More work in progress for Joy of 6.

Was going to post some British pieces for Septembers crisis point but I've a few more pieces for the Battle of Bjervik to get on with first. A couple of artillery spotters in the form of a pair of Heroics and Ros MT-LBu(ARCV) (SM13).

MT-LBu

MT-LBu

MT-LBu

With part of the Bjervik scenario possibly involving an amphibious phase I thought it was time to invest in some landing craft. The standard Soviet landing craft was, and still is the Ondatra class. Unfortunately no one makes a model of these, but they do have a passing resemblance to the WW2 allied  LCM(3), but with a larger wheelhouse. Managed to get these on E-Bay from Ambhimods  code IRS3b.

LCM3

LCM3

LCM3

With Gaz 66 Truck

With UAZ 469 Field car

Size wise they are quite a bit shorter than the Ondatra class but will do at a push as the loads will only be representative ie a single truck or vehicle although a BTR60 is a tight fit.

Joy of 6- work in progress.

A few of us who took part in the Arctic Strike weekend a few years ago are hoping to put on a demo game at the Joy of 6 show on the 19th July 2015 in Sheffield. We are planing to re fight the Bjervik table which was a draw, but with the Soviets having a slight advantage over the NATO forces. Sat around for a long time in the garage of dead metal have been some models that need finishing to complete my Soviet Naval Infantry and Airborne forces.
To complete my Airborne composite artillery batteries I needed some BM21V Grad rocket launchers. These are  cut down version of the standard BM21 rocket launcher but with a reduced number of tubes and mounted onto a Gaz 66 chassis. Unfortunately the only company to make these was Skytrex and then only in packs of 5. They are now available from Heroics & Ross and are labeled as Grad P rocket launcher(M777).. Fortunately Richard  Phillips was good enough to let me have a couple at last years Crisis Point game, so here they are;

BM21V

BM21V

A simple model, but very clean and well cast. Heroics and Ross have been releasing quite a few new models sculpted by Ian Armstrong. One of these is a T55AM2B(SM95), an up armoured version with improved optics and a laser range finder.These are slightly more expensive at 65p each,rather than their normal price of 50p for a tank, but the quality more than warrants this. These will be used for my Soviet Naval Infantry armoured battalion, mainly because they are such nice models. The HQ consists of a T55AM2B and a H&R BTR60 PA command vehicle(SM77).

T55AM2B battalion with HQ

T55AM2B

T55AM2B

I have also had some Soviet artillery lying around for some time, these are to complete my motor rifle regiment in BTRs and consist of another 3 gun batteries of D30 122mm field guns( Scotia models RM0108) and 3 gun batteries of D20 152mm field guns( H&R SM33) all with H&R crew figures.

D20 152mm(front) D30 122mm (rear)

D20 152mm and D30 122mm guns

 Finally to complete my SA8 AA regiment 2 more H&R SA8 Geckos(SM41). I  love these models and they just look the part.

SA8 Gecko

SA8 Gecko

Next up some British for Septembers Crisis Point game "The Battle for Hanover".

West Germans vs Soviets pt 2

Played some time ago, we decided to fight the previous battle to some kind of a conclusion. We allowed both sides some limited re-deployment. To this end the German player, Danny, filtered more troops into the town to consolidate his hold on that objective and redeployed some of his armour. The Soviets, Andy and myself, dug in on the objective we held and redeployed some infantry and armour for a cunning flank attack.

Germans enter the town.

The soviets hiding in the woods

Germans in the town

The Soviets advance on the German flank drawing them off the objective

The soviets race to seize the objective 

The redeployed Germans.

Germans redeploying

Crossing the river

Soviets race to grab the now vacated objective

...and this is about were we called it. Not shown the soviets deployed onto the crest and occupied the German's abandoned positions, but with no direct armour support Danny started to redeploy his Leopard 2s to support his infantry attempt to retake the objective. We decided on a minor Soviet victory. Figures and vehicles were Dan's and mine, terrain the clubs and my collection.