Armed Women: Rebels, survivors, criminals and more

Hello again all you crazy folk who follow this little blog of mine. Today I have something to show you, three women armed with M16 rifles. All in glorious 80s style (actually unintentional, but there you go). First thanks are in order to my friends Romany, Hebe and Aidan, who all gave my tips on how normal people should look. It has only been one week of lockdown and I have already forgotten how ordinary people dress. Oh dear. Still on with the pictures.

So bit more creative with the bases this time around, still going for a minimalist look, don't like it as much as the desert look. May just stick with it arid bases for simplicity.

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So again more Elhiem figures and there's plenty more to come. If you are upset I keep posting things from the same manufacturer please point my in the direction of others. So first up we have the figure I would have gone full Matrix theme on. Started off with the dark blue trench-coat but then couldn't commit to having a figure dressed all in dark colours. So on went the blood red pants and blue shoes, plus the white shirt. What do you think of the look?

Still having trouble with getting the focus just right but enjoy those nice and clear pants

Fortunately the blue in the trench-coat is clear enough to see in this shot, can be very subtle in low light.

Sorry a bit out of focus, take two.

Look at those shoes, those are some nice shoes.

Next figure up is more comfortably dressed. However, she is the first of the figures on which I have used some fluorescent paint! The blue parts were done in light blue, then fluorescent blue then washed. In normal lighting it looks much like any other paint, but in the sun or direct light it shines intensely really highlighting the details.

Slowly but surely improving my techniques for doing darker skin tones.

This figure had good photos on all the shots I took, which is why there are less. I couldn't be asked deleting the bad ones.

Good impression of the light and shadow caused by the washes and drybrushes on this figure.

Well if you thought that my fluorescent paint use was ill-advised well watch me double down with this next figure. Bright yellow shirt time.

The face was quite an ugly sculpt but it has painted up quite well, in my opinion.

Teal leggings, white boots, olive drab gloves, yellow shirt and red-blonde hair, quite the look

Okay now the fluorescent yellow makes itself apparent.

Too bright, too bright.

That's better. Not good in direct sunlight as I said but they are fun colours.

That's all for today. These are very versatile figures and will see a lot of use. More figures on the way. Next up will be some soviets of various stripes, after that I am not sure, going to be having to play the prepare more figures while painting others game to keep this quarantine conveyor going.

But until the next one I will wish you all a good day/night. Stay safe, stay healthy and I will hear from you all again next time.

FIVE YEARS OF ORONEGRO! Anniversary post

It was on this day 5 years ago that I did this post about my return from Argentina. This trip was the catalyst for me to start my own project and create my own little imagi-nation in Latin America. Little did I know then how big this project would become but Oronegro, as this nation came to be called, has defined all of modelling endeavours ever since. So today we celebrate five years of the Oronegro project! Sadly I can't do a grand review as some of the models have been damaged. So instead I shall start with a look at the forces of Oronegro through time. From those first arrivals on the sea of an unknown land in 1492 until the armed forces that took part in the second civil war of the 2020s. There is more below...

Oronegro through history! Or mostly a range of Caesar figures with some Airfix, Imex and others thrown in.

 Here is the progression of the 'standard' Oronegrean infantry soldier. Note that the intermediary uniforms are not included and that some uniforms are not fully representative of the infantry at that point in time. (Mainly because I just don't have enough figures for every single variant over 6-7 centuries.) Also weaponary changed vastly over the period but these changes are also not shown.

And let's not forget the evolution of another troop type: Los Angeles Negros!

 Sadly I can't do every single Oronegrean military unit through history. But there is one that I simply must have represented: Los Angeles Negros - the Black Angels! Currently I can only represent a portion of their history and uniform (because they often wore whatever was most appropriate for a particular action). Here the origin of the unit, which was based off and initially trained by Japanese Ninja and some indigenous hunters, and the elite killer of the 21st century stand side by side. Don't piss them off.

