The genesis was coming across the Norwegian series 'Occupied'. The premise is that Norway decides to cease all oil and gas production due to environmental concerns, but this sparks off an energy crisis. The fossil-fuel hungry economies of the EU are less than happy and connive with Russia, who occupies Norway 'temporarily' in order to get oil and gas production going again. Although primarily a political/police drama, the background setting got me thinking about a 'what-if' Cold War-ish campaign.
Norwegian TV drama 'Occupied'
So the basic background is that Russia has invaded Norway for a variety of reasons - to distract from domestic political upheaval, to increase security for its ISBN fleet bases, to control of the sea routes opened up by Arctic ice melting, get control over Norwegian oil and gas resources, and gain easier access to the North Atlantic for its Navy. In theory, this should provoke NATO into enacting Article 5 (an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all), but in my setting North American isolationism and dismay at the thought of nuclear escalation and MAD leads to political efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution and only limited help is sent to Norway from Britain, the Netherlands and a rogue USMC MEU. This is all set in the early 1990s, allowing me to use a real mix of older and more recent kit i.e. buy more toys!
I mostly game at platoon level in 20mm, so aim to start by building a platoon of Royal Marines and Soviet VDV. This will then expand to include Norwegian regulars and Home Guard, Soviet Motor Rifle infantry and Dutch and US Marines. This led to my first entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - a Challenger I tank and the first section for my British.
Revell 1/72nd Challenger I
As far as I am aware, the Challenger was never sent to Norway. My justification is that the armies that were slated to send forces to Norway in the event of an invasion stored large amounts of equipment in Norway in advance. So this tank is one that had been mothballed to Norway, 'just in case', as Challenger II started to replace it in the BAOR.
I wanted the tank to look as if it has been in the field a while and this was also an excuse to try out weathering pigments (Dark Earth from AK) for the first time. I am reasonably happy with the outcome, but like with everything I am sure practice will help improve matters. The snow in the running gear and across the front of the vehicle is a GW product (Valhallan Blizzard I think) and very good it is too, much better than the old snow flock. The commander figure is from Liberation Miniatures. I will probably add some stowage at some point but for now I am calling this done.
Liberation Miniatures 1990s British Infantry
(apologies for the abysmal lighting in the pics!)
My Royal Marines are actually all British Infantry in BACR (Body Armour Chest Rig) figures by Liberation Miniatures, from their 1990s range. As such they are equipped with SA80 and LSW, although I will be adding GPMGs and Carl Gustav MAWs as well, as after I painted these I discovered that Royal Marine sections are larger than the 8-man army ones. I like these as all of them are moulded wearing hooded jackets which can be painted in DPM camo or as a snow over-suit. I based the half and half clothing on images of Royal Marines on exercise in Norway, but obviously had them in earlier DPM camo rather than the more recent Multicam:
Liberation Miniatures are not as finely sculpted as Elheim or Underfire, but these are no shapeless blobs of metal. The casts are clean, requiring virtually no clean up and the figures themselves are characterful and you can clearly see what they are meant to be representing. The range is HUGE, constantly expanding, very affordable and service from Rolf (especially considering he is a one man band) has always been great (even if his website is archaic!). I really like these miniatures and they form the overwhelming bulk of my existing 20mm Modern collection; I will definitely be ordering more for this project and thoroughly recommend anyone into 20mm Moderns to check out the range.
I have the rest of this platoon and another Challenger to finish off and I have just ordered some Leopards from Wonderland Models for the Norwegians. Now, all I have to do is avoid getting distracted...
