15mm Plastic Shermans

Recently 15mm wargamers have been spoilt by the rapid influx of 15mm plastic model vehicles, allowing larger forces to be collected without breaking the bank or getting a 2nd mortgage.  As an example 5 traditional model Shermans will cost you £35 from Peter Pig, £35 from Battlefront or £32 from QRF.  This made a reasonable size armoured force quite expensive, prohibitively so for many people.  Then Plastic Soldier Company appeared and brought out 15mm models in plastic, with a box of 5 models costing £18.95, so just over half the price.

Battlefront then released their Open Fire starter set, which is a bargain if you want German infantry, US Paras or British Shermans, with all the models and figures being excellent.  I have recently painted up and sold some of the Open Fire Shermans, but still have 8 sat here to support a planned British force for CoC and/or Battlegroup games.  I also have a box of PSC Sherman M4A1's for my American armoured infantry force, as Stuarts are nice but no match for any sort of German armour.

So, heres my view on the 2 different plastic Shermans that I have to hand.  They are different versions of the Sherman, an M4A1 from PSC and a Sherman V or M4A4 from Battlefront, but this is more to view the differences in model style as much as anything else.

Battlefront produce their sprue of 21 parts in green plastic.  Of these you need 10 parts to make the tank, with the others being an optional open hatch, a 50cal MG, some stowage (3 rolls, 1 line of bags, 2 track lengths, 1  box and 1 wheel) and a commander. 



PSC make the sprue in a cream plastic (which isn't attractive), containing 46 parts.  Of these you need 19 to make the 75mm M4A1 version.  The vast number of spare parts allow the construction of the 76mm turret and gun, the addition of skirts or various bits of stowage.  It also has 2 commanders, but the detail on these is rather less well defined than on the Battlefront one.



Of the two models, Battlefronts is easier to put together, but requires a lot more work to put together neatly.  I have made models in many scales and from many manufacturers and this Sherman was one of the worst for getting a good fit to the parts.  The sides wouldn't stay tight to the hull top despite the use of elastic bands while the glue went off.   However, the model itself looks good and with a little bit of filling it makes a good Sherman V.




The PSC one takes a few minutes longer to put together and does require a bit more skill than the Battlefront one.  However, it goes together perfectly and the time it takes to put together is slightly less than the combined construction and filling time for the Battlefront one.  One nice feature is that all the joins between parts are hidden beneath the model as much as possible.  It also has separate tracks, which I prefer as you can paint the tank, then paint the tracks on the sprue before attaching them.

The PSC model is significantly smaller than the Battlefront version though.  Length is 52mm vs 60mm and width is 22mm to 25mm.  I am not that bothered which is accurate however, as both look good with 15mm figures.

One feature of the PSC one is the option to make the 76mm turret as well.  There are features that make this technically incorrect (the hull front is wrong for the 76 I believe), but it works ok on the table and I only need a couple of turrets as options for my Battlegroup force.  It does require the theft of the spare hatch from the Battlefront model to fill the second hole in the turret, but I have both here so I can do that.  Lucky me.

Anyway, marks out of 10.

Battlefront gets 8.5, being marked down because of the difficulty of fitting the sides on neatly.  Apart from that its a good model and I am quite happy to use them to supplement my Cromwells.
PSC gets 9, because it goes together so well and also has all the options you need for either a 75mm or 76mm version.

Just as a note Battlefront also do a Firefly sprue, but this is a different sprue to the Sherman and is not an upgrade or modification.  Looks good though.

Off to do something productive now so I'll catch you later.

It's been 8 days already!

Time flies when your having fun.  The last few days have flown by to be fair, but fun?  Not so sure.

First things first, I have backed my first ever kickstarter!  Anarchy Models have a kickstarter for some stencils for painting camoflage, which looks pretty useful on their videos.  I wasn't sold until 2 things happened.  They said they would do 15mm scaled stencils, which is ideal as I am sold on 15mm WW2 as the best scale for my space, budget and concentration.  Then my tanks on ebay took off and are going to finish today at a total of over £60, which means I can get away with spending a few quid on things I can use.  The stencils should, if they work, speed up spray painting of vehicle camo schemes which means, in theory, that I can paint more in the limited time that I can paint.

