Friday, April 29, 2011

Late 1940s Soviet Infantry - 1st Company

Being unable to obtain any figures for this period, this is the latest attempt. In this company all of the figures are a cross between Esci WW2 Russian Infantry and Modern Russian Paratroopers. First up, the command platoon


Rifle platoon, as always some turned out better than others


Second rifle platoon


Weapons platoon


The full company. Will try to include a few different poses in the next but I'm not exactly spoilt for choice when comes to donor figures, anyway, we'll see.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

S35

This is the second one of these I have now and a very good addition it is too


About 40 parts, well engineered and no flash


I cut out the turret hatch and included a crew figure from the spares box


Some minor tidying up still to do on the black lining and tracks but otherwise complete


This seems to be a difficult model to get hold of, and eventually I'd like one more so as to have a full company of three


This is the first one of these that I did whilst living in Asia. Its paintwork has had a little touch-up also


Probably my favourite French tank of the WW2 era.

Friday, April 22, 2011

The Davey Collection 3

A few more examples from the talented Gerard Davey of Hokitika...

Here, one of Gerard's scratch-builds next to a commercial one


As with many models the inclusion of crew figures are a nice little addition


One of my favourites this



Not a hundred percent sure but I think this is a converted Airfix model?





ISU 152




KV85.


I've got just a few more pictures of Gerard's work, show you all those later on down the track.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

NBC Soviets - finished

Not a lot extra done on these, except a light green wash on one or two stands


The difference in uniforms doesn't matter too much as they look okay as a group


The masks were probably the most difficult to paint


Awkward things to wear at the best of times and rather unforgiving on the soldier who hasn't shaved for a day or so, rub, rub, chafe, chafe, ouch!


The command platoon


Most modern stuff has a higher rate of fire than your standard WW2 platoon owing to the high proportion of assault rifles; this means for heavier loads to yomp however, you really feel it carrying all that extra ammo


All ready for the capitalist west imperialist aggressors, comrades.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Mokre, August 1944

I took a trip south yesterday and umpired a game between Gerard (Russians) and Byron (Germans). The game depicts a last gasp counter attack by German forces against the lead elements of the 6th Guards Tank Corps, east towards Kurozweki whose capture would have provided a staging area for further offensive operations against the Soviet hordes

The table looking west from Kurozweki, the main German objective


Here German heavies on the crest of a low hill engage a company of T34s at a range of about 3000 yards


Turn 2. Center. German infantry loose their only local armoured support (Stug IIIg) to long range fire from advancing T34/85s


The German reply is effective but the Russians have far greater numbers and their advance continues, T34 by HaT with SHQ tank riders in the foreground


Turn 3. Despite some early set backs Byron made a bold advance on the main German objective with a company of PzIVs supported by another of armoured infantry


And, in the same turn brought his heavy tanks into the fray. Things were already looking shaky though as more Russians pushed forward, limiting his room to manoeuvre


Turn 4, despite this company suffering 50% casualties they continued to apply pressure to the German flank and remained in good morale throughout


Extreme left of the German line. Russian KV85s move to the outskirts of the town of Kurozweki, KVs are some of Gerard's excellent scratch builds



Byron's Panzergrenadiers secure the town but can do nothing else at this stage as they have nothing that can really harm the KVs on the other side of it. Figures here are mostly Caesar and the 251s are scratch builds


On the western side of the battlefield things start to go horribly wrong for the Germans. Here, Soviet armour advancing west from Mokre force the Germans into giving up up good field position, and most of their heavy armour is crippled in the process


The resulting withdrawal of the German heavies. Panthers are either Airfix or Matchbox


Turn 5. The Germans enjoy a small respite from the Russian advance by forcing a heavy tank platoon from the fighting now just 1500 yards from Kurozweki


Same turn. Byron pushes his infantry forward in an attempt to support his drive on the town as there is still a small chance that success here will swing the game back in his favour, these figures are by Valiant


Turn 6. More Russian reinforcements arrive in the Kurozweki area but as they only have a few tank riders they cannot really afford to make a full scale assault on the town, German infantry now having been in possession of that for a couple of turns, and fairly well ensconced they were too


These PIVs arrived to support the German occupation of Kurozweki only to be forced out of the fight on the same turn


Turn 6, last turn. What was left of the PIV company attempts to smash its way through the lead Russian tank platoons and secure the ground west of the town, which would have made things difficult for Gerard's Russians, to no avail however, the PIVs are no match for the KVs



A very good game. It was always going to be difficult for the Germans. Though Byron handled his forces as well as he could, he was always going to be out numbered by Gerard's Russians, who started the game with far better field position and far superior numbers.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Fujimi PzJI

Scored this a couple of weeks ago, absolutely mint condition
Painted mostly on the sprue. This kit had zero flash and is an awesome model for its age


These only appear in limited numbers in early war OOBs, so I'll probably never need more than three


Tamiya German Grey, highlighted, then black washed


Getting better with decals since I started using warm water in the application process


This kit also comes with a 7.5cm Pak, which I'll also do in this colour. Vehicles such as these count as weak AFVs in CD as they are open-topped and therefore venerable to grenades and, to a lesser extent, small-arms fire.