Friday again

Well, after promising more regular updates, I've then gone and had 2 weeks off. Its a bit like having a GANTT chart at work, which are designed to give managers the ilusion that they are in control when the people following them know that they are obsolete the minute they are done and printed.

Anyway, in the last 2 weeks I've been working on the buildings for IHMN which are coming along but which have developed into a lot of work as they are just so nice. After a week of that I then went back to the Imperial guard to finish up the Chaseurs. For some odd reason this has taken much longer than I expected. However its all done now and the division is complete.

The old Guard

With this division done I've moved onto the Wurtemberg division from 1813. Hopefully this won't grind on quite so long.

And if I didn't have enough to paint sitting round at the moment, I've been pondering a "small" and a "big" project as well.

The small project is an addition to my MSH Warsaw pact forces. I currently don't own a BTR-60 regiment which I could use for either East Germans or Russians from the late 60's to the end of the cold war. Plus I think I can cover the support units from the spares I have lying around.. Polish marines would be nice but I would have to buy Danes as well and that starts being a "big" project.

The big project is a result of my purchase of the DBA V3 rules. I've only ever had the V2.2 rules but a visit to Book depository a couple of weeks back saw this wind up in my cart. I've always wanted to do a campaign set of armies in 6mm on the 25mm bases. And while I have an interest in western european armies of the 15th century, I already have more than enough 15mm elements for anything that I might desire doing. Other possibilities would be something based around the Ottomans or the later Crusades So I'm now waiting for the package to turn up t see just what tickels my fancy so to speak.

Out with the iron

A passing visit from Mr Page on the weekend answered my question from the last post.
Out with the clippers and 3 went to 2.

This looks a lot better.
And how did I get around not being able to drill into the metal? With a bit of bending of the brass wire and some superglue the project moves on again.

It's surprisingly strong. And as a lot of the aircraft have cast on underwing stores the wires have spots to clip/slot into. So I got stuck into the stack.

Mig 27's

Su25

And moving on to US Helicopters.

OH58  and AH1

I managed to solder everything up whie only burning my fingers twice. I found on my work storage area some thin PCB that was perferated into small rectanges that proved to be ideal bases for the models. Again lots of fun soldering to the base before the rest of the solder melted.
Now I just have to finish the painting.

Getting to the bottom of the lead pile

Looking round for things taht I could use and have yet to paint.
I did a bit of thinking about the Picoarmour aircraft that I purchased last year. The main problem was that they seemed to be made of titanium based on the number of drill bits that I've gone through trying to put holes in them. so the simple plan was to give up and try somethingelse. I folded up a support at the end of a piece of brass wire and then superglued the model on top.
First up were some Hind-D's.

The basing fits the TOE where a Russian diviosn in MSH gets 2 stands of Hinds based on a total of 6. However since my use of large numbers of aircraft on stands has been somewhat cotroversial I though I would see what everyones opinion is on 3 Hinds per base. I'll point out that I don't use rotor disks as I feel that they are just a pain in the butt, gather dust and don't look right.

Game Day

Peter, Paul and Peter (that famous 60's pop group) came north for a large game yesterday. It was nice to see everyone again, abiet with a few more grey hairs. After the usual trash talk it was time for business. The table went up in 7 minutes and we were playing the first turn about 10:30, which surprised me greatly.
The general scenario was a Belgian brigade being attacked by 3 Russian regiments. A US brigade arrived during the game as support.
The initial positions were as follows. 

On table just out of shot on the extreme flank was a US armoured cavalry troop which only contributed M551 aluminum fire starters to the day.
Things got going fast on the Belgian left. Here Peter P consults the rules while Paul waves the magic stick and Luke looks on expectantly.

On the other flank Peter C's battalions slowly bashed their way through the rugged terrain (why you shouldn't let just anyone draw command arrows) laying waste to all before them. Fortunately there wasn't that much in front him and it was a quiet trek along the romantic road. The Belgians did quite well considering they are a bit rubbish. The Russian BTR regiment on the right was fought to a standstill.

The follow up US battalion took up a strong blocking position, securing that flank from further advances. On the other flank 2 regiments had dealt to the Bellgian units, and were about to roll over the US forces on this flank.

At this point after 10 turns we had to call it. Final score was 10 points to 6 for the Russian win.

Finally, how to hide things in plain sight.

This kanone stand survived a long time by hiding under the foliage behind a wood I must do more stands like this. The Russian players kept missing it, and it kept popping up to inflict another suppression. The gap between modules did not look that bad from normal distances, and shows that an 8' by 6' board is probably just a bit big for this system.

