More Pak 36 from Zvezda in 1/72

Another Pak 36 from Zvezda, this time with the diorama base and crew (se my review of the gun here).

The two crew memebers have good details and are appropriate for early war. It’s just a pity there are only two. For me that is not a problem, as I have lots of other crew that I can use, but it is a pity.

The diorama base is simple but effective. It is detailed with two ammo-boxes and a couple of spent cartridges, and it is of a size that works well in a game.

All in all a great little kit.

28mm Nymph from Otherworld

The nymph is one of the few monsters in the AD&D 1st edition Monster Manual that didn’t have an illustration. The reason: “Looking at one will cause permanent blindness undless the onlooker save versus magic. If the nymph is nude or disrobes, an onlooker will die unless a saving throw versus magic is successful.”

This nymph is from Otherworld set WE2 Dryad, Nymph & Sylph. A lovely little model. The problem with this figure is … if it is really well painted you risk permanent blindness. Thankfully Otherworld hasn’t made a nude version…

Anyway, paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted):

Flesh - 003 Pale Flesh, with a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone Ink and drybrushed with Pale Flesh.

Dress – 975 Military Green, drybrushed with 850 Medium Olive

Belt – 850 Medium Olive drybrushed 885 Pastel Green

Shoes – 843 Cork Brown

Hair – Coat d’Arms 235 Horse Tone Brown, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone Ink.

Book review – British Military Trucks of World War Two

When I started to build a British force for France 1940 I had quite some problems when it came to soft-skins. First off, there aren’t that many in plastics, but a myriad in metal and resin. But the question was: Which of them were used in 1940? The net helped me somewhat, but, being who I am, I really wanted a reference book. Looking around I didn’t find anything interesting about British soft-skins in book-form. Nothing.

But a couple of months ago I saw that Tankograd Publishing had released what I was looking for. My local favourite hobby store, Hobbybokhandeln, took in a couple and I went down there during lunch break, looked at the book and promptly bought it.

British Military Trucks of World War Two – Manufacturers, Types, Variants and Service of Trucks in British Army and Royal Air Force Service 1939-45, Les Freathy, Tankograd Publishing, 256 pages hardcover with 680 photographs, 2012.

Do you recognize AEC, Albion, Austin, Bedford, Commer, Crossley, Dennis, Dodge, ERF, Foden, Ford, FWD, Garner, Guy, Hillman, Humber, Karrier, Leyland, Maudsley, Morris, Scammel, Standard or Thornycroft? They all produced trucks for the British Army or RAF, and you will get details of the different truck types that these manufacturers made during the war. Every type gets between a half and 13 pages worth of pictures, technical data and other information. Usually very clear pictures giving a lot of details and very useful for modelling.

There are also sections on lend-lease vehicles and trailers.

The only thing I missed, which is an important omission I think, is dates of use. This information is often in the text, but not always. It would have been nice to see it clearly in for example the tables of technical data for each vehicle, or maybe in a separate table where the dates of all vehicles were collected.

All in all I think this is a great reference book on something that, to my knowledge, simply hasn’t been covered in detail before. If you need or want to know all there is on British soft-skins, then you have to buy this book, and I give it a rating of 5 out of 5. Simply a must buy.

If you have a passing interest then it could be anything from a 1 to a 4, it is simply so specialized that it depends on the circumstances. But if you don’t buy it, then it could be a good idea to let someone else do, and borrow it J

Welcome followers

- Mojo with the blog WeaponsInMassProduction – a very nice blog on wargaming. Well worth a visit.

- Friendly Fire – I haven’t found out if he has a blog. When I googled Friendly Fire and blogspot/blogger I got quite a few, erm, interesting sites. Some more presentable than others, and some not fit for print on a family friendly site. If you have a site, then please comment below and I will give an update.

Battle report - Dux Brittaniarum…. or maybe Gondorium

A week ago the group had our first try at the Too Fat Lardies’ rules Dux Brittaniarum, that is their rules for wargaming in the Age of Arthur, 450 to 600 AD. Brittish versus Saxons.,

This was our first go at the rules, and our rules guru and TFL expert Thomas guided us in the intricacies of ancient Britain and how they fought.

A peaceful pastoral scene

Oh, yeah, we don’t really have any ancients figures. 

But the Britons, being noble and just (well, I played them...) were substituted with LotR Gondorians, and the filthy (or whatever…) Saxons found their lookalikes in Thomas’ LotR Uruk Hai orcs.

This being our first attempt meant that we made a lot of mistakes (use the shield wall if your British!) and got the rules wrong a couple of times. But that is the way it is when you start.

