There and Back Again with 6mm WWII for NW Europe

All,

So, I've been steadily building up WWII forces in 6mm for NW Europe for... oh, about ten years now.  Indeed, some of my first batreps were 6mm WWII (https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2013/08/an-old-battle-report-using-tfls.html).  I started with them based, then I unbased them, then I re-based them, but this time in multiples (i.e., three vehicles per base), then I unbased them again.  I played a few games with them (https://hakunamatatawars.blogspot.com/search/label/Battle%20of%20the%20Bulge), and that convinced me to, of course, re-base them.  So I spent a small chunk of time this past weekend playing a few games (dogfights over the South Pacific, https://oldleadbreed.blogspot.com/2019/10/coral-sea-day-2-fight-6.html), then a large chunk of time re-basing these bad boys.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, so I figured I'd share them.  Again...

The whole shebang, Allies on the left, Germans on the right.

The entire Allied force.

And the German force.

Playing 1 stand=1 platoon, I've got a battalion of infantry (nine rifle stands and three weapons stands) and a company of engineers, or, playing 1 stand=1 company (which is the way I'm leaning), I've got a regiment of infantry and a battalion of engineers.

Sticking with 1 stand=1 company, I've got a battalion of Cromwells and a battalion of Churchills.

2 Companies of M-10s and company each of M-36s and M-18s, a company of M8 GMCs, an ATG company, a company of 17-pdr ATGs, a company of 90mm AA guns in AT role, two batteries of towed 105mm howitzers, and two batteries of SP Arty (M7 Priests).

Four stands each of trucks and halftracks.

Two battalions of Shermans, one with M4 76mm guns, the other with Fireflies.  Each has a company of M5 Stuarts.

A battalion of British recce with Staghounds and Bren carriers, and a battalion of US cavalry with M8 armored cars, jeeps, and M5 Stuarts.

On to the Germans: just like the Allies, four stands of trucks and four stands of halftracks.

A battalion of Tigers (two x Tiger I and one x Tiger II) and two companies of Stug IIIs.

Three battalions of infantry and a battalion of engineers (with engineer Sdkfz 251, bottom right).

Battalions of Panthers, Pz IVs, and recce (with Sdkfz 234s and Sdkfz 250s).

 A stand of Pz III Flammpanzers, a stand of Marders, and a stand of Jagdpanthers.

Arty, from left: a stand of Nebelwerfers, two of 10.5cm towed guns, two of Wespes, and one of Hummels, then a stand of PaK38s or PaK40s, and two stands of the dreaded '88s.'

 Some action shots!

British infantry and Shermans move up, supported by Churchills.

While Pz IVs and a German Wpns Co hold on, Tigers in reserve.

I really did my best to make these look nice, bought a glue gun and stuck clump foliage on the bases, painted the edges of the bases green, labeled them with white paint.  It took awhile to glue them on, flock, glue the foliage, paint the edges, and label them, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, and I think it was worth it.

A look at the Allied base labels.

Well, hope you like them, and, as wargamers, can empathize with all the re-basing pain.  I hope to get these into action in Normandy ASAP, but have got some other projects in the hopper as well.  Of course...

V/R,
Jack

More 6mm WWII Stuff Completed

All,

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by!  Can't claim that this project is finished, don't know that my 6mm WWII project will ever be finished.  Hell, I know it won't, but that's okay, because it's a journey, and I've got two forces that are plenty big enough to play plenty of games with, I just keep adding more. And that's what this is; while someday I hope to get to collecting forces for early Barbarossa and North Africa, I've been working on NW Europe, both summer and winter for awhile, and I'm here to show you some recently completed troops for those.

Here's what I just finished, both German and Allies for winter (left), summer (center/right), and even some terrain.

A look at all the winter stuff: 4 German 88s (Heroics and Ros), four German Nebelwerfers, three German MG-42s, three German 80mm mortars, three Allied HMGs, three Allied medium mortars (all Baccus), and two US 90mm AA guns (HR, will also be used as Soviet 85mm AA guns).

The dreaded 88s, and Nebelwerfers.

German MGs and mortars.

The US AA guns, which will mostly be used in an AT role (not that I imagine they'll see the table a lot).

The Allied MGs and mortars (which are US .50-cal MGs and 81mm mortars).

The summer force, with more Nebelwerfers, German and US MGs and mortars, Allied heavy AA, and three British 17-pounder ATGs (bottom).

The Baccus Nebelwerfers.

German MGs and mortars.

The German mortars.

The US MGs and mortars.

And the mortars one more time.

