New Year, New Opportunities... on Facebook!

So after doing this blog for 15 years or so with a little bit prompting I've decided to expand my online presence (ha ha!) by starting a new Facebook group specifically for my completely Unofficial Cold War variant of the WW2 wargame rules "Battleroup".

You'll note I have called the group "AirLand BattleGroup" rather than "Battlegroup Something".  This is to, with any luck, protray the period - the mid to late 1980's when the AirLand Battle doctrine was being implemented and the game - Battlegroup, in one slick heading.  Well, that's what I was hoping anyway!

I classify myself as a reforming luddite so I made several mistakes in creating the group.  So you might find a second group called "Airland Battlegroup" - a slightly different style to the page below.  Just ignore it!

You can find the real group here on Facebook and it looks a bit like this for now:

Yes - with 2 whole members - one of whom is me!  The other is a non-wargaming mate who tested the group for me to see if it was working!

There a couple of innocent questions to answer and then you to can be counted as one of an elite number of group members!

Over the course of the next few days I'll be adding a lot of the files from this blog onto the Facebook Group.  Also a bunch of other documents I've found over the years from various places - including other Facebook groups - but at least I can have them stored all in one place rather just than sitting on my laptop.

Hopefully the Facebook group will become a useful resource and maybe help drive the game forward a bit faster - giving me the kick in the pants to work on some new stuff with your help.

I'd also like it to be used to test new ideas, start useful discussions, answer questions etc.  I want it to be a fairly dynamic situation where we test ideas and rules and see what we can do to make the game better.  I'm keen to see what other people think.

So please join the group, let people you game with or are aware of who are interested in the Cold War and Battlegroup know about it as well.  I'm sure it will be a slow start, but let's see where this goes.  You never know - if there turns out to be enough interest maybe PSC will see a way forward to publish an Official Cold War variant of Battlegroup.  Fingers crossed.

This blog will of course continue - it will just be more closely linked to the Facebook group.

Thanks as always

Richard

 

Joyeux Noël

 Merry Christmas everyone - this time with a bit of a French flavour.  It's taken quite a while to put this all together, but today I've uploaded the all new French AFV Data set.

You'll notice straight away that there are a few vehicles here not currently found in any of the French Army Lists.  That will change at some point in the future but for now you'll have the stats to include these vehicles in games if you so choose.

A few new vehicles in the French AFV data cards includes ( but is not limited to)

- Leclerc Tank

- AMX-30B2 Brennus

- AML 60-20 Serval

- AML-20 Eclairage

- Panhard VBL

- AMX-10 RC Surblinde

Many of these vehicles are listed as "Speculative" under the rules, some as int he "real" world they only came in the early 1990s, but prototypes were around in the late 80's - others because they were export vehicles or prototypes which did not necessarily see service in the French Army.  I've included these for fun, as i could easily imagine the French deciding maybe not to send those armoured cars to Africa as planned, now they're involved in WW3 in Europe!

You'll find them all here and they will also appear in the Data Cards section of the blog accessed at the top of the page.

As always, if you find any errors, please let me know and I will make the required changes.  If your favourite obscure French AFV is missing and you'd like it included, again - let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The last of the original Data Cards that needs updating is the British AFV set and they're next on my list to do.  Then we'll start working through the East German, Polish and Czech Data Cards.  Then maybe the Swedes and the Finns, who also require Army Lists...  Still so much to do. 

Thanks everyone.  I hope you all have a great Christmas break and I'll see you in the New Year.  

Richard

The Hummer Horde continues to grow....

 I'm not exactly sure why it's been such a long time since I posted here - it feels like the last few months have been a bit of a blur.  Anyway - I'm rectifying that right now with some additional HMMWVs I recently finished.  Well... finished to a point - no crew painted as yet - but I'll post them up when I get them done.

Here's the latest group

There's a range of models in the photos.  The HMMWV with the slightly different camo is actually a Dragon diecast where all I've done is add a Mk-19 automatic grenade launcher.  All the rest were made and painted by me.

Some close ups

And now the little horde as it currently stands

Pretty happy with that progress - but still a few more Hummers to go before I've finished with this lot.

Thanks for looking

Richard

New Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicles

 Sticking with my recent North American theme, I've also managed to finish a few vehicles for my Canadian battle group.  The first of these were amongst the first models I ever 3D printed on my old Saturn printer.  I learnt a couple of lessons on these, but never felt the need to reprint them - I can live with the small errors.

So I really wanted to print some Canadian Lynx's - based on the American M113 1/2 C&R.  They are a unique option - only really fielded in this particular format by the Canuks and I find this AFV to be a very interesting choice for a recce vehicle.  It forces the Canadians to pursue "recce by stealth" as their only real option.  "Recce by fire" is right out the window when your heaviest weapon is a .50 Cal HMG - unless you manage to borrow some Leopards - a fairly limited resource and not recce trained really.