More lead

Well, its probably not cast in lead any more (health and safety and all that) but I'm an old school kind of guy who's still alive despite the crap I have worked with over the years.

Arriving this week fresh from Reading some new releases to the range.
First up, for the Austrians, some M47's. These tanks served in many theatres in World War 2 in the German army (if Hollywood is to be believed...) and in the 1950's were a main tank for NATO, serving with a few armies. The lasted into the 1980's with Austria and Spain.
So onto the photographs. The HMG is a separate part which is crisply cast and fits easily into its mounting hole.

 And a shot of the model painted (in Khaki drab rather than Olive drab as it seemed to look more correct for Austrians)

  I am being awfully cruel blowing it up this large. For me it has captured the M47 quite nicely

Better news is that the Old centurion model has been replaced with a new sculpt as well, and again a great leap in detail.this is  mk5/2 I think, as the Centurion marks were all rather confusing (and the British defence industry seemed to making things up on the fly on the production lines)

 There is also another version with an updated turret with all the 1980's mod cons (searchlights etc)

And with some paint on, it looks much better.

I've been considering how to do a 1980's army with Centurions. Its a toss up between the Dutch (AMX 13's in the AT coys and the YP408) and the Danes (with a similar paint job to the British army).
The Danes would also be an opponent for a Polish amphibious 'defence' division.
last, but possibly the most useful, a wheeled 120mm mortar hot off the press (I'm not even sure what the code is). Many modern armies used towed 120mm mortars and they really all look the same.

Again a nice wee model with crew, and something I shall buy more of to replace my current Warpac 120mm mortars.

Here comes the cavalry

For some odd reason I've collected a few reconnaissance battalions from several nations. I guess its because you get a bit of TOE and equipment variety in the MSH lists that's missing from the largely vanilla main units.

Tonight I thought I would run through my US cavalry units. the TOE for these changed quite a bit between the early 1970's and mid 1980's. Models are Heriocs and Ros (of some vintage)
In the mid 1970's the US cavalry units were stuck with 2 relatively useless vehicles in the M114 scout and the M551 light tank. In 1975ish they finally ditched theM114 and replaced it with more M551's (which at least had a decent gun, even if it threw out the optics and electronics when it was fired). This brought up the M551 numbers in a platoon from 3 to 6. Each troop had 18 M551, 3 M113 scouts and 3 M106 mortars.My chosen unit for this is 1st/4th Cavalry(known by the nickname "quarter horse") which was the divisional cavalry squadron for the 1st Infantry division, VII corps. It was also the last unit in USAEUR to trade in its M551's in the middle of 1979.
3 troops and I have not added in a SHQ yet. I also need to do some work on the bases

When the M551's were turned in they were replaced with 12 either M60A3's (V corps) or M60A1's (VII corps). 3 M150's (or later M901's again in V corps) were added. The chosen unit for this incarnation is the 3rd/12th Cavalry ( no idea what the nickname for this unit is) which was the divisional cavalry for the 3rd Armoured division (for which I have the 1st brigade as well). For this unit I have also added the 4th squadron which was equipped with helicopters from the late 1970's. 8 AH-1's, 8 OH-58C and 4 UH-1's with an infantry platoon. No idea what use you might find for this on the table.

I've also made an error model wise by using the M113 ACAV (models from GHQ) version for my scouts. it was invented for use in Vietnam, but was never issued to units in Europe (if you think I'm wrong, please provide photographic evidence).

In mid 1983 the M60 was replaced by the M1 (105mm version) starting with the 11thArmoured cavalry regiment. I've modeled the 1st squadron ("Ironhorse)". Again I need to replace the M113ACAV stands with plain M113's.

The 2nd and 11 Armoured Cavalry regiment squadrons had a 4th troop which was a tank company. they also got a battalion of artillery in M109's.The M1's were delivered to Europe in US forest green paint only (despite what another wargaming company might have you believe), and did not receive any camouflage painting until the NATO 3 colour scheme was introduced in 1987 (what was the same for the M2/M3). The M1's are by Scotia (as I don't think Heroics and Ros make an original  M1, just the M1A1)

West German late 1960's

As I have purchased some SPZ12-3 for another project for which they were replaced, it seems a waste not to do something with them.
From my copy of Bruce Rea-Taylors army lisst for the 1950's and 60's I can create the following.

