Drachenzähne

Drachenzähne  or Dragons' Teeth formed part of several fortified lines in WW2 and later - most notably the Maginot and Siegfried lines and the East German border.  I understand that Switzerland still maintains several stretches of such obstacles, where they are entertainingly known as 'Toblerone lines.'  Perhaps there is scope for a game where the assault engineers have to eat their way through the defence lines?

 Mine started off life as a seedling tray but I soon spotted it's military potential!  Cut into individual 'teeth', based and painted concrete-ish grey, I now have a two and a half foot (75cm) stretch to protect Forbodia's frontier.  The Dinky Chieftain is present in the photos to lend tone to the proceedings...

FROG Phantom fun - part 4

 It's finished!  I combined some of the markings from the kit to complete the Phantom as XT589 - formerly of the Royal Navy's 892 Squadron flying off Ark Royal - and subsequently transferred to No. 111 Sqn, RAF based at Leuchars in Fife.  Why that unit?  As regular readers know, Leuchars was my 'local' airbase when I were a lad.  I also have an old friend who worked there on these very aircraft.

 I just love those four Sparrows in their semi-recessed mounts.

 What could be more Cold War than a Phantom?  

                                                               Only this perhaps.

Operation Vijay

This was Bob Cordery's game about the Indian invasion of Goa in 1961, played at COW earlier this month.  Bob did all the hard lifting while I provided the toys and helped run the game.  A team of five players represented various elevated personalities in the Indian army, navy and air force while a further three flew the flag for the Portuguese Empire.

Speaking of flags, Bob had provided a couple as a rather atmospheric table covering.

The Indian team hard at work arguing over who was in command.

The Portuguese Governor General (centre) trying to figure out where Goa is.

Plans made, the players assemble for the invasion.

The Indians sent columns from the north and west, and had large naval forces standing by in support.

For the land forces I used the toys I had already prepared for various Indo-Pakistani games.

Given that the Portuguese had only six battalions of light infantry the

 Indian divisional-level assault seemed unstoppable!

Several bridges were blown up in order to slow the attackers.

Sadly the relief flight which finally arrived didn't contain the hoped-for Para brigade!

The Indian Air Force was much in evidence....

...while not to be outdone, the Navy floated up and down bombarding things.

Soon the noose tightened around the capital.

And the Admiral arrived in person to be present for the surrender.  All in all an very interesting game about a little known campaign.  Bob very kindly lent me his maps and briefings (and flags!) after the game so I will be running it at the Sheffield club in a few weeks time.  Book now!

DC-6(ish)

The Operation Vijay game (more on that soon) allowed for the possibility of Portuguese reinforcements arriving by air.  Thus it was back to my box of random 1/300 aircraft to select a suitable model.  The Portuguese Air Force had a few DC-6 on fleet and I had a spare model of the very similar C-54.  This is a Heroics & Ros casting and is really quite a big lump of metal.
A least the markings were a bit easier to paint on surfaces so large!

Sabre rattling

As there was a possibility that the Portuguese air force might show up in Operation Vijay, I dug out this old 1/300 F-86 Sabre (which I think is a Skytrex casting) and slapped on a bit of paint.  The markings were something of a challenge to paint in this (or any?) scale but the thing emerged looking Sabre-esque and clearly not Indian.  Which was good enough.

For a photo of a real (better painted!) Portuguese F-86 have a look here.  Apparently their last Sabres were retired as recently as 1980.

Indian Canberra

Next off the production line for the Operation Vijay game at COW is this IAF Canberra.  This is another Heroics & Ros casting, and a pretty crisp model it is.  There was some pitting on the wings but a bit of filler soon dealt with that.
I applied the same basic paintwork as with the Vampire, but took the trouble to paint on the tail flashes.  The was plenty of room for this!
The  Canberra is such an elegant shape that even I can't muck it up too badly and I look forward to it taking to the 'skies' next Saturday.

Indian Vampire

I need a few Indian aircraft for a game Bob Cordery and I are presenting at COW next weekend.  I already had a couple of suitable models in stock and more were soon forthcoming from Andy at Heroics & Ros.  First up is this Dh Vampire.
Given the need for speed (over and above my usual laziness and incompetence) I went for a basic paint scheme of some green camo over the overall grey primer.  Markings are by Dom's Decals from a sheet of roundels I bought a couple of years ago.  A coat of matt varnish finished it off.  Actually it looks better in real life - as usual the camera flash has highlighted the many flaws in my paintwork!

Can you guess what's next?

GHQ 2013/14 new release schedule

The forthcoming year's new releases have been announced by GHQ.  As usual, my edit of this list below consists only of the 1/285 scale WW2 and Postwar models. 
At first glance it doesn't look like too expensive a year, my only 'must-have' being the G-Wagen.  I may, however, be tempted by the French infantry.  And possibly the S. Korean stuff.....

A bog-standard G-wagen

June 30, 2013

US-99               M4A2 Sherman 75mm   Sherman used by US Marines    5/pack

R-69                 M4A2 Sherman 75mm   Lend-lease, 3664 received          5/pack

