been a while...

said Snake Plissken in "Escape from New York" and now me because it has indeed been a while. Well, since I posted anything Ihave been cracking with plenty of plastic and painting.

First up was taking the dremel to some O8 Polish PKMS gunners and cut the gunner away to let me mate this with some prone Soviet ATGW crews to create some PKM teams for my 15mm Soviets

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"

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

Cold War - Soviet 2S1 Battery

Without getting overly carried away I have now finished putting together a 2S1 battery for some cold war games.  The idea being that a battery of these 122mm SP beauties could realistically appear in a company sized game where the Forward Security Element is being represented.

Modern - QRF ACRV Series Part 2

I have cleaned up the kit as far as my modelling skills, and time, allow.

I have replaced the running gear with that from the Zvezda kit.  I ended up using green stuff to attach it to the hull to allow me to position and keep the tracks reasonably vertically.

I haven't made a new stowage box to replace the one chopped off.  Too much hassle and I was impatient to get these to the painting table

I have trimmed down the swim vanes at the rear and while they fit on the LHS reasonably ok, the ones on the RHS stick out.  This is because of the positioning of the container on the rear hull.  I am not removing it and replacing it with a piece of styrene but if you wanted to that would be an option

I drilled out the antenna housings at the front and rear and put a 10mm long piece of piano wire in as antenna.  I have left the NSV MG in place as I couldn't source one

I migh get chance on friday to get this under the airbrush

Modern - Review of QRF ACRV-1 and 2

 The move to build up, at 1:1, Cold War forces in 15mm continues.  I have now put together 6 2-S-1 Gvozdika 122mm SPG which will be the Artillery allocated to my Forward Security Element (GPZ) of the Advanced Guard Motor Rifle Battalion.  To go with the Battery I needed the Battery Command Post (COP) and the Fire Direction Centre (FDC).  These two vehicles are known in NATO terms as the ACRV-2 and ACRV-1 respectively.  There are other variants but they are out of scope for a game at company level.

The only manufacturer in 15mm is QRF and I ordered MSCV02 and MSCV04 from their webstore.  A small package was waiting for me when I came home from work.

This is what you get in each pack.

• Hull
• They should be identical.
• Turret
• The ACRV-2 pack contains a turret with the Laser Range Finder on the RHS.

• The ACRV-1 pack has a plain turret

• Left and Right Tracks
• Dshk or NSV HMG

Observations

•  Comparing it with the Zvezda 2-S-1, in the same scale, shows that the hull shape and dimensions is consistent between both vehicles. 

However the running gear on the QRF kits appears too small. It has the right shape it, but isnt long enough and is about 2mm shorter than the Zvezda one.

• The ACRV-2 for some reason has the RHS stowage box crudely removed.  This would be correct for the ACRV-3 but not for a ACRV-2 variant so I will need to clean the metal up and build a new piece.

• The hull overhang at the LH rear on both models has a large build up of excess metal which will need to be removed.

• The rear hull has a solid block of metal representing the track guards and amphibious vanes are modeled in the down position.  They should be slatted and for road movement be in the up position like those on the Zvezda kit or seen stowed on the hull.

• The front  track guards are not provided which means the top front drive sprocket is left exposed.  There isn't any water channel detail on the hull where the track guards fit either but I have seen some ACRV photos which don't have these fitted as well as not having the channels.
• There are some minor mould lines running around the hull which need to be cleaned up (not a niggle as I expect to find a mould line on a white metal kit).
• Most western photos and drawings show the ACRV-2 with a PKM MG and not the Dshk/NSV

Ideas for improving the model

• ACRV-2
• Clean up the bottom of the hull removing the lump of excess metal.
• Replace the rear track guard and make a new thin one from plastic and add the slatted vanes from the Zvezda kit
• Clean up the rest of the hull and make up at least two radio antennae.
• Replace the running gear with that from a spare Zvezda kit. This might involve some work carving the hull to fit or I might just fit the track kits.
• Make up track guards
• Look for a pintle mount PKM
• ACRV-1
• Clean up the cut marks and build a new external box.
• Rest as the ACRV-2 (leaving it with the Dshk)

Cold War - 15mm

I have been tempted into 15mm Cold War.  I have had the odd bit here and there and some of the kit is useful for both OIF 2003 and my Lebanon 82 projects.

