Lockdown Rapid Fire!

Well I've been digging out some old toys while in lockdown and enjoying some games of Rapid Fire!. I've had some nostalgic moments trying to recapture my youth with some very old toys.
 Here are some photos...

Airfix PaK 40 behind the Airfix cottage.

Revell Germans. 

Hedgerow Hell.

US infantry with British tanks in support.

German anti tank company.

Airfix Americans. 

A company of Airfix veterans, real veterans, they were fighting in the early '70's.

Here they are in close up. 

The German officer is from my very first box of Airfix soldiers circa 1969, he has certainly seen some action!. 

Italeri Germans and an Airfix Sherman.

Revell Americans. 

And Revell Germans with a veteran Airfix panzerfaust man.

I've had a lot of fun with these for a couple of weeks or so, the days and weeks all run into one nowadays.

Stay safe everyone!.

1/72nd Aircraft Models

A month or so ago my wife and I went shopping at the Metrocentre in Gateshead. I steered us into WH Smith which has a modest range of models from which I impulse bought a Revell 1/72nd Spitfire Vb. I bought a starter kit as I haven't got the proper paints.
I really enjoyed making it and painting it although there were some problems to deal with such as misaligned decals and my own mistakes. It was of course made as a wargames model with no internals and a painted canopy.

I enjoyed it so much that I bought an Airfix Focke Wulf for a good price on E-bay and built and painted it today using some of the paints from the Revell kit.

 Here's the Spitfire, I built the clipped wing version.

 And todays little project.

 Another view of the Spit.

 The spiral on the prop was done with very shaky hands but it's as good as I could ever manage.

 A dogfight double.

 Some of my older 1/72nd planes painted with blue canopies.

 Bf 109 and a MiG 3.

 Typhoon.

 It's the old Airfix Typhoon kit.

 And a Revell ex Hasegawa Mitchell bomber.

 I got it very cheap several years ago.

 I didn't realise that this version served in the Pacific till after I built it and I have no ground forces for that theatre. Ah well, someday maybe but it has on occasion strafed and bombed the Germans.

Not quite a dogfight double.

I might treat myself to another sometime...

Rapid Fire! D-Day

Today I dug out my 20mm Rapid Fire D-Day models and had a game.

 Here are the British about to hit the beach.

 There is a lot of barbed wire and tank traps on there.

 German defenders await the assault.

 Naval gunfire was ineffective... I think that I misread the rulebook.

 There is a Pak40 in there.

 The Germans shoot down at the British and very few of them make it to the wire.

 The tanks are immobilised by mines but crucially are still able to shoot.

 The RAF arrives to bomb one of the German trenches.

 After running out of soldiers I recycled them and brought on a second wave.

 They charge ashore.

 And up the beach, German fire is less effective as casualties mount.

 The British surge forward.

 They reach the wire.

 This German trench has only two men left.

 But the MMG's in the pillbox are still blazing away.

 It takes a move under fire to get through the wire.

 The only tank to make it off the beach has a lucky roll and silences the pillbox!.

 Then races for the crossroads.

 The infantry follow.

The PaK40 bunker is assaulted.

Not a bad game, I did make some mistakes with the rules but nothing too important. It is a long time since I played Rapid Fire!.

Tank battle!.

When I started wargaming it was a made up game using my Airfix model tanks. I was probably about 13 or 14 years old. When I was 15 I bought Bruce Quarries Tank Battles in Miniature 2 which concerns the Eastern Front in WW2. I was bought a selection of GHQ tanks and SPGs and made a winter landscape using ceiling tiles and garden twigs. I painted the tanks badly and played some enjoyable games with them.

I fancied a game capturing some the the simplicity and fun of those early battles and so came up with the idea of a free for all scenario with random deployments and unit entry. I used Rapid Fire! rules without any pesky infantry, anti-tank guns and other complications like morale.

 Where it started.

 The newish and the old.

 A German Panther unit is first on.

SU-152s next.

 Another unit of Panthers arrive on the flank of the SU-152s.

 And do a bit of damage.

 A T-34 unit arrives next. One of these dates from when I was about 13 years old!.

The T-34s have a success.

 Kazinsky's SU-152s fight back.

 StuGs arrive behind the T-34s.

 And do a lot of damage.

 The Russian heavies arrive and target the Panthers.

 A hard fight between the Panthers and the SU_152s.

 The German SPAT unit arrives.

But are flanked by a unit of JSU-152s.

 An overview of the table :- no secure flanks in this game.

 The StuGs advance

 The StuGs are destroyed by the JS-2s.

 The Russians have won but only just.

Here are the original GHQ 1/285th scale models that I used all those years ago.

SU-85s.

T-34s.

JS-2s in both scales.

And Jagdpanthers too.

True veterans these, though I did repaint them about 10 years ago.