The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby episode 22 Sea lion

 

In Episode 22 we are joined by author, scientist and games designer John Lambshead, with his latest work, the Sea Lion supplement for Bolt Action. 

John talks to us about some of the history and new game mechanics he's added, as well as the historical basis for what is arguably the biggest campaign that never was.

You can listen to the show at the following links from 05/05/2017

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Come on over to our facebook group to join in the discussion, and drop by Johns blog to see what he's up to as well! I'll have an in depth look at the new book here very soon as well... 

Battlegroup Tobruk over view

As a fan of WW2 gaming in the desert campaigns of WW2 (You can see my 28mm Perry DAK force here), one of the most anticipated gaming releases for me this year has to be the Tobruk supplement for the excellent Battlegroup rule set. For those yet to be initiated into Battlegroup, I've written a handy introduction to the game. 

Battlegroup: Tobruk, covers the period 1940-41, from the Italian campaigns in East Africa up to the Operation Crusader and the Gazala line, as well as Operation Mercury and the German invasion of Crete. 

Tobruk follows the now familiar format of a big hardback book, consisting of just under 200 glossy paper pages with a blend of photos, art work, history and gaming information. Special mention must be made of the photos however as the lads have put some time into finding previously unpublished photos.






 Not massively important from a purely gaming perspective perhaps, but certainly adds massively to the feel of a high quality book.  Bindings feel sturdy too, and the book should stand up well to the rigours of handling and transporting to games. 

No index is included, however the contents page is very thorough, and the end of the book contains a quick reference sheet, pull out sheets of vehicle cards, and then appendices of references for vehicles and weapon stats making finding the information you need a simple process.











New Rules
The initial part of the book covers the history of the eaerly desert campaigns, before the reader is brought to the special rules for playing games in the desert, to differentiate these from the other supplements. Briefly, these are;

• Combined operations for Afrika Korp and Italian forces.
• Mobile Warfare, where in meeting engagements infantry and gun crews need to be transported.
• Vehicle Wear and tear, reflecting the effects of the harsh desert conditions on the maintainability of equipment.  
• Desert Dust Clouds, fairly self evident! This represents the increasingly poor visibility through an engagement. 
• Low on Fuel, representing the logistical difficulties presented with desert warfare.
• Mandatory infantry restrictions are lower 
• Rules for Portees ammunition capacity.
• Rules for raiding forces and paratroops
• Rules to represent the difficulty in communications, and adjusting artillery bombardments. 
• Reproductions of other rules such as communications, mortar spotter, dispatch etc for ease of access. 

Army Lists

Army lists come next, with lists for British Infantry and Armoured division battle groups, these are similar to those in Blitzkrieg, however come with updates and extra units suitable for the desert war. Particularly exciting (To me) are the addition of LRDG patrols to the reconnaissance section. Amendments are also included for playing the East African campain. 

Italian armoured and infantry division battle groups are also included, and the infantry list provides options for regular infantry, Black Shirts, or Colonial infantry platoons, as well as an amendment list for the East African campaign. 
The Italian armoured platoon provides options for both truck and bike mounted Bersaglieri for it's infantry support

The DAK platoon list is similar to the Blitzkrieg panzer grenadier platoon, though with less half-tracks, and some options for cool toys and lots of machine guns and anti tank weaponry. Options for captured equipment are quite prevalent too, with captured artillery, armoured cars and tanks available. 

In addition to the previously mentioned British and Italian platoons, LRDG and Auto Saharana patrols also get army lists for light, raiding formations, these are designed to be used in games of 350 points or less. These offer some very interesting and exciting gaming options for light vehicle fun, as well as a scenario for a meeting engagement between a patrol of each. 









For Crete, 2 further army lists are included, the first, unsurprisingly covers the 7th Flieger division full of air portable Fallschirmjager options, with a few Gebirgsjager thrown in too for a bit of extra fire power. These are very light infantry forces, but also highly motivated and quite tough.


Final army list is for the defenders of Crete, and covers both Cretan and Greek local forces, as well as supporting commonwealth troops. The force has a good selection of artillery and fire support, however armoured support is quite restricted.

