And On The Third Squad I Said Let There Be Pink

So, having painted up x3 squads of the NAC Rifles- pack A from GZG for my Fenland Air Assault Regiment (FAAR), I am finally starting to achieve results that I am reasonably happy with at least. I know some people out there wont like it but I have toned down the bright blue/sky blue fatigues under the armour to a light grey colour which I think does work much better. So now I just have to master hand painting the vehicles and the Free Coalition Rebel colour schemes for both the infantry and the vehicles but I have almost decided on this. They will be in camo as they are low tech, semi-professional rebels that share their border with the New Fenland Republic.

I am now going to be working on the VTOL dropships for these FAAR troopers as they are effectively an elite air cavalry regiment in the world of the Dis-United Kingdom. By the way, these figures are on temporary painting bases as I need to purchase some circular and hex bases for my little sci-fi troopers.

Also, I will be painting up some FCT troopers in the next few days and when I get paid next I will be purchasing the USE ME sci-fi rules from http://www.15mm.co.uk/ which seem to be a rule system that is right up my street in that it lets you get on and enjoy a game. As well as these rules I will also be purchasing a set of the Gruntz rules when they become available as a hardback although they are available as a PDF from Wargames Vault for a very meagre $9! And the USE ME rules are about £3.50! With rules sets like these available at these prices you cant possibly complain!

Lots of ideas still kicking around in my head about how to develop the background, scenarios as well as ideas for the other superstates in the world of the futuristic, low to mid-tech world of the almost anarchic and wartorn Dis-United Kingdom.

Anywho, its taken me a while to used to painting 15's again as I have been painting 6mm for a while now. This project has made me get to grips with things like wet pal,lets, blending again, dry brushing, using minimal amounts of paint to try and preserve small detail and mastering once again dry brushing. Although my first vehicle (see earlier posts) was a slight disaster when compared with what I hoped to achieve. But nevermind, like the infantry, the vehicles will fall in line.

Now for the eye candy:

So let me know what ya think and even what ya think of the project in general?

I look forward to hearing from anyone who feels sorry enough for me to read ths blog!

Toodaloo for now
Rhys

Free Coalition Townships Receive Reinforcements

Well, what can I say, I put the order in to GZG and Jon worked the weekend so I received my order on Tuesday just two days later! Fantastic. So now I have infantry and AFV's for the FCT. As well as the Fenland Air Assault Regiment. I have now painted 4 basic squads for the FAAR and once I have finished the next two basic squads and then the SAW gunners I will attempt to paint up the first VTOL for the FAAR and begin work on the FCT infantry. I have used the OUDF GZG infantry for the FCT Defence Force. On top of this I have ordered militia and armed civilian types to form the townships local militia. I also invested in the Ravagers infantry packs which are beautiful figures as well as the individual heads packs which are also awesome to do my first 15mm conversions! The FCT Defence Force have x6 Low tech APC's (4 wheeled, 2 tracked) on top of which they have a wheeled command vehicle and x2 wheeled SPG's as well as x2 manned AT Guns and x2 wheeled utility trucks with tribarrel autocannon mountings. So lots of options then. Lots more photos to follow, probably this afternoon hopefully. I have been working alot of late so trying to fit in painting and posting has been a little frustrating!

Toodaloo for now
Rhys

Breaking News...Breaking News...Breaking News

Live in 3.2.1

Good evening, I'm Ballan Lugar, coming live from the FCT Trade Council HQ at Hertford Major for News Without Borders Network (NWBN) with some controversial breaking news.

Tonight it has been confirmed by a source, whose identity is being protected, close to the council that the FCT have secured a deal with MidGuard for MidGuard to supply the small FCT Defence Force with a number of military vehicles, arms and ammunition. This comes as hostilities between the Free Coalition Townships and the New Fenland Republic escalate, ever edging closer, day by day, to war.

