Scenario contest closing soon

      I will be closing the scenario contest soon. I have only gotten five entries (actually six but I kicked one out as it was a transparent copy of and old one published in a wargames magazine, the guilty party knows who they are!).

     The prize is going to be twenty 15mm figures painted, or ten 28mm figures or five vehicles (up to 28mm) painted and finished. These would completed to the standard you have seen above in the "Mini of the Moment" in the header above.

Two Fat Lardies go to Lebanon, 15mm IDF vs PLO

      Pat hosted a game last weekend of PLO vs IDF using Two Fat Lardies "Rock the Casbah" rules; these are clones of the TWaT and B'Maso rules tailored for use in games reflecting the conflict in the Holy Land. 
    
     The scenario was straightforward; the IDF needed to get off the other end of the table as fast as was feasible whilst suffering as little casualties as possible. The IDF troops are part of a deep penetration force trying to cut off retreating PLO forces. The PLO force is a scratch force thrown together to delay the IDF as long as they can to allow their compatriots to escape the pincer movement. The PLO have no heavy weapons and only intermittent mortar support, the IDF is an entirely motorised and armored force with helicopter gunship support.

    Here we see the table as veiwed by the IDF players, the narrow road runs between the citrus orchards that are such a common feature of the south of Lebanon, the orchards are divided by high stone walls that are too tall for a man to see over and even pose a significant obstacle to tracked vehicles. Click on the photos for a larger view.

     This is the scene from the PLO perspective, a couple of good choke-points but the lack of heavy weapons means the fight will be up-close and bloody, not a PLO speciality. The IDF has good troops that are well-led and mounted in armored vehicles, they are armed to the teeth with automatic weapons. The PLO has five units, four of them assault rifle and RPG armed the last is an LMG. The real crippling factor is the shortage of leaders on the PLO side.

This weekend and other news

I have been cleared to work the Dream Cruise so there won't be a game this weekend.

The knee problem looks like a torn miniscus so there will be a couple of weeks in the near future where I will be sitting at home painting (sigh) after the repair surgery. The doc said he has had people wait a long time before seeing him about an injury, but never 35 years. I have always been a procrastinator.

In other news it looks good for 27 Aug gaming at my place.


Keep painting,     John

Plastic Soldier Company 1/100 Sherman M-4A1

     Fresh from Michigan Toy Soldier is yet another beauty from the PSC stable this kit presents the cast-hull version of the Sherman tank. This kit is cast with plenty of attention to detail and is crisply done with no flash and nearly invisble mold-lines. Molded in an alarming pink shade there are five sprues each providing the parts for one tank as well as a ton of spare/alternate bits. Priced at $29.95US these are a great deal for such a well done product. That said, on to the product, remember you can click on the photos for a larger picture.

box, front

Plastic Soldier Company 1/100 Sherman M-4A2

     Hot off the presses is the M-4A2 kit from Plastic Soldier Company, this long-awaited kit is everything that the Pz-IV suggested it would be, crisply molded in a light olive color this kit comes with everything you need to assemble most variants of the famous M-4. Parts are provided for the 75mm, 76mm and 105mm models. This kit should prove popular amongst wargamers as it provides an excellent kit at a very reasonable $29.95US for five. Now on to the photos, remember to click on the picture for a larger view.

Front of the box, nice to see something other than O.D. overall

Scenario Design Challenge

    I have a challenge to anybody that is feeling creative out there. I have a table that is designed to be able to set up in different configurations, 6x4, 12x4, 9x6, and an "L" shape using two 6x4 panels (these are, of course, Imperial measurements, nobody could reach the center if it were metric). Using those possible arrangements I am challenging you to design a generic scenario that is balanced, fun and unpredictable.

    This does not mean equal forces, it can be balanced by placing various victory conditions on the attackers/defenders. You can limit it to certain periods or levels of play (e.g. Skirmish) but do try to make it as open as possible. The other requirement is that it be within the reach if the average wargamer, no requirements for a large castle or a 1:1 scale steamship.

     You need to include a clear map and easy to follow troop descriptions as well as clearly explained special rules or victory conditions.

     Send your ideas to me at daftrica 89 at yahoo dot com. Ignore those spaces and the "dot" is of course this "." Title the e-mail "scenario".

