The Roaring Northerners are Dave Stewart, John Hill and Iain Robertson; a loose affiliation of tabletop wargamers and figure painters who inhabit the frozen and somewhat soggy wastelands of west central Scotland. Shadowy and secretive, they stoically quest to reduce the scale of the lead mountain that threatens to engulf them all, and perhaps even find the time for the occasional game... ....This is their story
Happy New Year to all, and best wishes for 2015! So, hopefully Santa brought you all plenty of lead/ plastic/ resin/ figure casting medium of choice, and you get plenty of time to indulge in it...
Over the last week or so I've been able to be fairly busy on the modelling front, and have made some progress on a few fronts.
First up, the BRDM-2 was finally finished off!
Quite pleased with how this has turned out, overall. I know the Guards markings would most likely have been painted out in the event of hostilities, but the version supplied by S-Model omitted the white infil, and as such looked like a sort of "Low-vis" version, suitable for field use, so I kept it in, to avoid the vehicle being a plain green blob....
So that's a total of 1 Russkie vehicle finished, but it's better than nothing!
Remember I said I was plotting something big for
the Soviets? Well, it’s finally arrived…
Yeah, I went there...
While this is in actual fact far too big for the
groundscale we intend to play, it will make a cracking centrepiece of terrain
for games, or potentially an objective for some derring do on the part of some
SAS mobility troop infiltrators. However, you can’t just have a TEL on its own,
for any sense of realism, (and for yet more stuff for GMPG clad Landies to brass
up), the attendant fleet of supporting and command vehicles should really be
represented.
Boxbodies, you gotta have boxbodies.
I also took the opportunities to pick up some assorted APCs from Hobby Den, in the shape of an MTLB, a
BTR-60, and a BTR-70. The thinking is that the MTLB will be used as a generic
command vehicle to accompany the SCUD deployment, as well as for use in other
scenarios requiring a Soviet HQ to be represented, while the BTRs will be used
to transport a “specialist” motor rifle squad for two of the Soviet forces; the
BTR-70 will transport a KGB Border guard squad accompanying the temperate force
opposing the BAOR, while the BTR-60 will carry a Naval Infantry squad for use
with my planned Soviet force in Norway (these will be given a higher troop
rating than the normal MR units, and have really just been included to let me
paint some funky looking uniforms as a change to the usual Soviet Khaki, and
also so I can make use of the new Elhiem MR troops in the pipeline with
different poses…). It will also allow my to mount up my existing Motor Rifles
until some obliging company (I’m looking at you, S-Model) provides us with a
decent plastic BMP-2…
So all in all, that should be enough Soviet
vehicles to keep me going in the meantime (until I cave in and get tanks…), and
before I’m accused of Meglomania, I should point out that I have refrained from
buying the 1/72 Topol ICBM and TEL that Zvezda have recently released. I’m
fairly sure this would allow games where we could just set up a board each in
our own houses, and deploy our own troops thereon, and I could then just phone
Dave and instruct him to douse his board in lighter fluid and drop a match on
it, while playing The Doors “The End”…
I’m aware that the Christmas Season is well and truly upon us, with all the
attendant commitments that brings. So, with their being every chance that this
will be the last update prior to the big day, and in the event that it is, I’d
like to take this chance to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and all he
best for 2015, from John, Dave and myself. Thanks for your interest in the blog
and your support over the last year, we hope that the posts have provided
something of interest to you, whatever side of wargaming floats your boat.
Hopefully 2015 should bring a renewed burst of creativity, we’ve got lot’s
planned, and as ever, watching the inevitable chaos as we try to bring it to
fruition should be amusing if nothing else!
Best Wishes!
Iain
PS, to continue the madness of that video, do a Google image search for "Soviet Christmas cards". Thanks to Andy Rix over at Cold War Gamer for opening my eyes to that particular brand of inspired lunacy....
…the last of the year? Well hopefully not.However, of late I’ve been trying to batter
through some of the last remnants of half done stuff on the workbench.
The Soviet BRDM-2 has progressed a bit, and the weathering doesn’t look too bad,
now that the rest of the vehicle has caught up with it a bit. Hopefully should
have this finished by the end of the month, and thus allow the Soviets to start
2015 with at least some mobility….
Back in the West, I’ve finished the remaining two
US infantrymen
Here they are with the rest of the fireteam
And the whole lot together. I’m quite chuffed with
how cohesive they look, despite the two dramatically different kit and uniforms
between the infantry and the LRRPs
With that being the end of the available infantry
for the time being, I guess it’s time to start on the vehicles…
Since the last post I’ve made a start on the two
remaining US infantrymen for the 70's project. They’re coming along
nicely and hopefully should be finished by next week.
I’ve moved the BRDM-2 on a little bit, too. Unfortunately
I may have gone a bit too heavy on the weathering; the paint job would be fine
for some chanky old rustbucket from the Balkan conflict, but not quite as
suitable for a well maintained machine in its prime, in the service of a Guards
Motor Rifle Regiment…
I’ve also just procured something a bit special
for the Soviets, but you’ll just need to wait to see what that is….
There are still some assorted Soviet items on the
workbench just being finished off. These will be reinforcements for my main,
temperate Central Front, Soviet force opposing my BAOR.
First up, the Elhiem AT-4/5 ATGM team.
Note, this has subsequently had the bushes added
to the base that I forgot to do before photographing it…
Elhiem DShK HMG team
First Soviet vehicle, a BRDM-2 from S-Models. This
is the first kit of theirs I’ve built and I must say I’m impressed. Lovely,
crisp detail, quick construction, clear instructions, no flash or sink holes/
visible ejector pin marks and even PE parts! Also included is a comprehensive
decal sheet allowing for various Warsaw Pact member states to be represented. And
what’s more, you get 2 in a box! Two vehicles, with decals and PE parts and of
the quality rendered really can’t be beat for about 12 quid. My one minor
criticism would be that rather than the inclusion of PE parts (the bulk of
which I’ve left off as too delicate for gaming purposes), I’d rather see S-Model
reconsider the positioning of some of the moulding gates on some of the finer
pieces (MG barrels and the shafts of the pioneer tools in particular) as these
are almost impossible to remove or clean up without mangling. However, as
noted, this is a minor and not insurmountable gripe.
At present, it’s still at the green stage of
painting, and looks a bit scrappy. But hopefully that should change with
successive highlights…
With yet more Soviet infantry on the horizon from
Elhiem, I’m going to have to come up with an idea for shoehorning some more in,
to justify buying all the poses… At the moment Naval Infantry are top of the list;
at first they were going to be based the same as these guys for Central Front
fun (or even Home Front shenanigans; the recent Elhiem RUC releases would do
just dandy for mainland UK police…), but thinking about it logically, they may
be better based to match my nascent Norwegian force (all three of ‘em!) to
support planned Soviet operations on NATO’s northern flank….but that’s for
another day.
