15mm Waffen-SS Infantry from Peter Pig

Lots of painting going on lately at Conscript Towers, and one of the things I've been trying to do is get models painted that have ben languishing for some time. My wife gave me these 15mm Peter Pig Waffen-SS troops a few Christmases ago and they'd been sitting in primer for a couple years... but the recent purchase of the excellent "Colours of War" book from Battlefront got the juices flowing again for painting WW2 in 15mm.

You'll note, of course, that these guys are individually based (i.e. NOT for Flames of War) and this was quite deliberate... Conscript Greg has single-based WW2 forces and I wanted to have some figures for the odd Bolt Action game in 15mm, hence this basing decision. I have some US paratroopers as well and the grand plan is to base them individually as well, allowing some D-Day or Market Garden battles against the Waffen-SS.

The Piggies are pretty good models, albeit maybe not as chunky as Battlefront's Flames of War range. I followed the Waffen-SS camo guidance in the Colours of War book, using MSP Driftwood Brown as the base, painting random shapes and dots over top with GW Caliban Green, and filling in the shapes with GW Warpstone Glow. Turned out OK after being washed with the ubiquitous Agrax Earthshade.

 

Here's a good look at how the camo came out. I used Vallejo German Uniform for the trousers and random tan yellows for the webbing and breadbags. Rifle furniture and waterbottle covers are Mournfang Brown.

The boss (for now)... some Battlefront miniatures are on the way to supplement these guys. A couple of MG42 medium machineguns will add some supporting firepower as well.

Here's the group - should be enough for a reasonable game of Bolt Action I reckon. Next I'll get at the Paratroopers from the Open Fire! Flames of War box - this also contained German infantry, a couple of StuG IIIs, and a bunch of Sherman tanks that I'll paint as British. 

Well that's it for these guys, hope everyone is staying healthy and sane :-)

Painting Challenge Submission 2 - 15mm WW2 Russian Engineers and Scouts

Some Russian WW2 infantry in 15mm.

Happy new year to all visitors to the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts blog - many of you who are actual humans and not bots! For my second submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, my brushes continued with a painting theme seen often here in the waning weeks of 2019 - WW2.  These are 15mm Russian infantry - a platoon of assault engineers, and a squad of scouts.  The engineers are metal figures from Battlefront, while the scouts are from Peter Pig.  All of these figures had been sitting in my "primed-but-not-yet-painted" pile (i.e. "pile of shame") for at least two years - the scouts had originally been intended as a theme submission in a much earlier painting challenge, so it feels good to finally get around to them and get them finished!

LMG teams on oval bases...you can also see one of the flamethrowers on an oval base. He's by himself...nobody wants to stand too close to the flamethrower guy on a battlefield...

It is common to base 15mm figures in groups (as often seen in "Flames of War"), but these particular figures are all based individually for games like "Battlegroup", "Bolt Action" and "Chain of Command".  I enjoy WW2 gaming a lot - probably too much, as I paint the period in a number of different scales. I have found that playing games like "Bolt Action" with 15mm figures gives a great look on the table in terms of engagement ranges on a 6' x 4' table.  So while I have a lot of 15mm figures on group bases, I have been adding 15mm units that are based individually as well.  An additional advantage is that one Company-sized box of 15mm infantry from a company like Battlefront provides more than enough models for any scenario at a great value.

The eight-man squads are configured for "Battlegroup", but of course can be re-organized for any particular WW2 skirmish rules.

The downside to individual 15mm figures is that it can be difficult to work out which weapons are being carried by who (an MP40 and MP44 sure look similar at that size, for example). It also hard to see who is the officer, details which are easier to pick out on a 28mm figure, but not so much on the 15mm foot sloggers.  To work around this I use a similar basing system to one Curt has developed - senior officers (like the platoon CO) are on a hex-shaped base, NCOs are on square bases, and special weapons (in this case, the flamethrowers and the DP LMG teams) are on oval bases.   It is an easy and quick way to ID the notable infantry figures even with smaller scale models.

Platoon commander on a hex base, along with a couple of flunkies to "bite the bullet" for him when the time comes...

The metal assault engineers from Battlefront are fantastic sculpts.  They are wearing SN-type body armour, carrying SMGs and are loaded down with explosives, ropes and other combat engineer goodies used to blow sh!t up on the battlefield.  The platoon pack also provides quite a few flamethrowers. It's a great value, and the sculpts have a lot of character and dynamism, impressive considering they are only 15mm in size.  I'm glad I picked up a couple of these packs a few years ago, as these metal figures (and so many others) are now gone from Battlefront's product line up, sacrificed as the company debases itself further and further before the false god of plastic figures.

