A couple more tanks

yes two more 15mm tanks for "What the Tanker!" A panzer MK III and a T-60. The Panzer 3 is the big one (Not words I have needed to say before!). As we tend NOT to think of a Panzer 3 as being a large tank.

It looks like I have surcummed to peer pressure at the club, Or as others would say seen the light. As such this will be the last Russian tank for this project for a while.

Instead I will swap to Early war France for now and see how that goes. I did after all get 2 kills and would not just throw them away! The T 60 in particular while fast not fast enough to be rated as a FAST tank is interesting in the rules as it has a low profile. In the rules this means it will need an extra acquisition dice in order to acquire it. This is I my opinion and if used correctly quite a bonus.

 But As I will no longer be focused on the Eastern Front (no more snow for a while) I have re-painted the Panzer III to fit the colours of France (and the Low Countries) in 1940.

 Therefore this is the repainted Panzer 3 in a mid-dark grey. Now I find it interesting that the German tanks were repainted after the Spanish Civil War to be a Grey. As they fought the Russian tanks which were then Grey (I believe the Russian tanks were shipped via Mexico and they may or may not have been painted there!

As a side note Russian tanks were painted Green after the SCW so it seems that they swapped colours. What actually happened I don't know but to me it seems odd! There are 2 more Zvezda kits on the paint table. So it is likely that at least 1 more will be in the next post.

BROADSIDE SHOW: As a club we shall not be running a game this year. We have had a string of bad luck and were down to 2 peeps to run the game. Therefore with regret we have been forced to pull out! I shall still be at the show of course so either hide from me or say hallo whichever suits you best. I shall possibly be on a Flea market stall.

Until next time. Take care, have fun and get something done for the hobby. (AND NO EXCUSES!)

Yesterdays game

Board of play
Somewhere in Northern France 1940
All pics taken without me leaving my chair!

Before I talk about that I just want to say it is too damn cold in the bloody garage to build terrain. Feel free to call me a wimp but I do not want to be too cold to work properly! Therefore terrain post will get pushed back yet another day.



I had 2 A13's(White and Blue)
Graham and Tim were my adversaries
They each had a single Panzer 2 each.
Points were equal.

Ok here we go. Yesterday at the club we had a game of "What a Tanker!" by Too Fat Lardies. Graham had set it all up before I arrived so it was too late to through a hissy fit and say that I did not want to do France 1940! The electrician was supposed to be coming to the club to give us more lighting...... he did not turn up!

Realising that if I could divide them I stood a better chance
I went right to face Graham.

Tim started to flank me
so I countered as Graham was playing hard to get
the tease!

I was able to trap Tim with the terrain
and some bad dice by him and him not
knowing the rules at all.
Graham had read them, I just watched Youtube videos!



I was able to reduce his command dice at first.
all the while Buttoned up and Graham
using Rapid Fire with a 20mm auto cannon.
Tim reduced Blues command dice as well

But Tim was not able to move as much as he wanted
he was still acquired by both of my tanks
An Aim, a Fire and 3 hits (2 of which were crits)
and Tim brewed up



Graham spent several turns Moving out of cover shooting and
moving into cover BEFORE I could fire back
The result was that while he did nt penetrate my armour he did force me to retreat.
and I retreated backwards into a building
Tim finally arrived and with a Panzer 3 this time.
he fired at my blue tank.
It missed.
So I returned fire and he failed to save with any armour
dice. the consequence is that 2 turns on the table
And Both of my tanks were on one kill.

I was still taking "temporary " damage and losing command dice
But I was holding on.
Time was lucky and managed to bring on a Panzer 4
I was now up against it.



I managed to retreat back but was out flanked.
Blue had slipped down to only 2 command dice.

Things looked bad for Blue Tank!

Tim Fired and it was a Hit on Blue.
But not a penetration and I was forced to retreat yet again!
I did ask them where they wanted me to go
And they both said off the table!

So with 1 tank against 2 having lost 50% of my tanks I conceded the game
AND WON!
 

Conclusion: The British had destroyed 2 German tanks. While the Germans had only damaged 1 British tank. (Tracks and Optics) Yes I had conceded the French village but I had not taken sufficient damage to result in a loss of tank!

So each of my crews get a kill ring and if they each get 4 more (total 5 each tank) they become aces. A long way to go but a very good start.

Aftermath: Now I am faced with a dilemma. Do I Carry on doing the German and Russians, OR do I swap to German and British? 2 kills is not a start I would chose to give up easily. However Russian Zvezda tanks are cheap and to me that makes a difference. In the tying of this I think I have made my mind up but I would still like some input from you.

