Team Yankee Soviet Motor Rifle Weapons Teams

Not too much painting going on nowadays at Conscript Towers but I had time to crank out some Soviets for Team Yankee - a set of their Motor Rifle Weapons Teams. The set is cast in Battlefront plastic/resin - a much superior material to the dreadful Warlord "restic" in my opinion. The Battlefront stuff holds fine detail well and requires little to no cleanup. Good stuff.  

Anyway, the blister pack contains three large team bases and figures to make three heavy weapons teams: two AT-4 "Spigot" ATGW teams and one AGS-17 "Plamya" automatic grenade launcher team. There's also two cards with stats for use with the Team Yankee game.

Above is the AGS-17 team. Three grenade launchers and operators, and three riflemen. The AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher went into service in 1971. It fires 30mm high-explosive grenades from a belt, at a cyclic rate of 350-400 rounds per minute. Enough to bring some hurt. Apparently the Soviets intended the AGS-17 to address the expected "human wave attacks" of the Chinese in a future Sino-Soviet conflict (!)

 

The blister also includes two AT-4 anti-tank guided missile teams. Fortunately NATO adopted the designation "Spigot" rather than the Russian designation "Fagot" (bassoon). The AT-4 is wire-guided; the launcher tracks the position of the missile from an incandescent infrared bulb on the rear of the missile and transmits guidance via the wire. This is SACLOS - semi-automatic command to line of sight. The operator keeps his pip on the target and the launcher guides the missile to that point.

Anyway, there you have it - three new weapons teams for the Motor Rifle Battalion. Price tag on the blister was a nickel short of ten bucks which I reckon is good value. Fun and easy to paint and most importantly, represents movement of figures from the lead pile to the painted army drawer.

Hope you're all keeping safe.

Soviet AGS-17s for "Team Yankee"

Soviet AGS-17s for "Team Yankee" - 15mm figures from Battlefront.

One more bit of painting for "Team Yankee" - this is another small project that has been sitting, primed and ready to go, for over a year. While I have been working on the recent bits to reinforce my Canadians, I decided to tackle these at the same time, even though they will be fighting for the other side. These are AGS-17 teams, a heavy weapon team option available to support Soviet motor rifle forces in the "Team Yankee" game.  The models are from Battlefront (although the bases are from the fine people at Warbases).

Some poor casting leads to awkward-looking poses on the gunners...and some awful gaps at the wrists.

The AGS-17 is a type of automatic grenade launcher. It seems like a pretty scary weapon. As if the Soviet Motor Rifles didn't have enough firepower to back them up already! Woe to the NATO troops who linger too long while Warsaw Pact infantry forces set up these things to root them out...

I have no idea why I crowed these figures at the front of the large bases...oh well, at least now they are painted after sitting, primed and ready to go, for over a year!

These castings are metal figures from Battlefront.  The sculpting is good, but as is so often the case, the casting quality was very poor, unfortunately.  A close examination will reveal a gap between the hands of the AGS-17 gunners (which are part of the weapon castings) and the wrists of the gunner - the gunner and the weapons did not match up in many cases.  Fortunately you don't really notice that from an average tabletop distance. 

Some gaps at the wrists on a number of the gunners...

I believe the Soviet player in "Team Yankee" has the option of attaching one of these bases to each motor rifle company in a battalion.  They can also be used to support the airborne/heliborne infantry units. Between all of the BMPs, all of the dismounts and the PKM MG teams,  Soviet assaults in "Team Yankee" won't be lacking firepower...I look forward to trying these fellows out the next time we give "Team Yankee" a spin.

Leopard C1s for Canadians in "Team Yankee"

Leopard C1s in 1/100 scale - models are plastic kits from Battlefront.

Rounding out the recent mini-run of Canadian reinforcements for "Team Yankee" are two Leopard C1s.  Because you can never have enough tanks! The models are plastic kits from Battlefront, and the decals are the usual blend of Armies Army and the 1/87 sheet from European sources.

The Leopard 1 - what beautiful lines on a scary vehicle...

The plastic Leopard C1 kits from Battlefronts are very well done - I fear the plastic cupola MG is not long for the gaming world, but overall you get a number of options that allow you to build Leopard 1s for your Canadians, Dutch, Belgians or Australians - quite a variety of allied flavours to choose from.

Slightly better lighting in this photo...the commander in the hatch, along with the flowered shrub, are used to denote command tanks/bases.

