The Birth of Krapistan

 One of the first projects I ever completed was my AK-47 Republic "The Lebanon" armies, complete with IDF, Syrian commandos and PLO forces. I've always had a soft spot for AK-47 Republic and a few years back was inspired by a fellow wargamer's "Dafuqistan" fictional Afghanistan. This brings us to my current AK-47 Republic project: "Krapistan"...the fictional country of Krapistan is run by a weak, central government and regional warlords of varying strength. Within Krapistan there is a fundamentalist movement called "Al Jabar Kebab" led by their enigmatic mufti Jabar. 

So far here are the forced of Al Jabar Kebab. Not much painted up, just a BMP-2 (more pictures here), three technicals, two Toyota troop carriers (with magnetized areas for sitting soldiers), an infantry unit and a motorcycle unit. Al Jabar's Kebab's military wing will be based on speed and mobility and firepower and lots of guys wearing black clothing...

Here are the motor bikes. This is the Al Jabar Kebab "MartyrCycle Brigade". These dashing fellas are basically just a truck-mounted infantry unit as far as the rules are concerned (since motorcycles aren't really addressed) but I think they look cool.

Here is another angle, showing off the Chinese version of the Honda CG125 dirtbikes. These sculpts are Old Glory of some kind and are a bit big and bulky but really paint up well.

And now we have some Krapistani government (or warlord) BTR-60s. These are also Old Glory sculpts and they weigh a ton. I wanted to spruce them up and make them more third world so I added crates, oil drums and gear and lots of grime and rust. The turrets and tops of the hulls have magnets embedded to allow tank (or in this case BTR) riders. The Krapistani government forces already have a T-55 previously showcased here.

An army runs on its logistics and here are some of the Krapistani trucks, in this case three Old Glory M35 deuce and a halfs and a Peter Pig GAZ. The M35s can operate as troop carriers or objectives for games.

Closeup of the GAZ , carrying precious fuel and ammo. This will most likely be an objective for capture or destruction in games. A little about this particular sculpt...years ago on eBay, I made a bunch of purchases from an estate sale. I picked up lots of modern 15mm gaming stuff to include this GAZ. The GAZ was in bad shape with some structural damage and a partial paint job. I stripped it and repaired it. I imagine the original owner has either passed on, if that's the case I hope he is looking down and enjoying his lead getting some attention. 

Modern Micro Armor

 A couples years back, my gaming buddy Rob and I played in a modern micro armor game at one of the HMGS conventions. The game was a fictional battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Crimea and was put on by the guys from Thunderbolt Forge Games, the miniatures and scenery were absolutely beautiful. 

Spurred on by that experience, I picked up some GHQ miniatures to start my own Russian Ukraine micro armor project. The figures languished until shortly before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine...I started painting them up as I saw the various events on TV and the internet but they could just as easily be for any point between 2014 and present. 

First up are a few T-80Us, as mentioned before these and the rest of the vehicles are GHQ. Really superb, clean sculpts. Russian green with an ink wash and light drybrush.

I thought about adding vehicle numbers or even the notorious Vs, Zs and Os of the 2022 invasion but decided to keep these plain green with the exception of a red dot on the thermal.

Some MT-LB APCs, little tiny things these are. I tarted them up with white vehicle numbers available from here. When I purchased these and the T-80s, I planned to base them off of the 200th Independent Motorized Brigade and whom uses the T-80/MT-LB combination because of the arctic type environment they are based out of. Anyway, the 200th uses yellow numbers but I went white.

Some Russian infantry (and an ATGM team). These are Main Force miniatures and they are all sculpted prone with a few exceptions. I like these as gaming pieces, I painted them in Ratnik style uniforms with white identification bands on limbs.

Next up are some Ukrainian infantry (and an ATGM team), I painted these guys in a more khaki look with yellow identification bands.  

Same guys but a different angle.

Here we have Ukrainian T-64 Bulats in digital pixel camo. It was an interesting challenge to replicate the digital pixel camo in 1/300. I think I did a good enough job for the gaming table.

Same Bulats, different angle. I painted some Ukrainian ID panels on reactive armor.

A few BTR-80s in digital pixel scheme, I don't believe GHQ makes any BTR-4s yet.

BMP-2s in digital pixel camo.

So there you go. I have about 5 of each type model (number in a GHQ pack) and plenty more infantry and ATGM teams. I plan to use the very simple (and free) Pz.8 1975-2010 wargaming rules with these. I plan to add some little add-ons like blinds and special events. I will be playing these with my gaming buddy Rob at Historicon in case you see them there!