Cold War Games Hobby News - May

There still seems to be a lot going on in the land of Cold War Gaming, so I thought it was worth running the slot again this month.  If there is an emergent theme out there it seems to be that the South African Bush Wars is coming sharply into focus with releases from Ambush Alley Games, 30 Degree South Books and S&S models.

MODELS

S&S

S&S remain at the fore front of the prolific manufacturers in this area releasing a number of models which will appeal to Cold War Gamers. First up is a BMP 1 alternatives for this include, Britania, Liberation and ACE so quite a bit of choice,

next is a BMP2, Liberation do one but with the ACE kit disappearing  S&S is rapidly becoming one of the few option for this vehicle, which is a a major component of any 80s Cold War soviet force

and the last of his Soviet trio is a BMP2d again S&S are rapidly becoming the only source, I also have one of these which will be joining my 2S6s in the early 1990s air defence battalion and will post a review once I have got it done.

The next couple of vehicles will catch the eye of those of you interested in Ambush Alleys Bush Wars this time Shaun has knocked out a South African Casper and a number of derivatives. It would be good to see him release the South African Bufful another much needed bush wars wagon.

The final component of Shauns cold war offering is the OTO Malra 105mm used extensively around the globe throughout the post war period and covered in a more detailed review over at Winter of 79.

Hobby Den

Brian at the Hobbey Den is getting close to releasing shots of the first MMS model, the MTLB and has started a debate on what comes next BMP2 or T64, personally I am in the market for either. In addition rolling along in the shadows is a Saxon yet to be released but in the offing since January.

Brian posted this shot today (14 May 2012) on the Guild of his new MTLB, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share, it looks pretty good to me!

Sowa Models

Sowa Models is a new company setting out to produce 1/72 scale Russian models some of which may be of use to the Cold War Gamer, they are announcing five models for release but have yet to say what they are the first a Panisir-S1 is a little late for our period unless your what offing the what if. One to keep an eye on for the moment

ACE

I recently exchanged emails with Alex Blashchuk of ACE models regarding the dwindling stocks of a number of his modern kits in the UK market notably the BMP 2d, BMP2, T72 AV, T72B and BRDM2 all of which are now out of production and there is some good news as he has an intent to do a second run of the BMP2d at a date possibly later this year but currently no plans for any of the others which is more than a little sad.

He also informed me that he would be doing another run on the BMD 1/2, Nona and BTR-D later this year, so some more good news if your into VDV and have not built a whole regiment already.

ACE BTR-D

Military Wheels

Last month Military wheels released the 2S4A5 Sprut, probably the coolest looking anti tank gun on the planet.  I am currently making 4 and will probably post a review in detail next month. An exciting addition to the range of late Cold War models

FIGURES

MJ Figures

MJ Figures have kicked off a range of British Falklands war figures which will be equally at home on the central or Northern Fronts, perhaps with the addition of the odd respirator case, great reviews on Dougies site and the Winter of 79 Blog spot.

Wartime Miniatures

Wartime Miniatures have released images of a forthcoming set of Australians for their Vietnam War  range of figures. Currently these are a work in progress but shaping up very nicely.  I think these will be a serious consideration for my Cold War Canadians with a few M1 Helmet Head swaps and some sleeves rolled down they will also do nicely for the South African Bush War.  The Wartime range is carried by Elhiem Figures in the UK and Mathew tells me the figures will be released around the back end of June at the latest.

BOOKs

Osprey

Osprey on their Blog announced the re release of the three battle for the Falklands titles as part of the commemoration of that campaign.

and released this month is Ambush Alleys latest Force on Force Supplement Bush Wars now available as a book or PDF,  perhaps its time to start dusting off the South African Border War project.

30 Degree South

30 Degree South who publish a range of books mostly about south africa have a new two volume History of 32 Battalion on the Publishing list which is exciting of itself.

The slightly more News worthy  item is that the intend to republish Steenkamp's the Border War, this book is on the must have list for anyone interested in this conflict and second hand copies have been going for around £275 in the last couple of years. Truly great news.

Cold War Gamer's Books

I have set up a web store for all the books I use, all the titles in it I own and consider to be useful for anyone pursuing an interest in the period.  Hope fully it will save you time finding the various reference sources that are of use for ground wargaming the cold war.

