Fire in the North - The Navies - Soviet tester done

Right, finished the tester, noted down the steps and colours used.

These colours work for me for the "Evil Empire", so this part is done. I won't do the base till I've got a fair number of ships painted so I can factory line them. I will give a wash again to the turrets, they are a bit dull, and I need to highlight the deck, and try to decal the bow. Other then that, I think it is a good standard.

Now I can wait for the order to arrive and paint other things :)

Oh, and for the real size:

Fire in the North - The Navies - Starting the Soviet Navy

For this gamebuild, I'll be focusing my efforts on the Soviet Navy as well as a few NATO ships and merchants.

While watching paint dry on the Isuzus (doubt they will be done tomorrow) I updated the paint trial ship for the Soviets, a Sovremenny class Destroyer.

(yes, thats a 1 euro cent coin)

Quite a few updates on the model, the model looked like it had just 4 SSm instead of the 8 seen in pics so used plasticcard to replace them , quite the differerence. Now they actually look like SSN-22 containers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-N-22). Also chopped a bit off the main mast, added radars and some additional mastwork. Also replaced the main guns with a bit of brass (should really be double, but this is the thinnest brass wire I can get) and trimmed the barrels off the 30mm AA guns....just not visible and no need to represent them.

Painting them should not be too hard, a dark shade of grey and 2 tones of brown red for the surface, 1 or 2 details picked out in near white. If I still have a sheet somewhere, I'll number them, as I've stopped adding nametags to the rear. No need for the enemy to see what you got and if I can't remember what I'm sailing I'm fighting the wrong battle (it's not like you will have 50+ ships on the table, for the average game 5-10 is more then enough)

Already put out an order for a few Destroyers, Frigates and landing craft for the Soviets as well as a small British fleet with additional NATO ships for Piers. I might add a few severely converted or even scratch built merchants to the fleet, maybe build another carcarrier, we'll see.

Fire in the North - A Cold War game build

Fire in the North

Just before the launch of the Warsaw Pact assault, Operation Red Tide, in August 1985, Warsaw Pact forces conducted a limited diversionary assault against Scandanvia at the end of July 1985. This 'feint' in the North drew off critical NATO troops, the Royal Marines, USMC and Dutch Marines just a few of those moved rapidly to deploy against the Soviet threat, only to find themselves virtually cut-off once the main war in Europe started a few short weeks later.

The war in the North consisted of what Soviet propaganda termed 'a reaction to continued and constant Finnish threats and incursions'. Within days Soviet forces pushed through the Finnish and Norwegian borders with troops. The incursions into Norway were termed as 'neccessary' by STAVKA in response to the NATO build-up in that country. The land attacks were supported by airborne and naval attacks in an operational plan not too dissimilar to that of the Germans in 1940.

While the land advance, down Highway E6 along the Noregian coast went reletively well, the Soviets found themselves ambushed every few kilometres. They still managed to push on but with the land assault knowingly limited, the Soviet advance slowed. Meanwhile Soviet airborne and naval landings met with mixed results. A small naval bridgehead was created at Narvik, but this was soon encircles and penned in by NATO land troops and a Royal Navy blockade. The Soviet Airborne had even less success and only managed to secure one airfield, that at Trondheim, and it was so badly damaged in the assault that it was of limited use. However due to lack of troops, NATO was unable to reduce the Trondheim Pocket and Soviet troops continued to use the area for landings and supply drops, though it was essentially defensive in nature until the land assault could reach it. Finland meanwhile seemed virtually over-run, but to NATO's surprise the Soviets failed to use its border to make further attacks into Norway. The truth of the matter was that the Soviet forces in Norway found themselves virtually pinned down in a number of urban areas as every move into the countryside brought a violent response from Finnish troops hiding out in the forests and fighting a successful guerilla campaign using long hidden supply caches. Once NATO realised the success that the Finns were having they moved a number of NATO Special Forces units and supply drops to support the Finns.

The fighting grew slower and slower as the time for launching 'Red Tide' neared. Once the attack in central Europe was launched, Polish Naval troops landed on the coast of Denmark, and the Soviet Baltic Fleet landed troops in Sweden, further hampering the NATO defence of Norway. Even so the fighting continued in the North and grew with a new ferocity now that the rest of Europe was at war...

The fire in the northern sky burned bright that summer.

This is the intro for another Piers & Gunbird warbuild (Iran-Iraq came before it, The Road to Vilnius isn't finished yet) this time focussing on the Cold War going hot in the Scandinavian region.

This time though, we'll be adding a few changes. We've been having chats about gaming air and sea as well and thought it would be nice to tie these in with a nice 20mm game, with the results from the air and naval battle directly interfering with the land one. There is still lots to plan and tinker, lists to be made, models to be sourced (as well as the finances!) but this promises to become another great weekend full of battles.

Just building all of those pine trees.......pine trees......bloody thousands of em, Sir!

And the winner is......

