Bundeswehr M113s

A quick diversion to paint three West German M113s. In Battlegroup Centag these are an option instead of using Marders so I included them in the latest print run.

15mm Bundeswehr Infantry.

This is the end of my work on the Bundeswehr for now. I have 3D printed and painted three platoons of Bundeswehr plus supports.

The figures came separately, but I created bases and combined them before printingI have all the possible teams I need for Battlegroup except a heavy machine gun, so I can keeping an eye out for an stl file for this.

A close up of one of the platoons

Loads of Bundeswehr armour

Seemed to take a while matching the camouflage to a template, but I have now completed all my 3D printed Bendeswehr armour ready to use for Battlegroup Centag in 15mm. Thanks to Ian and Dennis for the decals

Leopard 2s

Leapard 1s

Gapards, I need to dunk one in boiling water to straighten out the barrels. Also it was badly printed at the rear of the turret.

Fuchs

Jaguar 1 & M577

Luchs

the next stage is painting all the infantry and a few softskins

North Vietnamese Army (NVA)

For my new NVA figures from Orion wanted the uniform to look distinctivly different from the US and ARVN, so I tried a suggestion to use Vallejo Games Colour Camouflage Green. I'm quite impressed and I now need to consider whether to repaint the uniforms on my older NVA or strip the paint and start again or even sell them and start again with some new figures.

The night belongs to Charlie!

I now have plenty of Victor Charlie with the benefit of the new Orion Viet Cong figures.
These are a mixture of the new figures and reworked old Esci figures.
I am pleased that my old jungle scenery doesn't immediately need reworking to match in

Plenty of ARVN

A large batch of ARVN to start of the month from both the Early and Late War sets from Orion.

Early War



Late War

Local Vietcong

For the last of my Jauary output, some local opposition for the Ruff Puffs the Orion Local Communist Forces, providing a selection of VC and also figures to act as a supply chain on the Ho Chi Min Trail.

I used a mix of black through to dark gray to reflect the local "pyjamas" and like the Ruff Puffs varied the trousers to give a more irregular feel to the unit The snipers will come in useful as well.

Now onto the ARVN

Ruff Puffs

Ruff Puffs or the Regional and Popular Forces of the Republic of Vietnam are the subject of one of the new Vietnam sets from Orion

I kept the colours quite simple using an olive green for most of the uniform, but adding some variety in the trousers to indicate they are irregulars.

Soviet BTR-80s

Three more 4D kits bought of ebay for less than a tenner including postage. I've painted them up to represent those in use by the Black Sea Naval Infantry.


Thanks to Dave W for the figures

More SAS

Some oddments recently completed, a couple of characters in NBC suits from the Esci Nato Pilots set plus some more SAS

Keep on truckin'

A slight diversion from the plan, I was distracted by these M35 trucks made by 4D I found them on ebay and acquired three for less than a tenner including postage.

Nice simple kits, which are good enough for wargames usage and not as useless as the original kits made by another company called 4D. I managed to find some suitable left over decals so they can now be used in Vietnam. Up till now I have raided my WW2 collection for suitable trucks when needed.

Some Civilians

Some Civilians suitable for use in WW2 or more recently. Figures are from an old Dapol set I picked up on a B&B many years ago. Obviously many are Railway staff and various passengers.

The Celtic cross is a scenic item picked up from Sgts Mess at Bovington

SAS

Quite a simple paint job for these Caesar SAS basically black drybrushed dark grey. Just what I need for "Black Ops"

back right is the one "special" figure in the pack a 007 look-alike

Perhaps they look better in monochrome?

Clearing up the oddments

While finishing off the last units for this year (picture tomorrow) I also completed a number of bits and pieces that were lying around.



So there are:

• Sudan Mahdist casualties (thanks to Andy Callan for providing the figures) I ran out of bases so there are still more to make
• More Napoleonic French casualty bases, I seem to need loads of these and these were a few old Strelets figures that looked suitable.
• At the back some "Japanese Peasants" from Zvezda, but I'll be using them in Vietnam.

Vietnam Civilians

These were just finished before Gauntlet and I didn't get chance to photgraph them at the time.

These are a very nice set of sculpts from Under Fire Miniatures and when I saw them at Phalanx I knew that I had to buy them for the Gauntlet games



Completed very quickly with a dark grey undercoat then dry-brushed to bring out the details. Skin - an Asian flesh with a yellow/brown wash (the one I created for my British desert vehicles)

The standard bearer led the assault on the firebase!

Gauntlet - Hue

The Sunday SOTCW game should have been Cold War Commander, but a last minute change meant a rethink. I was trawling the web for something unrelated when I found a scenario set in Hue at the time of the Tet offensive by AlCal (link). It was an almost perfect fit, it carried on the Vietnam theme, but was quite a different style of engagement and it used a lot of the scenery built for previous SOTCW games at Gauntlet.