The FCT sent delegates to MidGuard as well as two other states whose task it was to secure military aid in the form of hardware such as APC's, as well as arms and ammunition to equip the FCT Defence Force adequately enough so that in case of all out war with the New Fenland Republic, they are able to properly defend themselves.

The deal comes in exchange for favourable quantities and prices on FCT supervised exports from the free towns and villages that border the New Fenland Republic. Apparently the deal primarily concentrates on exports of food stuffs to MidGuard, whom as a result of environmental waste and toxins and decades of war and anarchy can not produce safe food stuffs for their population in sufficient quantities but have a revitalised manufacturing hub including the manufacturing of military hardware, arms and munitions. Seemingly this deal couldnt come at a better time for both sides.

It is further reported that the FCT are to receive 8 wheeler APC's which were being stored at a secondary military depot and would only be issued to second or even third line units as a result of them being rather obsolete by the modern standard but still potent enough to cope on the modern battlefield with a more modern enemy. Also, at least two heavy, tracked APC's are also being sent to the FCT's Defence Force from and by MidGuard. We are told that the hardware, arms and munitions will be despatched to the FCT  imminently as war preparations continue in the FCT at an accelerated rate.

I'm Ballan Lugar, goodnight.

END OF TRANSMISSION...

The Free Coalition Townships And The New Fenland Republic

The Free Coalition Townships (FCT) is exactly as it sounds. It is a coalition of free villages and towns in what the New Fenland Republic considers rebel territory. The FCT is not recognised by any of the nine super states, well officially that is, but the FCT is close to becoming strong enough to form its own small state on the borders of the New Fenland Republic. The members of the FCT (villages and new townships) still primarily lookout for themselves and their own alone and independently of each other and the super states. However, the FCT came about initially as trade began to grow again between these tiny population centres, and as they grew they recognised the benefits of inter-trade agreements between each other and the growth and prosperity this would bring. Particularly, the agricultural wealth of these borderlands and its potential was and is immense as the soil here is largely unscathed and fertile with only gentle rolling slopes at worst making arable farming relatively easy and due to massive food shortages, massively profitable. As the trade grew and new rural population centres grew so did the trade between them and the treaty of Hertford Major cemented these relations into a permanent and substantial trade agreement which all villages and townships sent representatives to and agreed upon. This was a massive step forward for the FCT Trade & Commerce Council who became a permanent body based at Hertford Major. The FCT was now well on the evolutionary road to becoming a burgeoning united and independent state with a stable, good economy relative to the whole of the Dis-United Kingdom. This however, did not sit at all well with the New Fenland Republic, both the government and the general population were alarmed and jealous. The New Fenland Republic had also grown fat and rich on an arable/agricultural economy in a world of severe food shortages thanks to its relatively unscathed fertile soil. The NFR were threatened by this FCT upstart and knew that something had to be done as the NFR had designs on this border/rebel territory to further its power and coffers and needed to act before the FCT became a consolidated recognised and therefore powerful state which would severely curtail the NFR's ambitions. If they could secure the rebel lands known now as the FCT then the NFR would practically be the richest and therefore one of the most powerful superstates of the Dis-United Kingdom. Although still lacked the populations of other states due to its low population density as a primarily rural/agricultural economy.

The first tactic the New Fenland Republic tried was intended to bring the FCT to heal by sending a diplomatic mission to the FCT, its primary objective being to manipulate, coerce and push/invite the FCT to join the NFR as the FCT but recognising NFR's hegemony over the FCT. This was a ruse designed by the NFR to simply allow the NFR to 'swallow' up the FCT. However, after 3 weeks of talks and stalemates the NFR diplomats delivered a government approved ultimatum:

"...it is our intention that these rebel lands, harbouring terrorists and outlaws of the most despicable kind as well as heinous mutants, which have the self proclaiming title of the Free Coalition Townships shall and will recognise the laws and statutes of the honourable, just and liberated Republic of New Fenland. These (FCT) people call themselves free yet infringe constantly and without guilt upon the human rights of the good people of the New Fenland Republic through piracy, banditry and even paramilitary border activity committing atrocities without warning or remorse. They threaten and pillage our lands, our merchants and our people and yet expect no retaliation or consequences themselves or infringements upon their freedoms as so-called human beings. We are determined to bring these rogues and vagabonds, these animals and mutants to heel to protect our own people, our own borders and our own way of life. We are one and resided in this matter. As a result I have but one offer to present to you now after three weeks of attempting to make you (FCT) see reason and agree to entreat and conjoin with us, you have been nothing  but cold and obstinate towards our cordial invites. The one offer, therfore, is to agree to our terms or be forced by military means to conjoin with us. Our air fleets are ready, our marines are ready, our guns are ready!"

Shortly after this ultimatum was presented to the representatives of the FCT the NFR's diplomatic mission was expelled for Hertford Major. A message was sent to the NFR's government stating that all NFR "...peoples are not welcome in the lands of the FCT and should not seek shelter or succour within our borders, or they shall be arrested and tried as a spy..."

After this the NFR and FCT ceased all communications and their borders were shut to each other. There was a stalemate that now could only be broken by military action. Both sides mobilized and immediately set about strengthening their borders. A few border villages and small towns were immediately seized without a fight by NFR militia as their borders were strengthened in preparation for receiving attacks as well as launching offensives.

The FCT, whilst having a strong growing economy, lacked the funding in their coffers for any significant professional miltiary force. The FCT Defence Force (FCTDF) was a very small semi-professional military force that was more used to policing and escort duties for trade and commerce and had seen little or no real military action. The FCT realised very quickly that they were very vulnerable to the miltary might of the NFR, in particular the fast moving, well equipped and well trained Fenland Air Assault Regiment that was something of an elite in the Dis-United Kingdom, a rarity indeed! Therefore, a full assembly of the FCT Trade & Commerce Council was called at Hertford Major. The agenda being of how to handle offensive action against the FCT by the NFR and in particular the Fenland Air Assault Regiment.

After only two days of discussion and suggestions the FCT had decided upon its major strategies as a result of the urgency of the situation. The Emergency Military Treaty of Hertford Major was signed setting a precedent in the FCT for military conflict- one step closer to a complete union through miltary co-operation as well as trade.

The results were that the FCTDF was to become a permanent professional military force backed up by a policy of conscription. However, this would take time to have any effect and in the interim period several other measures would be taken. Firstly, volunteers throughout the FCT would be called for with the benefit of being granted a free plot of arable land after 10 years service in the FCTDF- not to be sneezed at! Then, each member population centre would be required to form its own militia defence force- and anyone between the ages of 16 to 40 regardless of sex would be required to attend 4 hours of training once a week, rifles, ammunition and equipment would be provided as and when it could be procured. These militias would be required to defend their place of resident when under direct attack but also provide assistance if military actuion ensues within a certain distance of their place of residence. In times of severe need they would also be required to go further afield and even help to conduct offensive operations.

Also the council approved moves to contact some of the other super staters in the Dis-United Kingdom to try and secure aid and assistance by offering to cause trouble to the NFR which would directly benefir the other ambitious states who had their own designs on the Dis-United Kingdom and feared the wealth and strength of the NFR. This could prove to provide urgently needed military hardware in particular as well as small arms and ammunition if a lengty conflict ensued.

The council then agreed to release funding to each of the major townships form central funds to pay for the fortification of the said major towns and wherever possible other strategically important areas. Strong defences in depth could be enough to stall any NFR major offensives.

It was also decided that the small FCTDF should immediately go on the offensive to try and secure resources and supplies that were being stockpiled just over the border by NFR forces in preparation for an offensive. This could offer up urgently needed arms and ammunition as well as other supplies such as medical immediately if successful and small, mobile forces should find it easy to conduct cross border raids which hopefully the NFR would not suspect.

