1/300 Conversion in About 20 Minutes

Yesterday, I made an all out cleaning assault on my pigsty of a workbench. Despite about three hours of work, I didn't get really far, plus all the dust I kicked up made my allergies a nightmare. Under the piles of junk, I found a lone, primed, Saracen APC and a ZU-23-2 23 mm autocannon with two gunners on it. It might have a carriage for it, or it might go onto another vehicle. The APC is an old Skytrex model and the autocannon belongs to H&R. Inspiration struck! So... shaving off the MG turret, pulling out the pin vise and drilling out a hole for the gun, I now have a Saracen with a ZU-23-2 AA autocannon on top.

I think it took me all of 20 minutes to complete, including waiting for the paint to dry. The thing looks incredibly top heavy and kind of silly, but I've seen some jury-rigged technicals that looked a lot more ridiculous. One more weapon to add to the Federal Republic of Gambusia's arsenal.

Modern Armor Playtest 1: Tank Wreck!

Note: this post is a lot briefer than my usual ramblings. I was pretty far along but when I opened this post to continue working on it, poof! all but the first picture was gone. My 6 year old was doing some math quiz on my computer yesterday and might have decided to edit my post. Not sure.

For my first game, I tested Tank Wreck! by Martin Bourne.
I quickly threw together some paper roads, a hill, some houses, and a forest onto a 2' x 4" table shown here:

The scenario was a race to take and hold the village. The Green army would be coming from the west, whereas the Tan army is coming from the east. The Green army is considered to be the invaders, so I put the Tan army on the board and gave them the first initiative. In WR you roll for initiative, but then its alternating movement of units for both movement and shooting. This will prove to be a disadvantage for the Tan army. The small washers represents both hits and suppression markers, so I apologize in advance for any confusion. I will need to make more specific markers for future battles.

Village looking from the east. Ignore the star destroyer
on the upper right side.

Tan army in starting position. Their plan was to

race ASAP to the village

Green army deployed at start. M48A5 tanks

flank the mechanized infantry on the road.

The Battle
The first turn was just getting the opposing sides within firing range. The rules use inches for measurement and movement, but due to the size of the board, I used centimeters.

Tan army moving into village. BRDM with Swatter

ATGM race to deploy at farm.

M113 APCs moving down the road. Seems that

an extra M113 snuck into the game.

Tan army deploys into the village. One company of T-55s move

west of the gas station, the other T-55s skirt south of the village.

The infantry dismounts from their IVFs.

Bad things started happening to the Tan army. The tank company opened fired on the M48s and the M113 FSV on the road after they moved past the gas station. T-55s get a -1 to hit and a -1 to do damage. On top of that, you still have to take a -1 for shooting after you move even if you have stabilization (its worst if you don't). The four T-55s scored only a single hit on one of the M48s, but it didn't penetrate. 

*BOINK!* 100mm shell bounces
off the front of the M48

The return fire from the Greens was devastating! The M48s only took a -1 penalty for moving and shooting. 

Two of the four T-55s take hits. The one on

the left took three!

Two T-55s blown up. 

On the south side, things were no better for the Tan army.

M48s open fire....

….resulting in two hits. Fortunately one

resulted only in a suppression.

Where things stood by the end of turn 3:

Things not looking good for the Tans but the

BMP-2s have moved up to try to use their

ATGMs against the M48s. 

Turn 4: the tide seems to turn:

The two BRDMs move up to the farm.
One BRDM fire off a Sagger ATGM and scores a hit!

The other BRDM fires a Sagger missile and....

….scores another kill!

Meanwhile, the north flank M48 tanks climb the hill.

As the M48s climb, the BMP-2s move up to support the

T-55s and take on the Green infantry.

In one turn, the situation was starting to look at least salvageable for the Tan army. However, the Tan army only has a limited supply of ATGMs. The BRDMs only have four each vehicle, and each has expended one. The BMP-2s have only one each. Unfortunately, the optimism on the Red side soon came to an end with the beginning of turn 5.