I ended up on the British, defending, side both games.

Did you notice… “both games”? Yep, we actually managed two games in an afternoon. That is a record for our group, as we usually play one game a whole day and evening.

First game was a nail-biter. It started well-ish for us Britons.

Our troops appear in the flank of the Saxons

Our Lord and his troops charged the cavalry, which, cowardly, retreated before we could do them any harm.

It then went down-hill, as we lost one whole troop to a stupid charge coupled with us not really knowing just how stupid it is to charge a superior foe in some cover, not using the cards right and horrible dice-rolling (excuses, it was just stupid).

Then a full scale melee broke out, horrible losses for both sides. 

We could use our local superiority to get a slight advantage, and the Uruks made a gamble. Single combat between two nobles.

Justice and light won the day, as the filthy Uruk-Saxon was bested!

That was it for the Saxons, as they had had enough, and fled.

Hooray! I was on the winning side. Showing my superior handling of rules, troops and enemies!

In reality a very marginal victory.

Game two, and I'm still Briton. This time it goes down-hill from the beginning, whith a very clear trend.

 Here they come!

Our troops form up

 Close combat commences...

...and our troops are overwhelmed...

 ...and slaughtered...

...and flee.

No question about this match, a resounding defeat.

To read more on these games, you can check Thomas’ blog.

I had a great day. Two great games. New rules that are very playable and begs to be played more times. An umpire who is willing to start a campaign.

What more can one ask for?

To answer that, I will buy the rules and am considering one of the starting bundles from TFL, consisting of rules and a warband. It would be funnier with ‘real’ Britons next time.

(Reality has intervened. I have massively over-bought this year. Tons of Mantic figs, a lot of Otherworld via Indiegogo, and far too much WWII bought or ordered. The plastics and metal mountain is higher than ever. There will be no Britons, nor Saxons, this year. (But it’s soon a new year J))

Finally, welcome follower Jacksarge, with Jacksarge’s Wargames Ramblings. Great blog about WWII, Dark Ages and more. 

Italian 75/27 artillery from GHQ in 6mm

Finally done with the four 75mm Italian artillery-pieces we need for tomorrow’s el-Alamein game.

They’re from GHQ, as are the crew. Fantastic details, as you can see from the photos.

The men are painted as usual, as are the hard-ware.

Hät WWII British Mortars in 1/72

I’m in WWII-mode at the moment, and grabbed a box from the plastics mountain. This one is British mortars from Hät, and it consists of 4 sprues, with eight men and a 3” mortar on each sprue. Rather soft plastic, detailing is a bit crude, especially the faces, and with very little gear on the figures. But they do the job.

These guys will be used in our IABSM (I ain’t been shot mum from Too Fat Lardies – great company!) games, and will be based to work with that.

What is need in the game are two-man teams for the 2” mortar and five-man teams for the 3”.

A two-man 2” mortar team

3” mortar with three men out of the five needed.

I will probably base my further 3” mortars on bases with two crew members and three crew on individual bases. I’ll have to scrounge extra crew from other sources. 

In IABSM the leaders (big men) are rated level one to four, depending on how good they are. My friend Laffe at Figurfanatikern (he writes in English, very god reading!) had the excellent idea of showing the respective level of leaders with the number of figures on the base. A puny level 1 corporal would be represented by one figure, but a heroic platoon leader of level 4 would have four figures on the base, representing himself and runners, radiomen and whatever.

Time to do something about that idea with the final men from the sprue..

A level 3 British Big Man with his trusty biographer and radioman.

Paints used (Vallejo):

Uniform – 921 English Uniform

Anklets – 821 German Camouflage Beige

Helmets and hardware – 894 Russian Uniform WWII

Boots – black

Webbing and pouches – 819 Iraqui Sand

Water Bottle – 875 Beige Brown

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud

Welcome new follower Encourage One Another with the blog of the same name.

Pak 36 in 1/72 – Comparison Italeri, ICM, Zvezda + 2 more

The final Pak 36 post (for this time at least).

 Italeri, ICM and Zvezda

Here is a comparison of the guns from my previous posts, from Italeri, ICM and Zvezda.

I let the photos speak for themselves.

 Zvezda, ICM and Italeri

As a bonus, the ICM gun next to Revell’s (from the old Matchbox 1/76 Krupp Protze kit, noticeably smaller) and a metal monstrosity from Brittania. I will not even paint the metal one as it is simply too bad. What a horrible thing!

Brittania, ICM and Revell/Matchbox

 

 

There will actually be one more Pak 36 post. I bought two Zvezda kits, and I’m finishing one on the base with crew members. Sooner or later.