West Germans - Work-In-Progress

Part of the aim of this project is to complete some NATO forces. The good thing about NATO is that by their very nature - you don't have to get as much as you do of the Soviets!

West German tanks
These are Revell plastic kits - Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 1A5



West German MICV
Again plastic Revell kits - Marder 1A3



Yes - I know about the bins along the side! OK! I promise to leave them off the next 3 I have still in their boxes.

West German Troops
These are mainly Elhiem figures - at least all the metal ones are. There are a few plastic Revell figures mixed in.



The kneeling sniper comes from this box:


The Milan firer who is lying down comes from this box:


The lying down sniper and Milan loader come from this box:


The Milan loader has the most obvious modern look, and I tried fiddling with one of them to make it look a little older, but in the end I'm just going to paint them up and hope they blend in.

I'm also hoping that Liberation Miniatures will bring their West German figures back on line as they have a great range and I love their figures. The other thing I need to track down are some West German tank commanders.

Richard

Back on track - BMP-1

Not that the silliness has past - back to Cold War Hot!

In my recent Britannia purchase I also picked up 4 BMP-1 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicles (MICV). Here is a useful link:

BMP-1

Review

If you don't count the gunner, each of these little beauties has a massive 1 metal peice to glue on. The Hull and tracks are all one resin peice, as is the turret. You simply glue on the gun, which comes with the AT-3 Sagger attached to it. I found that I had to carefully drill out the mount on the turret, and trim down the metal on the end of the gun to make it fit, but once this was done, it fits perfectly. You then put the gunner in the turret and you're finished.

I found that there was a few air bubbles in these guys - some so big I had to do something about them, others tiny and I didn't worry about them. I also had a few little things missing - or not well represented - particularly vision blocks around the driver and on the turret. I also had to reattach a turret hatch and one drivers head.

I could cope with all of that - the only thing I really didn't like (and this is not really a make or break issue for me - was the fact that the drivers hatch was open and his head sticking out. That certainly doesn't sound bad, but you can't - without a substantail amount of work) just lope off his head and close the hatch. You also can't open the Commander's hatch, or close the gunner's hatch. This is option limiting in my view - something which you are pretty spoilt with on FoW 15mm armour I have been working with for years now.

I'm sure there is a way around it - but I couldn't be bothered and am very happy with how they turned out anyway. I used two of the gunners on the BMPs and used the other two as tank commanders. When I get some Liberation tank commanders, I'll stick them in the currently empty turrets - to make them look a bit different.

Painting

I used exactly the same techniques as the BDRMs on the BMPs. Only real difference was the tracks, which I simply painted Panzer Grey and then covered with a Black wash. The tracks (on the model) actually aren't great, but you don't see them that well so it doesn't bother me.

Finished Platoon









At some point I need to get a similar amount of BMP-2s and six or so BMD-1 & 2s. At some point...

Here are some youtube clips on BMP-1s









Enjoy

Richard

Nothing to do with Cold War Hot!

And now for something completely different... Just coz I think it's funny



And this one was pointed out to me by a mate in the RAAF. Obviously, he's not a pilot!



That's all for now

Richard

BDRM-2

Okay - first up in the Soviet Armour stakes are a couple of Britannia BDRM-2 armoured reconnaissance vehicles. Here's a wikipedia link with more information:

BDRM-2

Review

After putting together 10 or so plastic model kits, when the Britannia stuff arrived it was like a breath of fresh air. Rather than taking a couple of days to put together 1 kit, I could put a few of these together in 1 night!

Basically the hull and turret come as resin peices, while the main gun, wheels and belly wheels come as cast metal peices. These clean up easily and fit nicely. Very simple to put together.

There was no real (big) problems with the resin and all in all I'd give this 8.5 out of 10.

Painting

It was also very simple to paint. First I gave it an undercoat with Citadel Black Spray. Then I used Battlefront's (and Army Painters?) War Paint spray can - Soviet Armour. It was the first time I have used this product and I was pleasantly surprised. It seems to hold a fair amount - I painted 11 vehicles with at least a quarter of the can left (as far as I can tell). Even spread and a nice Soviet looking colour...

I then used Citadel Babab Black to line all the edges on the model. Then I gave it a series of dry brushes using Vallejo Russian Green (which matches the spray very well), progressively lightening it with more and more Vallejo German Cam. Beige.

The wheels and guns were painted black, and then Panzer Grey and the whole thing was weathered using Tamiya Weathering pastels - which doesn't really show up in the photos:









That's the finished product. I made a very simple greenstuff roll to differentiate the two cars a little.

Here's some youtube links to BDRM clips I found to be interesting:









Have fun

Richard

Work-In-Progress - Soviets

As a way of tracking some progress over time - rather than just jump into some of the stuff I've already completed - I thought I'd some some before photos for the Soviets, and where all the NATO stuff is currently up to.

So first of all, here are the before photos of my Soviet kit. These were taken about 3 weeks ago. Sorry for the crappy photos - bit of a rush job.



These are resin and metal Britannia BDRM armoured cars and BMP-1 MICV. I thought that as I complete each type I'll give a little review and explanation of what I did.



Revell T-72s - plastic kits.



Revell T-80s - plastic kits.

