Cold War T-62 company

 

My first entry for this years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge was completed on day one.

I set the alarm for 0530 in the morning and bleary eyed, with a cup of coffee in hand I slapped a coat of Russian Green on these chaps and bases with some dull brown emulsion before starting work for the day - I'd booked a half-day off.

After lunch I was able to complete the basecoats mudding with Flat Earth and then followed by an Iraqi Sand dry-brush and once dry slap on some Military Shade and returned once that had dried to complete the bases. 

The tanks are 3D prints at approx. 12mm scale that chum Drew printed for me on his Elegoo Mars. These will add a whole new option of cheaper tanks to my Seven Days to the River Rhine Soviet force that currently fields the much more up to date and expensive T-64B.

I'm looking forwards to getting these on the table.

Bundeswehr Heavies

These have been painted a couple of weeks, but today I finally got around to taking some photos.

In my past few games of Seven Days to the River Rhine the Bundeswehr have been rather roughly handled, particularly due to the survivability of the Leopard 1A1s. I bit the bullet and added a platoon of Leopards 2's to give them a try out.

The models this time are from Red3, I rather liked the option of being able to add the tank commander and gunner sticking out of the turret.

As these are likely to be regular Bundeswehr rather than reservists I decided these should be in the more modern three colour scheme.

One thing to note is that they are probably too small, slightly, but noticeably smaller than the Timecast Leopard 1s  where they should be a little bit bigger in all dimensions.

I also added a pair of Fuchs AFVs to add to what I have to make up the mounts for a platoon.

Lets see how the Bundeswehr do in our next adventure.

Seven Days to the River Rhine

Thursday evening at the club I gave Daz a game of Seven Days to the River Rhine as he had wanted to give the rules a try for some time.

I set up the table as shown in the image above, although the "under the cloth" hills are a bid obscured so I put a couple of the coniferous trees on each crest to make them stand out more in the photos.

As it was Daz's first game and I've been struggling to finish a game on a club night I reduced the points values to 500 points per side.

Soviets:

• Three T-64B
• Three Infantry in BMP-1
• Three Infantry in BTR-60
• One AGS-17 in BTR-60
• Two BRDM-2

FDR: 

• Three Leopard 1A1
• Three Infantry in M113G
• One Milan in M113G
• Three Infantry
• One Milan
• One M113 PanzerMoerser
• Two Luchs

Daz elected to take the Bundeswehr and soon found out that the Leopard 1A1 is not that good in a firefight with a T-64B

The Soviets did not have it all their way though and were soon down a T-64B of their own as well as one of the BMP-1 being toasted!

After last weeks game, at least I had remembered to put the objectives on this time and a BRDM-2 was rushed into the industrial area to secure one while the German Luchs held one of the others.

My commander sifted two times during the game as my command tank fell victim twice!

A close range firefight developed around the other objective, the Soviets lost two infantry teams in this engagement, but at the end of the game neither side was in the ascendancy here.

By the end of the game, neither side was close to breaking, the FDR having lost their three Leopard 1A1 and a Luchs while the Soviets lost two T-64B, a BMP-1 and two Infantry teams.

A solid draw, I think Daz enjoyed it and I think that 500pts is probably a better sized game for a club night.

Seven Days to the River Rhine with Sgt. Bradford

Thursday evening Mike and I met up at the Rose and Crown for some 7DRR action. Neither of us had not played for a while so we would both be a bit rusty.

The table was set up as below, there are several rolling hills that are not immediately clear in the photo.

I would use the Bundeswehr while Mike took the Soviets. The Germans would start at the top right corner with the Soviets at the bottom left.

Early disaster for the Germans as the Spetsnaz team hiding in the Portakabin toast the Jaguar and a Leopard 1A1 is taken out by a T-64

The T-64 seem immune to just about everything I can throw at them, so I start splatting the softer stuff

My Milan teams are scoring lots of hits on the Soviet tanks but they seem impervious to the fire.

I carefully guard my Leopards

Every time a Leopard is committed, the Soviets seem to have no issue with their one-shot, one-kill policy!

