15mm Jackal II Corgi conversion

In the same multi-vehicle Corgi pack as the Landrovers, you get a relatively decent model of the Jackel II as well.  This model seems pretty good, although I think the two roll bars are an error and there should only be one central bar between the driver and co-driver/gunner.  I sourced some seated figures in berets from Peterpig's AK-47 range and some standing gunners, which included beret-wearing figures with .50 cal HMGs and bare headed gunners with MMGs.

This pair of vehicles has crew painted up in green berets to represent Royal Marine vehicles, one .50 cal and one MMG.  The vehicles were undercoated light grey and painted Iraqi Sand.  Fuel cans were painted NATO green.  Figures are light brown with English Uniform spots and boots, washed with strong tone ink and highlighted in Iraqi Sand.

The other pair of vehicles with British Para crews.

All four vehicles.

The Para MMG vehicle.

The Royal Marine .50 cal vehicle.

The para .50 cal vehicle.

These still need a bit of detailing to finish off, but they are pretty much ready to make an appearance on the wargames table.

As ever, thanks for looking. It's Christmas Eve, so if you are celebrating, have a Very Happy Christmas, if not, Season's Greetings to you!  I'm hoping Santa will be bringing me a few useful odds and ends.  Hope you are all where you want to be and all get something nice this Christmas.  We should also spare a thought for those men and women not at home for the holidays, wherever they are.  Have a good one!

20mm Snatch Land Rover unit

This weekend I managed to get a few things wrapped up, in an attempt to get the kitchen table cleared ready for Christmas.  I added the last Snatch Land Rover conversion, painted up the same as the others but with black squares painted on the drivers/passengers doors and a black patch on the bonnet/hood.  I also tried out an ink/matt varnish wash, which worked really well as the varnish appears to have stopped the ink running off the model, giving it a dusty/dirty look that I quite like.  I also painted up three minimi gunners from Britannia, which completes the unit and provides transport for a platoon of infantry.

I now just have one Viking and one Mastiff model to complete, to fill all the transport requirements for my British in Afghanistan.  This will give me the choice of Snatch Landrovers, Viking APCs or Warrior IFVs for platoon mobility, together with a Mastiff for a mine clearance detachment.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Snatch Landrover Corgi Conversion

This week I have been mostly working on 20mm modern vehicles and figures.  While shopping in Tesco's, I noticed Corgi do a range of modern vehicles in a pack for £8.  Unfortunately, scale doesn't seem to be an issue for Corgi, I suppose they are toys after all, and the vehicles range from 10mm (a very small Challenger) to 20mm (Landrover).  The Landrover  comes in a desert sand and brown cammo scheme with a brown canvas roof in a tan coloured plastic.  I looked at photos on Google of the Snatch Landrover, which appears, from outside at least, to be a basic Landrover (?Wolf) with a hatch in the roof for a passenger to fire from.  I also compared the Corgi model with a Britannia WMIK that I had and they are almost identical in size.

So, I cut a square hole in the top of the roof near the rear of the vehicle and built up the rim with some strips of plastic card, then cut a larger area of plastic card to represent a hatch cover.  The model on the left in the photo below is as it comes out of the box.  The two on the right have been modified.  It's a pretty simple modification but watch out for the craft knife slipping on the plastic as it's quite thick and quite stiff to cut.  Always cut away from your fingers!!!

I also had a bunch of Elhiem British infantry to paint up, the chap rear right is a beret wearing figure who will appear later in one of the Landrovers.

I also had a few Taliban odds and ends (IED trigger men and a HMG and crew), as well as a section of 1980's Cold War British infantry in NBC gear.

Here are the three conversions completed so far, together with an undercoated fourth model and three Britannia minimi gunners who will crew the vehicles.  They are mounted on Coke bottle lids as they won't be based when finished.

The last undercoated vehicle.  This will complete transport for an infantry platoon.

The completed model with a Para crewman.  His base is stuck to Blue-Tac, which is then stuck to the floor of the vehicle so I can remove the figure if it becomes a casualty.  The Blue-Tac keeps him at the right height for firing and he doesn't wobble.

View of other side.

Rear view.

Yet another view.

I'm quite pleased with these conversions.  Although they are available as resin models commercially, I quite like that they are home-made conversions and they cost less than £2 per vehicle.  The Corgi pack itself comes with the Landrover (20mm), a Rigid Raider style inflatable plus trailer (15-20mm), a Eurocopter helicopter (10-15mm), a Challenger tank (10mm) and a Jackal II (c. 15mm).  I gave the Challengers to my son as I cant find a use for them, but he can.  The rest will find a way into my 20 or 15mm forces, especially the Jackals, which are really nice, with some minor inaccuracies.

Thanks for looking.

Frodsham Furies Pike and Shotte game

These are some more pictures that have been locked up on my phone since the summer.  Some while back, the inaugural meeting of the Frodsham Furies took place at the Guides HQ in Frodsham, UK.  Neither the figures nor the scenery are mine, all were supplied by the players on the day.  I can no longer remember who won or lost, I think it ended with a minor victory for the team I was on, but that was nothing to do with me as the left wing, which I controlled, did very little but hold the line.

The set up on the left flank, the troops I commanded in the foreground, Dave's, my opponent on the far side.

My troops occupying a bastion which marked the right flank of my command.  Chris commanded the predominantly cavalry middle and used them to great effect by a series of charges and counter charges.

The cavalry ranks in all their glory - of course they weren't so pretty at the end of the day, but neither was the enemy.

Infantry on the right flank.

With a small fort to anchor the line.

Push of pike, which seems to be hurting my blokes quite a bit.

