Pooch - Australian Quads Part One, or Why Colin is bad

I am unashamedly a magpie. I love being able to walk into a store, see something I really want, and then buy it. Or see something I really want, realise that it is not pay week, then froth for the next week until it IS pay week, and buy it.

So last time I was in the toy shop near my work (buying sheep of all things) I spotted this.

I have already got a fair few of the other Airfix kits. You can find my Jackals in Despatches 1, I have the landrovers on the painting table and I have box of the infantry, plus the spares from the vehicle kit.

Now, don't for a second think just because I am a magpie that I love it all. I do not find the infantry to my tastes, especially given that they are proper 1/48, rather than Empress or Eureka being 28mm. I think they suffer a bit from being done (I think) on a computer, some of the edges aren't as crisp as I am used to with the other manufacturers. Plus assembling the infantry is harder than it needs to be. Probably the only reason I haven't thrown my toys (literally in this case) about them, is that I know that Queeg (here) has made a wonderful job of them, so I somehow keep it in my head that I can do that too.

But, for all I don't care for the infantry, I do really care for the vehicles. I love the shape of the Jackal, it has wonderful detail and just looks cool. The landrovers are great as well, I will quite happily pick up another set when I see them. And the Warrior? Well, I will probably get one of those too. I did say I am a magpie after all!

So why on earth would I buy the quads, knowing I don't like the infantry? Well, I like the idea of quads. They are a mainstay here in NZ on the farms, I have ridden a few myself.

Plus there are cool pictures like this!

And you know what? I was not disappointed at all by the kits. The quads themselves are probably my favourite of the Airfix Herrick range that I have got my grubby mitts on so far. Well designed, well cast and they look good. I made some little modifications to mine, adding an AT4 and changing the location of the spare wheel just to add some variety. The quads come with trailers, which are well enough designed to be detachable, which suits me just fine when I am building scenarios around them.

With the Quads assembled, it was on to the crewmen. And here is where Colin comes in.

Here I was, all ready to have a couple of British Quad Bikes. Maybe crewed by paras, maybe commandos, maybe Mercians. I hadn't decided. And then Colin says something like "Those Quads will go great with your new Auzzies Pooch". (cue evil laugh from Colin bawahahahaha) And that was that. The seed of doubt was placed, so now I have to have Auzzies on the quad bikes.

So I needed to convert the British crew into Auzzies. I identified some key points of difference- Head, Kneepads and pockets.

Step 1- Kneepads. One of the features of the Crye uniform is the hexagonal kneepads.

To make them, I started out by rolling out a thin layer of greenstuff and put it over the knees

He kept falling over, hence the hand of God. Silly headless auzzie....

Next step was to cut the rectangle to be roughly the right size for the kneepad. The key here is to make clean cuts the whole way through of the greenstuff, that way you are only going to lift away what you don't want, not the whole kneepad. It is also worth thinking about the angle which the kneepad is on, for example these quad bikers it is not going straight up/down due to the way the leg is.

The third step is to turn the rectangles into hexagons. Ideally these won't be even, because the way proportions work with a bent knee mean that they should be a bit different, the key is to make it "look" right. Again, make sure to make nice clean cuts through the greenstuff, otherwise you will end up lifting the whole kneepad.

The last step is probably the most difficult, simply because it is fiddly. The kneepad is a hexagon, but it has a rectangular hole cut in the middle of it. And put simply, that is exactly what needs to be done. It is a bit easier with these quad bikers to cut the rectangle, because they have quite a defined kneecap, due to the fact that they are sitting! The key here again is to make sure you are careful with what you take off, start with a smaller rectangle.

Anyway, next step is the head (which I have done) and the pouches (which I haven't). Plan is to finish them tonight, and have something up here soon.

Oh, and I said I was going to tell you how to paint Crye Multicam didn't I?

Pooch

AAR - Defend the river 2

So week 2 rolled round and after a faux pas from me not bring some Taliban figures we kicked off, right from where we left off the previous week.

