Pile of kit - 1/72 Cold War

A small pile of stuff for my Cold War project

Mrs Kinch managed something unheard of this year, she got me toy soldiers for Christmas, specifically Airfix's Modern RAF set. The story of how this came about is of no interest to any other than the participants, but suffice to say it heralds a new chapter in our relationship. The kit comes with a Scorpion AFV, a Harrier GR.3 and some RAF ground crew. There is a scenario featuring a Spetznatz attack on a forward harrier hide in the opening weeks of World War III in Ambush Alley Games latest offering, "Cold War Hot" and I'm planning on building up towards that scenario.

Or I would if I hadn't already worked out that so long as I was willing to substitute BAOR troops for Dutchmen and invest in a trio of Soviet BMP-2s, there is a scenario that I should be able to play almost immediately called "From Afghanistan with love."

This is the rigorous approach to project management that you'll always find at Joy & Forgetfulness.

The second Airfix kit is another Harrier GR.3, which I picked up for the Spetnatz raid. This rather helpfully comes with glue, paint and brushes as well as very detailed painting instructions. Given that I know as much about painting aircraft as I do about experimental brain surgery, this is no bad thing. For ease of storage however, I chucked the kit in the RAF box and cut the painting instructions out. The brushes look useful and in my experience the brushes that come with Hornby products are well worth the few extra shillings.

The few figures scattered about on the RAF box are some of Liberation miniatures new Urban Meltdown British. These are chaps in donkey jackets and jeans armed with SLRs? They came about because of Mark's rather excellent Winter of '79 blog. As a life long fan of "The Sweeney", I had to have them, not only because they're lovely figures, but also because they will allow me to do a British version of the "Wolverines!" scenario in the "Cold War Hot" book. This is a Cold War fantasy which bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain movie.

The remainder of my Cold War goodies

The above contains the remainder of my Cold War goodies, about a platoon of British Army of the Rhine from Liberation. I've posted pictures of these fellows before. There's a Chieftain that I picked up for a song with some magazine or other and a collection of rather wonderful Elheim Soviets, who will be doing duty against the BAOR and possible the Wolverines. Though I imagine my fellows will be Eton Rifles or perhaps the Mad Dogs, led by Lt. Peter Silk and Bill Savage.

The advantage of this project is that I have most of the things I need. My shopping list at present consists of

1. 3 Soviet BMP-2's (for the Wolverines and the "From Afghanistan with Love" scenario)
2. A civilian figure with a GPMG and two more with RPGs (for the Wolverine scenario)
3. A few modern buildings, though I think I should have most of these already. I should be able to rustle up the remainder using these chaps.
4. A Samson commander vehicle and two RAF regiment landrovers (Harrier Raid)

This is a relatively small amount of kit to assemble and paint. I'll also be doing all the painting myself due to the small numbers required. I think it would be to take a part work approach the project as a whole, rather than trying to do everything at once which is what I usually do.

I can hear Mrs Kinch beating dinner into submission in the kitchen and cousin Basil enthusiastically stripping on the stairs, so I best be off.

January 2nd - The Salvation Army New Zealand Canterbury Appeal

The Christchurch folk have a hard year of it, a very small token indeed.