After seeing two of his comrades get offed by ATGM fire,

one of the M48s wisely or cowardly hides behind the farm

An exchange of fire between T-55s and M48s results in

one M48 suppressed but both a T-55 and a BMP-2 blown up.

Feeling bold, the two Saggers rush onto the field to

attack the partially hidden M48, but both miss!

Their confidence quickly melted. The only saving 

grace was the fact that the M48 had already moved.

Green infantry slowly moving toward the town, fires

LAWs at long range, but miss. Their FSV misses as well.

At the end of turn five, Tan infantry have taken up positions in and

around the town center. The M48 unit on top of the hill now starts

down towards the town.

The end of turn 5 did not see the turnaround for the Tan army as was hoped. Two more AVFs were knocked out. I decided that now was a good time to test the morale part of the rules. The Green army passed its test. The southern M48 company squeaked by, but the others had no issues.

Not so for the Tan army. Spoiler alert: everyone but the infantry units failed miserably on the company morale tests. So, the battalion failed at its level. General order went out to retreat out of the town. The Tan battalion commander ordered the infantry to load up but leave last to cover the retreat. He (i.e. me) figured that the BMP-2s, being armed with the better AT-5 Spandrel ATGM, should be able to hold off the M48s for a little while.

Their BMP-2 transport being blown up in the previous turn, 

this infantry unit heroically volunteers to stay behind and fight 

to the death while their comrades escape.

The Green infantry finally gets close to the remaining T-55

of one of the companies, and blows it up in a hail of 

LAWs rockets and gunfire from the FSV.

A heroic BMP-3 lets loose a Spandrel missile at a M48,

but misses! Return fire from the M48 results in an ugly

hit on the BMP-3. Foolishly, all infantry were aboard. I rolled

a D6 for survivors, there were none. :(

The remaining Tan army flees the town.

The end: after seeing their comrades at the end of turn 6

go up in flames in their BMP-3, the lone infantry stand 

drops the whole hero shit and surrenders to the Green army that

is cautiously entering the town.

Analysis of the Rules
Overall, not a bad set of rules. I think the demise of the Tan army was as much poor tactics on my part as anything else. Here are some of my thoughts in no particular order

Organization, Format & Readability
Pretty well organized. Each parts of the game: movement, shooting, artillery, morale, etc., had an example that consisted of a running commentary of two people playing a game. That was pretty useful. Sometimes, things were sort of buried in the rules. For example, overwatch, or "reserve fire" as the author calls it, doesn't really stand out in the section Unit Activation. I'm sure I probably read it, but totally forgot about it. I kept thinking as the Tan Saggers were moving up that I wish that an overwatch option was included in the rules. If nothing else, it should be mentioned in the ready reference sheet. Even though I didn't use artillery, I had a similar issue when I was reading about artillery and spotting.

Turns & Movement
I liked the alternating activation sequence. It was pretty bloody because of the move and shoot rule. One side had to just sit and take a pounding when an opponent's unit was activated. Maybe it might have been different if I had remembered to use reserve fire. If I have another game, I might try alternate unit movement, but simultaneous shooting after all of the movement is done.

Weapons & Armor Ratings
It is a good, simple armor rating system. I did wonder why M48A5 tanks were rated at heavy armor, whereas an M48A3 is rated medium. Other than having a 105mm gun, which might give it a thicker gun mantel, I can't really see it having heavier armor than the M48A3, which has a 90mm gun.

The weapons system is pretty straight forward. There are some really tough penalties of you move and shoot turn an activation. Two other comments. First, there is no close assault rules. I guess two infantry units just shoot at each other at point blank range if they come into contact. Second, it seemed that the to hit numbers for ATGMs is rather low. Is that a reflection of the means by which to guide the missile to its target? It's either that, or maybe the author wanted to balance the game a little.

Morale
I liked the cascading morale system. You test morale going up the chain of command in these rules. First, you test the companies. Once you determine their results, then you test for the whole battalion, and so on up the chain of command. How well a battalion will do is based in large part on how many companies passed their morale tests. The failure of all but one of the Tan companies led to the battalion to fail morale. 

Conclusion
This rules are definitely armor oriented.  I would definitely use these rules again, but the next time, I would make my own cheat sheet to include the various things in the rules that I missed.

