British Support Weapons

I have been working on some British Support Weapons. I don't want to be fielding infantry squads who are required to just charge into the Hun with no mortars or anti tank support. I dug out my old Revell British Infantry and took out all of the PIAT, 2 inch mortar, and bren teams. I washed them in a bowl of water and washing up liquid, and then proceeded to paint them. 

I now have three PIAT teams, three mortar teams, and I think four bren teams on the move, with a couple firing. I took photos of a couple, but need to find a better place to take photographs. 

Yes, sometimes I even play games.

So it finally happened! After months of preparation, modelling, painting, basing, I managed to find a free evening to shamble along to a games night for a Bolt Action engagement. I have the rules. The book is a nice looking thing, and the rules seem simple enough, but also not too simple. I met a bunch of new, interesting people, and had a laugh. Ironically, we used someone else's 28mm armies, so I didn't even get to take my guys for a spin. It was probably for the best though, as I don't have a very good array of support weapons.

It was a four player game, 1400pts, playing an ultimate destruction scenario (is that its name?). The Germans had an SS platoon of small squads, supported by an MG42, medium mortar, a 75mm infantry gun, Hanomag, and a Panzer IV. There was also a Wehrmacht platoon of large squads, a Pak 40, and Puma. The allies consisted of a regular US platoon, 2 large squads, bazooka team, medium mortar, 50cal, halftrack, and an M4 Sherman. They also had a British Para platoon of smaller squads, a 6pdr, a useless jeep, and sniper. I played as the US. 

I didn't get many pictures. I didn't want to be the new guy who was going around taking photos every five minutes. What photos I did take, were taken on my phone, and as such aren't great.

I advanced my less experienced force into the town, in an attempt to get the added defensive bonuses from being in buildings. It didn't really achieve much, and I ended up spending most of the game just camping here, taking long range shots.

The Brits took up the right flank, getting the 6pdr into position in the field. It stayed there all game waiting for the puma to make an appearance. The sniper (in the bottom corner) set up in that wooded area, proving to be totally useless, all game.

This blurry shot shows most of the German forces. SS on the right flank, Wehrmacht partially visible on the left. Puma and other infantry are out of shot. 

Early on my Sherman lights up the advancing Hanomag, causing massive damage and brewing her up. This put the allies up one point for destroying an enemy unit.

Unfortunately the Hanomag wreck provided hard cover for the Panzer IV, so he just parked there for the rest of the game missing his shots at the Sherman.

I set up an infantry squad in this building and they managed to cover the field in the middle of the board. But they couldn't hit much until the very last round. I think they scored a couple of pins is all.

I eventually charged my Sherman out to get a better shot at the Panzer IV, scoring a hit, but the crew managed to put the fire out. Here you can see the Sherman clearly in the sights of the Panzer IV....

And the Pak 40...

The game ended before she could die though. Below shows the beleaguered Wehrmacht squad in the middle of the board who took fire from all directions in the last round of play. More pin markers than men! This is also the field where a close combat took place. Because the SS squad was attacking the paras through the hedge, both attacked at the same time, wiping each other out. I don't know if that was correct, but we were all very new at this, and the rulebooks rarely left out hands (we had about five copies between us). The game ended with an allied "victory" because we had wiped out two units, and the axis had only wiped out one.

We undoubtedly did things wrong. But it was a fun game. My next one will hopefully be on a much smaller scale, perhaps just a few infantry squads to get a feel for it first. I also doubt I will be playing a destruction scenario again. It just encouraged us to sit in cover and camp.

I really liked the indirect fire mechanism. We didn't score many hits (one in total!) but with the likelihood of hitting the target getting better each round, it meant you couldn't just camp a unit somewhere and hope it survived. My HMG team was almost constantly on the move because the German artillery was following it around. They had no spotter though, so we may have been playing that wrong.

As I get more experienced with this game, and build forces myself, I will be able to give better reports and next time I hope to have a better camera, and my own figures on the board!

Jagdpanther, the first of a million (okay, four, but still...)

This puppy has been sitting on my desk for ages just waiting to be finished off. I still think it is a bit too clean, and may do some more work on that. I had to add a track link into the left hand tracks. The same mistake won't be happening on the other ones I build.

Finally Finished Puma

The Puma has been lying around in its drawer for weeks now, too clean for my liking. So I got around to dirtying it up and taking some photos. It is just a shame this kit (Matchbox/Revell) is out of print now, and pretty hard to get hold of. I could use a couple more of them, but don't feel like going the Hasegawa route.

Firefly (Not the Joss Whedon show)

I know, I know, you all thought I would be blogging about Mal Reynolds and the "special hell," but it is just boring old models this time. Sorry to disappoint. I finished the Revell firefly a few weeks ago and have only now gotten round to putting it up here. It is a very simple kit, and the broken bridge section you get with it is actually one of the more useful bits of scenery you get with the former Matchbox kits. I haven't painted my one yet though, I probably should.