15mm Panther painted using stencils

Anyway, that's the theory.

Not much gaming this week.  Monday night saw a multiplayer Chain of Command game, with Panjo, Zob and Colin taking the British while Nathan and I had the Germans.  I had German infantry, giving Nathan command of the Panzergrenadiers.  The Brits came on and Panjo gathered his forces, while Colin snuck into a wood with a single section.  This proved to be a mistake as the British came within sight of 3 deployed squads of Panzergrenadiers, who promptly opened fire with their MG42s.  After the gunfire died down, Colins British were down to 2 men and running for the boat home.  Six MG42s churn out a lot of bullets (or dice in a wargame).  On the other flank, Panjo advanced a squad with another in support.  His Bren team tried to take on an MG42 team 1 on 1, but also came up short due to weight of fire (9 dice vs 6), although he did manage to kill one of the MG42 team before his team broke and ran.  At the moment things are looking ok for the Germans, with the British waiting for their support and Panjo is attempting to sneak around the flank.  The one Sherman that came on managed to bog itself down in a bocage hedge and is now stuck.  It is still turn 1, although their have been many many phases.

We are carrying it on tomorrow night, with more British due to arrive and the German commanders expecting things to get a lot harder.  Hopefully this time I will remember the camera.

Painting has been slow again, although I have finished basing the US HMG teams in the snow and a V1 rocket and launcher rail.

V1 rocket from Open Fire box

US HMGs in the snow

I have also been busy fixing computers this week, with Gus' PC, Panjo's sisters laptop and a laptop from a woman Tina cleans for all getting fixed and or upgraded.  All in all, not a totally wasted week. I am not a certified PC engineer in any way, but have learnt many things from watching others and then doing it myself, so much so that I built my current PC from parts I bought online, and then rebuilt No2 son's girlfriends PC from two PC towers that were not working for different reasons.

We have also had a new bathroom fitted, which meant no toilet access between 8am and 5pm for 3 days.  This is not a good thing with my stomach being the way it is, but Sainsburys came to the rescue with a couple of trips each day.  Its all done and Tina is happy with it, so things are good here on that front.  Happy wife equals a happy life.  :-)

Anyway, off now to do something productive.  Not sure what, but something.

Keep rolling those dice.

Highlanders and Shermans, what a mix.....

So it's been another week, or so anyway.  Still no news on No2 son and his knee.  We spent nearly 3 hours in Exeter hospital to be told "We are not sure what he has done so we will put him on the fast track for treatment.  Come back in 4 weeks for a scan".  Not overly impressed with not even knowing what he had done, we rang his insurance company to see if he is covered for scans, Aviva said yes so he is know in on the 30th for his scan and to see the consultant. Money talks I guess.

Painting wise, here are some pictures of the Highlanders and Shermans.  The infantry are off to Cornwall soon while the tanks will be on eBay tomorrow.

42nd "Royal Highland" aka The Black Watch.

 The first of three units of Highlanders, these are AB figures I believe.  Painting tartan is still quite interesting, but the other units have more colours in them than this, so may push it into annoying instead of interesting.

A Sqd, 1st Coldstream Guards

 First unit of Shermans, painted and decaled to represent A Squadron, 1st Coldstream Guards, part of 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in the Guards Armoured Division, circa Normandy 1944.

B Sqd, 1st Coldstream Guards

The second unit is marked up as B Squadron, the only digfferences are the turret markings and the number of commanders.  The vehicles are all Battlefront from the Open Fire box set, which are pretty good models and match their metal models nicely.

Gaming has been a bit hit and miss, but an improvement on the previous couple of weeks.  Monday night we played a Cheapass Game, which involved time machines.  It's not my favourite game of theirs, but it was a reasonable way to spend the evening.  I have also had a couple of races of Formula De with No2 son, 'cos he's bored being stuck at home.  Little git kicked the crap out of me in the first race, hitting every corner just right and getting a 1-2 result.  Race two went a bit better, with me getting 1st and 3rd.  Round 3 will come up soon, unless X-Wing rears it's ugly head as my loving wife bought me a Tie Interceptor and B-Wing last week, which was nice. 

