The plan
I decided I needed something new to kick-start the painting again after a long break over the summer. I've wanted to do some Congo mercenaries for a long time and since I enjoyed painting the Britannia Miniatures Mogadishu range so much earlier in the year it seemed like a good idea to give them a go. (My Mogadishu project is here.) I'm arranging my forces with Crossfire in mind as usual. The Britannia range is small so I decided on a single company of two platoons but with lots of fire power from the numerous machine gun armed jeeps. I ordered one of everything from the catalogue and doubles of the infantry packs. Major Mike Hoare and Seigfried Meuller are depicted in the range and they will be my platoon commanders but will be based with their radio men and sergeants as rifle squads. The jeeps will be used to represent the squads mounted up and also to act as machine gun stands to support the dismounted infantry. Altogether they will be a potent force. The Britannia Order CON 5 Major Hoare with jeep & 3 crew £8.99 Con 9 Mercenary jeep and 3 crew 2x 30cal £8.99 Con 13 Mercenary jeep and 3 crew 3x GPMG £8.99 Con 6 Major Hoare on foot with radio op and NCO £3.00 Con 7 3 mercenaries firing £3.00 Con 12 3 mercenaries advancing £3.00 Con 16 Mercenary GPMG £2.00 Con 8 Seigfried Meuller with jeep and 3 crew £8.99 Con 9 Mercenary jeep and 3 crew 2x 30cal £8.99 Con 13 Mercenary jeep and 3 crew 3x GPMG £8.99 Con 11 Seigfried Meuller on foot with radio op and NCO £3.00 Con 7 3 mercenaries firing £3.00 Con 12 3 mercenaries advancing £3.00 Con 16 Mercenary GPMG £2.00 6 Jeeps and crew 22 infantry £75.94 As well as these I bought a pack of American Special Forces in berets from Chilrtern Miniature's Vietnam range (now available from SHQ) and a Ferret armoured Car from Sloppy Jalopy which together added another £19.50 to the bill. Here are the basic troops all finished, just the command stands to do. The Chiltern Americans are in the front centre and, as you can see, match the Britannia figures quite well for size and styling.
I wanted a rag-tag look to my mercenaries so I've painted them in three colour schemes which are mixed on each base. One third were painted the same as my Burma Chindits, one third as my Vietnam Americans and the final third as WW2 British. Here's everything painted but before final varnishing. The three trucks are Corgi diecasts. |
Various non-combatants that can be protected or rescued as the scenario dictates.
Britannia clergy, Black Cat Bases doctors and a Superfigs camera crew and reporters. |
Two command stands. Major Mike Hoare on the left and Seigfried Meuller on the right. Behind them is the Sloppy Jalopy Ferret armoured car.
The command jeeps
Major Hoare pauses next to a Corgi diecast Bedford.
I've added a couple of stands of Americans from Chiltern miniature's Vietnam range to help counteract the sudden increase in African forces that I've produced recently.
Two Britannia Miniatures Saracens to beef up the mercenary forces. These are from their Malayan Emergency range.
March 2015
My Congo miniatures appeared in April's Wargames Illustrated #330. They were used to illustrate an article on gaming scenarios from the Wild Geese film. |