So here she is in all her glory. In an effort to try and make each of my vehicles a bit unique, I added some extra armour to the sides and in front of the hull crew hatches. I also followed photos on the internet in an effort to hide the length of the gun. Apparently this was common practice to trick the Germans into thinking it was a normal sherman until too late (citation needed). The commander is probably from a Quad and 25pdr kit, or is a former jeep driver. Who knows? I remember the days when we would buy Airfix kits, and in each box you got a form to send off in case you lost a part. We were very careless and often lost the crews of our cannons, and drivers of vehicles... Airfix were very obliging in sending us new ones, and hey presto, extra crew!

Revell Comet.

This is a kit I recall always wanting to have. It was meant to be the best British tank of the war, yet only saw service right at the end. So I ended up never getting one. The kit is pretty basic, but still looks good. The turret hatch didn't seem to look like it wanted to be built as open, so there will be no commander here. I also added Green Stuff around the gun mantle to represent canvas or something. 

I tried the trick of applying a gloss varnish, decal, matt varnish on top to hide the edge of the decals. It hasn't worked all that well. But I am still pleased, and hope she fares well if I ever put her into action.

Panther Refurb.

So I think this post establishes that I am really bad at taking "before" pictures. I mean, why take photos of badly made, and even more badly painted models, right? Well, for this Airfix Panther, built over 10 years ago by my younger brother, it would have been great.

When I unearthed it one of the front cogs(?!) had broken off, and the main gun was in two pieces. I decided to use the tank as an experiment for camo netting. The method I used here is not the one I will end up doing in the future. I used an actual roll of bandaging which proved to be too thick. I also used Red Bush tea, the leaves of which are almost more like little splinters of wood as opposed to leaves. It still looks acceptable, but proved very difficult to paint. You can probably still see bits of white where I couldn't sink paint deep enough.

I also had to use my little drill (for the first time ever!!!) to insert a pin to keep the driving cog properly attached. 

The camo netting around the main gun nicely hides the join where I reattached it.

This is the first time I have tried to to this sort of camouflage. I will improve with practice, but am pretty happy with it for now.    

All in all, she looks quite formidable. I really like how she turned out, but it should be noted that I didn't actually build her. So I didn't have to deal with the fact that the Airfix Panther is meant to be a horrible build. 

US Infantry try outs

I was sick of painting Brits. I finished all my early war Wehrmacht too. My Japanese infantry are done and boxed away. I have a bunch of armour in various states of finish, but none that I could be bothered to work on. So I went to the boxes of old infantry and decided I wanted to try out painting up some US infantry. I don't really need them: my Brits will suffice in any western front engagement I feel like playing, and my Japanese need to be fighting men of the USMC (of which I have about 30 white metal figures, I just don't want to paint them yet). But I just thought, what the hell! So I looked online at paint schemes and got the paints I felt worked best. I only painted a handful though, in case I didn't like how they turned out.

Unfortunately, in my haste to finish them, I didn't actually finish them! The officer's binoculars were meant to be black, and his holster was meant to be leather. I just missed them out. Upon seeing the second photo, it seems like the rifleman has something in his hand and I just painted it a flesh tone. Oops.

But I am happy with them, and will continue painting more. I may experiment with snow bases.

Jagdpanthers... Jagdpanthers everywhere.

A few weeks ago I was perusing my local model shop and found they had Revell Jagdpanthers available for half price. I have German infantry, painted to be used early war, but are also generic enough that I can pass them off as mid war too, until I paint up my PSC Germans. I don't, however, have any late/mid war armoured support for them. Or at least none that has been made in the past ten years. I have some appalling Stug IIIs and other vehicles in a box somewhere. So I decided to get one.

I am happy with the details of this model. I like how she looks. BUT... I faced the bane of my nightmares...

INDIVIDUAL TRACK LINKS!!!!! WHY? WHY?! I had huge troubles with these. On the first side, I actually ran out of links, and there was a gap big enough for one more. I hoped that I could steal it from the other side. So I was very careful on the second side and tried to line things up better. This time there was no gap, but there was also no spare link. I had to steal it from the spare ones attached to the side. I swore to myself I would never buy one again. So what If I only have one Jagdpanther on its own? I will just use her in smaller games, away from her unit.

But then today, I was browsing again, looking for a bargain. Boy did I find one! 75% off!! My heart sank as I knew I would be forced to buy two of these. This way I will have three models and will be able to represent a squadron/platoon/company of Jagdpanthers depending on the rules I am playing. I slowly picked two out, tucked them under my arm and took them to the counter. Upon handing them over the helpful customer assistant informed me that there was a "buy two get a third free" deal on this particular kit.

The rest is what you might call, history...

Bren Teams

I finally flocked my two bren gun teams. I was hoping to have some of that static grass that stands up, but haven't as yet procured any. It has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy, I promise. A couple of vehicles awaiting decals and dirt, and a Jagdpanther whose individual track links are giving me hell. But my Brits are coming on nicely and will soon be ready for use.

 

They are based on 2p coins. I am pretty pleased with them. They are my first ever gun team who are based together.