15mm American Revolution Project: Artillery

With a resurgence into the American Revolution, I have dusted off my unpainted 15mm AWI forces and started to paint them.  Up first are all of the artillery for the main combatants: Continental, French, British, and Hessian. 

Here's the complete artillery painted to date, including guns, crew, artillery limbers, and wagons. 

The Hessian artillery have the Yellow guns.  The Hessian artillerists are dressed in blue jackets with white vests and trousers.  The French artillery have the sky blue guns.  The French artillerists are dressed in navy blue jackets with red vests and trousers.     

The British artillery have the red guns.  The British artillerists will be dressed in blue jackets with red trim and white trousers.  The Continental artillery have a variety of colored guns including olive green, brown, and gray.  The Continental artillerists will be dressed in a variety of colored outfits.  Some in jackets of navy blue, black, and browns. 

Let's get POLITICALLY Correct...

Our local game group has a set of rules, and one of them is not to have political discussions during games. (Or at least we try to keep them extremely limited and civil.)  A couple of us are obvious Democrats while others are staunch Republicans.

So, during our most recent Zombie Apocalypse game, I decided to have some fun with the terrain. (I am so evil sometimes.)

First, I have several billboard frames with metal washers attached.  This allows me to have a multitude of billboards, color printed onto paper and mounted to magnetic sheet that easily 'sticks' to the metal washers on the billboard frame. So, I downloaded a few photos of pro-democratic and/or anti-Republican ads, simply imported them into Microsoft Word, and turned them into billboards.

(Here's the tall billboard made of wood dowels, foam-core board, metal washers, and some 'granny plastic'.)

 

 

(Here's one of the roof top billboards.  The frame is made from bass wood, and the sign board is made from foam-core board and some metal washers.)

 

 

(I always seem to work McDonald's into the Terrain, one way or another.)

 

Then I figured, "what good are billboards if they're aren't matching yard signs to go with them?"  So, I made Obama-Biden yard signs.  They were pretty easy to make.  The sign frame was made from a piece of a metal paper clip, bent into a 'U' shape with two little legs at the end of each U leg, in order to be glued to a base.  The sign was color printed with two signs, side by side, cut out, and then folded in half to make a double-sided sign.  Then this was glued over the metal frame and walla...a yard sign.

 

Needless to say, there were several smiles and chuckles on both sides of the political aisle that night. I even let some of the yard signs go home as souvenirs of the evening.    

20mm D-Day Invasion: Omaha Beach

In honor of the upcoming anniversary of the D-Day landings, our local gaming group hosted a large 20mm game, using the Brother Against Brother, WWII Variant rules.

The terrain was quickly thrown together as I hadn't constructed my Atlantic Wall terrain yet.  (Simple green sheets over stacked styrofoam, paper models of concrete bunkers, rocks, and some lichen.)  We did however try a couple of different terrain techniques, such as using real sand (about 6 pounds of it) for the beach...sort of creating a mini-sand table.  The terrain set up quickly, since I want to run this at future conventions. The Scenario is not an actual OOB, yet, but certainly gave the feel.  The terrain was meant to represent the Omaha landing, somewhere between White and Green Beach, with three fortified bunkers and two draws into the terrain.

The Allied invasion started with about 10, 12-man units ('squads') in various landing craft, two engineering Shermans, and 3x DD Shermans with engineering units.

The German defenders started with about 4, 12-man units ('squads') with plenty of MG's, 3 AT guns in the bunkers, and plenty of defensive positions.

Here are some pictures of the game and the progress of the invasion:

 Here's the initial setup form the west end of the beach. Note that the seawall was also 'formed' form the sand, so no extra terrain.  There was also some crude barbed wire coils that I made the night before.  Better barbed wire (with barbs) is coming soon. I've got lots of hedgehogs, most made with plastic-styrene angles glued at the proper angles.

 Here's a look at the beach from the east end. Note the craters in the sand, created by making a little mound of sand, and then crushing it with a golf ball to make the crater with raised sides.

 We never had to use it, but I had to take a picture of my P51's (1/72nd Corgi die cast) over the beach.  See one of my recent posts on how I made the new flight stands.  

