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@nerdfest09: Exactly!


thanks for the comment to nerfdest, I appreciate it. This probably is the leasy "sexy" project log I've ever done but there'll be some tanks and planes on soon and next on the schedule are some arousingly erect large caliber artillery pieces and fondlers handlers crew.

As for now, today's update:





Here's a zoomed in bit from less crappily lit parts of the bunch:


I'm proud to report that the infantry is done. Next, as mentioned above, the king of the battlefield: Artillery.

You have the patience of a saint my friend...

That is crazy

@Gitsplitta: Nah, I'm just way too lazy to stand up so I keep sitting and paint.

@Cutthroatcure: It's rather alright. Worked just in time I'd say.

Finally, some picture updates!



Some light artillery:


...and the heavier stuff:


Batalion staff HQ and some snipers:


I added a little map to their table just so it doesn't look as empty. The temptation to add some pencils and D20 was there, believe me. At least I can make up some dialogue for them. Officer on the field telephone ordering pizza, guy in the far right having changed his mind about what pizza he wants at the last second (as he ALWAYS does), guy in the back re-read the rules about Rangers because guy-in-the-front's character seemed way too strong with his "favoured enemy: things in sight" and accuses him of cheating... er, let's proceed to the next picture.

TANKS!

T-34/85:


T-34/76:


SU-100 (because somebody told the generals that this is Flames of War and they MIGHT encounter every single heavy tank the Germans ever built plus two more divisions ):


WIP IL-2 Sturmovik:


Of course that's just examples from the host of stuff I painted for the army so far. All in all, it's pretty much finished. The Sturmoviks (there are three in the army) need a bit more work, tanks need some decals and inspired slogans and yeah, that's that. Then they're off to the west asap because they're needed at a FoW event.

Hope that you like them.

Ah, the mighty Soviet army on the move!

All those little men are very impressive, I'm sure I wouldn't want to ever paint that many in such a short time span it would drive me even madder than I am already

Man! those tanks are brilliant! how long are they each? they seem about matchbox car size? but the colour and finish is great!

Oh, and i'm so sigging your comment too! :-)

Russians look great, Siggy! Battalion HQ, artillery, and the Sturmovik really set them off.

been quite a while since i visted here

dat Khorn army is stunning : >

it's quite amazing how you can "mass produce" those models and still pay so much attention to detail and personality of each one of them.

allways a pleasure to see your work^^

@Gitsplitta: Well, not quite on the move yet. At least not until those darned decals arrive.

@GiraffeX: Thanks muchly! I'd say that in such cases a tight deadline helps even as it helps keeping the focus on the important things and not get held up with unnecessary things. All in all I even enjoyed painting the infantry once I had a recipe worked out properly.

@nerdfest09: Thanks, mate! The tank hulls are about 6cm in length so your estimation was about right. Thanks for being sigged as well.

@Moltar: Cheers, Moltar! I think that especially in such large armies you need to have some little things stick out. I also got some details in there but it's the dots of colour (the flags, the map, etc.) is what counts for the overall impression I guess.

@IPS: Thanks very much. It's great to get so overwhelmingly positive feedback!


Okay, thanks very much guys. Today I basically took the day off because a.) the tank decals didn't arrive and I didn't want to get into another commission project before this one's finished and b.) it was my birthday and I wanted to get some work done on my own stuff. You know what that means. New historical project, lengthy introduction and fluff. Here we go - it''s back to the 1980s (the decade I came from originally ) and therefore back into the Cold War.

I'm going 20mm (1/72th [rougly at least]) early to mid-1980s British Army of the Rhine!

The ruleset I'm looking at of course is Ambush Alley/Osprey's Force on Force and its Cold War Gone Hot supplement book. If you ever browsed my more texty posts featuring pictures of sand and tiny houses and either 6mm or 15mm figures you probably picked up my fascination with this ruleset.


Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the cover art either.