Monday night will see us having a multi-player game of Chain of Command, being set up by Nathan.  We will have to play in the wrong scale (25mm) as the more aged members of our group can no longer see anything smaller (no comments please).

Anyway, its late and I have stuff to do before bed, so keep rolling those dice and I will catch you later.

More random musings and thought-type things.

Yet again it's been longer than I had planned since I have posted here, but I am back....again.

First things first, I have managed to get a little bit of painting done, so things are not all bad.  More Napoleonics have been done, with the third unit of French Old Guard Grenadiers getting covered in paint, as well as a unit of Battlefront US HMGs.  Currently on the sticks are 15mm Highlanders, being painted up as the 42nd "Royal Highland" Regiment of Foot, aka The Blackwatch.  Yes, I am painting tartan on 15mm figures and yes, it is a pain.  However, it has been quite nice to be fair, as I have experimented and played about until I have a method that works for me and seems to give a fair representation of a kilt, at least to my eye.  Once I have finished the unit I will take some piccies and bung them up here.

Of course, there is no guarantee that my enjoyment of painting Napoleonic 15's will continue, as I have another 2 units of Highlanders to do after this one. The 79th(Cameron Highland) and 92nd(Gordon Highland) may well push me from enjoyment to chore, but at the moment things are going well.

Wargames wise, it has been a washout.  Zob spent a few days redecorating the room we use at his house, so we had a break of 2 weeks in gaming.  Gus' hasn't been feeling too well, so no gaming there and Nathan found another job after being made redundant earlier this year, so he is now busy through the week.  And I missed the Devon Wargames meet as I had to take No2 to Devonport so he could injure himself playing rugby.

After feeling reasonable last week, things went downhill on Friday and didn't really pick up until yesterday.  I don't know what I ate that upset me on Friday but having a kebab on Saturday didn't help.  Sunday was supposed to be a day of rugby, but No2 son managed to injure his knee again playing on Saturday, so we spent Sunday morning in A&E.  Back there today to find out how bad it is, but it's not looking good.  As he has had ACL reconstruction already on his knee, if he's done it again then his rugby career is over at 19.  Not good, but he is doing his best to stay positive.  Tina has also injured herself, tearing a muscle in her shoulder, which makes it hard for her to do lots of things that she still tries to do.  All in all its been a good few days in this family.

I am gradually getting my Longstreet armies up to strength.  Many, many years ago, when Peter Pig first brought out a 15mm ACW range, myself and a couple of friends (from the long defunct Torbay Wargames Group) decided to get some armies.  I have since had a small force of painted, but not based, Union troops sat in a box.  They are now on bases ready to get sand put on them.  Unfortunately there are not quite enough to do a full force as I have about 25 bases of infantry and 6 of cavalry, so an order will be going off to Peter Pig as soon as I get some spare cash.  My only concern is that the entire range has been redone and I don't know how they match up with the older figures.  I also have the start of a Confederate force, as I bumped into one of the old club members two years ago and he sold me his force as he doesn't game anymore.  Again, not enough for a complete force, but its a start.

Anyway, thats my ramblings done for now as I need to get sorted to take No2 up to RD&E in Exeter for the good/bad news about his knee.  Fingers crossed.  Catch you all later.

Longstreet ACW game.

Longstreet, the latest game in the Honour series by Sam Mustafa, has finally arrived in sunny Devon.  Gus' hosted the first game of a campaign last week, but I stupidly forgot my camera.  Net result of that game was a Union victory, but that was due to a final gasp all out attack that broke the Confederate army.  Nathan commands Johnny Reb while I lead Billy Yank.

Monday saw us gather again at Gus' for round 2, with the Rebs attacking a Union position.  The aftermath of the first game saw Nathan gain a big veteran cavalry unit and an extra gun, giving him a force of 3 infantry units(19 stands), 2 cavalry units(13 stands) and 2 batteries of artillery(4 guns).  I had 4 infantry units(28 stands), 1 cavalry unit(5 stands) and 1 battery(2 guns).  As I was defending I had my newest unit(8 stands of infantry) off table until turn 6!  