 Here was have the landing craft making their way to the beach in relatively good order.  The middle LCM-3 is taking hits from a German mortar and causing many pains for the crew and landing party.  One of the DD Shermans at the extreme left rolled badly and began to flood, creating a water obstacle for later landing craft. The tanks crew did manage to bail out successfully and hitch a ride on a passing LCVP heading back to the LST for the second wave.

 The center units are taking a murderous fire form the German MG's above. Once DD tank is ashore  while the Engineering Sherman prepares to land. The LCM-3 in the background is now sinking and ablaze with the entire landing party as a casualty.  There were no survivors.

 Here's another view of the entire beach. Alpha and Bravo company have reached the seawall in the foreground relatively unscathed. The Engineering Sherman dozer is on the beach.  The DD Sherman that hit the beach took a critical hit to the engine from a German Pak-40.  It will veer to the left and come to a stop...a mobility kill, and sitting duck. In the background, the other engineering unit, a Sherman Crab tank is on the beach flailing away. (However, the mines are on the 'other' side of the seawall !)

 Several more units have made it to the seawall, however with fewer numbers than when they started.  The Sherman crab is advancing as well as another DD Sherman, with AT shells falling around them both.

 Another good view of the battle.  Finally, one of the Shermans successfully placed a smoke round in front of the central bunker.

On the extreme left, the troops look at the draw they have to assault.  They are keeping the dug-in Germans suppressed with gunfire.

 

On the extreme right, the troops are evaluating the draw they have to cross.  German casualties are mounting and the MG fire is slackening from the heights.

 The stationary troops along the seawall start putting together their bangalore torpedoes and strategically place them through the seawall.  There will be a big 'bang' the next turn. 

 On the left, the engineering squad blows a hole in the seawall, and the Sherman crab proceeds through the breech.  The infantry also proceeds as their exploded bangalores have created a line of rifle pits to enfilade the German rifles above.

 Another view of the Allied left. A couple of straggling landing craft make it to shore with reinforcements to take advantage of the breach.

 On the Allied right, they have blown three new breaches through the sea wall and the Sherman dozer is about ready to make a 4th.  A few well placed shots and an HE round have all but silenced the German MG fire along this draw.  Alpha and Bravo company should make it to the top of the defenses first. "Dog three is now open!"

Here's one last picture of the beach assault before the game was called as there were very few Germans left on the ridges to return fire. The Germans did well to inflict almost 70 casualties (53%), disable one DD-tank and sink one LCM-3. Fun was had by all, and with a couple of modifications, it should make for a lively convention game.

New $1 find at Target

OK, I was at Target and browsing through the Dollar aisles at the front and found these two packs of cheap plastic army men.  At first I picked them up (thinking the vehicles had some potential use with my 20mm modern troops.) and then put them down again, and even walked away.  However, I had to go back to rule #2 of gaming acquisition: If you see something that will work, buy it now because when you go back for it, it will be gone!  I've violated that rule too many times to not heed the warning.  So, I went back and picked up a bag of each.

Here are the two bags.

Bag #1 (Left) has 28 pieces that included a truck with an absurd weapon on the back, an undersized plane, and 26 figures. I thought all of the plastic men were useless until I saw the four kneeling figures with a 30 cal. MG.  I'll probably cut these off to use with my Car Wars vehicle conversions or for use with the helicopter as a 50 cal. MG.

 Bag #2 has 22 (Right) pieces that included a tank, a helicopter, and 20 figures.  Again, I thought all of the plastic men were useless until I saw the four kneeling figures with a 50 cal. MG. I'll probably cut these off to use with my Car Wars vehicle conversions as they are too large to use with the helicopter as MG's.

 Here are the four vehicles with 20mm modern contractors (not completely painted yet) for scale.

Truck: I'm going to cut off the hideous weapon (that will leave a big gaping hole in the cheap plastic truck) and add a utility/transport bed made out of plastic styrene.  This will serve as a transport truck for one of my smaller modern contingents in need of transportation. (I.E.: 20mm Grenadians, Argentineans, Cubans, or Somalis.) 

