Life, the Universe and other stuff

I have been remiss in updating my blog for sometime and can only apologise if you missed me. Who am I kidding, nobody reads this tripe. 😑

My wargaming has been somewhat curtailed since I last posted as I have developed cataracts and it has really screwed up my vision. I cannot see to paint anything now without wearing my contact lenses and opti-visor, which then gives me a splitting headache after about 10 minutes of squinting. So no painting. I am also struggling to read things for the same reason, unless I hold the book up to my nose. This on top of my digestive issues has really screwed my head up and I had been down in a dark place for some time. Ah well, it could be worse, there could be a worldwide pandemic and we could be in lockdown. Then I got sick with a "mild case" of the Corona Virus. If what I had was only mild I feel for those who have had it worse, I felt awful for two weeks and wish the best to anybody who has it now. Screw you Covid 19! 😷

So why am I back now you may ask. Two reasons, firstly my wife has beaten my lethargy into submission with a big stick, so I am making a concerted effort to be positive and do more. So here I am. Not able to paint, not really able to do much gaming either for some reason. Why not? Because my loving wife has rediscovered her love of jigsaws and has taken over the table with a never ending stream of the bloody things. Good job I love her. 😉

The other reason is the recent release of the Battlegroup Northag ruleset by Plastic Soldier Company. I have a lot of interest in the what-if scenario of the Cold War gone hot, primarily because I am a child of the 1960's and it was important as we were a forces family. I already have a considerable force of Soviets, British, French and Americans in 1/300 scale, Russians, British, Dutch and Germans in 15mm and Russians and British in 28mm. The rules recommend 10mm, but I am not doing a new scale as I have enough already, so it's 1/300 for bigger games and 15mm for smaller actions.

The rules themselves look very nice and I am looking forward to getting a game in at some point soon. I like the way the forces are organised, with a forward screen on the table and a vanguard force arriving to reinforce the defence/attack. Having perused the two army lists (British and Soviet) in the main rulebook, I have a couple of things I will need to tweak slightly, but nothing major. More lists will be released in a supplement at some point in the future, but for now I have been making up my own for my Dutch and German troops.

My issues with the list both concern the British infantry platoon.

Point one. The Carl Gustav 84mm . You can only have one which seems strange as the platoon had one per squad, and you can't have any if you have a dug in forward screen platoon? Confused.com!  Also its AT rating drops with range, which is bizarre as it is a HEAT round which are not affected by range/velocity like AP rounds are. So, I will up the AT to 3 at all ranges and allow the platoon to replace 2 rifle teams with CG teams if they wish.

Point two. The Milan sections. The list allows you to add one milan team in a Spartan APC to the platoon, although not to the dug in platoon again. As far as I know and according to all the references I have seen, the Milan Platoon had a HQ section and two detachments of two milan teams carried in three Fv432s. So that is two milan teams in one Fv432. So that is what I will be using for my lists, obviously at an increased cost to the force.

So there you go, I am still here and still annoying everybody around me. Take care folks and stay safe in these troubling times.

Last few 15mm Cold War for now, plus a few ladies

I have nearly finished the last of my Cold War forces that I have here, the last few bits are painted up now and that's the lot...........until I get some more. 

Firstly we have a minor conversion to an Armies Army YPR-765 PRI. To give my small Dutch force a bit of long ranged anti-tank capability I decided to add some missile firepower.  A bit of research and I discovered the Dutch converted some YPRs with the TOW launcher turret from the US M901 ITV. At the time I looked nobody made this in 15mm(more on this later) so a bit of modelling was needed. Luckily Team Yankee do the ITV as a plastic add-on for their M113 kit and you can buy a sprue of bits individually. One quick order later and a sprue duly arrived. The modification is simplicity itself, just switch the IFV turret for the ITV turret and it's job done. 

Slap some paint on, add some netting and here it is, ready to support my Dutch troops against the Soviet horde.

As is typically the way with these things, just after I had stuck all the bits together and started slapping the paint on I received an email from TSS/QRF. Amongst their new releases was, you've guessed it, the YPR-765 PRAT! Typical. Ah well, I've made it now and I am happy with how it came out.

In addition the the YPR I used a spare M577 to make up an aid-station objective/jump off point marker. A few mixed figures from my Dutch, ANZAC and US spares and here it is. Its also my first attempt at the US MERDEC camoflage, hopefully it came out ok. 

