October War: Egyptian T-62 Tank Company

I love 6mm, it's so much quicker to paint! :-)

Following on from the Israeli tank company finished yesterday, I painted up nine T-62's to add to one of those I painted on Friday to complete the first Egyptian tank company (as those three have aerials, I have decided to use them as company command tanks).

The models are old GHQ, some with external fuel tanks, some without, painted up in the three colour Egyptian camouflage of the 1973 war.

Here is the complete ten tank unit with the company command tank added.

Painting Target: 268/1000

October War: Israeli Sho't Meteor Tank Company

Despite being dragged into the garden by SWMBO today and getting mud on my hands (the horror) I managed to finish painting the first of the reinforcements I bought - seven Sho't Meteor's to finish off my first IDF tank company.

I had thought that whilst the Sho't Meteor saw service in the 1967 Six Day War, that all the Centurions had been upgraded to Sho't Kal status by 1973. Fortunately, whilst the majority of Centurions had been upgraded, the Israeli 205th and 679th Armoured Brigades were still equipped with the Sho't Meteor at the time of the October War, albeit on the Golan front (so I will need to tackle the Syrians at some stage).

One of the unpainted models had been fitted with a nylon (fishing line?) aerial, which not only helps identify the company HQ tank but also is less prone to damage than the 5 amp fuse wire I had been using (as seen on the T-62's).

Unlike the original three models I painted on the markings, whilst not as neat as the GHQ transfers, this took far less time. I rebased the original three to make sure the unit tied together as you can see below...

Painting Target: 259/1000

October War: Reinforcements Arrive!

My October War project received a big boost yesterday when David Manley sold me his 1/285th Arab-Israeli Wars collection. The vast majority of models are GHQ (including some useful old ones that are OOP) and having sorted them out whilst watching Mexico v Cameroon, I am a very happy bunny...

The Egyptians now have an additional 46 T62's, 10 JS3's, 9 T34-85's, 35 BMP1's, 27 BTR60's, 11 BRDM-1's 28 BRDM-2's, 2 ZSU 57/2's, 4 BTR152's, plus a number of trucks, cars and planes.

The Israelis have 16 Sho't Meteors, 14 Sho't Kals, 5 AMX13's, 7 M48A3 (90mm), 9 M48A5 (105mm), 30 M51 Shermans, 10 M113's, 20 M113 Zeldas, 10 M106's, 5 M577, 5 M7's, 25 M3 half-tracks, 4 jeeps, 4 jeeps with recoilless rifles, 4 25 pounders plus a lot of self propelled artillery, engineering vehicles and planes.

There were also four landing craft and a Bergtiger! :-)

Now I need to sort this out into units and get painting...

October War: Egyptian T-62's

I found some more useful models in 'Lead Mountain', three old GHQ T-62's. The Egyptian Army received approximately 200 T-62's from the Soviet Union between 1971 and 1973. They were organised into two Armoured Brigades, the 15th and the 25th, and they spearheaded the Egyptian advance once the Bar Lev line had been breached.

I painted the models up in the same three colour camouflage as the T54/55's the only difference being the "rattleskin" pattern on the gun barrel (this would look nicer on a larger scale model).

I've also corrected the recognition symbols on the T54/55's painted on as in 1973 the IDF was also using T54/55's it had captured in the Six Day War...

Painting Target: 252/1000

October War: Israeli Mechanised Infantry Platoons

I managed to finish another ten GHQ M3 half tracks yesterday which will form two platoons, the bulk of my IDF mechanised infantry company.

Identical paint scheme to the Recon Platoon I finished last weekend, the infantry to accompany them have been ordered from Heroics & Ros - my first H&R order in, I suspect, thirty years!  Last time I had to hand write the order, write a cheque, find an envelope and stamp then post it! Thank God for PayPal! :-)

Painting Target: 249/1000

Ps. the World Cup starts today so I'm going to have to re-learn painting with one eye on the telly! :-) To get you in the mood, have a listen to this...

