In the grand tradition (in all of 4 months of blogging) I've established here of "borrowing" things from off youtube and posting them here in order, I'd like to give you now one of my favourite docos from the 1980's.
It's called "Soldiers - A History of Men in Battle" and its narrated by Frederick Forsyth. At the time I thought this show was outstanding and I have always tried to find it on DVD - but have been unable to.
Now some kind soul has posted it up on Youtube - so I thought I would put it up here. Now as I've been posting a lot of stuff about tanks lately, I've decided to start with that particular episode.
So here goes...
Sit back and enjoy.
Have fun
Richard
28 July 2010
26 July 2010
Rearguard Scenario AAR
Last week I had the opportunity to run a playtest of the Rearguard scenario I've previously published here. I played down at EMIRS with my mate Greg, using a slight variation of the FoW Modern rules worked out by Scott Elaurent.
The table was set up as similar to the map as I could get, but perhaps not as many trees as I would have liked.
The lighting is, well, pub like at best at EMIRS, considering we are in the basement of a pub - so please consider that when you look at the photos!
This is the view of the table from the WARPAC edge, looking towards the village in the centre and farm off to the right.
This is the view of the table from the NATO edge looking back up towards the village.
Rather than simply deploy their forces on the table I made up some cards for the Marders (which start on the table). 1 card for each Marder, plus a dummy.
Possible Heer positions near the farm
More possible Heer positions in the village.
How the WARPAC forces started. You'll just have to imaging the rest of the trees!
Turn 1 and 2 saw the WARPAC forces advance down the road and start to spread out, hoping to catch some of the NATO forces near the farm
But they weren't near the farm - both Marders and their dismounts were across the other side of the river in the village.
Turn 3 saw the Leopard 2s deploy in the woods at the opposite end of the table
This is the result of the first round of NATO shooting. 1 Leo capped the first T-72, while the other bailed out the second T-72. This was swiftly dispatched by a Milan shot from the infantry. Reative armour failed miserably...
The WARPAC forces continued to advance and even managed to take out a Marder. Advancing, however, merely brought them closer to the Leopards.
Different angle
The result was a couple more Soviet vehicles knocked out - fortunately the infantry had already dismounted.
The Leopard 2s left their hides and went a-huntin'.
The last T-72 manouvered to get a shot on the now exposed Leopard and dispite needed a six to hit, rolled a '6'. Finally! The shot merely bounced off!
This T-72 was now dispatched, while a BDRM that had just crossed the river to advance on the town was also taken out.
We called the game there, with a solid NATO win.
To play again, I think the Soviets need to have their force increased. I just have to work out by how much. Using the FoW Modern lists, I see now that the NATO force had approximately 600 points, while the Soviets had about 440. So I definitely need to straighten it out a little.
HAve fun
Richard
The table was set up as similar to the map as I could get, but perhaps not as many trees as I would have liked.
The lighting is, well, pub like at best at EMIRS, considering we are in the basement of a pub - so please consider that when you look at the photos!
This is the view of the table from the WARPAC edge, looking towards the village in the centre and farm off to the right.
This is the view of the table from the NATO edge looking back up towards the village.
Rather than simply deploy their forces on the table I made up some cards for the Marders (which start on the table). 1 card for each Marder, plus a dummy.
Possible Heer positions near the farm
More possible Heer positions in the village.
How the WARPAC forces started. You'll just have to imaging the rest of the trees!
Turn 1 and 2 saw the WARPAC forces advance down the road and start to spread out, hoping to catch some of the NATO forces near the farm
But they weren't near the farm - both Marders and their dismounts were across the other side of the river in the village.
Turn 3 saw the Leopard 2s deploy in the woods at the opposite end of the table
This is the result of the first round of NATO shooting. 1 Leo capped the first T-72, while the other bailed out the second T-72. This was swiftly dispatched by a Milan shot from the infantry. Reative armour failed miserably...
The WARPAC forces continued to advance and even managed to take out a Marder. Advancing, however, merely brought them closer to the Leopards.
