about a game as well, so hopefully I'll have an AAR for your next, if I don't manage to paint the other team in time.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

GPMG Team

Hello guys,

It has been a tough mind battle, but I decided it is time to tackle the camo and I present you my Slovene GPMG team. 

Each platoon would have a HQ squad with three GPMG teams (pairs, actually). I only got one and given how much fire power they spit out in games, there is little need for any more.

As our army uses the "European" version of the machine gun, and I am converting mine from American infantry (that uses "American" version with a heat shield, just like in case of the minimis), I "had" to swap the barrel for a bit of (way too crooked) wire. In addition, I sculpted something roughly resembling our aiming device.  Both of them got camo straps on the helmet and canteens. Again, vests were left intact as it would require too much work to make them proper for a very little gain.

Assistant gunner originally came with holding an M4 rifle, which obviously had to go. As replacing it with an F2000S would requite a lot of cutting, I decided to just give him a box of ammo instead - it shows that his primary role is to feed the machine gun. His rifle was then "strapped" on his back.

As I've said many times before, the Slovenian army is now using a new pattern, called SloCam (really!). It was developed in Slovenia and it is clearly inspired by Multicam (as is the new British MTP). While this means that in wargaming, painting Slovenes, Brits and - to some degree - Americans is much like painting the same army, it helps with  the recognition of friendlies. It also helps with finding a painting tutorial, as the pattern seems quite daunting. I had to adjust the colour palette a bit, as SloCam is much greener and thus more fitting to forests than Multicam. It also doesn't incorporate any black tones at all.

I did took notes of the paints I've used with my Humvee crews, so I am working with what I've learned and what new I've came up with.

Light green base
I went for german field grey with some goblin green and white added until it "felt right". I then drybrushed it with the roughly same mix, with more white added.

Ochre patches - There is a sand colour as well, but ochre has a bit stronger tone so I'm only painting this one

Dark green patches - Again, it seems there are three different greens, but with green basic colour and dark green, third would probably not be visible enough as camo is crowded using 5 colours already

Dark brown and bone stipples. There is actually a lot more white in it than there is brown.

Vests and equipment are in the old pattern. It's a german field grey base with black, brown and green "amoebas".

Camo didn't quite look right even after the black wash (I should invest in an ink!), so I drybrushed it all together with some brightened fieldgrey. It dusted it up and hopefully brought out some details. It also fades the camo on the vests, which hides the cammo effort, but it's a bit more realistic as far as I'm concerned.

Spent rounds around the gun are something I was quite happy to put on my FOW bases, they really add a touch. Keep in mind there is still foliage missing.

Their bases are conglomerates of round and square 25 and 20mm bases. I saw that Vampifan is basing his prone figures on 20mm bases, which I agree looks a lot better - but not for the gunner as I would hate to see his gun and legs poking off the base.

While I am quite happy with it, something that I can't put finger on bothers me. It's clearly too dark, but I think there should be way more patches and above all way more white dots.
If anyone finds something else, please feel free to comment!

Below are two photos of what I was after - duplicating it seems a lot harder than one would imagine!

 Also, a photo with soldiers using new uniforms with old vests (look at how faded they are). It includes a properly dressed female soldier :D.

Bomb tech

Hello guys,


Before I start - no photos unfortunately, but I received the rest of my rifles earlier this week. I am already half way through converting one fire team. A GPMG team is almost done as well, it just need a bit of detailing and I can start painting it.
To fill my time (and to take some break from carving metal, it is not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be) I painted this bomb tech. He, as previously shown crew, will probably not see much gaming, but it is a great sculpt and was great fun to paint it.

Due to SAF reorganisation, our military bomb disposal unit was in a spot light in the military magazine few months back. One of the three suits available to the unit is the so-called EOD-9. This is apparently the best bomb suit in the world, so pretty much everyone has it. Including the guy from Hurtlocker film that this miniature probably copies.
Long story short, the helmet on the model was not all that correct, which gave me a nice chance to find something to convert on it!

