Yuri's Wolves and Luftwaffe Tornado for Team Yankee

Over at Conscript HQ we're getting ready to stage a big Team Yankee game at Legions Maxximus (nee Legio-Con) next weekend. So I've been motivated to paint a bit of Soviet armour to balance out the masses of lovely West German and Canadian models that Greg's been turning out.

I picked up the new "Yuri's Wolves" boxed set. What a bargain! Five T-64s, two BMP-1s or -2s, decals, crew, AND a mini rulebook for less than $60. That's gotta be a deal in anyone's book.

Here we go with the BMP-2s.

Great little models, easy to assemble and accurate enough for me.

The models were sprayed black, then basecoated with a spray of Krylon Camouflage ultra-flat green - just about perfect for Soviet armour. Wash of Agrax Earthshade, drybrush with Ushabti Bone... tracks painted rusty brown, dust weathering completed with more Ushabti, lenses painted, done.

If the BMPs are nice, the T-64s are AWESOME. These are the machines you want as a Soviet player: a few more points than T-72s, but better armour and the amazing range of the AT-8 "Kobra/Songster" ATGM make this tank the one to have.

Paint technique was identical to the BMP-2s.

Nice, eh??

Now let's balance things out a bit with some NATO love. Here's a Tornado attack aircraft.

This is a 1/144 scale plastic model kit purchased off eBay for a very reasonable price, at least when compared to what Battlefront want for their resin aircraft.

Not being an expert in ground attack loadouts I just assembled the plane per instructions. Swing wings were fixed in position as well. Paint scheme was cribbed from the excellent "Wings Palette" website with kit decals. Sorted!

Well, as noted, I hope to get these models into action next week at Legions Maxximus. See you there!

Painting Challenge Submission 11 - Cold War Support Elements

NATO support vehicles hold the Warsaw Pact back from strategically vital parts of...my kitchen...models from Battlefront and Armies Army

After five consecutive weeks featuring submissions of 15mm Cold-War-Gone-Hot subjects, I really thought I was going to switch to painting something different - but the switch didn't stick. I started thinking to myself "well, what about one or two support elements to, you know, 'round out' the work I have already completed..." and such are the debris-strewn pathways of my hobby mind that I put down that other stuff and went back to the 15mm stuff - just can't seem to quit the Cold War!


Subjects from two NATO nations today - some support elements for my 15mm 1980s Canadians, and some tank-hunting helicopters for my 1980s West Germans.


Since it has been a few weeks since we last visited the Bundeswehr, let's start with the helicopters. These are BO-105s, multi-part 1/100 scale plastic kits from Battlefront, part of their extremely comprehensive lineup of figures for the 1980s West Germans in their "Team Yankee" game.

BO-105 tank hunting helicopters for the Bundeswehr

Where the Germans have some fine form when it comes to battle tanks, these BO-105s don't, shall we say, give off quite the same "menacing" vibe as, say, the utterly terrifying Soviet "Hinds".

Instead, the BO-105 has a kind of practical, workmanlike "well, anything is dangerous once you attach anti-tank missiles to it" sort of aura.

TOW anti-tank missiles are the killer armament of these helicopters...they are out to hunt tanks

With the Warsaw Pact and its 3 billion tanks facing you down, you do need to have as many economical anti-tank options as possible to back up your ultra-sexy Leopards! The BO-105 is a fine tank-hunting platform, capable of moving quickly, hugging available ground cover and obstructions to "pop up" and pick off enemy armoured targets with guided anti-tank missiles.

While plastic has its issues, bravo to Battlefront for bringing these models out..they'll be fun on the table!

Dallas already has a solid collection of West German forces, including a pair of these helicopters already, so this painting is not necessarily super-useful in terms of our overall group's collection. But it was fun to get these finished. In our "Team Yankee" games the helicopters seldom survive, but their approach is always dramatic and tense :) perhaps these extra helicopters can be involved at some point to help the West Germans hold out in the face of large amounts of Soviet AAA fire.

OK - moving back to the Canadians, here are a couple of support elements to "round out" my initial battlegroup from the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.

M113 "Lynx" Recon vehicles for the Canadian Forces

There are two "Lynx" recon vehicles - a variant of the M113 APC that is a little sportier-looking than the average M113.  The Canadian Forces used the Lynx for various scouting, security and other purposes.  These models are from Armies Army - Keith, being a great guy, tossed them in as freebies after I ordered a squadron of Leopard C1s - "they will look great with your tank column" he said, and he was right!  While I thoroughly dislike the M113 in general, the Lynx at least has a sporty little look to it, and the turret-style bracket mount for the .50 cal is pretty neat too.

