Underfire Miniatures produce this 60mm mortar and crew for the Rhodesian Bush war range. It is affectionally known as the ‘Pat and Ron’ pack after the two men in the photo is is based on.
I painted up two versions, one in the lain green fatigues worn by the RhSAS on external operations and one in the more familiar Rhodesian camo pattern. An extra trooper with an AK got painted at the same time.
Cheers,
Pete.
A fellow member of The Wargamers Forum had put up some pictures of the 1/72nd/ 20mm African themed terrain he was working on. Some of this scratchbuilt stuff he cast in resin for himself, I sent him a cheeky message seeing if he was willing to sell a few castings.
A week later, after money was sent via paypal, these arrived in the post:
Here they are finished:
I gave them a very quick paint job, the cast texture really took to the sponge, wash and drybrush techniques I used. They shall be very useful for my long running Rhodesian Bush War games.
Cheers,
Pete.
Bill of Under Fire Miniatures asked me to paint up some of his recent 28mm Bush War RhSAS for him.
I cleaned up the figures and got crking. Painting using my usual technique went OK until I completly over did the highlights and made the figures look far too white and chalky. I was on the verge of stripping them when I remembered that I’d bought a new green wash from Army Painter. I bathed it on and let it dry overnight. Fortunately it did the trick… so much so that I’m really plesed with how this quartet look.
They have been painted in plain green fatigures to represent the sort worn on external operations into Mozambique.
I left the base unfinished as per Bill’s request.
You can by the figures here .
Cheers,
Pete.
The Rhodesian African Rifles have had a long and illustrious career fighting firstly for the British empire and then after the UDI for Rhodesia against the Marxist/ Maoist insurgents groups of ZANLA and ZIPRA.
With a similar motivation to the previously posted BEF, I had a scenario in mind for these figures, I dug out 4 ‘sticks’ worth of Under Fire Miniatures’ Clicky 20mm RAR figures.
Clad in the typical Rhodesian camo I did half with painted rifles to add a bit of variety.
The 4 man stick was a unit organisation peculiar to the Rhodesian armed force, based around the number of men that could fit in an Alouette III heicopter as used in the ‘Fire Force’ missions in the later stages of the Rhodesian Bush War. The 4 men, as seen above, carried FN FALs and one had a FN MAG GPMG, one man was a signaller wilst a further man was trained as a medic.
For more information on the Rhodesian Bush War and the RAR in particular I strongly recommend John Wynn Hopkins’ blog : Rhodesian War Games
Cheers,
Pete.
I, like most wargamers I think, am never 100% fully satisfied with any given rule set and so I go through stages of tweaking bits, rewriting others or adding bits in. Also I’m always keen to try a new set of rules to see if the grass is greener on the other side. The obvious answer would be to write my own set but that is always easier said than done.
Given how much I and the others have enjoyed playing Nordic Weasel’s 5core Brigade Commander rules in 6mm I decided to pick up one of their skirmish sets from Wargames Vault and give it a go.
I grabbed what was handy fromthe shed and Brian and I had a quick run through of the rules. I set up a 4 by 4 table (I’ll say here that we played with all measurements doubled) to look a bit like Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The light green patches were bits of scrub, mid green defined the edge of woods.
Brian got 2 four man teams of RLI each with 3 FN FALs and 1 FN MAG:
Whereas I got 10 assorted ZANLA (5 AK, 2 SKS, 2 PPSh, 1 RPD), all of the figures were from Under Fire Miniatures.
My ZANLA move up the left flank.
Whilst others advance into the kraal.
The RLI move into position at the edge of the woods, this was just before we found out how powerfully an FN MAG is.
We used a lot of counters (Green= hidden, Orange= fired, White= Panic, Red= Knocked Down, blood splat= out of action) I know that is not to all gamer’s tastes but for me function follows form if it for the sake of game play.
RLI advancing through the scrub on the ZANLA right flank.
In my last two turns I managed to combine a scurry followed by a fire fight; I got my men into position weathered the return fire then was in a good place to shoot. I took a few casualties (4 out of the fight) but I gave the RLI a bloody nose (2 out of the fight) which historically they would have found hard to countenance.
First impression on the game were overwhelmingly positive from both of us- clear rules and it played nice and quickly too, ideal for a mid- week evening. The mechanisms are very similar to the brigade level game but feel right for a smaller level of play. Having three reserve activation dice to use throughout the game is a nice feature, standing in for the asset cards in Brigade Commander. The RLI didn’t do as well as they should have, even with the tactical advantage, but if we re run the scenario I’ll add in some skills to boost their performance. I wanted to keep things simple for a first run through.
The only two minor quibbles would be how to have assault and bolt action rifles on the table at the same time. We decided to just treat the AKs and FN FALs as infantry rifles and the SKS as a single shot rifle to provide some differentiation.
Also I’d have like to see some rules for medics too – but that can be easily house ruled (and that takes us back to the top of the post).
I’m very taken with the set and am already planning future games as well as tie ins with our 6mm Cold Wars games in a mini campaign.
Cheers,
Pete.
I’ve been painting up some of the various figures from Under Fire Miniatures for African bush wars and I thought I’d share them with you.
First up: two groups of assorted Rhodesian African Rifles.
Moving geographically westwards and forwards chronologically I’ve done some South African infantry with the later helmet and webbing. They should be good for games set around the time of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
Cheers,
Pete.
I’ve just finished this batch of mounted infantry for the Bush War in Rhodesia. They are 20mm from Under Fire Miniatures.
They are armed with a variety of FN FALs, FN FAL Heavy Barrels and a shotgun; with four different horse poses to play with there is a fair amount of variation to be had.
Looking at the photos there are a few bits of stray static grass that need to be brushed off.
http://www.underfireminiatures.com/index.htm
Cheers,
Pete.
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