Scenarios 

Tobruk comes with 3 scenarios featuring historical re fights for the desert war in general, including one raiding force scenario for the LRDG and Auto Saharans. a 5 scenario mini campaign following the Tobruk siege, and finally 2 more for the Battle of Crete, though the Airlanding scenario and rules could be translated easily into other forces with a little light lateral thinking... 

On Episode 20 of the Brit, the Yank and the hobby we chat to Piers Brand, one of the dark and devious minds behind the book, and you can find where to listen to it here. 

Overall, this is a magnificent book, and a fantastic tool for desert gaming in the early part of WW2. I'm looking forwards to getting some games in, and am currently assembling some 20mm Afrika Korp at the moment... 

You can find Battlegroup Tobruk, and the rest of the Battlegroup range at the Plastic Soldier Company site, and see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Services.

The Brit,TheYankandTheHobby, Salute 2017

This week Andy has been off to Salute, head over to the facebook group to see all the pictures as you listen in. I've sorted them into gallery by manufacture, so you can see all the things I managed to get round to viewing.

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The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby Episode 20, Battlegroup Tobruk

This week Piers from Battlegroup fame joins us to discuss the new Tobruk supplement and talk about all things Italy in the desert. 
You can join the discussion at our facebook group, or listen directly to the show at the links below. 

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Warlord Games 1/56 Panther Ausf A review

Firstly, my apologies to Warlord Games who supplied me with a kit of this vehicle sometime ago, however I'm only now getting round to writing about it... 

Warlord's Panther tank is produced by scale model manufacturer Italeri, and I believe this kit is a pretty much direct descendent of their mid 1990's 1/35th scale kit scaled down to 1/56, and simplified for Wargamers.                                            

The kit comes on 2 sprue, with a small decal sheet and commander figure included. Use of slide mould technology is evident too, as the gun included a pre drilled muzzle. 

Assembly is quick and simple, though attention needs to be paid to the tracks as they are handed, and also need dry fitting. I found fitting the top run, then the lower run, and then the outer part of the drive sprocket the easiest way to assemble them, and used plastic weld to assemble the kit. 

Fit was good, and a little flash was present in places, but nothing major. Only issues I found were the towing shackles were a little small and fragile, and most of them either broke or snapped, so I ended up ditching them completely. 

Detail is generally nice, though I found the tools a little light in relief, and could do with either being a separate part, or moulded a little deeper. The Zimmerit also looked a little too neat on the sprue, but painted looks good, and it also saves a vast amount of work creating your own. 

To paint my Panther, I used Vallejo middlestone sprayed over black primer as the basis for the dunkelgelb, then mixed increasing amounts of pale sand in to get a fairly high contrast graduation in the colours. For the camo pattern, I used Vallejo Mahogany and Luftwaffe camo green, before using a fairly big range of MIG washes, pigments and filters to weather the tank.

Foliage is made from sea foam sprigs, and you can find a guide to how I do it at the Warlord Games site here. 

Overall, this is another good kit from the Warlord/Italeri partnership,

You can visit the Warlord Games website here, and as ever, more of my work can be found at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Rubicon Models 1/56 Jagdpanzer 38t Hetzer review

This kit has been out for a little while, so much so that I won one at the (Cam)Bridge to Far event in March of last year... 


The Jagdpanzer 38t is one of those late war vehicles that is so iconic, and such a good modelling opportunity that it's likely to appear in most late war gamers collections, and this kit from Rubicon Models is certainly a very welcome addition to their line up of plastic vehicle kits. 






Rubicons Jagdpanzer comes nicely presented in their typical box, with each sprue individually bagged, with a very good decal sheet that comes with the standard range of German markings, as well as vehicles used by the Russian Liberation Army and what I believe are Czech Partisan forces.




 
The kit provides numerous options as is the norm for Rubicon, offering the builder the choice of creating early, mid and late production vehicles, as well as a Flammpanzer 38t. No stowage or crew figures are provided however.

I opted to build the late production vehicle,  and found assembly to be quick and straight forwards, though I do recommend taking the time to read through the instructions and ensure you are familiar with the variant you are going to build. 




