15mm Modern Bundeswehr Panzergrenaiders with TPz Fuchs Zug....

....from Flytrap Factory.

Modern German Panzergrenaiders with the TPz Fuchs, 4 squads of 6 panzergrenaiders to make up a Zug (platoon)

The Bundeswehr has a strength of roughly 178,000 troops, placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world and making it the second largest in the European Union behind France in terms of personnel.

Currently has troops deployed in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Turkey, Lebanon, Mali.........

TPz (Transportpanzer) Fuchs (Fox) and one of the larger APC's out there at 7.33m in length.

Nice figures and resin APC's from Flytrap, a few little issues with some air bubbles and HMG's not fully cast but where else would you get them!

Orkmacht Games Workshop Gretchin Crew from Forge World......

.........also known as Day of the Grots!

This is how Games Workshop describe Gretchin......

Gretchin mobs make up for their shocking lack of quality with sheer quantity. The natural cowardice and feeble-limbed incompetence of the Gretchin race does not predispose them to the arts of war, and a typical Grot would prefer to have his head buried in a sporehole than to actually participate in a proper battle.

For the meaning of a sporehole ask Ray, he has one!

Painted up a while ago for another project that stalled back in the day! They are also resin.......

28mm Painted Victorian Sci-Fi German Marines from........

.........Copplestone Castings.

A small contingent of Germany's finest to stake their claim in the region of Angria but mainly to annoy the British forces in the region!

May add some auxiliaries.......

20mm Painted WW2 German Field Kitchen.

"If they build it I will usually buy it for my lead and resin addiction"

Painted (no idea if I painted them right) these a while ago as it appealed to me, no use in a wargame other than scenery (maybe morale) but if they build it I will usually buy it, comes from SGTS MESS and not a bad sculpt for a change, you get 4 figures and the trailer and I added the rest of the items to bulk out the unit.

Still painting 28mm ACW Union troops for the challenge.........

.....and a further simple guide to understanding women!

WW2 6mm Aerial Dogfight Game "ME-109's vs Spitfire's"

Following the early Napoleonic game we had on Wednesday there was time for a couple of games of WW2 aerial combat between a couple of ME-109's and a couple of Spitfire's, the rules used were a version of "Dogfight over Flanders", a 6"x4" hex mat was used and the shenanigans began......

Everybody started with a card like this detailing their plane and ever changing abilities and stats...the German ME109's had a better climb but the Spitfires turned better.

My spitfire.....

6mm scale I believe with a English 5p piece for scale

Lunch...peppers (repeat on me like a fecker) and the good spam (sandwiches).

The bases had a dial to show height in 1000's of feet (no metric system at this stage).

The playing mat with Richard and John playing the Krauts......

A dice roll off showing who got to go first every turn.......

The first games were a lot like this for the plucky brits........

Postie did try to shoot them down but couldn't hit the side of a barn door (D11+ on a D20 depending on range of hexes).

Postie heading back to base.......

The second and third games were more cagey affairs with determined attempts to get into a scoring position....

I finally bag one of the gits.....

I ended up with a good card at the end and the only kill of the game.....

Really fun couple of games, the rules did take a while to get used to and it did feel like aerial chess trying to get into positon with split S, inverted S, loops, diving etc.....you rolled a D20 to hit, then a D6 for location and a D10 for damage (lower the better), you had to be at the same height to fire and only 4 models and a hex sheet to play.

The rules could be used for WW1, Modern and possibly sci-fi!

Iron Sky or Nazi's in Space!

Saw this yesterday over at 20mm Gamer, a Finnish science fiction comedy, the first four minutes of the movie and a shocking discovery hidden on the dark side of the moon , more info here.

Amazing stuff even for an old cynic like me even if it's going to be a comedy.....

WW2 20mm Painted Greatcoat German Squad.

I have added a 4th squad to my early war German platoon and I feel these guys are wearing more appropriate clothing for the south coast of England (definitely for the Soviet Union), models are from CP models and are lovely except some of them come in pieces and with my hand shovels this caused some light swearing for a little while!

20mm Painted WW2 FAA German Mortar Platoon.

Finally starting to finish the last elements of German forces for the Operation Sealion project with this early war mortar platoon according to the European battlefield rules I'm using, I was lucky to find some early war FAA Germans on ebay and while they're not in the firing pose I still like how this unit looks as it moves to set up their tubes (they will get an opel blitz for the long journeys).

I consider the FAA and CP Models some of the best early war german figures in this scale.........but either hard to find or don't do the things you need!

Heaven & Hell: Diary of a German Paratrooper.

Picked it up on the bring and buy at Salute, I always like to read a bit from the other side of the conflicts.

Very good account of a German paratrooper from the second world war from training right up until his surrender to British troops at Rees, Germany in 1945, it's a no bullshit look at the training and tactics of a new type of warfare, he fought in Poland 1939, Narvik 1940,Crete 1941, Russia 1941-2-3, Sicily and Southern Italy 1943, Normandy 1944 and finally Holland and /Lower Rhine 1944-5 and is sent to England as a prisoner of war until 1946.

He starts off with enthusiasm for the war and the Nazi party but as his account goes on this enthusiasm for both dwindles as the war and years progress. His writing is short and to the point with literally dates sometimes following each other as he mentions little if nothing happened or if  their is action or casualties, he cares for his men and their survival, he has some discipline issues in the early days.

We learn what he thought, what he felt and what he went through and his transformation from an eager soldier into a war weary veteran wanting mainly to bring his men home safely, his description of the chaos and confusion of war is vivid and grim. Good read and great pictures throughout.

Service Medals:

Iron Cross First Class
Iron Cross Second Class
Luftwaffe Jump Badge
Luftwaffe ground assault badge
Close Combat Clasp in Silver
Wound badge in Silver
Narvik campaign sheild
Kreta Armelband