Purple Line Blues - 15mm Yom Kippur War Battle Report

IDF Centurions rolling towards the front

We ran another 15mm Yom Kippur War game last night. The scenario pitted opposing armoured columns against each other in a meeting-engagement-type battle. We used Dallas' "Red Storm" rules for the game, with the addition of a sort of "Hen & Chicks" rule for the Syrian tankers. I also continued with my house rule that AFVs could not pass any closer than 4" to another active friendly AFV on the table (I hate when the tanks horde up Flames-Of-War style).

The table at Turn 1 - IDF table edge at the bottom, Syrian at the top

The IDF had five Centurion Sho't Kals and a squad of mechanized infantry in an M113.  The Syrians had nine T-62s and a squad of infantry in a BTR-60.The setting was the Golan Heights, early on the second day of the war. The IDF column was a group of reservists sent forward desperately to reinforce the "Purple Line", which the Syrians had in fact broken through during the night.  On the way to the front the IDF encounters a Syrian column that has made it through, and the battle ensued!

Syrian T-62s

IDF Centurion rolls up the lead T-62 platoon

Conscripts Hugh and Byron played the Syrians, while Jim played the IDF with a little help from me.  Each side had to block the other from escaping, while trying to set some of its own stuff off of the table - a tricky balancing act.  The table was 6' x 4', with the sides approaching from opposing short table edges.

Turret flew off following a particularly well-placed shot...

Burning tanks filled the table right from the first turn.  Jim and I felt pretty good about things in the first couple of turns - we lit up the leading Syrian tank platoon with only one Centurion damaged in return.  As the follow-up Syrians came on, we were thinking a couple of turns of efficient gunnery would sort them out.

Syrian infantry deploy - to their doom...

IDF troopers hop off of their M113

We were kind of wrong...Byron in particular started to hot-roll for the Syrian gunners, and our tanks started to see some serious damage, especially the loss of main guns! By the fifth turn, we were down to one fully-functional Sho't - although we had managed to eliminate the Syrian infantry. 

Centurion with damaged main gun tried to make for the far table edge - it would end badly for the tank...

In the sixth turn Byron managed to blow the main gun off our final tank, and that was that! With no meaningful AT firepower left, the IDF had to pull back, leaving a one destroyed and another immobilized Sho't on the battlefield, and three more without their main armament. The Syrians had lost three T-62s, a BTR-60 and a squad of infantry.  That's what it was like in those first couple of days on the Purple Line in October 1973...

This blurry photo captures the fate of the IDF tankers in the game

Syrian T-62 firing line victorious at the end of the game

It was a lot of fun to play Yom Kippur again, and Dallas' rules work very well for the battle.  I should probably tweak the tanks' stats a touch for next time, but "Red Storm" is great for this setting. Thanks to Hugh, Jim and Bryon for coming out.

IDF Centurions - 15mm

Ready to hold the Purple Line...

Continuing with the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge submissions, here is a pair of 15mm IDF Centurion Sho't Kals, the main IDF tank from the 1973 battle on the Golan Heights.  These are Peter Pig models, with some slight adjustments.

Chunky Centurions from Peter Pig

These are the "generic" Centurions from Peter Pig - not the Centurions from their modern IDF range.  The IDF Peter Pig Centurions have ERA and thermal sleeves on the gun - equipment from the war in Lebanon.  Those features were not in the field in 1973, so I used the generic tank.  I cut off the smoke launchers, and added some stowage, cupola MGs and cards on the rear turret for the Israeli tactical numbers.

Tactical numbers were mounted on cards or sections of cloth and hung from the back of the turret

The commander and the .30 cals were extras from Peter Pig

These tanks raise my IDF Centurion complement to five MBTs - a spartan amount, but just right for  scenarios featuring a desperate defence of the "Purple Line".  I would like to add a few more, and then put some Ishermans on to the table.  But one thing at a time...

Pico-Sized Deviation - 1/600 Scale Tanks

A Centurion Sho't and a T-62 from Pico Armor beside a Canadian penny.

While waiting for the latest round of stuff for my Golan Heights Project to dry etc. I had some fun today painting up some pint sized tanks - 3mm/1-600 scale tanks from Oddzial Osmy. These are available through the excellent folks at Pico Armor.  The quality of these sculpts - particularly considering the insanely small scale - is incredible.   Often derided by the pointy-headed TMP denizens with lines like "oh, I guess you would need counters for the infantry, or to even see what it is hah hah", the amount of detail that Oddzial Osmy manages to cram on these tiny models speaks to incredible sculpting talent.

