Black Scorpion US Army Heavy Weapons Troopers and Snipers

As I continue my review of my collection of Black Scorpion US Army soldiers I thought I'd show the company's heavy weapons troopers and snipers. There are four of each.

My four heavy weapons troopers are all armed with an 84mm Saab Bofors AT4-CS Light Armour Weapon. The AT4-CS (Confined Space) is a man-portable shoulder-launched disposable anti-tank missile system designed specifically to be fired from confined spaces. The system fires a single-shot high velocity 84mm warhead and comes complete with a shoulder strap, crew protection and sights that can fold up from the system. The launcher casing itself is produced with fibre-glass reinforced construction and offers up a lethal dose of anti-armour protection for the standard infantryman. The "confined space" approach means that the system can be fired from openings in rooms without the fear of tremendous and deadly "back-splash" occurring to the firer or the occupants around the firer. The system is also designed to be recoillless and is thus resistant to forms of self-degrading damage that make the weapon more reliable than other weapons of this type. The launcher container is fully watertight.

The soldier at the far left of the group has his AT4-CS slung over his shoulder. He also has a 5.56mm Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle slung over his other shoulder. He is using a pair of binoculars. The next two soldiers are identical sculpts that I have made different by painting one as an African/American and the other as a Caucasian. The fourth soldier in line is kneeling down to fire his AT4-CS.

The four snipers are actually just prone figures. Only one of them (the fourth in line from the left) is armed with a sniper rifle. The first soldier in line is firing a 5.56mm M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). The next two are armed with the 5.56mm Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle. The only difference between them is one has a pair of goggles and the other doesn't. The one true sniper is armed with a McMillan TAC-308 Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle, which is chambered to fire the proven .308 Winchester cartridge from its heavy match-grade free-floating barrel. It comes with a five-round box magazine and is fitted with a scope-sight. I must admit that I am not a big fan of prone figures (unless they're corpses) but these came with the various figure packs so I couldn't avoid getting them. Fortunately, there are only four in the range so that's not too bad. They are mounted on two 20mm diameter slottabases that I glued together and filled in the gaps between them with Milliput.

Last time I promised I'd tell you how I painted the camouflage uniforms of these figures. My colour scheme is based on the current Army Combat Uniform (ACU) which uses the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) as shown in the photo to the left. Sadly, my efforts did not come out strictly accurate as they are far too green. No matter. I'm happy with how they came out. This is how I painted them. First I gave each figure a base coat of Foundry Cadaverous Green Shade 46A. This was then given a Citadel green ink wash, which is now called Biel-Tan Green. Next I dry-brushed the figure with Foundry Cadaverous Green 46B. Then came the hard part - the stipple effect for the digital camo pattern. I used Foundry Cadaverous Green Light 46C and Foundry Forest Green Shade 26A for the light and dark spots respectively. Because everything has to be painted in this colour scheme (helmets, pouches, knee pads, body armour) I had to use my black line technique to identify them. The boots are painted in Foundry Deep Brown Leather 45B with a dry-brushing of Foundry Deep Brown Leather Light 45C.