Welcome to Cold War Gamer, a blog I am using to record my Cold War wargaming projects. These range from fictitious Cold War hot projects to historical conflicts that took place around the globe throughout the Cold War era, all modelled and gamed in 20mm. The blog includes links to various resources useful to the Cold War Gamer.

My current projects include: Central Front; British & Soviet. South African Border War; Angolans and South Africans. Soviet Afghan War; Soviets and Afghans
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts

Sunday, 23 September 2018

Review Book - Red Armour an Examination of the Soviet Mobile Force Concept, R Simpkin, 1984





So this was the summer reading, all part of a project called Deep Battle that I have yet to really start writing about or indeed executing but have been researching since about 2015. Over a wet week in Wales I have been ploughing my way through the 12 essays in this book by Brigadier Richard Simpkin who wrote a series of books on military manoeuvre warfare theory in the mid to late 80s and participated in the wide ranging discussion that went on at that time within NATO with regard to managing the Soviet threat.  Of the essays I am interested in I have now read most of them 2-3 times.  The ideas are complex and Simpkin is rarely an easy read.  Working at it in order to understand what he is saying can be very rewarding. 

Red Armour, an examination of the Soviet Mobile Force concepts does pretty much what it says on the tin in that it provides, in its 12 essays, a thought provoking and revealing analysis of Soviet Operational doctrine.  Unlike the Race to the Swift which looks at a variety of maneuver warfare concepts and extrapolates these into the future. This collection of his work focuses on Soviet operational concepts as they had evolved by the height of the Cold War in 1982-83.

The Three parts of the book cover, resources procedures and concepts and each part contains four essays which  discuss at varying levels of detail the following topics:

Part 1 Resources
  • Manpower
  • Philosophy
  • Technology
  • Ground
Part 2 Procedures
  • Control and Support
  • Movement and Deployment
  • Obstacle Crossing
  • Parameters of Tank Force operations
Part 3 Concepts
  • The deep battle
  • The tank force concept
  • Soviet mobile operations
  • The NATO centre
For me the nuggets are in part 2 and 3 which focuses on the procedures and the concepts and illustrates the Soviet thinking by contrasting it to NATOs more positional approaches.


In Part 2 I found the particular essays on; Control and Support, Movement and Deployment and Obstacle Crossing the most useful as they really start to drive at the how at the operational level. examples of points of interest include the Soviet use of Primary routes at high traffic densities whilst holding secondary routes in reserve and clear of significant traffic to enable the flexibility to restructure the order of march accelerating assets and units as needed, this together with the the ability to line switch elements between axis of advance provides the conditions for achieving surprise.  Whilst Simpkin challenges the Soviets ability to achieve the levels of flexibility the approaches could deliver and highlights the tactical risks this exposes them to, I am not clear that he considers these objections in the light of Soviet control approaches which include dedicated movement control organisations deployed along routes at relatively high densities in comparison to Western Armies.

In Part 3 his summary of the deep battle discussion he provides one of the most succinct descriptions of both the theory and the terms that I have come across and his articulation of Soviet Mobile Operations in contrast to the more positional and ground focused doctrines of NATO really start to drive home the key differences between the two.  This starts to highlight what the Soviets focus on in terms of objectives - the enemy rather than the ground, and whilst I have read this in many books the way he contrasts this with the ground focused objectives of NATO doctrines really drives the point home.



His treatment of the principal periods of the Cold War and how the Soviets shifted from the use of Nuclear weapons to provide the conditions for maneuver to the need to exploit strategic surprise in the later period to a similar effect is thought provoking and credibly illustrates the potential impacts that could be achieved even in the absence of Nuclear weapons.  He reasonably challenges the effectiveness of interchangeability of resources in a non nuclear phase although he does not explore the increased scale of indirect fire assets or their increasing effectiveness as the book was written in 1983 and pre dates a number of these changes.