The Taliban started the game with a few re-enforcements but without two of their RPG’s. This was to have major repercussion later.

When we left the game last week the Brits had 3 men still holding the river, one UGL on the roof of a nearby building, one UGL in stairwell of the same building and one hidden in the rocks next to the river. To say these guys were dug in was a bit of an understatement. They would again weather a full two hours of play without moving.

The new Taliban arrived from the board edge on combat phase 20 and spent their time moving close and entering building to get height advantage. The Brits didn’t activate until phase 16 so the Taliban made good use of their movement phases to get into position, both against the river group and the approaching engines of the off-table vehicles

Phase 16 saw the Brits splash a Taliban on the roof with UGL fire. First blood to the Brits, (second week running). The rest of the fire from the team just helped to keep the T’s head down.

Phase 15 rolled around and all the vehicles activate and arrive on the board. This was the time the game became damnation alley (At least it should of if I had brought the RPG chaps). The first vehicle an unarmed Landrover drove on to the board, straight along the road, the off through a fence into a corn field and its two crew jumped out.  This was either the craziest move in the world or something deeply clever (the jury is still out) but it sure made a great distraction.

The next vehicle was the Warrior, this only had crew as it was carry wounded in the back. Now I would have brought that big metal monster on and rock and rolled with the RARDEN cannon but no, Ray stuck to the mission narrative, more power to Ray, and went hell for leather to save his wounded and so began the Warrior’s run. Completely ignoring the road it headed in the straightest line across country to the river crossing. Eating up the first couple of obstacles with ease. While I am sure the wounded weren’t enjoy the cross-country ride it was definitely getting them to MEDEVAC point quicker.

It was at this point a T in a nearby building fires his RPG on snapfire at the huge metallic beast but had a melt down on dice rolls and missed, however he didn’t miss that much and the Warrior took a morale marker.

The final vehicle the WMIK ran the gauntlet of the road and as we knew that out there somewhere was an IED we kept waiting for the bang. A bang I am happy to say never came. (This gave us some ideas for the new Taliban ORBAT)

In the next few phases the Taliban tried to move again up along the berm again and some desultory fire from the middle of table led to one of the Brits being wounded by 1pt most of it soaked up by the body armour, however this did stop the UGL gunner from loading which was annoying.

So far, so good, The T’s had several rounds of moving and firing and basically putting morale markers on the squad holding the ford but not much else.

The only Brit shooting of note was the UGL gunner on the roof performing a mirror image move of his opening shot and dusting another T in exactly the same place as the last one had been. I think this discouraged Craig H from using those stairs for the rest of the game.

With one of the berm T’s finally making it around the building, he decided to race right up to the wall so the nearest Brit had no cover save and let rip with his AK. Never has a man been so lucky, his body armour soaked all the damage but it did knock him to the floor (prone).

On his combat phase the Brit stood up, ran up to maximise the shot, only to be snap fired by the same insane T, who this time missed. The Brit then cut him in half with his armalite, scratch one T.

The warrior meanwhile continued to move across the round terrain and then got stuck crossing a hedge.  We had visions of diesel fumes and roaring engines as the tracks just whirled round as the Warrior tried to use its tracks like chainsaws to cut through this hedge.

Again both sides tried fire but not really to much avail and then WMIK instead of crossing the river to safety, turn 180⁰ degrees at the ford to face the enemy and let fly with his HMG unfortunately it was just tracers in the sky as the T on the roof was just too comfy hunkered down (prone).

Finally the warrior cuts itself free and exits the board and the game effectively ended but we did play on for a few more turns with one Brits crossing the ford only to be shot in the middle of the ford but again saved by body armour. At this point we called it a second win for the Brits.

If the Taliban had there normal amount of RPGs I think the game would have been quite different so I think this may well get another playtest before being released in Despatches No.2.

My thanks to the players, Ray, Chris Craig W and Craig H (who brought along some nicely painted Germans to show), all who played in the spirit of the game and were narrative to the core. A special thanks goes out to Ray for hosting us all yet again at his place.

