7 October 2012

The Boys of Summer

Parallel Development:
The Boys of Summer are back!

I have been revisiting and expanding my original summer themed Western Front Wehrmacht Heer (middle to late war) alongside developing my new Autumn themed German Army.

This is the Army that I first started gaming with back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Somehow they survived my student days, moves to Cape Town from Johannesburg, and back; and then managed to follow me to New Zealand, to be rediscovered decades later ! The joys of gaming with them have not diminished any.



 A Unit of 4 PzKfw VI Tiger E's, a single PzKfw IV, a couple of PzKfw IIIs, a Jagdpanzer IV and a Jagdtiger (Jagdpanzer VI), the Pumas are being refurbished as we speak.



Artillery support is provided by two 88s drawn by SdKfz 7s, a couple of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, and a quad vierling, towed by soft-skinned vehicles, and a single Pak 40 75 mm gun, towed by a looted British vehicle. There is a Pak 38 somewhere on my bench, but it requires a vehicle to tow it. A Kettenrad or Horch may just do the trick. As you may notice there is also a lone Flak 88 languishing without something to tow it.



Meanwhile my Autumn artillery is progressing nicely, I think:

Light Field Howitzers LeFH 18s 



and
Anti-tank Pak 40s






Swap Day Success

We had a great Swap Day at the Kapiti Wargames Club today.

A great forum for wargamers to interact, sell and swap. Most of us found a treasure or two, and sold some of our unwanted gaming bits. My World Eater Army went to a good home, as did my dismembered Demon Prince and Raptors. Found a lovely stash of Fantasy Bits, some classic Chaos Warrior pieces, and a SdKfz 234/2 that I plan to convert to a SdKFz  263 Command 8-Rad, and a load of terrain material (deep green coloured lichen, trees and other basing material). Thanks to everyone that helped make the day a success!











2 October 2012

German Autumn Army taking shape

My WWII German Army is starting to come together nicely. My photography is lacking though... the macro lens does not seem to do the figures justice. I suppose 20mm figures are not meant to be seen up close, and neither is my paintwork!

Anyhow, here we have my Autumn themed 1942-43 WWII Falschirmjäger, Waffen SS and Krad Zug, along with the Recce Platoon, and a PzKfw VI Tiger E and Nashorn thrown in for good measure. A train has just arrived, disgorging PzKfw IVs and VIs, still in the 1942 Grey and Green "Taubendreck" camouflage; before the order was issued to use Dunkelgelb (Dark yellow as base colour), the colour used for most of the rest of the war.I chose this scheme as it can also be used for a Russian East front Summer scheme or a desert scheme, making the armour in particular more useful and true to the period of the war.

The figures are Old Airfix, New Revell and Italeri figures. Artillery (not shown in this post), Svezda and Airfix.

I still need to do a lot of work on them, shading and highlights, weathering on the tanks, etc, but I recon they're ready to take on some upstart Allied models!

(Click on images for a larger view)


Falschirmjäger (Parachutists) guarding the train while the newly arrived armour is off-loaded



The recce unit consisting of SdKfz 222s and command 223, a 250/9 and 37mm anti-aircraft cover move out across a field of crops



While Waffen SS detachment move forward through 
the thick carpet of fallen leaves


Like their Falschirmjäger brothers in arms, their camouflaged uniforms afford them extra protection from detection:




Not so their less fortunate Heer (Regular Army) comrades, who wear the standard Field Grey (Feld Grau) uniform of the day, making them conspicuous in the deciduous forest.














The motorcycle (Krad) zug moves out on their Zundapp Motorcycles,
 some with side-cars mounting MG 34 machine guns.
They also avail of camouflaged uniforms, that identify them as SS. 
They are wearing a different style camo uniform from the infantry unit.