Initial setup

 The initial set up had Nathan massing on the left and a single cavalry unit on the right.

CONFUSION!

The first move was nothing special as Nathan advanced towards the Union lines.  Turn 2 saw me spring a confusion card on the Rebs, with their 3 gun battery suddenly deciding it needed to be on the other side of the advance and cutting across in front of 2 units of infantry.  This slowed the advance of the centre, but sadly I wasn't quite able to get in a flank volley on the limbered guns.

Turn 4 and the Rebs close in

 Turn 3 and 4 was spent on moving again, with Nathan moving his troops into position to charge and me moving my 3rd infantry unit into a position to cover the line in case they broke through.

the gathering storm

 Turn 5 and the Rebs charged, with all his infantry and both cavalry units making contact with the valiant blueclad defenders.  Luckily I had a sneaky "Fresh Fish" card in hand, which turned out to be crucial.  It makes all recruits on the other side hit at -1 and, as all but one unit of Nathans were recruits, it saved the day.

Fight 1.  TWO-ONE to the blues

 Fight 1, one unit of cavalry and one of infantry against a solitary Union infantry.  The two dice show the respective "score" of hits in the fight.  Purple for Union and green for Confederate.  Win for the defenders of truth, justice and Mom's apple pie.

Fight 2.  5 to 1!

Fight 2, two Reb infantry against another Union unit.  Same dice as before, but a much bigger swing this time. 

Fight 3.  The cavalry clash

Fight 3, dismounted Union cavalry against a Confederate veteran cavalry unit.  This was a much closer fight, but I just managed to swing it 2-1 again.

Rebs bounce back

So that saw off the initial Reb charge, with Nathan losing 1 stand from each unit and me holding the line as the Rebs fell back.

Sneaky flankers

Nathan then got sneaky and moved his cavalry around the flanks, doing his best to isolate my units and potentially get in a flank charge.  Luckily I had an ace in the hand as my reinforcements arrived and pushed back one of his cavalry units.

Reinforcements

Unfortunately his other cavalry got around my dismounted cavalry and I was forced to fall them back.  Nathan then sprang confusion and marched them forward again, into open sight of his guns, who all missed!

Its all going wrong on the right

As I fell them back and turned to face his cavalry, he managed a single hit with his artillery, reducing my cavalry to a single stand which was removed and counted as broken.  Bah.  Then his cavalry charged my guns, winning the fight and destroying a gun.  Sadly I then ran out of cards, ending the game with a Confederate victory.  I had broken more of Nathans troops than he had of mine, but he still won the game and gained a promotion for himself.

Nathan the Reb

Despite losing, I got myself in the papers, two more units became veterans and I also gained another unit of infantry and one of cavalry.  Nathan also got some units become veterans and gained another infantry unit.  The biggest problem I have now is that I only have 1 gun, while he has 4!

Gus the host

The game was thoroughly enjoyable and I will be buying my own set of rules and cards very soon.  The command mechanism is very good, with the Confederates having a bonus in the early years of the war, but losing their edge as the years progress.  We have 1 more battle where the Rebs have the advantage in cards, then we get to 1863 and the playing field gets even.

I can recommend these rules to anybody who likes ACW games, but it is the campaign system that really sets them apart.  You get points for charging with 10 stands or more, so Nathans big charge with all his troops gained him lots of epic points.  It makes you play aggressively as epic points are what determines the victor, not the battles.  This may seem strange, but it is all about you as the commander, not your troops.

Thanks to Gus for putting on the games and to Nathan for playing them.

Off now to try and paint something.  The mojo is definitely lacking in the painting department at the moment. Keep rolling those dice.

Display Cabinet type thing

A while ago, after my eldest son moved out, I gained the second bedroom as my painting/computer/stay out of her way room.  This meant the dining room was returned to the family.  Yes, my new room is smaller, but its much better for painting, is out of the way and stops any earache about using the dining table.  I still have stuff in the dining room, but its all in cupboards so I am allowed that.  I did manage to get a glass fronted display cabinet (cheap from a local 2nd hand store) so that some of my wargames collection would be on display, so here it is.

