Pass in Review: The 187th Dragoon Regiment's Command Units

 

Somewhere on the Sector Fronteris...

...the headquarters element of F Troop, 2nd Squadron, 187th Dragoon Regiment seeks-out an area to set up it’s tactical operations center (TOC).

 

The first to arrive at the site is a Lehman Russ Punisher, scouting ahead and providing security.

Next is the troop’s Chimera command vehicle.

These are the first two of the 26 vehicles I’ll be featuring in my Astra Militarum collection I’ve dubbed the 187th Dragoon Regiment (Composite).  

All the vehicles in my collection were bought used and pre-painted, or I had contracted someone else to assemble and paint the kits.  The only thing I’ve done is some minor repairs when necessary, touch-up paint work; or adding a minor feature, such as a heavy weapon at the commander’s hatch.

Here’s the troop’s TOC set up:

The troop leader, usually a captain, commands 9 other vehicles and infantry squads, organized into 3 platoons.

The tents I bought in the toy section at Michaels.  I have a total of four tents.  They’re pre-painted resin and were in the same shelf space that the realistic-looking animal toys are usually kept.  I’m afraid I don’t know who manufactures them.  They’re much larger than 25mm.  At a guess I’d say they’re more like 35mm scale.  But hey, everything is larger-than-life in the “...grim darkness of the far future.”

Anyway, what follows next is a showcase of my command squad figures.

Starting-off with one of the squads painted by my friend Dan.

Here’s another view, but with the vehicles removed and joined by a commissar, seen on the right.

I derived the command squad’s names from the sitcom F Troop.  From left-to-right:

Trooper Vanderbilt,

Captain Wilton Parmenter, 

Specialist Hannibal Dobbs, 

Sergeant Morgan O’Rourke, 

Corporal Randolph Agarn, 

and Commissar Benito Sforza (based on a guest appearance by Vincent Price as Count Sfoza). 

 

Dan also painted a veteran/battle-scarred command squad, with most of the members bearing various wounds.  I figure I’ll use these guys to represent the command element for the regiment’s reconnaissance element, “R-Troop,” to represent the hazards of sticking their necks out once too often. 

The above figures are plastic which makes some of them prone to tipping-over easily, especially the standard bearers.  To remedy this, I super glued washers underneath all the bases.  For the standard bearers in particular I used heavier washers. 

These characters are derived from some of the characters in the movie Kelly’s Heroes.  From left-to-right, are:

Staff Sergeant Crapgame

Captain Kelly

First Sergeant Mulligan

Master Sergeant Big Joe

Private Little Joe

Private Cowboy

Some of the collections I acquired included some older, metal figures, like the standard bearer and the vox-caster seen below.

Both figures are heavy and balanced enough so as not to need any added weight.  

I’ll base these guys on the main characters of mini series Rome:  Sergeant Titus Pullo (the vox caster) and Color Sergeant Lucius Vorenus (the standard bearer).

On the other hand, the standard bearer carrying the regimental flag needed a heavy washer glued underneath it.

I showcased this figure in my introduction to the 187th Dragoon Regiment, but didn’t provide a side view:

For the regimental standard bearer’s personality, I chose John Wayne’s character, Sergeant John Stryker from the movie The Sands of Iwo Jima.

Ursarkar E. Creed and Color Sergeant Jarran Kell are well-known among Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K) community.

But for my purposes, I’ll “demote” these figures to the ranks of regimental commander, Alastair Mallet (an affectionate parody of Colonel Alois Hammer) and his Color Sergeant “Mad Dog” Slade.

That's if for the 187th command elements in my collection.

Next up will be the reconnaissance unit, so stay tuned!