New 15mm German troops

Following on from my previous post where I showed additional troops to make my Soviet units CoC2 compliant, here are the German equivalents, again all by Peter Pig, plus a new Zug (platoon).

First, a three-man Engineer team and a sniper team;

Next a Volksgrenadier squad (see below also) supporting a three-man Flamethrower team;

Here are eight ammunition carriers because LMG teams now need more guys supporting the MG42 and I've also painted an extra Senior Leader. The figure was spare, so I painted him up;

And finally, my new unit, a Volksgrenadier Zug, equipped with the StG 44 assault rifle;

Volksgrenadier units weren't all supplied with the StG 44 because the bulk of the troops still had the Kar 98k rifle, because millions of them were produced during the war, with less than 500,000 StG 44s entering service. However, this is an assault Zug, with two assault squads and a heavy squad with two MG42 teams. That is a lot of firepower. The extra Volksgrenadier squad above will be a potential support choice for the Germans.

I'm pleased with the final photo, because I was able to use one of Jon Hodgson's SciFi backdrops as a battle-scarred cityscape.

Having reorganised all of my German units by mixing in the ammunition carriers and changing the structure of my Panzergrenadier Zug , I've managed to create two extra rifleman (Grenadier) squads and an extra Panzergrenadier squad as support options.

Looking at my Soviets and Germans, when I add in my Volkssturm and an earlier "green" Volksgrenadier squad I painted a few years ago, I reckon that I could put on a huge game with the Soviets and Germans fighting over the ruins of Berlin. Of course, I'd have to create a big pile of ruined buildings to add to the ones I've already got. Maybe a plan for the future?

 

New 15mm WW2 Soviet troops

These are all additions to make my 15mm Soviet units compliant with Chain of Command V2;

Everything is from Peter Pig. 

Above are two additions to fill a gap I had previously; two 50mm mortar teams.

Next, I have an additional squad for a standard Rifle platoon. These will either work as a support option or for games set in 1941-43.

Below are figures that I needed to add to some SMG-armed figures to make a second squad for a SMG platoon, all armed with the PPSh-41 SMG.

CoC2 changes Soviet platoon HQ sections. So, I now have a rifle platoon commander (peaked cap), a platoon sergeant (helmet) and a sniper team (in the middle). Platoon commanders are now equipped with SMGs.

Below is the HQ section for my SMG platoon with the same organisation as above for the rifle one.

Next up, a heavy squad for my SMG platoon. Both the rifle and SMG platoons now have a "heavy" squad with two DP-27 LMG teams. This is a big change. I was able to make the necessary changes for my rifle platoon from figures I already had.

Here are two more sniper teams and a couple of spare SMG-armed men. I did these because the Peter Pig sniper set gives you four teams and the SMG guys are just spares.

Below are "resting" SMG men, who I have painted up to use as extra DP-27 LMG team members, because in CoC2 the Soviet LMG teams now have either three or four members.

So, all in all, that is 56 more recruits for my Soviet forces. 

This has allowed me to reorganise what I have available for the Soviet Union. As core troops, I now have a Rifle platoon, a SMG (or tank rider) platoon, a Motor Rifle platoon and as supports (including things I had already), I can field two 50cm mortar teams, two sniper teams, a rifle squad, a SMG squad, a Scout squad (Junior leader and 6 men, all with SMGs), two Maxim MMG teams, a 45cm anti-tank gun with crew and a junior leader and a Commissar. 

I have armoured cars, various tanks and a SU-76 as vehicle support too and I have a number of painted figures that are surplus to my units.

I've also still got a few things left to paint, mostly extra riflemen, so who knows what else I'll be able to turn the leftovers into in the future? 
 

I bought this at the beginning of 2022 .............

............... and now, more than 21 months later, I've actually painted it!

It is a PaK 40 7.5cm anti-tank gun with five crew and a junior leader. It will be a deadly addition to my collection of German support options for Chain of Command.

The gun and figures are from Peter Pig, as are all my WW2 German troops. I decided to put all the crew on a single base and use a small dice to record casualties. Because of the size of the gun, I had to base it on a 6cm MDF disc, so putting the crew on the same base made sense. It gives the whole thing a smaller footprint than having some of the crew on separate bases, which is easier for removing casualties.