Different angle
The result was a couple more Soviet vehicles knocked out - fortunately the infantry had already dismounted.
The Leopard 2s left their hides and went a-huntin'.
The last T-72 manouvered to get a shot on the now exposed Leopard and dispite needed a six to hit, rolled a '6'. Finally! The shot merely bounced off!
This T-72 was now dispatched, while a BDRM that had just crossed the river to advance on the town was also taken out.
We called the game there, with a solid NATO win.
To play again, I think the Soviets need to have their force increased. I just have to work out by how much. Using the FoW Modern lists, I see now that the NATO force had approximately 600 points, while the Soviets had about 440. So I definitely need to straighten it out a little.
HAve fun
Richard
20 July 2010
Marder 1A3
If you're planning on starting to fool around with Leopards have have to take a serious look at the German Marder MICV. My brother made one of these in 1/35 scale like 100 years ago and I've always remembered that crazy looking vehicle with the remote machine-gun that could fire backwards.
So when I started this whole Cold War Hot bent the Marder was one of the first vehicles I bought (and now I have 5 of them - with only 2 completed though).
So here's a link to the Marder MICV
REVIEW
So I made these Marder's months ago now (in fact they were my first NATO kits built). I made these one at a time - and tried to remember all the difficult bits from the first build. As it was one of my first kits I was a littler overwhelmed by it to begin with - I'm used to building 15mm wargaming models with a maximum of about 15 pieces!
I had my standard track problems, and the MILAN is a little tricky to fit, and I couldn't for the life of me work out how to add the cam nets provided (so left them off). I also ended up cutting down the rear-vision mirrors, as they are quite large and I decided that they would be the firstthings to get knocked off/broken in a game.
Otherwise I made it straight out of the box. The only thing I don't really like about the kit is that none of the hatches can be set open - without cutting up the model. But anyway - I still think that this is a great little kit.
PAINTING
I'll leave out the whole sorry painting saga - which can be found in the Leopard 2A4post and just say that I used exactly the same colours and methods for these kits. Once again all I can say is that it takes a long time to paint 3 tone camo!
Not wanting to waste my Tamiya NATO Brown, I took the cap into my LGS so I could use it to find the closest match in Vallejo. In the end I choose Vallejo Flat Brown, which I think is as close to spot on that it doesn't matter!
Must say that I was amazed at how long it took to paint on the cam patterns - not something I enjoy doing!
Only issue was the MILAN on one of the vehicles. It came off while I was drybrushing it and try as I might I haven't been able to get it back on! So basically I've decided to leave it off - very pragmatic of me...
So once again - here's the finished product. Marder 1A3 with MILAN:
From the Front
From the Back
Marder 1A3 with dismounted MILAN
And here they are together:
As always - here are some youtube links.
First up, an nice little doco on the Marder - and for once it's actually set in the right time frame:
Second up, an excellent clip demonstrating the Marder:
Another similar demonstration:
Next - if you can get past the loud music that invariably seems to be attached to modern German military clips - this one has some excellent still and video of the Marder in action:
Last up a good compilation clip that includes footage of the Marder in Afghanistan:
Have fun
Richard
So when I started this whole Cold War Hot bent the Marder was one of the first vehicles I bought (and now I have 5 of them - with only 2 completed though).
So here's a link to the Marder MICV
REVIEW
So I made these Marder's months ago now (in fact they were my first NATO kits built). I made these one at a time - and tried to remember all the difficult bits from the first build. As it was one of my first kits I was a littler overwhelmed by it to begin with - I'm used to building 15mm wargaming models with a maximum of about 15 pieces!
I had my standard track problems, and the MILAN is a little tricky to fit, and I couldn't for the life of me work out how to add the cam nets provided (so left them off). I also ended up cutting down the rear-vision mirrors, as they are quite large and I decided that they would be the firstthings to get knocked off/broken in a game.