By the time of the fictional conflict that occurs in "Team Yankee" the Leopard C1 is something of an obsolescent vehicle - these tanks will not dominate a gaming table the way other frontline NATO tanks like the M1 Abrams, Chieftains and Leopard IIs will.  But they are still the armoured hitting power for the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, so Canadian players will count on these vehicles to have any hope of halting the Warsaw Pact advance.  Careful deployment of the Leopard C1s can still bring a world of hurt to Soviet tanks and APCs - although the 125mm return fire from T-72 and T-64s will go straight through the armour...yikes...

Ready for forward deployment to the model cabinet in my living room...

While it's time as a premier battlefield tank might have been fading, it still looks cool as hell!  I just love the silhouette of this beast, and the models are a lot of fun to paint.  I have to give credit to Battlefront for an excellent kit.  As I said, I think plastic cupola MGs are a terrible idea in general, but the kit is well done, simple to build, and covers a number of options. You get five of the tanks in a box. With these two finished there are now 14 Leopard C1s available to my 4CMBG battlegroup in games of "Team Yankee".  The other three will be done as a different variant for another NATO nation...something that might start during the next edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Thanks for visiting, hope everyone is having a great autumn! 

Canadian Lynx Patrol for "Team Yankee"

A patrol of Canadian "Lynx" armoured vehicles.

Some additional Canadian Content for my "Team Yankee" forces.  These are two "Lynx", a variant of the M113 CRV - basically mini-M113s.  The Canadian Forces used them for reconnaissance duties - a squadron of these vehicles were attached to each Canadian armoured regiment, and they also supported the work of the mechanized infantry battalions. These models are from Battlefront. The decals are a mix of Armies Army and a 1/87 Canadian Forces decal sheet I found online.

Rear view on the models - great sculpting work by Battlefront.

In "Team Yankee" the Lynx are deployed in pairs as a "patrol". I had already painted two of these vehicles, so I now have a second "patrol" to use with my Canadian battlegroup. I have to give credit to Battlefront, they did a fine job on these models - they are the more traditional mix of resin and metal components (a declining portion, it seems, of the Battlefront product mix these days).

Practice maneuvers in my kitchen.

In real military operations, vehicles such as the Lynx (and their hardy crew, of course) provide a vital function.  The Lynx would be out ahead and on the flank, watching for enemy movements and providing vital intelligence to the formation commanders.  Any modern military force would be asking for trouble without this kind of support.

But I find that critical nature is very hard to capture in tabletop wargaming.  On our gaming tables, the recon vehicles mostly just serve as early targets for your opponent.  The M113 CRV is a light armoured vehicle.  While the MGs can fight (a bit) against similar enemy vehicles,   In "Team Yankee" they will...mostly blow up very fast.

Commander in the hatch, always a useful way to show a command vehicle for a troop.

I find that many wargame rules struggle with the best way to reflect the value of reconnaissance assets - and I don't really know what the answer is.  "Spearhead" comes the closest - and this makes sense, given the division-level nature of that ruleset. For these more tactical games, you could structure a game where the reconnaissance units have the goal of scouting/spotting something and then escaping/falling back...but as gamers we (or, at least, I) want to have the big tanks blasting away at each other too...it's hard to combine both aspects on one 6'x4' table.

Well, no matter what service they render on the table, my lead/plastic/resin Canadians will welcome the support.  When you are facing the Warsaw Pact hordes, you'll take all the help you can get!

Long Weekend Painting Frenzy Part 1 - Team Yankee Canadian Mechanized Infantry

Reinforcements for the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in "Team Yankee"

We just finished another unique Thanksgiving weekend here in Winnipeg. I use the word"unique" because our province was hammered by a severe snow storm through Thursday and Friday.  While terrible winter conditions are something most Manitoba residents are used to, Thanksgiving is just a touch early for that sort of thing - when snow does arrive at that time of year, it tends to be the wet, heavy sort which brings down trees and power lines.  As I type this, thousands of residents remain without power, and it could be a week or more before the power is restored.

Mechanized company command stand (and an M113 for the group to ride around in).

For my part, I was very fortunate - while my lights flickered, the power stayed on, we did not lose too many trees on our property, and I was able to spend Thanksgiving with family because our pickup truck can drive through almost any weather conditions. But since there wasn't much else to do, I was also able to paint like a madman through the whole long weekend!  Building on the ADATS from last week, one of the items I finished was a mechanized infantry platoon for my "Team Yankee" Canadians.

I first started painting Canadians for "Team Yankee" back in January of 2018, before any of Battlefront's models or rules had been released. So my initial Leopard C1s were a mix of models from the Plastic Soldier Company and an outfit called "Armies Army" - a niche outfit which had also released an insanely complete collection of infantry, M113s and Lynx vehicles.

