Soviet AGS-17 Plamya in 28mm

I finally got this little sucker finished after a few ups and downs during the build process. 

It is an AGS-17 Plamya (flame) Automatic grenade launcher, which fires a 30mm round. I've made an Afghan guerilla to man the thing. As with so much Soviet kit it is used by many armies and guerilla groups around the world.

Here is a shot of the completed weapon and gunner.

I had some really solid photos and stats in books, and as usual found plenty of useful stuff online. 

The weapon was built around a core of copper wire, and initially the tripod was affixed to the base. I couldn't talk Nic into casting the tripod and base as one piece, so ended up popping the completed tripod off the base (....tricky!) and got the Playma and it's tripod cast up, enabling me to work out a viable way of mating it to the base.

Here's the gunner being worked-up. Eventually I would need to cut him in half so that he could be cast, just the job for a brand new razor-saw that I had in my toolbox.

After plenty of fiddling about, all the pieces came together. I used one of the heads from my original      Afghans but gave him a rhinoplasty. It's really satisfying now the Playma is done! This means that the  suite of Soviet support weapons for the Eureka moderns is just about complete, plus I can add this weapon to other sets to round out their heavy support.

28mm Modern US Navy SEALs

This is the second group of SEALs that I have sculpted for Eureka Miniatures, this time equipped with GPNVG-18 night-vision goggles and suppressed HK416 Assault Rifles.

I thought that the four prominent tubes were a great opportunity to try painting some gem-style lenses. There are four figures, and this time the heads are separate to facilitate the casting of the NVG's. One figure carries a compact breaching kit with telescoping tools.

  I've also designed the figures so that they can be grouped closely together to form a 'stack', which is something that I've wanted to do with a group of figures since I starting sculpting moderns. The stack formation is used in urban warfare when entering or breaching a room in order to get as many shooters into a room in as short a time as possible.

I've based them as a stack here just for something different, though of course each figure works just as well on its own.

Thanks for looking.

Somali Militia 2: The New Batch

This is the second group of 28mm Somali gunmen, now with distinctive and somewhat menacing scarves to cover faces, plus some longer pants and extra kit here and there to impart a more military look.

These will be available from Eureka Miniatures.

The leader figure gets a Chi-com chest-rig, while the RPG gunners have some fancy backpacks now.

You can mix 'em with the unmasked militants to create some variety, or use them as some sort of full-time insurgent group. I usually don't do straight up head-swaps but have made an exception with the Somalis since I really wanted them finished and off the workbench as soon as possible. 

I'm looking forward to painting these so expect to see some painted examples soon.

28mm Somali Militia

The first group of Somalis are finished, and in fact already dropped off at Eureka Miniatures so that Nic can work his magic and make the mould.... hooray! The Somalis have been on my workbench for a few months, first building the dollies (which are basic figures, just a torso, legs and head) then creating what you see in these photographs. I intend adding a second set which will be basically the same except that they will have scarves covering their faces.

The wild bunch.

I'm really happy with the of poses in this set, ranging from the eccentric to the more competent.

Three figures are missing from these photos, the set has eleven in total. 

Sunflowers diorama

I made this BT-5 and sunflowers diorama many years ago. The 1/35 BT-5 is the old Zvezda model, while the German soldier is a Hornet product. The sunflowers were scratchbuilt using paper and wire and the remains of the two crewmen were also built from scratch; they were some of the first figures that I ever sculpted. 

The inspiration for this diorama was a photo in one of the old Time-Life World War Two books of a Soviet tank standing in a field of newly grown sunflowers. The sunflowers very much suggest the Russian steppe to me, while the presence of the unfortunate crewmen, while shocking, is meant as a counterpoint to the living sunflowers.

I hope you guys like it!