Otherwise I made it straight out of the box. The only thing I don't really like about the kit is that none of the hatches can be set open - without cutting up the model. But anyway - I still think that this is a great little kit.
PAINTING
I'll leave out the whole sorry painting saga - which can be found in the Leopard 2A4post and just say that I used exactly the same colours and methods for these kits. Once again all I can say is that it takes a long time to paint 3 tone camo!
Not wanting to waste my Tamiya NATO Brown, I took the cap into my LGS so I could use it to find the closest match in Vallejo. In the end I choose Vallejo Flat Brown, which I think is as close to spot on that it doesn't matter!
Must say that I was amazed at how long it took to paint on the cam patterns - not something I enjoy doing!
Only issue was the MILAN on one of the vehicles. It came off while I was drybrushing it and try as I might I haven't been able to get it back on! So basically I've decided to leave it off - very pragmatic of me...
So once again - here's the finished product. Marder 1A3 with MILAN:
From the Front
From the Back
Marder 1A3 with dismounted MILAN
And here they are together:
As always - here are some youtube links.
First up, an nice little doco on the Marder - and for once it's actually set in the right time frame:
Second up, an excellent clip demonstrating the Marder:
Another similar demonstration:
Next - if you can get past the loud music that invariably seems to be attached to modern German military clips - this one has some excellent still and video of the Marder in action:
Last up a good compilation clip that includes footage of the Marder in Afghanistan:
Have fun
Richard
14 July 2010
Leopard 2A4
For many years now I've had a bit of a thing for the Leopard 2. Not the brand new, pointy nosed Leopard 2A6 but the brutish, blocky looking older variants. I don't know why - its just always been that way. Possibly it harks back to the original boxy Tiger 1E, possibly its the whole jumping off things and shooting deal - I'll just leave up to your imagination.
Here's a link to one of the coolest tanks of all time the Leopard 2
Anyway - any Cold War Hot game or collection I was planning had to include at least a couple of Leopard 2s. So many moons ago, when this all started, I built a couple of Leopard 2A4s and 1A5s.
REVIEW
I ended up with 2 Revell Leopard 2A4s and I built them both at the same time to make it a bit easier for myself. This worked pretty well. Its a pretty straight forward kit and (from memory - as I built them a while ago) it didn't have any glaring issues. I had my perennial track problems - but that's just me :-)
I did leave off a couple of the railings from around the turret, which I knew would be the firstthings to break either while I was painting it or when gaming with it - so I tried to make a wargamer friendly model and all-in-all I think you end with a pretty good one.
PAINTING
I had some real issues with the painting. I first I sought what I thought was the easy option. The brownie-green or gelb-olive colour of Bundeswehr armour in the early 1980's looked pretty simple. 1 colour, dry brush it a bit and your done! Just like Soviet armour with a different colour.
Try as I might I couldn't come up with the right colour. I thought the FoW War Paint US Armour (which is an olive drab) would do nicely and this is what it looked like - just the base coat mind you.
Basically - I didn't like it. Just to brown for my liking.
Essentially I gave up and decided that it might be easier to go with the more recent three-tone camouflage used by the Bundeswehr from the later 1980s. Tamiya made a spray called NATO Green, as well as NATO Brown and NATO Black. These appeared to be the right colours.
So after re undercoating everything again in Citadel Black and the respraying with Tamiya NATO Green at least left me with a colour that looked right in my eyes. I then decided to mask the vehicles and use the Tamiya NATO Brown. 1/2 an hour into the masking I was bored witless and decided that this would take days, so I decided to hand paint the other 2 tones.
This still took hours but at least I was happy with the colours in the end. Again after I stuffed up and used a Vallejo Panzer Grey colour instead of black, leaving that Leopard looking like this:
So I went back to Citadel black
Not wanting to waste my Tamiya NATO Brown, I took the cap into my LGS so I could use it to find the closest match in Vallejo. In the end I choose Vallejo Flat Brown, which I think is as close to spot on that it doesn't matter!
Must say that I was amazed at how long it took to paint on the cam patterns - not something I enjoy doing!