So, now I have a big A/T gun for my Heer. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it on the table in the not too distant future.

My first completed work of 2023 - WW2 British Airborne in 15mm

I,ve spent all of January so far staring at these figures and finally painting them! There are a lot, so scrolling down is required.

First, some anti-tank support options for my existing Airborne platoon, a 6-pdr A/T gun with a jeep and an officer followed by four two-man PIAT teams;

Next a couple of Vickers MMGs;

Finally, a few extra officers, one pair can also be used as a FOO for off-table mortar support and a couple of Rifle sections;

All of these figures come from Peter Pig, as do the original platoon. They will be used for a game of Big Chain of Command (two players a side) I will be running at Winter Wonder Lard at BIG in Bristol in late February.

I am sure that they will also come in handy for possible Arnhem games in the future.

Far East Project - part four

Here is my final post for a while for this project.

Once again, these are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, mainly from the 8th Army range, apart from the radio operator with the FOO (on the left) and the sniper on the right. Those two are both later war figures, but in neither case does it really matter. They look fine as they have been painted and based. The Vickers MMG team is all standard troops.

These will all be support options for the basic platoon force. The sniper was wrapped in a small piece of butter muslin soaked in PVA glue before undercoating. You can just about see that he is wearing a cap comforter.

For this earlier period, I still have a couple of Universal Carriers to do, together with crews, which will also have dismounted figures. One will be a standard Bren carrier and the other will have a 2" mortar. 

I also have the figures for a later war platoon and supports dressed in the JG uniform which began to be introduced in 1943 and more widely adopted the year after. I am planning to paint these troops as Gurkha Rifles with a British officer. I haven't even based these up yet, so they will have to wait for a while.

Far East project - part three

This post covers a second platoon for my 1942-3 Malaya, Singapore and Burma project and that platoon is a Sikh one;

Above is the platoon HQ, plus a Vickers MMG support option. These are all, once again Peter Pig 15mm figures from their 8th Army range.

Next, the three infantry sections that make up the platoon;

The platoon is structured the same as a British one, with the HQ consisting of a Lieutanant, who is British, a Havildar (platoon sergeant), a Boys anti-tank rifle team and a 2" mortar team.

Each section is led by a Naik (corporal) with a SMG, a three-man Bren team and six riflemen.

Peter Pig does a nice selection of Sikh infantry with beards and wearing the dastār or turban, but sadly not for everything. Therefore, I have used some British figures wearing the Mk II helmet where necessary. Needs must etc.

As with the British platoon, I have put a radio operator on the lieutenant's base, but I didn't do this with the havildar, because his pose is different to the one I've used for the naiks.

I wanted to use troops from the Indian Army because they provided the largest part of the manpower of the formations that fought in most of the campaigns between 1942 and 1945, as also suffered the heaviest casualties.

Far East project - part two

To go with my initial platoon, I have some support options. First, a 2-pdr anti-tank gun and a Lanchester 6x4 armoured car

The gun and crew are from Peter Pig and the armoured car is a 3-D print from Butlers. I would have preferred to get the Skytrex version of the Lanchester but it was out of stock, so I took my first step into the world of printed vehicles. It is OK, but it has a lot of visible printing lines on the model. It will do, though because I doubt that it will survive on the table for very long. If it does, all those Vickers MMGs will come in handy.

The 2-pdr gun should be a threat to any Japanese tanks that might turn up. 

My other supports are, from left to right, a FOO, a Vickers MMG team and a sniper. These are all Peter Pig. The radio operator with the FOO is actually a late war British figure, with BD trousers and a MK III helmet, but at this scale it doesn't make any difference. In any case, his legs are covered by vegetation. The sniper is also a late war figure, but underneath that camo netting, who will ever know?

Far East project - part one

It is almost exactly a month since I announced my next project. I will admit to spending at least two weeks or more not working on it at all, but I have now got my basic units finished. I will start off with a British core platoon.

First the platoon HQ, lieutenant, platoon sergeant, 2" mortar team and Boys anti-tank rifle team.

Next, three sections of infantry, each with a corporal with a SMG, a three-man Bren team and a six-man rifle team

I decided that the easiest way to identify the two senior leaders, the lieutenant and the platoon sergeant was to put a radio operator on the base next to them. This isn't historically accurate at all, but it does make identification easier on the table.