This probably explains the rather large scale I chose for miniatures. Cold War, due to scope and focus on mobile warfare, very often is played at small scales, focus on vehicles, helicopters and all of that. With Force on Force, games usually take place at platoon level though and I like it that way. I just like infantry and things that have a face and which I can feel sympathetic for. Apart from that, a surprising number of people around here already have 20mm Cold War stuffs so that's rather cool. So I went with my currently preferred modus operandi when getting into a new period: Gathered info on what armies are present already, avoid the overrepresented ones. Then I check if there were outstanding uniforms around at the time or overlooked armies/formations with characteristic quirks (you know, funny hats, beards, colourful uniforms or camo patterns, very individual vehicles or gear, etc.). In this regard I was let down a little to be honest because at the time we were going for (1980s), basically all western armies present looked alike already. Boo.

So I thought I'd just go with the British army. IIRC, just one other guy in the area got them (along with much other stuff) and on top of that, I already have a WW2 British army that ties in rather well with this new one. And not any British army but the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR):


BAOR HQ badge

The British Army of the Rhine was formed as the British occupying force stationed in Germany after the end of World War 2. Its first commander (and administrator of the British occupied zone) was field marshal Montgomery of desert fame. Over time the army changed from administrating and occupying the zone to security force and when Cold War came in full swing and Soviet attack through Germany became a distinct possibility BAOR became somewhat of a first line of defence. In the case of war BAOR's general would become NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG).

Formations were stationed across the North German Plains (including the famous Fulda Gap) which was the most likely area for Soviet attack. Battle in these regions often were the go-to scenario for NATO armies and had a clear impact on the development of tactical nuclear weapons and other systems such as the A-10 Warthog.


Probable axes of Soviet attack

Despite varying numbers over its almost 50 years of existance, BAOR numbered around 50,000 to 55,000 servicemen on average (plus many families brought over, civilian personel, etc.). Defence aspects aside, BAOR played a significant role in improving German-British relations after the end of WW2 including an annual festival open to the public and a general sensibility for West Germans of not getting given up on in case of war. Militarily, the strategic value of BAOR was sometimes critisized by US command as, in the case of the war going "hot", being a waste of precious manpower in a futile attempt to stop an all-out Red Army assault.

After the end of the Cold War and budget cuts, BAOR was disbanded and reorganized into British Forces Germany. Permanent stationing of British troops in Germany is planned to end in 2019.

--------------------------


Alright, so much for the fluff of things. Let's proceed to the miniatures!

First, infantry of course.



Here's my platoon. As per the ORBAT for mechanized rifle platoon of the time, there are three infantry sections and a command section. Infantry sections consist of nine men (including the driver, so only eight guys are around on foot), platoon HQ (51mm light mortar with HE, smoke and illumination rounds, a Signaller, a Runner, a Platoon Sergeant and a Platoon Commander). I also got a Blowpipe SAM team, two GPMG teams deployed as heavy machineguns and two additional guys to use as artillery spotters, sniper team or to vehicle crews outside of their vehicles and so on. It's always handy to have additional minis around just in case. I also got a pack of four casualties (it will be too few) and two vehicle crew.

Here's a size comparison just so you get an impression of the scale:


It's a rather eclectic mix to say the least but anyway. From left to right: Irregular Miniatures 10mm miniature, Battlefront 15mm miniature, Elhiem 20mm miniature, Wargames Factory 28mm miniature.

Then there's the vehicles:


These are from Britannia miniatures. The vehicles all come as one big chunk of resin, possibly with some metal hatches and crew and resin turret with metal guns. There are four FV432, one for each rifle section and the platoon HQ section (in the latter there is additional space for transporting snipers, GPMG sections and so on),...



...a FV107 Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle (a light tank armed with a 30mm auto cannon and a coax MG)...


... and, just for good measure, a Chieftain main battle tank.



At introduction it was one of the most advanced battle tanks in the world, sporting an unmatched 120mm rifled main gun and highly innovative and more than state of the art armour. Problem is that it was introduced in 1966 and by the 1980s the Chieftain was beginning to show its age. It remained in service until the mid-1990s and beyond but eventually was replaced by the Challenger I and II main battle tanks. The Challenger I was introduced in the mid-1980s but I wanted to be on the save side with the main battle tank. I think there were like 11 Marks of the Chieftain in service and I'll see what I can do to make the model to match the look of some of the latest Marks.