The Tank Museum has done an excellent Tank Chat on the Lunx that you can find below

There is also a good article about the Lynx on the Canadian Encylopedia

Anyway - onto the models - which are all Bergmann prints which you can find for free.

This is my Platoon Commander.  I converted this model by drilling out the drivers hatch so I could open it and install an Elhiem crew figure.  I also added an Elhiem Miniatures .30 Cal MMG to the rear hatch.  The track commander is a AB FGigures British WW2 tank commander.  I think this all worked out quite nicely.

The second vehicle in the Platoon Commander's section is more plain, but does come with the additional .30 Cal and a nice red bike for quiet recce's!

The Platoon Sergeant's track get's his own little blue bike!

This is the second Lynx in the Platoon Sergeant's section.

This is the Platoon Commander's section

And the Platoon Sergeant's section

And this is the whole platoon, ready for action.

The next vehicle is a little bit different, but interestingly enough based on the same M113 chassis.  The is the ADATS CDN, with ADATS standing for Air Defence Anti-Tank System.  It's basically a short ranged missile system, equally capable of engaging and destroying aircraft, helicopters and tanks (and other armoured vehicles of course).  Fom what I understand it was a pretty decent/capable system - and was even trialled by the US Army - but it was a late comer - arriving in Canadian service in 1989, and being killed off in America due to the end of the Cold War.

This is another excellent STL from Wargaming 3D

In my Cold War Battlegroup variant it is currently available for the Canadians as a Speculative Weapon.  So of course I needed to have one - or two.

 

This is the ADATS CDN in firing mode.

This is the ADATS CDN in maintenance mode, with the platform on the sides of the vehicle raised.  The radar is in the stowed position as it would be under non-combat travelling conditions.

And finally the two vehicles together.

That's it for today.  Maybe some more American stuff next time.

Thanks for looking

Richard

The HSTV-L... or the LAV-75... or the RDF/LT... who knows...

The High Survivability Test Vehicle - Lightweight or HSTV-L was a light tank testbed developed under the US Army's Armoured Combat Vehicle Technology program in the late 1970s.  Only one of these vehicles was ever produced and it while it was originally made to test the concept of speed instead of armour, it was also used to test a number of other concepts, including its 75mm Automatic main gun.

Who doesn't approve of the idea of a 75mm Panther type gun, firing modern ammunition in something like full auto mode!

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about this vehicle here - mainly because there are some excellent websites out there with all that information so if you what to find more - here is a good place to start - that's a link to the Tank Encyclopedia article on the HSTV-L.

I came across this vehicle sometime around 1986 when I purchased this book:

Which has a number of illustrated plates of various vehicles including this one:

In TW:2000 it was always known as the LAV-75 - so that's my preferred nomenclature.  In that setting the LAV-75 equipped the divisional light tank battalions in the US Army's Light Divisions, as well as the assault gun battalions in the US 9th ID (Motorised) and replaced the Sheridan in the 82nd Airborne Div.

In Battlefront's Team Yankee game I believe they call this the RDF/LT.  I understand that was one of the many programs undertaken to replace the Sheridan, but beyond that I'm not really sure.

In my Cold War setting for Battlegroup, so far the LAV-75 is a Speculative Weapon that is one of the Light Tank/Assault Gun options useable by the US 9th ID (Motorised).  I intend to expand that at some stage to also cover the Light Divisions and the 82nd.  Maybe more...  Here's the AFV Data Card for the LAV-75

Anyway - a while back I bought an STL for the HSTV-L from Wargaming3D.  It's a lovely little model which I scaled up to 1/72 and it printed very nicely.  It comes with a large turret stowage rack which I now understand was used for instrumentation during some of its testing.  It's not shown in photo or TW:2000 drawing above.  I decided to leave it on as I like stowage, and I bet most tank crews like having a place to stow things as well.  The rack is quite light - so if you don't want it, it wouldn't be any drama to cut it off - or if you're more skilful than me - simply don't print it.  I printed 4 tanks to make up a platoon and here they are:

 

This will be my Platoon Commander's vehicle, with a Friendship Models commander.

 This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Commander's section of the platoon.

This is the Platoon Sergeant's vehicle, again with a Friendship Models commander.

This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Sergeant's section of the platoon.

Here's the platoon together

One thing I had a hard time with while I was making them was just how big I thought they were.  So once I had finished them I thought it might be worthwhile to put them besides a M1 to check out whether or not they really were that big.  I thought the result was quite interesting:

So they really were much, much smaller - just with a really long main gun barrel!

So that's my LAV-75 platoon.  I have more US Light Tank options in the pipeline, but before they get finished, I've got some Canadian vehicles coming up next.

So let me know if you like these crazy speculative vehicles and would like to see more and/or include them is some 1980's Cold War action.  You never know, if I can sort it out you may get to see a couple of LAV-75 derivative vehicles as well!

Thanks

Richard