Cold War Gamer Hobby News - Spring/Summer 2014

This post is a little late for Spring and a little early for the Summer, when I first looked at writing a Spring News post the news was definitely looking thin having delayed the post by a couple of months things have picked up a little.  To tell the truth it was not just about a lack of material, motivation came into play as well.  I tend to do less in the summer generally and spend the time reading and sitting in the sun rather than gaming and there has been a fair bit of sun this Summer. I will hopefully be getting back into the blog swing again as we move in to Autumn so with any luck you can look forward to one or two more posts this month.

Model Collect

Model collect have rapidly become one of my favourite suppliers having produced a good range of T-72 variants early in the year they have now started to roll out the T-64 series of vehicles which are significantly under represented in model form and have really limited the opportunity to represent elements of GSFG that would have come into contact with BAOR so great news.  In addition they have now created their own distribution capability in the UK reducing time to deliver. So good news all-round.

The releases include the T-64 Mod 1972, mod 1975 and mod 1981 both now available to order from their web site for £11 a shot.  These are currently shown under the T-64 section of the web site rather than the unassembled models.

The have also increased the scope of the T-72 range the T-72B with ERA is now released. A T-72BA mod 1990 with the second generation Kontact 5 ERA has been added to the T-72B1 with ERA on the pre order list.

In the pipeline are a T-64 BV (The one I am after) and a BMP3 which is a little late for the period but deployable if you want an early 90s Bear Resurgent Scenario.  Also in the pipeline are ranges for the T-80, T-62 and T-54, very exciting.  If your interested in how the kits build and the detail of the kit try these links.

Model collect on Henk of Holland

Mini AFV T-72B with ERA Completed

Mini AFV T-72B with ERA Build

Mini AFV T-72B with ERA Review

S&S

S&S Have slowed some what on the production of Cold War vehicles although they have added a couple of new models to the shop catalogue these include the British Warrior Recovery variant, the US M60A3, a remastered US M939a and a WW2 vintage Weasel which is very useful if you game French Indo China in 20mm.

Warrior Recovery

M60A3

Weasel 

M939a

The Warrior from the photos looks like one of their best kits yet and its good to see another Weasel on the Market.  Hopefully we'll see a bunch more releases from Shaun over the winter.

Ace

nothing new released by ace but news that they have a BTR-70 in the pipeline, which has popped up on the projects part of their web site.  Their models have been improving as well the re released BMP2 being a significant improvement on earlier kits, so lets hope this follows the trend.

Fabri

Fabri who manufacture pre built kits for a variety of armour magazines have popped out a couple of gems recently in the form of a 2S7 , now depending on how you collect and game these may not be that useful to you.  For me I like to represent off board artillery and I like to represent the array of assets that might be available to bring fire to bear on an objective and in the counter battery game.  So for me these Army and Front level assets are useful :)

Eaglemoss

Eagle Moss have produced a very useful BM 27 Uragan, I have bought two already and very nice they are, less useful but lovely to look at is their MAZ 535A, just not sure what to do with it.  Any suggestions put on the face book page :)

BM27 Uragan

MAZ 535 A

Siberia Models

A large range of Diecasts can now be sourced through Siberia models using Pay pal, I have not used them myself yet but the range of models stocked looks tempting and less hit and miss than trying to source through eBay.  I must admit the last time I thought of using them I didn't because PayPal was not supported so will be giving them a go in the near future.

Hobbyden

Brian at the Hobby den has recently released a BTR 70 and very nice it looks too.  I have on my to do list a BTR based unit and this now means that the BTR 60, 70 and 80 are all readily accessible for the project.

Elhiem

Matt at Elhiem figures has also continued his prolific rate of production although many of his more recent offers are more suited to Dragon Rising Bear Resurgent Scenarios he has included some very useful US in NBC suits primarily focused at Gulf War 1 but good for Cold War and is extending the Cold War British and Soviet Ranges.  Of Note are the Armed Police/RUC good for Winter of '79 and Northern Ireland.