Tracks were painted black and then Vallejo German Grey. This was followed by a wash of Citadel Babab Black. I used the same paint to pin wash the entire model (at least the bits that weren't already black!
Finally (after painting all the tools and the MG3) I used Tamiya Weathering pastels to make the tansk look nice and dirty. Here's the finished product:
And here they are together:
As always - here are some youtube links. First up is an excellent little documentary about the Leopard 2
The obligatory Tank versus car video:
The not quite so obligatory tank shooting bus video:
A fairly cool first person type video:
These last three focus on the newer Leopard 2 models - the the quality pretty good so I though they were worth adding.
Have fun
Richard
Here's a link to one of the coolest tanks of all time the Leopard 2
Anyway - any Cold War Hot game or collection I was planning had to include at least a couple of Leopard 2s. So many moons ago, when this all started, I built a couple of Leopard 2A4s and 1A5s.
REVIEW
I ended up with 2 Revell Leopard 2A4s and I built them both at the same time to make it a bit easier for myself. This worked pretty well. Its a pretty straight forward kit and (from memory - as I built them a while ago) it didn't have any glaring issues. I had my perennial track problems - but that's just me :-)
I did leave off a couple of the railings from around the turret, which I knew would be the firstthings to break either while I was painting it or when gaming with it - so I tried to make a wargamer friendly model and all-in-all I think you end with a pretty good one.
PAINTING
I had some real issues with the painting. I first I sought what I thought was the easy option. The brownie-green or gelb-olive colour of Bundeswehr armour in the early 1980's looked pretty simple. 1 colour, dry brush it a bit and your done! Just like Soviet armour with a different colour.
Try as I might I couldn't come up with the right colour. I thought the FoW War Paint US Armour (which is an olive drab) would do nicely and this is what it looked like - just the base coat mind you.
Basically - I didn't like it. Just to brown for my liking.
Essentially I gave up and decided that it might be easier to go with the more recent three-tone camouflage used by the Bundeswehr from the later 1980s. Tamiya made a spray called NATO Green, as well as NATO Brown and NATO Black. These appeared to be the right colours.
So after re undercoating everything again in Citadel Black and the respraying with Tamiya NATO Green at least left me with a colour that looked right in my eyes. I then decided to mask the vehicles and use the Tamiya NATO Brown. 1/2 an hour into the masking I was bored witless and decided that this would take days, so I decided to hand paint the other 2 tones.
This still took hours but at least I was happy with the colours in the end. Again after I stuffed up and used a Vallejo Panzer Grey colour instead of black, leaving that Leopard looking like this:
So I went back to Citadel black
Not wanting to waste my Tamiya NATO Brown, I took the cap into my LGS so I could use it to find the closest match in Vallejo. In the end I choose Vallejo Flat Brown, which I think is as close to spot on that it doesn't matter!
Must say that I was amazed at how long it took to paint on the cam patterns - not something I enjoy doing!
Tracks were painted black and then Vallejo German Grey. This was followed by a wash of Citadel Babab Black. I used the same paint to pin wash the entire model (at least the bits that weren't already black!
Finally (after painting all the tools and the MG3) I used Tamiya Weathering pastels to make the tansk look nice and dirty. Here's the finished product:
And here they are together:
As always - here are some youtube links. First up is an excellent little documentary about the Leopard 2
The obligatory Tank versus car video:
The not quite so obligatory tank shooting bus video:
A fairly cool first person type video:
These last three focus on the newer Leopard 2 models - the the quality pretty good so I though they were worth adding.
Have fun
Richard
07 July 2010
MT-LB
Next completed model is my S&S MTLB. I got this multi-purpose AFV particularly for a scenario I've written, where it will be one of the vehicles used by the HQ Company of a Guards Tank Division. I only needed one - and this little beauty fits the bill perfectly.
Here's a link to the wikipedia page on the MT-LB
PAINTING
No much to say here really, as its all been said before. I actually painted the MT-LB at the same time as the ZSU-23-4, using exactly the same processes.
