Egyptian IS-3 in 15mm

IS-3 for Fate of A Nation

This beast is an IS-3 tank from Battlefront, released as part of their "Fate of A Nation" supplement for the Flames of War game. The Egyptians had these tanks in 1967 - I believe they were part of the arsenal in the infantry divisions of the Sinai Field Army. 

The last of the "heavy tanks"

The Battlefront model is a mostly-resin kit, with pewter accessories.  The resin casting is generally top-notch, with great details. There was a slight bowing in the hull on this tank, visible in the space between the skirts over the tops of the tracks and the main hull on one side of the vehicle.  If I was hard core I would have filled that with putty or something.  But this will be one of like at least six tanks on the table in a unit, so I am expecting the issue will be a lot less visible once I paint up its buddies to go with it.

You can see the seam caused by warped resin in the space between the track skirts and the hull.  Out of six models, fortunately I only had this issue on this one tank

The decals on the turret are from Battlefront - I think that might be some kind of eagle-style national symbol for Egypt/UAR? I'm not 100% sure - but it looked really cool on the box art, so I used it on the model.

The IS-3 looks spooky, with a pointed-near-prow on the front, ominous turret and a huge frigging gun (122mm, I think).  One would assume this tank is a total bad-ass.  But that's why I am a civilian.  I understand, bad-ass looks aside, these vehicles had a mixed record at best in combat.  The Egyptians had some reasonable use of them if they were dug into prepared positions - the thick front armour and heavy gun would give the IDF tankers something to think about.  But overall, this was an old tank by 1967 and its overall operability (is that a word?) was reflected in serious combat challenges.

122mm gun ready to rip into some M51 Shermans...

These things are deployed in company strength in Flames of War, so I have six of them to paint up in total. One down, five to go. They will get brewed up in no time at all by a combination of awesome IDF gunnery and the Israeli Air Force, but they will look cool before they get smoked out - an important factor in gaming!

Even More IDF Halftracks

Old-school rides for IDF mech troops in '73 - Peter Pig on the left, other two are from Battlefront

It's been quiet on the painting table for the past couple of weeks, as summer-ish weather has suddenly appeared (weeks and weeks late) on the Canadian prairies, following a winter of Retreat-From-Moscow-pocalypse proportions.  And even though I love this hobby, I love a cool glass of wine outside on the patio even more...however, Prairiecon 2014 is almost here, and I needed to complete my preparations!  Here are some more IDF halftracks.

Two of these models are mixed resin/plastic/metal from Battlefront, and one is a metal model from Peter Pig, with the addition of a ball turret conversion piece from Battlefront.  The Peter Pig one had been painted last year, and so it has my older style of painting "Sinai Grey".  They don't quite match up, but Sinai Grey always looks different every I see it in pictures anyways, so I'm not too fussed about it.

All of the stowage pieces are from a Battlefront conversion pack - they are very nice

The Battlefront models were OK to work with, but Peter Pig makes a much better M3 halftrack. You really notice it on the cupola MG in particular - the plastic .50 cal from Battlefront is heavy on the seam lines and light on detail. With hindsight, I could simply have combined Battlefront's excellent halftrack conversion kits with Peter Pig models. Oh well. But they are just 15mm, so it doesn't stand out too much.

I left the extra stowage off of the Peter Pig track...just a way to mark it as a command APC

Where I do give Battlefront more credit is the decals - the air recognition stripes look MUCH better with the decals than with my weak free-hand painting on the Peter Pig model (how hard is it to paint a white stripe? jeez Greg). The decals look a LOT better.

Ready to roll for Prairiecon!

I now have five of these IDF halftracks completed - enough to mount a full platoon of IDF mechanized infantry.  These will take to the table on Saturday morning in Brandon Manitoba as Dallas and I will be staging a scenario set at the Battle of the Chinese Farm during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. I am looking forward to another Prairiecon!

15mm Egyptian Mech Infantry for Fate Of A Nation

UAR Mechanized Infantry from Battlefront

Ok, ok, so I am officially diverted. Not that it takes much - I have a pea-brained attention span when it comes to this hobby. I have been painting away for much of the late winter and "spring" on my Legion Project, but as Prairiecon 2014 approaches, I put down the GW stuff to do some 15mm Arab-Israeli war stuff for the Yom Kippur War game we will be running at the Con.  The items were drawn from a big order of Battlefront stuff I had made back when they came out with the "Fate Of A Nation" supplement last fall.

Assault rifle stands and BTR-152 APCs

A few tanks led to some APCs, which led to some AAA guns, which led to...well, I just figured I might as well get everything built and based, and just paint a bunch of it while I'm in the mood.  So here is a platoon of Egyptian mechanized troops in 15mm from Battlefront.