Cold War Gamer's Books

OTHER NEWS

Bison Decals

Bison have some 1/72 1967 6 day war decal sets in the offing reported over on the Armorama site

Web

Over on the Missing Lynx - Braille Scale Forum Sven-Åke Grufstedt is offering a downloadable Painting guide sometime later this month.

This guide is now available (14 May 2012) from this location, I have had a quick skim through and it looks fairly handy, enjoy:)

also worth a look on the same forum is Steve Shrimptons Finish T-72M1 awesome piece of modelling

And Finally!

A taste of things to come on the work bench this month are:

• 4 Military wheels 2S4 Spruts, pretty much closing out on the Divisional Anti Tank Regiment.
• 4 S&S BRDM 2's two of which are being converted to Rkh variants
• 1 S&S GSP Ferry
• 1 S&S BMP 2d
• 1 S&S Centurion AVRE, 1 FV432 RE Field Section and a CVRT
• And on the Painting Tray: FV432 Mortars, a Cheiftain, a CET, a T55 bridge layer, T-72BVs, Elhiem British in NBC

All up another busy month, thanks for continuing to read the blog, the regular readership is now hitting about 800 people a month so hopefully the stuff I am wrighting will continue to be of interest. It's always good to know that your not alone in your obsession.

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

Wargames Unit - 1980s British BG, Abbot Battery

The Abbot Battery provides indirect fire support to my Early 80s British Battlegroup.

For war gaming I have represented the Battery as 2 Abbots for the Guns, 1 FV432 for the Tac Party and 1 Stalwart ammunition carrier. The detail of the organisation this represents is in The 1980s British BG, Part 5 Royal Artillery post. 

The Tac Party will be grouped with one of the Sub Units in addition I'll probably deploy two other indirect fire controllers with the BG A Gazelle Air OP and the MFC from the Mortar platoon in a CVR(T).  All commanders were trained to call for fire but these calls would be picked up by the FOOs and MFCs for relaying to the guns and mortars.  The system was therefor highly flexible and allowed anyone with a radio to call for support.

Britannia FV432, Britannia crew, Scratch built Night Observation Device

The vehicle Call Sign for the Battery Commander was 10 with the FOOs being 11,12 and 13. As the FOOs had to sit on the supported sub unit radio net, the Battle Group radio net and the artillery regimental net they always had plenty of Antennas.  In addition they were equipped with ZB298 ground surveillance radar, this was later replaced by MSTAR this can be represented as a dismounted Radar for OP parties.

S&S Abbot, Crew Britannia, Stowage Goffy 

Once deployed the Gun troops would fall under the control of the regimental HQ attached to the Brigade HQ for movement and tasking.  in addition to the Abbots and Stalwart a ferret or FV432 command could be included to represent the command and Recce vehicles deployed with the Gun line.

Stalwart S&S, Crew Britania, Stowage Goffy

References

Review - Model 1/72, S&S Stalwart
Review - Model 1/72, Britannia FV432
Review - Model 1/72, S&S FV433 Abbot
Warpaint: v. 2: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003

Review - Books, Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army

The Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army is just that, it covers the weapons, organisation, uniforms and Insignia of the Modern British Army.  The first Edition was published in 1980 and the Third in 1986 so it covers a good part of the later cold war period and looks backwards and forwards from the point of writing covering equipments going out of and coming into service.  The book is written by Terry Gander an Ex RAF and Royal Observer Corps officer who has written extensively on AFV's weapons and military subjects for a number of major publishers including Janes.

It contains extensive organisational detail for teeth arm units breaking them down into sub units, troops and platoons and providing detail on vehicle holdings. Teeth arm units in this instance include; armoured regiments, armoured reconnaissance regiments and infantry battalions.  The remainder of the army is covered descriptively but a lot can be derived from the text. A wide variety if not all in service systems are covered in the equipment section including those that had not quite delivered when the book was published such as MLRS, and Spartan MCT and some on their way out such as Wombat. In addition to the usual guns and AFVs it covers signals equipment, engineer equipment, radars and every conceivable truck - and there were a lot.  From my experience the information presented seems accurate and it packs quiet a bit between the covers if you're wargaming cold war Brits it is a good second hand buy.

The second edition was printed in 1982 so the 3rd edition is the one to aim for as it covers pretty much the whole of the 1980s. Having said that I have a thought to chase down a first edition to see how the organisations changed.  A search on amazon for Terry Gander also brings up some interesting titles of relevance to the period.

Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army @amazon

Other Book Reviews

Soviet Air Land Battle Tactics
The Military Balance
The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre
First Clash
The Third World War
The British Army in Germany

The Cold War Bookstore contains links to over 60 Cold War titles covered in my book list

Review - Model 1/72, S&S FV433 Abbot

The FV 433 Abbot 105mm Self Propelled Gun was almost unique to the British Army, a few are also deployed by the Indians. It was a common feature of the exercise scene in the 1980s although the Army were also using the US M109 155mm at the time.  A mix of M109 and Abbot Regiments were included in each of the BAOR divisions, as outlined in 1980s British Battle Groups Part 1 and Part 5. Each brigade was supported by a single artillery regiment equipped with one of the guns both systems started to be replaced in 1993 by AS90.

The vehicle was based on FV432 components, it was designed in the 60's to replace towed 25 pounders and the US M44 SPG. It entered production in 1964 and production completed in 1967. An SPAAG falcon was conceptualised but did not enter service following initial trials. For its day Abbott was an impressive system but was starting to look tired by the 1980s.

The model is a 1/72 white metal and resin kit consisting of five parts and suitable for use with 20mm figures. The gun is cast in white metal and the remainder of the vehicle consisting of turret, hull and left and right tracks are resin. The quality of the Casting on all three vehicles I have received has been good, the white metal parts being well formed and flash free whilst the resin parts are very good with no significant surface bubbles. The road wheels have the most issues and some attention to these with some filler will pay dividends.  The kit is simple to assemble.

Images of artillery vehicles at this time show extensive use of cam nets draped over the turret and guns. The side panniers also seem to have been used to stow netting and there are plenty of shots of vehicles with rolled hessien on the sides and front. A tripod can be identified on the front decks in a number of photos and I have assumed cam poles would be carried in the panniers. Occasionally deck and turret stowage can also be identified in the form of boxes and tarpaulins. The vehicles mounted the LMG as a close defence weapon and this is a distinctive addition to make, numerous sources for Brens exist which pass muster for the LMGs in this scale. 

The conversion opportunity to create a what if version of the Falcon is interesting although I have not been able to uncover any data on how it would have fitted within the Orbat.

The vehicles are finished in my usual British Army camouflage scheme covered in the Britannia FV432 post.

References:

AFV weapons 51, FV 433 Self Propelled Gun
Warpaint: vol. 2: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
Warpaint: vol. 3: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
S&S Models
1980s British Battle Groups Part 1 and Part 5
Aeroscale Abbot Walk around

Figures - Elhiem 20mm, Morten Reese's Danish Infantry

Elhiem figures recent generic NATO infantry and German infantry sets lend themselves well to a number of other Nations, Morten Reese who posts on the guild as Reese has been doing some stirling work on a Danish force which he is building and which I hope to feature here as his collection develops.

The Danish Army during the period of interest wore the M58 combat Uniform in dark Olive green.  This was replaced by  the M/84 camouflaged uniform in 1984, though transition to the new uniform took a number of years to complete.  The US M1 Helmet was standard until 1992, when Kevlar Helmets were introduced for troops deploying abroad.

From the excellent M136 site

The load carrying M45-59 equipment was consistent throughout the period and was not replaced by PLC until 1996 although the ammunition pouches changed as weapons changed and the respirator case was upgraded in 1969.  The title DANMARK and a National flag were worn on the left Arm, and a variety of unit insignia could also be worn.  The Danish Army carried the G3 assault rifle, MG3 and the Carl Gustav at this time.

Morten's first set of figures represent soldiers he will be using for a motorised unit and are therefore wearing the older M58 Uniform.  In keeping with imagery of Danish Soldiers deployed on exercise Morten has added "grass" to the helmets using plumbers hemp and white glue.  The figures are painted using Vallejo colours as follows:

• Undercoat (webbing/Uniform): Yellow Olive
• Uniform, Base Russian Uniform, highlighted with a mix of Russian Uniform and Khaki
• Webbing, Green Gray, highlighted with Green Gray and White

An excellent job by Morten who has provided the images of the figures and much of the background information.  Morten regularly posts on the Guild where I first saw his work. 

References:

Military Equipment of the 20th Century bloodspot
Danish Army Uniforms 1945 - 2008 by Henrik Clausen
NATO Armies Today, Osprey
M136 Danish Troops on Exercise