The Jagdpanzer was painted first with black primer, then airbrushed with Vallejo Middlestone, this was modulated with increasing amounts of Pale Sand, before a disruptive pattern of Vallejo Mahogany was added.

Some pin washing of Burnt Umber oil paint, and the Jagdpanzer 38t was complete. Personally, I rate this as Rubicons best kit, and thoroughly recommend it. This particular vehicle was a clients, for a commission, however I have one of my own in the stash for when I eventually get to expanding my late war German collection.



Rubicon Models can be obtained through Plastic Soldier Company in the UK, and through their own distributor in the United States.
As ever, I can be contacted through Volley Fire Painting Service on Facebook, and you can even see more painted examples of my work there too. 

The Brit, The Yank, and the Hobby episode 9

Episode 9 of our historical gaming podcast is now live, and can be found at the following links

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For more information, and to speak to us directly, as well as find photo's and models related to this episode come on over and join our Facebook Group, at The Brit, The Yank, and The Hobby.

Warlord Games 28mm Volksgrenadier

One of Warlords most recent releases for Bolt Action is the Volksgrenadier pack for the Germans. This set contains 10 28mm sized figures in Warlord traditional style.

 

 

All the models are wearing the late war M43 uniform with ankle boots and gaiters, and carry a mix of MP44's, K98's and Panzerfausts, as well as a 2 man MG42 team. 

 

Poses are a little mixed, with some being breathtakingly good, my favourites being the guy holding the Panzerfaust with the slung MP44 standing and waiting,  the whole body language and pose suggests tiredness and tension.  

The Machine gun team too is another favourite, they really convey the weight of carrying the gun and fatigue of constant combat. 

Most of the other figures are fairly standard fair, advancing to contact or gesticulating in an NCOish fashion.

 

 The only figure I'm not so keen on is the stooping guy holding his rifle across his body. I suspect if he were posed against a building or a wall he'd look excellent, however standing alone on a base he looks a little odd. 

The set retails for £15, and also includes bases. As these were a pre release copy of the figures I can't comment on packaging, however cast quality was excellent. I suspect I shall be painting some up as very late war SS grenadiers too at some stage too. 

My thanks to my friends Warlord for providing the models, and you can order a set of Volksgrenadiers either through your local games shop or direct from Warlord Games. As ever you can see more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service. 

Warlord Games 28mm Winter Germans Review

Last Christmas Warlord Games release their Winter German range of figures, and were kind enough to send me some. Therefore, and in the midst of a heat wave, I have painted some up.

For the purposes of this review I have 2 sets of grenadiers, the command pack, an MG42 team and a PAK 40, as well as the heavy weapons set which was available as a limited release earlier in the year.

 All the sets were cleanly cast and required minimal prep and clean up, and all contained bases, though I found the base in the PAK 40 a little small so replaced it with an MDF one.

I'll discuss below the contents of each pack individually below:-

German Grenadiers Pack (Winter)

The biggest set contains 10 figures, all in winter garb (surprisingly). The models are armed for the winter of 1944, as they are carrying 3 MP44 rifles. The rest of the squad is armed with 1 MG42 Light Machine Gun team, 4 K98 rifles, and a figure with an MP40 sub machine gun, as well as 4 Panzerfausts.

 Each figure is dressed in either a great coat, parker, or full winter suit. Most have helmet covers too whilst some wear caps. The models in this article were some that I painted for work, and my own ones I'm tempted to do as Waffen SS with the camouflage side of the suits visible as opposed to the white.

Most of the men have separate heads to allow greater variety in posing and individuality. Field gear is also nicely presented on these models. My main gripe with these models is that I'd have liked to see less (or preferably no) MP44, and instead have more models with rifles or MP40's to enable their use through earlier stages of the war, likewise with the Panzerfausts, and then the later war weapons available through either a different pack or individually on the website.

German Heer HQ (Winter)

This is my favourite of the sets, and contains an NCO gesticulating at something important, an officer in a fancy coat and hat, as well as a medic carrying a wounded comrade, with the set being finished off by a prone observer.

