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

Review - Books, The Military Balance

The Military Balance has been published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies since 1959.  The Publication divides the world into geographical regions and major political alliances then analysis by country the armed forces this includes strategic nuclear assets, army, navy airforce and any paramilitary organisation at the level of numbers of major units, numbers of major equipments, numbers of personal.  Major units vary depending on the size of the army, for the larger forces divisions by type for smaller armies brigades and battalions.

For NATO and Warsaw pact countries it allows you to identify the major equipments used for smaller countries it is potentially more useful as the smaller numbers of equipments can be more easily related to the organisations.  It provides a good indication of the equipment owned and is always an excellent starting point for any new modern war-games project.

The books are published annually and there are significant numbers available second hand, which is just as well as the cost of the latest one is generally prohibitive.  Second hand they are more reasonable.  I have a  collection covering a spread of years across the 80's 90's and 00's.  Exemplar data can be found here which is indicative of the information published on each country.

Military Balance 1981-82
Military Balance 1984-85
Military Balance 1986-87
Military Balance 1990-91

Other Book Reviews

Soviet Air Land Battle Tactics
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

Wargames Unit - 1980s British BG, Support Company

Support Company owns the bulk of the combat power in an infantry battalion providing, Recce, Anti-Tank and Mortar platoons. I have also included my GPMG SF Guns in this post though they were more often an HQ Company asset. Support companies platoons either worked directly for the battle group HQ or were attached to the companies. Recce and Mortar platoons generally worked direct to battle group whist Anti-tank tended to be grouped with the rifle companies although for certain missions, defence, they were more likely to work for battle group HQ. The Support Company HQ provided a staff and planning function into BGHQ which by the late 90s was focused on covering the ISTAR function.

Recce Platoon

The Recce Platoon is represented by two Airfix CVR(T) Scimitars, these have had the flotation screens removed and are crewed with SHQ Gulf War Infantry, considerable extra stowage has been added as this was not unusual for these vehicles which had limited space and a lot of equipment to carry. Stowage is either Goffy or scratch built from Green Stuff or card stock.

Milan Platoon

The Milan Platoon was large comprising 4 sections of 3 vehicles, a Milan Mobile section of 4 vehicles and an HQ of 2 Vehicles. I have physically represented two sections, but provided them each with two posts representing 12 real life posts, so they incorporate the working assets of the third section. The other section is assumed to be deployed with the third rifle company so is not represented.

The milan posts are scratch built using card stock and the figures are converted SHQ WW2 SS or Britania/liberation mixes. The FV432s are Brittania and stowed in line with the post on stowing cold war british vehicles here.

The Milan Mobile Section is represented by a single CVR(T) Milan Compact Turret (MCT) which is a conversion of the S&S CVR(T) Spartan.  S&S now produce a MCT so creating the mobile section is somewhat easier.

Mortar Platoon

The Mortar platoon is represented by 2 Britania FV 432 Mortar carriers and a CVR(T) Spartan carrying a Mortar Fire Controller (MFC). The FV 432s are crewed with the figures provided and the Spartan is crewed with an SHQ Gulf War figure and armed with a liberation GPMG, with the butt removed. As MFCs were frequently on the BG command radio net, the supported sub unit radio net and the mortar platoon net, the vehicle has the I am a target number of antennas mounted.

SF, Drums Platoon

The Drums platoon was double hatted as the SF platoon in the battalion I served in and provided three sections of two guns, I have represented them as two guns, they had no organic transport and were reliant on the people they were supporting to provide them with lifts in order to get around the Battle field.

The figures are a mix of Britannia and liberation, the Guns are liberation and the tripods from one of the Dragon TOW HMMWV kits. All vehicles are painted in line with painting modelling and model reviews referenced below.

References:

ORBAT 1980s British Battle Group, Part 3, Part 4, Part 7

Painting - British Army DPM

Review - Model 1/72, S&S FV 103 CVR(T) Sparten

Review - Model 1/72, Britannia FV432

Modelling - Stowing Cold War British Vehicles