Soviet ZPU Gun Crew

Skirmishing British Cold War

RUC/Police

US in MOPP Suits with Respirators

In addition to this lot Matt has also knocked out a fairly wide range of civilians covering Africa,  Afghanistan and Europe, aimed at a variety of gaming genres from Pulp to Zombie, most are suitable for a variety of Cold War conflicts from the Soviet Engagement in Afghanistan through the South African and Rhodesian Bush Wars to terrorist actions in Western Europe characteristic of the period.  A little too much to cover for this post so I will probably cover them in a separate review.

Eureka

Eureka Miniatures have produced some excellent figure ranges in 28mm, not a scale I normally cover but having purchased the Two Fat Lardies, Chain of Command rules, one I am becoming more interested in primarily for platoon level actions.  The figures released by Eureka include a very useful Bush War range and some excellent Cold War Russians.

RAR

Cold War Soviet

The painted figures are by Ash from the Lead Adventure Forum.  They have also released an Allouette 3 K Car so rapidly creating all you need to cover a Rhodesian Fire Force.

Allouette 3 K Car

Underfire

In 20mm Underfire miniatures have also been pumping out a range of Rhodesian Bush wars figures covering both Greys Scouts, the Rhodesian African Rifles and the Rhodesian Light Infantry.

Of interest Underfire are talking about the expansion of these ranges and the addition of a BAOR Cold War range, hopefully these will be slightly later than the existing ranges with PLCE, SA80 and Mk 4 Helmets, that would be exciting.

Facebook

Bizarrely I now have more followers on face book than I have on the Blog, but if you want to pick up on stuff as its found and or published across a range of Cold War and Modern Wargaming topics it continues to provide a useful and focused feed of information.

The Autumn Magazine

A lot of projects were stalled over the Spring and Summer period by the excellent weather, work and life in general.  The Autumn will I hope see me progress the Mechanised Wheeled elements of my British force and some minor vehicle additions to the existing collection that will let me deploy an armoured battle group for this years Modern Game which is currently scheduled for December.  Other than that I need to get on with a number of Soviet Artillery and Air components and complete my third Motor Rifle Battalion.  As ever I am hit by the war gamers dilemma, more projects than time.

Wargames Unit - British 1980's Tracked Rapier Battery

The concept for this years game pitched the British in defence and knowing the amount of Soviet air power that could be deployed against them I knew they needed to up their air defence game. The Rappier battery should be an HQ and 3 Troops but that seemed a little excessive given that I would only deploy two battle groups.

Rapier was an area air defence weapon and was deployed as part of the overall air defence plan rather than being attached to particular units. having said that units would end up under their umbrella so it seemed sensible to have some level of representation. The tracked Rapier battery is implemented at a vehicle scale of 1:3 which creates problems when representing troops that contained 4 launchers, I have gone for the following organisation:

• Battery HQ of 1 Saxon
• 2 Troops each of 1 Tracked Rapier and 1 M548

The M548s towed or carried the blind fire Radars along with immediate missile reloads for the launch vehicles. Given the cramped conditions on the launch vehicles I suspect the M548s carried a lot of other stuff.

The launch vehicles are from Cromwells range and the M548s are from S&S. All the stowage is locally produced using green stuff and bandage with white glue. Painting is in line with the model review posts on the vehicle and the crew commander is a Britania FV 432 commander.

 

Altogether I think the unit makes a nice little addition to my Brit forces and hope to get them into action latter in the year together with the Javalin detachments I am also engaged in building at the moment.

Related Posts of Interest:

Review - Model 1/76, Cromwell Tracked Rapier
Review - Model 1/72, S&S M548
ORBAT - 1980s British Air Defence

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Modelling - Cold War Soviet vehicle markings and Decals

Sourcing decals for your army is one of the inevitable activities when you start collecting vehicles for a wargames forces. It's generally driven by the need for a variety of unique numbers on vehicles within a unit and a consistency of formation identification markings for the force both of which can be difficult to achieve using the decal sheets supplied with kits. Equally you will probably find yourself purchasing a number of resin and white metal models to fill the gaps in the orbat not covered by kit manufactures and these models tend to be supplied without decals.