Finally I ordered another Fv432 from Armies Army to carry my Milan teams around, as well as a few figures to make the teams up to 3 men each. Here they are in all their DPM glory, that's my BAOR force done, until I get some Scorpion/Scimitars for them anyway.

The last pictures are of a Dead Man's Hand gang of "Daughters of the West". These are for a nice chap in Germany for his wife to use against his gangs. Nice figures that made a change from all the Cold War stuff I have painted lately. If you read this Carsten, I hope your wife likes them and doesn't beat you too badly.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have nearly finished a few more things so there may be another update soonish.

Take care folks and I hope your dice are good to you.

The BAOR arrives......well, a small bit of it does anyway

 It brightened up yesterday so I managed to varnish my Cold War British contingent. These are all from Armies Army again and yet again are lovely models with no issues that I have found. I got these last year but the painting mojo for them didn't arrive until recently, so I have finally got around to painting them all up.

First up is the Mechanised Infantry platoon. Three squads of 8 men each with a GPMG and Caarl Gustav led by a 4 man command team with a 2" mortar.  All ferried about in four "mighty" Fv432s. Unlike Team Yankee these are available either with or without the peak turret, I decided on 2 of each just to mix it up a bit.

A closer look at some of the infantry and my attempt at 15mm DPM camo. I am fairly happy with the way they turned out but they are much more work to paint than Russians.

A closer look at the battle taxis, the Fv432. A similar design to the M113, basically a box on tracks, the 432 differed in being steel rather than aluminium and also being decidedly British by having a BV or "Vessel Boiling Electric". Basically it is a hot water system but I guess it wasn't military enough to call it a kettle. Still, +1 morale for having a cuppa in the middle of a firefight?



Now we come to the support options. At the front are a pair of Milan teams, a pair of Blowpipe SAM teams and a tripod GPMG team. I really need another Fv432 to carry the Milan teams about, along with a couple more figures to fill the ranks. Behind them are a Spartan APC for the Blowpipes and a Landrover for......well, I like them! Finally the heavy stuff, a trio of Chieftains ready to slap some T-72s around. I love the look of the Chieftain, it looks like it's going to ruin your day.

A closer look at the Milan teams with the Blowpipes behind them.





The Landrover is a lovely vehicle, I still want one if the boss ever lets me. I added the camo netting in the same way I did for the dutch, but didn't add the flock this time. I am not sure which I prefer yet so these "may" get flocked later. It's dwarfed by the Chieftain though, like most things are I guess.


Finally, for now, we have the Spartan and a Chieftain. The Spartan is a small APC, only able to carry 4 or 5 soldiers, but it's quick. It was used to carry specialist units like SAM teams and recce troops while the bigger Fv432 carried the infantry about. Behind it is the command Chieftain, given away by the open hatch and commander figure.

So that's the lot for now. I still need to add a few things, some Scorpions and/or Scimitars, an Fv438 Swingfire carrier and possibly some more infantry to make an Infantry Combat team. Hmm, not just yet though cos we is skint. Apparently a new microwave and flowers for the garden rank much higher than figures for me. Good job I love her innit. ;-)

Anyway, that's it again. Catch you later.

The Soviet Infantry arrives and so do some Dutch

I am still painting away at my 15mm Cold War forces. As I stated previously, my intention is to have a platoon with a few support options from several nations. So, without further ado, here is my Soviet Motor Rifle Company.........

Soviet MR Company, because I could!

Yes, that's right, my platoon purchases got a little bit excessive and now I have enough figures to field a full company with support options.

I now have 3 platoons each made up of 3 squads of 7 men plus 2 platoon command figures.  Then there is a 3 man Company Command group as well, making a total of 72 figures but that is not all of them, oh no there are more!

A closer look at my painting efforts. :(

Soviet Support Sections and plenty of them!

These are the support options I have painted up as well. First are two sections of 9K111 "Fagot" (AT-4 Spigot) ATGWs, 2 teams per section. Then we have two sections of AGS-17 "Plamya" grenade launchers, again with 2 teams per section. Add in a PKM machine gun section with 3 LMG teams and finally a SA-14 air defence section with 3 teams again. That's another 42 figures all told, making 114 in total for a game that I planned a platoon a side for. All these are Team Yankee figures that I picked up cheap here and there over the last few months.

I have no willpower at all. Now I need some more BMPs as I don't have enough for the figures I have.  