October War: Egyptian T54/55 Tank Company

Rummaging through 'Lead Mountain' a little while back I came across six old GHQ T54/55's (so old they don't make this particular model anymore) and decided to slap some paint on them yesterday, finishing them this morning.

Whereas in 1967 the Egyptians painted their AFV's overall sand, by 1973 they had started applying a camouflage scheme. Researching this has been difficult with lots of contradictory information. The old Osprey Armour of the Middle East Wars states that the Egyptians applied a brown disruptive pattern over the sand, other sources state that this was green (the same as the Syrians), others have a three colour sand, green, brown pattern (and I have found photos of this)

In the end I settled on the three colour scheme using Vallejo Iraquian Sand, Reflective Green, Flat Brown and an Army Painter Strong Tone ink wash and am pleased with the end result.

Ideally I'd like to bring this company up to full strength with an additional four models, but it is useable as is.

Edit: Sight SNAFU! Just realised the white identification markings on the front mud flaps should be white-green-white not as painted. That'll teach me to paint stuff at 11pm without double checking the source photo!

Painting Target: 239/1000

Flames of (Great) War

Rumours have been confirmed, Battlefront will be expanding their Flames of War game into WWI by releasing Great War in August as a supplement with Wargames Illustrated 322.

The following miniatures will be released:

British:

Mark IV Tank (x2)
Mark A Whippet Tank
OQF 18 pdr (x2) HQ & Rifle Platoon
Machine-gun Platoon
Trench Mortar Platoon

German: 

A7V Tank (x2)
7.62cm Krupp IG (x2)
7.7cm FK gun (x2)
Infanteriekompanie HQ
Infanterie Platoon
Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon
Regimental Support Platoons
Stoss Platoon

Should be interesting to see how well the rules convert to WWI...

Holding Patton?

Last year I realised that I had rather stupidly bought a load of GHQ M48's only to discover they were A5 models and not usable as IDF or Jordanian. I did convert one and this was reasonably successful but I must confess I am not too keen to do this to the remainder of the models, especially as GHQ has released an IDF Magach-3 version now.

Of course if I buy the Magach's the question remains what to do with the M48A5's? They were not a cheap purchase...

M48A5 as modelled by GHQ (photo Neil Baumgardner)

One idea is to use them for a 6mm eighties Cold War project. I have a number of GHQ Soviet models sat around but I am struggling to find out which NATO countries (aside from the US) used the M48A5 with the large commander's cupola as modelled on the GHQ model (many other - all? - nations seem to used the Israeli inspired low design).

Help anyone?

October War: Israeli Recon Platoon

For a change of pace I decided to paint up some more of my 6mm Arab-Israeli project but came to a grinding halt when I ran out of Middlestone paint for the bases. However I did just have enough in the bottle to finish the four bases for this IDF Recon Platoon.

The miniatures are GHQ, yes they are a little on the pricey side, but compared to the costs of other scales and other periods the damage is not too bad and the detail on the models fantastic.

Painting techniques was straight forward, Vallejo Medium Grey over a black undercoat, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink, then drybrushed Medium Grey, wheels, tracks, markings done and a very light Buff drybrush (the same colour used to highlight the base). Simple, but effective.

Painting Target: 233/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry V

The last two Poles for the infantry section are now painted. The Sergeant was a straight forward paint job, although the collar mounted rank badge is not as fine as I would have liked.

The section support weapon is the wz. 28 HMG. The one Warlord supplied in the box was prone and I'm not keen on prone figures for skirmish games so I decided to convert one of the duplicate riflemen. Luckily the wz. 28 is a licensed copy of the Browning Automatic Rifle so I borrowed a plastic one off the US infantry sprues I bought for the Tunisian project.

That's the Poles done for now, here is a picture of the completed section off to hunt some Fritzies!

Painting Target: 229/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry IV

I finished the last batch of Polish infantry riflemen yesterday evening, bringing the total painted to sixteen...

Just the section commander and support weapon left to finish today.