Markings on Soviet vehicles tend to be limited and there is a dearth of documentation and imagery on the subject. Equally the policy for their use seems to have been inconsistently applied, not surprising given the size of the organisation.  I have yet to find a reference book, the best resource I have found to date is this Russian language site that formed the basis for this work.  It quotes the source as - Soviet Army Land Forces regulations (part 2 - battalion, company). A rough translation of this has also been posted on the Guild Wargames Forum and I have largely paraphrased the translation so that it is easier to digest, essentially the main elements of the Soviet marking system are:

Vehicle number, 3 or 4 figure number generally in white on turret or hull side and rear, the precise schema was largely determined by the regimental commander and could be meaningful or meaningless.  It is described in the regulations broadly as follows:

According to the reference, the vehicle number consists of three numerals, although I must admit I have seen a fair few pictures and decal sets with 4. The formation commander allocates sub units under his command a set of numbers (e.g. 200-299, or 800-999) for a period of time. 

The repetition of the same numbers on different types of vehicles was allowed. For example, the tank of the battalion commander and the his staff car can have the same number. The numbers issued to tanks in the tank companies of the Motor Rifle Regiment could also be the same as the numbers of the BMP's or BTR's in the Motor Rifle companies.

Numbers were generally painted on vehicles, space permitting, as follows:

• On tanks - Turret sides and rear 
• BMP's - Centrally on sides of hull and onthe upper part of the right rear door 
• Self-Propelled Artillery mountings (I assume like 2S5, 2S7) - in the middle of both sides and rear of the crew compartment armor plates 
• On self-propelled artillery cannons - on both sides of the turret and on the rear hatch 
• BTR-60PB / BTR-70 on both sides of the hull towards the front lower than the level of the sights and boarding hand rails; in the areas free of the equipment-mounting clamps 
• On other vehicles - in the centrally or towards the front of the hull sides

The Formation Symbol (see below) tended to be placed forward of the number.  Numbers were generally 20-40 cm high width being 1/6 (2/3 is stated but makes no sense, later in the translation 1/6 pops up out of context this would make more sense) of their height. The Formation Symbol would be equal to or smaller than the numbers the minimum size was stated as being 2/3 the size of the number. On Summer camouflage schemes these markings are white and for winter or Desert schemes black.  I have seen White on winter camouflaged vehicles :)

Various methods were used to assign numbers to vehicles a selection are outlined below:

• 1-st numeral - the number of the battalion, 2-nd numeral - the number of the company, 3-rd numeral - the number of the vehicle in the company; Example: 239 - the 9-th vehicle of the 3-rd company of the 2-nd battalion. 
• 1-st numeral - the number of the company in the regiment, 2-nd and 3-rd numerals - the number of the vehicle in the battalion; Example: 623 - the 6-th company (hence the 2-nd battalion), 23-rd vehicle in the battalion 
• 1-st numeral - the number of the battalion, 2-nd and 3-rd numerals - the number of the vehicle in the regiment; Example 382 - the 3-rd batallion, 82-nd vehicle in the regiment 
• There were several other methods including factory construction number,everything was dependent on the whim of the regiment's deputy commander for the armament management. 

The identifying markings were supposed to be applied for the duration of the exercise/operation after which they were supposed to be removed. In reality, this rule was not followed consistently, and these markings would usually remain on the vehicles for several years.

With the expansion of the helicopter force from 1970 the Identifying markings were applied on the turret tops of command vehicles in order to be clearly seen from above and behind. This was more common in central europe than elsewhere.

