STARLIGHT! BAOR Saracen and land Rover 101FC Ambulances

Finally got the medical elements for my BAOR force finished, ready for the deadline of The Guild's "Ambulance" Group build.

Both are old JB Models pieces, with the Saracen being converted from the APC version. I'm quite pleased with how these have come out, though I am now more convinced than ever that decals are the work of the Devil...

I should be getting on with S&S Models lovely re-mastered CET, but after last week's Lion Rampant game, I can feel myself getting drawn back towards mediaevals again...

Cheers
Iain

Flame out, prepare to eject!

In the search for something meaningful to base a scenario round for Force on Force, I've been working on various waifs 'n' strays for the cold war. First on the list, a couple of RAF aircrew, who are most assuredly not having a good day.

Figures are modern Elhiem, painted up to give the impression of 1980s RAF Germany types (not strictly accurate, but good enough for 3-foot distant).

I can forsee some sort of scenario, whereby the pilots start the game in the middle of the table (possibly moving about randomly with the aid of a scatter dice, until they enter optimum range of either side), with a NATO rescue party closing in from one side and a Soviet sweeper team from the other, with the objective of carting the luckless aviators back to their respective table edges (with the neccessary dependents penalties being enforced on whatever unit currently has custody of the fliers).

It does, however, still remain for us to get a sufficient handle on the rules to allow basic gameplay, before we get totally carried away with ourselfves...

Cheers
Iain

Battle Report- NATO Central Front, Northern Germany, 1986

A rather belated update of a game from a few(!) weeks ago, Force on Force Cold War...

After a dismal first showing several months ago (admittedly with only one BAOR section each), Dave and I decided to have another bash at the Force on Force Cold War rules up at the East Kilbride Warlords club, this time with a proper force on each side. I had command of the stalwart BAOR on the defensive, while Dave held the reins of the WarPac juggernaut, in the shape of his Czechoslovak Motor Rifles.

What followed was a far more entertaining game than last time round (still interrupted with copious amounts of book-checking and sucking of teeth and muttering, but definitely less than last time!). We probably skipped over more rules and game mechanics than we intended, and over simplified much, but this time it definitely seemed to flow better, even if we did do a lot in the wrong order and forget to do half of the things we should have done. Who knows, maybe at some point we’ll get a proper game in, and actually use all the bells and whistles properly?! (Who are we kidding…)

Anyway, on with the pictures of shiny toys. Transport yourself to northern Germany, it’s 1986, Active Edge has been called and the balloon is well and truly skybound at a fearsome rate of knots.  We join the Queen’s Own Atholl Rangers on the Forward Edge of Battle, anxiously awaiting what is about to tear out from the eastern forests…

Central to the Czech armoured onslaught was Dave’s newly painted T-72, which promptly drew all sorts of MILAN and Charlie G fire, and thus quickly succumbed to the first rule of miniature wargaming…

Callsign 211, apparently in some confusion as to what way they should be facing…

A Section move forward, covered by some Yeomanry types…

… while B Section and a MILAN team anchor the opposite flank
 

A Blowpipe team pressed into service in the surface to surface role. We counted it as a Charlie G, similarly, Dave’s lone SA-7 operator became an RPG-7.

Plan A did not end well for the Yeomanry…

The T-72 proves rather more effective as cover than it did as an unstoppable dealer of high-explosive death…

…while Callsign 213 manoeuvre through the woods

And then there were 3…

Platoon HQ, not doing a great deal.

Tank action!

Peekaboo!

As for the result, after a hard fought slog, the BAOR managed to grind the WarPac advance to a standstill mid-table, buying time for a NATO regroup further west, and allowing the orderly withdrawal of forward elements. Or something like that.

What did we learn? 1. Dave needs more BMPs 2. Charlie Gs > MILAN, you, your mum and your dog. Czechs rolling on D6s struggle to match BAOR on D8s; either they need heavily reinforcing (we should have let the casualties re-spawn at the table edge) or the die qualities need adjusting. All in all though, good fun and certainly made more sense this time round!

Cheers
Iain

Lt Gruber's Little Tank Redux

Playing catch up here after several months of slacking on updating the blog; plenty of stuff has been painted, but not much has made it on here! Hopefully now getting a handle on rectifying this...

After the unmitigated disaster that was the Sheridan, I decided to try and calm myself down by building something a bit more straight-forward (and with a far simpler paint scheme...)

On raiding the stash, my eyes lighted on a long-forgotten JB Models Saladin armoured car. Bought yonks ago for about three quid, I'd intended on doing a diorama feauring this, a Saracen APC, a Diamond-T and a civvy motor having a Mexican stand-off at a T-junction somewhere in Wales in the 50s... However, having accepted that that's never ever going to get done, I decided it would make an ideal addition to the 1970s US force in the guise of a Sonderwagen 3 of the Bundesschutzegruppe, and so I set about throwing it together.

The JB kits (now Airfix) are very simple little kits (to the point of crudity in the case of some of the earlier ones, such as this one!) but with a little care and thought, they can be made into pretty convincing little items. I the case of the Saladin, the most obvious omission are the tie-downs surrounding the turret. I fabricated some out of stretched sprue; they're horrendously over scale, but they give the impression nicely. Next up, I drilled out the barrels of the smoke dischargers (madness, but improves the look to no end) and the main armament, and added a canvas sleeve to same. The co-ax .30 was replaced with an S&S piece, and the AA .30 (which is just downright offensive) was similarly skipped and replaced with a Sgts Mess item. Intending to leave the hatched open, I duffed up some basic hatch interiors from stock and more stretched sprue, and with the addition of some stowage from various sources, I was left with this-

A nice coat of what Humbrol had sold me claiming to bronze green soon followed, (nothing like bronze green, but perfect for this scheme!), and it was starting to come together...

Some WWII panzer crewmen in field caps were sourced from Foundry (conveniently also featuring winter parkas on some of the sculpts. Might see about doing another one of these!) Some git came up with the great idea of doing Sumpfmuster in 20mm...

Et viola. One finished BGS Sonderwagen 3. Looks totally out of place in it's bright green paint scheme against the snowbound base, but suitably eye-catching on the table...! The registration plate came out far too large, despite careful measuring. This will probably be replaced at some point, but will be left in place for now.

Cheers
Iain