From the early years of the 15th and 16th century to the hight of power in the 18th and 19th

 The first soldiers in Oronegro were mostly armed with swords, crossbows and a few guns (1st on left). As time went on through the 16th and into the 17th century the gun became the main weapon of war in Oronegro. Unlike elsewhere Oronegro retained armoured troops meaning that they looked very outdated to many eyes (2nd from left). However at the end of the 17th century uniforms began to change. This led to the development of a new uniform more familiar to travellers from Europe (3rd from left). This design retained the helmet, a feature of Oronegrean troops that was retained in some numbers from the inception of Oronegro until the present day.

from the 19th century to the early 20th are represented here. This era saw the 1st civil war and Oronegro's decline

The crested helmet (1st figure on left) and blue uniform was standard until the first decades of the 19th century will little variation from the start of the 18th century. However, as time went on a new design (2nd from left) was to take over. This design came from the units of el ejército segundo where it was introduced in the late 18th century. It replaced the previous design in all but a few 'guardia' - guard units. It was soldiers in this costume (and the previous one in guard units) that took part in the 2st Oronegrean civil war in the mid-19th century and faced off against soldiers uniformed in a new design (3rd from left). This design, much like the crested one, would remain in use for a very long period of time lasting until the 1920s.

the 20th and 21st centuries saw Oronegro's power return slowly but then the 2nd civil war began!

During and After WW2 Oronegrean uniforms design was influenced by that of NAZI Germany (1st figure on left). These uniforms were inherited first by the national guard and then later by the native units who used them into the 2020s. Next is a bit of an oddity. The second figure on the left is representative of the 'official' uniform from the 60s to early 80s. In reality most units had uniforms based of US kit with only a couple of units being in the official kit.  The next figure shows how the Oronegreans began to catch up with other places militarily towards the end of the 20th century. This uniform (which usually included a helmet)  became very common amongst the rebel units in the civil war of the 2020s. The final figure shows the uniform that became standard towards the end of the 2010s and was worn during the 2nd Oronegrean civil war.

And there we go. How Oronegro's soldiers changed over time from the beginning until the 2nd civil war. But wait there's more!

  CHARACTER COMPETITION!

 To celebrate 5 years of Oronegro I have come up with a competition in which you, yes you, can help shape part of Oronegro. The competition is to create a character (or characters if you prefer) who play a role in Oronegrean history. They don't have to be the great and powerful, they could be a humble farmer. They don't have to be from Oronegro, they could be from overseas. Or alternatively they could be from Oronegro but make a name for them-self elsewhere. It is all up to you.

Prizes:

The winner will have their character's biography posted on both the Oronegro blog and here. Plus they will receive a miniature of their character (if you make more than one I will give the one of your choice) and probably other things that can fit in the envelope I send the figure off in. (I will also create a second figure for them so they can continue their adventures here in Oronegro)

The runners up will have their characters biography posted. In addition a character will be painted up to represent them, but they will stay here so they can have more adventures in Oronegro.

Winners will be announced later on. I will announce the closing dates of the competition with at least 1 month warning later as well (This will be based on how many entries come in and at what speed.) Furthermore the number of runners up is also random and will include whatever stories I really enjoy (could be all of them knowing me.)

So put on your creative hats and give it a go! Submit your entries to: gjditchburn@gmail.com I look forwards to reading what you come up with.

Here is to the last 5 years of Oronegro! And to all those to come! Have an excellent day/night everyone.

¡Viva Oronegro!

Leopard 2 and Lynx attack of the cats

Well hello to you all! and I bet some of you are thinking what is Gowan going to post this time? well this may come as a shock but models are in the post today (crowd in disbelief). yes it's been too long but finally I have some thing to show you and I think it is a well rounded post including a Kit, Diecast and a figure, but also, a vehicle, an aircraft and and infantryman.

Well lets start off with my personal favourite the Tank! the Leopard 2 A6(M) according to the Revell box. But as with nearly all the tanks it's Oronegrean built and bred.  The kit was a bit of a hassel to build certainly the solid tracks were not nice to put together and I failed misserably at doing the whole warming and bending thing. (one worked OK but the rest snapped and have been glued into place). Another problem was the garage clear out that took place half way through construction meaning that the decals were lost and now are possibly out with the rest of the rubbish. So the tank has no markings or licence plates that would have been nice to add but one problem can be another opportunity. This tank because of its unique camouflage can be an Oronegrean tank, a German one or another nations tank. certainly what decals would have given the tank aesthetically is made up with new found usability.

a soldier for scale purposes... no decals but that doesn't bother me. it just makes this all the more usable.

