I dug out my big box of stuff for AK47 last night, sifted through the figures and separated out the British forces for the Sandbox Skirmish project. I had based up some 1960's British AFV's and soft skins a few years ago for an AK47 colonial settlers army that is still waiting to be painted, so it was easy to choose a few from that box to re-deploy for the skirmish project. The figures, however, are new and were bought a while back for the specific job, using the newer range of professionals from the AK47 range that were released a couple of years ago. I have loads of the older, smaller figures that I could have used but they are all based for AK47 already.
I've organised the figures into a platoon sized force of three sections of eight men, armed with SLR's and a GPMG or LMG, together with an HQ section of an officer, an NCO, a signaller, a sniper and a sustained fire GPMG team, the latter three figures also included as prone models. This is all a bit speculative but roughly right for a British platoon of the 1960's period, give or take a 2'' mortar, drivers and the like. It's an imaginations project anyway, so I'll just do what I think looks the part. I've also send off for a pack of the newer special forces figures to make an SAS team. These will be a useful scenario element and typical of the sort of 'cloak and dagger' things that went on in places like Aden.
The vehicles come in two optional convoys, one for hearts and minds patrols and one for punitive operations in the badlands. The soft option consists of a couple of Bedford lorries, a Landrover and a Ferret scout car for convoy protection. The more resilient option includes a couple of Saracen armoured personnel carriers, the Ferret and when things get really sticky, a Saladin heavy armoured car. These are all QRF models apart from the Landrover which is Peter Pig. I have decided to include more vehicles than I originally planned and have also scaled up to a full platoon of infantry, so that all the options are available including using the No End in Sight rules.
I've now added a third Saracen so that the whole platoon gets battle taxis.
ReplyDeleteInteresting project. How different is this organization from say a 1980s infantry platoon. Were the uniforms substantially different?
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty much the same although there are no AT weapons in my platoon, as they aren't needed. The uniforms are the light tropical versions, although these are Peter Pig AK47 figures so the webbing is completely wrong (not that I'm bothered)
ReplyDeleteLooks like a good start! I do like some of the early cold war Pommy kit, it sees quite a bit of use in my Iran-Iraq War games and Lebanon 1982+ :)
ReplyDeleteIt's very cool and looks pretty mean...need to get a Stalwart and a couple of Humber Pigs!
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