I love this set. The poses are straight out of the film Stalingrad (1993) and are full of character. field gear and faces is nicely done, the only one I'm not so fond of is the officers face, and I may replace that with one from one of the plastic sets when I do my own.

German Heer MMG team (Winter)

A 3 man gun group serving an MG42, another good little set with some good poses and open to plenty of fancy basing potential if you're that way inclined. Not a massive amount to say on this one, other than it goes together quickly and looks good!

German Heer PAK40 Anti-Tank gun (Winter)

Another set straight out of Stalingrad (1993), this 4 man team serves their PAK 40 and all are wearing great coats this time. No instructions for the gun are provided, however they can be worked out by looking at photos of the real gun. As stated above, I replaced the base with an MDF one that was a little bigger than the supplied plastic one. 

German Heer Special Weapons (Winter)

At the time these were only a temporary release, with a full release scheduled for later in the year.

The pack contains 6 figures, who break down into a 2 man Panzershrek team, a 2 man Sniper team, and a 2 man flamethrower team. As with most of these sets they wear a mixture of great coats and parkas, and have some unique poses to them. I'm parituclarly fond of the Panzershrek team, but they are all very nicely done.

For speed I painted these with anything that could be white, white, and the rest using field grey. My recipe for field grey is to use Vallejo Russian uniform, with increasing amounts of either deck tan or pastel green mixed in, and use army painter soft tone and green inks for shading.

The white parts of the uniform started off as vallejo deck tan, were shaded with a hit of soft tone, before being highlighted up with deck tan mixed with increasing amounts of Ivory, also from Vallejo.

Basing was done using Forest Ground Cover from Warlord, with snow made from bicarbonate of soda mixed with Vallejo Water effect. The more water effect the slushier the snow is. 

I really like these figures a lot. My only real complaint is that they are very late war, however this is more a matter of taste than real criticism, and I can only hope the range will be expanded with more support and heavy weapons, as well as more riflemen to be used earlier in the war too. A few with PPSH41's would be especially welcome! 

You can order the figures either through your local games shop or direct with Warlord, who also sells the sets in a nice deal package. As ever you can see more of my work, or contact me for commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service. 

Rubicon Models Sdkfz 305 Review

 Rubicon have recently released their new Opel Blitz kit, labelled as the Sdkfz 305 for copyright reasons, and supplied one to me to review. (The painted vehicles being ones I have assembled for work, with my own one being the unassembled one).

The kit comes in the familiar dark grey plastic on 2 sprues, and is scaled to 1/56. Of note is the fantastic decal sheet, and the slide moulded cab. Also included are 2 crew figures.

 No windows are provided for the cab, however a template is supplied on the instruction sheet for you to make your own. also included are a choice of canvas tilts for the cargo area. 

Rubicons Opel assembles very quickly and simply, taking around 30 minutes to put together, and fitting very well. One nice feature is that you can leave the cab and cargo tilt off the model until painting is complete, and then they just snap into place. 

One feature I especially liked was the pose able nature of the cargo bed, allowing you to model the tailgate dropped, or even convert the kit to mount a 20mm anti-aircaft gun, something I may well do with mine. 

Only a few negatives presented them selves with this were the crew, who were very soft in detail and are probably best off replaced, however they are also hard to see so it's not too much of an issue. 

One thing that did confuse me though was the instructions suggest you can fit the benches along the sides of the truck bed as well as rowed up along the centre, however if this is the case there's either one missing or you have to cut one of the benches in half. 


 


Again, a minor complaint. The final issue to present itself was the pioneer tools are quite brittle and several snapped in removable from the sprue, although this was easy to over come due to the way they fit to the rest of the truck. 

I painted the trucks with a base coat of Vallejo middlestone, before mixing increasing amounts of Pale Sand in and airbrushing on a series highlights and areas of fading. Weathering was carried out with washes of artists oils, notably Daley Rowney Burnt Umber.   

More information can be found at the Rubicon Models website, and the kits can be obtained in the UK through Plastic Soldier Company. As ever you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service.