This being Oronegro, the tank is clearly Oronegrean built so this is the Leoplard O3 with advanced gun, a lighter varient of the same nigh impenitrable armour of the Oronegrean Challengers and Abrams. Not to mention a ridiculous engine that makes the advanced hydrogen fuel cell of the challengers look sane. this tank is Nuclear powered! (extreme disbelief) now, now don't you worry not all are so powered many have conventional internal combustion or hydrogen fuel cell power plants but a few of these tanks incorperate nuclear powerplants... which I'll explain later and (as with the challengers) back up diesel engine.

this one was an interesting build with all the many parts... not the hardest kit I've made but not an easy one

noo the table is showing I thought I had got all shots with only white background

from behind

 Right lets talk about the engine as we're at that end of the tank (previous photo). it is nuclear but uses an element that does not exist on the normal periodic table, this element decays very slowly but gives off lots of energy, three rods are placed in the reactor which is shielded by a casing of ridicolouslydenseium  which shields the crew (though the reactor manager does wear an NBC suit for extra safety). only one of the three rods is ever active at one time, all three would potentially cause a meltdown. in case of an emergency or one of the rods going out of control the rods can be automatically loaded into special shells and fired out of the main gun (which has a shieled autoloader) these shells, if loaded into armed shells (there are two types eject, for emergencies, armed for using them as weapons) explode with a reasonably large nuclear blast. should all three rods be ejected the diesil engine can let the big cat limp away at a stately 15km/h.

the required "propoganda" shot

 Next up is a Lynx this is an advanced version based on the AH7. this one is built (wait for it) by AgustaWestland NOT IN ORONEGRO (more disbelief) this lynx has been given the most powerful, reliable engines on offer so that it can reach the top speeds of the fastest models, i.e the fastest of all helicopters. equipped with the TOE missiles (advanced version of the TOW) and a door gunner occasionally opens the door to cover the side (mostly they stay inside, its unnerving flying low at such high speeds)
Now this lynx came with helicopter magazine... I had a difficult choice as I had to choose between the lynx or a German eurotiger (would have gone well with the Leopard) but as I have an apache kit I thought another transport would be better and the missiles gave this one the edge. Now I do have a comparison shot later of both Lynx (what is the plural?) so you can see the difference.

this is a nice diecast, although I have had to cut and glue a few things here, I clearly got the runt of the litter.

 Now for the figure. Sorry about the photo's as I didn't get the lighting right. This man is Oronegrean Special forces (haven't decided which... marine?) who unusually for my figures has the Oronegrean flag painted on his shoulder. he's one of a few figures I have been working on for a while, real mixed quality as some of the figures had unexpected flash (strange for caesar figs) and were primmed with nasty Tamiya primmer (really thick sticky coat) but many are also conversions so it's interesting to see how they're turning out.

sorry about the lighting

still too dark but you can see the camo pattern reasonably well.

 Now for that comparison! Scale difference is minimal which is nice although clearly the new lynx is of better quality. I don't have any british forces in Oronegro but they along with many NATO forces were involved, so perhaps down the line I should get some. have the helicopter but no-body for it to support to transport. the old lynx is pretty generic though and despite its either Soviet or Polish origins its not too bad compated with the new one IMHO.

from above

different angle.

 All together now.

Rebels beware more forces have joined the goverments cause.

Well thats it for today.

More Metal!!!! Winttrix work and my own

well folks I have more to show you. some really cool figures here, ones that I really wanted to get and as you imagine when I found them in the box from Winttrix (Emmett) I was really happy. I'll go through what's mine and his (well which one of use painted them) and hopefully you'll like them. I must say that the figs he painted here arrived with a bit to quite a large amount of paint missing so I have done my very best to fix them up again... I must say that parts that I have done are quite easily spotted, well I assume so as I am colour blind and if I can tell you should be able to as well.

anyway onwards!!!
these first four figures are all my own work. on the right we have some special forces painted up for the desert, Oronegro having a very large mostly autonomous arid region to the south (I have yet to upload those maps... sorry...). On the left he have some figs I was really excited to get, helicopter gunners! Or if you like some advanced soldiers, no matter who they are I'm sure they'll find many uses.

all together then the camouflaged guns is an experiment on my part.

these guys do look scary but that makes them so much better.

you can't tell but I thought it was about time to experiment with skin tones, the marksman is Afro Caribbean (just to be interesting)

 Now out of the following three guys 2 are by Winttrix (Emmett) and one is by myself. I am sure you can tell which is which.

in the foreground we have the two figures by Emmett the pants on the guy on the right had to be totally redone and the helmet and other parts of the guy on the left needed re-painting

now my figure, yes he's got a ginger moustache, like my physics teacher who is now a proud father. his partner giving birth to a lovely baby girl named Aurora a few weeks ago (P.S his magazine matches his moustache, now who can claim that?)

all three from another angle

well there you have it folks another post. I am not able to follow everyone's blogs right now so I apologise for that. its the holidays right now so really just a time to kick back and study (bugger) though only 2 hours a day so I am not too busy.