Dutch Infantry and Armour

Close up of the YPR-765s

In addition to the Soviet infantry I have also finished off my Dutch platoon with it's rather more limited support.  The Dutch organisation is a bit different to the previous German platoon, with three sections of 8 men lead by a command section of 7. Each rifle section has an FN-MAG lmg and a Carl Gustav rocket launcher while the command section has 2 M47 Dragon anti-tank missile launchers. These are carried around in 4 YPR-765, an improved M113 with more armour and a 25mm rapid-fire gun in the turret. A bit more capable than a basic M113 I think. Support is limited to a trio of Leopard 1 tanks which are technically the wrong version for the Dutch but they will do.

The infantry and YPR-765s are from Armies Army and are really nice models.  The detail on them all is great and the castings are clean and paint up nicely, even if your a bit ham-fisted like me. ;)

The other YPR-765s

The "Big Cats", but not that big

The Leopards are Team Yankee and are also nice, but why are they resin and not plastic like all the others? 

The camouflage netting is made from dyed bandage sections, cut to size and fixed with watered down PVA glue, then painted up and finally flock was glued on.  I am not sure how durable the flock will be, but a few coats of varnish should increase the longevity.

Armies Army Dutch infantry

Now all I need is a set of rules for them.  Initial plans for a Chain of Command variant are now in other hands as there will be an "official" version at some point, hopefully soon. Also there is going to be a Battlegroup set at some point as well. That's in addition to the copy of Force on Force that I have as well. Hmm, decisions decisions.

So that's it for now.  The British are done, just waiting on varnish but it's a trifle damp today to spray them. Up next....who knows? I sure as hell don't! Have fun folks.

15mm West Germans

I have returned yet again, after another week of excitement and adventure.

Ok, I lied, it was another week of paying bills and running about after the family. I did manage to get a bit of painting and a small bit of gaming done though, so it's not been a total waste. On Monday night I managed to get out of the hospital early enough to pop around to Zobs to see what was going on. Nathan and Zob were playing Command and Colours Ancients, Romans vs Carthaginians. They seemed to enjoy and were on their 3rd or 4th game when I left.  Panjo and Andy were trying out The Walking Dead game from Mantic, yet another kickstarter that Panjo went for.  They were good enough to let me watch/join in and I ended up pulling the cards while they ran around with the survivors. Seems like a decent game, nothing amazing but a decent system for escalation of the zombie threat and zombies reaction to noise. Good enough that we are giving it another go next week anyway, without Nathan as he is getting married on Sunday and still no Colin as he is on holiday somewhere warm and sunny.

Painting wise I have been cracking on with my 15mm Cold War project. The Russian vehicles are all done as seen in my last post, so I turned my attention to the West German platoon I had planned. No Marders for me though, instead I am doing an M113G equipped platoon, just to be different.

The German platoon seems to have been quite small, with just a small 5 man command squad and two 7 man grenadier squads. Less than 20 men all told, way less than the British platoon of about 30 men. Anyway, all the resources I could find gave the following organisation

Command Squad - 1 Officer and 4 Soldiers all with G3 rifles,1 also has a Panzerfaust 44.
Grenadier Squads - 1 NCO and 5 soldiers all with G3 rifles, 1 also has a Panzerfaust 44 and 1 has a HK69 GL, plus 1 soldier with an MG3 LMG.


These are all transported about in 3 M113G APCs(although I painted 4 for some reason), 1 per squad. I also sorted out a couple of "extras", a 2 man Milan team and a 2 man Redeye SAM team. Finally I made up a jump-off point/objective with a couple of spare figures and an M577 command vehicle.


Battlefront have supplied all the vehicles and figures for this small force, the M113s being Vietnam models bought in their last sale. Only alteration was to replace the M2 50cal with an MG3, or MG42 to be exact. Luckily I had a few spares from the Sd251 kits I made a long time ago.

I need to add some armoured support for them, but again I want something different. I have some Leopard 1's but plan to use these for my Dutch Platoon from Armies Army, when they finally arrive. I don't want Leopard 2s as they are too new and shiny for my M113 platoon, so the options are either a couple of M48A2GA2s or some Jagdpanzer Kanones. Nobody does an M48A2GA2 although I think the Battlefront Israeli Magach would do, it has the right gun and a reasonable cupola. Only QRF do a Jagdpanzer Kanone, so that at least is an easy option. But which do I go for? Decisions decisions.