QRF T-62s "drying" and waiting until the arms build up on the Golan Heights Project can resume

I have some modern Canadians and Russians in this scale, based in groups on bases.  What is so neat about this scale is that it offers the nutty gamer (like me) the chance to try and show "what it really looks like" on the table - a small table.  My T-72 battalion - it really is (well, it is very close) a battalion of tanks - 33 of them, spread across on the same number of bases I would use to represent a battalion in Spearhead with 6mm/1-285 models in Spearhead.  With the 3mm scale you can game high level divisional breakthroughs, and simulate games where the units cover a lot of territory (or at least try to).  It's fun.

Centurion Sho'ts - the round base is meant to represent a command tank

And yet.  And yet.  On Curt's Analogue Hobbies post about a 1:1 Civil War unit (check it out here), he mentions the curiosity of wanting to see an entire Civil War regiment lined up.  My hobby mind is tormented the same way about armoured units.  I sort of have that with my Canadians and Russians, but   even with the small scale, they are still crammed on the bases.  So despite the tiny size of the models, the tanks are still all packed together, creating an axle to axle look that I strive to avoid, even as I play games stacked with armour in all sorts of scales - yes, I am the problem.

Inspired by that 1:1 Civil War post from Curt, I wondered what individually based Ozzdial Osmy tanks might look like?  If they were individually based, the tanks could spread out where it made sense, but with the small vehicles, you could have a lot of them on a normal-sized game table.  But what would it look like?

T-62s from Ozzdial Osmy - I attempted to replicate Syrian camouflage on these vehicles

In my research for the Golan Heights Project, I have found the battles of the 1973 Yom Kippur War lend themselves well to this experiment.  They were primarily fought by tank units, and featured LOTS of tanks.  While I certainly will paint a pile of them for 15mm scale (after all, I'm nuts and I love painting tanks), the 3mm/1-600 scale would allow for an average table to fill with tanks and still not look too bad in terms of the axle-to-axle effect.

Pico Armor products are very reasonably priced, so the experiment is one of minimal expense.  I based some tanks on 20mm square 1.5mm-thick wood bases from Litko, using 30mm round bases to represent the tanks of company and battalion commanders.

A T-34/85 on the left, and a Tiger II on the right. 

I did a couple of experimental WW2 tanks as well - a Tiger II (yes LOL) and some T-34 variants.

T-34/85s on the left, King Tiger in the middle, and T-34/76s (1943) on the right, with a Canadian penny to provide some scale

I was happy with the results - this was a fun diversion. These tanks paint up really, really fast. I will add a few more during my next pause, and then at some point I might try and rack up a "Valley of Tears" type game for the guys. And see what I can come up with for basing infantry - not to worry, it won't be 1-to-1...

Israeli Centurion - Second Attempt

IDF Centurion Sho'ts - models from Peter Pig

The other day I made my first attempt to paint an Israeli Centurion Sho't MBT.  I am struggling to come up with the right colour for the Israeli armour on the Golan Heights in 1973.  I haven't seen any colour photos of Centurions on the Golan in 1973.  Other colour references for Israeli armour show everything from a desert sand sort of colour all the way through to a grey colour.  Many references mention a colour called "Sinai Grey", but the actual shade seems elusive.

Base coats on black primer - GW "Death World Forest"

I was not fully satisfied with my first attempt - the tank looked too brown, not green enough. I think I had the right colours, and just needed to try a different approach with them, so that is what I did.

GW "Zandri Dust" is dry brushed on to the base coats

This time I used GW's "Death World Forest" as a base coat over black primer.  I then dry-brushed GW "Zandri Desert" over the base coat, and then applied a wash of GW "Agrax Earthshade".  The usual finishing touches (painted markings, pencil on the treads, weathering powders, paint chips, "windows" etc) followed before finishing up.

Here are some pictures of the two tanks finished tanks using the newer approach.

Tank from the front - the commander is behind his .50 cal

The chevron indicates company number, and the rings indicate battalion number

I threw some dirt (weathering pigments) on the turret - it will fade a bit in time

Another view from the front

The placards on the back of the turret indicate the tank number - "Bet 3"

This tank was supposed to be "Bet 2" - my hebrew free hand painting needs practice...I also painted a little battalion symbol on the back of the engine

Top view, showing the commander in his hatch

Here is a comparison shot with the tank from the first attempt.

The tank in the middle is from the first attempt - the two tanks on either side used the newer approach

I'm much happier with how this combination worked out - the green sticks around a lot more with just the light dry brushing before the wash.  These tanks will do OK for the table, and I am going to put another order into Peter Pig for some more.  Next time I will put the commander standing up much higher in the cupola - you see a lot of that in the photos from the war.  A great way to acquire targets, but it caused a lot of casualties among the IDF tank commanders.

I will also try and add some more stowage to the MBTs to spice things up.  Peter Pig has tank stowage, and so does Battlefront.  Things like blanket rolls and boxes really give the tanks a look of being in the field.