They pass a Falschirmjäger command HQ group, who have dismounted from their Kubelowagens to relay orders to a stationary Tiger tank, covering the advance of the Krad unit



The Kampfgruppe swells in numbers as more armour arrives. A self-propelled Elefant and a PzKfw IV lumber past the Tiger on their way forward


A unit of 4 Tiger E's have been off-loaded, while 2 PzKfw IVs await their turn. 
These tanks have arrived from the Western Front, where there was little need for camouflage up to now. 
The grey tanks have hurriedly been camouflaged with dark olive green paint, in a scheme known as Taubendreck (Pigeon droppings); as scheme well suited for the pine and plantan forests of Western Europe, but not the steppe grassland of Russia.
 This scheme will not last for long, as the train also contains a consignment of the yellow ochre paint that the crews will likely soon  put to good use. 



30 September 2012

Kapiti Wargames Swap Meet Reminder

Reminder of the Swap Meet 


Kapiti Wargames Club

Paraparaumu Community Centre
15 Ngahina Street
Paraparaumu

9.30 to 15.30
Sunday 7 October 2012

Good opportunity to trade, sell and meet other gamers

Let's recycle those unused lead and plastic soldiers!


27 September 2012

Gamesnight


Great games night last night, good turn-out again.
Played WHFB for a change


Took on Nick’s Greenskins. As predictable the Elves took a toll with their crossbows and repeater bows. The scenario forced his Night goblin Shaman to deploy late, only to be taken out by two units of scouting Shades that appeared on either side of him.
The crossbows also prevented Nicks  great-looking pirate themed Goblins with the spider banner from doing much damage. Troll vomit accounted for the Cold One Nights, and the High Sorceress but eventually Malus Darkblade saw them off, routed and caught in the pursuit, only to be taken out himself by a doom diver. My hydra was unceremoniously hacked to shreds by his Black Orcs, after frazzling a few with his breath attack, and chomping a few heads. His 5 heads was no counter for the sheer number of attacks rained on him.



My unit of repeater  crossbowmen then had Okram’s Mindrazor cast on them by the surviving sorceress, enabling them to withstand the onslaught of the black orc Big Unzs, (uncharacteristically wiping them out ), but eventually succumbing to the masses of Savage Orcs that bore down on them, but not before taking out the Ork Shaman.

Hamish took on Sam’s Chaos Daemons. I’m not 100% sure of the outcome, but I think the Chaos Warriors did not prevail on the day; and the chaos marauders in particular went home in disgrace.


Great to see a WWII game going down too, not 100% sure what the outcome was there either, but it looked like great fun, as did the 40K games.

26 September 2012

Veterans and Gifts

As a doctor I am on occasion honoured to share the last years of veteran soldiers, airmen and seamen. 
I have met amazing people in my career, 
Veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Rhodesian and South African Border Wars.



I have been privileged to have met Allied Veterans of El Alamein and Tobruk, Cassino and Crete, a  German Infantry survivor of Stalingrad (minus part of one limb) , an engineer that developed the tail  assembly for the Messerschmidt Me 109E, a Mustang P51 squadron leader, a Short Sunderland tail gunner, a forward airfield observer in the Pacific War, a sailor of HMS Leander and Achilles and a Lancaster Bomber pilot and A Skyhawk Squadron leader, many Infantry and Artillerymen that can all parade through my mind.

Generic Lancaster Crew Member (Not John Penman)

Tonight I was invited by the family of the late John Penman, Lancaster Pilot, who I knew for the last 12 years, to pick from his collection of over 1500 military books what I would like. His family had reserved some for their own use, and had given the War Museum at Waiuro, NZ first choice of the collection.
They chose over 400 books to preserve.

The collection spans the whole of military history, starting with the Vikings through to the Modern Soviet Army of the Cold War, Miniature Painting and Modelling and Wargaming.Many are out of print collectors items.My Library is suddenly bursting at the seams.

I will feature some of the books in posts to come.
 Thank you to Jack and Fen for your incredible generosity