Wednesday, March 4, 2015

My Long Awaited Forces for 5Core Brigade Command

Long awaited by me, at least ;)

I've got two sets of identical Warsaw Pact-equipped forces ready to go for Brigade Command play-testing, one in green and one in khaki.  I've got so much more work to do with my 6mm toys, but I was able to focus and knock two forces out so that I can help take some of the play-testing pressure off of Jozi's Tin Man, who's done all the heavy lifting so far.  Actually, the two forces still aren't completely finished: I told myself I was going to put bushes on the all the bases, but I don't think I've got the strength.  But I still need to give them a matte spray.

Here's all the stuff I've got ready, both forces, green in front and khaki in back.

Whole thing again, from the side.

 And one more.

 In Brigade Command, each stand is a company, so here is a battalion of green force T-80s.

Of which there are a total of three battalions.

And a battalion's worth of green mechanized infantry in BMP-2s.

The green force has two battalions of BMP-2s and one battalion of BMP-1s.

Each side has a battalion of Engineers, mounted in BTR-50s.

And then I made up a 'specialist' battalion for each side, using light armored vehicles and infantry on each stand.  These will be used to represent Airborne and Naval Infantry units.

Two batteries of self-propelled artillery.

And two companies of BRDMs with AT-5s.

The command stand for the green force.  The vehicle at the bottom of the pic is actually a US Commando armored car, but I think it fits in, and it had a cool cammie paintjob from the previous owner, so I left it like that.

Opposite view of the green command stand.

Some air defense attachments, which are essentially platoons that will be placed in direct support of various line units.  Two ZSU-23/4s and two SA13s.

Three artillery assets (may be using the wrong terminology), used to show fire missions by off-table batteries in support of specific line units.

Four reconnaissance attachments.

Three infantry heavy weapons attachments, clockwise from top left: ATGMs, mortars, and heavy machine guns (in this case, automatic grenade launchers actually).

On to the khaki force: a battalion of T-72s.

Another battalion of T-72s, in camo painted by the previous owner.  I didn't take a picture of them all, but the khaki force has three battalions of T-72s to match up against the green force's three battalions of T-80s, which I will most often/likely use as "equal technology" in the games I play.

 A battalion of khaki force mechanized infantry in BMP-1s.

All three khaki mechanized battalions, all in BMP-1s.
As time goes by I'll get to all my wheeled mech battalions.  Someday...

The khaki Engineer Battalion.

The khaki Airborne/Naval Infantry Battalion.

Two batteries of self-propelled artillery.

Two companies of BRDMs with AT-5s (I didn't have enough ATGM vehicles, so the right-hand stand got a BRDM command car).

The khaki command stand.

 Reverse of the command stand.

Khaki air defense attachments.

Arty assets.

Recon attachments, one with a 'normal' BRDM, the other three I'm ashamed to say I'm not familiar with, though they definitely have the BRDM look, just without a turret.

Khaki infantry assets.  If you haven't noticed, I painted the khaki and green infantry the same colors, to it will be easy for me to swap out infantry assets between the two sides.

The whole shebang, standing by for action, and hopefully getting it this coming weekend.

Lots more stuff I'm working on, I'll get pics up when I can.

Also, this post is trying out the "Large" pictures, at the request of Panda John.

V/R,
Jack

16 comments:

  1. Jack you've really done superb job! Crap you probably reckon I know little about WW2 but I'd know even less about the hardware on display here but it doesn't restrict me in admiring them all.

    I really like the way you've mixed infantry with the mechanized unit and clever idea with the infantry keeping them the same colour.

    Command stand is brilliant too. Makes me rather envious I'll tell you :)

    Impressive beasts those T80's and the T72's...I think the camo on the 72 is by the previous owner but they compliment your paint jobs really nicely. I always like a little variation to mix things up a little


    I think I recall you saying that you got a good deal on them. I'm very tempted to try out some modern. There are so many theatres of modern war I'd have no real idea about. Give me a head's up on what you intend to game and I'll try to do a bit of home work on it first. I'm sure I'll have some time on my hands to read in the next few weeks. You might give me some recommendations.

    I never really asked you before but I was wondering do you enjoy gaming conflicts you've been involved in yourself? I would be interested in trying out modern at some stage

    Oh I just noticed the reference to the one and only!...close ups galore courtesy of the Panda Man ;)


    Wish you the best of gaming with them and look forward to seeing them in action Jack :)

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    1. Good grief, Panda! Where do I start?

      Thanks for the kind words regarding the troops. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I'm not wild about the fact almost all of the vehicles are either green or khaki; if you look back a ways on the blog you'll see when I first started into 6mm, I had five tanks with five different camo paintjobs! But then I bought so many that I had to mass produce them, so spray painting became 'the way.' It works, but certainly not works of art. With your eye towards craftsmanship I'm sure you could turn out some real beauties.

