Cold War Games - Hobby News Spring 2013

Well its been quite a time since I posted anything new, I have been having a bit of a break from the hobby, a combination of a big project (Soviet Air Assault) that was taking to long to output anything to write about and an increase in the pace of activity at work,  The net result had slowed me down and in releasing less I had lost my way a bit in terms of the organisation of what I was trying to do. My intent now is to write four magazines a year releasing 10 - 12 posts around a core theme over a period of 3 months, these will cover the usual topics of Reviews, News, Orbat, AAR and Scenarios. 

The Summer Magazine will be focused on the completion of the Air Assault force and the development of Scenario material for a game that will be played out in July with a full AAR appearing in the Autumn edition, stimulated by finally completing a number of the units I have been working on for the last  year.

At long last then my 100th post and I note we are nearly upto 100 followers so plenty to celebrate.

The other thing that has brought me out of hibernation are some fantastic new releases and future releases that are popping out  a couple of the regular suppliers of cold war goodness and all focused on the British, these releases make covering the bulk of units for British forces very achievable and are very attractive to boot.

and now you can follow Cold War Gamer on Facebook

Follow Us

FIGURES

Elhiem

Matt over at Elhiem figures has been extending his British range, which originally comprised a section patrolling with SLR, GPMG, 58 pattern webbing and tin hats in and out of NBC kit. Suitable for units up to 1987-1988 when SA80, PLCE webbing  and the Mk 4 Helmet all started to make an appearance.

To these he has added a mid 80's Milan team of three figures, 58 pattern webbing and Tin hats but a Milan post with Mira,  If you need an early 80's team the NATO Milan teams have a platform without MIRA.  The 3 figures are excellent as is the MIRA representation, 1990s teams could go a head swap or you can leave as is to save the cash which will be my approach.

In production are a section in fire positions, a Javalin AA missile system a GPMG SF Kit, Carl Gustav team and a mortar crew, all up a very comprehensive range, and the greens demonstrate the quality great stuff.  Hopefully we'll see these go live on Matts Elhiem Figures site in the not to distant future,

flicking through the Cold War Gone Hot, Force on Force supplement, he still has a few bits to go around the dutch, although his Canadians with SLR start to answer some of that need.

MODELS

S&S

Quite a flourish of activity in both Resin and plastic, we'll start with the resin cold war manufacturer of choice who has gone absolutely british cold war potty. A big shout out to Shaun at S&S who has just about filled nearly all the slots in the Orbat not covered by the plastic manufacturers and other easy to access resin manufacturers so without further a doe

First up Ferrit Armoured cars primarily employed in the 80's in signal platoons as liason and rebroadcast vehicles so part of BHQ 

Secondly the CVR(T) fleet of the year, Scorpion, Scimitar, Samson Samaritan, Sultan and Striker awesome, I'll be getting a few of these to cover off an Armoured Battle Group HQ Sultan, A Divisional Recce Squadron, all of them + spartan, and an Armoured Regiment close Recce Troop with Scorpio, superb.

We then get into the land of recovery, a 434 and a warrior recovery, I have the 434 but have yet to build it and will be getting the Warrior for my late 80s Warrior Battle Group.

and theres more 110 land rovers soft and open top

an M109

An FV 432 Mortar variant

and a finally some soft skins a collection of supacats absolute gold dust and straight into my 24 Airmobile project, and a foden drops that will grace my 1990s artillery unit, probably with a couple of AS90s which of course will be a little cheeky.

So whats left to do to cover off the cold war british force, tracked rapier is the obvious one a DAF 4 tonne and a cost effective Saxon are the ones that spring to mind although both the Rapier and the Saxon are available elsewhere if a little dificult to get hold of.  After that your into specialist variants and there is still quite a bit of ground to cover there. As I build my way through this lot over the next few years I'll throw up more detailed reviews.

Trumpeter

On the Kit front and staying with the British theme Trumpeter have been busy with a clutch of challenger 1s in various guises along with a few Warriors

An impressive haul of releases in the last year and thats just the Brits, sadly a pile of kits have gone out of production with no obvious site of resurrection notably from the Ace stable along with a few noteable titles from Revel, having said that new manufactures have started to fill the gap.  Maybe I need to slot in an interim news post in order to cover off the rest of the pile over the next three months.

