Simbas Heavy Weapons

Just a quick update with some heavy support for my Simbas.  They are on 60mm circular bases.

Despite their very rag tag look the Simbas did have support weapons, mostly looted ANC weapons or Combloc military aid.

The Simbas

Officially known as the Armée Populaire de Libération (APL), the armed forces of the République Libre du Congo are more commonly known via their nickname, the Simbas.  A name is derived from the Swahili word for Lion.

Sadly, Mongrel miniatures never got around to releasing any Simbas to go with their Congo mercenaries, although rumours abound that unreleased figures do exist.  We can only hope that is true and they get released by Badger games, but in the meantime these are my efforts to convert some from what is available.

They started as figures from The Assault Group and I have used head swaps and a bit of green stuff to add some African details.

I drew the figures from the African Irregulars, Viet Cong and WW2 American Marines lines. Painted in suitable colours I think they look okay and it isn't too obvious what they were to start with.

The TAG figures fit nicely with the Mongrel Miniatures in terms of style and size.  The heads came from Perry Miniatures.

I was going for a very rag-tag feel with a mix of military and civilian clothing plus a wide variety of looted and Combloc supplied weapons. I'll use some spare mercenaries to make some Simbas with FN-FALs at some point.

I will also add some more traditional armed and clothed figures to bulk up the numbers and make some of the Jeunesse youth militias.  Foundry and Northstar Darkest Africa ranges look to have some promising candidates.

Congo Mercs

I have got some paint onto some figures for my Congo Crisis project at last.  First up are the mercenaries.

These are the old Mongrel Miniatures Congo Mercenaries from Badger Games.  The uniforms are based on those of Mad Mike Hoare's No 5 Commando of the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC).  

No 5 Commando are the famous Wild Geese that inspired the 1978 Richard Burton film and were named after their 18th century forebears.

With this mercenary officer I was going for something like the pose in the famous picture of Mike Hoare on the front of his book Congo Mercenary.

The source figure is from Full Metal Miniatures and is their Lt Col Brumfield Miniature with a spare Mongrel mercenary head swapped.  He's a bit tall to be Hoare, who was quite a small man in real life, so he's more Mad Mike from the movies than reality.

Last up is a MG Gunner carrying the gun.  The figure serves nicely as this guy from the Africa Addio film and will allow the mercenaries to dismount a gun jeep MG on the tabletop.

 Next up, the Simbas...