More Cubans & African Village

I continue to work in high gear towards being ready for this Saturday's first playtest of "Smokin' Some Cubans" at the monthly meeting of the Central Ohio Gamers Association (COGA). I have actually had these two batches completed a few days ago. Extreme cold temperatures forced me to hold off clearcoating them until it warmed up a bit.

Cuban Officer, along with the RPGs and LMGs for my Cuban continengent

The first group is of the RPGs and LMGs for the Cubans. There is also an officer figure present, which will finish out my force of Cubans for the scenario.  To come up with the needed figures armed with these weapons, I had to do a bit of improvising. First, all three RPG gunners are figure modifications. None of these was carrying an RPG, although the bottom right figure had a rocket of some sort in his hands. I pulled out some of my already-painted Liberation Miniatures figs armed with RPGs and stared at them, hoping for inspiration.

Finally, an idea came. The rocket on an RPG looks an awful lot like a spearhead. I pulled out my unpainted pack of weapons for my Ancients figures and pulled out a few different varieties of spears. I eventually settled on 28mm spears, trimming the shaft down to the appropriate length. I took the length I'd cut off and trimmed it further to create the handles. It was a very fiddly operation epoxying these two handles to the spear, but it worked. I then epoxied the weapons themselves on to the figures and I had the three RPG gunners I needed. The LMG-armed figures all came from another source of 20mm figures (FAA, I think). For the officer, I am pretty sure these are WWII Germans in soft cap, but I would not swear to it. With appropriate painting and mustache, they become stand-in Cubans. I really like the officer with his arm raised -- I think he's my favorite of the bunch!

More resin buildings for the Angolan village

Next up are some more buildings for the Angolan village that will be fought over in "Smokin' Some Cubans." All but the large hut in the back are inexpensive resin pieces from Michaels hobby store here in the U.S. I did my usual black base coat, sprayed and second coat brushed on, with 2-3 dry brush coats over the top. Both had a Camo Brown second layer over the black. However, the hut walls and the wood gazebo were followed up by Khaki, while the thatch roofs were a Dun yellow. I toned this down with light gray over it, and a final black wash. My usual method for resin buildings, it seems.

The larger "Chieftain's Hut" in the back is actually from Acheson Creations Celtic line. The similarity of architectural styles and materials makes it a good stand-in for a hut belonging to a village bigwig.

The next post will be of the village's fences, which I have been working on for awhile, now. Once they are done, the village is ready for the tabletop -- at least for the first playtest!