1968 Panzer grenadier brigade. This is only good to the early 1970's when the Marder was introduced.

Brigade HQ
SPZ12-3 ICT

2 Battalions BHQ SPZ12-3 ICT
1 SPZ 52-3 120mm SP mortar
3 coy 4 SPZ12-3 ICT

1 Battalion BHQ 1 MBT
4 coy 4 MBT
MBT may be either Leopard 1 or M48A3

1 battalion 1 AOP
4 M109G (plain M109)

At Coy
2 JPZ Rackette
4 JPZ Kannone

Recce coy
2 SPZ 11-2

Engineer coy
1 AVLB (M48 or Leopard)

The reserve units are possibly more interesting, though I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to run a battalion of what are essentially STUG's in MSH. this list is good to the late 1970's

Brigade HQ Inf/Truck

3 Battlions BHQ in SPZ 12-3
1 120mm Mortar/truck
1 coy 3 SPZ 12-3 ICT (may swap for M113)
2 coy 3 inf/truck

1 Battalion BHQ SPZ 12-3
1coy 2JPZ rakette
3 coy 4 JPZ Kanone

1 battalion 1 AOP
4 105mm or 15mm 5 M114

Just for completeness I'll include the Panzer or Pz Gr divisional recon battalion.

BHQ SPZ11-2
2 Coy
5 SPZ 11-2
2 MBT

1 Coy
2 MBT
2 SPZ 11-2 ICT
1 SPZ 11-2 81mm Mortar

Wrapping up

Dr U-S has headed off after a week of gaming. we fitted in four games of MSH, one SH game, two big battle DBA and a couple of day trips as well. Now I'm not the best at summarising battles, and Luke has been doing it on his blog. So I'm  just going to add some photos that I took.

All MSH games werwe set in the 1970's for something a bit different. less ATGW, more RCL's. 
game three was Britsh vs Polish

Ellements of 4RTR battlegroup face off against a Polish attack.

From a different angle featuring some awesome combat dice. An M113 RCL subs in for an FV432 with WOMBAT

Despite the crap dice the Polish battalion failed a moral check and evaporated.

The 4th game was my first attempt to run a Czech army vs a US force from the 3rd infantry division. I should have got some shots of this game as my M551's made their debut.
Lats game featured some West Germans again agaist the Czechs. The West Germans are an expensive list and I managed to get 28 stands on the table.I used Leopard 1A3's as I have some questions about MSH's dates for thermal imaging on tanks (Chieftain Stillbrew for example).

The view from the turret

And theres more where that came from

 The small built up areas represents a small village or farm and counts as woods for cover and spotting purposes. Marder conbat teams in a wood are very hard to shift (Def 7) and so the Czechs were pretty much 6's to suppress.So the attackers decided to get stuck in.

Fly my pretties....

Close enough for you?

I lost the game at this point by only managing to inflict one casualty in two turns across the whole board.

So, overall a good extended gaming session. I've been quite happy with the performance of my terrain boards. They do take a fair bit of work to do. However, it has been commented on by other local players that we as gamers are quite happy to spend a sizable amount of time and money on buying and painting armys, and then play on a collection of tatty felt. I feel that its a good investment. The saving in set up time alone (less than five minutes) is worth it, let alone the improved visual aspect

Time for some gaming.

With Dr U-S's arrival it was time for some gaming. but first some finishing touches. 

The town sectors are the mk 1 version of an idea I've had to make them more "playable". The building roofs are all the same height so that stands sit flat on the top. using smaller scaled buildings means that the town sectors actually look like town and not a lone farmhouse. I'm quite happy with this an so I'll have to make some masters and molds for the mk2 version.

And so it was on to the first game, Russians vs the US in the mid 1970's. The good doctor discovers that setting up to defend is not as easy as it looks. However my tactical and dice skills handed him a victory. He did attempt to steal defeat (his regimental artillery rolled 7 ones for its first 12 dice).

One Us battalion attempts to flank the Russians in the woods, while the second generously provides some target practice for the regimental anti-tank units.

US attack being swamped by the Russian conter attack following it.

 This game was played at the normal MSH groundscale which worked fine for us.

The second game was the debut of my WW2 Russian cavalry division. 100 stands strong under the scenario system. Cracking along at 9" and ignoring terrain, they were into the Germans surprisingly fast

Turn 1

Turn 2. Yee Haaaaa

It was an interesting 1st outing and with some tactical tweaking (you can't tweak the list as you get the whole division at 650 points) should be very hard to face on the table. Simple stuff like "when should one get off his horse?"

The terrain squares worked really well, with the second board setup providing different tactical challenges to the first.