From the Wargames perspective what this all enables is the development of the framework of operational concepts that you need to develop in order to set tactical scenarios in the operational context.  In replicating historical battles in other periods this context is provided by the historical events, in gaming the Cold War, you need an operational and strategic picture to set the action against in order to create realistic scenarios, this is particularly true when dealing with the Soviet Union.  

The driver for this is the subject of Red Armour the Soviet Unions thinking at the operational level. Understanding their focus on the operational rather than the tactical is critical to understanding how they would deal with different situations and the forces that would be brought to bear. In short why NATOs tactical and equipment superiority would be nullified by one of the more sophisticated approaches to maneuver warfare available.  Translating that to table-top games is a challenge all of its own.

I snapped up my copy of Red Armour for £40 about a year ago and at that price I think its a worthwhile addition to the collection if you have an interest in developing table top scenarios in the wider operational context, if you are looking for the detail of what the Soviets did rather than the thinking behind it that can be accessed more cheaply and effectively elsewhere. Current prices on Amazon are running at £200 plus and at that price I would be inclined to leave it on the shelf.





AFM Volume 2, Part 2, A Treatise on Soviet Operational Art, 1991








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Monday, 2 April 2018

Review - Book, AFM Volume 2, Part 2, A Treatise on Soviet Operational Art



This was a truly great find by Andy Miles who kindly posted it onto the Red Storm Rising facebook page.  It's not quite the British equivalent to the FM 100 series, it was written in 1991 from the perspective of understanding Soviet Operational Art as the British along with most Western Nations had given this particular subject a stiff ignoring for most of the Cold War. As the author puts it, the Western Nations experience of operations during WW2 was at a different order of Magnitude to the Soviet and points out that whilst the Western allies deployed some 3 Army Groups comprising 91 Divisions on a front of 400 km, in 1944 the Red Army had 10 fronts with 57 Armies and over 560 Divisions and Corps deployed on a frontage of 3200 km.

AFM Volume 2 was produced in 3 parts and whilst this review focuses on Part 2, I will look to pick up on parts 1 and 3 at a later date, for completeness the parts are:
So what's different between this and the FM 100 series, its based on a similar variety of sources including the Vorisilov Lectures, which it contextualises against a late 80s Force structure and is fundamentally focused on the conduct of operations at Army and Front level, and the general Force Composition and task orginisation required to deliver that. I think it does this well focusing on the Soviet Approaches to Offensive and Defensive Operations, it also provides a variety of commentary on effectiveness and some interesting discussion around both drivers for change and the future, which is where it differentiates itself from the FM 100 series.

Equipment and Organisation is considered at a high level and with only sufficient detail to facilitate the main discussion and demonstrate the mapping between doctrine technology and force structures, which frankly the Soviets were masters of.



 It  broadly follows the structure of the Vorisilov Lectures material and includes a deal of informed comment, the main chapters cover:
  • Equipment and Organisation
  • Operational Planning, Context and Concepts
  • Strategic and Operational Marches
  • Offensive Operations
  • Operations in the Enemys Depth
  • Defensive Operations
  • Combat Support
  • Air Operations
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Logistics
  • Command Control and Communications
Annexes include High level org charts and Broad equipment TOEs for Divisions, Armies and Fronts both within and outside of the Western Group of Forces

This is a book that you can either read or dip into, having said that the approach to dipping into it is likly to be go read the whole section on offensive opps and related elements on combat support. The Upside over reading the Vorisilov Lecture material is that the hard work of placing it in the context of the late 80s has been done and this work draws on wider material as well.



The author CJ Dick of the Soviet Studies Research Centre understands his subject well and attempts to explain the Soviet concepts as they stand rather than trying to equate Soviet military thought to  western ideas, an approach taken in a number of the US manuals which generates some very confusing discussions on echelonment and reserves amoungst others. These subjects are covered with far more clarity in this volume.