Top Shelf - 15mm WW2 

Italians, enough for a full platoon with supporting HMGs, 20mm AT rifles, 47mm AT guns, L6 light tanks and Semovente 47 SPAT.  I do need to add some Semovente 75s to give them a decent(ish) vehicle.  Peter Pig figures and Battlefront vehicles and guns.

15mm US Armour.  Plastic Soldier Company M5A1s, a Battlefront M10 and Forged in Battle M8 and M16, to support my US Infantry.  At least it makes a change from Shermans.

US Infantry and M3 halftracks.  Enough for two full platoons, but only enough halftracks for one of them.  The figures are a mixture of Peter Pig and Battlefront, while the halftracks are Plastic Soldier Company. 

2nd Shelf - 15mm AWI

British Army for Maurice or Washington's Army.  These you have seen before.

American Army for Maurice or Washington's Army, also seen before.

3rd Shelf - 15mm WW2

US Airborne and plenty of them.  Loads of Paras with BARs, LMGs, 50cal AA MGs and 57mm AT guns in support. 

British Armour, German Grenadiers and German Armour.  Battlefront Cromwells and Firefly, the Battlefront plastic Grenadier Platoon, which needs some support options, such as HMGs or Pak guns, to be added.  Then there is a motley collection of German vehicles with a Panther, two each of Marder III, Stug III and Hetzer and a single Sd10 with 2cm flak, supported by a 3.7cm flak gun.

German Fallschirmjagers.  Battlefront figures with additional support from 2cm flak guns.  I need HMGs and AT guns to add to these as well.

Bottom Shelf - 25mm Assortment

Assorted Lord of the Rings figures that I painted for my son.  There are more (lots more) in boxes upstairs, but here is a small assortment of some of the nicer figures.

25mm War of the Roses and Greek Hoplites.

The Perry WotR figures were painted for a Devon Wargames club game and have sat in the cabinet ever since.  Hopefully they will get added to and used at some point soon.  The Greeks are my first (and so far only) unit of Hoplites for the 25mm Persian army I have upstairs in its unpainted glory.  One day.........

Well, there it is.  I did take a picture of the cabinet but, for some reason, Blogger won't let me show it to you vertically only horizontally.  Ah well, at least you can see what is in it.  Now I am off to start these Napoleonic French infantry because I love them so, I really do. 

Apologies and what I have bought.

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I have had a pretty bad month.  Despite the best efforts of my wife and various doctors I am still feeling like crap, so crap in fact that I even missed several opportunities to do any gaming.  After having a stern word with myself (and a bit of earache from Tina), I am doing my best to stay positive.  No matter how bad your day/week/month is, there is always someone worse off than you are.

Painting has taken a hit as I just lacked any form of motivation to do anything.  I have turned over a new leaf today though and am about to start another unit of CGM Napoleonic French for my brother-in-law's ever expanding army.  Nice enough figures, but I still find Napoleonics a chore to do.  I have managed to paint up some 15mm WW2 vehicles, but they are just green.  I have 8 British Shermans for ebay and an assortment of US armour for my Chain of Command/Battlegroup Overlord force.  Pictures in the next post.

Speaking of Chain of Command, the countdown has commenced and money has been spent.  Release day is fast approaching(3 days to go) and I should hopefully have the new rulebook in my hot little hand by the end of next week.  If you like WW2 skirmish games and fancy something different then I can recommend Chain of Command, even if you have to do it in 25mm instead of the correct 15mm.

I also splashed out a bit of cash and bought The Wargaming Compendium by Henry Hyde.  I have been most impressed with it and recommend it to you as a good book to add to your collection.  No figures were bought, but I did buy a couple of boxes of 15mm US vehicles from the Plastic Soldier Company to give my US infantry some armoured support.  Again, pictures in the next post.

Right, that's it, I will be posting occasionally again and I can only apologise for the lay off period.

Keep rolling those dice, eventually you will hit something!