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Honorifics or Arm of service symbols, typically seen on Guards, VDV and Naval Infantry units these markings tend to be more parade orientated than warfare but crews had a habit of leaving them on after the parade was long over.  Variously they appear on Hull, Turret sides and search light covers depending on vehicle type. 

Formation identification markings were applied at Regimental level, were set by the superior commander and changed periodically.  They were located on turret sides and hull sides usually in front of the number, I have also seen imagery where they are marked on top the intent was that all vehicles in the unit should be marked, in actual fact a degree of variation occurred dependent on vehicle type and unit. They consisted of geometric shapes  usually a circle, square or rectangle. Inside the shape additional lines, numbers, letters, dots were added and the marking could be partially over painted to increase the variety of symbols available. 

Air Identification Markings.  Which took the form of broad white lines on the vehicles upper surfaces. These could be longitudinal or Transverse or form a Cross.

Operational experience in Afganistan lead some units to remove all markings, though from images of both that theatre and the European theatre this practice was not consistently applied across all units.

A Growing Range of decal manufacturers have useful products that cover off elements or all of these components at sizes that work on 20mm 1/72 scale vehicles. One of the key points being that decals designed for scales from 15mm - 20mm are useful so 1/144 through to 1/72 primarily because the marking size relates to the vehicle size rather than the scale.

Decal Availability. The Products I have discovered to date are as follows:

• TL Modelblau - 1/87, TL Modelblau has an extensive range of decals, of which two sets cover the Soviet Cold War Period the first focuses on Airborn and Naval Infantry markers, the other on GSFG.  TL Modelblaus products are quite expensive, and of the two I think the Airborne Naval infantry set is the more useful.  The bulk of the decals on the GSFG set having fairly limited use.

• Mig Productions - 1/72 Mig productions have recently released two post war Soviet and Russian decal sets for this scale. I have yet to purchase a set so my observations are based on the images displayed rather than actual use of the product.  Effectivly the first of these will suite vehicles requiring smaller markings the second vehicles requiring larger markings.  Plenty of numbers and a reasonable range of formation markings.  The First of the sheets looks the better value.

• Scotia - 6mm, The Scotia sheet number is RU 106, looking at their web site these would appear to be currently unavailable. Deacals are designed to be large WW2 Rusian vehicle numbers in white for 1/285 but they work equally well as smaller modern numbers on post war Soviet vehicles such as the sides of BMPs and on the T-72 stowage boxes.

• QRF - 15mm, White Stenciled Numbers, This is an immensely useful set of decals, for Cold War Soviets, the numbers are single figures from 1-10 in a variety of sizes all of which are useable on 20mm vehicles. Except for the smallest of numbers this sheet has a set of numbers you could put on most vehicles. The flexibility afforded by the individual figure format is offset by the level of pain in putting them on. They are useful and relatively cheap and can be found on the QRF web site, occasionally this sheet goes OOP so worth having a few in stock.

• Models Collect - 1/72  I have these but have yet to attempt to use them in anger.  You would need a good few sheets to consistently mark a regiment even at a 1:3 or 1:5 vehicle scale.  In addition things like the regimental markings and honorific look a little large for 1/72 against the imagery I have found to date although a variety of sizes for each decal on the sheet is provided and they seem consistent with the rules outlined above.  I have yet to make my mind up on the value of these, more of use to modellers  than war gamers I suspect, great range of formation symbols but limited numbers per sheet.  The Larger sheet has a good collection of numbers.

• Pendinghause.  This decal set is primarily marketed at WW2 but like a number of WW2 sets for both 1/72, 1/87  and 1/100 has use out of period and across the scales although red stars and the more cyrillic scripts are less prevalent on modern equipments. 

If you know of any other references for Soviet markings or decal sets let me know and I'll update the post.


References:

• Приложение 8 Боевого Устава Сухопутных Войск (батальон, рота) Soviet Army Land Forces regulations (part 2 - battalion, company).
• The Guild has a rough translation of the above
• Ground War Central Front, Osprey

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