I managed to pick up most of these very cheaply at Tom's Hobbies in West Ryde (for anyone interested who lives in Sydney!) I'm waiting until he gets some more in to complete the T-80 platoon at least - don't really want to pay almost twice the price at Hobbyco.

Next are some Soviet figures - all Liberation Miniatures





These are from Rolf's 1970's + Motor Rifle troops wearing the older style two peice khaki uniform. I'm planning on these figures being my first attempt at using the Army Painter Dip. I bought some strong tone (about a year ago) and think these MR troop's uniform colours would really suit the dip. But I'm to scared to just go straight in and try them on these guys - so last night I dug our some old 40K Mordian Guard figures to trial it on. People also say you should use lighter colours that you would normally - so I'll paint 1 fig using Vallejo Khaki (what I would normally use) and another using Vallejo German Cam Beige - to see which one is best.





These Black Russians are all in 1 peice camo uniforms. Many of them are VDV. They'll be painted green with the "bunny ears" - as I think it's called - cam pattern and so I undercoated them black.

I have some more Liberation Russians - but these are unbased - and therefore unphotographed!

Here a youtube clip I found interesting



BDRM up next.

Richard

The year long project...

Okay - so the model making and painting plan is something like this (and this can and will change of course)

Part 1 - Soviet Armour
Part 2 - Soviet Troops
Part 3 - Second RAF Harrier GR.3
Part 4 - RAF Ground Crew, RAF pilots, RAF Regiment
Part 5 - British Armour
Part 6 - 1980's British SAS
Part 7 - West German Armour
Part 8 - West German Troops

The aim is to have as much of this as I can finished by August this year.

In August - in Ireland - the Guild will be hosting a huge Cold War Hot series of games, featuring (as far as I can tell) bucket loads of armour, troops, helos and jets - and using a Modern variation of the Rapid Fire rules.

As much as I'd love to go, I can't see my wife agreeing to a wargaming weekend in Ireland, so I've decided, hopefully with the help of a mate, to hold my own big game here in Sydney Australia. Between myself and a mate, I hope we can host a reasonably substantial Cold War Hot game at the EMIRS Wargaming Club in Sydney on the same weekend as the lads are going for it in Ireland. Its a plan anyway - and will have an end date (useful in any plan) to see if I can finish by then.

I'm not sure what rules we'll be using - but am currently leaning very heavily to Force-on Force. They are a great set of modern rules, but are not tailored to large armour on armour battles - however - I'm sure a few "playtests" will determine if the reaction system can cope with lots of tanks, missiles, infantry and airpower going hammer and tongs at each other.

I have a fair amount of the stuff I want already (there's always more to get!) and have started work on Part 1 - the Soviet Armour.

Harrier GR.3

To get the ball rolling, I'm going to try and post up some photos of the first plastic kit I've made in about 20 years (actually more like 30 but that's too scary to consider).

This is an Airfix 1/72nd scale Harrier GR.3 with some assorted Airfix NATO Ground Crew (and a pilot).

First the Harrier





Now everything





Some dramas there fitting on the photos - but now you can see the whole thing!

Here's some youtube clips I found interesting on the Harrier GR3







This one's a bit old - but still has some cool stuff in it.



Next up - some Soviet Armour!

First Post

Okay - this is the first post on my new blog - let's see if I can actually keep this one going beyond a couple of days! I'm hoping I can make it last a while - at least to help me with my new project.

What's "Cold War Hot Hot Hot" all about? Well basically I'm interested in amassing a resource site for all things related to the scenario of the Cold war turning into a Hot war in the 1980s. Obviously and thankfully, this didn't happen. But I've been interested for years in the fictional what if - what if there had been a conventional war between the East and West during those years. Nuclear war doesn't even bear thinking about!

My interest in all this started in the mid 80's with the relase of GDW's Twilight:2000. I collected every add-on game, supplement and "Challenge" magazine that came out for this game. I was a fan-boy before I even knew such a thing existed! Eventually I got all the GDW "Third World War" series of boxed games and then most of the "Assault" series. I still kick myself that I never picked up "Bundeswehr" that day I saw it for 8 quid in Manchester!

Bookwise, I started with General Sir John Hackett's seminal "Third World War" and then "The Untold Story", before I stumbled across Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I then read Clancy's best book IMHO "Red Storm Rising". This was quickly followed by "Team Yankee" and I guess I was kind of hooked.

I also collected an old English magazine called "Armed Forces" and another called "Miltech" for a while back in the 80's. Good fodder for "Cold War Hot".

Many years have gone by, and I have since gotten into miniature wargaming - first through GW and then into World War 2, particularly through Battlefront's "Flames of War". Whilst I still play FoW a lot, it also got into looking at other rulesets and periods - leading me to Ambush Alley, Force-on-Force and Cold War Commander.

So what's this blog going to be about then? Basically minature wargaming, with a focus on the Cold War Hot in the 1980's. I'll use this as a Work-In-Progress record of my wargaming plastic and resin model kit production line, painting figures and anything else wargaming related for the period. I'll try and write up a few After Action Reports (with photos) of some games I'll hopefully get to play. I"ll also try (mainly to help me - but also for anyone else who is interested) to make this a resource of book reviews, useful web-links, cool youtube links etc. In fact anything I can think of as a resource to all things "Cold War Hot".

Hope you can come along for the ride.

Richard