A Cold War (ish) update

I finally took the pictures of my Sheridan tanks previewed in the last post. I also included a M60A3 that I am almost done with.

I've also decided to refinish some of my WARPAC/Russian Fed vehicles (and the other two M551s seen below!).

Thanks for looking! 

Sheridan tanks in progress

I was very lucky on Ebay, and secured 3 Airfix M551 Sheridan tanks for about three dollars each.

They are outdated, but the fun part is adding the details from scratch. 

I got the base colors for MERDC, but still need to finish the tiring process of weathering.

More Soviets, as well as ultra-moderns

Here are some photos of the figures and vehicles I finished last weekend. I ran out of time to post them, but here they are anyway! 

I finished the third squad, and have made good progress on the last two figures I need: assistant PL, and a medic. Here are shots of the three squads.

Here is a little bit of my next/current projects as well. 

I have been in the process of completely reworking my modern US Army platoon in UCP. These include new conversions, and an updated method for the camouflage. I'm about 1/2-2/3 finished with them. They are organized around a platoon from a Stryker brigade (the modern equivalent of wild west cavalry). Before I did that though, I needed another Stryker, so here it is so far! It is by Trumpeter.

And here is a bonus! Another Abrams TUSK conversion. I will add the ERA plates made from some sheet styreen I found which is covered in .46mm tiles, the ERA scales down to .5mm squares. We'll see what comes of it.

A few things I've Finished

Here is a compilation of stuff I finished over the last week or two.

Trumpeter JS3 for the Soviets.

1/2 of squad #2

2/2 of squad #2

S&S BTR-T

Ace BMD-1

And my first Cold War US element! Pegasus M-47 MBT.

I hope you have enjoyed. Have a great weekend!

Breaking the Mould of Soviet Platoon Commanders: NO Pistol Waving Here!

Slow progress with my Cold War.

This is the little project I started in my brain about three weeks ago. The contestants are the Soviets and US Army: the scene is Western Europe: the time is ~1955. My Soviets are conversions of the new Zvezda WW2 Soviets armed with Orion and Mars/ESCI AKs, RPG-2s, and RPDs, and as of today a SVT-40 sniper variant.

I have been a little busy lately with real life and haven’t quite had enough free time for minis. Happily this weekend in shaping up to be a nice brake, so there may be more progress as in today.

This progress involved converting and priming squad 2 as well as the platoon “Comrade Commander” the end of last week. Then I converted Squad 3 today. This was a trial. My main trouble came from trying to mix the epoxy glue. The cheap bottle seems to squirt out uneven amounts of resin and hardener, plus it is just plain old. I need a newer/better bottle of glue.

These are the only two I painted today: the commander and his sniper.  The sniper is armed with an SVT-40 which I modified with a Mosin scope to make a somewhat more suitable post-war sniper rifle. I got to paint MKK on the shirt of the sniper, this will be the only I plan on using in the platoon. The commander is from the Italeri Tank Hunter team.

Please have a look at Post War Miniatures Forum if you have not yet done so

Also have a look at the Ben's Soldiers Facebook page in the sidebar.

Thanks for looking, guys!

He turned out grainy.

1950s Cold War Project

I plan to wargame early cold war-hot scenarios now.
I chose the '50s so I could use early tanks, and still use some WW2 guys for the Americans.
Here are some test figures from the Zvezda WW2 set with AKs from some Orion spare figures. Enjoy :D

 

Isaac and Ishmael: Golan, 1973.

I played my first official Force on Force game today. There are still some details I have to work out but I think they will work as I get used to them.

Basically the Syrians must advance through this village in a gap in the Golan are in '73 to please pushy brigadiers. The Israelis caught off guard must defend with a basic platoon and little support.

The Syrian main objective is for the tanks to push through the village off the other end of the table. A little bonus will be the capturing of the hill to the right of the picture just to make the passing through the village a bit easier.

The result was a  minor victory for Israel with 4 MIA and the village held.
The Syrians had a loss of some sorts, the hill was captured but the tanks were stopped.

Enjoy the pics, thanks for looking.

Infrared photos from a Syrian recon flight a night earlier reveal Israeli forces operating in the area.

The next morning's view from the position of B squad to the right of the Israeli lines.

View from A and HQ squads to the left of the village. B's position is the hill in the background and C is stationed in the village.

The Israeli platoon also has a jeep mounted recoilless 106mm rifle

The 1st and HQ squad of the Syrian platoon starts out mounted on teh T-55s

The leading T-55 is destroyed by RR fire stopping up the whole Syrian tank line.

The rear T-55(actually a T-54 but don't tell) is destroyed by 75mm squad level RR fire leaving one more stuck in the middle.

B is driven off the hill by 2nd and 3rd squads of the Syrian pltoon

I remembered my HQ squad mortar after about four turns, it hit several Syrians as they capture B's hill.

Finally the last Syrian T-55 is destroyed, the Israeli objective is complete. It is not an entire win though because they lost the hill to the right of the village.

A postcard from the Golan defenders!

First Vietnam Figures. Memorial Day.

Hello everyone. I got my five boxes of Pegasus and one box of ESCI Vietnam Americans the other day. They will be based when I finish the painting. I laid out my plans in the last post so I will get right to it.

The basic fireteam. Each squad has two  of these. So far I've purposely made a suppressive fireteam of firing figures, and a maneuvering fireteam of running figures.

Squad command. Sergeant and PRC-6 operator.

The entire squad.

Platoon command. Platoon leader (Lieutenant); platoon sergeant; 2x PRC-6; and a PRC-25 operator.

Some of my favorite figures of the set

I love the detail on the shotgun

Size comparison of Pegasus and Italeri/ESCI/Revell Vietnam

The radio operator conversions. The "PRC-25" is from Waterloo 1815 Marines. The PRC-6s are from hunks of plastic.

The Revell M-48. At first I had this painted as Israeli, but did not use it much in that role. I just repainted it before my figures came.

Memorial Day

I'd like to thank all the heroes who died serving my country, and those veterans who, not dieing in combat, have passed on after their service. Some of the special ones in that category are both my grandfathers, and some more distant ones in the past. My multiple great uncle served the confederacy (I disagree with the politics but love the culture, warrior spirit, pride, etc), he had his arm blown of by Yank cavalry near Petersburg. His father was a General commanding a local militia. My grandfather served in the Airforce in Korea. My other grandfather died of lung cancer after years of cleaning the boilers of the USS Beale, at the end of and after the WW2. Thanks to all the others who served my nation, and to our allies who died by their sides.