     I will play-test the best ones and award a prize to the winner.

Keep painting,  John

Building the Zvezda BT-5 1/100

While I was putting the previously reviewed Hanomag kit together I thought to myself, "What the heck, I'll do the BT-5 as well". And here it is. Another gem, this went together without any problems.

don't do this! the lower hull also connects to the track units 

and should be joined to the chassis before the tracks are put on

sometimes I should actually read the instructions

Building the 1/100 Zvezda SdKfz 251

    Looking for something quick to build before the Saturday game my eye lighted on the Zvezda kit of the Hanomag sitting on my workbench's "in" pile (which, by the way, is a pretty big pile). I thought to myself, "Ah, that would be fast". Well I wasn't wrong. As has become the trademark of Zvezda kits this one is a sharp bit of work. I did encounter one problem and one oversight. The problem I will explain in the building pictures, the oversight (and I can't think of how I missed it in the sprue shots earlier) is that the top-mounted mg is not present in the kit and the shield is also gone missing, an AA mg is provided but it should be mounted at the rear of the vehicle, not the front. An odd oversight for a company that put lug-nuts on the wheels of it's models. But on to the build;

the chassis and track units 

these went together very tightly

AK-47 Republic update, These little piggies went to Africa

     Pat T, one of the moving factors behind the AK-47 Republic project, has built his armies around the boxed sets offered by Peter Pig; who also happen to be the publishers of the rules. I have a fair number of Peter Pig minis in my collection and have always thought them to be excellent. This line holds true to that tradition. Elegantly molded, realistically posed and cast in high quality metal these are some darned good miniatures. During a recent game I snapped some shot of Pat's troops, enjoy.

a militia unit with HMGs moves into the woods

The fearless leader stops by in his 4x4

Building the Zvezda Katyusha BM-13

Having spent last weekend building and painting a towns worth of 28mm buildings I decided to take it easy and give the Zvezda 1/100 scale kits a try. I was interested in the BM-13 in particular as I had a great deal of difficulty with the Battlefront model that I had attempted. As noted earlier the Zvezda kit is a snap-together model and is very cleanly cast. I decided to start with the part that had given me the most trouble before, the launch-rails and elevation frame. This went together like a dream, despite being made of four tiny parts. The fit was perfect and the parts snapped cleanly into place (I glued them anyways).

the frame and elevation post

be careful to push the frame tips all the way trough the launch-rails

 the pins pop out the top and form the locators for the rockets

Wargames Factory Persian Cavalry

     I acquired these at the same time that I got the Infantry and the Normans from Michigan Toy Soldier  but have only just got round to typing up the review.

      These are done to the same idea as the infantry with the model divided into many separate bits (many of which they share with the infantry set), this is taken to a higher level as the horses come complete with far more heads than any dozen horses could rightly use. They did manage to get the number of figures correct on this one with a dozen riders and horses present. The weapons sprues seem to be an odd admixture of items, there aren't enough shields (or spears for that matter) to do a unit of spear-armed cavalry, and not enough bows to create a unit of archers, there are three long kontos-like lances and four shorter spears, four war-hammers and a whole bunch of different swords. It is almost as if they just grabbed a handful of sprues out of a mixed bin and chucked them in the box. All of the bits are done to the same high standard that the infantry box showed, as are the horses and riders, it just seems that there was little plan as far as what type of unit this was intended to produce. Odd.

     The box-art is some of the best seen from Wargames Factory in a long while but the box is an end-opening affair made of shabby, weak paperboard. Not to be trusted to protect the minis during shipping (so order from somebody that will overdo the packing, or better yet, go to your local hobby shop and buy them there). The contents is much like the infantry box so I will use the same approach and simply present the product with occasional notes.

click on the pictures for a close-up

the box

Wargames Factory 28mm Persian Infantry

     With everybody and their brother making Greek Hoplites I was thrilled when Wargames Factory announced that they were going to do Persian Infantry and Cavalry. Well, Wargames Factory had some problems (the details of which I know next to nothing) and seems to have emerged intact, this delayed the introduction of the figures but they are now in my hands fresh from the shelf at Michigan Toy Soldier. The box art is better than in the past but still pretty grim, the box on the other hand is nice and sturdy and will protect the minis from all but the most aggressive shipper. Here is the box;

the back is blank cardboard