Guess what, I got some freebies along with the vehicles from Britannia miniatures which was an immensely nice surprise (along with the hand written letter). So I got five more BAOR riflemen from Britannia's range (not listed on their website but they exist!). Pretty cool and thanks to Grubby from Britannia Miniatures!


Now, let's proceed right on to the first update right away! Cleaned everything up and based the infantry on pennies:



Haven't based the additional Britannia infantry miniatures yet (they arrived just today after I had based the other guys), neither the heavy GPMG sections for which I'll need to get some larger round flat bases. The vehicles I won't base.

Excellent Russians, Comrade!

Vehicles built and ready for having stowage added!





Also based the five Britannia guys, four casualties figures from Elhiem.

Those vehicles are pretty nice. It's impressive how much you can cast in just one piece. Even the drivers on the FV432s are cast onto the chassis. Some bubbles to fill, holes for gun barrels had to be drilled out properly and stuff like that. Cleaning too of course.

On two of the FV432s, the driver's head was snapped off, one of the heads had even vanished. That was kind of bad but luckily I had ordered two vehicle crew from Elhiem as well so I could replace that. One of the FV432s has the top hatch open. I ordered that one just for variety. Very pretty, but I'm glad I went for three closed top ones and only one open topped.

Overall detail is nice. As I said, I'll see that I can add some stowage to the things to make them all look a bit more in-action like.

By the way, remember that guy from around the time THQ released Dawn of War 2?



That's a converted FV432 too.

Hey people, this update should have been up nine hours ago but my internet crapped out so that's why there's a bit of a delay there.

After the vehicles were built, I started adding stowage. Of course not having any 1/72th 1980s tank stowage lying around I'll have to scratchbuild mostly:



I'll add some more stuff and as you can see, the Scimitar recce vehicle is still missing from the picture as there's no stowage on that fella yet at all.


At this point I should mention the amazing Cold War Gamer blog which is a great resource for 20mm Cold War stuff, especially British and Soviet.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Update on the vehicles:




I guess I can slowly proceed to painting things now.

This 20mm stuff is fantastic, Siggy! Are you making the netting out of PVA glue?

Siggy, I think you broke Photobucket...

@Moltar: Thanks and yup, it's the old gauze bandage soaked in PVA. I wasn't sure about it when gluing to the models but once it was dried and primed it looked really nice.

@Dysartes: Yeah, it's the strangest thing. I have two photobucket accounts and alternate between them so I don't run into bandwidth trouble (see above ). For some reason August seems to have soaked up the bandwidth on both acounts though. Maybe it's time for a third. :|

the photos all stopped working

 Sigur wrote:
@Dysartes: Yeah, it's the strangest thing. I have two photobucket accounts and alternate between them so I don't run into bandwidth trouble (see above ). For some reason August seems to have soaked up the bandwidth on both acounts though. Maybe it's time for a third. :|

Or, and it's a strange thought, Siggy, you could try using the Dakka Gallery

 Dysartes wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
@Dysartes: Yeah, it's the strangest thing. I have two photobucket accounts and alternate between them so I don't run into bandwidth trouble (see above ). For some reason August seems to have soaked up the bandwidth on both acounts though. Maybe it's time for a third. :|

Or, and it's a strange thought, Siggy, you could try using the Dakka Gallery

Or just upgrade to a PB Pro acct...

@chaplain iktinos: Yeah, I adressed that above.

@Dysartes: Hm, that is an idea. I'm a bit averse to using the Dakka galleries for WIP pictures but oh well.

@Galorn: Cheers mate, I am aware of that option. ...


Roight, update, update.





Vehicles are close ot being finished now. Not sure if I'll get decals for them at all or try to freehand that. I guess it's worth getting decals though. Let's see.

I also did some bases for the GPMG section bases and such so next up will be infantry followed by finishing touches on the vehicles including crews, possibly markings and antennea. Hope you like them so far.

They're looking good, Sigur - for those of us unfamiliar with the sculpts, what are we looking at in those two pictures?

I mentioned it already in my chatty, texty, fluff posting that started this project but I guess with the pictures being gone for a bit, that's a bit unsexy to read now.

Let's start with the first picture above. In the left (baby-tank) we got a FV107Scimitar Recce vehicle.