For the Motherland! Crush the Fascist invaders!

The small group of scouts are from Peter Pig's top-shelf lineup of 15mm WW2 figures.  I'm not sure why I only have five of them...probably something to do with a Chain of Command game I had in mind back in 2017.  At any rate, I tried to "pop" the green out a little more than one normally would, just to help them stand out a bit on the tabletop.

Five of these figures were painted prior to the commencement of AHPC X.  So while I have gathered 36 of them together for these propaganda photos, only 31 of counted for points, which provided another 62 "points" of painting toward my goal of 1000 points.

Stay tuned for further submissions as the Challenge continues, and be sure to visit the AHPC pages to see great work from so many participants, including Byron and MikeF. 

Battle Report - Chain of Command - Burning Tanks to Keep You Warm

It's cold outside, so warm yourself with this burning Panther, knocked out in "Chain of Command" action...note the pile of shock markers in the top left, marking the last known location of a Russian infantry section...

Winter has returned again to the Canadian prairies.  Winnipeg was hit a few weeks ago with its first snow storm of the season - relatively late in the year by local standards, but the 20cms of snow and winds socked us in nicely and we are now settling in for the long siege that is winter in the city.  Inspired by the snow, I wanted to stage a "Chain of Command" game set in the late-war winter on the Eastern Front.  I broke out the snow mat, and Dallas kindly supplemented this with his great assortment of snow trees. Ready to go!

We played in 15mm, and the scenario was number three from the rule book - "Attack & Defend".  While we did not specify a location or particular battle, a circumstance in the winter of 1944 on the Eastern Front with a group of Germans trying to fight their way back to the lines was not too hard to imagine.  So for this game the Russians would be the defenders while the Germans would be the attackers.

Some recent adds to the collection - IS-2s in roughly-winterized looks

Some of the German forces in the pre-game...

Dallas played the Soviet side.  His forces included an infantry platoon and two beastly IS-2 tanks.  Byron played the Germans, featuring an infantry platoon and a pair of menacing Panthers for backup.

Preparing for the patrol phase - the Russian defensive zone is marked off on the left side of the 6' x 4' table

After the Patrol Phase, the shooting got underway, with the scrap taking shape in the centre of the table.  Dallas managed to move two Russian squads into excellent position against one of the German squads, eventually wiping it out.  Meanwhile, the armoured elements for both sides entered the table and did their best to target some enemy infantry, although they found the "targeting" part to be difficult.

Russian section in position, ready to defend against the fascist vipers!

Even as the German infantry platoon received heavy punishment in the centre, the MG42s managed to dish out a pile of return abuse, and the arrival of another German squad turned the tables somewhat against the Russian infantry. One of the Russian squads broke - only to be cut to pieces by the MGs of one of the German Panthers.

German section takes up a covered position near the road

Looking to get a decisive finish, Dallas moved one of his IS-2s along the flanks and zeroed in on Byron's Panthers.  The move was a success, as Dallas scored a kill and the heavy 122mm shell blew one of the Panthers to pieces.  Meanwhile, Byron was starting to run low on infantry...the morale counters on both sides were slowly ticking downwards...

Russian foot sloggers make a dash toward the woods and new firing position

German infantry in action - this section would soon be wiped out...

Russian infantry squad in action - before MG42s drove them back, and Panthers cut them down

In the centre of the table, the bloody action continued.  Byron got the balance of a remaining squad into action against Dallas' sole remaining squad.   These brave Russians were caught out in the road, with no cover from the rending effects of an MG42...the toll was grim.  Meanwhile, Byron's remaining Panther took revenge on the flanking IS-2, blasting it to pieces with a direct hit from its 75mm gun.

German section takes up a position near a wood-line...

Russian and German infantry sections trade fire, while in the background the German Panthers struggle to target the Russian infantry

No fence will stop an IS-2...but trying to target that infantry in cover is sure tricky!

With the loss of one of the IS-2s, Dallas' morale counter ticked to zero, and the Russians were broken - but only just. It was a close fought game which could have gone either way, and with the unique activation system in "Chain of Command", you can never be sure.  Byron's morale counter was very low - at 2 or 3, if I recall - and the "victory" was a rough one at best, with the loss of one Panther and a significant chunk of the infantry platoon.  Very "Eastern Front", in my view...

Byron's remaining Panther gets revenge, and drives the Soviet morale to the breaking point; the burning tanks will keep everyone warm...

