My insurgents

[Ruger]

Ok, I deal mainly with modern stuff, and for the time being, that means mostly mideast stuff. I suppose I could model units packing up and leaving Germany, but that seems suprisingly dull.

On the other hand, Iraq has plenty of challenges, both for those trying to promote peace and democracy there, and for those trying to model them. Not the least of which is the lack of a clear cut enemy. I do have the FOV T-72, but those aren't really in play anymore. I've got some ideas for equipping some insurgent forces, the focal point of which looks to be a modified and up-gunned Sherman. I figure I can rationalize how some guys could get their hands on one of those floating around the middle east, yet, when going up against one or more Abrams, it still works out much like the typical suicide bomb scenario (sorry, my tanks, my rules, Americans always win, and suffer suprisingly few casualities in the process). So, I've got a Sherman, a jeep or two (though they're cheap knock offs, I just figure they're mid-seventies CJ series copies, hence bigger and a little different than an actual WWII Jeep...), a Ford pick-up scheduled to get a quad fifty mount, and perhaps a few other oddball pieces I've got hanging around.

So here's my question, should my insurgents take the time and effort to have their vehicles painted in a somewhat matching color scheme, even if crappily done, or just mix and match? I like the idea of them looking somewhat coherent, but question if that's how it would be done. What do you guys think?

MV

[tmanthegreat]

If the insurgents could even get a hold of something other than a car, I would guess they'd paint it with whatever they had lying around and that one vehicle would not match the other. Perhaps there would be some sort of religious graffiti on the tank, but obviously no unit markings, etc. Then again, as they are insurgents, its quite likely they would not use a tank as they tend to prefer to be more discrete in their operations...

[Tambo]

A white Pickup truck would work perfect.

[Morian Miner]

I wouldn't bother with the matching paint schemes. But, make sure to heavily weather the vehicle, and add some rust to the older ones.

[zhukov]

which insurgents you make determines what is available in their theatre of operations...if you had a scenario like the northern alliance having a localised issue with us forces, then they do have vehicles, just like the taliban had for a while and the fedayeen had iin iraq for a while. recall the stories of fedayeen attacking in carges? they were in what you would call technicals and trucks and all sorts and charged us army units. also remember somalia, where the local warlords used technicals with armaments varying from .50s to 106mm recoilless guns, etc. so it is not outside the realm of possibility to use vehicles for the task. as they were different warlords, they must have had some sort of identifiers on at least some of them one suspects. their is also the colour/banner of jihad, which is green in iraq, and black in chechnya. typically the text is the same as that on the iranian flag, stating "god is great". the tulip is also common, as it looks like the word allah in arabic. a red tulip also denotes martyrdom. using these symbols could be useful, depending on the insurgents you make.

[Col.Pickle]

You definently got to have a "technical". Those are probaly the most common of vehicles in the Mid-East as they are jsut a pickup truck with a machien gun mounted on the back. If you ever do make you I'd love to see it, I've always really wanted insurgents for my modern military men to fight.

[Ruger]

Ok, first off, thanks for all the replies! I suppose I should go a little more into detail as far as what I have in mind. Here goes:

My insurgent tank, my story is that they were able to get their hands on an out of date tank, likely one that was in storage, sometime after the Americans invaded and much of the Iraqi army fled, but before the Americans had gotten everything rounded up. I see them raiding an out of the way reserve storage yard. This is where they get the up-gunned Sherman, and also the Jeep. I think these two vehicles will be painted roughly the same, though the tank will likely have "grafitti" on it.

The "technical", although I originally thought it would get painted to match, you guys make some good points, and I'm now leaning towards something else. I already have the vehicle disassembled and sanded, so it's going to get paint, I just don't know what yet. Perhaps a dark gray or black. As for the armament, my numbers show the Maxson mount to weigh in at roughly 2400 pounds. My numbers show that payload capacities for full-sized 9th generation Ford pickups (the model I have to modify) from 2350 to over 5000 pounds. So I think I'll be ok. I originally wanted the truck to "squat" under the load, but looking at the model, that might be too difficult to do. Besides, if I were the guy about to try to attack the American forces with a Ford pickup with a quad-fifty mount in the back, exceeding the GVWR would probably be far down on my list of worries.

As for my insurgents themselves? Well, I'm thinking that they're some of the more heavily armed and better organized groups. While they're not as common as the suicide bombers, they're far better suited to my purposes. And remember, it's my little world, and I don't want to model mentally retarded women with remotely detonated explosives strapped to them (this weekends news makes me sick, and in a pet bazaar no less...). So they get to have the tank and the Jeep, even if only fleetingly.

Now I just need to get to work. I'm sure I'll be asking more questions, and hopefully I'll get some pictures taken. And I still have the Stug engineer vehicle project to work on, too many projects, not enough time...

MV

[Ruger]

Still not enough time, but I did manage to take a crappy picture of my under construction up-gunned Sherman that my insurgents will get. Well, not a picture of the whole thing, just a mock-up of the turret on the upper hull. Like this:





Like I said, still a work in progress...

MV

[Ruger]

Yeah, I know that an up-gunned Sherman is a bit of a stretch, but it's what I've got.

I figure that the story is that they were able to get their hands on an out of date tank, likely one that was in storage, intended for reserve use if ever any use at all. Sometime after the Americans invaded and much of the Iraqi army fled, but before the Americans had gotten everything rounded up, they got this tank. They know it will be suicide to use it, but (as we all know by know) they're ok with that. They've been waiting for just the right moment, something big, in front of cameras, something that will show the world that they are more than a few guys using bombbelts. Or they might also use it in out of the way places, where American forces are light, to control local peoples, by demonstrating their power, and using it to intimidate.

I'll admit, it's a bit of a stretch, but I feel it's workable. And as I mentioned, it's what I have. I have a T-72, but that's more for scenes of the original invasion, or Desert Storm. Maybe if I was very confident of my skills I might try to make it a "new" Iraqi T-72, but that might prove difficult, as FOV made it somewhat ragged to begin with. I'd love to make it an UN tank, I love the idea of UN tanks... "Be peaceful! Or we'll use our tanks to make you peaceful!", but again, feel I should wait until I have more experience. This project will hopefully provide some of that.

MV

[Ruger]

... And to add:

I had originally planned to upgrade the Shermans gun with all custom parts, drawing off of Israeli examples. However, once I removed the gun from the Stug I'm using for another project, it was just too simple to pass up. Since the vehicle isn't modelled on anything in particular, but rather created entirely of my own devices, it gives me plenty of room to "play".

MV

[Ruger]

Further progress has been made in my project of creating some sort of fictional tank to give to my insurgents. Much work remains, but the overall basic vehicle is painted and together for the moment. It looks like this:



I was going to try to modify the rear of the turret, but it seemed that no matter what I did, all it ever looked like was a "Firefly" turret gone wrong. So I opted to do nothing instead. Besides, I feel it goes well with my theme of a poorly engineered Sherman upgrade that was in reserve storage. As does the less than straight barrel on the .50 cal. The .50 I'll fix though...


I have a lot of work yet to do, and hopefully when done I'll get some good pics, but you get the idea.

MV

[olifant]

Cool Ruger, kinda like a Sherman Maus!