      Regarding all the modern 6mm stuff, I didn't know I liked it until I did ;)
      I started buying stuff to play some USSR in Afghanistan; wait, that's not true. I wanted to play some games where WarPac equipment was on both sides, and the lead-up to that was USSR in Afghanistan.

      I played one game of that and wasn't all that happy with my skirmish efforts in 6mm. But I still wanted to do some fights with WarPac equipment on both sides, so I started picking up stuff second hand. Along the way I ended up with a lot of NATO stuff as well.

      Then I planned on playing games with both NATO and WarPac equipment on each side, so I concocted my scenario regarding some Baltic states dealing with capitalists on one side and communists on the other in the wake of the break-up of the USSR (my FFL in Estonia was the opening shots of this war).

      Now that I've got so much stuff, I've also gotten the itch to do some Cold War Gone Hot stuff in central/western Europe, with US, UK, Germany, and Canadians against Soviets, Poles, and East Germans.

      With so much stuff to spare, I think I'm going to carve off some for some Middle East gaming as well, maybe some Arab-Israeli, US in Iraq (or even Iran), maybe even Iran-Iraq..

      The key to me is to be plausible AND fun. For example, Israelis could have M-60s and Centurions. I don't have Centurions but I do have M-60s and... Chieftains. They just might become the first Israeli Brigade to field Chieftains. On an experimental basis, of course ;)

      Some may say it's heresy, but I'll be damned if I'm going to shell out for Centurions after dropping all the cash I've already seen fly away.

      I don't know if that was helpful or not; let me know if you've got specific questions I can help with.

      "...I was wondering do you enjoy gaming conflicts you've been involved in yourself?"
      Hmmm, this is an interesting question. I don't really have a problem with gaming Iraq and/or Afghanistan, for example, but I don't really have any interest in them. While there are some interesting single fights (scenarios) I think could come out, I'm really a 'campaign' type of guy, and it just doesn't work for me due to the overwhelming fire superiority of the Western Allies.

      Some of my first toys were 10mm USMC and Insurgents from Minifigs (the one in the US, before it closed), and some of my first fights were me and my father (a Vietnam vet) playing Fallujah using Force on Force (no pics, this was long before I discovered blogging). We didn't use any units or characters or anything the way I do now with my fights, and I don't play games with real units or people anyway, much less fights I was in. It's not that it's traumatic or anything, it would just feel cheesy and disrespectful.

      So, as you've probably noticed, what I tend to do is make up a unit and make up names. This helps me keep away from dealing with politics or other hang-ups, and it has the side benefit of allowing me to use whatever Table of Organization and Equipment I want! I highly recommend that approach, if for no other reason than you don't have to worry if you've got the correct model of tank or the right colored buttons ;)

      I'm hoping to get these on the table this weekend, so stay tuned.

      V/R,
      Jack

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    2. "With your eye towards craftsmanship I'm sure you could turn out some real beauties."

      Honestly Jack I don't think I could justify trying to do a better job than you've done. I'd be more than happy with the paint work at that scale. The main priority for me would 1. Distinguishing the two separate armies 2. Distinguishing the different units!

      Well I'm leaving Monday so anything wargaming I experience will be relying on you ...



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    3. I'll do what I can.

      Stay safe, and have a good time.

      V/R,
      Jack

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks man, and the bases are 60mm x 40mm.

      If I had it to do over again I'd have used 60mm x 50mm bases, just to have them a bit more roomy looking.

      V/R,
      Jack

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    2. They look good but you're right, they do look a tiny bit tight for some of them.

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  3. Hi Jack

    They are superb. A very nice set of forces there. You can always add a bit of detailing to the bases later if you feel the need, but they are good to go already.

    Scanning through the photos, it looks like your green engineers are using MT-LB transports rather than BTR-50s, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm going to use MT-LBs for my MR Regiment for NATO's northern flank as the Soviets used the wider tracked MT-LBs for better mobility on snow and ice.

    Excellent work, thanks for posting those.

    Cheers, Andy

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    Replies
    1. Yes, those BTR-50s are definitely MT-LBs

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    2. Thanks Andy, and I'll see if I have the strength to push bushes on them. Probably not ;)

      And yes, yes, I made a mistake!!! The green force engineers are in MTLBs. Everyone needs to write down where they were the day Jack made a mistake ;)

      V/R,
      Jack

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    3. Does anyone know a site where you can buy old calendars?

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    4. Old calendars??? What the hell are you working on?

      V/R,
      Jack

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  4. Most impressive army, nice job!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil! These are just the tip of the iceberg, there's so much more work to be done...

      V/R,
      Jack

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