I particularly like the categorisation of the Cold War period into a number of Eras based on the prevailing doctrine and the discussion around its impact on force structures and organisation. These are articulated as:
  • The Nuclear Era. Doctrine and force structures dominated by the concept of Combat under nuclear conditions
  • The Era of a Conventional Phase. This period was dominated by the impact of two ideas.  The first was driven by the NATO's adoption of flexible response, which would lead to a Conventional Phase at the start of any war and if surprise could be achieved and Soviet Operational art delivered offered the potential of a conventional victory. The other was the vulnerability of tank heavy formations in conventional war demonstrated during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. 
  • The Era of Conventional War. The result of the INF treaty and the failure by both the Warsaw Pact and NATO to upgrade their nuclear capabilities, lead to a belief in the increasing likelihood of an extended conventional phase or the possibility of a wholly conventional war
This is then neatly mapped to the evolution of the organisations and structures that occured over this period.  The rate of change that was feasible for an organisation the size of the Soviet Army also receives some attention. All of this starts to provide a degree of clarity to the variation in content of key sources on the organisations and structures employed within the WGF at different points in time.

Looking at the diagrams and discussion it seems clear that this work fundamentally underpins The Genforce Mobile Force Handbooks written in 1997 as OPFOR guides which provide excellent commentary on what was essentially Soviet organisation and practice but which because they are OPFOR guides I have always had concerns over how they were adapted and how representative they were of what was rather than what was aspired to.



Some of the organisational structures proposed in both this and AFM volume 2 part 3, Soviet Tactics are quite different from what is discussed elsewhere and I have yet to digest what that means and how or whether to reflect it into my current projects. 

As well as this post I have updated the Post on free resources on Soviet Organisation and Doctrine.  All up an excellent find, resource and for free well worth a read. I have a physical copy of the Vorisilov Lectures Operational Art and would love to find a physical copy of this to add to the collection but so far have looked without success. An excellent perspective on Soviet Operational Art

References:

Red Banner The Soviet Military System in Peace and War, C Donnelley, (1988) @ amazon
AFM Volume 2, Part 2, A Treatise on Soviet Operational Art
AFM Volume 2, Part 3, Soviet Tactics
Voroshilov Academy Lectures
Review-Web Resources, The Essentials of Cold War Soviet Doctrine and Organisation for Free
Genforce Handbook, Mobile Force Part 1, Operational Art and Tactical Doctrine, 1997
Genforce Handbook, Mobile Force Part 2, Tables of Organisation and Equipment, 1997







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Sunday, 25 March 2018

Review Models - 1/72 S&S Kraz Truck






First post for over a year I think, nothing earth shattering, a review of S&S's Kraz 255.  The 7.5 ton Kraz 214 and 255 trucks provided extreme off-road logistic capacity to the Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces from 1959 through to the end of the Cold War.  The Kraz 214 was produced between 1959 - 1963 and the Kraz 255 entered mass production in 1967 and remained in production until 1994. The Trucks are visually similar, so models in 1/72 can be broadly used to represent either. 




The vehicle provided the platform for a range of variants which included; the TMM vehicle launched bridge from 1974, The carriage and launch vehicle for the PMP ribbon bridge, and the carriage vehicle for the BMK-T bridging boat, together with a number of engineering earth moving and construction variants.  I am using them to provide the transport capability in the Headquaters of my MRR Engineering Company.



The S&S Model is a robust but effective war-games model and is cast in resin and white metal. It can be purchased with or with out the canvas tilt and I have both versions, it cost at the time of posting £11.50 which included P&P.  The models I received were cleanly cast with limited holes and flash.


Other manufactures produce versions of this vehicle notably Armory and Armada but both these manufacturers produce for the modelling fraternity with associated complexity and price.  The model whilst cleverly constructed would provide challenging to convert as the chasis is effectively a component of the truck body so would need to be replaced in order to produce either a TMM or PMP variant. 






After some minimal clean up construction was straight forward and completed quickly with no significant issues, the only thing that slows you down is the amount of time it takes for the super glue to set.  Images of the vehicle show little in the way of stowage so I have left the model in its original state.