The bulk of the infantry platoon, with their M113s in the background. The blue flowers denote the platoon command stand.

The casting quality of Battlefront's metal infantry models continue to be, at best, average, but at least the range is complete and still available.

This was all months before Battlefront had released their Canadians, and I was a keen early adopter. My Canadians have already participated in some fun games of "Team Yankee", but my force is a small one, and I am looking to bulk it up for some bigger games.  Sadly "Armies Army" no longer exists, and its fine products are nowhere to be found...while I do have left-overs from my initial order, they won't be enough to bulk up my tabletop forces very much.  But it's 2019 now, and Battlefront's (very complete) range is now established and available!

Supporting weapons for the platoon...a .30cal MG team (almost straight from WW2) and a 2-man 60mm mortar team. It's old school, but it all helps hold back the Warsaw Pact forces...

The photos in this post show a complete Canadian mechanized infantry platoon and their 4 M113 APCs for transport.  There is also a Canadian infantry command stand, and a separate M113 for the company commander.  The models and figures are all from Battlefront - but the decals are from my "Armies Army" haul and a specialist 1/87 decal provider (I like the over-sized Canadian flags on the vehicles...).

M113s...missing that iconic road wheel on the front (something the Canadian vehicles always seem to have in photos) but hopefully the little over-sized Canadian decals give enough "Canadian content" for the models.

Another view of the M113s...not my favourite Cold War vehicle by a long shot, but you will not find many NATO forces without them...

I always find the M113 to be a bit of a tough slog to paint - they are not inspiring vehicles - but I credit Battlefront for an overall amazing kit in terms of options to build your M113s into a wide assortment of of the variants used by NATO forces.  The Battlefront infantry sculpts are also good, but I do prefer the "Armies Army" ones in terms of quality - the sculpting and casting was just better with "Armies Army".  But full credit to Battlefront, their range is very complete - and you can still order from it, so it's great to see them supporting their range and their game.

With these reinforcements, I can now field multiple elements in my "Team Yankee" Canadian forces - a mechanized infantry company and a Leopard C1 squadron. While my gamer-lizard-brain will always immediately speculate about further expansion (a third mechanized infantry platoon, maybe to represent the combat engineers, would be nice, as would more TOW launchers, and the Leopard C1 squadron could use a couple more tanks) for now we have some additional variety in terms of options for our "Team Yankee" gaming.

Thanks for visiting - and stay tuned for more Long Weekend Painting Frenzy Output

Canadian ADATS for Team Yankee

Canadian ADATS for "Team Yankee" - models from Battlefront

My butterfly-like painting path has wandered back for a time to the 1/100 scale vehicles of Battlefront's "Team Yankee".  I have added some more "Canadian Content" to my collection, additional support for my 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in the form of a pair of "Air Defence Anti Tank Systems" - the ADATS launchers.

Patrolling the skies AND the ground!

What are these funny-looking things? Why, they take out planes, helicopters AND tanks! Mounted atop a modified M113, these systems are supposedly able to provide protection against both enemy aircraft AND enemy armour. That seems...a bit unusual to me? Seems like something the Tau would use in 40k. I did not realize a missile system from the 1980s could take on a dual-role like this.

Leaving aside the technical aspects...would it really have been possible to do both of these things at once in a modern Cold War battlefield? It seems to me that watching the skies and being ready to protect air space is a whole different kettle of fish from watching the ground to the front and preparing to engage enemy armour...

I believe there was a platform attached to the sides of the modified M113 which could be raised so crews could service the launchers.

The important thing is, we didn't need to find out! Yay! Whatever its "realistic" viability, in terms of playing the "Team Yankee" game, the Canadian forces will rely a lot on these odd-looking constructs. The Leopard C1 has a very difficult time of it going toe-to-toe with Warsaw Pact armour, so the big-time AT hitting power of these weapons is a welcome addition to the lineup.  The Canadians' in-house ability to defend against enemy air assets is also extremely limited, so the ability of the ADATS to provide anti-air cover is a huge asset.  If you are playing the Canadian Forces in "Team Yankee", the ADATS is your friend for sure!

Track those targets!

When the "Free Nations" supplement came out for "Team Yankee", I thought the addition of the ADATS was pure fiction, but Conscript member Hugh pointed out that he had seen them in his time serving with the Canadian Forces - so these things really did exist at one point and served in the Canadian Forces. I also chuckled when I saw that the procurement of the ADATS was yet another example of how modern Canada has been utterly unable to execute almost any serious military procurement without either political incompetence, corruption, or other general stupidity (and disgraceful treatment of our service members). Thank goodness Canada's power projection these days is mostly centered around virtue-signalling.