"Chain of Command" is a fantastic set of rules, one of the best out there.  The patrol phase still gives me a headache each time, but overall it offers a subtlety and unique ebb and flow to the action that I find compelling and engaging.   I particularly enjoy playing in 15mm, as the size of the figures and models meshes well with the "look" of the engagement ranges on the table.

This scenario could have been organized in a different fashion with the same models by using "Big Chain of Command" and parsing the armoured vehicles out to be their own platoons.  The tanks would have "done" a lot more, as they would have been able to use their own dice pools to activate. I think that would probably have been a bit too much for two players to keep track of, however, so we kept it at one dice pool per side. I also enjoy how the limitations on the command dice therefore make it a challenge for the players - sure, activate your armour, but maybe that comes at the expense of getting your infantry into a better position?

A big thanks to Dallas and Byron for playing.  Looking at the table still gives me the winter chills - hope we can get some more winter WW2 gaming in while we sit out the f@@%ing polar vortex this season. 

US M113s for "Team Yankee"

1/100 scale M113s from Battlefront

The "Team Yankee" painting roll continues, switching over to some US stuff I had sitting around in the ol' pending pile for months.  These are M113 APCs from Battlefront, required in order to mount up some US mechanized infantry for action on the gaming table. 

View of the rear detail on these boring machines

To put a US mechanized company on the table in a game of "Team Yankee" you need at least two mechanized platoons.  I had painted two platoons of infantry, but only one of them had any APCs. The M113s took forever to arrive from Battlefront, and by the time they did, I was off into other projects...but now that the Team Yankee bug is back, I thought I should get them painted. My second US infantry platoon now has some tracks to give them a lift in their next scrap!

A soldier popped out of the hatch, ready to give some covering fire with the .50 cal...

My feelings toward the M113 remain "meh"...whatever its merits as a military vehicle - and full disclaimer, these may be considerable, as a civilian I have no idea - as a gamer this is one of the lamest models out there.  We all have models we dislike mixed among gaming settings we enjoy, and the M113 is one of those for me, just a stupid box with some treads.  Maybe only the British FV432 is lamer...

Look! Boxes with treads...

I also find this MERDC camouflage to be a real pain in the @ss.  I so regret doing my initial vehicles in this pattern, but I feel like I'm kind of stuck with it as I would like the whole force to match together.  To do the MERDC properly I should really use an airbrush, but life is too short to bother with that hassle on these models, so I tried my best to follow the helpful templates that Battlefront has on their web-site, and did my best impression with the plain old regular brushes.  As with camouflage on infantry models, I'm aiming more for an overall impression than a precise, Tacobat-level recreation.

My new M113s from Battlefront posing with the dismounts from Peter Pig which I painted back in March

So that makes two mechanized infantry platoons available for the US forces now.  On to some support options...and then more Soviets and West Germans and...who knows...?

Soviet VDV/Special Forces for Team Yankee

15mm Soviets - figures from Peter Pig

As part of the "Team Yankee" fun I wanted to paint up an infantry unit that might represent some of the special forces or airborne units I expect would play a role in any (thankfully fictional) Soviet ground assault into 1980s Western Europe. I find fictional accounts like "Team Yankee" and "Red Storm Rising" dramatically underestimate the likely impact that Communist sympathizers and fifth columnists would play in any invasion.  The west was chock full of useful idiots and their various appendages which could be leveraged by the KGB and other Soviet state elements as they prepapred and executed a ground invasion, sowing, at the very least, wide-spread confusion behind the NATO lines if nothing else.

Love working with these Peter Pig castings

I had some AK-equipped modern 15mm infantry from Peter Pig, and I figured that with a few paintbrush tricks, these could reasonably represent Soviet special forces or VDV/Airborne forces which might bring an interesting additional element to the table.

RPG teams

Realistically these fellows would probably be wearing helmets into battle - and one or two models are wearing them - but I wanted to go with the beret/caps to reinforce the different status.  I painted up enough bases for a large platoon/small Soviet company. 

Heavy recoilless rifle

I also did up a large-calibre recoilless rifle to give them some enhanced firepower.  By the era of "Team Yankee" these weapons would have been a tad obsolete, but I could see small air-dropped units landing behind NATO lines and linking up with some old-school pre-positioned weapons waiting for them at the local Green Party HQs, etc.

As usual, flowered shrubs mark out command bases

I doubt I will have a full-on battalion of these fellows - but rather will try and equip them with some of the VDV vehicles (like the BMD infantry fighting vehicles) and add some of the more modern AT weapons in additional bases.  We'll pop them up in some unexpected locations and give the NATO players some headaches in future games of "Team Yankee". 