I have painted the vehicle in line with my other Soviet equipment in green, although I have been working on evolving my style
  • The Vehicle underside is sprayed in NATO Black XF- 69 before being fixed to the base
  • The vehicle is given an overall coat of Tamiya XF-13 JA Green, and is then oversprayed with NATO Black XF-69 to create an overall dark green colour.
  • The panels were then sprayed with JA Green.
  • The Tilt was painted with Olive Drab XF-62, the areas between the tilt supports were oversprayed wit Nato Black and the ridge was over sprayed with Olive Drab. The whole activity was a bit iterative until the required effect was achieved.
  • The detail was then picked out with a pin wash using Humbrol Black Wash.

  • The wheels were painted with Vallejo Black grey 70852 and then washed with a mix of Vallejo Khaki Grey 70880 and Buff 70976, before being dry brushed with Vallejo Black grey
  • Windows were painted with Vallejo Black Grey
  • The lights front and back were painted with Vallejo Flat Red 70957, Light Orange 70911 and Sky Grey 70989.
  • The doors then received a coat of clear before decals were applied with micro sol then the whole vehicle was sealed with a coat of Tamiya Matt clear.
  • A small amount of chipping was carried out on selected areas of the vehicle using Vallejo Black Grey, Mahogany sand 70846 and Sky Grey
  • The vehicle was then weathered using an overspray of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow.


The truck has been based on laser cut MDF base supplied by East Riding Miniatures,  being a bit of a beast this is 6 cm x 13 cm in order to accommodate the size of the vehicle. These are covered in a mix of sand and white glue before painting.  The base is painted with Citadel Gorthor Brown and dry brushed with Vallejo Desert Yellow 70977.  Once dry a range of basing materials have been used to create the vegetation on the base.






All up a great little model that provides a useful addition to my Cold War Collection and provides a degree of variety in the truck options otherwise available for a Cold War Soviet Army.


References:

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Friday, 10 March 2017

Review - Book, Todays Army Air Corps, Paul Beaver, 1987




The first thing to point out about what I think is a very handy little reference is that the title is a complete misnomer.  Written in 1987 the Today in the title very much refers to the Army Air Corps of yesterday and you will certainly struggle to find even a mention of the AH 64 which was a distant aspiration at the time of writing.  What the book does do well is provide a compact overview of the British Army Air Corps This includes:
  • A Short History of Army Flying
  • Structure and Command Arrangements
  • Regiments Squadrons and the AAC Center
  • Aircraft
  • Weapons Roles and Equipment
  • Future Programme
  • Training and Tactics


This book is an excellent snap shot of the Army Air Corps at the backend of the Cold War. The Historical section is too short to do anything but provide pointers to conflicts in which the Army Air Corps had previously played a role.  The real value to the Cold War Gamer lies in less than half the book, primarily in the sections on:
  • Structure and Command Arrangements. This section is a little thin but provides an overview of how the Army Air Corps supports the rest of the Army with both Aviation Advice, staff support and planning functions as well as the broad structure of the units and a view of the organisations that support is provided to essentially BAOR, UKMF, Special Forces and Northern Ireland.
  • Regiments Squadrons and The AAC center. This section is the first of the two absolute nuggets in this book this covers each regiment and independent squadron and in a terse paragraph summarizes location role, equipment holdings and the HQ they report to, which is immensely useful for context and scenario planning if you want to refer to the real units.
  • Training and Tactics. The second nuget is the training and tactics section which is sadly all too short and in a few pages talks through HELARM tactics with Gazelle and Lynx as they would operate in Germany.  This looks at both the Anti Armour and Recce/Air Op roles. It would have been nice to see something on Forward Air Refueling and cross FLOT (Forward Line of Own Troops) operations but the data supplied is enough to give you a basic understanding of how the Aviation assets would be used.  Its easy to forget that other missing items such as JAAT (Joint Air Attack Teams) post date this title, within the British armed forces.
The rest of the books information is useful but can be obtained easily else where, including online sources. For an out of print obscure little book it contains some very useful information. It can be picked up on Amazon, last I looked for .01p, at that price it pays for itself if you can use it to make the gaming table more stable by sticking it under one of the table legs. A thin tome but a worthwhile addition to the Cold War library if you have an interest in British aviation capability at the back end of the Cold War.