.50cal MGs in the turret-style mounting, and a little .30cal on the back for some extra fire support in the event of a sticky situation while out scouting...

Big "thank you" to Keith for tossing these in with my Leopard C1 squadron...they will round out my forces nicely!

As I mentioned in a previous posting, wargamers can seldom relate to recon assets the way real commanders in the field would.  These vehicles would be out ahead of the Leopard C1s, reporting back and providing vital intelligence as the battle was joined.  With an actual battle underway, as experienced on our tabletop, these poor Lynx vehicles won't last any longer than the Soviet BRDMs or other equivalents, but at least my Canadians will have some recon support, and the additional power of a couple of .50 cals will back up the infantry platoon.

M150s - APCs mounting TOW anti-tank missile launchers

The other two vehicles are M150s...these are M113 APC with a mount for a TOW guided-anti-tank missile launcher. High-end anti-tank hitting power is at a premium in any NATO force, but particularly so for the Canadians, who may have to tangle with Soviet tanks while the Leopard C1s of the Royal Canadian Dragoons are busy elsewhere.  These M150s provide the Canadian mechanized infantry elements with some theoretical heavy anti-tank power with quite a long potential engagement range.

Clever casting work by Armies Army to allow the convenient mounting of a TOW launcher and gunner on the M113s

Some oversize decals from a 1/87 sheet to give some good Canadian flavour, eh?

Much fiction related to war with the Warsaw Pact (and thank goodness it is fiction!) features weapons like the TOW sniping Soviet tanks with clockwork precision - although it should be noted that some accounts, like Kenneth Macksey's fantastic "First Clash", are much more sanguine about such things. I am personally skeptical of the projected effectiveness of weapons like the TOW under real battlefield conditions (it would be no small thing to steer a missile towards a tank in the middle of the smoke, falling artillery shells and other horrors and utter chaos of a Cold-War-Gone-Hot battlefield, I expect), but I do really like the models. They add some additional flavour to my Canadian battlegroup and the infantry platoon will no doubt appreciate the support!

I popped the commander out to show a command vehicle, but let's assume the firing pose is for propaganda purposes only - I hope they wouldn't fire the missile while the poor driver was popped out of the hatch, right in front of the barrel!

The M150s are also from Armies Army (now available from Plastic Soldier Company).  As I said before, Keith did an incredible job bringing a very complete collection to market - I love when sculptors do that! Go buy this stuff and support these guys!!


So six vehicles in 15mm were good for another 36 points toward my target. The steady march toward 1000 points of painting continues...

AHPC Submission Six - More Bundeswehr Armour (plus "Flight")

More Bundeswehr armour in 15mm to reinforce the NATO lines!

My 15mm Cold War armour efforts continue to have a lot of momentum. Once I started to tackle my unpainted collection of Bundeswehr armour in 1/100 scale from Battlefront, I felt more and more that I didn't want to stop until I got through almost all of the lot I had accumulated over the prior 18 months. And so, here is yet more Bundeswehr armour in 15mm.  The models are nearly all from Battlefront, with one exception, which you will see more on below.

As before, these are painted in my best approximation of the West German three-colour camouflage scheme.  Templates were used to apply the paint to these vehicles in depots, and so I tried my best to have the camouflage pattern on each vehicle to be generally similar. Let's take a look at some of the different AFVs in this batch.

Luchs wheeled armoured recon vehicles - 1/100 models from Battlefront

Up first are the Spähpanzer Luchs, 8-wheeled armoured reconvehicles.  As you can imagine, they are engineered for speed, moving rapidly about to keep an eye on the various movements of their Warsaw Pact opponents.

Certainly looks like a sporty ride...

In the event of a tussle with the enemy they carry a turret-mounted 20mm cannon, sufficient to deal with opposing recon elements they might encounter.  The vehicles are lightly armoured, however (as you might expect) and so will not last long against any direct fire from enemy tanks or missiles.

Well-executed mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront

Many rules try to give players reasons to use recon-themed elements like this in their games, and "Team Yankee" is no exception, but I find the games we really like to play are ones where a battle develops, and given that the players have a birds' eye view of the forces on the table, it is very hard to make recon elements as important to wargamers as they are to actual commanders in the real battlefield. In a real conflict, vehicles like the Luchs would be providing essential information to panzer and panzer grenadier
commanders - info they would be very vulnerable without.  

