Heli 3 of 3

Finished the last one this weekend

Each helicopter can airland two platoons

Still getting the hang of the rules for them but they are proving to be an interesting unit to game with so far

Next up, modern Russians

Problems

Won't be posting or commenting until these ongoing problems are sorted, call it a silent protest if you like. Seems to work sort of okay on the laptop, which runs Vista, but my pc uses Win7 and will not have a bar of it. Funny in that they claim to be fixing something, which for me was not broke and thus not requiring any interference, simple.

Airfix Modern Russians

Arrived today, and immediately added to the work in progress pile, joy! Think if I use them thoughtfully I might just get two battalions out of them, although support weapons, such as LMGs and mortars will be a problem.

ZIS Trucks

Had to show you all these. A present from the ever-productive Gerard Davey of Hokitika, and the only such models now in my collection

Over one million of these were built up to about the early 1950s. Just awesome. I'm thinking if G got enough interest worldwide he could just about give up his day job:) Thanks Gerard. Now, it's back to the last of the helicopters...

Cold War Game

Got together with Paul last night to play a sideline game in our mini campaign. An Anglo Australian raid on an island, home to a dirty weapons plant, located underneath the central building areas (WMDs). The game featured an amphibious assault supported by a helicopter force, which included a gunship. Paul commanded the coalition forces, I had the NKPA


The main area of the weapons plant and the overall objective of the raiding force

Southern end of the island. The defenders were low-grade static guards of poor quality morale, except one company of the NKPA's veteran NBC troops

Northern end. This is part of the harbour defenses was part of the British objective

Northern end, Commando trained Australians on their start line

Southern end, Royal Marines on theirs

Turn One, the Aussies land to minimal resistance and immediately formed up into their assault groups. The North Koreans inflicted a few casualties, but the Australian return fire almost forced them from their positions

43 Cmdo at the other end had a much harder time on their landing zone. Some platoons lost about a third of their strength the same turn they landed. Paul's Matchbox and Esci NATO figures

The landing continues with support units being airlanded on to the hill directly behind the main plant facility. In CD rules a helicopter can move, land, and then move again. Light AA fire proved ineffectual, the NKPA were now under attack from three sides, and the supporting gunship remained on station creating huge problems for the already shaky Korean morale

By the second fire phase of turn two, the NKPA had all but lost the southern end of the island. The NBC company had been mauled by the advancing Australians, and the company pictured here broke and ran after losing only about 10% of its strength

Turn three. The NBC company was still functional but had been forced from their positions

The NKPA had more ground to play with at this end of the island, managing to disengage and regroup, after inflicting reasonable casualties on the marines. The six marine platoons in the picture are on a front of about 600 meters in CD terms

About mid way through turn four. The Australian Commandos took quite a few casualties to the recently returned NBC troops

Here another Aussie company takes out the last of the North's AA defenses; such as they were

Abandoned NKPA positions around the harbour area

Broken and battered NKPA units had been making their way to the inner harbour area all game, as it was the only area safe from the helicopter gunship and the support units of the two attacking forces. Here members of 43 Cmdo secure this objective taking a couple of hundred prisoners in the process

End result. The entrance to the underground weapons plant swarming with Australian forces. A very good game for getting used to the rules for this period. Hopefully Paul will post a few pictures too as I didn't take half as many as I needed to for a decent write up.

Still, the first setback in the NKPA's glorious reunification of the South, off with some heads!

Heli 2 of 3

Still a way to go on this one before it's complete but here are a few pictures anyway

I made this one the command unit, same in every respect except for the addition of crew figures

The decals didn't quite go to plan

The crew chief is a converted pilot figure from the Esci set. The MG in the doorway come with the kit but there is nothing to mount it with, I used an old swing-mount from a half-track or something like that

Same paint work as the other but has yet to be dry-brushed and inked. Just one more to finish for my first and probably only helicopter unit

Heavy Truck

Still having issues with Blog, which accounts for my lack of posting and comments. Here is a couple of pictures of a truck that I've been working on in between helicopters; almost finished the second one of those.

This is by Airfix, the Recovery set I think. It will mostly feature with my Allied stuff, and counts as a heavy truck which can carry three stands.

Cold War Soviets

Completed Soviet elements for my small but growing Cold War collection

Esci launcher and Orion spotter. This weapon actually dates from the late 1960s so I'm not sure how much game time this stand will see

The launcher will most usually represent a RPG2 or something of that generation

Second rifle company. Command stand, standard Esci officer and a modified Orion figure

Rifle platoon

Second rifle platoon.

Weapons platoon, formerly Esci tommy-gunners waving their hands in the air

Full company. I have a MMG platoon to add too, but it was an after thought and so not finished. Now, back to the helicopter building.

Heli 1 of 3

First ever helicopter model complete. This is one in a flight of three that I will eventually have, and plan to use pilots and a crew chief on the last to distinguish it as the command unit.

As mentioned earlier this particular example dates from the 1960s. However, for gaming it will fill for 1950s-1980s. Left of quite a few parts that I thought would give a too modern appearance

I've got a reasonable selection of decals to choose from but will just use numbers and letters because I want to them to have a sort of multi-national look. These ones are off an old bomber or something like that. I see storage being a problem with these things!

Mystery Set

Found this the other day while searching for figures suitable for Cold War British Infantry. Never seen them before and can't remember the site where I found it in the first place, not even sure if they're 1/72? Anyone have any ideas/information about these figures or, more importantly, where you can get them?

7.5cm Pak

This is the Pak that comes with the Fujimi PzJI

A very tidy little model this, it went together really well and like all the other parts in the kit had no flash and was well crafted engineering wise

I have two others of this model, both by Revell, but theses are camouflaged. I did this to add to my early war collection even though they were relatively few in number at that stage (over 20,000 were eventually produced).

SBA

Right, my round on this, we'll see how we go.



1. Thanks to Tim for the nomination: http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/


2. Seven things about me:


a. 41 yrs old, 18 of them spent soldiering


b. Married to Tracy


c. One daughter, Ashley, at university studying forensic anthropology (Still not sure how we managed to produce someone so brainy)


d. Smoker - we're a dying breed - though great for creating smoke effects in camera shots eh Carlo?


e. Owner of a Rottweiler and a Great Dane


f. Opening batsman with an average of a shade over 55


g. Veteran of over 1000 days on active service


Nominating Paul for his most excellent and inspiring Blog: http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com/

and in no particular order a couple of others, Thanos: http://miniaturesterrainpage.blogspot.com/ Mork: http://mork6969.blogspot.com/ Yori: http://yori-hobby.blogspot.com/


Hope I got it all right, signing off with a picture of my dog Steiner when he was a puppy... for no particular reason. Cheers