Finished units for Joy of 6.

A short while ago I posted a wip of some Soviet units for the upcoming Joy of 6 show in July. First up some BM21V Grad rocket launchers for my Airborne.

BM21V Grad

BM21V Grad

Also completed are a pair of MT-LBu  Artillery observation stands. 

To complete my SA8 air defence are two more SA8s.

SA8

Finally a battalion of T55AM2Bs for my Naval Infantry.

Battalion

HQ

Company

Looking forward to using these in July in the Bjervik display game.

Crisis Point 6, British units Pt2- Engineer Fv432s

I was fortunate to win some models on Ebay, 10 FV432+Rarden Turret. Great I thought until I realised The British Army only made 13 and they were used by the Berlin Brigade! So what to do with 10 models I couldn't use? The hulls with a little work could be used for ambulances but also for transport for my engineers. At a recent military vehicle show I saw this, an FV432 with a stowage "bin" over the rear hatch.

So I decided to make 3 of these;

The addition of some stowage and a cammo net hides the hole were the turret would have been.

Crisis Point 6, British units pt1- Parachute Battalion.

This years Crisis Point game is "The Battle for Hannover". This year I have decided to play as British and field units from the British Army of the Rhine. Part of the forces I might deploy are a battalion of the Parachute Regiment, 3 companies of para infantry and supports.

3 Coys Para infantry

Mortars, Machine guns, Blowpipe SAM and Engineers.

Anti tank coy, Milans and transports

HQ and artillery observer.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

WW2 scratch game , using Rapid Fire.

 Had a short notice, bring what you fancy Rapid fire game using my Americans and Danny's late war Germans. All terrain provided by Grimsby Wargames Club . I arrived first and set up the table. I thought it would be a good idea to place a river and 2 bridges, somthing I immediately regretted once we started the game.

  

All in all a good game, called it a draw  as the Germans had lost 1 infantry battalion and the 2nd was stretched quite thinly and the Americans had got a toe hold in the town but had yet to take control of it. The rivers seriously impeded the American advance so their armour was relegated to a supporting roll, leaving the infantry to gain control of the bridges.

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".