Overview of the table the US players have to fight their way north through Hue up Route 1 from (bottom left to top right)

View from the North. The rules used for this game was FUBAR with a few additions for Nam


A pleasant surprise for the Yanks a pair of M48's and a squad of ARVN. Luckily their LOACH had managed to contact then and warn of the troops approach.


After dealing with a VC HMG the next problem was a bunch of hostages being held in the elementary school by a VC death squad. Outside was a fuel tanker. Keeping what they though was a safe distance an M48 Brewed it before the US/ARVN troops assaulted the school. Unfortunately the blast radius was slightly wider and one man was lost.

On the other flank there was tough resistance from VC occupying the French consulate

As an M48 turned the corner an RPG streaked towards it, hitting with no effect. The user was promptly eliminated by the Loach circling overhead.

The next major obstacle was the bridge over the Phu Cam canal. The assault was led my an M113, only to find yet another RPG waiting, luckily who missed. (This was the case with all the RPG fire they either missed or had no effect due to my bad rolling)
It was a tough battle to cross the canal and clear the surrounding buildings, but by the end of the day the road was clear though to the North. Unfortunately I was so involved in the action I failed to take any more pictures, but there are a lot up on the Deeside Defenders facebook page and the SOTCW forum.

I should mention what happened on the right flank, The ARVN/US force struggled to break through the gate into the school, and by the time they had done so the hostages had all been executed and the VC had disappeared. They would shortly reappear via a secret tunnel once the US had boarded their vehicles. There then followed one of those events where everything when right for the NVA player (very rare in FUBAR, all the units activated and almost all shot effectively so by the end of the turn most of two US squads had been eliminated, however retribution followed as the US applied their considerable firepower.

Overall a great couple of days gaming

Gauntlet - Vietnam Route 66

The Saturday game by SOTCW was Route 66 an Vietnam War convoy scenario, where the US players had to get a convoy of supplies to Firebase Crawley. it can be seen at the end of the table.

Visible are the various blinds representing the NVA/VC a few surprises and also blanks.

Once the US players got the knack of the spotting rules, the first non-blank card turned up a trap and a very unlucky roll by the US player resulted in one of their two ACAVs being brewed by a mine resulting in several casualties

The US flanking force hurriedly writing down the strength of a local VC unit (bottom right),hopefully before the casevac arrives. In the background the convoy escorts ran into an ambush in the village (top left).

Clearing the ambushes good progress was made towards the bridge over the river Hwi. A PABR on the river (carefully arranged off picture) dealt with a boat load of NVA heading for the bridge


Easy Rider, the remaining ACAV checks the time before crossing the bridge

Almost a home run, just as Easy Rider reaches Firebase Cawley it is hit by an RPG.

Lots of other events occurred and have been photographed by other participants. See the Land of Counterpane blog.

The rules are a simple derivative of several sets and ideas and will be published in the SOTCW journal in due course along with a write up of the game.

Come on Tim

or a great day out with Tim Gow!

Popped cross the Pennines to meet up with Tim Gow (Megablitz and more blog)  Tim was interested in some of my trades and suggested a get-together.  Had a great day out playing games and discussing wargaming design and people and events we had in common.

In the morning Tim ran me through the concept of Megablitz, but obviously on a 1-1 basis it wasn't possible to experience the full effect as it is a game designed for multi-player and its the interfaces between the players within the command structures.  Still it gave a good feel for me on how to apply it as a game, if I can get enough players together to give it a try.

Then there was Nato Brigade Commander, as applied to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, played on hexes with manoeuvre units being battalions (or exceptionally companies).  I took the Pakistanis with a Mission to break through the Indian defensive line.  With two locations to take I went for the bluff of a strike down the main road (L->R) while manoeuvring on right and left to outflank the Indian positions

With my poorer quality morale my fist attempt on my right failed in disorder as was driven off, this was reinforced by some excellent shooting by the Indian Centurions (needing 1 to it on a d10- result two 1s)

Later my left flank sweep also became unstuck as my Armour/Infantry failed to deal with the Indian Shermans and then in a devastating second round were wiped out, although the Shermans were virtually eliminated.

However this left me with almost no infantry, so there was no  way I could achieve my objectives of taking the two villages, which were firmly held by Indian Infantry.  At this point I conceded that I couldn't achieve my objectives, but it turned out that Tim hadn't achieved his either , which was to eliminate half the Pakistan armour.

A great game with lots to think about, and thanks to Tim for running the games and providing copious amounts of tea.

We also traded a some bits and pieces, so hopefully both our stashes are slightly more organised

Thanks again Tim

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Only one week to Gauntlet

Bovington

Luckily we had a rainy day in Dorset, so my wife let me go to the Tank Museum.  I had a great day and took loads of pictures (link)

Given my desert theme, here are a few examples, I think my camo schemes are close enough