Cold War Games Hobby News - Jun 2012

The Cold War release frenzy continue a pace with some great new offerings from S&S, Italeri, and Trumpeter amongst others, less hot on the book front but some interesting pieces applicable to a variety of periods from early war miniatures.

FIGURES

Elhiem Figures

On the work bench for the cold war enthusiast from Matt at Elhiem figures are a set of Soviet artillery crews, very much work in progress. 

I have my fingers crossed that the Gun crew will have sufficient flexibility to crew up the SPG9 and AGS 17 that Matt already produces for his Afghan range and 120mm Mortars that you can pick up from his and other manufacturers ranges and with 6 D30s to complete along with a few BTR battalions - just what I am after. In addition he has a German Milan team and a German with ManPAD the Milan team will be very useful hopefully this will be replicated for the British.

MODELS

Hobby Den

Hobby Den,  Brian is just finalising the metal moulds on the second of his MMS vehicles this time a BTR 60, pictures should be available within the week, if they pop out before the end of the month I'll update this post.  Slipping out on the 20th of this month was this picture of the Metal components of Brian's new BTR 60, Brian is now working on the Resin body so hopefully a new kit by the middle of next month.

Brian just put out this photo of the hull and turret on the 24 June, and very tasty it looks to.

 The MTLB of which I now have two is a super kit and well worth the price, pictures of the components below I will be running a review on it once its built.

S&S

This month the very prolific S&S have been working over time, Shaun tells me the GSP ferry goes on general release together with the BTR 80 and 80a, Balaton do a BTR 80a conversion kit for the trumpeter kit but the 80a is otherwise difficult to source.

He also has re released the 3/4 toni GS trailer a copy of which I will be playing with for my Brits in the next month or so.

But the big news is whats just popping out of the pipeline and not quiet on release yet, for those like me obsessed with Soviet goodness the fact he now has a rather smart looking 2S3 getting close to completion is great news, I'll be on for at least a Bn, up to now the only option for this was a rather pricy if nice version from Balaton ( I could only afford 1).  The upside of the 2S3 is that the hull formed the basis for a number of vehicles, including GMZ, 2S4, 2S5 and SA4 so loads of conversion scope.  Shaun tells me this should be going on release next month for somewhere around £11 to be confirmed

He has also got to the backend of the production pipe with a M998 beloved of the USMC, airborne and light divisions of the Cold War US Fraternity.  This may be a little slower getting to the released stage.

Cpl Overbys Motor Pool

The redoutable Corporal continues to add to his range this time with an LVT 4 - ideal for Indo China and Korea?

Italeri

Italeri have released the M163 Vulcan Canon in 1/72 scale, I will be using a couple of these to reinforce my 4 CMBG battle group for when my Canadians operate with VII US corps.  I have an eye on a US force at some stage as well.

Trumpeter

Trumpeter continue to add to their 1/72 British cold war subjects this time with a Warrior, the release is posted on their web site but I have been unable to find any evidence of them landing in the shops yet. Hopefully they will follow the European theatre with a Gulf War version as they have with many of their other vehicles.

BOOKS

The Bear Marches West

As soon as  I post this I find something else worth talking about, so I updated the news post on 15 June 2012 to include this offering.  Russell Phillips has just published, The Bear Marches West a book containing 12 cold war scenarios based on the books, Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, Red Army by Ralph Peters and Team Yankee by Harold Coyle.  The PDF version is available from his web site Russell Phillips Books at £2.75 a sample scenario is contained here.

The web sites worth a look as well with some interesting articles on the Falklands Island Defence Force, and the Sergeant York Air Defence System.

The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War

I found this item whiles looking for released books this month, grandly entitled the Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social and Military History, it retails for a whopping £400 one would hope it is as it describes itself a comprehensive history of the Cold War.

The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History

WEB

two things from the web this month:

Maksshop

The first is a store operated by email that I stumbled across whilst trawling the Missing Lynx Braille Scale forum which offers a range of limited production resin convert ion kits and kits for the Soviet Union.  Whilst pricy they offer some interesting subjects.  The kits can be seen here

and the owner can be contacted by mail at maksshop@gmail.com 

Prices currently look like this:

• BREM - 1 - 2000 russian roubles
• GAZ TIGER AFV - 1500 roubles
• T72 With ERA with turned barrel and smoke grenades - 1250 Roubles
• T72B with ERA without turned details - 900 roubles
• T72A with/ without antirad protection  - 500 roubles without turned details With Turned details - 900 roubles
• Wheels - Zil 131, Zil 157 and 2 types for URAL - 400 roubles

Maks accepts PAYPAL in Euros  (+4% paypal fees or as Personal payment), Shipping to Europe or US is about 15 euros or not depending on quantity.

BAORFacebooklink

The other interesting find on the web this month was the updated face book BAOR photos web site well worth a look if your after british equipment photos, now sorted and categorised by equipment type with the happy snaps weeded out.

OTHER

Early War Miniatures have released a set of Explosions and Craters aimed at the WW1/2 market but something that most modern gamers need, better pictures can be seen on the web site

My Work Bench

Most of the items I have been building have moved on to completion, or the next stage of the production line. The big projects this last month has been:

•  A scenario for a game I'll be playing with some friends in August.  The Wissenberg Counter Attack is set in Southern Germany following an invasion by the Soviet Union in 1988. So I'll be posting a bunch of the supporting material, hopefully an AAR and a downloadable scenario pack sometime in the future.  

• A mad rush on terrain as fighting in Germany means fighting in trees, villages and on modern roads so hopefully some terrain related posts on the horizon as well.
• The start of a battle group from 4 CMBG including a test vehicle and the initial research for the Orbats along with a somewhat fruitless search for books.

I'll leave you with this, it'sssss sooooo cold war, thanks for reading.

If you have any cold wargaming product news that you would like to share drop me a line at coldwargamer@gmail.com