Bolt Action Cold War! Chemical Commies vs MOPP-Suited Yanks

A couple weeks ago I set up our regular Thursday game as a "Cold War Hot" battle pitting Conscript Greg's and my Eureka Soviets in NBC gear (the infamous "Chemical Commies") against my own platoon of Eureka US Army troops in MOPP suits.

For everyone's convenience we decided to use Warlord's "Bolt Action" WW2 rules with some suitable updates for the 1980s. The scenario was pretty straightforward - the Soviets were on the attack, and the Americans were making a last stand in the downtown area of a nameless West German city.

The Americans fielded a small platoon with transports - three M113s from (the now defunct?) Baker Company.

The Soviets attacked with a strong platoon transported in BMP-2 carriers.

Soviets pushing forward along the street. There was a strong American squad with AT weapons in the building at top right.

Infantry deploys from their BMP-2.

Over on the other flank things are getting hot as the Soviets push through a destroyed apartment block.

Brewed-up vehicles burn themselves out in the street...

A point blank duel between a BMP-2 and M113 ends as you would imagine it would!

M113 crew thinks twice about driving down the street.

I "think" the Americans managed to hold off the Soviets, this time. However, the thing with Soviets in WW3 is "there's always more where those came from" and any NATO tactical win seems like just staving off the inevitable.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun with this game. Bolt Action works great for an infantry-heavy game no matter what the period, and only took a few minor tweaks to reflect modern weaponry (I should have made the 30mm autocannon on the BMPs hit a bit harder though!). It was certainly a blast to get out the old Chemical Commies and MOPP-suited Yanks for a spin on the table, too.

'Til next time! 

Long Weekend Painting Frenzy Part 1 - Team Yankee Canadian Mechanized Infantry

Reinforcements for the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in "Team Yankee"

We just finished another unique Thanksgiving weekend here in Winnipeg. I use the word"unique" because our province was hammered by a severe snow storm through Thursday and Friday.  While terrible winter conditions are something most Manitoba residents are used to, Thanksgiving is just a touch early for that sort of thing - when snow does arrive at that time of year, it tends to be the wet, heavy sort which brings down trees and power lines.  As I type this, thousands of residents remain without power, and it could be a week or more before the power is restored.

Mechanized company command stand (and an M113 for the group to ride around in).

For my part, I was very fortunate - while my lights flickered, the power stayed on, we did not lose too many trees on our property, and I was able to spend Thanksgiving with family because our pickup truck can drive through almost any weather conditions. But since there wasn't much else to do, I was also able to paint like a madman through the whole long weekend!  Building on the ADATS from last week, one of the items I finished was a mechanized infantry platoon for my "Team Yankee" Canadians.

I first started painting Canadians for "Team Yankee" back in January of 2018, before any of Battlefront's models or rules had been released. So my initial Leopard C1s were a mix of models from the Plastic Soldier Company and an outfit called "Armies Army" - a niche outfit which had also released an insanely complete collection of infantry, M113s and Lynx vehicles.

The bulk of the infantry platoon, with their M113s in the background. The blue flowers denote the platoon command stand.

The casting quality of Battlefront's metal infantry models continue to be, at best, average, but at least the range is complete and still available.

This was all months before Battlefront had released their Canadians, and I was a keen early adopter. My Canadians have already participated in some fun games of "Team Yankee", but my force is a small one, and I am looking to bulk it up for some bigger games.  Sadly "Armies Army" no longer exists, and its fine products are nowhere to be found...while I do have left-overs from my initial order, they won't be enough to bulk up my tabletop forces very much.  But it's 2019 now, and Battlefront's (very complete) range is now established and available!

Supporting weapons for the platoon...a .30cal MG team (almost straight from WW2) and a 2-man 60mm mortar team. It's old school, but it all helps hold back the Warsaw Pact forces...

The photos in this post show a complete Canadian mechanized infantry platoon and their 4 M113 APCs for transport.  There is also a Canadian infantry command stand, and a separate M113 for the company commander.  The models and figures are all from Battlefront - but the decals are from my "Armies Army" haul and a specialist 1/87 decal provider (I like the over-sized Canadian flags on the vehicles...).

M113s...missing that iconic road wheel on the front (something the Canadian vehicles always seem to have in photos) but hopefully the little over-sized Canadian decals give enough "Canadian content" for the models.

Another view of the M113s...not my favourite Cold War vehicle by a long shot, but you will not find many NATO forces without them...

