Soviet Military Police and Technicians/Drivers

In my Wargames Soldiers & Strategy scenario I needed to have a squad of Soviet Military Police manning a checkpoint near the SA-10 Battery.  I also needed some figures to represent either various drivers or armed SAM Battery technicians.  In both cases I couldn't find many options.  Elhiem has a single Soviet MP and nobody I could find did some unarmed support troop type figures.

So I had to do something a bit different.  For the MPs I relied on Elhiem figures - as the actual MP is Elhiem it seemed to make sense.  I got a second MP figure, and then painted up a couple of "random" figures to look like MPs.  Here they are

You can see that the first and third figures are actually the same figure - one just has his arm adjusted.

For the drivers/technicians I used Liberation Miniatures.  They have some chaps in a kind of relaxed summer uniform and I thought (particularly their hats) allowed them to fit the bill.  Here they are

Obviously they are armed - but that is fine - as the scenario allows for a portion of drivers or any non-technical Soviets to be on guard near their vehicles.  To be honest I really just wanted these figures for the photos for the magazine.

More on that in a future post.  That's all for now

Richard

9K31 Strela-1 (SA-9 Gaskin)

I always wanted to have a SA-9 Gaskin or two - principally an ACE Models one if possible.  But alas, to-date, that seems likely to never happen.  I did however snag an ACE SA-13 Gopher (which for some reason it doesn't appear that I've ever taken a photo of it and posted it here).  At one point I decided to use a spare Britannia BRDM-2 hull and marry it with the Gopher SAM launcher turret,  You can see the entried about that here and here.

I was never completely satisfied with that - mainly because you could only have one or the other.

So a while back a friend of mine was putting in an order with Butler's Printed Models and asked if I wanted anything.  I'm not a dive in feet first kind of person, so decided to order 3 turrets - which handily enough BPM allow you to order separately.  I got an SA-9 SAM turret and two M901 ITV TOW Hammerhead  turrets.  I'll deal with the later in another post, but once arrived I cleaned up the turret quite quickly and tried it out on the BRDM-2 hull.  I was very satisfied with the result.

I then painted it very quickly and took just 1 photo for some reason.  Here's the completed model:

Very happy with the purchase.  It looks like BPM does some great prints and others that are not so great based on what my mate ended up buying.  Glad I put my toe in the water, but also glad I didn't spend up big.

Thanks

Richard

Soviet Trucks

It's been a while since I posted some newly completed stuff so today I'd thought I'd post up some Soviet trucks I either built & painted, repainted, or simply fixed up a bit.

I mentioned I recently had an article published in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy Issue 106.  I needed to take some photos for the article so I decided to add a few new vehicles and tried to make a couple of old vehicles look a bit more realistic.

Just over 3 years ago (hard to believe) I bought this Fabbri MAZ 535-A Artillery Truck:

Obviously I didn't want something that wouldn't have looked out of place in a May Day Parade for my photo which was supposed to be in the middle of a war in Norway.  So I repainted it.

That looks a bit better to me

I also had a what I think was a Trumpeter Jiafeng CA-30 fuel tanker which was part of a large swap I did years ago.  It had no instructions - but fortunately also came with Soviet markings.  Well it is an exact copy of a Zil-157 fuel truck.  So I built and painted it to provide fuel for the generators of my SAM Battery.

Sadly the decals were 20+ years old I reckon so they fell apart as I applied them.  All I was able to salvage is what you can see and there is a bit of silvering.

Finally I had ICM Ural Command Vehicle that I built here 10 years ago (geez) and it was very clean so I tried to weather it a little with a couple of new techniques (new to me anyway).  Here's how it came out:

So all in all I'm pretty happy with that lot.

Thanks

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - UPDATE - New French AFV Data

One thousand apologies for not posting this sooner - but here is the most up-to-date copy of the French AFV Stats.  Looking at it and the most recent NATO Gun Data table, I don't believe I have added the different French weapons into the table.  That's a job for another day - but at least you can see the AFV data now.

French AFV Data

Once you've had a look through let me know if you find any obvious errors etc or missing vehicles etc.

Thanks

Richard

Finally... a new update

Hi everyone

Unbelievably it's been months since I last had the opportunity to post an update on this blog.  Like many I'm currently in self-isolation/quarantine at home after returning to Australia from the UK.  I imagine I'll be in this situation for quite a few months and again like many I'm going to use the opportunity to get a few things back on track - including this blog.

