UN in AK47 Republic

French Intervention Force

Although we already had the original, the Peter Pig ruleset: AK47 Republic 2009 Edition Reloaded would prove to be the "Rules That Launched a Thousand Dollars".   In reality it has probably launched many thousands of dollars.... but that's not what I really want to think about here.

After getting the new AK47 Republic rules, we played many games using Flames of War WW2 figures as stand-ins.  (Some of which were played as the Soviet Backed Arabs vs the Israeli Army.  This would eventually lead down the next rabbit-hole of money) After a while we started sorting out who wanted to play which of the many colorful/humorous armies listed in the book. I grabbed up a few of the Peter Pig pre-made armies, plus lots of bonus/option pieces, and set to work.  After plowing my way through those armies, I sought out something different.  Something that would stand out from the pack.  I landed on the Western Intervention Army, which would eventually get bestowed with the United Nations "branding".

My knowledge on literally *anything* in the historical Cold War/African conflicts was near no-existent.  So I began a rampant Google search phase where I would come across many websites and blogs that would help guide me on my way.

It should be noted that until very recently when Battlefront Miniatures started releasing French for their Team Yankee line, there were very few sources for Cold War or Modern French.  When I started in 2012, it was only as follows:

QRF Miniatures
Peter Pig
Irishserb's Miniatures

The Infantry:

UN Inspector with bodyguard

French Infantry with FAMAS

French manning heavy machine guns

 The above figures are all from Peter Pig's French Foreign Legion in the Modern Africa/AK47 range.

French with anti tank weapons

Bizarrely missing from Peter Pig's FFL line are anti tank weapons.  In the AK47 rules the generically named "RPG" foot bases are the backbone of your infantry.  Here I've used QRFs French with AT-4 figures.  They're taller and more differently proportioned that Peter Pig's.  This is something I would normally try to avoid, but I needed the figures.

Vehicles:

Western Intervention "liability unit"

 In Western Intervention army, one of your units must be a "liability unit".  In the game this represents some asset that you need to withdraw/protect or you lose points.  These were trucks grabbed up from the infinitely affordable Gaming Models.

Peugeot P-4

VBL

L-R: 2x VBL .50cal Turret, 2x VBL Recce Car, 1x VBL Milan

ERC 90 F4 Sagaie

The P-4s, VBLs and ERC 90s are all from Irishserb's Miniatures.  Finding his website was a God-send.  Not only was I finally able to procure some really modern vehicles for my force, they are absolutely beautiful models.  (although the white wash really hides that fact)  I can not stress enough what a great person he was to work with/order from. 

VABs

AMX-10 RC

AMX-30

Marder with Roland

These models are all from QRF Miniatures.  It's hard to knock QRF for their models because they cover an astounding number of things.  And, to be honest, some of them are fantastic. These VABs on the other hand, I don't care for.  Something about them just comes off as "soft" and they have some very difficult to clean mold lines.  I'm not a fan of the AMX-10 or 30 either for similar reasons.  Granted, my paint job left a lot to be desired, but they just feel very crude when compared to the sharp and crisp work on the Marder.   (Yes,  I know the Marder is German, but nobody offered a Roland system on anything else and I needed an AA unit for my AK47 army.)

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly respect QRF and all they do.  I still check on the site to see what new releases they have and to see if they cover models for a growing list of obscure conflicts I want to game.  But sometimes the models require a lot of extra effort to bring them up to par.

Helicopters:

Lynx and Gazelle helicopters

These are again QRF models, and present exactly my point from above.  The Lynx is fantastic.  Good detail, nice shape, no problems.  The Gazelle on the other hand has very soft details that would basically be the basis for hand-painting them into existence.
Either way, they are both very serviceable models for what I needed them for in AK47.

So, you're probably wondering how the army faired.  How many wins or losses it racked up.  The answer is: None. It never made it to the battlefield.  By the time I finished this army, we were already moving on to more "realistic" gaming of these conflicts.  Nobody disliked AK47, but I found other rules that had more serious detail and were more skirmish in design.

That being said, I still needed UN infantry.... and opposed to just popping the figures off the stands for rebasing to use in the new rule sets, I went about the unnecessary task of rebuying and painting an entirely new army.   I went on to do this with ALL of the figures for AK47.  Just in case we ever wanted to go back to playing it.

Some of the new and improved individually based FFL!