Looking at the sections, the corporal is on a 2cm base and has a Thompson SMG, the Bren gunner and loader are on a 3cm base and the rest are on 1.5cm bases. Where the Bren team is lying down, I've used a kneeling figure with a SMG as the third man and in the case of the standing Bren team the third man is just carrying a rifle. This is purely because of the figures I had available.

I've used Peter Pig Eighth Army figures for these troops, because in the early part of the Malaya. Singapore and Burma campaigns the British and Indian Army forces involved wore the same khaki drill tropical uniform as those serving in the Mediterranean and Africa.

I chose to use Army Painter skeleton bone spray primer as the basic colour for the uniforms, because it seemed to be a decent match for khaki drill, with German camouflage beige for the webbing and khaki for socks and helmets. Once painted, they were washed with the water-soluble version of Army Painter strong tone. I think that they have come out looking pretty reasonable. After all, bright sunlight does have a bleaching effect on fabrics and in black and white photos from the period, helmets seem to look a bit of a darker colour than the KD uniforms.

I'll do a few more posts to cover various support options, as well as a platoon of Sikh infantry.

Obviously, these will be used with Chain of Command rules.

 

I have a new project about to start

It is in 15mm again and it is WW2. Here are a few teaser pics;

As you can see there are British and Indian infantry in Tropical KD uniforms, enough for two platoons and a variety of support options and there are also three vehicles, undercoated in Russian Uniform green. 

Can you guess what theatre I am going to do? The colour of the vehicles and the large one in front should be clues.

The figures are all Peter Pig 8th Army and the vehicles are 3D prints from Butlers Printed Models. These are my first venture into the world of 3D printed and I have mixed feelings. The striations from the printing are pretty noticeable which is annoying, and the models needed a lot of cleaning up when they arrived, but I think that they'll do on the tabletop. I added in the Carrier drivers from some leftover figures from my spares box.

You can just see the armoured car's turret behind the body of the vehicle.

These are for Chain of Command. Hopefully, I'll have them pained up pretty quickly.

I thought that I'd finished my Soviets ................

 .... but I decided that I needed to paint up a fourth section of scouts for my recce platoon.

I already had the figures but after play-testing the scenario I will be running at Winter Wonderlard at BIG on Saturday 12th February, it became apparent that what I was planning wasn't going to work in the time allowed, so I re-wrote the scenario. That meant trimming down the size of the opposing forces and beefing up the scouts a bit, so I quickly painted the remaining squad.

Nothing different to the previous lot here, Junior Leader with SMG, 2-man LMG team, four men with SMGs and four with rifles.

Still, the bonus here is that my game will run a lot more smoothly.

I've been thinking about what to do with the various bits I have stripped out and my plan is to turn this scenario into the opening one of a PSC (a pint-sized campaign). I am thinking about four or maybe five separate scenarios that will expand upon the narrative that drove my ideas for the initial too unwieldy one I've had to slim down. I shall have to see how it goes once the inspiration pixie has come to visit me.

 

Soviet scout platoon

Here is my second full platoon of Peter Pig WW2 Soviets; razvedchiki, i.e scouts.

The reconnaissance platoon organisation is taken from the 2016 TooFatLardies Christmas Special. 

According to the organisation listed,  the Scout platoon consists of;

HQ;

Leytenant; Senior Leader with Pistol
Serzhant; Junior Leader with SMG

3 Squads, each with;

Junior Leader with SMG
LMG with 2 crew
4 SMGs
4 Rifles

Actually, the 2016 Special says that the rifles should be SVT-40s, but these weren't hugely reliable and, in any case production was heavily disrupted after the beginning of Barbarossa in 1941, so the Mosin–Nagant 91/30 rifle remained the standard for most Russian units throughout the war. Obviously, the SMG used is the PPSh-41 and the LMGs are the Degtyaryov DP-27.

These troops are wearing the "amoeba" camouflage smock and trousers with the pilotka cap. I've chosen to do the amoeba pattern in green, although it could have been brown. I've also chosen to give the platoon commander an officer's cap with a raspberry red band, so he stands out on the table.

As with all my WW2 15mm units, the rank and file are on 1.5 cm bases and leaders are on 2 cm ones.

I am beginning to think that I've got enough core troops for my Soviets now, and I ought to start building up their support options. I'm thinking of snipers, anti-tank rifles teams, 5 cm mortar teams and engineer teams with flamethrowers and additional rifle squads.

Tank riders to accompany my Soviet tanks

I always knew that I wanted tank riders as supports for my WW2 Soviet force, because they are such an iconic thing, and here they are;

These are again from Peter Pig and I've based the two squads on the platoon organisation provided in the Chain of Command rulebook. I really need to do a third squad at some point, but currently I would have to make the squad up from spare scout figures, which would look a bit odd. So, as things stand, I'd have to field them as a weakened platoon.

My next post will cover a second Soviet platoon, a scout one.

A few more WW2 Soviet bits and pieces.

Here are some support options and senior leader types.

Above are two Maxim MMG teams on either side of an anti-tank gun. In Chain of Command, such support weapons have a team of five to service the weapon. With some nations, support weapons like this come with an attached Junior Leader, but this isn't the case with the Soviets.

The anti-tank gun is the M1937 45mm L46 gun, based upon the German PaK 36 3.7 mm, which the USSR acquired from Germany before the war under licence. The German gun was also the basis for an earlier Soviet A/T gun, the 3.7cm M1930 which was used early on in the war but, being obsolete by 1939 was no longer in production, so I won't be using it as one of those.

Next, here are some leaders;

On the left is a Ranking Senior Leader, with a radio operator. He will be used in games of Big Coc. Next to him, with blue breeches is a Commissar, whose role in games will vary according to the period and the scenario.

The two figures sharing a base in front were originally going to represent an on-table FOO, but in CoC the Russians don't have access to in game artillery or mortar support, something I'd forgotten, so I'll probably use the base for something scenario-specific, or maybe as a Jump Off Point.

Once again, these are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, painted as for the infantry platoon I posted previously, apart from the RSL, who I've given a green uniform.

Soviet Rifle Platoon

You'll need to scroll down to see all the troops. 

This is a WW2 Soviet rifle platoon in 15mm, using Peter Pig figures and the platoon organisation in the TooFatLardies Chain of Command rule book.

The platoon is made up of three squads;

According to the TFL rules, the platoon is led by a Leytenant (senior leader) with a pistol, who is with the middle squad in the pictures above, and each squad is comprised of a Serzhant (junior leader) with a PPSh-41 SMG, a two-man DP-27 LMG team and seven riflemen with the Mosin–Nagant 91/30 rifle.

In the pictures above, the serzhants are wearing pilotka caps and are mounted on 2cm bases and the leytenant is wearing a peaked cap with a red band and is also on a 2cm base. The LMG teams are on 3cm bases and the rifles on 1.5cm ones. In reality, the serzhants would most likely have been wearing helmets, but the pilotka and larger base makes them stand out for gaming purposes.

In CoC, the Russian infantry squad cannot be broken down into two separate teams, unlike the Germans, British or Americans, although two riflemen can be split off to create a small scout team.

These were a pretty quick and simple paint job. I spray-coated all the figures en masse with Citadel Zandri Dust, which is a pretty reasonable basic colour for Soviet uniforms and then added in the details with Vallejo paints. The helmets were done with Brown Violet and the pilotka cap with Green Ochre. I used German Camouflage beige for packs etc, saddle brown for the wooden parts of their weapons and gunmetal for the metal parts. Finally, everything was given a wash with the water-soluble Army Painter Strong Tone that comes in dropper bottles.

And finally, the rest of the Volkssturm

Here are the last of my figures for this little project, three squads making up the core Volkssturm Zug.

The first squad, plus the Zugführer (slightly out of focus with the pistol);

Followed by the other two squads;

Each squad has a Junior Leader with a SMG and eight riflemen.

I have painted some of the figures in dark blue uniforms to represent members of the Hitlerjugend. This seems to be what they wore once they had grown out of their shorts, as far as I can tell. To be honest, I don't really want to dive into too many websites covering this unsavoury organisation.

I've also used the same vaguely military colours that I used for the guys with Panzerfausts, to give an idea of old soldiers getting a tunic or greatcoat out of the loft or maybe grabbing something left behind by retreating Heer units. I've also given one or two brown clothing, which seems to have been widely used by a lot of NSDAP paramilitary organisations like the Reichsarbeitsdienst. The colour seems to vary, but it is often a kind of diarrhoea brown, which seems appropriate. 

Some of the figures have helmets and others forage caps and they all have the Volkssturm armband.

The number of different figures in the Peter Pig Volkssturm offering isn't huge, so I bulked them out with rifle-armed figures from their Afrika Korps range. They are wearing a lot of military kit, such as gas mask cases, but I don't think that it matters that much. Perhaps this particular Volkssturm unit came from an area where kit was a bit more plentiful.

The problem with the Volkssturm is that regardless of any official organisational charts, the reality was always a lack of uniformity or adherence to what the regulations might state, due to all manner of reasons. However, to put something on the table which will work in Chain of Command rules terms, I've had to give the thing a coherent shape. 

Here is what I have gone with;

HQ: Zugführer - SL with pistol 

2 x MG42 teams (3 crew, gunner, loader, ammunition carrier). These can be allocated to a squad, deployed as a team without a leader or kept under the control of the SL. n.b the ammunition carrier doesn't use a rifle separately.

8 x men with Panzerfausts and no other armament, to be allocated as desired.

3 x Squads (Gruppenführer - JL with SMG, 8 rifles)

The Zug is rated Green as laid out in the CoC rule book.

More 15mm Volkssturm - Panzerfausts

The Volkssturm was supposed to be the mobilisation of the (male) German population into a huge army to defend the Fatherland against the allies. It never really turned out that way, though.

There was a shortage of weapons and uniforms and most of the available healthy manpower was siphoned off into the new Volksgrenadier units, many of which were wasted in the abortive Ardennes Offensive of December 1944.

However, Volkssturm units were formed and equipped with whatever was available, which meant a lot of obsolete rifles and even more Panzerfausts.

These are all Peter Pig figures, some of a more martial appearance than others, due to their military-style soft caps. I've used grey-green on some of the clothing to imply either military greatcoats dished out from a store somewhere or tunics that might date back to someone's service in the Great War. You will note that only two of these figures have rifles. The rest just have a 'faust. Again, I've attempted the red/white/black Volkssturm armband on them.

My idea here is that these guys will form a resource available to the Zugführer to allocate as he sees fit. I've even got an idea how they might be used in a game of CoC. They could be allocated to individual squads or be held centrally, either to be deployed as an Ambush, using a CoC dice, or as a one-man team which will activate on a 1 on a Command Dice. Once they have fired, if deployed as a 1-man team or an Ambush they will be unarmed and should be removed from the table. Those allocated to a squad will remain with the squad and will be able to replace a rifleman casualty (but not the Gruppenführer JL).

By September 1944, the Panzerfaust 60 reached peak production but was slowly being replaced by the more powerful Panzerfaust 100. Apart from the longer range of the Model 100, both versions were of a similar size and both could knock out any Allied tanks encountered. They were most effective in urban combat situations, where tanks were vulnerable to such portable one-shot weapons.

The start of a much postponed new WW2 project

I have had this idea for quite a long time now, and actually bought most of the figures at Colours in 2019, but it just got put aside when the pandemic struck us in early 2020. All the figures in this project, except one are Peter Pig.

The project is a 15mm German Volkssturm Zug for late-war Chain of Command. My reason for doing this was to allow me to play games in the last months of the Third Reich when the Volkssturm were supposed to be Germany's last line of defence. It was also part of a bigger plan, which was to do 15mm Soviet forces for Chain of Command too. 

So, I've started work on these now, and here are the first fruits. These represent the heavier firepower for the force.

Here are two MG42 teams. These are actually late war German infantry in greatcoats, but you can't get Volkssturm figures with LMGs, well I couldn't find any. You'll note that I have attempted to paint Volkssturm armbands on them. 

Next, and this is for a specific project I have in mind is a Ranking Senior Leader (in CoC terms), a NSDAP Gemeinschaftsleiter (Community Leader), with a runner or bodyguard (this one is a Forged in Battle early war German infantry figure)

I also had some Peter Pig late-war German infantry with StG 44 assault rifles hanging around so, I decided that my project might have well have some Volksgrenadiers as a support option. I'll rate them as Green for CoC games.

This squad is a Junior Leader with an SMG (pointing, on the larger base) and seven men with the StG 44 rifles. 

My next post will be about the actual Volkssturm Zug once I have varnished and photographed them.