Also I have a new follower greetings to Toma from tomas minis world. nice to have you here.
anyway good day/night everyone!

I'm still here... a Ruin and a grand overview of Oronegro

Well first things first I am appologizing for not being active recently. I have been up to my eyeballs with work and as soon as I clear just a little, my sister leaves minecraft on the computer and it just draws me in like a fly to a light... so yes clearly I have problems to sort out there but during this time I have got some work done.

Well I guess another thing to say is that if you were expecting a nice small post with a few pics I am sorry but this may just ruin your day. 17 pictures and a lot to say, so lets start it off with the RUIN!\

The Ruin is made from cork floor tiles salvaged from when we ripped up the floor in there. other materials include sticks, bamboo scewers, brown packing paper, card (various types), thin plywood, filler, wire mesh and kitchen towel (more paper). not the best built ruin I must say but for a first go its alright. the figure for scale is actually from Emmett (Winttrix) who was selling his old models. I bought a few figures, a helicopter and some Bren Carriers, which i am sending to Michael. Some of the figures were already painted with a few patches where they had been damaged, so my job was to patch them up and get them ready to go again.

I found the cork quite a nice material to work with. easy to cut and stick together.

examples of the way to get the ruin effect, breacking the cork by hand looks (left wall and front) more realistic IMHO than cutting (wall on the right)

I also decided to add some details, on the roof are some sand bags with some nasty spikes. it looks simple because it is, card wrapped in kitchen towel and some sticks. ok the painting is bad but i forgot about my colour blindness and assumed it would all look good in th end. (ps lines on wall to the left are the glue for sticking the tiles to the floor)

perhaps the best angle for viewing the ruin, the curtains are made from packing paper. nice and easy.

the ladder is very large compared to a figure but is more for show than to be 100% accurate.... its so you know there is a ladder (you can sometimes get a fig to stand on it also)

 Now lets take a closer look at our friend here! he was the least damaged of the figures and the most painted... so a simple bit of nasty Tamiya primer and some paint to cover the metal that showed through and he was ready againt to see action! since I took these photo's (a while ago now) I have fixed up a buddy for this guy and almost completed some of my own figures from the Elhiems I got sent. All very nice figures I must say.

Special forces, Merc, rebel, PMC who knows this man could be any of these.

Remember most of this is Emmett's work, I just patched him up.

well there you have it. Emmett stopped posting pictures on his blogs last year so I am happy that I can show off just one more bit of his excellent work

 Now onto the overview! these pictures are even older but still well worth a look! This is all of Modern Oronegro minus the city boards and the terrible little river boat I did ages ago... if you don't remember its the green one which I photographed with a rubber duck.

it is big! very big! and for some reason its not enough... perhaps its good I am going to university next year. that will limit how much I can do.

newer work stands by older work as we look over the National side

the lynx is there also, it was the newest part of the overview.

now to the rebel side. the Spetnaz and russian T-90A standing out against the rest of the rebel forces

rebel armour advances. this battle would A) not occur at any time except when everyone agreed to it and B) be a nightmare to be part of.

Now for some action and detail shots! first up we have some pictures of the aircraft of oronegro. then some shots of the chaos on the ground.

2 jets, 1 Spitfire and 2 helicotpers (sort of)

view along the rebel advance! I seem to have reversed the laws of stereotypical cold war style warfare by making the Russian's the blue team... well I guess that means I have to paint the US soldiers Red.

fighting back the UN Germans and other troops hold the left wing of the national army, in the distance the black angels unload and prepare for what must be the most chaotic fight in Oronegrean history.

and the view from the National right. they have the better position and armour but still this is not going to be an easy fight

Well thats all folks. hope your well and happy and I hope that I might post more frequently and visit more frequently but seeing how busy I am I cannot promise that. anyway have a good day/night everybody.