On a wargame table, you hope light vehicles like these knock out something useful before they are hit by a 125mm tank round fired in anger by Soviet players who were unable to successfully target anything larger on the NATO side...

Despite these issues, I like how cool these models look, and it's fun to try and put together different kinds of forces to give some variety to the gaming scenarios we can set up.

A zug of Leopard 1 tanks - models from Battlefront

Up next we have some West German MBTs – these Leopard 1s.  By the time of the (thankfully) fictional battles envisioned by the game “Team Yankee”, the Leopard 1s had moved out of main frontline service, replaced by the heavier Leopard 2s. The Leopard 1s moved in heavy-support role for the scouting elements of the panzer and panzer grenadier formations instead (and I expect still equipped some reserve panzer battalions). 

Love the look of these German tanks! The Leopard 1 is another classic Cold War vehicle

The kits from Battlefront are a treat to work with - phew!

The Leopard 1 tanks are fast (you know, for tanks), and with a well-designed 105mm main gun, they can certainly dish out severe punishment to Warsaw Pact armour.  Plus, they just LOOK so cool – the main battle tank answer to a fine-looking German sports car! But their armour cannot be counted on to absorb the 125mm return fire of the Soviet side. The commanders and crews of these vehicles need to keep moving and be very careful when and how they engage the enemy.


So often NATO players are content to see their small number of scary tanks blast away, but they will need to be a little more clever when using vehicles like the Leopard 1.

A 15mm Leopard 1 from the Plastic Soldier Company - an excellent kit! Note, however, the crew are still from Battlefront, just to maintain consistency with the other West German vehicles

One of these models – to be used as a command vehicle - is from the new 15mm Leopard 1 box offered by the fine folks at Plastic Soldier Company.  There was a hiccup with the initial release of these models as the first wave of kits did not include a hatch for the driver (oops!). But they sorted all of that out in short order, and I can readily recommend you purchase them if this tank is something that interests you!

The other three are mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront.  I’m pleased to say the quality here was very good.

While the Leopard 1 was no longer on the Bundeswehr frontlines, it was still a very common tank among NATO allies, where it continued to serve in a frontline role, including Canada! This is something I hope to have more about in later Challenge submissions…

Two more modern-day "big cats" - Leopard 2s on the prowl for Warsaw Pact targets

A commander popped out of the hatch to help make it easier to find the command tank on the table

And finally here are two more of the Leopard 2s…Battlefront sells these in packs of five models, so I thought I would finish these to join the other three I had painted for last week. As before, these are very, very fine plastic models from Battlefront…my only quibble is the very vulnerable connection for the cupola MG…hopefully they will last for a while…

Ready for gaming action in "Team Yankee"!

So that submission was another 10 vehicles in 15mm, which should hopefully net me
another 60 points toward my goal. 

I also completed a submission to the "flight" bonus round - recurring bi-weekly features of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  While my submission was not even close to being as cool as Byron's (which won the most votes - rightfully bloody so!), it's still helpful in terms of chipping away at the unpainted lead! It was a quad 20mm AA gun and crew from Battlefront.

Quad 20mm gun and crew in 15mm - models by Battlefront

Useful against the Red Air Force, or, increasingly as things got desperate in the East, against the Red Army as well...

This little crew will have some fun in WW2 games at some point soon, when the WW2 bug bites again...

That's it for now from the AHPC.  Stay tuned for more!

Painting Challenge Theme Entry - "West"

Marder IFV and dismounts - 1/100 scale/15mm from Battlefront

For the fourth bonus theme round of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge the theme was "West".  I thought "West Germans" would do nicely for this submission.  Unfortunately the hobby logistics didn't come together so well prior to the deadline so the submission didn't have a lot to it - a single Marder IFV in 1/100 scale, a plastic kit from Battlefront.

Full marks to the West Germans for coolest-looking IFV in the period...man those Marders look sleek

I had been working on my own group of Bundeswehr forces for Battlefront's "Team Yankee" game, but finished only infantry, as a variety of logistical hiccups (no bases for the vehicles, no material for the bases, blah blah) have cropped up to slow and prevent any real progress.  Plus, as you can see elsewhere in this blog, Dallas has already assembled an excellent assortment of West German figures (and we have played several games with them already).  So the impetus for me to crank my own West Germans out became pretty low...

