More Armoured cars

I understand that the armoured cars would operate in groups of 2 Elands with 2 ferrets. on sweeps in conjuction with the Rhodesia Regt or other unit. I have painted the Eland with camoflaged markings and have added the head from a unused infantry figure. The RHACR were known as the black devils and I wanted to have at least 1 figure with the black beret. This is the same eland that I had painted earlier but was not completely statisfied with. It is always pleasing to fix an earlier project and make it what you wanted it to be in the first place.

After seeing pictures in the new book on the RLI I have started to add brigade insignia to my vehicles. in this case I believe it is the 2nd Bgde, which is a rhino. The Ferrets are from the excellent liberation miniatures range. Both ferrets are the same colors but I added more white to the highlight in the first vehicle on the left. I wanted to make one look more sun beaten. Overall I am fairly pleased with the effect.

Rhodesia Regt Trackers

I have been wondering how best to use these figures. They are part of the Liberation mini's Rhodesian Range Beret and bareheaded pack.

As I understand it the Rhodesian Army followed conventional grooming standards for most units. Therefore men with full beards are out.

The one prominent exception to this rule is the Selous Scouts. However, most of the pictures I have seen with scouts in this uniform are in training excersises.

Reading the new history of the RLI I saw a reference to a unit from the 4th bn of the Rhodesia Regt tracker unit and noted that they all had beards! I found my unit. The trackers were the elite of the RR battalions.

New Rhodesians

It has been a while since I have painted new figures. Here is a selection of new Rhodesians.

The last figure is a conversion. I generally don't bother with conversions but I wanted some Rhodesians with long pants and the more common hat. All the figures are Liberation miniatures South Africans. This is a great company and I have been looking at some of their other lines for figures that will work for the period.

Generally, The South Africans, British with similar head gear and some from the multipurpose range will all pass. I am also wondering if the Israeli paratroopers with British para helmets and FN's might not pass as well. I think 1 or 2 of them might look good mixed in. Any more would probably be over kill.

Book review

James and the Duck by Faan Martin\


This is my latest purchase, culled off amazon at the amazingly low price of $ 14.95. Unheard of for a book about Rhodesia. The 257 pages cover the authors time as a National serviceman with 1 indep Company and his time with 4 territorial BN. This book is a series of short vignettes about the author and stories he heard during the war. There is very little of the gritty combat writing aka Fireforce. That said the Author is a witty and compelling writer. I enjoyed the book so much I polished it in an afternoon. Buy it for both the background and the writing and to see a soldiers perspective from a line unit.

2.5 stars for direct relavance to wargaming the period
4 out of 5 stars for background and writing

odds and ends

Just found a new blog covering this periodhttp://jasonswargames.blogspot.com/ Jason has some excellent conversions and can't wait to see what else he does. Thanks for the link Jason.

I have a lot of new projects on the burner right now so a lot should be coming out in the next month or so. Just started a C-47 in 1/72 scale. what a monster it is to just make a single pass over the game board! also started some conversions of figures.


If anyone has a blog or gaming link let me know and I would be happy to link to it.

Motor transport

Just finished these 2 Landrovers. I was inspired to get them after viewing a DVD on the SAS that had 2 landrovers driving over a course and suddenly opening up on a target with front and back GMP's. Shades of David Stirling! Unfortunately I have never read an account of that happening in reality. Although landrovers were used to transport SAS on an external op into Zambia.

These 2 are painted in standard Rhodesian colors. The GMPs are Lib figures weapons. The tire on the hood is left over from the Panhard 90. Both are Liberation miniatures. I am hoping the longer wheel base landrover comes back in stock as well as the bedford trucks. I need to order some crew to go with these vehicles still. They will be useful for a convoy scenario or external raids.

August game

The game was a generic fire force action. I had thought I lost these pictures. I can't remember when the game was except the end of august. the usual suspects where involved. Myself and the long suffering Chris. Rules were Chris's play test modern rules.

G cars unload the RLI off board and the 3 stop groups advance toward the middle. The green chits represent suspected guerrilla locations. Once a site is spotted a dice role on a table lets both sides know what is there. Although it could also be caches of weapons or booby traps. The guerrilla player picks the locations of the chits and not the locations of the individual forces. this helps to keep both sides on their toes and helps to lessen the omnipotence of the guerrillas.

This group(2nd picture) ended up being in a fire fight with 1 of the stops and being force to retreat after most of the squad was wiped out. they retreated to the large clump of elephant grass which had a chit. rolling on the table the single survivor ran into a Lion definitely not his day. after a hand to hand combat the lion was the winner and this group was hors de combat.