Small Plane: I may cut off the bottom struts/wheels and use it as a UAV/drone. I'm not sure yet.

Tank: At first I thought it was too small, but after looking at it, I think it will be turned into an armored,  infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), sort of BMP-2-ish.  The turret needs to go, or at least cut off the main mantlet/gun and the rear portion and replace with bits of plastic and a new, smaller caliber, main gun.  Similar to the truck, this vehicle may be put into service with a variety of the smaller, modern contingent countries in need of a little armor.

Helicopter: The main reason for getting the pack was to turn this into a good/cheap replica of an OH-58 Kiowa. You can never have too many of these. I'll need to remove one of the sets of blades and maybe use a bead or something on top of the rotors for the optic sights to make it a scout. It will certainly come in handy and will be well used by my contractors employed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world.

Here's the Kiowa glued together, mold line trimmed and sanded, and primed with some Krylon Fusion black paint. The 20mm contractor is shown for scale.

Here's the IFV glued together, mold line trimmed and sanded, and primed with the Krylon Fusion black paint. Again, the turret needs to go.  The 20mm contractor is shown for scale.  The hideous truck is in the background.  However, by the time I get done with it, it won't be an ugly duckling any longer.   Now that I think about it, I may have to either make some type of emplaced gun position out of the hideous gun, or just relegate it to the parts box.

20mm WWII: Operation Overlord (Normandy Project) U.S. Forces

Initial Thoughts: 

My current project is to do a skirmish level game for parts of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944.  Initially, I'll do a 5'x8' game table set-up of one of the beaches, Utah or Omaha. However, I'm acquiring enough U.S./German troops, vehicles and terrain to eventually do a 5'x16' beach invasion for a convention.  Longer term goals will be to do some additional terrain and figures to do the British beaches.  

Additional convention ideas include a 3 table setup:  One table (#1) will have the beach landings with any victorious troops moving onto table #3.  Table #2 will have a portion of the airborne landings (82nd and 101st) behind the U.S. beaches. The surviving U.S. forces will continue onto table #3. The final game will be table #3, the attack/capture of Carentan.

Current U.S. Forces:

 7, LCA's on loan from the British Navy. (Resin Kit)

 5, LCVP's ready for the beaches. (Pegasus Plastic Model)

4, LCM's to carry men and vehicles to the beaches. (Forces of Valor, Plastic and die cast model)  I'll make an mdf base for each one, similar in style as the plastic bases supplied with the LCVP's.

One British LCI, to land additional infantry on the beaches once established. (Resin Kit) I've got one more still to be painted.

 Here's what the landing craft look like for relative scale.

I will probably scratch build an LCT-5 and LCT-6 (Landing Craft Tank) purely for looks on the tabletop.

 My lone DUKW.  It's a plastic model and hasn't been painted yet.  However, I may try out a resin model to see what it looks like.

 The DD Sherman's are ready for action.

 3 of the Waterline DD Sherman models ready for the channel waters.

3 of the DD Sherman's ready to assault the German positions from the beach, if they can make it that far.

Some of my extra Sherman's to be brought to the beach.

A collection of Hobart's Funnies. (L-R) 2, Sherman Mine Rollers (Forces of Valor), 1 Sherman Flail tank (resin kit), and 1 Sherman dozer (resin kit).   

Here are 2 of my Sherman tanks with full wading kit.  The tanks are from Armourfast, but the wading kits are my custom additions, simply made out of thin plastic styrene sheet.

Here is the painted Ranger battalion so far. These figures are all metal, mostly from Battlefield, SHQ, Britannia, and others. I've got a box of plastic Rangers (Pegasus Models) yet to be painted up and added to the assault forces.

 The engineers charged with clearing obstacles on the beach.

 Some of the casualties and medical staff.  I need more of each.

 The fighting portion of the Rangers.

 Gotta have some flamethrowers. They're lit and ready to go.

 Gotta have some Bazooka's to take out any potential enemy armor or strong defenses.

Here's a typical squad of men that might make it off of a landing craft.

Battle of Monmouth, AWI

Here's a game we played in August 2009 using our 15mm AWI units.