Little Lead Arms Race

Saturday, 10 August 2013

American Artillery

Traditionally the main killing arm of any army is its artillery. These units tend to be some of its most technologically advanced units, the American army is no exception, fielding some of the most up to date units of any modern army. The most common of these is the M109 series of self propelled howitzers.
The artillery is organised into 2, 3 battery units and a support vehicle. The M109A1 is by H&R and the M922 FASVV is by Scotia.

Artillery

M109s and M922

Next; Bradley fighting vehicles.

American Armour

The M1 Abrams was a quantum leap in American armour design. Fast, quiet and heavily armoured with the emphasis placed on crew survivability the M1 was a totally different tank from its predecessor the M60, so different a new set of tactics were formulated for the M1 as well as a new infantry vehicle, the M2/3 Bradley fighting vehicle introduced to complement the M1s high mobility.
The HQ stand is 20mmx30mm and has a H&R M1 Abrams and a M577 command vehicle. The M1s are still in their factory applied Forrest Green paint and the M577s are in Winter Verdant MERDC.

HQs

The eyes and ears of the HQs are the recce units. The M3 bradley is Identical to the M2 so to avoid confusion they are painted in MERDC. The only pictures I've seen of Bradleys in MERDC were taken at Fort Hood undergoing trials.

M3s

Two HQs add some flexibility to my M1 battalion as they can be split into 2 separate groups.

M1 Battalion

M1 Company

Next; Artillery

American Command Units

After sometime away from 6mm gaming completing an American Civil War project in 15mm, I now have some Modern American units completed. The MERDC cammo pattern is based on an article by Steven Zaloga, originally published in Military Modelling. I was fortunate to find a copy at the Grimsby club, for those interested a PDF can be found on this site http://www.hobbyhavoc.com/oldhavoc/index.php?topic=1230.0 . At the club we have all decided to base our armies around 1985. This was an interesting time for the Americans as they were undergoing another structural organisation as well as introducing new equipment and transitioning from MERDC to NATO 3 colour camouflage. Because of this you see plenty of older equipment in MERDC and newer equipment in a basic Forrest Green factory finish, as the NATO scheme wasn't officially adopted till about '86/'87. Its this mix of old and new I've tried to depict in my units.
First up is the CO stand on a 40mmx40mm base and consists of a a H&R M113, M577 and a Hummer personal carrier.

CO Stand

Next are the FAO and FAC stands based on 2 pence pieces. These consist of 2 FIST-V artillery observer vehicles and a air liaison team in a Hummer. The FIST-V is identical to the Improved TOW vehicle so this is the model I've used.

FAOs and FAC

Next; American Armour.

Monday, 27 May 2013

American Units WIP

I'm still working on my 80's Americans and have just added a couple of vanity units to the pile. These have no use in game terms but add to the overall effect. Both by Scotia they consist of a M113 Fitters Vehicle(MM0003) for my M113 battalion and a pair of M922 FAASV(MM0051) to keep the M109 artillery batteries supplied.

M113 fiters vehicle and M922

All very nice models the M922 fits very well with the Heroics and Ros M109.

New British and Yet More Soviets!

Some of the guys on the Cold War Commander forum were surprised at the quality of the Heroics and Ross Challenger 2 and Chieftain tank models. I must admit I was impressed with these offerings from H&R an wondered if they had been remolded at some point. This prompted me to dig out the command units I did for my Brits a few years back.

H&R Challenger and Chieftain

Not that you can tell much from the painted models but I think they were probably of the same quality as the newer casts I featured in my previous post.

As I'm doing some new units for the British the unwritten law of the "little lead arms race" comes into force. The Soviets I had been working on had to be finished to maintain the status quo. Some T72s by H&R(SM03). These are T72Ms but they will do as Soviet T72As.

T72 battalion

HQ T72 and BRDM2u

Also recently completed a battalion of H&R T62Ms(SM59). You don't see many pictures of Soviet T62s with sand shields out side of Afghanistan but this is such a nice model I decided to use it anyway.

T62 battalion

HQ T62 and BRDM2

As well as the two tank battalions some more engineering units have been finished. These are all by Scotia and consist of MDK 2M Rotary Excavator (RM0061), a ST210 Mobile Crane(RM0062), a BTM Trench Digger(RM0026) and a TMS65 Decontamination Tank (RM0079)

Soviet Engineering units

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

British Army New Units- WIP

After painting nothing but Russian green for quite a while I thought I might revisit my 80s British. To add some flexibility to the armoured units I have decided to add some more HQs so I can split the brigades in two.

Challenger and Chieftain HQs

The Challenger stand consists of a FV105 Sultan(BM17) and a Challenger 2 MBT(BM45). The Chieftain stand has a FV439 signals(BM19) and a Chieftain MBT(BM03).All models are by Heroics and Ros.
At the moment my non mechanised infantry are in "4 tonners". This makes them very vulnerable on the table, so they will get to ride about in some Saxon APCs(BM58).

Saxon APC

The HQ stand for the new infantry battalion consists of a 3/4 Ton Landrover Signals(BM20) and a Bedford MK Signals(BM21).

Infantry HQ

To add some weight to my Brit artillery three stands of 155mm FH70s(BM28). These come with crew figures but all are stood at attention so I've mixed in some other crew figures.

FH70

To act as tows and keep them supplied with ammunition they have a FODEN 6x6 FH70 GUN LIMBER(BM50) and a FODEN 6x6 FH70 GUN TRACTOR(BM52).

BM50 and BM52

Additional units consist of two FV 180 C.E.Vs(BM40) to give engineering support.

FV180

1 TON LAND ROVER(BM34) and STALWART(BM38) and a FV 434(BM41) with a 1/2 ton Landrover with a trailer.

Ambulance and Stalwart

Landrover and FV434

The landrover with trailer might be used to carry a milan team and the FV434 will go with the FV432s in the mechanised battalion.
As usual the models from H&R were cleanly cast with virtually no flash, requiring minimal preparation prior to mounting.

Sunday, 21 April 2013

Arctic Strike - The Pics

I was lucky enough to be involved with Crisis Point 2-"Arctic Strike". Very enjoyable weekend, made all the better for a overall WarPac victory. I didn't take that many pictures, but here's what I have. All were taken on day two on the Bjerkvik and Bodo table.

Yak 38 over flies Naval Infantry around Bjervik

Medical unit attached to Naval infantry brigade, Bjervic

Mil8s ready to transport Spetznas units.

Part of the air defence regiment take up position on the outskirts of Bodo

T72s of the MRR move out of Bodo, after being landed at the docks.

SA6 SAM regiment with Radars

BMP2s strike out from Bodo into the open countryside beyond.

T72s on the move, BTR60 "TAC P" ready to call in air cover.

The excellent buildings on the Bodo table where scratch build by Richard Philips. To see more of his excellent work visit http://arcticstrike2013.blogspot.co.uk and http://littlesoldiers-cardophillipo.blogspot.co.uk/, both are worth a visit.