Until next time Take care have fun and paint if you get the chance. All the best Clint

Hoka Hey (and a few other things)

Painted these for Peter at the club he's had some kind of accident and broken both wrists and elbows, I do not know the details but we wish him well.

These are the foot and mounted figures from Hoka Hey Wargames (Link). It is in the Border reivers section.

I was given the instructions to "Paint it dark" and having sent the pics to Peter I am assured that it is dark enough! Again no work on the bases as I know Peter likes to do his own bases. This is fine by me and I am more than happy to leave it that way. After all less work for me!

I did ask if this member of the clergy was regular or secular and that is what prompted the Paint it dark comment. The figure was very nice and I would be interested in getting a few more it is also quite chunky as you can see. I do not think you would get so many to the kilo as other manufactures would achieve. However it is a very nice figure and I would be happy to paint more of them as they are hardly ever seen in the south of the country.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch (or other similar clichés)

On Thursday I meat Dave stone. Yes that is him in the picture! He turn out to be a really nice bloke. (I will tell the truth another time) he is in charge of Wargames Terrain Workshop, (LINK). Well when I say in charge his good (or maybe not so good) lady might well dispute that! A terribly nice guy and I am sure if we lived closer we would become good friends, no matter how much he would try to put me off! "No sorry Clint I am not in this month.... did I say I was moving?" kind of thing, you get the idea!

If you have not yet checked out his web site please do, I am sure it will be very much appreciated.

While out to meet Dave I did a little shopping! The APC is for my AK 47 force. The Panzer Mk 3 is now started and has already taken me about twice as long as the T-26 did! Yeah I know, This one came with instructions which made it HARDER! The T-60 is yet to be started I'll let you know how I get on! And Finally some Elephant tusks from Wargames Terrain Workshop. Do not expect me to paint these for at least 6 months. They are for a long term project at least 1 year from now!

Well that takes me into Saturday morning and some emails to send and a Panzer to finish hopefully by tomorrow!

Telegraph poles.

 let me take you back to November when I bought these. (23rd November 2017) . As you can see they are now painted and based.  A figure 20mm is included to show scale and the fact that if put about 1 foot-2 foot apart these will look most suitable for BoB wargaming.

They can also be used for anything up to modern in wargaming in the set scale. So Along with BoB they can be WW2 or WW1 20mm as well as modern. While I have not seen any pictures of them in Afghanistan that will not stop me using them as they instantly give height to the battlefield. (which most wargames are lacking if you were to ask me... thank goodness you did not!

As mentioned at the time they are 3D printed and they are a little rough. None of which bothers me in the slightest. Personally I think they are great and just what the BoB battle field needs.

Obvious scenarios include, stopping a message getting through, perhaps calling up reserves perhaps furthinging the campaign story. Maybe calling for a plane to rescue an important person or artefact. Maybe to chop down and use to stop a train, maybe to show a no fly zone (due to the wires) anyway you get the idea and I am sure there will be supplementary scenario ideas.

all 10 (more than I need) are now finished and will enhance the battlefield in due time.

Lastly some more strange Japanese WW2 tanks for my PBI forces.  I expect them to provide more of a laugh than a threat in games as let's be honest not the most potent of ww2 tanks. But they did exist and they were amphibious and were cheap on eBay. And they is good enough for me. I hope to get them painted this week. More about them then.

Have a good weekend and paint if the mood takes you.

FT 17 (20mm BoB)

There are currently a load of things on the painting table. There is some more VBCW in 28mm, some 28mm ECW (Don't ask going badly!) and more 20mm Back of Beyond stuff. However today here is the 1/72 nd scale (20mm to wargamers) FT 17.

Let us be honest the FT 17 was never a "Good tank" it had a crew of 2 (driver and Commander/gunner). It was designed as a "Mosquito" tank were swarms of them would take the battle field.  Despite not being a food tank it sold well to other counties. (Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_FT). And saw action in many different wars and settings. So it is totally suitable for Back of Beyond wargames.

This one is armed with a 14.5mm HMG while others were armed with a 37mm cannon.  Personally I prefer the HMG as there is no way you would want this to fight other tanks, but it did in a you use what you have kind of way.

The model by HAT comes 2 in a box and is very easy to assemble. There are 7 parts so it goes together without issue. Instructions are printed on the box but generally you do not need to look at them as the pieces are pretty much fool proof. Unless you decide to musk it up you wont.

One of the interesting things about the tank is that the front wheel is actually made from hard wood in real life. While the tail at the back is designed to help cross trenches.

All in all a great gift and very welcome in the back of beyond universe were tanks should be very rare indeed.

Thanks for looking today no idea what next time I will need to start getting things finished and not new things started on the painting table.

All the best Clint