Full Winter

It has taken me a while, but my last set of miniatures is now complete and on the shelf. I had a lot of fun doing head/hat swaps on these figures and sculpting green stuff bits for them, but it did take some time. Most of the uniforms took twice as long as normal - good coverage with white paint takes me several applications. Finally it took me a few days to apply four layers of baking soda/snow on some of the bases. Now if only I can perfect my picture taking - these pictures came out a bit too fuzzy to me and I'm not happy with the blacks as they appear washed out.

October 12th, 1999: Chechen fighters assembling in Grozny.

For even more variety for my 2nd Chechen war force I painted up two figures with bush hats - somewhat commonly seen during the Fall of 1999. I've also come across the bush hats (and other hats like them) being worn during the 2nd battle for Grozny. I'll have to paint up a few more of these for those guys and perhaps do some head swaps as well.

RH Models MULTBUSHAK

Pro-Russian defenders of Bendery (July 1st, 1992).

Although I haven't found many pictures of it being used during either Chechen War, I have seen many examples of the one-piece (and sometimes two-piece) KLMK (sun bunny) camouflage suit being worn during ever other Post-Soviet conflict. It seems to have been especially popular with Pro-Russian forces in the Transnistria War. I know I'll want figures with this uniform in all sorts of head gear, equipment and footwear so I started with these two. The bearded guy has a head swap.

RH Models RUSAKH (one with head swap)

Chechens resting in Grozny (December 30th, 1994).

January 4th, 1995: Chechen rebels in Grozny suburbs.

Chechen rebels running during firefight in Grozny - January 25th, 1995.

The first and second battles of Grozny occurred in the winter months so fighters used all manner of uniforms and blankets to blend in with the snow. I'm not up to sculpting blankets on top of minis just yet, but with some green stuff to extend the tops of some RH Model figures I was able to mock up some two piece oversuits. I swapped some heads to give three of these guys knit caps and smoothed out/filled in some of their straps to lessen their equipment. The white paint and snow basing were a pain, but in the end I'm really happy with them.

RH Models RUSSNIBH with head swap; RUSRPGH with head swap; RUSAKBH with head swap

RH Models RUSAKD; RUSRPGV; RUSCOMH; RUSRPKF

Shamil Basayev delivers watermelon in Daghestan - August 8th, 1999.

Lastly, I modified an RH Models radio guy with a large moslem beard to look like Shamil Basayev during the early part of the Second Chechen War. I cut down the figure's original bald head and added a ranger hat from another guy; added a brush hair for a radio antenna; and sculpted a backpack (the figure originally had a large radio on his back). I wanted to paint the lettering on his headband to be something besides scribbles, but I wasn't able to do so on something so small.

RH Models MOSCOM with hat swap and modified backpack