The M32 MGL

I, like many people I am sure invested in the Empress Miniatures kick starter. The promise of high quality miniatures cheaply was too irresistible!

Now for all those who picked it up, you will have noticed that one of the bonus figures was a USMC soldier armed with a M32 Multiple Grenade Launcher (MGL).

M32 Multiple Grenade Launcher

Initially field tested by the USMC in 2006, the M32 grenade launcher is a 6 barrelled 40mm multi-shot weapon, so basically a 40mm grenade firing version of Dirty Harry's revolver!

"You're thinking did he fire six shots or only five?"

The cylinders on the M32 MGL rotate on a spring loaded system, and must be rewound after reloading the weapon. The rate of fire is basically as fast as the soldier can pull the trigger and reloading is not a time consuming, nor an arduous process (any soldiers with experience with the weapon, please correct me if I am wrong!). The M32 seems to be well liked due to having a rugged construction, and the ability to provide high explosive fire support accurately and quickly, firing the same 40mm rounds as the M203. While it can be equipped with a variety of 40mm ammunition, it is the High Explosive (HE) that would be most frequently used.

The M32 MGL is a squad based weapon used by the US Marines and would be carried by the grenadier in place of their M16/M203.

Note that unlike other grenade launchers, the M32 MGL does not need to reload after each shot.

These are just test rules, we might update them closer to the time. Pooch just wanted to be able to use his cool new figures in games!- Ed

Now you have no excuses for not painting up your M32 gunner!

Now some of you will probably have had an allergic reaction to a US soldier armed with an M32 wearing ACU. As the Marines are the ones equipped with the M32, but marines don't wear ACU. Simply put, I wanted it to match the other US I have painted.

Next update from me will be about Crye Multi-cam!

Pooch

COLIN - Eureka Somalis

Eureka miniatures are now producing Somali's, they are absolutely fantastic and I am fortunate enough to have been sent a full set for review by the Eureka team. Great figures, very crisp as is always the case with Eureka and they paint up lovely. I am also using them to convert up for Afghans and a lot of them could definitely be used for most insurgent types.

Check out more images on Kostas blog http://flyinggorilla.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/painted-28mm-eureka-miniatures-somalis.html.


Now the this is probably worth letting you know that the team are currently working on our first Battlebook for Skirmish Sangin called... drum roll please.. Maalintii Rangers that means Day of the Rangers in Somali. 

So what do we mean by Battlebook, well a battle book will be an occasional series where we take  a selected modern battle and give you all the forces in terms of ORBATS, rules etc to play the game. 

We all know Sangin as a set of rules is more than Afghanistan and we aim to bring out these books to show people what you can do with the rules and to enable us to play some really cool battles in other exotic locales. 

So we'll keep you informed as we move closer to the final deadline and if you have any ideas for different battles you would like to see let us know in the comments



 

Dougie- Painting British Part 2- Flesh!

The resident Brit in our Armies of Afghanistan has returned, this time sharing his way of how to paint skin tone.

Hi Folks,
This update will cover how I’m doing the flesh areas on my Brits. Whenever I paint a figure one of the first decisions I make is whether to paint eyes or not. I only really consider this on 28mm figures, anything smaller I normally have the eye sockets as shadow. The last thing you want on a figure is the bug-eyed “popeye” look (it might look a bit silly to have really, really shocked British- Ed so unless you’re confident you can do it don’t bother and paint the eye sockets as dark shadow instead.

The easiest way I’ve found to do it, and there are loads of methods out there, is to paint the eye socket area in your chosen eye colour, dark brown is a good choice, and then dot in the white areas in the very corner of each eye- so 4 in total. You want to get this dot as small as possible, the majority of the eye should be the colour with very small areas of white or off white in the corners. This can take a bit of practice and if they’re not even, or as good as, it won’t look right.

If I’m painting eyes in they are the first thing I do on the face, the Brit model we’re using has shades on but I’ve photographed one of the other guys as well, so you can see what I mean.

Anyway, on to the Flesh. I’ve adapted my 3 colour 20mm method and blended the 3 shades sequentially so we’re looking at about 5 shades on the face.