I have also been painting up my British vehicles from Armies Army.  This force will be a bit larger as the platoon is bigger. No pictures yet though as they are not quite finished. I have Chieftains, Fv432s, a Spartan and a Landrover plus the necessary figures. All I need now is a couple of Recce vehicles, either Scorpions or Scimitars.

That's it for now. I am off to Nathans wedding on Sunday and we have family plans for tomorrow, so sod all will get done this weekend. Hopefully after that I will be painting either Russian or British infantry.....unless the Dutch arrive! Have fun folks

15mm Cold War

Not content with just painting tribal types, I have also started painting some of the Cold War collection I have been gathering for the last year or so. Last year I picked up a bargain pile of 2nd hand Soviet kit at Firestorm Games table sale. The box I had was fairly packed with vehicles, so I have been painting green like a mad man.  

The box I bought had a mix of 9 T-80, 3 T-72, 3 BTR-80 and 8 BMP-2s. All except the BMP-2s were base coated in a reasonable base colour, so a quick spray and then washes, several drybrushes and such made it job done on them. I also added some aerials. The BMP-2s are a shocking colour, it looks like bronze green or similar and is way too dark, so they are currently sitting in paint stripper in the vain hope that they will be recoverable. Luckily they are metal so won't be hurt by the paint stripping efforts.

Here are the T-80s, 3 with ERA and 6 without. These were a bit battered and bent but all were repairable and look ok now I think.  I believe that these are QRF models, but don't know for sure.





The 3 T-72 models are Zvezda, a bit lacking in details such as the cupola MG but good enough to make a platoon.





The BTR-80s are also Zvezda models, decent enough for the job of carrying a Soviet MR platoon.


I also had a box of Team Yankee BMPs included, so set about with the modelling cement.

So here we have 5 BMP-1s, the original Soviet IFV. Vastly more capable than the M113s and Fv432s used by most of NATO, these really are nice kits. One nice touch is that each sprue contains both the BMP-1 and BMP-2 hulls and turrets, but only one chassis. So out came the thinking cap and a bit of sneaky chopping and gluing resulted in this

Some chopped up plastic bases from various boxes of figures and a 1 cent Euro coin(the ideal size and magnetic) in the chassis, then a couple of magnets glued onto the underside of the hull resulted in removable BMP hulls.

Here are the BMP-2 versions, better armed than the earlier version with an improved missile and a rapid fire 30mm gun instead of the 73mm smoothbore of the BMP-1.


I went in on the pre-order of T-55s from Plastic Soldier Company. I like the kits they make, really good quality and usually with a range of options.  The T-55 box was just great with options to make T-55, T-55A or T-55AM versions.  I went for the AM version, upgraded with extra armour and a laser rangefinder.
So finally the 5 T-55s finish the current force. I am now sat here looking at a small mountain of 15mm Soviet infantry. I have enough for 2 platoons but need some ATGW teams to complete the force. Hopefully I will get a bit of paint on them this weekend, but family duties are calling. 

Christmas Greetings and all that malarky.

Sorry about the complete lack of updates, I have been a bit crook for the last few weeks and it doesn't seem to be improving.  Not much painting has happened and even less gaming, so it's a pretty crap update really.

I did manage to make it to the Devon Wargames Christmas Big Bash, which was fun.  Arranged and managed by Nick I think he did a marvellous job of using a 2 player game system to cater for 16 players!  Fun was had by all I believe and the valiant Brits saw off the Saxon invaders.  I didn't play but helped Nick a bit with running it, mainly by sitting in and guiding the table of 4 new(ish) players.  See the DWG blog for a good report with some decent pictures.

Too Fat Lardies have brought out a campaign supplement for Sharp Practice 2, and very good it is too.    It reads well and will make for some interesting games in the future.  I may have to bump my 28mm ACW forces up the painting list.....maybe.

It has some nice ideas for different types of mini-campaigns and adds some "oddities" to the game as well. 