 The one below is actually a police bomb tech, but the suit is still the same:

All I did to a miniature was cut the crest that held a visor in place and then add a tiny (filter?) box on the back of the head and two little lights in the front. I feel he is a bit scrawny, but I didn't dare try adding any new layers to his suit.

Before I get called a rivet counter, I can proudly say the box on the back of the helmet is VERY simple and probably a bit too small. And I didn't even sculpt the flaps over his shoes! In all fairness I forgot about them until the miniature was already painted.

I had great fun looking at the references, trying to match the black and green parts (and a tiny bit of red!). Influenced by Ebob's example on facebook, I took a step out of my comfort zone and decided to invest some extra time in painting his visor.

Mind the red! (go double check the first photo!)

While I still freely admit I am no expert painter, I got to say I was thrilled to see how it came out in the end. I am really happy with it and I can't wait to paint some basic fire teams so they can call a bomb squad in to defuse a bomb or something!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Vehicle crew

Hello guys,

After weeks of torture I finally managed to paint...errr...three SM zombies as civilians (it doesn't work that well, the stance is clearly of an undead, even with no blood painted on!) and and insurgent sniper. I wanted to show some of the two today, but in the mean time, I also managed to finally convert the crew members to a point where I was satisfied with them. Something clicked in me and I started painting them. Took me two days to get them finished and I have to say I am really satisfied with them. 

Here they are, ready to be primed:
I know I kept showing them, but changes to the originals include: crew helmets, weapon swap on one. That was it. I was sculpting helmets two times, though and I am still not quite satisfied with the one on the pistol armed guy. I think it has to do with the shape of his head.

Before I start, let me just say they look better in real life. Honestly!
While I am, admittingly, a bit of a river counter on some occasions, I decided to go for an artistic freedom with those and gave them a single colour uniforms. I forego the changes to the vests (this is just too much work for the little gain, really) and simply painted them in an old "amoeba" pattern.

 The bag, ammo pouch and what is probably a camelback of the pistol guy were painted in ochre to help with the contrast. I also painted tiny flags on their tiny sleeves with tiny SAF markings.

 They would carry either a mission or a unit patch on their right arm. Until recent reorganisation (seventh or eight in 20 years I think) they would be part of motorised infantry battalion whose APC they would be driving. Since the reorganisation, all the transport vehicles were grouped into a "5th Transport company" and I couldn't find their insignia anywhere, so I left it out. I tried to paint the insignia of our last remaining tank units - now named 45th Centre of tracked vehicles, but as it's green and grey, it sort of sunken into the grey background.

I am pretty sure I should sculpt tiny microphones for them, but over all I have to say I am really satisfied with how they turned out. They have very specialised role, driving vehicles I don't even have in my collection (yet?), but I will be using them as a crew of any other vehicle you can think of, including helicopters (those always need saving!) and so forth.

Below is a photo of a MEDEVAC, so if I'd be desperate for a reason, this could also work :P.

More for the future reference than anything else, here are the paints used:

Uniform:
- Brown violet -> with some german fieldgrey -> with some green grey
This didn't quite work for me, as it came out too grey.
So I started drybrushing Luftwaffe camo green mixed with some khaki to lighten it up on top of it. I added some white to the mix to get the colour I wanted.

Amoeba camo on the vests as per my Humvee gunners (that I did more than a year ago, oh my - time flies by!):
German fieldgray base
Patches of german grey, german camo medium brown and luftwaffe camo green
Lightly drybrushed with fieldgrey + white. This makes camo itself much more subtle, makes vests look faded (which is true as you can see on some photos) and it also paints straps with one colour - obviously they are stitched on the camo cloth and are of one colour.

Coyote brown equipment was painted with khaki grey and green ochre highlight.


The rest of my guns should be with me in about a week, so I will start converting the "ordinary" fire teams shortly, but I suspect a lot more time will pass before any of those get painted!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo