Rapid Fire!/ Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The French made AMX -30 AuF1 of the Republican Guard

 

These models come from the excellent Altaya range. I ended up with a total of 12 of them, with 6 going to the IRGC (Iraqi Republican Guard Corps) and the other 6 going to one of the Gulf War enemies, the Saudis. At the beggining the RF system was giving two pices of artillery per battery but recently I´ve noticed a decrease with just one model representing the whole battery. So like this you can have one or two battalions of artillery. 

The IRGC apparently got all of the 85 (some sources say around 70) of these artillery systems and they seemed to have mostly survived the Iran-Iraq war, 1991 and 2003 wars as rows of them were present at Camp Taji, Baghdad, after 2003. Probably they were at rear echelons in the 1991 ground battles (even if some show up abandoned/destroyed) and around 2003 they were missing spare parts and became immobilized. I painted the red triangle of the IRGC on both sides of the turret without being sure it was there. I saw modellers painting these but with the top white part painted grey. 

The good thing of having these together with BMP-1s and T-72s of the Saladin AD is to quickly put together an armored or mechanized RG divisions like the Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, Medinah or the Tawakalma . 

Another possible type of markings is this one as seen on a Hammurabi AD vehicle, a photo I´ve found after finishing this lot.

The models were repainted Vallejo Iraqi sand as usual and changed with the addition of EverGreen plastic side skirts, stowage at the turret rack, antenna and a Soviet AA machine gun. 

Next: a big brawl of WW2 tanks between the Slovaks, the Soviets and even the Americans. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 14) - A few more Indians stands and some scenic figures with a big Thank You to Stuart Jarman

 

This is a very nice and useful group of Atlantic, Imex, Lucky Toys and Airfix figures that a fellow wargamer, Stuart Jarman,  sent me for free from the USA. There are still another group of them not shown as they were used to replace a number of broken Atlantic figures after a plastic drawer decided to learn how to fly. As the figures were quite brittle some 17 of them broke in some 10 stands and were replaced by very nice Imex figures offered by Stuart Jarman. I also kept aside the Apache Atlantic figures for the future.

The idea is to use as much as possible these figures to beef up whether my fighting stands of Sioux and Cheyenne for Little Big Horn or start some vignettes to give more color to the Indian camp. 

These became very handy as they are necessary for the Little big Horn squaw trail from were children and women escaped from the 7th US cavalry.  

Six more fighting stands were added. The Imex figures are particularly welcome as they have a very nice archer shooting its arrows. 

These two represent the  suicide boys (more or less some 24 sioux and Cheyenne that vowed to die in the battle if necessary) that were apparently vital in opening holes in the lines of the 5 companies of Custer. If the same had happened at Reno´s position maybe the outcome of that particular fight could have been different. 

Now a few vignettes. The idea is to give some life to the Little Big Horn big camp. These are Imex figures.

These canoes will be inside the river even if more probably in another scenario. 

These Atlantic horses can be used for the herds inside the camp or to go along with dismounted warriors. 

A peaceful meeting just because we need them. 

Next: more Iraqi artillery