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

Review - Model 1/72, Revell FV 4030 Challenger 1

Challenger 1 was an evolution of the Chieftain but contained some fairly revolutionary new components for its day. It entered service in 1983 with Chobham Armour, the British rifled 120mm tank gun and a new power pack and suspension units, it was a significant rework of the base line Chieftain design.  In 1985 it recieved the Thermal Observation and Gunnery Site and in 1991 sported a set of add on armour units that increased hull protection these units were used on all operational deployments once they were available although it would be interesting to know if there was sufficient to equip the whole fleet.  The Challenger 1 served alongside Cheiftain until Cheiftain was phased out around 1995 and was itself replaced by Challenger 2 between 1998 and 2002.

Revell released kits for both the base vehicle and one with a representation of the add on armour packs first seen in the Gulf war.  Both kits are the same except for the side skirts and the Kosova Version includes the additional nose armour.  The base vehicle is still on the Revell Catelouge whilst the version with the operational armour packs is now OOP.  Trumpeter also make models of both versions although I have yet to get a close look at them.

The kit is very straight forward to assemble with no real issues in construction although care should be taken around the assembly of the rear turret bin.  Whilst the tracks are link and length the precision of the moulding means these are very straight forward to assemble. The kit possesses some excellent mould detail but falls short in a couple of areas which is a little disappointing:

• the smoke grenade discharger units are poorly represented, 
• the vehicles stowage baskets all need filling and or covering to represent a vehicle in the field. 

Having said that these are all quite minor problems on what is otherwise an excellent kit.

To my mind what makes a war-games model is getting the stowage right, which largly involves looking at some pictures and quizzing some old soldiers if you can find them.  Pictures of the vehicles in Germany generally seem to be quite tidy compared with some of those seen on Op Granby, probably due to additional equipment and consumables water, ammo, food, oils and lubes being carried on operations over exercises when live rounds full NBC scalings etc might not be carried.  So whilst I was looking to use my Challengers in central europe I was keen to use the 1st Gulf War images to add some operational context to the look of the vehicles.

Typical stowage seen on Challengers includes Cam Nets in bins which can either be covered or uncovered, In addition the following are fairly common in photographs:

• Call Sign boards on either the turret rear or rear and sides, 
• Roll Matts strapped to the outside of the various turret stowage baskets, 
• Crew Shelters, 
• rolls of Hessian or the issued thermal plasticised equivalent
• Jerry cans in the rack at the back of the turret. 
• Cam Nets around barrels, more frequently on exercises than operations.
• Chieftain Bins on the turret sides.
• Antenas

Cam Nets are made from open weave bandage soaked in white glue, the covers are all from green stuff,   as are the hessian rolls on the sides of some of the vehicles, roll mats are cut from appropriately sized plastic rod.  The Call sign boards are cut from plasticard and the Chieftain bins scratch built from card stock.  A number of after market kits exist which can cut down the effort but they cost.  Whilst I have seen no images of air Identification panels in use from this period, they would seem sensible and might have been deployed in a conflict especially when operating under conditions of local air superiority.

Crewing british vehicles was proving to be a challenge until I discovered that Wee Friends had taken on a significant component of the CMSC range including the crew figures.  The Figures are offered with the Crew Guard Helmet which I believe started to appear from around 1987 but include additional heads sporting the Mk 6 combat helmets worn by Infantry crews from about the same time.

I also bought another three sheets of the TL Modelblau British decals to ensure I had enough C/S to get all 8 of the vehicles done.

In the process of working up this post, I have dived into a bunch of reference material and modeling components which I have listed below.  Both of Revell's Challenger 1 offerings are great kits and reward the effort required to stow and crew it

References:

Operation Granby: Desert Rats Armor and Transport in the Gulf War (Firepower Pictorial Specials 2000 Series)

Challenger Main Battle Tank 1982 - 1997, Osprey

Modelling the Challenger 1 and 2 MBT and Variants (Osprey Modelling)

Prime Portal Challenger 1 Walk around

Armorama Challenger 1 walk around

Google Books Modelling the Challenger 1 and 2 MBT and Varients

Review - Web Resources, M136 Exercise Picture Archive

KG Wings Model Review

On the Way Model Review

Another On the Way Model Review

Warpaint Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003 Volume 3

Warpaint Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003 Volume 2

Trumpeter Challenger 1 Review

Related Posts:

ORBAT - 1980's British BG Part 1, Armoured Divisions and Brigades

ORBAT - 1980's British BG Part 3, Equipment Change

Review - Model 1/72, Brittania FV432

The Kit and Accesories

TL Modelblau - British Decals 1/87

Revell Challenger 1 1/72 Model @ Amazon
Wee Friends Crew
CMK Challenger 1 Stowage
General British Stowage BW Models
General British Stowage Kingfisher Miniatures