Modern Rules Playtest

A long time ago, I can't even remember which post, I proposed playing a series of test games to see which of the many rules I have now accumulated I wanted to use for my modern games. I set up at least the sides before I left for Christmas vacation, but I am still on the road (daughter's tennis tournament). I figured for a final post for this year, I'd at least show a preview.

First rules to test: Tank Wreck! by Martin Bourne

Why Tank Wreck!? I wanted something not overly complex, and I don't have to field large armies due to the size of the table I'm gong to use. Tank Wreck! fits the bill. I've read them over three or four times, so I think I'm fairly familiar with them.

I am going to keep a number of things constant for all of these games.

Rules: As far as the rules go, I am only going to test out movement and combat with armor and infantry. I am leaving out artillery because I am keeping the number of units down, which I will show in a moment, and artillery might be too devastating.

Opposing sides:
There isn't any real unit organization, but for this game, we will pretend that one tank and one infantry stand equals a platoon.

Green Army

The Greens are armed with M48A5 tanks with 105mm guns. There are five tanks per company.

The Green's infantry rides in M113s. There are three infantry platoons, one heavy weapons platoon, a platoon armed with a 106mm recoilless rife, and a M113 FSV that has a AML-90 turret on it. Each infantry platoon is armed with a LAW for anti-tank defense. Tank Wreck! does not distinguish between types of LAWs.

Tan Army

The Tan army has fewer tanks (T-55) per company, so there are two BDRM-1 with AT-2 Swatter  ATGMs to supplement the firepower.

The Tan infantry consists of four platoons for infantry, one of which is a heavy weapons unit. They ride in style in BMP-2 IVFs armed with an AT-5 Spandrel ATGM. The Swatters and the Spandrels get limited ammo. 

I haven't decided on terrain, but I am only using a 2' x 4' coffee table. I want it to be fairly simple. 

Remote-Controlled Air Defense Artillery, Part 2

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

If your remember from last time, I built an MANPADS that was a behemoth and way out of proportion. I decided to give it another go. I used the ASRAD short-ranged missile launcher that is on the German Weisel 2 as a basis:

Source: http://armoredphotos.blogspot.sg/2011/09/leflasys_02.html

This time I very consciously tried to make the weapon system as small as possible to have size exaggeration.

Here is the result:



I made the missile tubes by cutting the styrene rods and then heating up a metal base with a candle. I then lightly pushed the ends against the hot plate. It widen them to look like the ends flare out. I made about eight of them and then picked the best four.

It is still a little bigger than I wanted, but not too bad. My main beef is that the launcher tubes are too far apart from each other on either side. I think that is what makes it look large. I also built a radar vehicle. Here are some shots of them painted.

It was a nice day, so after I had sprayed them a flat clear, I thought I'd take the pictures outside. Pictures show the radar dish as gray.

The missiles are deliberately generic. They can be pretty much any MANPAD.

More Federal Republic of Gambusia AFVs

I could have sworn I posted these, but I guess I have not.

The Federal Republic of Gambusia (FRG) has an infantry battalion of made up of more modern APCs than old Saracens. It consists of Canadian 6-wheeled Cougars and Grizzlies. The Cougars have been modified into fire support vehicles and ATGM carriers.

I used the turret from a Scotia-Grendel Stingray light tank for the FSV. The ATGM were scratch built. Unfortunately, they all came out a little different on those. This is the best of them. These were my first conversions that I made when I plunged into modern gaming and I am quite happy with them.

New Year's Progress

Not a whole lot of work has been done so far this new year. The crappy weather, which prevented spraying miniatures, and having to prepare for a new semester meant that I've had little time to engage in hobby activities. A few things have been completed nonetheless.

First up, a M113 (CinC) with a Panhard AML 90 turret (GHQ). Even though GHQ models are slightly larger than CinC, it seemed to work pretty well.