SK-1                K1A1 RoK MBT in use since 2001        5/pack

G-577               Pz III M with sideskirts              5/pack

N-556               LAV III Kodiak w/ 25mm chain gun      5/pack

N-557               ASLAV- Aus/Can version of LAV 25    5/pack

R-70                 ZiS-5 Fuel Common Russian Fuel Truck             5/pack

August 31, 2013

UK-100            M4A2 Sherman 75mm with Sand Shield Lend Lease       5/pack

US-100             WC55 Dodge M6 SP with 37mm ATG   5/pack

N-558               LAV III TUA (Tow Under Armour)      5/pack

N-559               Modern German Infantry (2000-2013)    60+/pack

N-560               Modern German Heavy Weapons (2000-2013)    50+/pack

SK-2                200 KIFV Korean Infantry Fighting Vehicle        5/pack

October 31, 2013

G-578               Stug III with sideskirts   5/pack

AC-98              Lavochkin La-5FN Soviet fighter, 9920 made      2/pack

N-561               LAV III ELAV Engineering Vehicle      3/pack

N-562               Modern French Infantry (2000-2013)      60+/pack

N-563               Modern French Heavy Weapons (2000-2013)     50+/pack

SK-3                K2 Black Panther Replacement for the K1A1     5/pack

November 29, 2013

Secret, surprise release.  No, we won't tell you until November 29th. ;-)

December 31, 2013

UK-101            Churchill Crocodile Flame throwing variant with trailers   3/pack

G-579               88mm PaK 43 Waffentrager      3/pack

N-564               M113AS4- Extended Aussie upgrade to M113    5/pack

N-565               Gelandewagen 4-door hardtop Used by many      5/pack

AC-99              F-35B STOVL (Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing)      1/pack

SK-4                K55A1 Korean variant of M109 5/pack

An alternative G-wagen....

February 28, 2014

G-580               7.5cm PaK 40(sp) 39 H (f) on Hotchkiss chassis             5/pack

R-71                 ZiS-6 with BM-13 Katyousha     4/pack

W-95                T-72 Bridgelayer           2/pack

AC-100            MiG 21bis Cold War fighter used by many 1/pack

IS-16                Magach 3 Modernized M48 with 105mm            5/pack

N-566               M113 FSV with Saladin 76mm, Aussie "Beast"   5/pack

April 30, 2014

G-581               10.5 cm le FH 18 (sf) 39 H (f) on Hotchkiss chassis     5/pack

US-101             M32 ARV Armoured recovery vehicle on Sherman hull    2/pack

R-72                 ZiS-5 ZiS radio and workshop variants    2/3/pack

TW-23              Ratel 81 Variant with 81mm mortar        5/pack

RC-22              ZBD05 ZBD2000 with 105mm gun        5/pack

N-567               FMTV with HIMARS    5/pack

Couple of Canberras

This pair are both 1/300 scale metal castings by Heroics & Ros and were painted a few months ago.  Both were treated to a sprayed coat of silver and one received the yellow & black stripes peculiar to aircraft involved in the Suez campaign.  The rather basic markings were cobbled together from what I could find in the decal box.

Six-mil Springboks

I recently found these old (January 2005) photos of my 6mm 1980s South Africans in action.  Above is a Brigade supply base in a border village with a senior officer just arriving by helicopter.  Vehicles by Heroics & Ros and Scotia, Puma by H&R, buildings scratchbuilt from balsa.

Infantry in Buffel APCs 'pacifying' a kraal.

That Puma certainly gets around!

A patrol of Eland (SA licence-built Panhard AML) armoured cars escorts supplies of 'Cuca' beer - possibly Angola's best known product? 
The lorry started life as an H&R Ural375D before being corrupted by capitalism.

Soon after the game photographed above I churned out more SADF toys, including heavier artillery.

The accumulation of SADF toys skulking in their drawer.  It's been a while since they came out to play.

Home is the Hunter

This 1/300 scale Hunter was painted a few months ago - I forgot to post the photos at the time!  It is a one-piece casting by Heroics & Ros which I'd had in stock for some years.  The paintwork was finished off with the rather fetching black and yellow 'Suez' stripes of which I am rather fond.
One of my favourite postwar aircraft, the Hunter belongs firmly in the 'if it looks right it is right' category.
I suppose I should dig out the Airfix 1/72 Hunter I have and build it.  No rush though....l

F-84 Thunderjet

It's been a quiet week on the blog - not least because I've been away for a couple of days, and I haven't played any games since the beginning of the month.  Hopefully what passes for normal service should be resumed next week, but to keep you going here is another recently painted 1/300 model. 
This F-84 (maker unknown - probably Heriocs & Ros) came in a batch of aircraft I bought years ago.  I decided to finish it with French markings, over a simple paint scheme of sprayed on 'chrome' silver.  I can now see from the first photo that I should have spent more time straightening the tail surfaces...

Faraway Fictional Fleet Frolics

Following recent email exchanges on the subject of 'modern' naval warfare with David Crook and Paul, I was inspired to dig out and begin painting some more 1/6000 scale ships. These join some 1/1200 WW1 & WW2 vessels on the modelling table. Evidently August is 'Ship Month.'  I will post photos of the completed ships as they 'commission.'  Perhaps a 'duffers guide' to ship painting might be in order.

Both David and Paul asked me about rules and I suggested the set by Peter Child-Dennis which I found some years ago on David Manley's website.  These have been revised since I last looked so I shall need to try them again soon. 

The last outing of my 1/6000 ships was documented here but I remembered that I had some pics of an earlier game.  So here they are.  The game featured two of my fictional South American countries - their harbours filled by opportunist First and Second World arms salesmen.  The detail of the scenario escapes me but broadly a Castillian task force was fending off an attack by the Soviet-armed Basque fleet.   1/6000 ships and 1/1200 aircraft models by Hallmark.

Castillian A7 Corsairs attack Basque Kashin class DDGs

The Castillian fleet under way.

Even Wg Cdr Luddite misidentified this as a Shackleton (a proud moment for me!).  10 points for the first correct identification.

The initial missile attack scored hits on the Castillian flagship. 

Admiral Rapier is helicoptered from his stricken flagship....

....just as the Basque airstrike came in.  To save your eyes, they're a Tu16 Badger and Tu95 Bear.

Added 29/08/12:   'Fatman' on TMP has correctly identified the mystery bomber as a Junkers Ju290.