this is one of my long term projects finally crossing the finish line: In 2020 - 2021 there were reports about Chinese - Indian border skirmishes about some disputed landmarks at the Pangong tso lake deep in the high mountains of Ladakh. I still don´t know the real background of this stupid conflict just about some arid areas which are not of strategic importants in my humble opinion but there were over 20 killed Indian mountain soldiers and 45 chinese soldiers victims of this clashes.
Nevertheless I was fascinated of this rugged and mountainous area where the fights took place and wanted to depict a fictional scene where PLAAF air assault troops of the area responsible 45th Air Assault Division of the western Huangpi disctrict were rushed in as reinforcements. China currently operates three fully airliftable Air Assault Divisions and these can be seen as the elite forces of their army.
The airborne IFV ZBD-03 is from Hobby Boss together with an upgrade set from TETRA and metal tracks from SPADE ACE. The crew was done from MENG´s PLA crew set and the airborne soldiers are resin figures from YUFAN. The resin figures are great but the decals for the patches are rubbish, they almost disintegrate at once when getting wet and dont glue at all; I had to fix them with matte laquer. The vehicle and the soldiers carry the pixelated camouflage for arid areas and was demanding for me to paint but I am happy about the outcome.
I have no clue about how things should look, but all this looks superb!
Very well done. Quite convincing and a breath of fresh air, when it comes to kits, countries and conflict!
Y’know I think this is the first ‘in action’ modern Chinese forces dio I’ve ever seen! And it’s bloody great too- for a start your depiction of the camo on both fig and vehicle ties in near perfectly with your mountainous area creation. You can see how effective such a camo might be. The figures add a nice sense of movement to the whole thing.
Also, in case your are interested, the conflict between India and China relates to historic border disputes about who owns what. They went to war over the claims in 1962 and there has been tension ever since.
Karl thank you for your interesting history lesson. I really wasn´t aware China and India have this disputes already since 1962 about this rocky mountain wastelands
Details involving China building a super highway on land India claims that Pakistan occupied. The nee Chinese transportation network is supposed to allow moving oil to China much more efficiently by cutting ~6,000 miles off the shipping routes and eliminate that bottle neck for Chinese shipping in the South Pacific.
@Armor_Buff : Wade thank you for sharing this highly interesting report about the situation. I did knew that China leased the pakistani harbor near Irans border for easier import of oil and pipline it through Pakistan to China but was not aware about the other background as water etc.
This is what makes this forum a great side: connect your hobby with valuable knowledge