Today's Army Air Corps @ Amazon













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Saturday, 4 February 2017

Review - Web Resources, Voroshilov Academy Lectures





The Voroshilov Academy lectures cover a range of material presented at the Soviet General Staff academy during the 1970s.  The Content was translated in the late 80's from the Notes of an Afghan Army Colonel who attended the academy.  They are presented in the Xenophon Archive along with notes from his attendance at the  Frunz Military Academy for the Ground forces in the 60s.  As such the material presented presents a view from the 60s on the Tactical/Operational level Division and below and the 70s on the Operational/Strategic level, Army and Front.  This needs to be born in mind when reading, as whilst the general scope and intent of the doctrine presented had a degree of consistency with the the late 80s period organisational constructs, equipment and in a number of areas core operational doctrine varied over this time frame.



Having said that they present a wealth of detail that whilst some of it is readily available elsewhere there are significant components that are not. As an example I found the archive whilst hunting for material on Soviet Air Defence Electronic Warfare units at Army and Front level. They were covered here at a level of detail along with their operational deployment and use, in other sources only the existence of the unit is acknowledged at best. So a useful source but one that needs to be consumed with an understanding of the Historical context of the evolution of the Soviet Armed forces across the 60's 70's and 80's if it is not going to lead to further confusion.

In terms of content the Archive covers:
  • Front, Army and Division Operations
  • Air Army Operations
  • Operations of Specialist Branches including: Artillery, Engineer, Signal and Reconnaissance
As such this rounds out the extensive free material on the Soviet Armed forces provided else where and covered in previous posts.
The detail as might be expected focuses on those things that are the business of the staff;
  • Planning
  • Staff procedures
  • Orders, 
  • Control of operations 
  • Organisation structure and deployment of headquarters
Whilst these things are not of direct interest to the gamer, unless you are planning a raid on an Army, Divisional or Front Headquarters the information required to support the staff is also included such as organisation, doctrine and perhaps more interestingly planning yardsticks.

The archive presented offers a great way to consume the material but the same material has also been published as a number of books which can be found on line or can be purchased from Amazon amongst others.




The online source for the books is the DTIC repository:
and the CIA broke the content up into a number of papers focused on specific areas with additional analysis and comment.  Examples include:
All up a number of very useful resources if your interested in setting games in the context of the wider operational and strategic picture or understanding the types of resource available at higher formation level and working out how you could get them on a table top, which is always a bit of a challenge.


Other Web Resource Reviews:

Review - Web Resources, SSVC on You Tube 
Review - Web Resources, Soviet 16th Air Army
Review - Web Resources, Fire and Furry Cold War Orbats and Modern Resources
Review - Web Resources, M136 Exercise Picture Archive
Review - Web Resources, Armoured Acorn Web Site
Review - Web Resources, War for Slow Readers
Review - Web Resources, CIA FOIA Site
Review - Web Resources Airpower Australia
Review - Web Resources, DTIC on Line
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Friday, 17 June 2016

Review Book - Abel Archer, Modern Rapid Fire Rules



Well it's been a while since I posted. A busy period for family and work - however I was asked a question about the rules I use, and it's a fairly frequent question so I thought I would knock out a quick post on the subject.  I got hooked on Modern gaming after joining the Guild forum in around 2008.  I was familiar with RF through WW2 gaming and when the Guild held a big game in 2010 I soon volunteered. The first game was held in Ireland and used Rapid Fire adaptations produced by Piers Brand. In the subsequent two Cold War big games they were adapted in a number of areas by John Dowman and Rob Rowell.


