20mm WW2 Because Why Not

1/72 WW2 Russians from Plastic Soldier Company

I already collect WW2 figures in 3mm, 6mm and 15mm.  Dallas has an amazing collection of WW2 stuff in 28mm (just one example here).  I love gaming WW2, and I'm really lucky to be able to play many different games and rules sets, everything from a skirmish in rules like "Bolt Action" or "Chain of Command", as well as Dallas' own excellent "Blitzkrieg" rules, all the way up to company-level scraps in games like "Flames of War", to division-level abstract encounters in rules like "Spearhead". With this very fortunate background, it would make no sense to try yet another scale for this period. If we already play 15mm and 28mm, then what is the point of 20mm?

But on the other hand, hey - why not?  Logic has never really driven my hobby decisions...just look at the mess of different stuff on this site.

Platoon officer on hex, NCOs on square bases

Long before I came around the group, the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts played a fair bit of WW2 in 20mm. I believe they played Rapid Fire or Crossfire...or maybe both? I don't know for certain, but I suspect Conscript Kevin H may yet hold a small reserve of 20mm stuff. Conscript Curt (now in Regina) had a reserve of amazing figures from AB. Recently he came across them in his pile and started painting some up - see this great post on his Analogue Hobbies Blog.

LMG team on square base - all that wasteful space required because they are prone (sigh)

Curt's stuff got me wondering again about 20mm in the context of my own preferred area of focus in WW2 - the Eastern Front, particularly from 1943 onwards. I was further spurred to check out 20mm when I purchased a copy of the "Battlegroup" rules set, which is intended for both 15mm and 20mm figures. Taking the plunge, I picked up some figures from the Plastic Soldier Company - not too pricey, so kind of "low risk", plus the tanks (at least in 15mm) are pretty gamer-friendly for plastic models.

Nice figures from PSC - they look great in 20mm

I started with a box of some Russian infantry in summer uniform and a T-34 box from their WW2 Russian 1/72 range.  Here are some test models - about a squad and-a-half of infantry and a single tank.

Another view of the infantry

I am not crazy about PSC's 15mm plastic infantry - I find the details to be soft.  But these 1/72 figures are quite sharp, and it leads me to believe that, at least for infantry, 1/72 is the ideal scale for their models.  You get quite an assortment of troops for a good price, making this kit an ideal one to start with.

Check out the terrible job I did on the track pieces...I'm useless with these two-piece track sets...

I based the models using the same approach as I used in my individually-based 15mm WW2 stuff - round bases for grunts, squares for NCOs and a hex for the senior leaders of a unit (inspired by Curt C). 

Decals from PSC too - including Russian lettering for the turrets - I love that!

Russian WW2 infantry paint up fast - that's how a couple test models quickly turn into 15 guys in a week or so! The box gives enough infantry for a platoon of guys - either a rifle platoon, or an SMG platoon (although not quite both together). This is a very good value.  The only criticism I would have is that the poses of the LMG teams are either prone (blah) or marching (much worse) - they are sculpted well, I just find those two poses to be the worst ones for gaming (personal quirk - everyone else looks ready to fight and the LMG guys are road marching?)

Used oil paints and a old brush to do highlighting and chipping on the hull

The 1/72 scale T-34 from PSC is a fabulous model.  I still screwed up the tracks, of course, but you will not, because anyone out there will be a lot sharper than I am when it comes to modelling skills :)

With PSC T-34s, you can switch between T-34/76s and T-34/85s - very sensible!

A Russian tank from WW2 is a pretty quick paint job, but I experimented on this vehicle using a oil-paint detail wash, basically to pick out the plates, hatches and seams in the amour.  It was quite a striking effect.  The downside is that oil paints take like a billion years to dry, so you need to use Dullcote spray to set the paint and move things along, and I cringe every time I use Dullcote, certain I am about to wreck the model...

Anyway, I will never get to the level of the master tank painters like Piers Brand, but I look forward to messing around a little more with this technique, and I think 1/72 models will be a good means to do that. 

 

A Tour of the Trenches - 28mm Terrain Boards

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to win an auction for an 8x4 modular terrain board setup being sold by a Quebec gamer who was "getting out of" Great War gaming. Being as I'm currently on a Great War kick (who isn't) I found it too good a deal to pass up. I am extremely impressed with his work on the setup and I wanted to post a brief "tour" - although I am sure that regular readers will see them not-infrequently in future Fawcett battle reports!