12th Painting Challenge Entry - US Mechanized Infantry for "Team Yankee"

US Mechanized infantry in 15mm

Submission number twelve to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Paiting Challege was another "Team Yankee" offering - US mechanized infantry and M113 armoured personnel carriers.

Modern US infantry in 15mm from Peter Pig

It has been nearly two months now since Battlefront "released" their US mechanized infantry figures for their new "Team Yankee" range. Many companies can experience delays in getting their products shipped, but the supply chain Battlefront uses is so glacial that I often snap my crayons, give up waiting, and use an alternate product.  I used Eureka 15mm Soviets in place of the Battlefront motor rifles, and I have opted to use Peter Pig modern US troops instead of waiting any longer for the Battlefront "releases" to reach Canada via whatever snail-driven hot air balloon they use for shipping.

More US grunts

US Mech Company command stand - blue flowers to denote officer

The Peter Pig troops - actually listed as "US Marines" in their website - are a little more modern than the ones from "Team Yankee", more 1990s-2000s than 1980s.  The body armour is a little different, small differences in the harnesses etc.  The only really noticeable difference is the portable anti-tank weapons.  In "Team Yankee", this is the M-47 Dragon missile launcher, but these figures are carrying the AT-4 rocket launcher.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the AT-4 is a little later than the M-47...but I have no idea what the differences actually are...also, the Peter Pig line does not have a casting carrying an M72 LAW rocket. 

But Peter Pig figures have one marked advantage over Battlefront's - when you order them, they arrive in the mail and you can then paint and use them.

AT-4 teams stand in place of the Dragon AT teams

A view of the camo and webbing

Despite the differences, the Peter Pig castings stand in very well. Peter Pig makes, in my opinion, some of the best 15mm castings out there.  The sculpts are excellent, and the casting quality it top of the line.

The blue flowers denote platoon command base

Painting camouflage is the bane of any hobbyist, but the US Camouflage of the 1980s is particularly challenging.  I try to give an impression of the pattern more than copy it faithfully, particularly in a smaller scale. The results are not too bad.

Propaganda photos - US infantry confront Soviet dismounts near a rail line...

AT team has a surprise for that T-72...

To be mechanized, these fellows need a ride.  The M113s from Battlefront were nowhere to be found either, but it finally clicked that I could just order a box of Jordanian M113s from Battlefront's "Fate of A Nation" game and get the same models, so that's what I did.  Four M113s are enough to mount on platoon of troops - enough to at least get a game in.

M113s...ugliest APCs in existence

I think all of us have some models or figures in particular periods or settings that we dislike or dread painting, and for me, one of those is the M113.  I hate the look of this vehicle - it's just a lame box on some treads.  Whatever its merits in real life (and they might be considerable - I don't know personally, I'm a civilian) in the hobby perspective, these things are totally, totally lame.  The BMPs look waaaay cooler.

Nice models of terrible vehicles

You will notice that none of these M113s have tread covers on...the crappy quality of the plastic struck again, with the tread covers snapping when I tried to clip them off the sprues, so I just avoided them entirely on these models.

Battlefront plastic strikes again...

 ***

And now a short diversion on something I noticed in the "Team Yankee" rule book.  One thing I do appreciate about Battlefront is their painting guides - they have a lot of them in their books, and I find them to be generally helpful.  They often combine art work from Osprey books with Vallejo paint recommendations. I was particularly pleased to see one for the US infantry camouflage in the "Team Yankee" rule book, and once I received the figures from Peter Pig and started painting, I opened up to the guide and noticed something odd...

I thought this was really, really dumb.  Like, really?  I don't know the stats, but I'm confident a large number of the front line troops in the US Army of the 1980s were African American.  So, there was no way to give us a painting guide for that? Just....this was really, really dumb. I hope some copy editor is banging his head against the wall...

*** 


So there are a total of 47 infantry and four vehicles, all in 15mm size, in this submission - worth enough points keep me within a possible striking distance of Byron in the "Modern Mayhem" side duel.

Completed US forces to date for "Team Yankee"

With this I will have concluded my little "modern tear" over the past couple of weeks.  I have enough 15mm stuff on hand now to play a few games and get a sense of the rules - and we even got a game in with these little fellows when Curt visited over the weekend.  Stay tuned for more on that in a later post...

This submission took me past my points goal for the Challenge. Just in time too, as the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is nearly done. I REALLY need to get back to some 30k stuff - I hope I will have more to share before things conclude...