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!

Bundeswehr Heavy Hitters - Team Yankee M109G Batterie

I grew up in Manitoba's second-largest city (!) - Brandon (pop.~40,000). One of the economic drivers of Brandon back in the day was CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Shilo, a large (primarily artillery) training range just east of the city.

Over 140,000 German soldiers were trained on the base from 1974-2000, under the auspices of the German Army Training Establishment Shilo (GATES). Apparently the terrain in the area is quite similar to that in Germany in the areas where operations would presumably take place in a new European war. Hence the importance of the Base for training our German allies.

Much of CFB Shilo's 40,000 hectare area is devoted to artillery ranges where weapons like the massive 155mm howitzer could be exercised. I can recall as a teenager seeing these M109s being transported on flatbeds to Shilo and I think this is the genesis of my affinity for the model.

Battlefront's M109G certainly looks the business, armed with a massive 155mm gun. My only criticism of the model's design is that I'd like the gun designed to be elevated a bit more. However, the way the part is designed renders it capable of assembly in only one way. Also, I had a miscast on one of the track sections, but it's not that noticeable when assembled.

Unfortunately, the M109G boxed set doesn't come with decals. I had some extra crosses from the Kampfgruppe Mueller and Marder boxes, but I had to freehand the number plates.

Some stowage is sculpted directly onto the rear of the turret. I picked these out in varying shades of khaki/green just to provide some additional visual interest.

The raised fine detail on these models really lent itself well to the light drybrush method advocated by Battlefront in their painting guide. I used the same colours and methods as for the Leopards and other Bundeswehr vehicles I've painted for the project.

Team Yankee: Kampfgruppe Mueller

Well, it's fair to say that here at Conscript HQ we've gone in for Team Yankee in a big way. Although we've already posted a few battle reports and lots of pretty show-off piccies, I wanted to get into the act myself with some posts on my West Germans. First up is the basic Bundeswehr box set - Kampfgruppe Mueller - five Leopard 2 tanks and two PAH helicopters.

The big cats are gorgeous models. Easy to assemble with several crew options, these models make it easy to build your West German battlegroup. Decals are included too!

I painted these tanks using the techniques from Battlefront's Leopard "codex", basically undercoating with green (in this case GW Catachan Green) and painting in the camo with my own interpretation of "teerschwarz" (tar black - Abaddon Black with a bit of Mechanicus Standard Grey mixed in) and rot-braun (red-brown - GW Doombull Brown). It's important to note that unlike the WW2 Panzer forces, the Bundeswehr camo is applied in a particular prescribed pattern. Battlefront has a page that demonstrates the patterns quite clearly.

After applying the camo pattern, the whole vehicle is washed with GW Agrax Earthshade to tie it together a bit. The green is then highlighted with Catachan Green again. Decals are applied, then the vehicle is lightly drybrushed with GW Ushabti Bone. 

Some "spot weathering" is applied in the form of metallic chipping and brown-black sponging.

Lastly, some general road dust is applied with a drybrush of Ushabti Bone along the lower parts of the vehicle.

The PAH helicopters were pretty easy to paint in their two-colour camo scheme of teerschwarz and green. I used the same colours as for the Leopards.

HOT missile tubes were painted GW Steel Legion Drab. In lieu of an Earthshade wash, panel lines were painted in with Nuln Oil shade.

So there you have it - the basis for a Team Yankee West German battlegroup. I really enjoyed working on these vehicles, there's something about the three-tone NATO camo that just appeals to me. The Leopards are beautiful tanks and even the PAH helos are starting to grow on me with their whole "TC" vibe.

Anyway, stay tuned for the rest of the battlegroup, there's much more to come!

LegioCon Roadshow Game!

LegioCon is a long-running local wargames show masterminded by Bryan and Garth of Legions IV Hire and Maxx Collectibles, respectively. The businesses are local retail establishments that cater to historical wargamers and cardgame/boardgame/tabletop gaming types here in Winnipeg. LegioCon is staged at a local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion that has a lot going for it, not least of which that it is licensed and serves cheap draft beer ;-)

Conscript Greg and I rolled out to the show about noon on Saturday to put on a WW3 game featuring Bundeswehr vs. the infamous Chemical Commies. I set up a pastoral setting with a small German village dead centre in the table.
 

The Bundeswehr had bivvied in the village with a convoy of trucks. The local Fuchs News/Deutsche Welle affiliate had live reporters on the scene.

The German objective was to exit the trucks off one of the short table edges (their choice). The Russians were more numerous but had to split their forces, with half their strength deploying from each short edge.

Commies came strapped with BTRs and scary chemical warfare gear.

Initial dispositions. I know it looks like the vehicles are insanely close together (they are) but for convention games we like the opposing forces to get into action right away, both for time management purposes and to hold the interest of the people playing. On Saturday we had two very cool walk-ups, Ray and John, who played the game along with Greg and me.

Greg's T-80s face off with Marders and a Leopard 2A6 at middle extreme right.

Facing the other short edge, the tanks deployed to support the trucks (carrying Kraftwerk master tapes, Helmut Kohl's adult film collection, or some other cargo vital to the continued existence of the Bundesrepublik) in their mad dash off-table.

"...Klaudia Klum, Fuchs News."

We used our proprietary "Red Storm!" ruleset for the game. It's very fast playing and stuff blows up good, typified by the result when Ray's T-72 went head-to-head with a Leo 2A6... (Ray had been warned by Greg that the T-72s were somewhat cupcake-like in terms of toughness vs. the Leo...)

Bundeswehr command group mit hund. 2IC has iPhone (back row) while the Oberleutnant has upgraded to an iPad (front centre). Soldier with assault rifle carries a Samsung Galaxy S in flecktarn holster.

Trucks begin to roll out of the village. Snipers are in the building at centre and did nothing for the whole game, although true to form for the "cool models" they will likely report back that their presence was instrumental to the win...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Greg's T-80 is knocked out on the road along with two BTRs. Commie infantry has deployed along the rail cut and exchanges fire with the BW troops behind the hedge.

Ray's T-72 angles for a side shot on the Leopard; he's already knocked out its main gun.

Second Leopard moves out. BW infantry move to support the truck convoy; the Russians had to take the convoy with infantry models as opposed to blowing them up.

"I'm here with Lieutenant Ivanov of the 322nd Motor Rifle Brigade just outside Altfeld. Lieutenant, your squad has just been decimated by Bundeswehr 20mm automatic cannon fire. How are you feeling right now?"

Trucks manage to sneak past in a conga line. Ray just missed winning the Priority roll that would have allowed him to block the convoy with his T-72...

A table full of burning vehicles is the sign of a fun game. Thanks to Ray and John for playing our game, and to Greg for bringing out his awesome Commies and the explosion markers (and for the beer :-)  Roll on PrairieCon in June!!

There was also a bunch of other games going on, including a Flames of War tourney and 40K gaming... but what I really wanted to show you is this...

A couple of guys brought out an amazing modular table on which they were playing a Lord of the Rings game - "The Siege of Pelargir".

The table was 5x10 feet, half of it an amazing medieval-style town complete with harbour, and the other half countryside.

The buildings are all scratch-built from foamboard and other materials. The tile roofing is all hand-cut.

Great detail!

View from the countryside. The city wall has a removable section that has been swapped out for a "breached" section.

Close-up of the breach.

The amount of work and detail that went into this is mind-blowing, as is the sheer quality, especially in the town section. This kind of layout takes a huge effort to transport and set-up for a weekend show and my hat's off to these lads. It makes our convention efforts seem pretty lame by comparison, but at least we're out there putting on a game.