Winter Hammer Soviets

The land based wargaming project on the workbench is a solo Winter War platoon level scheme using 6mm figures on a three foot square terrain board. The original idea was to use the 6mm Heroics and Ros range of Finnish and Russian figures, tanks and artillery. This is still Plan A but having received a Peter Pig voucher for my birthday, I was also of doing the Soviet forces using WW2 Russians in greatcoats with head swaps. I have a stash of figures, so would just need to budenovka and early war helmet head packs to convert them for 1939. The Finns are a different question but the WW2 German ski troops are a possible option. In the meantime, I'll stick with the 6mm Soviet figures, guns and vehicles which I have got ready to base and paint.

Early War Aircraft for Bag the Hun

I discovered a fantastic range of 3D printed aircraft for interwar and early war scenarios yesterday, as usual while looking for something completely unrelated. These are available in three different scales including 1/300th, from Bayonets and Brushes and are intended to be used for the Spanish Civil War, Dutch East Indies and Blitzkrieg. However, they incidentally cover just about everything you could need for the Winter War, Khalkhin Gol and East African campaign, which ticks all of the boxes for my Bag the Hun Lard Mag articles, and then some! I'm sorely tempted to order a few to fill the gaps in the East Africa stash for Bag the Bok but can't really justify spending pocket money on more stuff at the moment. 

Winter Hammer

This time last year I fiddled around with a Winter War solo project using Nordic Weasel's Winter Hammer fast play rules. This didn't go beyond the planning stage but I'm thinking about picking it up again to have a go at basing and painting some 6mm units for both the Soviets and Finns. I did intend to paint some Bag the Hun 1/600th aircraft for the Continuation War, but I need a break from air wargaming, so this is a fitting alternative project. I may even have a go at some terrain making but it's freezing in the garage, so it may be a bit of a struggle!

1/600th Finnish Continuation War Aircraft

It's chilly at the moment here in the UK, so I've decided to pick up a project for Bag the Hun and 'finnish' it off this month (see what I did there?) I've completed the 1/600th scale Soviet aircraft for the Continuation War and so now have the Finnish models to paint, starting with the Curtiss Hawks and some prepared Blenheims, Fokker DXXI's, Hurricanes and a single Fokker C.V, then moving onto some more fighters later on. This will enable me to solo play some of the scenarios I wrote in the 2024 Lard Mag and some new ones that I hope to devise this year, focussed on 1943 onwards. Tally Ho!

Winter Hammer Homework

My order from Heroics and Ros arrived today and I'm very impressed by the 6mm figures, guns and vehicles for both the Soviet and Finnish forces. I'm lining this up as my land project for next month, as the 2mm Pike and Shot project is currently on hold until I sort out some replacement bases. I've been working out the basing system already and reckon on using 40mm x 80mm bases for the infantry, with 40mm x 40mm bases for the support units and vehicles, which sounds a bit odd but will look the part and also work well with the rules. I need to do some more planning but this is definitely coming together.

Winter Hammer Terrain Upcycling

A few years ago I repurposed an old canvas covered framed picture into a desert terrain board for 15mm and 28mm wargaming. I used it for a couple of cowboy gunfights then it got relegated to the garden shed, as the other half didn't want it cluttering up the garage. It's about a metre square and pretty rigid yet lightweight, so easily transportable. Although it's not bad in it's intended role, I've decided to recycle and reuse it as a snow themed terrain board for the Winter Hammer project and for other wargaming rules, where scale isn't really an issue. For example, I have some 20mm / 28mm winter woodland terrain that I made for What a Tanker that I can plonk on top straight away, which means it has a good deal of flexibility. To upcycle it will involve repainting the board and perhaps a little remedial repair work where it has been scuffed in storage, so nothing too arduous or time consuming, although I will need to make some bespoke terrain templates for my Winter Hammer games. 

Winter Hammer Forward Planning

While I am waiting for the 6mm Heroics and Ros miniatures to arrive, I've been doing some forward planning for the Winter Hammer project. The terrain is something I'm working on including a lot of trees, as at least a quarter of the table should be covered in forest. To sort this I've got hold of some cheap but good quality fir trees via eBay, which I'll base up on templates. I think I'll have enough to cover about a third of a 3' x 3' board, which is what I'm going to use for the project.

Winter War Tanks

Bit of a Beast 

I was doing some background googling about armour in the Winter War, specifically the Soviet use of the T-28, when I found this hardback reference book, reduced in price from £4.79 plus very reasonable postage. A bargain I thought, especially as new it's about £35 without adding delivery. I am thinking of using multiple basing for the 1/300th scale tanks in Winter Hammer, with two T-28 or three T-26, BT-7 or Vickers E tanks to a base. The idea of having just the one model to represent three tanks is missing a trick I think, given the small size of the 6mm models. 

