20mm, 1983 Grenada/Cuba Moderns Project

Once again, I have been busy painting and flocking as of late. Here are my latest 20mm metal Cuban soldiers ready for assignment on the Island of Grenada. They are a mix of 20mm Stan Johansen Miniatures and some other metal miniature cubans.

 This is a unit of Cuban workers that have been trained to use weapons for 'self defense'. These men were responsible for the construction of the Point Salines Airstrip on Grenada.

 This is a unit of Cuban Revolutionaries.  They are ready to defend their position against any hostile invader to the Island of Grenada.

Here's another unit of Cuban Infantry, well trained and well armed for 'defense'.

The last miniatures are a couple of the Russian "Advisers" assisting the Cuban work crews.  It certainly looks like the officer on the right has a map of the Point Salines Airport on the southwest corner of the Island of Grenada.  These miniatures are from Stan Johansen Miniatures.

Falkland Islands: Argentinean Forces, 20mm modern

I don't have any 'real' Argentinean miniatures, but these will have to do for now.  They can also double as Cuban elite/marines for a future Grenada game or any other modern, Central or South American disturbance that I create.  The metal miniatures are part of the 'Merc' line of miniatures from Stan Johansen Miniatures.

Since my AA7V, from Dragon Models, doesn't have any US markings on it, it is on loan to the Argentinean forces to patrol Goose Green or any other small Falkland hamlet.  I still need to find at least one AML-90 Panhard Armored Car for the Argentineans' use .

We'll call these 'Echo' Company.  They have a typical olive drab uniform, web gear, blue berets, and a mix of weapons.  They can easily serve with just about any army, including Argentina, Cuba, Russia, and even the U.N.

 A close up of the 'Blue Berets'.

We'll call these 'Foxtrot' Company. They have a typical 3-color, tiger stripe camo uniform, olive green web gear, black berets, and a mix of weapons. I thought it was just a cool camo scheme and came out good for 20mm figures.

 A close up of the 'Black Berets'.

 We'll call these 'Gamma' Company. They have a typical 4-color, Russian camo uniform, olive green web gear, green berets, and a mix of weapons.  Again, they will serve proudly under some unfortunate dictator.

 A close up of the 'Green Berets'.

New $1 find at Target

OK, I was at Target and browsing through the Dollar aisles at the front and found these two packs of cheap plastic army men.  At first I picked them up (thinking the vehicles had some potential use with my 20mm modern troops.) and then put them down again, and even walked away.  However, I had to go back to rule #2 of gaming acquisition: If you see something that will work, buy it now because when you go back for it, it will be gone!  I've violated that rule too many times to not heed the warning.  So, I went back and picked up a bag of each.

Here are the two bags.

Bag #1 (Left) has 28 pieces that included a truck with an absurd weapon on the back, an undersized plane, and 26 figures. I thought all of the plastic men were useless until I saw the four kneeling figures with a 30 cal. MG.  I'll probably cut these off to use with my Car Wars vehicle conversions or for use with the helicopter as a 50 cal. MG.

 Bag #2 has 22 (Right) pieces that included a tank, a helicopter, and 20 figures.  Again, I thought all of the plastic men were useless until I saw the four kneeling figures with a 50 cal. MG. I'll probably cut these off to use with my Car Wars vehicle conversions as they are too large to use with the helicopter as MG's.

 Here are the four vehicles with 20mm modern contractors (not completely painted yet) for scale.

Truck: I'm going to cut off the hideous weapon (that will leave a big gaping hole in the cheap plastic truck) and add a utility/transport bed made out of plastic styrene.  This will serve as a transport truck for one of my smaller modern contingents in need of transportation. (I.E.: 20mm Grenadians, Argentineans, Cubans, or Somalis.) 

Small Plane: I may cut off the bottom struts/wheels and use it as a UAV/drone. I'm not sure yet.

Tank: At first I thought it was too small, but after looking at it, I think it will be turned into an armored,  infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), sort of BMP-2-ish.  The turret needs to go, or at least cut off the main mantlet/gun and the rear portion and replace with bits of plastic and a new, smaller caliber, main gun.  Similar to the truck, this vehicle may be put into service with a variety of the smaller, modern contingent countries in need of a little armor.

Helicopter: The main reason for getting the pack was to turn this into a good/cheap replica of an OH-58 Kiowa. You can never have too many of these. I'll need to remove one of the sets of blades and maybe use a bead or something on top of the rotors for the optic sights to make it a scout. It will certainly come in handy and will be well used by my contractors employed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world.

Here's the Kiowa glued together, mold line trimmed and sanded, and primed with some Krylon Fusion black paint. The 20mm contractor is shown for scale.

Here's the IFV glued together, mold line trimmed and sanded, and primed with the Krylon Fusion black paint. Again, the turret needs to go.  The 20mm contractor is shown for scale.  The hideous truck is in the background.  However, by the time I get done with it, it won't be an ugly duckling any longer.   Now that I think about it, I may have to either make some type of emplaced gun position out of the hideous gun, or just relegate it to the parts box.