Perry Miniatures SAS / LRDG

The Perry Desert Rats set contains some superb miniatures.  They don't fit entirely happily with Warlord Games Bolt Action guys, despite being ostensibly the same scale (28mm), but have the advantage of looking less huge, much more 'in scale', when placed alongside the very popular 1/56 scale vehicles.  The kit includes options for Long Range Desert Group / Special Air Service chaps, so I thought I'd try a few of those;

The heads come in two styles (cap comforter or arabic head-dress), six different in total.  I've based these chaps on Games Workshop style 25mm round plastic bases.

The sculpting is so fine that picking out a red-and-white scheme on the head-dress band was tempting.  I think it sets off the otherwise dull uniform colours nicely.

I love the grenade-throwing body in this kit.  It reminds me of a sort of 'grown up' version of my favourite pose from the polythene 1/72 figures I loved as a boy.

This second unit rings the changes a bit by swapping the heads and poses, whilst using basically the same components.   It's a great kit for this, lots of variety.  It also includes tons of extra gear - spare weapons, shovels, all sorts.  I haven't used much of it yet, so it'll no doubt turn up festooning vehicles.

I've always used the same colour scheme for desert rats, in whatever scale.  The box art on the polythene miniatures (and much photographic evidence) suggests a lighter colour for the webbing and equipment, but to me it always looked wrong.  So mine are always painted in a darker sand colour, which fits better aesthetically, and can always be excused as dirt, or a poor regime of blanco application.

One more shot including that all-time favourite grenade-thrower.