Right, as it's nearly the end of the year I am going to sit down and work out exactly what I want to get painted and based to use for next year.   I am a quintissential wargames butterfly with the attention span of a gold fish, so I am intending to concentrate on a few things next year and mainly focus any expenditure on terrain and the like.  So the aims are

1. Finish off the Dark Ages figures I have and make up enough forces for larger games.  I do need to get a bit more cavalry for this...and maybe some Picts......maybe.
2. Paint up the 15mm Cold War British, Russian and German forces I have bought already.  I need a few support bits to finish these off but the majority is bought
3. Finish up basing the 15mm buildings I have here already.  I still have several houses, a church and a factory that need basing up.
4. Do my Perrys 28mm ACW forces for SP2, as mentioned above

 I have several other projects that are being put into storage now, 28mm Crusades, 28mm NWF, 28mm Dragon Rampant, 15mm ACW, all the various 6mm stuff......the list goes on and on.  So that is the plan, I want to get the Dark Ages finished sooner rather than later as I enjoy the games we play and really like the figures so they are first on the list.  However, that may well be scuppered by Christmas and Birthday presents as I know that my mum has ordered me some Congo figures from North Star and I believe No2 son has also ordered me something similar.  Time will tell, but they are small forces and won't take long to paint.  I also have received a secret santa, which will be opened on Sunday too.

See how long that plan lasted!!!!  It's pathetic really isn't it? :(

Anyway, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I'll catch up next week hopefully with an update of what I got and how it has totally scewed my plans up.  Oh, and I will be a year older on Sunday too, the scarey thing is I will be 48 and am still the youngest of the Chuckadice group!

Plans for gaming the Cold War in 15mm

I am the supreme example of a wargames butterfly.  I fly from period to period with the attention span of a confused goldfish, although there is one exception to this. 

The so-called Cold War has always been of interest to me, probably because I grew up through it. I started off with a lot of 1/300^th forces and played with Modern Spearhead. Then I got diverted into skirmish gaming and got some Cold War figures in 28mm. Now with the widespread availability of 15mm models I am again spending money on 1980s period figures. In my defence I have stayed on one period and I can reuse all my existing 15mm WW2 scenery. ;)

So, I am sorting out a mixed bag of forces, I got British in the Armies Army kickstarter and have recently picked up a lot of Soviet stuff second hand. I have also bought some Battlefront Germans as well. My aim is to have a reinforced platoon for each of the British and German forces while the Soviet forces will end up at company strength. Below is a brief idea of the force structures I am going for, any comments on mistakes would be much appreciated. I have used the old WRG army list books as a guide to what is required. These lists do things by groups so I have had to guess what is in the group in some cases.

    British Mech Infantry Platoon

       Platoon HQ with 1 Fv432, 1 command group and 1 light mortar group

       3 sections each with 1 Fv432, 2 rifle groups, 1 LMG and 1 MAW

I have translated this into the following

HQ – 1 Fv432, 1 CO, 1 SNCO, 1 RTO and 1 light mortar man.

Sections – 1 Fv432, 1 NCO, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 MAW gunner, 4 riflemen.

Support wise I have the following

A tank platoon of 3 Chieftains (I may get 1 more as they could be 3 or 4 strong)

AT section of 2 Milan teams (1 additional Fv432 needed)

AA section of 2 Javelin teams in a Spartan

SFMG team to be carried in the command Fv432 if needed

   

     German Heimschutzkommando Platoon

       Platoon HQ with 1 M113 or Marder, 1 command group, 1 LMG and 1 Milan

       2 squads each with 1 M113 or Marder, 1 rifle group, 1 LMG and 1 MAW

Translated into

HQ – 1 M113, 1 CO, 1 RTO, 1 LMG with 2 crew and 1 Milan with 2 crew

Squads – 1 M113, 1 NCO, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 MAW gunner and 3 riflemen

Support

A Panzer platoon with 3 Leopard 1

AT section of 4 Jagpanzer Kannone

AA section of 1 Redeye team attached to PHQ

I will also get some Marders to give me the option of "upgrading" them to regulars.

 

    3 Soviet BMP Platoons each with

       Platoon HQ with 1 BMP, 1 command group, 1 rifle group and 1 LMG

       2 squads each with 1 BMP, 1 rifle group, 1 infantry group and 1 LMG

Turns into 3 platoons each with

HQ – 1 BMP, 1 CO, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Squad 1 – 1 BMP, 1 SNCO, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Squad 2 – 1 BMP, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Support

2 Tank Platoons each with 4 T-72/80.

1 AA section of 1 SA-7 team in 1 BMP

There are a few other options I am considering getting, some recce vehicles for each force are a prime example, but that's the plan for now. Just need to get on with painting it all after Christmas. And find a set of rules for it, current options are FEBA, Force on Force and Sabre Squadron.  Decisions decisions.