I started this project before Christmas break, but finally finished it off the other day. Among my purchases over break from Games Plus Hobbies in Chicagoland, I bought some various washes to test. For this model, I used Secret Weapon Washes:

It was way too opaque straight out of the bottle! So I diluted it with some Future floor finish. Even then, I had to go back over it with some light strokes of the original olive green paint. An interesting and unexpected result was that the wash dried flat.  I also bought a bottle of Vallejo wash and plan to experiment with that soon.

Next up are more Bovatopian 1/600 vehicles. Until the last day or so, its been either near zero temperatures, or been raining around here; neither optimal conditions for spraying outdoors. A brief letup allowed me to spray some new figures with paint and spray some finished ones with Dullcoat. From left to right: Swedish Pvpj 90mm recoilless rifle mounted on a TGB 111 light truck (looks more like a golf cart to me), Bofors 40mm AA in action mode, Bofors 40mm in travel mode, Russian GAZ 66 trucks.

Not shown are some 15mm fantasy figures that I prepped using Vallejo's primer. I am always looking for an alternative to spray primers, which I prefer but weather is an issue. Last week, I broke down and ordered one of those static grass box applicators. I am not overly optimistic, but videos I've seen of them in action make me think that maybe I can finally use up that big container of static grass that I have.

Look What I Got in the Mail...

...its an autographed copy of Frank Chadwick's Combined Arms!

This was totally unexpected. I ordered it with Amazon.com through one of their third party vendors. It was relatively inexpensive. I have the feeling that the vendor had no idea the author's signature was on it. Nothing was mentioned in the description other than it was in good condition. According to my peeps over at the Facebook 1/285 Scales Miniatures and Wargaming page, their reserved copies of a rule book has a sticker added and were autographed. Cool beans! Now I have to look at my other GDW books to see if they have them on there. I went to college at Illinois State University during the late 70s and early 80s. ISU is in the town of Normal (yes, that's the name of the town), Illinois, which was the publishing headquarters of GDW. You could go into their office and buy rules books there, which I did.

As far as the rules, I've only spent all of 10 minutes reading them over, but they pass my test that if I can understand the mechanics on the first pass of reading, it's got a lot going for it. It focuses on mid-1980s potential NATO vs. Warsaw Pact conflicts, which is the latest tend. I think I can figure out those of AFVs and weapons not in the rule book using stats from other rules like FFoTs.

I still haven't playtested the various rules I have for microarmor like I had planned in an earlier post, but when I do, these will be in the mix.

As a separate issue, I've noticed that there are some older posts that are duplicated. Sort of annoying. Anyone else have that issue with blogger?

Federal Republic of Gambusia Armored Battalion

This past week I managed to work on some projects. The rebels got a some additional firepower in the form of a Russian M1944 100mm anti-tank gun. Sorry no pictures at this time. The Federal Republic of Gambusia now has a battalion of more modern tanks in the form of the Vickers MK III MBT. Here is a thrown-together shot of the battalion:

In reality, the anti-aircraft tanks and the tank destroyers are in separate companies, but I spaced them out for ease of photographing them.

The table of organization of the FRG is somewhat similar to that of many modern nations where the largest standing unit is the battalion. Units are combined depending on the mission. The AA company is attached. The 3rd battalion's mission is dedicated to fighting such foes as Northern Chalupistan rather than going after rebels.

Each company is represented by a different colored thermal sleeve.  The command tanks are represented by having antennae and either a tank commander or just a machine gun.

Vickers Mk III MBT

 The minis are old Skytrex ones, which are now sold by Heroics & Ros. This is their second paint job. Originally, I had a wash on them, but they looked awful. So, I repainted them with a basic gloss green  that I bought at Lowe's, and decided to skip the wash. They still look pretty glossy despite the coating of Vallejo clear flat. I would spray them with Dullcoat, but it's been awfully humid out. They are not the best models, but they are the only representatives of the Vickers Mk. III, so they will have to do.

The tank destroyer company is made up of the FV 120 Spartan MCT (Milan Compact Turret). These are Heroics & Ros models and they painted up rather nicely.

The AA battery is made up of the French AMX DCA with two 30mm AA guns. These are C in C models. I painted them up a long time ago before I really decided on a paint scheme for the FRG. These are probably among my best paint jobs for micro armor in terms of highlights and shading.