I always find the M113 to be a bit of a tough slog to paint - they are not inspiring vehicles - but I credit Battlefront for an overall amazing kit in terms of options to build your M113s into a wide assortment of of the variants used by NATO forces.  The Battlefront infantry sculpts are also good, but I do prefer the "Armies Army" ones in terms of quality - the sculpting and casting was just better with "Armies Army".  But full credit to Battlefront, their range is very complete - and you can still order from it, so it's great to see them supporting their range and their game.

With these reinforcements, I can now field multiple elements in my "Team Yankee" Canadian forces - a mechanized infantry company and a Leopard C1 squadron. While my gamer-lizard-brain will always immediately speculate about further expansion (a third mechanized infantry platoon, maybe to represent the combat engineers, would be nice, as would more TOW launchers, and the Leopard C1 squadron could use a couple more tanks) for now we have some additional variety in terms of options for our "Team Yankee" gaming.

Thanks for visiting - and stay tuned for more Long Weekend Painting Frenzy Output

Painting Challenge Submission 11 - Cold War Support Elements

NATO support vehicles hold the Warsaw Pact back from strategically vital parts of...my kitchen...models from Battlefront and Armies Army

After five consecutive weeks featuring submissions of 15mm Cold-War-Gone-Hot subjects, I really thought I was going to switch to painting something different - but the switch didn't stick. I started thinking to myself "well, what about one or two support elements to, you know, 'round out' the work I have already completed..." and such are the debris-strewn pathways of my hobby mind that I put down that other stuff and went back to the 15mm stuff - just can't seem to quit the Cold War!


Subjects from two NATO nations today - some support elements for my 15mm 1980s Canadians, and some tank-hunting helicopters for my 1980s West Germans.


Since it has been a few weeks since we last visited the Bundeswehr, let's start with the helicopters. These are BO-105s, multi-part 1/100 scale plastic kits from Battlefront, part of their extremely comprehensive lineup of figures for the 1980s West Germans in their "Team Yankee" game.

BO-105 tank hunting helicopters for the Bundeswehr

Where the Germans have some fine form when it comes to battle tanks, these BO-105s don't, shall we say, give off quite the same "menacing" vibe as, say, the utterly terrifying Soviet "Hinds".

Instead, the BO-105 has a kind of practical, workmanlike "well, anything is dangerous once you attach anti-tank missiles to it" sort of aura.

TOW anti-tank missiles are the killer armament of these helicopters...they are out to hunt tanks

With the Warsaw Pact and its 3 billion tanks facing you down, you do need to have as many economical anti-tank options as possible to back up your ultra-sexy Leopards! The BO-105 is a fine tank-hunting platform, capable of moving quickly, hugging available ground cover and obstructions to "pop up" and pick off enemy armoured targets with guided anti-tank missiles.

While plastic has its issues, bravo to Battlefront for bringing these models out..they'll be fun on the table!

Dallas already has a solid collection of West German forces, including a pair of these helicopters already, so this painting is not necessarily super-useful in terms of our overall group's collection. But it was fun to get these finished. In our "Team Yankee" games the helicopters seldom survive, but their approach is always dramatic and tense :) perhaps these extra helicopters can be involved at some point to help the West Germans hold out in the face of large amounts of Soviet AAA fire.

OK - moving back to the Canadians, here are a couple of support elements to "round out" my initial battlegroup from the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.

M113 "Lynx" Recon vehicles for the Canadian Forces

There are two "Lynx" recon vehicles - a variant of the M113 APC that is a little sportier-looking than the average M113.  The Canadian Forces used the Lynx for various scouting, security and other purposes.  These models are from Armies Army - Keith, being a great guy, tossed them in as freebies after I ordered a squadron of Leopard C1s - "they will look great with your tank column" he said, and he was right!  While I thoroughly dislike the M113 in general, the Lynx at least has a sporty little look to it, and the turret-style bracket mount for the .50 cal is pretty neat too.

.50cal MGs in the turret-style mounting, and a little .30cal on the back for some extra fire support in the event of a sticky situation while out scouting...

Big "thank you" to Keith for tossing these in with my Leopard C1 squadron...they will round out my forces nicely!