Tim's picked these up and done an excellent job of enhancing what were a fairly loose collection of ideas and turning them into a coherent set of rule additions making them a lot more attractive and digestible.  They are designed to be used in conjunction with Richard Marsh and Colin Rumford's Rapid Fire Rules which can be purchased in paper or electronic format from the Rapid Fire Website.



The focus for the rule set is the early 80's the period of the first game and Tims area of interest. They contain vehicle stats for the period Orbats and Scenario ideas to get you started.  The Orbats covered are:

NATO
  • British Battle Group
  • Danish Battle Group
  • Dutch Battle Group
  • US Armoured Cavalry Sqn
  • US Battle Group
  • NATO Divisional and Corp Assets
Warsaw Pact
  • MRR Advance Guard and Main Body
  • TR Advance Guard and Main Body
  • Divisional Assets.
The rules adapt easily enough for the late 1980's period and can be used for Ultra Modern and near future with a little thought.



They include a range of rule mechanisms adopting the original set to the modern period and accommodating the evolution of fire power, observation systems, gunnery systems, armour and aircraft. They sit firmly in the world of Rapid Fire which was always a simple abstracted game system, but one that played fast.



What I have always loved about Rapid Fire is the way the units are abstracted allowing battle groups to be reasonably represented by 10-15 models, this allows you to game in 20mm on a table top at battle group level with ease and with thought to extend into the operational level.

I suppose a number of things that I like best about Cold War gaming are enabled by these rules:
  • 20mm is a great scale for armour modeling with vehicles and figures sufficiently large to look great when done.
  • The models and figures can easily be adapted and enhanced
  • The extensive ranges of plastic models and resin kits mean most of the armies can be pulled together, and they look great.  
  • The Orbat abstractions enable a reasonable game to be played out at battle group level on a 6 foot by 4 foot table without it all looking too daft.
  • The rules are simple and straight forward to learn and enable games to be completed relatively quickly.
  • With a bit of thought and a lot of really useful plastic boxes you can store it all in a reasonably big cupboard.
  • You can with the aid of a small hall some friends and a pile of scenery pull it all up to the operational level which is really where the action was going to happen in the Cold War and where the odds evened up between the Warsaw Pact and NATO armies.


All up a great contribution from Tim to the Cold War gaming community, Tim's Abel Archer rule adaptations are free, available for download and come in PDF format.


Other Book Reviews:

The Race to the Swift





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Friday, 28 August 2015

Review - Magazine Wargames Illustrated 335 September 2015

In my youth I was always a great fan of Wargames Illustrated enjoying the pictures as much as the articles.  Having supplied some pictures for a Cold War article in this months issue which takes as its theme the concept of  "What If" games they kindly sent me a copy.  



This months issue builds to an extent on Issue 324s Cold War theme but with a slightly different take hopefully this will be but part of an increased level of coverage of the post war modern period generally and more specificaly the Cold War.  Cold War as a period has been slowly gaining in popularity in both 15mm and 20mm with an expanding range of figures and models from a range of manufacturers and a widening range of rules suitable for gaming the period including such titles as Force on Force, Fist Full of Tows (2 or 3),  Battlegroup and Cold War Commander amongst others, these provide focus across the scales from the more traditional Modern gaming scale of 6mm to 15mm, 20mm and 28mm.


The imminent entry of Flames of War into the 15mm Cold War Gameing arena with it's Team Yankee rule set and a developing line of miniatures is inevitably driving an increased amount of interest in the period and with new sets of rules in the pipeline from TFL, Iron Fist publications and Third Generation Warfare  the heat is seriously being turned up on the Cold War.  The Flames of War gang have already published a range of images on their impending offerings covered on the Breakthrough Assault Blog and the release rate from other 15mm manufacturers seems to be cranking up to meet the inevitable demand.



This months WI issue contains three articles focused on Cold War Conflict two fitting in with the "What If" theme and one on the design of the Third Generation Warfare rule set by Nick Ayres that underpined the Leicester Phat Cats Salute demonstration and is accompanied by some pics of that game.



