T-64BV Off for painting

Managed to get a base coat on.  Haven't thought about washes or weathering yet. Paint has masked a couple of errors. I didn't finish the prints of properly so they do look a bit rough.  A couple of tweaks needed for any future runs of the prints. Need to look at Antennas and stowage for a cold war soviet look.

T-64BV using the BF Model and a 3D Printer

How hard could it be I said to myself

Carve off some plastic. Print some panels. Job done.

Oh I don't have any scale plans to work off. The BF T-64 engineering tolerances have to be factored in.  PLA isn't easy to glue.

Getting there. Need to work on the B model smoke dischargers and make up some new stowage boxes for the sides of the turret.

In progress, testing out fit and orientation

Very early days checking the print settings, tile thickness and general concept

"The only plan we had"

World at War - Playtesting

Couple of ideas tried out on the play test.  Team Yankee (9 Models plus infantry) vs Soviets.  The terrain increment needs to be at least 4".  The 3" just ends up cramming everything into a very small space and doesn't look good.  Trying to replicate the actual maps isn't a good idea either as my collection isn't that exact.  I am also not sold on the idea of NATO being that clever and getting two activation attempts a turn and the Soviets just one especially when the Soviets don't get elements such as Combat Recce Patrols or Forward Security Elements.  But as this is my interpretation of how the core rules could support a different game I can always add these concepts in.  However, the game does have a "designated formation" marker in the later supplements so I am going to add this in for the next play test and give each side the ability to activate again and see how it works.  I need a few more terrain pieces and roads.  The next set will be customised a bit to allow some greater flexibility.

M901 ITV Progress

Managed to get some work done on the M901 ITVs

New MG Rail and periscope added

Crewed and stowed

Base Field Drab

Sand

 Black

Still deciding on decals

Team Yankee - M1 and M1 IPM1s

In the spares box were four M1 abrams.  I have made 3 M1s and one as a IPM1.  I will add another IPM1 later this month.  I also have a couple of M113 hulls left over which I will press into service for the VADS and ITV variants as well as normal troop tracks.

The initial build was two plain M1s. The later models had additional stowage added.  They are all finished in in VJ Dark Green FS 34079 which equates to Forest Green.  I have faded the base coat with some Dark Yellow but worried these are a bit flat. So looking for ideas to brighten these up a tad

The

World at War - Another boardgame conversion to Minis

I wanted something to bridge the gap between the 1:1 game and the 1:5 "operational" level games.  And a change look at Colours and the cracking 1/200th game using "Blood and bridges" sent me thinking.  My mate and I have have access to the rules in the World at War series (Eisenbach Gap, Blood and Bridges and Death of 1st Panzer) and a simple reading through and measuring leads to the following ideas:

Counters in the game effectively show a unit can take 1 hit or 2 hits. a 1 hit counter is 1 or 2 vehicles, 2 hits represent 3 or 4. Replace "hits" with model vehicles and you have a game on table with about 5 - 10 NATO vehicles against 10 - 25 WP.  Sounds doable with my collections. For example "Team Yankee" (yes that one) in the board game is HQ, 2 Tank Platoon Counters, Infantry Platoon Counter, M113 Transport Counter, ITV.  Replacing with models becomes 5 M1, 2 M113 (with Infantry) and 2 ITV Models. Other scenarios add or remove about a platoons worth of equipment.

The hex size represents 150 metres/yards.  1" per 50m is used on a number of operational rules so isn't a massive leap with 3" replacing 1 hex.  This makes a 13 hex map 39" wide.  So a 4' wide table sounds doable.  6 - 8' in length.

Rules for most things are already present. Helos, Arty, Mortars, ATGW, AAGW, Smoke, Jamming etc etc.  Might get a play test in on Sunday :)

West German update

Update on the West Germans with the addition of some Luchs and Fuchs

Cold War - 1 (NL) Corps

Always on the lookout for something different, I found an article recently which discussed the make up of the covering force for 1 (NL) Corps.  Following concerns that the NL forces might take too long to deploy from Holland the covering force came from 1 (GE) Corps in the form of 3rd Panzer Division, supported by the NL 103rd Recce Bn & 41 Panser Bde and the US 3rd Brigade from 2nd Armored Div.  What a cracking wargaming collection.

So off digging out OMG I found that the NL Orbat didn't quite match the information on the Orbat85.nl website.  So this is an update to it (less points). It doesn't have the Bde Recce Company.

41st Pantser Brigade                                           
Bde HQ                   1 X HQ(M577)             Str.4      
Bde Recce Platoon        2 x M113C&R              Str.3

41st, 43rd Pantser Battalions
BHQ                      1 X HQ(Leopard 2)        Str.4
Maint Sect               1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
3 Coys,each              4 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4


42nd Pantserinfanterie Battalion
BHQ                      1 X HQ(YPR-765 PRCO-C)   Str.5
Maint Sect               1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
3 Coys,each              3 X YPR-765 PRI          Str.4
Support Coy              3 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3
                         3 X 120mm(YPR-765 PRMR)  Str.3

41st Engineer Company
                         1 X AVLB(Leopard)        Str.2
                         1 X CEV (Leopard)        Str.2
                         3 X Eng(M113)            Str.4

41st Air Defence Company
                         3 X PRTL(Caesar)         Str.3
                         3 X Stinger(Landrover)   Str.3

41st Field Artillery Battalion
                         1 X HQ(M577) (6AR)
                         3 X M109A2               Str.6

The Bde deployed organisation forms three equal battlegroups with the following structure:

41st, 43rd Pantser BG
BHQ                      1 X HQ(Leopard 2)        Str.4
                         1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3 
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
2 Coys,each              3 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4

1 Coy                    2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3

42nd Pantserinfanterie BG
BHQ                      1 X HQ(YPR-765 PRCO-C)   Str.5
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
2 Coys,each              3 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4

1 Coy                    2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3

Support Coy              3 X 120mm(YPR-765 PRMR)  Str.3

And then add the following to the Covering Force mix 103rd Recce Battalion
BHQ                      1 X HQ(M577)             Str.4
                         1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.4

3 Coys, each             2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.3
                         3 X M113C&R              Str.5
                         1 X 107mm(M106)          Str.3

Cold War - Soviet 15mm

Team Yankee - Soviets
I jumped on the TY bandwagon when it was first announced. As usual, with not having a regular opponent, I thought about collecting both sides, however the idea of taking up TY was that I could hope to find regular opponents so I have stayed with Soviets and now looking forward to the 2017 release schedule to see what is going to be added.

As I prefer "historical" organisations I was hoping that TY would let me field a more intelligent Soviet force than the book with the ability to field an task organised Forward Detachment or an Advance Guard. TY has very basic soviet forces with some areas that hopefully will be addressed in the future warsaw pact supplement.  But for now I have a Motor Rifle company of BMP-1/2 and a Tank Comany equipped with T-72 backed up with a ZSU-23-4 pair and a 2-S-1 Battery.

Infantry are Eureka which due to the change in exchange rate are now unaffordable...grrrr

Core MR Company

Tank Company (10 MBT Variant and not the 13 expected to support a MRB)

BMP-2 Recon Platoon, ZSU-23-4s (from Zvezda)

Battery Combat Observation Outpost and Battery FDC from QRF with Zvezda tracks replacing the metal ones from the kit.

2-S-1 Battery again from Zvezda

Zvezda ZSU-23-4