Well guys, 1 week on, and here are the results gathered from the various fora I posted it on:

1. Isuzus - 12 votes
2. BAOR - 6 votes
3. Panther - 5 votes
4. Dutch and Servals - 4 votes

With the rest getting 0 to 2 votes, so those got dumped back into the pile, better luck for em next round.

So first up will be the Isuzus, and you can expect a little of this:

Painting them.(...well, watching the paint dry really) as I type this. I've got a day off on Monday, so hoping to have them done by then.

Current WIP's

A selection of my current WIP's, with some descriptions. Feel free to tell me what you want to see finished first, I can use some extra motivation to paint instead of spending time on the web looking for more stuff to buy (which, as you might have guessed, is not the way to get things done!). I keep running into the same problem over and over: start a project, get distracted, start a new one, get distracted........

3 WIP Servals. The third barrel arrived a couple of weeks ago so it should be a simple job of putting it in, attatching the new stowage boxes to the rear of the turret and then tarting them up a bit before basecoating them. Though I have no clue whatsoever what scheme to give them. They should be for the 2012 game.

A ZIL truck and a UAZ jeep for my Cold War Russians. Painting them is easy, finishing them is not. 2012 is when I need these with a ton more.

A GAZ car for my WW2 Russian force commander, which would be nice to have more finished this year, and a small van that is technically done, just not 100% happy with it yet.

Tunguska for the 2012 game. I'm not sure what the model is from, but beside being 10mm too long, the rest of the dimensions are ok, it is just a bit basic, so I will need to rework it completely to be acceptable for me.

2 ASU-85's. I don't even own a VDV force anymore but bought them anyway. Drilled and plugged in a commander on one, second one needs filling as well. Decals for these have gone missing in the mail, waiting for replacements at the moment. Additions for my Cold War Russians so no hurry what so ever.

A Ferret Mk2 and a VAMPIRE for the BOAR for which I make the occasional bit for fun. Spent a lot of time converting it, I want to take it with me to the Big Game 2011 in Scotland or the UK (no sure yet), they only take some paint to get them done. I really should prioritise this lot.

A old Matchbox of Airfix Panther going for repaint number 3, and a metal truck that fits in scale wise, though at the moment I'm thinking it would would look better in Early War grey.

Flammpanzer III that doens't need much work, SdKfz that has nothing to go with it (needs crew) and a T-55 with the plow that I decided to start painting without having a turret handy. I know, it doesn't make sense to me either. First 2 are for my German forces, 2nd one would be handy to have for the 2012 game.

And finally what I spent most of my afternoon on, 2 of the new Hobbyden Isuzu trucks and a RH Models technical. I really want to get the Isuzus done so Brian can put them in his gallery.


Then there a lot more things in boxes, semi finished, and of course the 1941 Army Beutepanzer. That one is up for a vote too btw. So please, let me know!

May Games 2011 - Cold War, Part 2

 And the attack continues....

British troops scramble into their positions.

Russian Mechanised Infantry pushing up through the middle of the board, ready to support either thrust.

The helicopters leave.

And another airstrike decimates the German defences.

While the Bolkow takes a fatal hit and explodes above the city (either the SA-8 or the Shilka took it out, can't remember)

And the Russians push on.

 

 

 

 

 

And on.

Infantry dismounts and floods the city:

The defence is valiant but largly ineffectual, being slowly pushed back.

When another airstrike hits.

And the recce unit captures a abandoned medical Fuchs (well, more like looting it actually)

On the left flank, the Bundeswehr units that remain surrender, battered into submission.

NATO command is worried, they are unable to hold the city and the British defenders start to withdraw.

A Russian victory!
Will this be their starting off point for another offensive? Will the British hold next time? Or is this just a temporary setback?

Frankly, the Russians don't care right now, and start hauling back whatever isn't tied or bolted down.

All in all, a very nice game, I finally got to use my support vehicles, getting rid of damage really helped out in the offensive. I was helped by Piers apalling dicerolling, the defenders did their best but had trouble hitting and killing. Like the AVRE tank missing the house 50 meters in front of it. oops.

My favourite unit of the game? A tie up between the recce (driving between 2 Leopard 1's at top speed while being fired at by every Bundeswehr unit in sight required a set of brass ones the size of bowling balls I reckon, and then capturing the NATO medical vehicle on top of that) and the ground attack MiG-21 drivers who consistently hit with guns, rocket pods and bombs. So our allies were actually good for something

May Games 2011 - Cold War, Part 1

The first selection of pics taking during game number 1 of my recent weekend of gaming trip in Ireland.

Cold War, 20mm, using the Rapid Fire Modern mods used for last years Big Game.  Russian attack on a German/British held town somewhere in Germany.

The table:

The British reinforcements arriving in the town:

And taking up positions:

Bundeswehr armor guarding the crossroads:

The enemy drops rounds and smoke:

A MiG-21 dives down to bomb and strafe a German position:

German fire proves ineffective, and in return the enemy brews the Leopard 2!

A German Bolkow goes infor a ineffectual pass before driven off by the Shilka:

While on the left flank, more armour pours across Germany:

Daringly, the Russian VDV deploys right under the high power lines!:

Next series of pics from this battle coming soon!