I like to have the MILAN teams dismounted, but you can model them on the vehicle if you prefer

Nonetheless, I got this one vehicle done! A platoon needs three of them, and the whole company will probably call for six or seven of them in total.  Sounds like something I will try and get to in the spring.  Byron has been showing me how to use an airbrush, and I hope to put that to work on some West German vehicles. Stay tuned for more on that at a later date...

As always, some incredible talents have submitted Theme entries.  Check them out here.  A special mention of some continued awesome work by Byron, see here.  With theme entries, you can vote for your favourites...just saying...

***

If you want to try "Team Yankee" and you live in or near Winnipeg, be sure to come out to the "Legions Maxximus" gaming and hobby event on March 17th and 18th.  We will be putting on a "Team Yankee" demonstration game pitting the Bundeswehr and British allies against the rising Red Tides! "Team Yankee" is a fun, easy-to-play tabletop game set in the (thankfully fictional) cold-war-gone-hot of 1985. We really enjoy it, and we think you will too.  Burning tanks everywhere by the second turn! Hope to see you there!

Team Yankee West German Panzergrenadiers and Marder SPWs

Obviously we have been on somewhat of a Team Yankee tear lately so I thought I'd round out the year's blogging with a few more posts featuring the wonderful WWIII selection from Battlefront. The final tranche of my West German Bundeswehr force features the Panzergrenadiers and their Marder armoured transports.

Unfortunately, the infantry castings I received in my two blister packs of Panzergrenadiers didn't seem up to Battlefront's usual standard. I know that their infantry aren't to everyone's taste, what with their exaggerated sculpting and oversized weapons, but I think they're great. They remind me that I'm painting and playing with WARGAMES FIGURES DAMMIT, not weedy 1/76 Revell plastics, if you know what I mean. Battlefront infantry are the 15mm equivalent of Dixon 28mm figures, with their barrel bodies and heads shaped like footballs. But I love Dixon figures for what they are, too - a connection back to my early days in hobby, pre-Internet, ogling the colour adverts in Wargames Illustrated.

ANYWAY... while the Panzergrenadiers weren't the best castings they were nevertheless adequate considering my brushmanship, so I just went ahead and painted the damn things.

Lots of MILAN teams to wreck a tanker's day.

The command figures are quite nicely posed.

Now then, if Battlefront's infantry come in for the odd critical word, the opposite must be true of their plastic vehicle offerings. I can't say as I've ever read a bad review. The Marders are just great models.

I suppose it shows Battlefront's confidence in the Team Yankee franchise that they've gone all-in with the plastic kits. I certainly appreciate this as the cost savings over buying specialist resin kits is substantial.

Crew and decals are provided for the vehicles too, of course. The kits went together easily and look great painted up as well.

Well... that's it for the Bundeswehr, for now. I've got Leopard 2s and PAH helos, M109Gs, Gepard AAA vehicles and Fuchs transports (God knows what I'll do with the latter) and now the infantry and SPWs completed. I suppose some Tornados might be cool, but I'm not keen on the looks of the Jadgpanzer rocket things or the other BW vehicles on offer right now. But maybe a few Leopard 1s to fill out a recce unit...?

Team Yankee: Don't give a Fuchs about no Gepards

My next effort in Team Yankee Escalation was two Gepard anti-aircraft artillery tanks.

Armed with twin radar-guided 35mm AA guns, you know the Gepard ("cheetah" auf Deutsch) is one serious MF-er. The 15mm Battlefront model is easy like Sunday morning to put together, with a resin hull and metal parts.

Sadly the guns don't elevate and are stuck in place. The radar dish can be positioned in whatever direction one likes.

The Gepard flakpanzer utilizes hull and running gear from the Leopard 1, and remained in service with the Bundeswehr until 2010. In our Team Yankee games the Gepards have been MVPs in knocking down pesky Soviet Hinds and even taking out Frogfoot ground attack aircraft!

Although not fielded yet in a game, my West Germans have seen some additional escalation in the form of three Fuchs armoured troop carriers.

These vehicles are organic to the Panzeraufklarungs (armoured recce) units. One in the troop can be armed with a roof-mounted TOW missile for some anti-tank capability.
 

Mostly I just like these vehicles because they're pretty cool-looking ;-)

All of the vehicles in this post were painted in the same manner as the Leopard 2s I posted previously. Of course, if you like the Bundeswehr, stay tuned for more German stuff including Marders and infantry!