One of the 2x2 boards represents a ruined and fortified church and outbuildings. The building bases are removable, and are all quite sturdy - the walls appear to be made of cast material, probably Hirst Arts or similar. The boards themselves are made of two 1" thick foam insulation boards glued together and based on MDF, with trenches and other features carved out. Sandbags and such are plaster.

Some amazing detail in the church building, including broken pieces of "stained glass" and the gold crucifix from the altar.

There are two straight-up "trench" boards, one with a gun position, here occupied by a German trench mortar crew. Lots of duckboards, reinforced walls, sandbags, craters, and resin water in the shell holes.

The boards butt up against each other pretty well in most places and they're somewhat modular - they can be arranged in different configurations as the trenches line up at the edges.

Barbed wire and blasted tree sections are from my own collection. I'm glad the boards didn't include wire as that would have made them nearly impossible to transport.

One of the boards incorporates a "sap" running forwards, with an island traverse position jutting out into no-man's-land.

View from NML back towards the church.

The NML board at left has a large ravine-like crater (left by a mine detonation perhaps?) that provides some cover.

One of the trench boards incorporates an area of high ground I like to call "the Pimple" :-) You can see the bunkers built into it.

View from behind the Pimple.

There are various dugout entrances spread around the trenches, including this one to the Pimple.

Amazingly, the top of the Pimple lifts off to reveal the bunker complex below. If I get really ambitious I may create an overlay for this section out of plasticard with terrain on it so the complex can be played as trenches, with the rectangular areas remaining as underground dugouts.

Shell holes and craters abound, many are flooded with water.

The trenches are quite realistic and irregular.

Some more of the church, as it's so impressive.

Tower is fortified with sandbags.

The view down the line. We've already played one 40K game on the terrain and it was amazing. Looking forward to much further amortization. Great job in building it, Daniel!

Hallowe'en Zombie Game Battle Report!

Sometimes it's fun to do club games themed around a particular holiday or time of year. Remembrance Day is a good example. This year Hallowe'en fell on Friday and the game on Thursday, so I teed up something appropriate... Urban Zombies!!

Each player took control of 5-8 models, each representing a different faction. US Army, Big Pharma Mercenaries, Management Suits, SWAT Team, Urban Street Gang, etc.   Several objective markers were scattered about the board, representing plague antidote vials, bags of cash, porno mags, etc. and grabbing one of these for your faction gained you a victory point.

There were a bunch of zombie spawning barrels scattered around, too. Zombies would spawn randomly each turn and move towards the closest humans. Zombie kills were tracked by faction and served as tiebreakers in the event of equal VPs scored.

The zombies are the "solanum" type described in World War Z and other genre sources. Basically they need to be shot/hit in the head to be sure of a kill. We use a modified version of GW's Lord of the Rings with some additions for how hard it is to kill zombies (basically either call a "headshot" at -1 to hit, or re-roll successful To Wound rolls) and for automatic weapons.

The Big Pharma Mercenaries spot zombies coming out of the Bank.

Getting closer!!

Here's the SWAT team getting up close and personal with a zombie horde.

Conscripts busily plotting their next moves. We used a card activation system; each player was assigned a playing card put into a deck, and when his card was drawn he took his turn to move or shoot.

Conscript Indo moving his Corporate Suits (Foundry models, below).

Conscript Jim ran the Urban Street Gang (Bobby Jackson's "Thugs" - awesome figures). He was pretty successful in picking up objective markers despite (or because of?) the short range of his gang's weapons.

Here they are sitting on objective #4.

Shotgun template!!!

Travolta lookalike surveys the situation.

Conscript Frederick ran the Mercenaries and they racked up an impressive bodycount.

After eliminating a score of zeds they aimed at a bigger prize - the Corporate Suits.

Conscript Dave had the US Army team that also stacked up zeds like cordwood.

I think the best part of the game was the amount of friendly kills Jim racked up with his homies. They didn't scruple in the slightest at shooting into melees between zombies and their own comrades and invariably, the bullets hit their buddies.

The final standings were as follows:

Dave V.: 2VP + 16 zombie kills
Jim: 2VP + 2 kills (+2 kills on his own men :-)
Mike: 1VP + 14 kills
Frederick: 0VP + 15 kills
Indo: 0VP + 1 kill (yay!!)

CONGRATULATIONS DAVE V. ON THE WIN!!

We didn't have any prizes per se but the lads polished off the best part of a box of 50 mini chocolate bars :-)  Each time we play this game we've had a good time. The learnings from this session were that "hits" on zombies that don't kill should knock them back. Cinematic and good for gameplay too. We'll do that next time for sure!