This isn't even a whole selection on the UAR force chart...it's 1/3 of one...

These troops are from the Six Day War in 1967, which is the subject of "Fate Of A Nation", and not the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which has been my interest so far. But these would not be terribly out of place in a 1973 game, and at any rate, I want to try "Fate Of A Nation" so I might as well paint this stuff up.

A "Blindicide" team...what's with all the Belgian AT weapons in the Middle East? Did Belgium have some kind of special anti-tank crown corporation?

The gaming allure of the 1967 war is similar to that of the 1973 one in that you can legitimately fill the table with tanks, but I want to get some infantry in there as well so I started with the Egyptian mechanized foot sloggers. 

BTR-152s - the SUV of 1967...

The UAR infantry castings are OK - I suspect highly similar to Battlefront's NVA/PAVN castings from their Vietnam War range, although I don't know for sure. That's a fun thing about 15mm scale...with some slight changes and different paint, you would never know the difference when it comes to a lot of the infantry...the sculpt quality is a little worse than Peter Pig, same with the casting quality, but not by much.  And the thing I like about a Battlefront pack is that you get pretty much everything!

A surprising amount of detail on the interiors...well done on that score

The BTR-152 APCs are OK...they are mixed metal and resin, like a lot of Battlefront stuff.  My only gripe is that the resin walls of the troop compartment were pretty thin, and three of them broke in the package, requiring some careful repair (one was too far gone, so it gets to be "battle damaged" - I'll worry about that one later).  Also, some more thought should have been given to the front wheel wells in the resin mold - they are not straight, and end up set to point the wheels inward.  It looks a little funny when you seen the vehicle from straight on, but basing the vehicle obscures it enough.  Besides - Soviet-era construction was a little whacky, after all...

Apparently 28 guys squeeze into these two vehicles...I bet that is a lot of fun...

And so here are six infantry bases and a blindicide bazooka team (apparently the Egyptians did not use the RPGs in 1967) along with a pair of BTR-152s to use for a ride into battle against the IDF.  This does not even comprise an entire selection in the force chart - I will need at least one more group similar to this, as well as the command elements (MGs and recoilles rifles).

Spare tire on the back...nice touch

How much more stuff do I have? Well, for the Egyptians, more infantry and lots and lots of tanks - T-55s, IS-3s, PT-76s, and some BTR-50PKs to boot.

One more pic of the bazooka team

For the IDF? Well, you don't need a lot of them for a "Fate Of A Nation" game, it seems.  I already have a pile of M51 Sherman tanks and also Centurions painted up.  I want to add a mechanized infantry platoon for them as well.  I'm hoping I can knock all of this stuff off by the end of June...barring further diversions, that is...

Battlefront's Egyptian ZSU-57-2 AAA Tanks - 15mm Arab-Israeli Wars

Eyes on the skies in the Middle East...

Continuing the theme of escalation in the 15mm Arab-Israeli Wars category here are a pair of ZSU-57-2 anti-aircraft artillery tanks. The models are from Battlefront's "Fate of A Nation" range.  They are very nice models and a breeze to paint.  The only challenge I had was to get the twin barrels to sit straight...I didn't quite meet it, but they don't look too cross-eyed :)

Zandri dust was the main paint colour, weathered, chipped and pin washed

These would have been important anti-aircraft assets for the Egyptian troops in 1967 - given the fact that the Egyptian Air Force was essentially obliterated on the ground by the Israelis, kit like this was all the desperate Egyptian troops in the Sinai could really hope for in terms of keeping the Israeli jets at bay!

The guns seem almost-straight from this angle..not bad...

The Egyptians took the terrible lessons learned in 1967 to heart, and their Soviet patrons started equipping them with much more serious kit. By the time of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Egypt's Operation Badr, the crossing of the Suez Canal, was covered by a lethal network of SAM missiles and ZSU-23-4 AAA tanks.  The Israeli Air Force paid a dear price against it. I think the ZSU-57-2 took a back seat to this newer kit in 1973, but they were still in the OOB somewhere...

These will come in handy for Yom Kippur War games as Dallas continues to build on his excellent assortment of Egyptians.  Like any wargamer, the first time I see a AAA tank, I think of how mean it would be to use against infantry and light vehicles, as opposed to its actual stated purpose :)  Those IDF jeeps with recoilless rifles would not be too happy to see these things...

I do want to do some Flames of War games set in the Six-Day War too (once I get enough relevant models painted :)  I have a pile of T-55s, BTR-152s and other Egyptian goodies waiting around for time on the paint table to take on my pile of IDF Shermans. It won't be anytime soon, however, as I need to get back to my Legion Project! Volkite Calivers are waiting...