Able Archer/ RFR rules - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 16) - Ukrainian SU-27

At the beggining of the war in 2022, the UAF had around 32 serviceable of these potent if relatively old fighters. At least 20 have been lost and, as no one has these fighters in Europe, receiving new aircraft or parts is impossible. Even so they are still at use, with some having been modified to fire western weapons like GBU-39 bombs, HARM missiles and JDAM gliding bombs. 

This 1/72nd scale model came from Aliexpress, without any brand being mentioned and its a companion to a SU-25 shown here some time ago. 

The model comes cleverly painted and is made of blocks that fit very well. A bit of super glue makes all parts bond easily. In fact its the digital camouflage that made me leave my Italeri model inside the box and turn to this much better and quicker to build option. 

The only added part was a plastic pilot. 

And the only paint added was the complicated UAF emblem. The stand was also painted and textured as it came in black plastic. 

Next: the Belgians at Waterloo

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 16) - Ukrainian Su-25s

 

The Su-25 was and still is the main ground attack aircraft of the PS ZSU. The Ukrainian air force went to war with 43 flyable Su-25s, got an extra 18 airframes from Macedonia and Bulgaria and lost at least 20 of the jets in action, leaving at most 41 in service.  The models came from Aliexpress and they build very easily with all parts already painted (thus two Number 9...). This is great as the digital camouflage is very hard to paint and that reason is kepting me from making a Su-27 and a pair of Mig-29 from the stash.

 They are meant to be toys and a few details are missing like the front sensors. The aircraft stands were painted to look like the Altaya stands in the collection. 

I have all aircraft for this conflict with pilots inside and these last ones were the only addition. 

They came with some simple wheels and if you don´t use them some holes will be left to be seen. Nothing you can´t live with as this angle is not seen in wargaming (I hope...).

Next: More Retroaranda models for WW2 or more Napoleonics.

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 15) - Ukraine turns (more and more) to Europe

 

With Trump/US weapons having to be paid for almost a year by now, Ukraine shifted almost completely to free European weapons. Its the case of the Italian B1 Centauro (November 2025) and the French VAB (already since late 2022)  and Mirage 2000-5F (February 2025). All models are repainted Altaya die-casts.

While the vehicles were easily blackwashed, dusted and some markings added, the Mirage 2000 was more complicated with the erasure of the French markings and the painting of the tricky Ukrainian markings. Fortunatley they left the camouflage as it was and forgot the geometrical greys! Also a pilot was inserted in the cockpit. 

The problem with nowadys vehicles in Ukraine, both Ukrainian and Russian is the anti-drone protection that really I still didn´t figure out how to do in a simple and speedy way to both fleets. 

Next: the 3rd US Marine Battalion for the Pacific.

RFR/Able Archer - The Iraqi Airforce in 1/72nd scale

This one started to be built during the Gulf War itself as aircraft were some of the miniatures available to portray Iraqis. The vast majority are plastic model kits with a few more recent Die-cast.

RFR/Able Archer - The Iraqi III Army Corps support

This is the last video for the ground troops of Saddam in Kuwait. There is artillery, reconnaissance and some navy for the famous southern Khafji landings. The usual brands are Cromwell, Skytrex, Irregular Miniatures, Altaya with the usual scratch building with help from many other brands.

RFR/Able Archer - The army of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait 91 (part 2), the 5th Mechanized Division

One more division of the Iraqi III corps. This one, the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim, is another famous big unit of the Iraqi army with participations in the last three wars of the country, the Iran-Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and the US invasion of 2003. I became interested in this Division after the opening of the ground war in the 1991 Iraqi Khafji offensive were the 5th MID had a central role. It was equipped with different models of the T-55 series and APCs (in fact Chinese T-59 and K-63). Still a few heavy mortars are missing as well as some tractors for the artillery.

RFR/Able Archer - The army of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait 91 (part 1), the 3rd Saladin Armored Division

This one is really heavy. Not only in the amount of armored vehicles but also because most of the vehicles are Skytrex metal, true shelf benders. This division was the most famous of the regular army (not counting the Iraqi Republican Guard) and fought several wars from 1973 up to 2003. Its armored and mechanized brigades fielded plenty T-72 and BMP-1 and the artillery was crammed with 2S1 and 2S3 systems, which, for those days were quite potent weapons. During Kuwait War the 3rd Saladin opened the ground war with the coalition with the attack on Khafji, together with other units of the Iraqi III corps. Most of the information for making this division was taken from the excellent article on Millitary Modelling Vol.30 No08 by Cookie Sewell.

