Latest Cold War Progress

Since the Autumn, i've pretty much been concentrating on the Cold War. The UK screening of Deutschland 83 helped maintain this into the new year, and so far I'm still "in the zone" with it. I've been working on both sides simultaneously; for the BAOR, I've been working on a Battlegroup Command base, for higher level games. The figures are from the ever dependable hand of Matt at Elhiem, with some subtle tweeking by yours truly (since my fictional Cold War is viewed by the rose-tinted goggles of the ARRSE forum...)

The Base consists of the CO, in obligatory Barbour jacket. No one tells the CO he's improperly dressed, though the RSM may gently hint at it... he's acompanied by the Ops Officer; no idea if this is the correct 1980s terminology, but he's represented here in all his Silvermans Trolley Dash glory- SAS Smock, Tropical Comabat Trousers and DILAC hat. Well ally. Also present is the Adjutant, wielding a map and compass (the most terrifying sight in NATO), an officer from the RAC element of the Battlegroup and the RSM, pointing out to the ruperts that Ivan is in fact that way, oh yes, and Pvt MacAuslan is on jankers again, for pissing in the stew.

The plan is to have them clustered around a table strewn with maps, Thermos flasks and fags...

Left to right- Ops Officer, RAC Officer, CO, Adjutant, RSM.

On the other side of the IGB, I finally managed to get the four remaining figures in the first Russian platoon finished. I never intended to do two platoons, but Elhiem released a flurry of new Soviet Riflemen poses, and I simply must posess all the pretty things...

Hope to get the BAOR base finished for the end of the month...

Cheers
Iain

Behind Enemy Lines....

Further Cold Wear fun has been had in painting up some Elhiem downed pilots, as something meaningful to base a scenario round for Force on Force....

I painted these up to give the impression of 1980s RAF Germany types, rather than the more intended modern USAF flyers (not strictly accurate, but good enough for 3-foot distant).

I can forsee some sort of scenario, whereby the pilots start the game in the middle of the table (possibly moving about randomly with the aid of a scatter dice, until they enter optimum range of either side), with a NATO rescue party closing in from one side and a Soviet sweeper team from the other, with the objective of carting the luckless aviators back to their respective table edges (with the neccessary dependents penalties being enforced on whatever unit currently has custody of the fliers).

It does, however, still remain for me to get a sufficient handle on the rules to allow basic gameplay, before  get too wound up in creating fancy scenarios...

Soon to follow are some captured SAS troopers (again from the hands of the talented Mr Hingley), who will fulfil a similar role, and be covered in a future post...

Cheers
Iain

A Hazy Shade of Winter- 1970s US Army in Europe

Somewhat belatedly, I suppose I’d better post up the pics of what I was working on at the time of the last post, i.e. Christmas….!

My BAOR and GSFG armies are set in the mid 80’s and in a standard, temperate, theme; this being the sort of “archetypal” appearance of both these forces. However, I’m usually on the lookout for doing something a bit different, and I always quite fancied doing an earlier US force, pre- Abrams and Bradley era.

So with this in mind I decided to start putting together a 1970s US army, since this would allow me to field the ever characterful M60, as well as all sorts of crazy shit like Sheridans, Kaiser Jeeps, Gama Goats and so on.  As an added bonus, I would get to paint them in MERDC schemes, which I’ve always found really attractive and striking. There are 6 MERDC schemes, and I decided to go for a winter theme, since I’m a sucker for snowy armies, and of the two “snow” MERDC schemes, picked the less common, brown based, scheme for open terrain (It ain’t called the Fulda Gap for nothin’!)

At the moment, there is something of a dearth of suitable figures; I despise the “burly midget” look of many of the “classic” wargames figure producers, so prefer to stick with Elhiem if at all possible, and at the time of starting there were only two suitable packs available- a fireteam set of four GIs, and a slightly “Hollywood” set of Special Forces in parkas- though this latter set would suit my purpose admirably! As far as vehicles go, the situation is much better, and as always, a trawl through Kingkit always turns up some a) bargains and b)  weird, esoteric shit that’s gonna look awesome in snowy MERDC!  So without further ado I set to raising the troops

First to be tackled were the LRRPS, the Elhiem SF pack with some ALICE packs added to confirm their SF status. I deliberately went for  quite a “blue” tinge for the parkas, based on photos I’d seen, although didn’t quite mean them to go this far, but I figure they look alright when all’s said and done…

Then it was onto the infantry. I made a few modifications to the basic sculpts- I filed off the pockets on the trousers to backdate them to the old OG-1-7s instead of BDUs, and added hoods to the jackets to “winterise” them slightly. Then it was onto the fun part, painting! I decided to do the helmets in the reversed autumn/winter side of the Mitchell cover; I have no idea how accurate this is for the time period, but I have seen it in photos of roughly this era, and thought it would match nicely the MERDC scheme on the vehicles and the groundwork on the bases. Pretty successful if I do say so myself…