I have had some positive things happen over the last few months - with one of the most prominent being a published scenario in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine (Issue 106).  I'll have more information on that soon, including fixing the odd error that made it into the magazine and adding some stuff that was missed out a whole lot of random events that can spice up the scenario.  I'll see if I have any other pics that I took for the article that didn't make it into print and will share those as well.

But today I thought I'd share some photos of what's on my workbench.  Many of these of models I'm making/painting for a friend and a couple are for me.  I thought this would be a good way to bring the blog back up to speed.  I've also some pics of figures and some vehicles to post up as well - they'd be in the near future.

So - once again - on with the show:

Here's a couple M109Gs by S&S Models.  Not sure how well you can see but the spades at the rear are down for firing.

Here's another S&S Models vehicle.  This time a MAN Utility LKW  gl (4x4 Truck)

Next up are a couple of M113G's, this time from Hobbyden.  Very nice, straight forward models which just needed a bit of green-stuff to fix things like air bubble holes in the smoke dischargers.  Once painted I'll add the Commander's hatch , the pintle mount and the MG3 that come with the model.

This is another Hobbyden M113 variant.  This time a Panzermorser which comes with a metal 120mm mortar.

Yet another Hobbyden model.  This time a M577G.

Final M113 variant.  A  unique West German vehicle the M113 Beobachtungspanzer.  There was some significant damage done to this model, so it needed a fair amount of green stuff to fix it.

The final three models are actually for my collection - not my mates...

Back to S&SD Models - a lovely little Iltis with the soft top up.  I'll be using this for my Fallschirmjager Command of OP vehicles - amongst other uses.

Finally a couple of old school Unimogs, again from S&S Models.  These will be for my Danish Motorised Infantry.

So that's it for now.  Next post will be more W-I-P photos after cam netting has been added to some of the vehicles.

So stay well everyone, wash your hands and keep away from everyone!

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - UPDATE - New and Edited French Lists

Time for another update.  It's been a while I know but I've recently completed my revision of THREE French lists and I now feel they are in much better shape than they were when I first published the French Armoured Division Battlegroup list.

So here are the revised and new lists for the French:

French Armoured Division Battlegroup

French Infantry Division Battlegroup

French Rapid Reaction Force Battlegroup

I believe with these lists you should be able to replicate almost any French force from the mid to late 1980's - even possibly the first Gulf War.

The French have some awesome kit - certainly the best Armoured Cars (like the AMX-10RC) of any of the other lists, and also some pretty old and funky stuff (like the AMX-13).  I just need access to a complete range of French infantry options and then this is on my "to complete" list as I've already been putting away the odd bit of French kit for years.

Anyway - I think I have the Czechs still to do and then I'm largely calling the Army Lists complete.  Also as Battlegroup NORTHAG is coming closer - and will not be compatible with any of my stuff I won't be doing any more on this project.

As NORTHAG has gone in a slightly different direction I've decided to take the work I have done and work it into something different again, with my take on a Cold War game.

More of that in the future.

Thanks

Richard

SA-10B Grumble (S-300) Transport-Erector-Launchers (TELs)

Jeepers!!  I've just realised it was way back in December 2015 that I first started this particular little project.  So it's only taken almost 4 years to finish the primary assets I need to run the scenario I've been planning.

So back here and here I showed you the 5N63S Flap Lid B Engagement Radar and the 5P85S TEL.  The 5P85S is kind of the master or smart TEL with the controls and datalink hardware for the entire TEL group.

Today I want to show you my two completed 5P85D slave or dumb TELs - both of which are controlled by the 5P85S TEL.

Here is dumb TEL number 1 - travelling:

In firing position:

And the second dumb TEL - travelling:

and in firing position:

You can easily see there was a fault with this model.  I'm planning on covering it up with a cam net.

Just to prove I haven't just sneakily moved some parts around - here is my Battery:

From left to right they are the 5N63S Flap Lid B Engagement Radar, the 5P85S TEL (smart TEL) and then the two 5P85D dumb TELs.

I've seen lots of pictures of the TELs in all different shades and cam patterns, with matching missile tubes, or grey or white tubes etc.  So painting one with white tubes (for a Norwegian setting) seemed like a good idea and helps make one TEL look quite different from the others.  Likewise the first two vehicles were painted with a generic "Russian Green" while I airbrushed the latest two in MiG 083 (XB518 Zashchitniy Zefeno) which according to MiG paints was the standard basic colour used in the Soviet Union from 1956 to the 1980's - but is still common today.  I quite like the colour.

So that's it for now.  I'm working on an auxiliary vehicle for the battery, and once it's done I'll start playing through the mission solo and see how it goes.

Thanks

Richard