03 April 2015

Brigade Models Belgians (or Syldavians)

I used to fairly uninterested by the whole "Hammer's Slammers" and air-cushion tanks meme... Without going into why I have a more difficult time suspending my disbelief about that specific technological path, I always found HS tanks aestetics to retro for my sci fi taste...
Too retro for my tastes!
And then came the latest batches of Brigade Models 15mm!

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BaumannRelease1.jpg
Some of the newest Brigade Models products: three variants of the AmRep APC...

So of course, I had to find them a niche in my imaginary world... I've been toying a lot with Franco-Belgian comic books inspired imagi-nations, like Tintin/Hergé Syldavia and Borduria... In my mind, I came up with quite a few iterations of a war between those two countries:
  • The obvious: a fairly logical continuation of "King Ottokar's Sceptre"; an not-early-WW2 Blietzkrieg-style invasion of not-Belgium-Syldavia by not-German-Bordurian...
  • And its implied sequel:  Late-WW2 liberation of not-Belgium-Syldavia from the hands not-German-Borduria!
  • Various iterations of a (limited) Cold-War-Gone-Hot ranging for the fifties to ultra-modern (well, yeah: the Bordurian mustachist regime might have survived its soviet sponsor).
  • And even a Napolenoic prequel involving French-inspired Syldavian and Prussian-inspired Bordurian.
Syldavian M113 in NATO three tone... I probably should figure something a bit
more tactical for the national markings... Black pelican with just a yellow outline?

Basicaly:
  • Syldavia = Belgium with a layer of Balkans paint and...
  • Borduria = (East) Germany with the same cosmetic layer. 
So back to Brigade Models models... Altough air-cushion tanks have grown on me, I still associate them with "70s/80s in space"! So I wen't digging in the Belgian late-Cold-War orbat...

Like many of its neighbours, Belgium used to gets armoured vehicules from three different sources:
  • German MBT (Leopard and its AA, tank destroyer and engineering variants);
  • US APC (M113 and variants) and SPG (M108 and M109);
  • And UK recon (the CVRT familly).
So here is my Belgian/Syldavian Brigade Models pick (not all models are available in 15mm):
APC, MBT, recon tank and SPG of the Syldavian hover-AFV inventory...
Not that I need (but which wargamer actually buy only miniatures he needs?) or intend to model the entire orbat (which is a good think since a couple of the vehicules on my list don't even exist in 15mm!): my scope of choice for 15mm sci fi is about a platoon (usually a rather small one to make room for a couple of vehicles that have nothing to do operating at that level) so I'll try to stick to a single MBT and a couple of APC! But I like making up extensive orbats so that my force doesn't exist in a vacuum...

What about infantry? GZG new Germans look uber-cool and I've been wanting to use them for quite a bit too... But I'd love to had some oversized-beret wearing guys for a Chasseurs Ardennais/Zymylpathian Rangers units... Headswap from Khurasan Sepulvedan Jungle Fighters?

And air support? Belgium fighter aircrafts at the time used to be French Mirage V and US F-16, while our only helos used to be liaison/observation French Alouette II. Something French would be a nice addition to the German-US-UK mix I've got so far... But I'm not too fan of the Caribou...

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