The council was dismissed and the members dispersed to the populartion centres that they represented carrying the news of what had been decided and how best to implement it at the local level. Within a week militias had been formed and towns were q1uickly being fortified. War wasnt a question of if and when but how soon and how!

The scene was set, The NFR would either demonstrate their power once more and render yet another fledgling state extinct or face humiliation if the FCT were able to somehow prevent the NFR's ambitions from becoming a reality. If the FCT could stymie the NFR or even push their forces back and conduct offensive operations then the otyher vultures would start to circle the diminishing NFR and eventually move in to pick at the remains of a once powerful and proud nation.

So, second order sent to GZG for FCT forces. I would just like to say thankyou to Jon at Ground Zero Games who is absolutely brilliant- always helpful and willing to offer and advice and replies to emails at midnight and I have a query whilst working late. The products are fantastic backed up by a fantastic approach and work ethic that is rare these days. Although if i ever win the euromillions i am sure Jon would end up hating me ha ha!

Toodaloo for now- I'll let ya know when the order arrives! Im gonna get on with some more painting now.

Rhys

Battling On

Well, work commitments have been a little heavy recently and for very little fiscal reward but hopefully come the end of July the overtime money will alow to put another order in at GZG which I have been debating in my head! I think the next purchase will be for some rebel militia types and equipment/hardware maybe even some minis for a pirate ambush scenario but who knows. Anywho, here are some photos of my recent work. The command vehicle didnt turn out exactly how I wanted but I have some ideas about this for future vehicles. Also finishing basing up the AT teams and started to paint up x8 NAC Rifles as the Fenland Air Assault drop troopers. Plenty of stuff coming up though so stay tuned.

The aerials are made from florist wire in a recent trip to hobbycraft which is also where i got the orange/pink reindeer moss- also in the florist section going cheap!

I'm afraid its only a small update today, but lots to follow as I will be tackling the painting of the first infantry squads and the dropship VTOL's which might still be done in a sky blue colour.

Toodaloo for now.

Rhys

Judge For Yourself...

 This is a sort of stage by stage painting of the GZG NAC Anti-Armour Teams painted up as Anti-Armour teams of the 1st Sqdn Fenland Air Assault Regiment (FAAR). I think the pink works well but let me know what you guys think?

High altitude spy photo of FAAR Anti-Armour Team deployed on training mission in the wastes of the New Fenland Republic

In The Pink

I feel compelled to write here the reasoning for the choice of the 'MarsGas' pattern uniform otherwise known as pink of the 1st Sqdn, the Fenland Air Assault Regiment as there have been a couple of comments (in good humour) about this choice of colour scheme. However, firstly I would like to thank everyone who has moseyed on over to have a look at my humble blog after posting it on Dropship Horizon and TMP. Also thanks to Eli @ DH for his response and support.

Once more into the pink...

As I have mentioned before this sci-fi project was originally going to be in 6mm, and the idea behind it was going to be a second Wars of the Roses style affair set quite far into the future. However the idea, obviously, has evolved into the Dis-United Kingdom. However, the undertones from that original idea has transferred across as this project/concept has evolved.

Therefore the uniforms and colours used for the armies of a second Wars of the Roses would have been bold and livery would have been a dominant feature of each factions armies. Making it a colourful and intriguing affair (at least in my head anyway) and later on down the line I may still evolve this original concept.

The second reason behind the bold colour schemes is as follows:

Heat signature imaging exists today and is not considered massively hi-tech these days. Other forms of digital imaging exist also and are becoming more and more advanced year by year. Therefore the potential for modern battlefield imaging exists today. Vehicles and aircraft are or could easily be quipped with this equipment as required today. However, the problem at the moment is that there is no way to differentiate between 'friendlies' signatures and enemy signatures. The only way to be sure is if no 'friendlies' at all are anywhere near the imaging zone. The other way to try and differentiate between 'friendlies' and enemy are strobe markers that can be picked up by imaging equipment at distance, however this is not a surefire guarentee and accidents can still happen.