Painting Target: 227/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry III

I had hoped to finish all eight remaining Polish riflemen today but no plan survives contact with HR! So here are the next group of four Warlord Poles, hopefully I finish the last details on the remaining four this evening.

It struck me painting these, how much more modern the Poles looked to their 1939 friends and foes, the whole look is very similar to the later war US army.

Painting Target: 223/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry II

The Poles are progressing nicely now with the second group of four finished last night...

Painting wise I painted the base coat before washing the figures with an Army Painter brown ink, then drybrushed with a loaded brush over the uniform and webbing and adding some highlights on the rifles and flesh. Quite straightforward, but a nice end effect that provides effective shading very simply.

Painting Target: 219/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry I

First off thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - I have performed an outflanking manoeuvre 2014 on SWMBO and bought some of North Star's 1672 range to use with Donnybrook from some money I was given! :-)

I have managed to finish the first of the Warlord Games Polish infantry, which, despite the amount of duplicates, were really enjoyable to paint. The 1939 Polish infantry section is much larger than those of other countries such as Germany, Britain and France and having got all eighteen to a basic stage I have now split them into smaller groups to finish off with the detail work. Here are the first four...

Painting Target: 215/1000

Another Year Older...

21 again today but sadly no wargames presents* (boo!).  I did, however, get some new music CD's and Saul bought me the latest Macro and Cato book so I'll no doubt be back into Ancients mode soon and digging the box of plastic Early Imperial Romans out of the loft with plans to do something involving Caratacus.

Not my cake but I thought it too cool not to share...

I have managed some more work on the Polish infantry section and the first of these should be finished later this evening (or tomorrow morning if I am made to be social by the family!)

* SWMBO has said she will just raid Lead Mountain for presents as she is convinced I wouldn't know if it was new or not - she may have a point!

Edit: this was my cake... :-)

Blitzkrieg: First to Fight!

I made considerable progress with my Poles yesterday and today, but have been forced to break off as it is my Mum's 75th birthday so the family is all off to a party this afternoon. Hopefully the first should be finished tomorrow or Tuesday. Despite the duplication of certain miniatures (and my picture was wrong I have five infantry running with rifle not three!), they are lovely figures to paint.

Of course, as usual, researching the infantry uniforms has led me down distracting paths and I now want to raise sections of the Polish 10th Mechanised Brigade in their black leather coats and German helmets, and the Highland Division with their feathered felt hats as part of this project.

I have found 28mm figures for the 10th from Gorgon Studios in the States (I might have to bite the bullet on postage as they do some lovely Norwegian campaign figures too) but have only found the Highlanders in 15mm. If anyone knows of a 28mm source please let me know...

Polish 10th Mechanised Division (photo Gorgon Studios)

British Pathe News at War

Recently British Pathé News has released 85,000 of its newsreels onto YouTube including a number of military ones which they have put up in the War Archives section. Some of them have to be taken with a pinch of salt (I'm somewhat sceptical that British troops would walk upright WWI style across a jungle clearing into the face of Japanese sniper fire), but there is some really interesting stuff to be found, even in the clearly propaganda footage.

Lead Mountain Grows...

Well I heeded the sound advice of Clint, Tamsin and Mark and did not jump on the Spectre Miniatures Kickstarter (though I did download the free Beta rules for a look at). I'm not 100% sure how I want to expand the Empress project yet, so will wait until I get that underway before deciding.

Of course that didn't stop the 'Lead Mountain' growing considerably today as my Black Tree Design sale order turned up, over 100 more miniatures for £65 including shipping (so 65p a figure compared to Spectre's £2 a pop).

It was mainly Germans and Soviets and I know I have a late war  WW2 Eastern Front project underway in 20mm but I have always loved these Nick Collier sculpted figures originally released by Harlequin so have earmarked a 28mm 1942 Eastern Front Bolt Action/Chain of Command platoon level project. Given the relative simplicity of the uniforms of both sides, I might set myself a challenge to paint in a week or something when I take some holiday, we'll see...

Do I or Don't I?