Golan Heights Project - First Attempted Centurion

Israeli Centurion from 1973

After finishing various bits of Syrian kit and some Syrian infantry, I wanted to get started on some test models to represent the Israeli side of the conflict on the table, namely the iconic Centurion Sho't tanks. Here are some WIP pictures, and some pictures of a first finished tank.  I just don't know about the colour...

Generic upgraded Centurion from Peter Pig. Base from Litko.

Thin lines of these tanks, in the hands of elite and determined IDF crews, held against the incredible tides of Syrian armour on the Golan Heights for 100 hours.  With precision gunnery and strong defensive positions, the IDF Sho'ts exacted a frightening toll on the advancing Syrians - who kept coming and coming despite the losses.

Some extras from Peter Pig - Jerry cans on the turret, a .50 cal MG and a tank commander

I am using models from Peter Pig.  The first Centurions I ordered were from Peter Pig's IDF range, but the tanks are actually more appropriate for the invasion of Lebanon in the early 80s.  They have ERA armour, extra MGs and a thermal sleeve on the barrel - upgrades that were not present on the Sho'ts which held out against the Syrians in 1973.

Centurion platoon waiting for primer...

I was thinking "screw it", but I checked through Peter Pig's listings and saw they had a more generic upgraded Centurion in their modern product line, and ordered some test models - and they arrived just in time to join me on vacation.   These models do not have ERA, and the gun is correct. They also have smoke launchers on the turrets, and the engine seems different (either upgraded again from the original version, or not yet upgraded - I don't know).

The photos I have seen from 1973 have very few tanks with smoke launchers, so I clipped those off the turrets.  As for the engine...well, close enough.  It will work for me.  To add a little more character to the tanks, I ordered some spare .50 cal MGs from Peter Pig as well.  The MGs came with some spare Jerry cans, so I glued some to the turret to give a bit of feel for extra stowage.

This picture from Osprey's "The Yom Kippur War - 1973 (1) - The Golan Heights" served as my paint guide - you can see the engine deck on this Centurion Sho't is different from the Peter Pig generic Centurion - but close enough for gaming - you can also see the tactical number "hung" on the rear of the turret

The Israeli tanks used a tactical number/letter system, but painted them on to panels that the crews would just tie on to the back of the turrets.  To capture this, I cut out a little piece of thin card and glued them to the back of the turret.

Card was cut out and glued to the rear of the turret

The trickiest part of this project overall is to try and get the colour right for the Israeli armour.  I have found many references to the colour of Israeli tanks as "Sinai Grey".   This is confusing to me for a couple of reasons, because the colour is for the Golan, not the Sinai, and also because it doesn't look grey at all.  The few colour photos I have found seem to be either a light sand colour - almost like a western desert tank colour from WW2 - or a yellowish green.  But no grey - even though the colour is apparently "Sinai Grey". Time for a test model, to see what happens.

Another shot of the card chunks intended to mimic the tactical number cards/tarps Israeli crews attached to the turrets

I based the tanks, primed black (as always) and then applied a base coat of "Death World Forest" from GW's new paint range (I think this is the wannabe "Catachan Green" from the previous range - FWIW Catachan Green is better).  Then I applied "Zandri Dust" from the new GW range, and then hit the tank with a wash of GW "Agrax Earthshade". Have I mentioned how awful the new paint names from GW are? Good lord...

Finished Centurion from the front.

These tanks only got one antenna - the other tanks looked a bit too bristly for the table. On this tank I used a sponge to try and simulate chips in the paint.

In this photo you can see the engine deck is different from that of the Sho't tank - I'm not sure if it is an older engine, or a different new version of the engine

I painted on some Israeli tactical markings (basically copied from the Osprey book) and did the usual weathering (dust, exhaust etc) and painted the "windows" (view ports etc).  The result looks OK for a tank, but I don't think I got the colour right.  Doesn't look green enough - looks like a tank for the Sinai (which, strangely, did not seem to be painted "Sinai Grey").  But what effect would storage in a depot, then the intense sun, then rain, then wind, and even snow in some instances in the Golan, followed by dust and use in heavy combat have on the paint colour in the first place?

The rings on the turret indicate battalion number, and the chevron is the company number - in this case, third company, second battalion

This is tank "Bet 1" - I think "B1" or "Beta 1" is the translation.  I also scribbled a unit symbol on the rear of the engine

Is this "Sinai Grey"? Maybe after a long time in service....I will have to try again...

I have two more primed tanks, so I will try some other concoction of paints and see what I can come up with. I think the colours I am working with are the right ones, but I need to work them out in a different combination. If anyone out there has suggestions or tips, feel free to share!