I'll just have to concentrate on neutralizing the soft stuff

As the Soviet tanks mass, a pair of Luftwaffe Tornados line up for the attack, but, a mass of Soviet fighters drive them off 

The German HQ troops await reinforcements

 We had both forgotten to place objectives at the start, but by the end of the game the Soviets still had most of their armour left while I had lost the Jaguar and four of my five Leopards, a win, but not crushing victory to the Soviets

Mi-24 Hind

 

I picked up a 1/144th scale MI-24 Hind model kit from eBay a few weeks ago to give some airborne support to my Soviets. It was base-coated but sat in the backlog while I completed the Bundeswehr and painted some Napoleonics.

The two main colours used for he basecoats are VMC Green Ochre and MiG Camo Green, while the underside is VMC Pastel Blue. It had a wash of AP Strong Tone and then the base-coats re-applied then highlighted.

After a coat of gloss varnish, I applied the transfers, making a right mess of things with those on the starboard side. The whole thing was finished with a coat of matt varnish.

The Soviets now have some aerial support and the Bundeswehr Gepard and Redeye teams have something to shoot at!

Bundeswehr Force for Seven Days to the River Rhine

These past few weeks I've been getting on with some West German Bundeswehr to be able to either play against my own Soviet forces or for those games when my opponent fields their own Soviet force.

As usual, I've burst right through the usual 600 point force that you need for gaming, but at least I'll have plenty of optional variants to choose from.

The Battlegroup HQ is a Infantry team in a M113, I like to add a command vehicle to the HQ to help remind me which it is during the games. These are from the Timecast range.

The first unit is a platoon on Leopard 1A1A1 from Timecast, I went with the older tanks and APC's as I want to base my force around a unit of reservists rather than regulars.

A second platoon of Leopard 1A1A1 complete the tank contingent.

The main force of the battlegroup is three platoons of reservists in M113 APC's each platoon supported by a Milan ATGW team and a M3 MG in sustained fire mode.

Again all the infantry and APC's in these three units are from Timecast.

Like the armour I've used older equipment and not gone for the NATO three colour camo scheme that started to be introduced around this time to reflect the second line nature of the troops.

Indirect fire support is provided by a pair of M113G Panzermörser, again these are from Timecast.

Armoured reconnaissance assets are represented by a trio of Spahpanzer Luchs armoured cars, these models are from Red3 and fit in really nicely with the Timecast stuff.

There is also some heavy support in the form of a Gepard and a Jaguar 2, these are both 3D prints provided by chum Martin. My ham fisted clean up job means that I've had to hide some damage I did to the running gear on them both with basing materials.

I've done some 'soft' reconnaissance units too, three sets of infantry scouts, and two units in VW Iltis jeeps, this is a lovely model again from the Red3 range. 

The final grouping is a mixed platoon mounted in a pair of Fuchs wheeled armoured personnel carriers and a Unimog truck. The Fuchs with the Milan mount is another 3D print from Martin while the other Fuchs and the Unimog are again from Red3.

As I do over-do things there were far too many Milan teams purchased, these last four will likely never get used in any games, as four is more than enough, realistically two is enough.

A few close-ups of individual vehices.

The vehicles are done from a grey primer then base-coated in Mig NATO Green, the tracks, wheels, weapons etc. are painted in VMC Black Grey, and the entire thing dirtied up with a stipple of VMC Flat Earth.

The G3 stocks and tool handles are picked out in VMC Beige Brown. Tarps, camouflage nets, etc. are painted in VMC German Uniform, VMC Khaki or VMC Camo Beige, the mantlet covers on the Leopards are also painted VMC German Uniform. Once dry the entire thing is given a light dry-brush of VMC Iraqi sand.

They are set-aside for at east a couple of hours and then the whole thing is washed with AP Military shader and again set-aside to dry. The VMC German Uniform, VMC Khaki or VMC Camo Beige are over-painted and highlighted and then the vehicles were based then finished off using the Dark Sand powders from a Tamiya Model Master kit and a couple of coats of matt varnish applied.

I'm pretty happy how they came out, I think that the photos show them a bit lighter than they are in the flesh.