Rapid Fire!/ Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The French made AMX -30 AuF1 of the Iraqi 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, Soviets, Japanese and even the Americans. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 13) - Reinforcements for the 11th ACR and some more aircraft

 

Some 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) elements advance in the middle of My Blue province when they are surprised by a low flight of some friendly aircraft, that could well have been some Migs... Well, this event was not registred in the unit´s history and its presented here first hand. 

Each squadron of the 11th ACR had three rifle squads (one per troop) transported in M-113 A1. I read that even these ones could also have the ACAV version but the regiment will end up with nine of these so three of the more plain A1 version looks OK. I´m not sure about placing a simple shield in front of the 12,5mm gun but I still couldn´t find a photo of them like this, the ACAV version being the more common. All models are quick build S-Model.

The figures are left-to-right, Skytrex and Airfix modern fighter pilots which suit the US cavalry tank helmet pretty well. 

Each troop also had a M-106 mortar carrier. I used again the S-Model for this conversion using a M-106 from Esci as a template. Bits of different types of plastic were used and even the mortar base came from a Revell 7YW Austrian artillery wheel. 

The crew is Esci and the M-16 rifles were cut until looking like a 107mm mortar shell. Later, the rifle part/shells were smoothed with a bit of  thick acrylic paint. 

As the mortar base was very brittle (old Revell style) I placed a jerrycan covering the damaged part. 

The floor of the M-106 (light sand part) was also raised so the figures and mortar could sit correctly. 

The Cadillac V-100, mostly used by the Military Police, are very old Corgi Juniors toys. The size is around 20mm as I have a number of Saudi V-150 in 1/87th scale that are smaller. 

The resin figures are surplus from the 3d printed PBR boat and the metal figure is Skytrex. 

The Huey Gunship is Revell. 

The Mohawk is the old Hasegawa model. One of these slow moving aircraft managed to put down a Mig-17 with its rockets, something that was kept as a secret up to 2007, as the army didn´t want USAF to know about this feat and force the Army to disarm its Mohawk as putting down Migs was a USAF exclusive. 

This A-4 Skyhawk F is the old Frog in Israeli colors. All these three aircraft got new star and stripes decals from the decals left-over box and all other symbols were hand painted. This one looks particularly bad as the symbold are painted on top of the grey primer as its (just by chance) the same color and painting style of another Skyhawk C from Altaya that I showed you before. 

Next: Guadalcanal models or a video on Bodrum, Gettysburg or Tarawa. 

Able Archer / RFR rules - Last haul from a 2nd hand fair

 

One of my biggest pleasures, exceptuating the ones were small people are made (or not), is to find old kits that remind me of my childhood. And I think this craze is increasing with the end of the  old style  model shops. So last month I had  news from one of my down town informers (can´t say his name), the one that sells my mother Corin Tellado books, that in Tomar, a city some 70 km from Coimbra (as a side note, Coimbra is still the capital of Portugal, as there is no document of any transfer of capital to Lisbon) a guy nicknamed Zé Manco (Joseph Lame, in english) was selling a large quantity of old plastic models at the 2nd hand fair of Tomar, on the first sunday of each month. So there I was looking for the guy on that day. Not easy as the fair is huge, but I saw a lame guy moving with some difficulty and I was sure to have found my target. 

Among plenty of others, I found these 5 old treasures in perfect conditions:

- The Lancaster will go along with the Revell one I showed a month or so ago just because two is much better than one

- The Sheridan will go to my 11th Black Horse Regiment in Vietnam

- The T-34/85 (had no idea that Polistil made 1/72nd models) with go to the NVA

- The Skyhawk will go also to the Vietnam

- The Seagull will go Guadalcanal as this campaign is starting to bite my brain.

Next month I´ll be there again at Tomar as Zé Manco still has a big box at home that he didn´t bring last time. 

Next: More Vietnam, mostly vehicles

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 11) - The Mobile Riverine Force

 

The Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) was created in 1967 to counter the VC activities in the Mekong river. These  boats were conversions from the LCM 6 and carried plenty of fire power and had bar armor to protect from the RPGs. The main boat type was the Armored Troop Carrier (ATC).

The MRF was divided into Assault Groups each with around 100 boats of different types capable of transporting one reinforced infantry battalion from the 9th infantry division. The headquarters of these groups was also on water and on board of large LSTs. 

One of the main types was the ATC H (for Helicopter) designed mainly for Medevac. 

Another famous type was the Monitor that would generally lead the column along the rivers. They were heavily armed with 40mm canons, Mk2 mortars and 50 caliber machine guns. Some had M10-8 flamethrowers "Zippo" later on. 