Winter Hammer 6mm Solo Winter War Project

I pushed the button on the 6mm Winter War project this morning, ordering two opposing armies from Heroics and Ros, one Soviet and the other Finnish. This will be my land project for the start of 2025, once the figures arrive in a week or two, so the 2mm English Civil War project is going to be postponed until later in the year, although I will crack on with it in the meantime. 

In Winter Hammer each stand represents a platoon, with heavy weapons and tanks based individually representing two or three actual guns or vehicles. In most scenarios there are no more than half a dozen units per side, although you can scale up for larger battles. 

I have ordered a variety of infantry, heavy weapons, guns, vehicles and tanks, including ski troops for the Finns. I now need to think about terrain, especially fir trees to build some forest templates, but also a few rural buildings, bunkers and trenches, not to mention wire entanglements and minefields. 

Winter Hammer

I have been looking for a set of simple rules for land based wargaming focussed on the Winter War, to complement my recent air wargaming projects. I was thinking of Five Core Company Command for this but while browsing Nordic Weasel's rules in the Wargame Vault Winter Sale, I bumped into Winter Hammer. I assumed this was a 'skirmish' style set of rules for 20-28mm figures but I was very interested to discover that it works with 6mm figures on multiple bases. 

H&R Finnish Reindeer Teams!

This is great as I have also been looking at the excellent Heroics and Ros Finnish and Soviet 1/300th scale ranges which feature lots of options including ski troops, reindeer teams and very funky early war Soviet multi-turret tanks like the T-28. I have given the rules a quick read through and I'm enthused by the scope and content of the system, which in usual Nordic Weasel style, seems to cover just about everything you could possibly want. It's looking like a very strong prospect for 2025 at some point!

Tarting Up Some More Storage Tins

I've been tarting up some more storage tins for my 1/600th scale model aircraft over the last couple of days. Here's a WW1 German tin to go with the RFC one I did earlier, as well as a second Soviet WW2 tin to use for Khalkhin Gol alongside the Japanese one. Not bad for a bit of a side line and very easy to do.

Wings at War Winter War Rules Project

I've been mulling over ideas for a Wings at War Winter War set of rules lately, based on various elements of the existing rules but designed specifically for this conflict. Here are my initial thoughts:

Table layout would be the usual 6' x 4' divided down the centreline as the front line of the Karelian Front, but with a 40cm wide area of sea on the western end to represent the Gulf of Finland.

Terrain placement would include scattered areas of forest at height level one, using the system in MiG Alley for hills.

Tactical targets would be deployed on both sides of the frontline by both players representing bunkers, trenches, infantry and tanks. 

Strategic targets would be deployed on the Finnish side closer to the Finnish baseline representing villages, ammo dumps, railway lines etc. These would be the targets for Soviet bombing raids.

The Finnish would deploy in flights of two aircraft and the Soviets in threes.

The Finns would have more ace pilots and the Soviets more green pilots. 

There would be restrictions on the number of specific Finnish aircraft that arrived late or were in limited numbers.

The Soviets would gain VP's for hitting strategic targets with bombers and tactical targets with fighter bombers, They will also get to sow mines in the Finnish half of the sea area. They may get points for shooting down fighters.

The Finns would gain VP's for shooting down bombers, hitting tactical targets with bombers and fighter bombers and for shooting down fighters.

Both sides will also be able to gain VP's for reconnaissance and artillery spotting as in Duel of Aces.

There may also be rules for Taran ramming attacks and air to air rockets for the Soviets.

.... definitely a work in progress.

Tumbling Dice Skis

 

Paul sent me a pre-production sample of the ski undercarriage parts that he's adding to the 1/600th scale range for the Gloster Gladiator and Fokker DXXI. These consist of undercarriage legs and two skis that glue onto lugs on the bottom of the legs, with a hole in the ski to help locate them. I assembled the Fokker DXXI example today and, with a bit of a fiddle and by cutting of the lugs to get a neat fit, 

I managed to put it together. It looks a little bit out of scale but not so much that it's not recognisable as a set of skis, although you might be excused for thinking they were floats. In fact I was wondering if you could make better use of them for 1/285th scale aircraft, although they'd probably be a bit under scale by comparison. It does mean I can now go ahead with a Winter War scenario project for Bag the Hun and possibly Wings at War, unless the Franco Thai War grabs my attention first?