I’ve used the following 3 colours.
1. Shadow – Vallejo Game Colour 44 Dark Flesh
2. Base Colour – Foundry Flesh Shade 5A
3. Highlight – Vallejo Game Colour 4 Elf Flesh

The method I use is to paint from shadow to highlight in the natural way leaving the darker show shades in the places where the shadows would be, not teaching anyone to suck eggs here you’ll know what I mean if you don’t they’re loads of tutorials on line.

This first Photo shows our guy with VGC 44 added.

Here’s a close up

The next layer is a 50% mix of VGC 44 and Foundry 5A.
Followed by plain 54.
Then a 50% mix of 5A and VGC 4
And finally plain VGC4.
The various shades are layered on going from shadow (Dark) to highlight (Light)

I‘ve then painted in the bottom lip for some contrast using Vallejo Model Color 802 Sunset Red.

A closer view

The photo below shows one of the other guys without the shades

I’m not 100% happy with the eyes, may have to decrease the white areas but you get the idea.

You can also add 5 o’clock shadow if you want to, I haven’t in this case but its easy enough to do, I use a blue grey wash.

That’s it for this update the next one will cover the uniform and the joy that is multicam!

Later, Dougie

Craig H - Research on the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan

Craig has undertaken some serious research into the Germans in Afghanistan. Please note these are Craig's ideas and we like them but this is not to say we will not supercede them as more information becomes available.

In thinking about what unit to use I was very interested in German light infantry, particularly the paratroops, or Fallschirmjager. Armed with Google, Wikipedia and my 20-year old, first year college German I scoured the internet for information, hoping to come up with a rough ORBAT for a Fallschirmjager zug (platoon).

(The Bundeswehr makes an appearance in Despatches 1, but Craig wants the Fallschirmjager, which at the time of writing, we were not able to get any good information on-Ed)

Firstly a bit of history. German Army paratroops have a long history. During World War Two they participate in a range of military operations, including the Low Countries in 1940. They led the world’s first airborne invasion, the bloody assault on the island of Crete in May 1941. As the war turned, they fought on most fronts, including at Monte Cassino in 1944 and, if you’ve seen HBO’s Band of Brothers, at Carentan in June 1944.

The Fallschirmjager were restablished in the post-war Bundeswehr in 1956 and were assigned as reserve forces during the Cold War. From 1989, as Germany started to deploy troops overseas, Fallschirmjager were present in a range of peacekeeping ops in Somalia, the Balkans and the Congo.

In 2011, German paratroopers helped evacuate foreign nationals from Libya. And then there is the Bundeswehr deployment to Afghanistan as part of ISAF.

In early 2014 the airborne and special forces units of the Bundeswehr were combined into one division of 9,500 men, the Division Schnelle Kräfte (DSK) which very roughly translates as the Rapid Forces Division. It includes two airborne brigades and the Special Forces Command (Kommando Spezialkräfte, or KSK).

Organisation
A Fallshirmjäger kompanie is around 160 men, comprising four platoons (one HQ, three combat platoons and one heavy weapons/support platoon).

A Fallschirmjäger zug consists of around 40 men, with a platoon HQ of 8-10 men, led by a captain or senior lieutenant (with medics, sniper, or anti-tank team) and three 10-man combat squads.

Each combat squad (Fallschirmjägergruppe) is led by an Oberfeldwebel (NCO) with a corporal or sergeant as assistant squad leader. The squad can operate as one group, however, more recent doctrine is for it to work in two 5-man fire teams, each with an MG4 and with the squad leader and assistant commanding the elements. This is post 2005 – previously it would more likely operate as a single 10-man unit centred on a heavier MG3.

Standard weapon is the G36 assault rifle, with the two MG4s noted earlier. One or two members may carry the AG36A as a UGL, and the squad may have a sharpshooter with a G28 designated marksman rifle. Heavier weapons such as a Panzerfaust-3, or a Military Working Dog team could be added depending on the mission.