As I mentioned in a previous posting, wargamers can seldom relate to recon assets the way real commanders in the field would.  These vehicles would be out ahead of the Leopard C1s, reporting back and providing vital intelligence as the battle was joined.  With an actual battle underway, as experienced on our tabletop, these poor Lynx vehicles won't last any longer than the Soviet BRDMs or other equivalents, but at least my Canadians will have some recon support, and the additional power of a couple of .50 cals will back up the infantry platoon.

M150s - APCs mounting TOW anti-tank missile launchers

The other two vehicles are M150s...these are M113 APC with a mount for a TOW guided-anti-tank missile launcher. High-end anti-tank hitting power is at a premium in any NATO force, but particularly so for the Canadians, who may have to tangle with Soviet tanks while the Leopard C1s of the Royal Canadian Dragoons are busy elsewhere.  These M150s provide the Canadian mechanized infantry elements with some theoretical heavy anti-tank power with quite a long potential engagement range.

Clever casting work by Armies Army to allow the convenient mounting of a TOW launcher and gunner on the M113s

Some oversize decals from a 1/87 sheet to give some good Canadian flavour, eh?

Much fiction related to war with the Warsaw Pact (and thank goodness it is fiction!) features weapons like the TOW sniping Soviet tanks with clockwork precision - although it should be noted that some accounts, like Kenneth Macksey's fantastic "First Clash", are much more sanguine about such things. I am personally skeptical of the projected effectiveness of weapons like the TOW under real battlefield conditions (it would be no small thing to steer a missile towards a tank in the middle of the smoke, falling artillery shells and other horrors and utter chaos of a Cold-War-Gone-Hot battlefield, I expect), but I do really like the models. They add some additional flavour to my Canadian battlegroup and the infantry platoon will no doubt appreciate the support!

I popped the commander out to show a command vehicle, but let's assume the firing pose is for propaganda purposes only - I hope they wouldn't fire the missile while the poor driver was popped out of the hatch, right in front of the barrel!

The M150s are also from Armies Army (now available from Plastic Soldier Company).  As I said before, Keith did an incredible job bringing a very complete collection to market - I love when sculptors do that! Go buy this stuff and support these guys!!


So six vehicles in 15mm were good for another 36 points toward my target. The steady march toward 1000 points of painting continues...

Painting Challenge Submission 10 - More Canadian Cold War Stuff

More Canadian armour for the Cold War - 1/100 models from "Armies Army"

Another AHPC submission to catch folks up on. The theme is no surprise at all - continuing to round out the basic elements of my 15mm Cold War-era Canadian troops for "Team Yankee".


My prior submission had included Canadian Cold War-era infantry, but for the 1980s the infantry need a ride to battle - otherwise they would be stuck on the table while their enemies zoomed around them! For the Canadian forces of the mid-1980s in Europe this ride would have come in the form of the M113 armoured personnel carrier. My Canadian foot-sloggers were lacking in APCs, so the M113s were duly slotted into the painting lineup so the fellows could get a lift on the gaming table.

Ugh. M113s. So, so lame...but at least the large decals on the front add a bit of clear character...

We all have painting subjects we dislike, but perhaps can't avoid due to the circumstances of the given period or setting, don't we? Well, for me, the M113 is one such subject.  Where painting NATO tanks tends to be a whole lot of fun, painting an M113 is like throwing some acrylic paint on a frozen turd. An unlovely box on treads, the M113 is utterly devoid of character, charm, personality or the slightest hint of fun. No turret. No cool vents.  You look at these things and wonder what the point is? They must have had some serious up-sides, or useful aspects from the perspective of actual military users (I mean, hey, that .50 cal surely comes in handy for fire support purposes!) but on the hobby side, they are not a model I enjoy working with.

Commander popped out of the hatch to a) represent the platoon commander's track and b) add some character to the otherwise un-inspiring silhouette of the M113 APC

Besides - Canada purchased cool tanks from Germany - why not purchase their awesome infantry fighting vehicles too? Really, anything that you will drive in a war - let's just use common sense, and buy from Germany! Sadly, no...you can't avoid the M113 if you want to paint Cold War forces from Canada. The stupid M113 was the core APC for the main mechanized infantry elements of the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, and as such, they would have to be painted if I wanted to reflect the infantry in my tabletop forces...so here we are...

These models are from "Armies Army" (now available from Plastic Soldier Company).  They are mixed resin and metal kits.  While my love for Armies Army is un-diminished, and I salute Keith's valiant and amazing efforts to bring Cold War Canadians to life in 15mm, I must acknowledge that his M113s were...tricky...you won't have to look hard to spot the gaps between the tread assemblies and the fenders.  In this case I must sadly report that Battlefront's plastic M113s are probably the better way to go...the Battlefront models are multi-part plastic, with all of the associated frustration this can entail, but they are more precise in the end.