Then it was onto the vehicles, and this is where it all started to go horribly wrong. I started off with an S-Models Sheridan. I can’t recommend this company’s products highly enough; crisp, clean mouldings, good instructions, excellent fit of parts, PE and decals included, and best of all you get two kits on each box! Winner! Anyway, this went together in jig time, with some stowage added from the bits box, and the fragile, kit-supplied .50 replaced with a metal one from Elhiem, and the commander’s hatch left open to take a crew figure (yes, I realise for the time frame this should have the cereal bowl armoured cupola; but in my fictional cold war the fighting’s been raging for a while now, and replacements are being sent out from old, depot stock in the US…)

Then it was onto painting. It all started well enough, the MERDC was looking shweeet, and then I hit it with gloss varnish and it all went to rat shit. Despite a successful trial run on an old kit, the acrylic spray varnish had an argument with the Humbrol enamels used to do the camouflage pattern, resulting in a crackled, rough texture on parts of the hull and turret (bizarrely, the running gear survived intact…). It looks way worse in the hand than what shows up in the pictures, so I ragequit the whole thing and fired it onto the “to do” shelf until I could decide how I was going to fix it.

And there it has lain ever since, sadly. However, since we’re now into Autumn, I reckon I’ll break out the fine grade sandpaper ad just smooth back the affected areas as best I can and re-touch them in situ, rather than starting again from scratch, ready to restart come the winter…

Cheers

Iain

Soviet Support

Blimey, been a while since I updated this! (and yet no more Normans have since been painted…)

Since the last update, I’ve been well and truly back on the Cold War swing. I’ve managed to finish a couple of support weapons for the Soviet Motor Rifles force I’ve been putting together to face my BAOR on the plains of Northern Germany. Both are from the superlative Elhiem range, and will soon be joined by a couple of AGS-17 Automatic Grenade Launchers and an 82mm mortar.

First up, an AT-5 ATGM and crew, down among the weeds hunting Chieftains…

Secondly, the old faithful DShK 12.7mm HMG. Dunno quite where these fit into the TO&E of an 80’s MRR right enough (equally, BMP regiments didn’t appear to deploy ground mounted  ATGM teams, I’ve since discovered), however, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it somewhere (barrage battalions, anyone?)…

Insert

With the addition of these elements, the Soviet force is slowly taking shape, and is heading towards a playable entity.

Cheers,

Iain

Reinforcements for GSFG...

Finishing touches applied and bases done for the three Motor Riflemen I've been working on. the Soviet horde is growing now, and beginning to look suitably menacing. Work has begun on a AT-4 and DsHK HMG to back them up and bring them more or less in line with what my BAOR have so far...

They've come out quite well, I think. I really need to look into BMPs now. Anyone got Boris the Blade's number..?

Cheers
Iain

A Return to Paint-Flinging...

 After something of a hiatus over the summer, it’s time to get back on with some progress on the painting front, now that Autumn is on the way. As the dearth of blog updates both here and on Bobinantes can confirm, I’ve not been particularly busy over the summer, instead having to concentrate on real life, rather than that in scale.

So what have I been up to? Mainly terrain. I managed to complete the rocky outcrop and bocage sections I was working on, and, short of a few bits of detailing that need to be done on the outcrop, I think they look pretty good-

Something that has been sitting on my workbench for about a year is a solitary undercoated figure from Elhiem’s Soviet Infantry in Body Armour set. The idea being to paint up some sort of internal security forces as an excuse for some suitably wacky, psychedelic “camouflage” uniforms of the type often seen in the Middle East, Asia and some of the former Soviet republics. I sort of lost interest in it for a while, but now have rekindled it with an idea for an “Imagi-Nation” which will form the basis for a more in-depth future project. To get it off the ground, I cracked on with this one, and he came out rather well. The lettering on the front of the helmet was one of those happy accidents, which I will be totally unable to replicate again. It was originally just going to be 4 white blobs to represent “OMOH” (see the patch on the back of his armour- that was done first!), but then the paintbrush started to move, and the rest just sort of happened…

And finally, I have re-started on the Cold War in 20mm! Matt at Elhiem has released some spanking new BAOR sculpts (including some rather nice RUC, which I have no real need for, but want anyway…) and with the Autumn approaching (the season for the wearing of tweed, listening to of Prog and painting of Cold War subjects. It’s the law.) there was really no choice in the matter!

Started on the next three troops for the 2^nd BMP squad for the Soviets. Nothing much to show so far-

In the tune of something a bit different, I’ve also made a start on some refugees, of which I aim to have a couple of bases of. However, these are proving a bit of a pig, mainly as no one makes suitable 80’s civilians! Sure there are IM plastic types, but next to metal wargames figures, even ones as well proportioned as Elhiem, they look very ethereal and waif-like, and generally just not right. However, I’ve managed to source some from Sgt’s Mess, which although wearing more or less 1940s clothes, seem to be adaptable enough with the right paintjob…

However, I now notice Elhiem have released some 70s types, some of whom may be suitable to join the convoy, however, this will probably merit some further investigation…

Lastly, a sneak preview at a test subject for a future project. What could this be…?

…you’ll just have to wait and see!

Iain