The Forty-Third Benjamin Regulars were formed after the end of the Jihad, mainly from officers of the disbanded 15th Benjamin Regulars . As one of the newest commands in the DCMS, as well as one whose officers are historically not afraid to speak their minds, the ISF has attached many observers to the unit.
The Forty-Third stayed active maintaining a strong defense against the Rasalhague Dominion in the Dark Age Era. In 3143 they would lead the conquest of Port Moseby and faced down various raids.
This image shows the regiment's Command Company, accompanied by elements of the 43rd Benjamin Armor, and 43rd Benjamin Infantry, c. 3145, as they rebuilt following losses from the Dominion's Rho Galaxy in a savage raid the previous year.
Tai-sa Rumiko Yoshizak commands from her Hatamoto-Suna HTM-30S, supported by a Tenshi TN-10-0, Black Knight BLK-NT-3A, and Orochi OR-2I. While usually operating as a Command Lance, the
Tai-sa can at need use it as either an Assault or Heavy Battle lance.
The Striker Lance consists of a Komodo KIM-3C, Chimera CMA-2K, Strider SR1-0D, and Wolverine WVR-9W2. The Komodo links the lance via its C3 master for additional utility. The lance can be used for recon, but usually leaves that role for supporting armour.
The Battle Lance is made up of a Vulture Mk IV A, Ghost GST-10, Wight WGT-1LAW/SC3, and Black Hawk KU F. Composed of effective snipers, the lance can also provide direct fire support at need.
Recon duties are handled by platoons of Scimitar II and Saladin II hovers. The Scimitar IIs are the 3136 upgraded versions, and also can provide ECM cover.
Fire support is provided by a platoon of JES III missile carriers. Attackers seeing to get in close will be suprised when they realise the 43rd favours the MML version of these useful vehicles.
Elements of the 43rd Benjamin Infantry. Support Kanazuchis (carrying 10 SRM tubes each) provide a solid striking force, supported by Oni battlesuits with MRRs. The Kage forces are equipped with light TAG, and serve mainly as spotters.
And the infantry's transports. Crane VTOLs typically carry the assault suits, providing strategic mobility, but would not attempt to deploy them under fire. Tough, go-anywhere DI Ambphibious APCs carry the Oni, while the Kage have become expert at deploying "on the go" from the flexible Hiryo WiGEs.
So here's Battalion #54.
As part of the grand plan, I've been hitting the Dark Age lately, and attempting to replicate the MW:DA paintjobs rather than the traditional. This scheme was very simple, and I think works very well:
- Base coat russet (a brownish-red)
- Gold details. Not too much, the 43rd were the Veteran force in MW:DA
- Black where needed, and for bit to be metallic
- Good old sloshes of brown ink (Citadel, of course)
- Drybrush on metallics, and do cockpits
- Flock and seal.
Simples! I particularly chose to gold-plate areas with lots of relief - eg. elements on the BA, the Suna's arm shields, and so on- to get best value for money from the brown ink wash. I think the BA show how effective simple schemes with ink washes work.
The 43rd was one of the three units named in MW:DA for the Kuritan faction, the others were Sword of Light and Legion of Vega. I'd done both of those before in the 'canon' schemes, and I'd been off the canon scheme for the 43rd because it was "red-brown with off-white striping" - and I hate striping, and white striping at that ... So going with the MW:DA job got me the red-brown, and replaced striping with a moderate amount of gold details. In the DA minis, Elite units (SoL) got more gold, Green (Legion of Vega) got less.
This battalion was a pretty unashamed way of getting some of the great new minis, especially Kuritan ones. If anyone's interested, I did post comments on assembly
here. There's some fun relatively simple mods, plus I went to town on the Kanazuchis. I make their stat line attack 5/4/0, armour/IS 2/2 in AS terms, as there's no MUL card for them yet.
The Saladin IIs are converted from Scimitar IIs. I love the mini - these are all MW:DA minis, which are ironically just slightly smaller than the IWM version (they're great too!) Guns from DA Aesirs converted the Scimitar IIs to the 3136 upgrade, while removing the turret, adding on a small cockpit hump with balsa, and affixing ear-cleaner-bud tubes to the front made up my Saladin IIs - as far as I know, the only such minis on the planet ;D
And yes, I went the easy option with the metallic green cockpits, but I do think it works so well with red and red-brown jobs.
Oh, one other comment - IWM supplies WiGEs with standard ASF flight poles. This simply wouldn't do, so I used some fuse wire to provide a more "ground effect" pose.
Comments/critiques all welcomed. Please feel free to comment.
W.