The camouflage Canada used on these vehicles was somewhat unique as well, and not the most fun to paint. I used a mix of decals from Armies Army as well as a useful 1/87 sheet for things like Canadian flags and license-plates.  The 1/87 decals are oversize for the scale, but they help the nationality stand out a bit more on the table, and add just a touch of character to the boxes-with-treads.  A huge thanks to Mike F for helping me track down the 1/87 decals!

1/100 Leopard C1 from Armies Army - with the "1B" marking I think he is the "Battle Captain" from "A" Squadron...although there is a high chance I'm wrong about that...anyway, popped out commander and blue flowers to indicate the MBT is part of the Squadron command troop.

Leopard C1 with dozer blade attached on the front - an excellent little touch from Armies Army!! It will have no impact in game terms, just a cool thing to include from a completeness perspective...

To wash the terrible flavour of painting stupid M113s out of my mouth, I finished off another pair of Leopard C1s as well.  Positively refreshing!  These are both from the excellent Armies Army, and another element of Keith's utterly complete rendering of these troops can be glimpsed by the presence of a dozer blade mounted to one of the Leopards in the photos.  One Leopard C1 in each squadron had a dozer blade, useful for various battlefield engineering tasks (in particular helping to prepare hull-down firing positions for the other Leopards).  Full marks again to Armies Army for bringing out such a complete collection of models and figures!!!

Canadian armoured squadron, ready to roll out!

And so I have the very basic elements of a battlegroup from 4CMBG in place for "Team Yankee" gaming - a squadron of Leopard C1s and an attached mechanized infantry platoon from either the RCR or the Vandoos. All in this has been just about what...five or six weeks of painting? Not too bad!  Here is a photo of the battlegroup to date:

Basic battlegroup from 4CMBG - Leopard C1 squadron with attached infantry support - ready to stand fast in the NATO lines!

Whatever I think of the M113s, at least these fellows will have a ride to take them around the battlefield!

Points wise, this submission was worth another 36 points towards my goal of 1000 points of painting.  The goal is getting closer, a bit every week! Hope to be there by the end of the Challenge in March.

And now Mike F just "just" needs to do a platoon of foot troops based for this game as well,  since he already has a bunch of M113s and other vehicles painted, we can have quite the force of Canadians on our "Team Yankee" tables!

US M113s for "Team Yankee"

1/100 scale M113s from Battlefront

The "Team Yankee" painting roll continues, switching over to some US stuff I had sitting around in the ol' pending pile for months.  These are M113 APCs from Battlefront, required in order to mount up some US mechanized infantry for action on the gaming table. 

View of the rear detail on these boring machines

To put a US mechanized company on the table in a game of "Team Yankee" you need at least two mechanized platoons.  I had painted two platoons of infantry, but only one of them had any APCs. The M113s took forever to arrive from Battlefront, and by the time they did, I was off into other projects...but now that the Team Yankee bug is back, I thought I should get them painted. My second US infantry platoon now has some tracks to give them a lift in their next scrap!

A soldier popped out of the hatch, ready to give some covering fire with the .50 cal...

My feelings toward the M113 remain "meh"...whatever its merits as a military vehicle - and full disclaimer, these may be considerable, as a civilian I have no idea - as a gamer this is one of the lamest models out there.  We all have models we dislike mixed among gaming settings we enjoy, and the M113 is one of those for me, just a stupid box with some treads.  Maybe only the British FV432 is lamer...

Look! Boxes with treads...

I also find this MERDC camouflage to be a real pain in the @ss.  I so regret doing my initial vehicles in this pattern, but I feel like I'm kind of stuck with it as I would like the whole force to match together.  To do the MERDC properly I should really use an airbrush, but life is too short to bother with that hassle on these models, so I tried my best to follow the helpful templates that Battlefront has on their web-site, and did my best impression with the plain old regular brushes.  As with camouflage on infantry models, I'm aiming more for an overall impression than a precise, Tacobat-level recreation.

My new M113s from Battlefront posing with the dismounts from Peter Pig which I painted back in March

So that makes two mechanized infantry platoons available for the US forces now.  On to some support options...and then more Soviets and West Germans and...who knows...?

