Dave's Workbench

A bit of progress from my good friend David Russell

Dave has one of the biggest mid-late war Soviet collections that I know of and these AAHMG figures by Orion will clearly fill a gap or two

Here are a couple of pictures from a game he recently played with his son, US Marine assault on a Japanese held beach

Dave's board systems uses interlocking boards that can be arranged to suit the action you're after, much like his trench-board terrain

Dave's gaming space and table allows for regimental sized actions for CD3 but slightly larger ones if he's doing WW1 as the man-to-ground ratio is almost double.

NBC Soviets

Being unable to obtain either the Airfix or Esci Russian Cold War sets or in fact any figures matching that description this is what I have resorted to...

Most of them aren't Soviet at all and the weapons platoon features a former member of the Viet Cong and some sort of aircraft mechanic, but in the end I managed a full company... of sorts

Still a wee way to go on the paint work but the basics are all done. If anyone's got any bright ideas I'm all ears!

2cm Flak

Finished this the other night. It's actually quite a tidy little kit with some good detail, tempting me to look at other guns by Ace, particularly an M2-101 howitzer; I'd like to compare this with Paul's most excellent conversion http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com/2010/06/m2-m101-105mm-howitzer.html

I originally tried to use a Revell horse artillery figure but it was too big, this one, though cruder in appearance, is much better - clearly a veteran if the tally-record is anything to go by!

Helicopters

Scored three of these for NZD$30 yesterday, a good buy. I got them with my small cold war collection in mind and although they date from the early 1960s they will no doubt feature in a couple of other periods as well. It is similar enough in appearance to the Sikorsky YH-19 to make for a Korean War chopper too, me not being a purist, and I'll try to find enough non-descript decals so they can stand in for either UK or US heavy-lift transports.

Work Bench

Quick update of what I've been working on lately, 2cm Flak Gun by Ace.

One of their better efforts this one in terms of engineering, although the instructions left a bit to be desired. The crew figure is from the spares box

This one shows the last of our puppies from our very last litter playing with my Great Dane. The pup flies out to Sydney Australia tomorrow, and whilst it's been hard work having them all, part of me will be really sad to see this one go.

Russian AAHMG

Been working on these off and on since they arrived last week, Orion's latest offering of WW2 figures

The sculpting is quite good although there was a little flash to remove, still they paint up well. CD doesn't normally require three figures on the base to represent the platoon, but with a number of them pointing their weapons skyward I thought I'd use them anyway

This unit appears in a variety of places in early war Russian OOBs in particular, but most commonly at the regiment or brigade level. You get a few other poses of figures in the anti-aircraft mode also, and I will try to use some of them on the next stand I do just to make it look a bit different from this one.

BA-3

Another early one this. Though pretty much obsolete by the start of the war many of these were still in service up until about 1942, when they began to be replaced by T60 & T70 tanks

This one is by Unimodel. I like the range of their kits but on a few that I've done it is sometimes difficult to tell where the part stops and the sprue starts, which for me inevitably leads to construction problems; this one was no exception

Velleyo Russian Green as a base, about three lots of highlightings, followed by a couple of washes of Citadel's Thrukka Green. It's okay, but I would try a different brand of kit if I was going to do another one. A good addition but not a great one.

Finished, Morris CS9

The completed recent addition

The radio aerial will probably not last long once this hits the tabletop but we'll see

The spade has been finished since I took the pictures

Used in limited numbers during the Battle of France. This the only recon vehicle I have for my early war British collection so far

Work in progress

A few pictures of what I've been working on lately

A simple metal kit of about a dozen parts in total

Have really enjoyed making this one so I've been taking my time

The crew are a couple of Matchbox figures. Still a wee way to go, final results in a couple of days.

The Davey Collection 2

Another of Gerard's excellent scratch builds today, a BA6 early war Russian armoured car

Built from plastic card and dowel it matches 1/72 scale perfectly. I think most of Gerard's models are for the middle to late war period, although several Russian units had these well into 1945, and I have seen one in the museum Seoul in North Korean colours, so I guess they were used much later by some.

French Motorcycle

Not quite finished but thought I'd show the progress anyway. This is another excellent model from Early War Miniatures. Four parts, bike, rider, handlebars and a rifle. All well sculpted and easy to assemble.

This will become part of my French recon company, which only needs a motorcycle with sidecar combination to be complete. Have also started my first car for this month's theme too; try to show you that in a few days.

French AA

French 25mm AA by Early War Miniatures, fits well with 1/72 plastics

Nice simple instructions with a couple of options to choose from

Really nicely sculpted with excellent detail, and most importantly very reasonably priced

I've got another couple of items from this range to show later but this is all for now. I would highly recommend these products to any collector of early war stuff. The gentleman in charge is a Mr Paul Thompson who is very good to deal with and only too happy to answer any questions you might have; I was much impressed by his level of service and attention to detail, contact him here for a catalogue paul.thompson11@virgin.net'

Battle of Stonne

This is the third time I've played this battle, it is a most challenging CD3 scenario. 15 May 1940, Grossdeutchland Regiment supported by armour from 10 Panzer Division takes on 3e DIM and armour from 3eDLC for control of the hilltop village of Stonne. I played the French and Gerard the Germans.

French RHQ, dug in. Figures are Esci, Airfix & Waterloo 1815 conversions

French defenses in the northwest corner of the village

Weapons platoon and AT gun at the bottom of the hill, the hedges represent a sunken lane that could not be fired into without difficulty, so providing excellent cover for the Germans

This is about turn 3, Gerard times his infantry assault perfectly with the arrival of his armour, and the French were struggling from here on in

the Panzers would block the lane if destroyed in it and despite my best efforts Gerard got away with this bold early move, the Stug is by Dragon and the PIV a conversion of sorts

German reinforcement armour enters turn 6, Stonne is now being attacked from two sides

French armour arriving on the same turn, but they had a lot more ground to cover. S35 (wish you could still get these) is by Heller, Char B is Matchbox

Turn 8. This company was caught in an artillery barrage on their way to support Stonne, luckily their morale held and they advanced in behind the tanks

Same turn, French armour engages the Germans at a far more favourable range owing to their superior guns, they actually enjoyed some success here destroying two platoons

Assault pioneers begin their drive into the rear of the village, and with most French reinforcements still a couple of turns away things fell decisively in favour of the Germans, despite their growing casualties

More French reinforcements fail to reach the battlefield intact as the Luftwaffe picked the right time to show up

LMG platoon on the eastern side of the village, Pegasus figures

With all of the French reinforcements tied up in their own battles outside of the village, the Germans began to overwhelm the defenses quite rapidly

The last say went to this French engineer platoon but I think they were one of only two undamaged platoons, in good morale, still fighting. All in all it was a fairly even game until about turn 7 when the Germans had all of the kit in the right place at the right time for the final assault. Thanks to Gerard for the game and Bob for the scenario http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bob_mackenzie/