An usual finding in the Mekong was oil, the main reason why the USA... travelled so much around the world. Here this soldier carried as much oil as he could almost drowning on it. 

Of course this story is BS as the black pool is just a way to give some depth to the weapons bay were the Mk2 mortar sits.

Here is another one. The figures are torsos from Esci and the mortars are scratch built. 

The last type of boat is the ATC, the most numerous of all. It could carry up to 40 soldiers and was armed with 20mm canons and 50 caliber machine guns. 

If you don´t want to loose patience doing these things you can have some nice 3d prints already available. The problem for me was that most were from the UK or the US (time + customs problems) or were files from continental Europe and I still don´t have a printer. 

But if you want to loose patience, this is how I did it. The hull was made from wood and its 21cm long (1,5 cm longer than my LCM 3 which was 1,8 meters shorter than the LCM 6).

The control towers were made in hard styrofoam (BlueBoard) and the gun towers are cut down hard rubber chair protections bought in Chinese shops.

Plenty of 3mm card was added for the bar armor, deck and machine covers and ramps. The most troublesome part was to carve horizontally dozens of lines with the X-acto on the side pieces of card in order to simulate the bar protections. The vertical bars are pieces of broom sticks. The life buoys are vinyl pieces. If you want to use Blueboard on your constructions don´t forget to varnish it with PVA glue or acrylic varnish before using your spray primer. 

Next:  more armor for Vietnam

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 10) - First battalions of Vietcong Local Force

 

The Vietcong was organized in two main forces for the wargames table, the Main force, generally the best equipped and that you can see in a previous post, and the Local Force, not as well equipped as it was made of local inhabitants that had to conceal their weapons all the time and dressed mostly in civilian clothes. I made the battalions of VC Local force with six figures per company and only with one mortar per battalion. The figures Orion and Esci (the guys in shorts and the ones with a soft hat with a peak and AK47). 

The left stand had a moon shaped piece of wood glued to the main round base in order to make the prone figure sit more comfortably. The figure with the AK47 and soft "Khmer Rouge" hat was transformed into the woven straw conical hat with the help of Milliput.

The mortars were scratchbuilt as I have very few left. The figures holding cargo in the Local Force Orion box were converted into mortar crews. 

Next: More Vietnam, probably Tango boats or M-113s. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 9) - A PBR and a few more US tanks

 

Just a short one for some new goodies. The PBR is a 3d resin print from Frontline Collection Store that you can get from Aliexpress, the M48A3 is MiniGeneral 3d PLA print and the Sheridan is Airfix. 

The PBR boat (of Apocalipse Now fame) is a beautiful, extremely detailed and well packed 3d resin printed model. Some parts are a bit fragile but a strong base around it solve most of those problems. A number of surplus guns and crew were left aside as they will be helpful somewhere else. 

Its not a cheap thing at around 30 euros but surely its a quality model.

The Sheridan tank got the 11th ACR markings as its the US unit I´m trying to make, it has virtually everything you need for ground US forces: the infantry; the M113 ACAV and other variants; the M48A3, the Sheridan and the M109 together with Huey support. 

The Airfix Sheridan is quite basic but with a number of additions it becomes a reasonable model. Years ago I converted a number of them for Kuweit 1991 with 82nd Airborne colors. The wire mesh at the front are 3d resin printed leftovers. 

This M48 is in fact the A2 variant with a lower engine. In order for it to look taller I used plenty of stowage on the engine deck. Apart from this an Airfix M2 Browning was drilled in the top cuppola of the turret. The 1st tank company of three M48s is done. 

Next: The Vietcong Local Force battalions

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 8) - The NVA infantry

The North Vietnamese infantry is one of the essentials together with the Vietcong for the war with the USA between 1963-75. Half of the figures are the new Orion NVA while the rest are old ESCI. A total of  three battalions of NVA, a full regiment, was added. 

These two B-11 107mm recoiless rifle were added to the Vietcong. The models started with very old barrels from the Ontos Anti Tank vehicle that Atlantic produced in the 70s. Then all other parts were made from scratch. The figures are ESCI and Orion.

Here you have the models before painting. The guns became bigger than they should as they departed from the old Atlantic parts which were made as toys and always big, particularly the vehicles. 

Each battalion has one more base than the VC and the 81mm mortars were scratchbuilt from EverGreen plastics. 

For the bases of the mortars I used small wheels. The figure in the middle lost its AK47 and received a mortar round. 

Next: a WW2 Japanese Aircraft carrier (finally, after many threats).