However, I believe that on the near future battlefield imaging equipment and reconaissance will play ever increasing vital roles in planning operations and will easily be able to differentiate between enemy and 'friendly' units.

Lets say a special type of dye was developed, maybe a thermal dye that shows up distinctly on heat signature imaging equipment that will denote friendly units by being injected into the bloodstream before operations are conducted, and therefore determine positions of enemy units no matter the proximity between the two in the area of operations. This dye could also be developed to be mixed into the paint of vehicles and aircraft alike allowing full combined arms operations, all controlled via the imaging equipment by command and control assets. These can then pin point throughout the operations all enemy positions through sensors and imaging equipment.

Maybe further into the future, remote DNA analysis imaging equipment will exist where all friendlies DNA is entered into a database and any non-matching DNA according to the database automatically crates an alert to all units in the area of operations who can then pin point non-friendly DNA. However the imaging equipment would have to be able to penetrate vehicles as well i.e through materials such as metals.

Maybe all friendlies would emit ome form of very distinct electronic or EMP that would denot them as friendlies, this would then be easily applied to vehicles and aircraft as well. Then any lifeforms or heat signatures not emitting these specific signals would be classed as enemy and again pin point enemy positions to all friendlies in the area of operations.

Also, what about drones and UAV's that will play an ever increasing role in battlefield reconaissance. With more and more advanced sensors and scanning equipment delivered back to a central large command and control post, early detection of enemy units and positions will become much more prevalent in even the near future battlefield.

Then you have potentially the invention of sensor greandes and or bombs. These could, on detonation, release dozens, hundreds or even thousands of small sensors and scanners into the middle of suspected enemy positions and even well behind enemy lines for reconaissance and grand operational/campaign mapping that would again feed data and imaging back to central command and control posts. These would again allow a massive amoutn of intelligence gathering that would once again pin point enemy positions in the area of operations.

All of these factors on their own render the need for camouflage on troops uniforms little more than symbolic. However, if all of these factors are combined then camouflage is rendered completely impotent and the evolution of the sci-fi battlefield would render camouflage extinct. This then means that there is a potential for the return to symbolic livery as was seen in the medieval period including the Wars of the Roses. So there you have it, wine stain or pink is the new camo of the sci-fi battlefield!

However, this then brings us onto the problem of civilians if the native populartion hadnt bugged out at the first sign of trouble. How do you differentiate between enemies not emitting or showing the right signal/DNA and civillians who wouldnt emit the right signal/dna?

Well, this is the explanation that I am going to use for the Dis-United Kingdom:

At the New Birmingham Convention in the state of MidGuard, all nine superstates sent representatives to discuss the problem of the diminishing civilian population as a result of years of conflict and anarchy in the Dis-United Kingdom. The diminishing population was having a detrimental effect to farming, industry and economies as a whole and a severe population shortage was becoming a severe reality. Disease and malnutrition were rife as a result of the semi-post apocalyptic wasteland the Dis-United Kingdom had become.

As a result of this convention, an inter-state co-operative was set up called the Borderless Medical Service whic was to provide mobile as well as static medical facilities across the Dis-United Kingdom and all 9 super states had to contribute an equal amount of resources and money per lunar year (LY)(12 Lunar cycles).

As well as this new medical service. Each civilian in each state was to be issued with Emergency Civilian Transmitter Equipment (ECTE). In times of war for whatever reason, all effected cvilians would turn this small pack on which would then identify them to all military forces regardless of whether they were friendly or not would be alerted to their exact locations and identify them as non-military threats on their sensor and imaging equipment.

All nine super states made a special pledge to adhere to this and to not use the ECTE for any other purpose than to protect their own civilians. Any super state found using the ECTE for any other reason would automatically face military action as the remaining 8 states would declare war on the state that had abused the ECTE and the New Birmingham Treaty.

So there we have it. Pink is right, pink is might!

Toodaloo for now
Rhys