It is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend - so I hope all of you out there have a great weekend (and if you are in Winnipeg, that you survive the horrible weather).  Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for visiting!

15mm PSC Bundeswehr Leopard 1s

If there's one home truth about our participation in the world of Team Yankee, it's that we are subject to constant escalation. My Bundeswehr force hasn't been added to in some time, but I found it hard to resist Plastic Soldier Company's Leopard 1 box... so I didn't!

The rest of the force consists of excellent models from Battlefront, but I saw no reason why I shouldn't try this box of Leopard 1s from PSC. After all, they cost significantly less than the BF models and are also modern injection plastic models...

I certainly wasn't disappointed, either. The PSC Leopards are great. The kit contains parts to build five Bundeswehr (or other Euro) Leopard 1A1 or -A3s, or the Canadian C1 variant. The only deficiency identified with the C1 parts provided is that they don't include the proper pintle MG. However, this wasn't a problem with my build as what's provided is correct for the 1A3.

I also really like the PSC crew. They're super characterful and as the model's turret hatches can BOTH be modelled open, crew can be doubled up too as seen above.

Nice eh?

The only downside of the PSC box is that no decals are provided, but I used some I had left over from my Battlefront West German kits (plus some kindly provided by Conscript Greg), and freehanded the license plates.

Highly recommended! I love the ease of assembly and extras (like crew) provided by PSC, as well as the low price. However, you do miss the decals and unit card that comes with Battlefront's Leopard 1s.

Team Yankee: Five More T-64s and the Soviets Are Done!

So, as the last of the Soviet T-64s are done, I thought I'd post some pics of them!

What can I say about Battlefront's plastic tanks? They're absolutely top-notch. I thought I'd throw on some mine ploughs on a couple of the models as they sometimes come in handy!

The T-64 is just wicked looking.

Here's the whole tank battalion. Fifteen T-64s with a motor rifle company (12 BMP-2s). Support comes from a battery of Acacia SP guns and two Hind attack helicopters. Air defense is provided by two ZSU-23-4 Shilkas.

T-64s

Motor Rifle Company

BMP-2s

Mil Mi-24 Hind

2S3 Acacia

ZSU-23-4

Whew! Quite a bit of work in there, but certainly an adequate Soviet force for most of the games we'd play. I was lucky to find a Krylon camouflage spray paint that worked perfectly for the Soviet vehicles, but sadly it seems to be discontinued. Good thing I've got this stuff painted!

Team Yankee BMP-2 Company and TTCombat Buildings!

Another update in Team Yankee escalation - this time on the Soviet side for me, as I finish up my Soviet Opfor to use against my British and Bundeswehr Bunch (tm).

Last time the update was massive, covering my Hinds, Acacias, Shilkas and Motor Rifle company. As alluded to in that post, this one will add the "motors"...

These are BMP-2s from Battlefront - two boxes worth. The BMP set comes with hulls and turrets to build either -1s or -2s and I opted for the latter, mainly because of their somewhat better in-game stats and concomitantly higher points cost. This can be important because of the disparity between points values for most Soviet vs. NATO stuff (USA, GB and West Germany anyway) - those sexy tanks are expensive and you need a lot of Soviet stuff to balance that.

The BMPs are all injection-molded plastic kits and are very well designed and easy to build. My only gripe is with the tiny searchlight as it is easily broken.

Such a sleek-looking APC - you know this was a trend-setter among the world's armed forces. Building two boxes (10 models) when combined with the two I built from the Yuri's Wolves set gives me 12 - enough to outfit the Motor Rifle Company. Sorted!

A project of an evening this week was painting these Shops from TTCombat's 15mm "World War" MDF scenery range.

I really can't praise these models highly enough. They look great, are easy to build and paint, and are inexpensive to boot. Compare the cost of your favourite resin or pre-painted buildings from MBA or Battlefront to these... it's only 8GBP and change for what you see here :-)

Scale looks good with these Bundeswehr troops defending their town.

The buildings all have removable roofs and constructed second floors as well for easy model placement inside. I did a pretty basic paintjob on these and I expect they will do yeoman's work on our Team Yankee tables for a long time to come.

TTCombat are a great bunch - I emailed them with a compliment on including chimneys with these models (the Townhouses I have from them don't include chimneys and that's a bit of an oversight) and I quickly got a message back saying that they'll be adding chimneys to future cuts of the Townhouses. Can't ask fairer than that!