My first go at creating a squad worked out at around 1100 points. I had every trooper as at least a Veteran, reflecting the experience associated with being a paratrooper, but this could be modified downwards to include troops of average rating.

Fire team 1
1 x Elite Oberfeldwebel (NCO) (G36/AG36A (UGL))
1 x Veteran rifleman (MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36/ammo for MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36)
1 x Veteran sharpshooter (G28 marksman rifle +P8 pistol)

Fire team 2
1 x Veteran unteroffizer (CORP) (G36)
1 x Veteran grenadier (G36/AG36A (UGL))
1 x Veteran rifleman (MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36/ammo for MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36)

Now to paint them….but that’s for another post!

AAR - Defend the river crossing

So most of the usual bunch met on Thursday to have a game of Skirmish Sangin.

Ray and Craig chose to play the Taliban this time leaving me to play the British.

The Taliban had two groups of 8 and the ISAF a small 8 man British Para squad. So with forces decided what was the mission.

Well Ray had cooked up a great little mission for us that went something like this.

The British making a large push into the green zone had been reasonably successful until they crossed the river where they where hit by a large force of Taliban. Using their superior air power and close in support they had held the larger Taliban force but not without taking casualties. These casualties now need to be evacuated, with no safe LZ available the decision was made to evacuate by road. Unfortunately this meant crossing the river at the only spot that was currently held by ISAF.

This is where my force came in. My Force had been deployed to defend the river crossing as the main force leap frogged forward.

The Taliban Spies had realised the bottleneck and sent a small force to cut off the line of retreat for the ISAF wounded.

So what did this mean in reality?

Well my chaps had to hold the river crossing for one combat round, 10 combat phases at which point the wounded convoy would enter from the far side of the table. This, ISAF was lead to believe, was a convoy consisting of number of Landrovers protected by a Warrior armoured vehicle.

I got to deploy my troops within 12” of the river (This was an 8 x6” table). And the table got to deploy up to 12” on their side of the table.

So all I had to do was to keep a numerically superior force that came on two flanks at bay for 10 Combat phases. I imagined by Para’s saying something like “ Bring it on” while lighting a nervous cigarette.

I deployed on the north side of the river, keeping the river behind me, to the left in a building and its courtyard on the right in another courtyard to compound. Trying not to be too gamey I only deployed one soldier on the stairs at the beginning of the game and no one on the roof but I did make sure all my chaps had medium cover and where kneeling as the game began.

 

So unfortunately I don’t have a blow-by-blow account but this was a very hard fought game, first blood went to the Para’s with a nicely placed 40mm grenade, quickly followed up with ten rounds of rapid fire but we definitely didn’t have it our own way. Ray’s Taliban kept up a stead level of pressure on the left but were reasonably static, making a slow and steady advance. While on the right, the use of a well placed berm meant that Pooch could split his force and use one lot to try and keep my head down while all the while trying to outflanking me using the berm to hide line of sight as he rushed up his out-flanking force.

This was a hard fought couple of hours, with both sides taking casualties as we came to phase 8 the Para’s looked in good shape, only one casualty. We had been making great armour saving rolls and Taliban damage rolls had been low. We had also managed to reload one of the UGL’s (It takes 3 AP to reload, which means that a man is out of action for a combat phase and I frequently didn’t have time to reload the UGL because of the weight of incoming fire meant I needed him to be firing his armalite). But an AP screw up on my part meant I didn’t get to fire it as the at the two RPG gunners on the roof opposite.

However, it began to slide when Pooch’s RPG gunner managed to blow up two men at the doorway to the compound (The only saving grace was he injured one of his won men in the blast)

Now down to 5 men and with none active in the last two combat phases I took another casualty was then down to 4 men as we reach the last combat action phase. I had made it… but only just. ISAF had managed to hold a very determined Taliban force for one combat round. Now the convoy would arrive and I still had possession of the crossing even though I was besieged on all sides.

That’s where we stopped the game as it was getting late and we hope to complete the mission next week.

I’ll let you know how we get on.