12th Painting Challenge Entry - US Mechanized Infantry for "Team Yankee"

US Mechanized infantry in 15mm

Submission number twelve to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Paiting Challege was another "Team Yankee" offering - US mechanized infantry and M113 armoured personnel carriers.

Modern US infantry in 15mm from Peter Pig

It has been nearly two months now since Battlefront "released" their US mechanized infantry figures for their new "Team Yankee" range. Many companies can experience delays in getting their products shipped, but the supply chain Battlefront uses is so glacial that I often snap my crayons, give up waiting, and use an alternate product.  I used Eureka 15mm Soviets in place of the Battlefront motor rifles, and I have opted to use Peter Pig modern US troops instead of waiting any longer for the Battlefront "releases" to reach Canada via whatever snail-driven hot air balloon they use for shipping.

More US grunts

US Mech Company command stand - blue flowers to denote officer

The Peter Pig troops - actually listed as "US Marines" in their website - are a little more modern than the ones from "Team Yankee", more 1990s-2000s than 1980s.  The body armour is a little different, small differences in the harnesses etc.  The only really noticeable difference is the portable anti-tank weapons.  In "Team Yankee", this is the M-47 Dragon missile launcher, but these figures are carrying the AT-4 rocket launcher.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the AT-4 is a little later than the M-47...but I have no idea what the differences actually are...also, the Peter Pig line does not have a casting carrying an M72 LAW rocket. 

But Peter Pig figures have one marked advantage over Battlefront's - when you order them, they arrive in the mail and you can then paint and use them.

AT-4 teams stand in place of the Dragon AT teams

A view of the camo and webbing

Despite the differences, the Peter Pig castings stand in very well. Peter Pig makes, in my opinion, some of the best 15mm castings out there.  The sculpts are excellent, and the casting quality it top of the line.

The blue flowers denote platoon command base

Painting camouflage is the bane of any hobbyist, but the US Camouflage of the 1980s is particularly challenging.  I try to give an impression of the pattern more than copy it faithfully, particularly in a smaller scale. The results are not too bad.

Propaganda photos - US infantry confront Soviet dismounts near a rail line...

AT team has a surprise for that T-72...

To be mechanized, these fellows need a ride.  The M113s from Battlefront were nowhere to be found either, but it finally clicked that I could just order a box of Jordanian M113s from Battlefront's "Fate of A Nation" game and get the same models, so that's what I did.  Four M113s are enough to mount on platoon of troops - enough to at least get a game in.

M113s...ugliest APCs in existence

I think all of us have some models or figures in particular periods or settings that we dislike or dread painting, and for me, one of those is the M113.  I hate the look of this vehicle - it's just a lame box on some treads.  Whatever its merits in real life (and they might be considerable - I don't know personally, I'm a civilian) in the hobby perspective, these things are totally, totally lame.  The BMPs look waaaay cooler.

Nice models of terrible vehicles

You will notice that none of these M113s have tread covers on...the crappy quality of the plastic struck again, with the tread covers snapping when I tried to clip them off the sprues, so I just avoided them entirely on these models.

Battlefront plastic strikes again...

 ***

And now a short diversion on something I noticed in the "Team Yankee" rule book.  One thing I do appreciate about Battlefront is their painting guides - they have a lot of them in their books, and I find them to be generally helpful.  They often combine art work from Osprey books with Vallejo paint recommendations. I was particularly pleased to see one for the US infantry camouflage in the "Team Yankee" rule book, and once I received the figures from Peter Pig and started painting, I opened up to the guide and noticed something odd...

I thought this was really, really dumb.  Like, really?  I don't know the stats, but I'm confident a large number of the front line troops in the US Army of the 1980s were African American.  So, there was no way to give us a painting guide for that? Just....this was really, really dumb. I hope some copy editor is banging his head against the wall...

*** 


So there are a total of 47 infantry and four vehicles, all in 15mm size, in this submission - worth enough points keep me within a possible striking distance of Byron in the "Modern Mayhem" side duel.

Completed US forces to date for "Team Yankee"

With this I will have concluded my little "modern tear" over the past couple of weeks.  I have enough 15mm stuff on hand now to play a few games and get a sense of the rules - and we even got a game in with these little fellows when Curt visited over the weekend.  Stay tuned for more on that in a later post...

This submission took me past my points goal for the Challenge. Just in time too, as the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is nearly done. I REALLY need to get back to some 30k stuff - I hope I will have more to share before things conclude...