First up are some of the Eureka Russian Infantry

And some of the Zvezda Hot War plastic 2-S-1 and ZSU-23-4 Kits

1985 Campaign - 28th Army Inital Objectives

28^th Army Operational Directive

207 MRD will secure via Defensive operations the Army Northern Flank.  The intention is to pin West German units and flanking British formations by the threat of an assault along the estimated NATO inter Corp boundary which is expected to be along the line of the E34 Autobahn.  207 MRD will be reinforced with the Army AT Battalion and an additional Engineer battalion to create strongpoints as required to prevent NATO forces North of the Mittleland Kanal from attacking into the Flank of the Army main effort.  The Divisional Artillery Group will be reinforced with one Battalion of D20 howitzers from the Army Canon Regiment with its attendant special weapon contingent.

The remaining MRD will attack on Divisional frontages (120km).  Each Division is to push a Forward detachment through the NATO defences into their rear areas as soon as possible.  These forward detachments are not to engage in an fight of attrition with NATO units but seek routes around defended locations to disrupt the enemy Rear zones and seize suitable crossings over the R Weser.

12 GTD will be follow behind the main attack and will exploit any success.  Once pushed through the main NATO defence it is to be pulled forward by the Forward Detachments across the R Weser.

1985 Campaign - Warsaw Pact Frontal Aviation

Northern Frontal Air Army Note that as yet I have not updated the Soviet Aircraft to include MiG-29 or Su-27 STRIKE 1 Regiment SU-24 (30 - 45) FIGHTER 4 Regiments MiG-21 (30 - 45) 4 Regiments MiG-23 (30 - 45) 2 Squadrons MiG-21 (24 EG AF) 2 Squadrons MiG-23 (24 EG AF) GROUND ATTACK 3 Regiments MiG-27 (30 - 45) 3 Regiments Su-17 (30 - 45) 1 Regiment Su-25 (30 - 35) 1 Squadron MiG-17 (12 EG AF) 2 Squadrons MiG-23 (24 EG AF) RECON 2 Squadrons Su-17R (25 - 30) 2 Squadrons MiG-21R (25 - 30) 1 Squadron MiG-25R (10 - 15) SPECIALIST 1 Squadron YaK-28E (10 - 15) Typical Subordination Expected. a. 2-3 Fighter Divisions: 3 Fighter regiments per division - 45 MIG-21, MIG-23, MIG-29 or SU-27 per regiment b. 2-3 Fighter-Bomber Divisions: 3 FB regiments per division - 45 MIG-27, SU-17, SU-24, or SU-25 per regiment c. 1-2 Recon Regiments: 45 MIG-21R, MIG-25R or MIG-31R per regiment d. 1-2 Transport Helicopter Regiments: 24 MI-6 or MI-26 and 32 MI-8 per regiment e. 1 General Purpose Helicopter Squadron: 30 MI-8 and MI-2

1985 Campaign - Warsaw Pact Operational Structure

First up is the relationship between HQ GSFG and the two Frontal Headquarters. The Tank and Combined Arms Armies are subordinated to the Front and not GSFG. The allocation of forces also included the incorporation of the NVA units in the Soviet Armies. For this I have split the 10 NVA divisions into two buckets with 4 MRD and 1 TD in each bucket. They are then distributed wider into the Soviet Armies. I have also taken Suvorov's statement about 28th Army HQ being assigned to one of the two fronts. This now gives me: Northern Front (name TBC) consists of 28th Army and 2 GTA as the two Combined Armies, with 3 Shock Army as the Tank Army. Southern Front (again name TBC) consists of 1 and 8 GTA as the Combined Armies and 20 Army as the Tank Army. Each CAA has one TD, 2 Soviet MRDs and two NVA MRDs assigned. Each Tank Army has 3 Soviet TD and 1 NVA TD. A Soviet TD is kept in reserve for each front. Follow on forces will come from NGF with a frontal organisation based in Poland reinforced from Beloyrussia. My campaign will see the Northern Front operate against NORTHAG. The Tank Army becomes the OMG for ops in NORTHAG rear as opposed to being a formation to lead the intial penetration. It will still feature but only if 28th Army makes the breakthrough. I have allowed a little artistic license in that my model collection is marked up for 12 GTD so I have used that as the TD for the 28th. My plan now see my Fictious ORBAT for the 28th Army lead the way. 2 GTA will continue its operations on the Northern flank against the Germans and Dutch formations. And I can adjust as necessary. I have also chosen to create a fictious Air Army to support the Northern Front. It takes just What I haven't worked out yet is a way for the British and Germans to react. So back to Solo generating with some occasional Military Judgement Panel on what the situation is.