Review - Model, S&S 1/72 2S3 Akatsiya

2S3 Akatsiya was the Soviet counter to the M109, only in this instance a 152mm Howitzer.  It entered service in 1973 and formed the core component of Soviet Divisional Artillery regiments as they evolved to their end state at the back end of the 1980s.  It had a maximum range with rocket assisted projectiles of 24km and was equipped with a dozer blade that allowed it to dig itself in.  The Soviet propensity for the employment of SP Artillery in the direct fire role in both defensive and offensive operations means that you really aught to own a few if your gaming Cold War Soviets.  In addition to wide spread use as an artillery platform the  hull was used for a wide range of other systems including, SA-4, GMZ, 2S4, and 2S5 so plenty of oppourtunity for conversion.

Until recently the only available kit was a balaton offering which was both expensive and some what large.  S&S now offer a 2S3 which is a simple and effective representation of this artillery piece.  The model consists of 4 resin components which are relativly free of bubles and flash, the tracks being the component requiering the most attention.  In addition there are 4 white metal components which includes the main gun, commanders MG, Barrel clamp and dozer blade all were flash free.  Price currently in the UK is £10 which includes P&P.

Assembly is very straight forward with no issues.  All the hatches are molded closed so a bit of effort is required if you want to crew the beast up.

Stowage and markings are minimal and I painted mine in Vallejo Russian Green and based them on pre cut MDF bases.  The only markings I have added are turret numbers, which are becoming a little difficult to find in white.  I am currently getting mine from Scotia

Bases are painted GW calthan brown and highlighted with Vallejo Desert yellow before static grass and tufts are added.

References:

2S3 Walk around
2S3 Walk around 2
S&S Models
S&S current Price List Jan 2013
Orbat - 1980's MRR and TRR, Part 4 Artillery

Review - Books, Armies of NATOS Central Front

The Armies of NATO'S central Front was written in 1985 and is probably the definative work of this nature on NATO'S armies covering a wealth of detail particularly on organisation that is other wise rather more difficult to come by than data on the Warsaw pact and the Soviet Union.  As such this volume is in high demand and if you can pick up a copy for less than £100 you are doing well.   

As well as covering the strategic context and how NATO would approach the defence of Western Europe it majors on the organisation equipment and tactics of the member Nations with Chapters on:

• Belgium
• Canada
• France
• Federal Republic of Germany
• Great Britain
• Luxemberg - a very short chapter
• The Netherlands
• United States of America
• Danish Jutland Division

The armies of Southern and Northern Europe sit outside the scope of the title.  Each National section broadly covers the Background, Including Strategy and training before looking at Unit organisation and Order Of Battle, How that Nation will fight its battles, Weapons and Equipment, current force deployment and the National Air Force. The level of detail and the breadth of coverage really make it one of the must have titles for anyone interested in the period in general or NATO specifically.  The only problem is availability of the title and hence cost, a superb reference book for the central front enthusiast.

Armies of NATO's Central Front @ Amazon

Other Book Reviews:

A History of Soviet Airborne Forces 
Soviet Tactical Aviation
Red Thrust, Central Front
The Soviet Afghan War, How a Super Power Fought and Lost
Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army
Soviet Air Land Battle Tactics
The Military Balance
Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army
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 - Web Resources, SSVC on You Tube

SSVC were the organisation that used to make and probably still do make the bulk of the Services information and training films.  A number of their titles from the early 80s have been placed on You Tube by a variety of people and are worth watching if your interested in gaming British in the Cold War period.  They provide some insight into what the British Army got up to but are also an excellent source of detail on what it looked like and there is excellent footage in a number of the videos of SLR equiped Infantry and exercise stowed FV432s chieftains M109s and Abbots.   Todate I have only looked at one or too but they are worth a look.

Thanks to Nick Dives from the Guild for finding this little collection and passing it on.

Other videos include:

• Fighting in Woods
• Individual Field Craft
• Section Fire and Manouver
• It Could be You
• Recce Patrol
• Fighting Patrol

If you served in the Army from the late 70s through to the early 80s I'm sure they will bring back some memories, for those of you that didn't they represent a bunch of videos of historical interest illustrating as they do the look of personal and equipment as well as some great examples of early 80s voice procedure when Pronto, Shelldrake and Sunray were all still chatting away before the arrival of the more modern call sign system, clansman radios and officers with regional accents.

Cold War British Army Training Videos @ You Tube