The other two articles are focused on the magazines What If theme one looks at Soviet Regimental Cold War Tactics the other is an excellent look at Opperation Mikado the proposed SAS raid onto the Argentinian Mainland in the flaklands war.

The Cold War article penned by Jeremy Richardson has a focus on the Advanced Guard, and scenario development from that as well as covering the sequencing of assault river crossings and Air Assault.  It talks through the Joy of 3mm gaming and takes a look at Cold War Commanders mechanisms for simulating the friction of war (one of the great features in that set of rules). It  closes around a look at model availability from 3mm - 20mm and approaches to dealing with the larger scales all up an eminiently readible and useful article with some great eye candy.



The second article is written by Roger Gerrish with contributions on the modelling front by Phil Lewis.  The article covers in a degree of detail the historical background to the proposed SAS raid on mainland Argentina during the Falklands war, the historical content being quite fascinating of itself.  It then looks at scenario development and forces for both sides for a series of Force on Force games looking at differnt aspects of the plan and rounds out with a look at terrain and creating the Pink Panthers or Green Hornets of the SAS all up a very enjoyable read.



The ideas from this article will readily translate to a few central front games I am contemplating as I have recently been looking at strategic Desant operations including Spetznaz deployments and airfield siezures in Northern Germany to which many of the ideas presented by Roger readily map. I might need to swap the Herc for an AN 24 and the Green Hornet landrovers for some Lu-947 weapon carriers, however the concepts presented for terrain and scenario generation would work well in creating a series of skirmish games around the initial airfield seizure befor I air land the air mechanised VDV regiment and conduct some subsequent operations, which is more the scale I like to play at.

All up an excellent edition building on the October 2014 Cold War issue reviewed by Richard C over at Cold War Hot Hot Hot. The WI Issues with Modern Themes are:




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Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Review Model - model collect 1/72 T-72B with ERA




The T-72 is another of those Cold War Icons, Globally exported its been involved in most of the worlds major conflicts since it appeared on the scene in the late 1960's.  It was the Soviet Unions low cost alternative to the T-64 and T-80 series, equipping units outside of the technology challenging Central front area although it was the main stay of Soviet units in the Central group of Forces in Czecheslovakia.  Other than that it was mostly found in the Western Military districts of the Soviet Union or exported across the middle east.



The T-72B comenced production in 1985 and introduced levels of protection that exceeded those of both the T-64 and T-80 making it the best protected of the Soviet tanks. The other major capability introduced on this version was the AT-11 Svir missile.  The model includes the Kontakt 1 ERA which was available from 1982, first mounted on tanks in 1983, first identified by NATO in 1984 and fitted to the T-72B  from 1988.  It is worth speculating on weather it would have been rolled out earlier if East West relationships had decended into crisis.

One of the major thrusts of Soviet organisational and equipment change over this period was the neutralisation of the NATO ATGW threat as the the density of Anti Tank weapons had increased to a point where the Soviet Army felt that success was unlikly.  This then drove their adoption of ERA and the significant increase in artillery systems over the period.


The improved armour provided the T-72B with base protection of 520mm RHA equivalent from APDS and 950mm RHA equivalent protection from HEAT, Kontakt 1 providing an additional 350mm - 400mm RHA equivalent against HEAT.  Of interest the Improved TOW missile would penetrate 900mm RHA equivalent with TOW 2A delivered in 1987 doing 900mm behind ERA. I suspect it was not until the introduction of TOW2B in 1991 that the balance of advantage was restored to the ATGW. A Tandem war head for Milan did not arrive until 1993 so for a significant period the impact of the ATGW and LAW capability was reduced.



This review looks at the modelcollect T-72B although there are a variety of options on the market including
  • ACE
  • S&S
  • Hobby Den
  • Model Collect
The modelcollect kit like a lot of their armour kits is priced at around £11 and depending on when and how many you order may be shipped from China or their UK warehouse. Like the TOS-1 it is staggeringly well packaged with clear instructions.