The enemy advance cautiously between trees and fields on my right.

The cavalry engagement in the centre.

The enemy come to grips with my centre.  That cannon next to the farm proved quite effective though.

The infantry advance on my right is pushed back a little.

A view from the ranks.

Steady boys - stirring words from the brigadier.

The table looked awesome and the troops fantastic, all in all a fun day for all involved.  I've still got a Battalia starter pack that I need to assemble and paint, so I can add my own forces to the fray for our upcoming ECW campaign at the Defenders club.

Thanks for looking.

D-day at Gauntlet 2014

Some older photographs that I've not been able to download from the phone until now.  This is a beach landing scenario that I played with Ian Clarke and Ian Shaw using Battlegroup WW2 rulesat the Deeside Defenders Gauntlet Show back in the summer.  These are quite fun, but infantry on foot take an age to get anywhere.  The scenario was quite generic, bit would fit well with Sword or Gold beach.

First wave landing.

Another view of the crowded beach and surf.

The landing craft are a mixture of mine and Ian S's, largely from the Scotia Ship to Shore range.

The infantry swarm over the sea wall and start to push inland.

The German hinterland, largely devoid of troops until 21st Panzer arrive.

I thought these were worth sharing as the beaches looked quite spectacular.

Thanks for looking.

Big Force on Force game

We played out a large Force on Force game at the Defenders club on Thursday.  It was played on a 10ftx6ft table laid out to represent a coastal strip and inland areas.  The scenario was set in the fictional, troubled Black Sea country of Ukrovia in which a Russian-influenced East and NATO-influenced west were abut to erupt in civil war.  My armoured force comprised 3 T-90s, 3 BMP-2s, 2 BRDM-2s, 1 Shilka and a BRDM AT.  I had three squads of guards riding in the BMP-2s, all equipped with NBC suits as were were attempting to rescue/secure the cargo of an ambushed convoy which was of great importance to eastern command.  Ian was commanding scattered units of infantry that were gradually returning to the area after the earlier ambush.  Our opponents were unknown, but included recce and heavy armour, which could be heard in the woods to the best and various units of special forces which were scattered in hidden vantage points around the table.  Still unsure what most of them were but there was an AT-4 weapons team, an 81mm mortar team (although these were captured by irregular Vampyri forces during the game).  There were at least 2 sniper teams with heavy sniper rifles, 2 SEAL-type frogman teams and others.  Apart from knocking out a pair of recce Strykers and wounding a few of the AT-4 team and wounding one member of one of the other SF teams, most of the action consisted of incoming drone-launched Hellfire missiles and Paveway bombs.  These caused huge losses, including the 3 T-90s, 2 BMP-2s and my AA Shilka.  However, eastern weapons specialists did get to the weapon convoy and rescue to weapon, getting it off table, but it was suspiciously easy to do this, suggesting almost that they were allowed to get away.  Go figure.

Looking south, the convoy ambush site is where the road bends towards the trees.

The convoy with my armour deployed amongst the buildings.  I had three activations to get the best positions I could with orders to repel western forces coming out of the woods on the far table edge.

Another view of the convoy.

Some of Ian's infantry returning to the action crossing a crop field, about to come under fire from an SF GPMG I think.

A hurried view from one of Ian's troopers of a recce BRDM-2 taking a hull down position behind a low hill.

A T-90, 2 BMP-2s and their offloaded infantry occupy a compound, waiting for the western armour.

A T-90 and the command BRDM-2 attempt to secure the convoy under the watchful eye of a BMP-2 which has disgorged it's troopers who are rushing to get into the cover of the building.

Suddenly, a pair of recce Strykers emerge from the woods in the west and swing to left and right of the road.  ATGMs and RPGs fly, while T-90s pour in AP rounds which make short work of the Strykers.

Near vertical view of the central compound nd key part of the eastern armour defences.

Another view of the compound about to be secured by the third eastern guard squad.

Unfortunately, they come under 81mm mortar fire, although this only results in a heavy wound for one of the guards.

One of the SF AT-4 teams opens up on the T-90, but it doesn't even scorch the paint.  Later, they and a pair of SF teams are forced to move out as eastern artillery begins to range in.

The eastern guard command squad about to run in to claymores left behind by the SF teams.  They aren't nice.

A T-90 pops smoke after the commander is killed by sniper fire.

The view west, with burning recce Strykers, but no heavy armour yet.

The aftermath of a Paveway strike (is this OK Mike?) on the central compound with a burning T-90 and BMP-2 and a bunch of casualties in the troops in the collapsed building on the right.

The command squad about to flush out the SF teams in the building to their left.

There they go.

Seal teams with good vantage points on the coastal hills.

The eastern scientists in black SUV make off with a truck loaded with the rescued special weapon.

http://ukrovia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/game-11-after-action-report-did-you.html

It was all very confusing for me as all I seemed to be doing was rolling morale dice to try and survive Hellfire or Paveway strikes plus sniper fire from an unseen enemy which seemed to be scattered amongst our forces.  It was however, immensely satisfying when the SF teams had to break cover for extraction and could then be fired at causing albeit scant casualties.  You can imagine the joy I felt when the last Hellfire missile loaded on the Predator drone was directed onto the SEAL team that had called it in, which turned to dismay when only one figure went down and he, in the first aid phase turned out to have been just temporarily stunned, only to jump up and make off for the sea as he had arrived.  Hey ho.

A great game, thanks to Dave W for the loan of the various bits of Russian kit, running the game and coming up with the scenario, Ian for lending at least moral support with his infantry and Mike, Paul, Tom and Dave R for taking us apart with their uber-troopers.  The table looked fantastic.

Thanks for looking.