Blue Swastika Rampant Redux

Now that the ski undercarriage option will soon be available from Tumbling Dice, I've decided to mothball my Bag the Hun Finest Hour Project and kick off a Blue Swastika Rampant Winter War project instead. I'll finish off the decals on the Hurricanes and Bf-109's that I've already painted, so they can be used for a game or two, then focus instead on the Finnish aircraft that I need to paint up. The Soviets, for the moment, will be drawn from my Khalkhin Gol collection that is already painted, perhaps with a few extras added for fun. This is something I've always wanted to do and has a double bonus, in that I can use the models for development of a Wings at War rule set for the Winter War and give some invading Russians a sound thrashing, which will be very cathartic in the current political climate! 

Winter War Skis

I had an unexpected email from Paul at Tumbling Dice today, with news that he has cast some 1/600th ski undercarriage bits for both the Gloster Gladiator and Fokker DXXI, although useable for similar aircraft. This was a result of a suggestion I made a few weeks ago, based on the lack of skis for the Winter War. He's going to send me some to try out and they will be added to the range, probably packaged with the relevant models, next month. This means I can go ahead with a Winter War project for Bag the Hun or even Wings at War. Thumbs up! 

Winter War Reading

 

We had a power cut yesterday so I had some time to do some reading, even if I couldn't get any painting done, as the garage had no light. I finished this Osprey on the Winter War and it was excellent, although primarily focused on the land offensive rather than the war in the air. The illustrations are particularly good and complement the text very well. 

Tumbling Dice Early War Soviets

There's a new web shop thingy for Tumbling Dice that I finally managed to get an order through, after a few initial problems. I have ordered some more 1/600th early war fighter aircraft including some Yak 1's, MiG 3's and LaGG 3's. I really enjoy painting these early war planes, as they have bags of character and look pretty neat with those red star decals!

Bag the Hun Continuation War

I've ordered some top up aircraft for my 1/600th scale Soviets and Finnish for the Winter War but have also added some packs of fighters for the early part of the Continuation War including some Brewster Buffaloes, MS406 and Curtiss Hawks. I am now thinking of developing the project for the early stages of the Continuation War, as it has lots of really interesting possibilities and would be a logical direction in which to travel. It also means that I wouldn't need to make any ski undercarriage legs for the aircraft, as it would be a Summer to Autumn 1941 timeframe with no snow or ice involved. It does involve making a load of new bases for Wings or War, however, so I may well just stick with Bag the Hun for this one?

The Winter War Once More

I've been thinking a bit more about a Wings at War project for the Winter War, which can also double up for Bag the Hun and the Blue Swastika Rampant supplement, using my existing 1/600th scale Soviet aircraft as a starting point. The bases and terrain can be re-purposed from my MiG Alley set up, which mean that the only thing I'd need to sort out would be the Finnish aircraft and some new templates for forest areas and lakes. I'm not sure these would affect gameplay but they would make my snow cloth look more Finnish!

I'm looking to add a few more Soviet aircraft in Winter War camouflage and markings, with some DB-3's being one missing element for example, then add the Finnish aircraft for the opposition. These would include a selection of fighter types including Fokker DXXI's, Brewster Buffaloes, Fiat G50's, MS-406 and possibly Gloster Gladiators, with a handful of light bomber aircraft including Blenheim Mk I's. I also need to work out how to model skis, although I may well ask Paul at Tumbling Dice if he can come up with something.

When I looked at this before it was clear that the options for the Finns looked really varied but in reality, most of the air fighting during the Winter War involved a small handful of fighter types depending on the exact location and date. I'll have to dig out my notes to double check and do some more background reading to get a grip on what flew where and when, so that I can develop the rules and also write some additional new scenarios for Bag the Hun to expand on the two in Blue Swastika Rampant.

Wings at War Winter War Woods

I've had this project on back burner for a couple of years but feel like it might be time to warm it back up again, and why not? One thing I need to do is work out the initial layout for the game, akin to the system in MiG Alley, where one side or other gets to deploy ground targets and terrain in the shape of hills, over which aircraft at Level 1 cannot fly. This seemed a bit superfluous for Finland which is largely flat as a pancake but is a really good feature of the game, as it makes it harder for some aircraft when on low level ground attack missions. Instead of hills I am thinking of making the terrain templates areas of forest, with the same limitations for low flying planes. As a lot of combat in the Winter War and Continuation War was at very low or even tree top level, I think this would be a neat way to make the games more exciting and add some scenic variation to the table top?