The Hull is cast from white metal and is finly molded and adds a rather pleasing weight to the finished vehicle.  The Tracks are flexible plastic but fit and fix easily using liquid poly. The remainder of the parts are Molded from plastic, the level of detail is generaly excellant and the quality of the molding is very good with only minor amounts of flash on one of the 4 models I built.  Modelcollect are certainly approaching Revell standards if they are not quite there yet.  No major issues with the build but a few minor ones as follows:
  • Turret fit to Hull
  • Fit of the front right Turret ERA (looking at the front)
  • Removal from Sprue and fitting of external fuel barrel supports
The Turret Hull fit is best sorted before you build the turret as trying to sort it once the turret is constructed is asking for a mishap.  The problem stems from insufficient space between the base of the turret and the retaining lugs to accommodate the depth of the molding of the hull deck, a little light filling between the top of the lug and base of the turret soon removes the issue more radically you could just chop off the lugs.



I have yet to try this but separating the turret front right ERA block strip into probably 3 bits will result in a better fit.



Care is generally needed with the finer parts such as the commanders MG. The external fuel tank supports definitely fall into this category and need a bit of thinking about before removal.  On the batch build I only lost one on the first vehicle I lost 50%.  Fitting them to the hull rear also requires some work as the mounting lugs can be a little large.



Other than that it was a breeze with assembly taking a couple of hours.  In contrast I have been building 3 ACE T-72Bs for at least 2 years :).  Once constructed the vehicle looks the part  and whilst I have seen nothing specific on this vehicle Alex Clark has made some very encouraging noises about a number of other models in the range.

Markings, Stowage and Damage.

The vehicles carry traditional Soviet numbers on the left, right and rear stowage bins and in some cases regimental identifying marks can also be found on the bins.  The left and right turret bins are of different lengths so may need different approaches to accomodating the markings. Examples of markings used and available decal sets can be found here. The large model collect decal sheet which can be separately purchased contains a range of these.



Stowage can be seen in a number of immages and a canvas cover could also be worked for the cupola mounted HMG, a usefull strategy should you break it.  I have seen images where the snorkle storage can be mounted up or down, in the down position it precludes the use of an identification number on the rear bins, not quite sure why I did that.


The modelcollect T-64 BV comes with an etched brass commanders screen which could also be deployed on the T-72. There are a variety of options to add vehicle damage around the side skirts  and ERA packs immages also exist showing incomplete coverage of ERA blocks on the hull deck.  Both provide a route for enhancing the models in your fleet.  I have currently added regimental identifiers and vehicle numbers on the left and right stowage bins and have not included any additional stowage or famage on the first four vehicles.

Painting.

My painting style with the airbrush continues to evolve.  On these beasts the lower hull tracks and underside were sprayed with black, then the whole was sprayed with Tamiya XF-13 JA Green ensuring that the lower hull is left a darker shade.  The pannels were then sprayed with Tamiya XF-65 field gray. Then the detail was picked out using Vallejo Black Grey for the HMG, Sight blocks and IR searchlights and sky grey for driving lights.  A pin wash was then applied using the Humbrol Black enamel wash and a blue grey filter applied to selected pannels and the skirts using diluted Humbrol Blue Grey enamel wash. The raised detail was drybrushed using a mix of Vallejo Russian Uniform and Buff.


Decals were then applied and the whole vehicle was matt varnished then weathered.  Weathering involved spraying the road wheels and base of the skirts with Tamiya XF-  Earth Brown before washing these areas with a dilute solution of Vajello Mahogany Sand.  The front and rear hull and lower hull was then oversprayed with Tamiya XF- Dark Yellow, with a progressivly lighter application as you move up the sides and onto the hull top than sides. 

The vehicle is based using laser cut mdf from East Riding miniatures this was painted dry brushed and covered with a variety of scatter material.






All up an excellent model, straight forward to assemble, quick to build and an excellent representation of the vehicle. Considerably easier than the ACE model and competativly priced against the alternatives.

References:

Books:

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