The one difference was in the preparation, as a front fender had broken during transit and had to be glued back onto the model. It broke (I believe), due to a large air bubble on the edge of the fender, so that also had to be fixed with a bit of modelling putty.
So here's a couple of photos of the completed MT-LB:
All in all I thought this was a very nice and simple model.
Here's a couple of MT-LB related youtube clip. This first one should be titled - how many children can you fit into an open-topped MT-LB:
This next one should be titled - "The Little MT-LB that couldn't" - it thinks it can, it thinks it can, it thinks it can get up the hill, but alas, it doesn't.
The next one is interesting simply because it shows the spartan conditions inside the cab of the MT-LB.
Finally some good quality off-roading in an MT-LB - all the more impressive now you seen what it's like for the driver.
Have fun
Richard
Here's a link to the wikipedia page on the MT-LB
PAINTING
No much to say here really, as its all been said before. I actually painted the MT-LB at the same time as the ZSU-23-4, using exactly the same processes.
The one difference was in the preparation, as a front fender had broken during transit and had to be glued back onto the model. It broke (I believe), due to a large air bubble on the edge of the fender, so that also had to be fixed with a bit of modelling putty.
So here's a couple of photos of the completed MT-LB:
All in all I thought this was a very nice and simple model.
Here's a couple of MT-LB related youtube clip. This first one should be titled - how many children can you fit into an open-topped MT-LB:
This next one should be titled - "The Little MT-LB that couldn't" - it thinks it can, it thinks it can, it thinks it can get up the hill, but alas, it doesn't.
The next one is interesting simply because it shows the spartan conditions inside the cab of the MT-LB.
Finally some good quality off-roading in an MT-LB - all the more impressive now you seen what it's like for the driver.
Have fun
Richard
02 July 2010
ZSU-23-4
OK - so I got a S&S ZSU-23-4 (Shilka) and a MTLB last week and put them together almost straight away.
First up I'll talk about the ZSU-23-4. Here's a wiki link to the Shilka
ZSU-23-4
PAINTING
The ZSU-23-4 is very simple to paint (if you ar planning on having it the standard Soviet green look like I was. I used my Soviet armour recipe to finish it.
1. Undercoat with Citadel Black Spray
2. Spray coat of Battlefront's War Paint spray can - Soviet Armour
3. Citadel Babab Black pin wash along all the grooves on the model
4. Drybrush with Vallejo Russian Green (which matches the spray very well
5. Drybrush a couple more times with Vallejo Russian Green and progressively more and more Vallejo German Cam. Beige.
6. Tracks and guns were painted black, and then Panzer Grey. Then washed with Babab Black
7. The model was weathered using Tamiya Weathering pastels
Here are some photos of the completed model:
And as always, here are a couple youtube links I found to be useful. This first one has a particular cold war feel to it - very Red Star magazine quality about it!
This one is of very high quality:
Next up - the MTLB
Have fun
Richard
First up I'll talk about the ZSU-23-4. Here's a wiki link to the Shilka
ZSU-23-4
PAINTING
The ZSU-23-4 is very simple to paint (if you ar planning on having it the standard Soviet green look like I was. I used my Soviet armour recipe to finish it.
1. Undercoat with Citadel Black Spray
2. Spray coat of Battlefront's War Paint spray can - Soviet Armour
3. Citadel Babab Black pin wash along all the grooves on the model
4. Drybrush with Vallejo Russian Green (which matches the spray very well
5. Drybrush a couple more times with Vallejo Russian Green and progressively more and more Vallejo German Cam. Beige.
6. Tracks and guns were painted black, and then Panzer Grey. Then washed with Babab Black
7. The model was weathered using Tamiya Weathering pastels
Here are some photos of the completed model:
And as always, here are a couple youtube links I found to be useful. This first one has a particular cold war feel to it - very Red Star magazine quality about it!
This one is of very high quality:
Next up - the MTLB
Have fun
Richard