Well, as I type this there are 34 hours left to go on the Spectre Miniatures Kickstarter - do I or don't I? It would fit in nicely with the Empress stuff I've got to paint up but it's a pile more unpainted white metal. Umm...

Blitzkrieg: Clones of Poland?

I started work on my Early War Polish boxed set from Warlord and must say I am very disappointed with the contents. The figures are decent enough, but the amount of duplicated figures in the 24 miniature box really sucks. I wasn't overly happy with the amount of duplication in the French box but this takes the biscuit...

Looking at the picture of a Polish section taken from their website above, you can see that not only do I have six of one particular miniature and three of two other, but there are different figures I don't have any of. I appreciate that with a large section like the Poles had there will be some duplication of miniatures, but to throw in six of one and none of others I don't have does not make for a happy Steve!

Suffice to say I will not be buying any other boxes of WW2 miniatures from Warlord where I cannot see the contents...

Penny Dreadful

I managed to catch up with the first episode of Showtime/Sky's new Victorian Gothic drama series Penny Dreadful yesterday. Using a mix of public domain literary characters from C19th fiction (rather like Alan Moore did with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), it is great stuff for Empire of the Dead/IHMN players, interested in some horror gaming in the demi-monde between the real world and the supernatural.

Blitzkrieg: Fallschirmjäger IV

Despite missing the alarm going off and having a very late lie in(!) I roused myself to finish off the two Fallschirmjäger NCO's to finish off the section using the pesky Warlord Decals.

The Felbwebel (with MP40) is a Crusader Miniatures figure, the Obergefreiter (with Kar98) is from Black Tree Design.

Here is the complete Fallschirmjäger section...

2014 Painting Target: 211/1000

Blitzkrieg: German General

Despite my get up and go seemingly having got up and gone, I forced myself away from watching The Lord of the Rings on the TV and to the painting table, working on the last two Fallschirmjäger and this ex-Harlequin (now BTD) German General I've had for donkeys years...

I've just got the decals to do on the Fallschirmjäger which I'll do this evening or tomorrow morning before starting work on the Poles (or maybe the Danish lmg team).

2014 Painting Target: 209/1000

¡Viva El Lardistas!

I had hoped to get some painting done today but I have somehow only managed to spend an unproductive day in front of the TV catching up on Longmire with Saul! :-)

I did have a bit of a brainwave part way through one episode, recalling I had the Too Fat Lardies Through the Mud & Blood inter-war PDF supplement Triumphant Standards. Unfortunately this doesn't include any Spanish Civil War material but does have some very useful stuff on the German Civil War which will be useful when I find that bag of Scheltrum miniatures I bought a few Salute back!

However, the Lardies are a good bunch and they have released online articles and army lists covering the Spanish Civil War for Chain of Command which is full of really useful histories and unit TO&E's.

The downloadable lists available are:

Milicias obreras (Workers Militias)
Milicias del 5º Regimiento

Asaltos, Carabineros and Guardia Civil (Security Services)

Milicias de Falange

Requetés

Morroccan Regulares

Tercio de la Legión (Spanish Foreign Legion)

Peninsular Army Infantry
Peninsular Cavalry
Ejército Popular de la República (Popular Army)
Nationalist Army
Corpo Truppe Volontarie
Raggruppamento Repartí Specializzati

Great stuff, I can feel the ooh shiny butterfly might spread his wings soon!

¡No Pasarán!?

I've taken a break from reading an Army at Dawn and currently have my head stuck in George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, an autobiography of his time fighting with one of the republican militias in the Spanish Civil War. A hugely enjoyable work and very well written, it has got the old noggin pondering Spanish Civil War wargaming...

Empress Miniatures Republican Assault Guards (photo Empress Miniatures)

I do have a desire to undertake some inter-war project and I have started a German Civil War one (started as in added some white metal to "Lead Mountain" started) but the struggles and bravery of the militias fighting against the fascists in the early period of the Spanish war is tugging at me and I am considering a small section level project like the Blitzkrieg one. Those Empress figures certainly look tempting...