Germans in Greatcoats

Actually finished these a while ago, dismounted motorcycle infantry. Two companies plus HQ & Recon sections. I'd like to finish the battalion at some stage, and now I have the motorcycle kits to do so... another day another project idea :) 

A mixture of mostly HaT and Italeri, mostly in greatcoats. These are the before and after touch-ups pics 

Still chugging away on my para project, update you soon :)

New Additions

The postman comes through as always...

My late war collection is quite small, but now improved slightly with these Tigers

Strangely, the normal plastic set I ordered and received http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1807 came in this box, which is for the multi-part figures

Progress on my early war German para continue, and these two sets will form a late war regiment, covering 1942-45. This will finish the division, except for the ancillary units 

Lastly, these came from my friend Col http://scratchbuiltarmour.blogspot.com.au/

We occasionally play D & D on a cardboard dungeon floor plan, using counters to represent the characters. Since these figures arrived plans are afoot to paint them up, and use them instead. Thank you Col.

German Para, progress

I have another two battalions on the work bench as well. This first regiment will be early war (39-41), almost entirely Airfix figures in composition, and hopefully have about every third or forth figure modified. These are all at the final touch up stage

Won't mark their base numbers until I've finished all three battalions

I tried a new approach with the way I painted these, heavy dry brushing over a black undercoat

As always, some turned out better than others. I'm planning to start using a soldering iron instead of glue on future projects like this

Slings and extra ammo pouches on most

Each company needs mmg figures to be completed and there are not many available in plastic, especially since you only get a couple in a box. Problematic and still working on this one - maybe some drastic conversion on the right donor figure of a similar size to the Airfix ones? 

The joy of receiving

A present from Paul http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com.au/?view=classic

First up, a Nitto 88mm, excellent, and a Hasegawa Kubelwagen and bike combo for my (now) planned motorcycle infantry battalion 

Joy! Boneyard tanks. The S35 is the excellent Heller kit, the M24 is for my Korean War collection, the Sherman is a bonus as I'm trying to eventually build a battalion of these

Couldn't have come at a better time for my stalled Japanese division project, these will help provide command and weapon stands, amongst other things

These are 28mm New Zealanders and will probably be used with our zombie board game as the government forces counter, though we're still using the basic rules for this game

A couple of T34s from the talents of Gerard Davey. I am chuffed to get these because I only have a few of these models, they'll get a repaint to fit with my others

Another of Gerard's work and the only one in my collection, the mighty SU152.

I got a couple of other nice things too but I'll show you those later.

Cheers Paul.

Dave's Horses

Some very nice work here from the collection of David Russell

Good variation of kit

All painted to Dave's usual high standards.

Work in progress

Just started sorting through my various projects...

You can never have too many gunners

Out for a tidy up, most manufacturers represented

Tidied up some of my recent alterations 

Might have something else to show you soon.

New Digs, new cave

Our stuff arrived yesterday, as yet nothing unpacked.

This cave is fully 1/8 the size of my last one but I live in suburbia now so can't complain - the double garage is for the Land Rover and the Daytona. At this stage I've left the table extensions off because I still have to get shelving, etc in as well.

Game 1951, Hill 235

Gloster Hill. A game I played over the New Year weekend. I've had the research for this one for a while, but never had the right hill(s) to play it on. The map below uses the drop-cloth method to achieve the necessary ridge lines and other contours - difficult to see in the pictures.

The British could only use the orders 'Rally' and 'Call Fire' but would automatically 'Disengage' when the unit reached 50% casualties. The first three turns turns represented the night phase attacks 03.00-06.00, using one-hour-turns

Chinese rifle companies crossing the Imjim River

The night fighting rules made it very difficult for the defenders to spot the Chinese infantry until they were very close

The darkness also made it easier for broken Chinese units to be rallied and reformed 

A Coy positions

D Coy

Turn 4, start of the day phase

All of the British fire assistance came from the battalions mortars 

Communist figures are by Imex

Repeated Chinese attacks were beaten back with great losses but each one pushed all of the British companies closer to the 50% disengage mark

And so, one by one they fell back, with the least damaged platoons covering the withdrawal 

A Coy surrounded on three sides but still holding on

Battalion HQ area

The attacker/defender ratio in this scenario worked out at about 6 to 1

Chinese units sheltered by a ridge line regrouping 

By about the mid way point all of the British rifle companies were reduced to 50% fighting strength or less and had made a least one forced withdrawal towards the battalion HQ area. British figures here are Caesar 

Chinese infantry sweeping through abandoned British positions

The fringe of the Gloster's HQ positions, mortar platoon by HaT

The HQ perimeter was greatly reduced and platoons disengaging from this position were removed from the board

Interesting game made all the better by the genuine contours created by the drop-cloth - some companies could support each other, some couldn't, despite their positions being roughly 600yds apart (10"). It did not really play out anything like historical but was fun to play nonetheless. 

Pictures of my new digs soon.