Part of the CVR(T) (combat vehicle reconnaissance, tracked) family. Their nicknames all started with S, starting with the Sultan they replaced (Scorpion, Scimitar, Spartan APC, Samaritan armoured ambulance, Striker anti-tank, Samson recovery vehicle, ...) and were developed during the early 1970s. The Scimitar entered service in 1971 and still roams around in in British army to date. 30mm auto cannon and co-axial MG, aluminum armour and air transportable. When doing platoon-level stuff I always like having some smaller recon vehicle with my guys because at this level game, these things actually matter. In all the big battle games, the weirder, small things like armoured cars never make too much sense but at platoon level they make for a nice addition on the battlefield and add some severe firepower (mostly due to MGs rather than main weapons though) without tipping the odds too much.


Next to the Scimitar, there's the iconic FV4201 Chieftain Main Battle Tank



Fluff stuff on this one I did above already. I couldn't resist getting at least one main battle tank given how the period was very much dominated by armoured vehicles and they were huge. Interesting tank too, as it was britain's first real modern main battle tank.



The four APCs are FV432s which also still are in service in the British army.

(FV432 with a funky extra large exhaust pipe carrying the king of the world)

Each mechanized rifle platoon had four of those, one for each one of the rifle sections, one for the platoon command section (in which they had some additional space for additional assets such as sniper or MG sections. In the late 1980s they were to be replaced with the famous Warrior family of armoured vehicles but after a bunch of upgrades, many FV432 vehicles still are in service albeit usually not at the frontline.

...and that's that. Last night I started doing a test infantry mini. Rather happy with it by now, pictures will follow shortly.

Love that little tank. Can't get the other two pics to load... is that just my system misbehavin'?

I have the same issue, Gits.

No pics for me either Siggy :-(

Love the tanks.. pics are not showing up for me as well!

OK, pics are showing up for me now. Still love the baby tank. Sort of like a modern grot tank!

*note to self* you get more replies if you post pictures that don't work than when you post pictures

Yeah, I seem to suck at posting pictures to dakka lately. It's weird, maybe the sites I snatch the pictures off of have some hotlinking prevention stuffs going on. Got it fixed now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update!

The Infantry's got their base colours on now!

This is the core platoon - three rifle sections (each with GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun or "Gimpy) and a Carl Gustav or "Charlie G" Medium Anti-Tank Weapon) and a platoon HQ section:


In combat, a rifle section would be split up into either two fire teams of four each, one with the GPMG and the Carl Gustav in the other, OR they would split up unti a Rifle Group of five including the section commander, the MAW team and two riflemen and Gun Group of three, two manning the GPMG and the 2nd in command of the squad to direct fire.

The rifleman's main weapon was the L1A1 SLR (Self-Loading Rifle), a variant of the Belgian FN FAL built in Great Britain under licence and with the calibre changed from metric to imperial measurements.

These are the additional guys (from left to right, back: Blowpipe anti-air team, another rifle section with a deployed GPMG and including the guy I used as test mini in the far right. Front: Artillery observers, casualties, some more artillery observers that might pass for a sniper team).


These guys I can mix and match for depicting all kinds of things if required, ranging from additional assets like recce sections, the aforementioned sniper team or artillery observers to shot-up defenders to be relieved by the full platoon above, using crouching models as lightly wounded models (wounded and handling them play a large part in Force on Force) and so on.

The sand bags on the base of the GPMG team might be a tad large but just a tiny bit I think. The casualties are general NATO casualties so I will have to add some foilage-like camouflage to their helmets to make them fit with the rest of the bunch properly.


Yesterday, my own copy of Cold War Gone Hot arrived in the mail. It's a really impressive supplement. Maybe I'll write a short review about it if time allows.

As I throught, those are a bit "dry" to paint but what's gotta be done has got to be done.

Oh thank the lord i can see again! pictures are nice :-) I'm liking the infantry, a whole lot of them really gives me a feeling like i'm watching M.A.S.H from a Helicopter!

@nerdfest09: Oh yes, glad they're up again. Thanks too.

Hey guys, there are army shots of the Flames of War soviets even!









Hope that you like them. And yeah, I'm doing other stuff now again, other than the cold war british. So get ready for pretty, entertaining things soon for a change.