Different look at the MGs and mortars.  I really love the Baccus MGs, which are cast on a penny-sized base as one piece.  The mortars conventional strips you have to cut up and base yourself.

Another look at the German MGs and mortars.

And the Nebelwerfers.  Cool little models, though Baccus are considerably larger than HR.

The US 90mm AA guns.

A closeup.

The British 17-pounder anti-tank guns.

A closeup.

And some more Allied vehicles added to the mix.

Three M-10 Wolverines.

Three M-18 Hellcats.  Didn't realize these were so small.

And three AA halftracks with quad-.50-cal HMGs.

And then some buildings.  Now, I really hate painting up houses, and I'm not very good at it, but these turned out okay, I think.  Or at least, they should look okay at tabletop range ;)  I apologize, I don't recall the manufacturer of these two; they've made of resin.

These are plastic, from Novus Design.

And a few more buildings, from my black priming stage of painting. Again, I don't recall the manufacturer.

And a bridge!  If you're gonna have rivers, ya got to have bridges, and now I have four, so I should be okay in most scenarios.

These are in addition to all this stuff I've already completed:

https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2019/06/getting-closer-to-caen.html

https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2019/06/6mm-winter-wwii-and-caen-update.html

Thanks again for stopping by, can't wait to start fighting with these little guys.

V/R,
Jack

6mm Cold War Soviets and West Germans

All,

First, Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans!

Apparently my massive sale was exactly what I needed!  Clear out some detritus to make way for real progress, and real progress it's been: I have now completed my second major project since the sale!  This was a Cold War project, Soviets and West Germans in 6mm from Heroics and Ros.  Right now, at least, I don't intend on actually playing Cold War stuff, but, as is my wont, I will be using these in my alternate history blog, Cuba Libre, to play out the Fall of Cronistria.  So the West Germans will be standing in as Free Cubans, and the Soviets will be Communist Cronistrians and their Yugoslavian backers.

So, what did I do?  Well, first and foremost, I'm a solo gamer, so I always have to do both sides, and when I do both sides, I typically build them not to 'real-life' Tables of Organization and Equipment (TO&E), rather, I build identical capabilities.  Because when I do actually get to play against another human, it's my 9-year old son, and so I like, as much as possible, to keep things fair.  And you'll see it in some of the games, as I do it not just with force structure with troop capabilities.  Rather than play the 'normal' NATO kills WarPac at a 3-1 ratio, I make an M-1/Challenger/Leopard II equal to a T-64/T-72/T-80, I make a Bradley/Warrior/Marder equal to BMP-1/BMP-2, etc...  In any case, this may look a little weird because I took Soviet Motor Rifle Division and Tank Division and sorta 'bathtubbed' them, where each battalion is represented by two vehicles. So an MRR has six BTRs and two T-64s, while a TR has six T-80s and 2 BMPs.  Additionally, each regiment has a two-gun (self-propelled) artillery battery, and there are divisional command, recce, and anti-air assets.  Then I copied it and did the same for the West Germans, ostensibly creating either a Panzer or Panzergrenadier Division.

Let's get to the pics!

The whole thing, Soviets on the left, Germans on the right (with a bit of unpainted leftovers at top center).  Again, everything is 6mm from HR.  The painting went quick, except all those damned wheels! ;)

A look at the West Germans, from right to left: Panzer Regiment (six Leopard IIs, two Marders, two dismounts), Panzer Regiment (same), Panzergrenadier Regiment (two Leopard Is, six Fuchs, six dismounts), Panzergrenadier Regiment (same, except M-113s replace the Fuchs), recce element (three Luchs and two Jaguar SPAT), three artillery batteries (M-109s), and the command element (M-60, M-577, Gepard, and ADATs*).

*It should be a Roland, rather than an ADATs.  I love HR, but the reason I used an ADATs instead of a Roland is because I'm not particularly fond of the superstructure on the Roland model.  I bought one, it looked messed up, so I bought another one, and it looked the same way, so I figure it's an issue with the mold (the entire superstructure, i.e., the missile launchers, the 'tower,' and the radar, all sort of lean to the right, and, try as I might, I couldn't straighten them out).  It's one model, the ADATs works fine, so no big deal.

The Soviet force, set up exactly the same, albeit with Soviet equipment ;)  The Tank Regiments are T-80s* and BMP-2s, the Motor Rifle Regiments are T-64s and BTRs, Recce is one BMP-R, two 'normal' BRDMs, and two BRDMs with AT5 Spandrel ATGMs, arty is 2S1 122mm SP howitzers, and command is a T-55, an MTLB-LBU (ACRV), a ZSU-23-4, and an SA-6 Gainful.

*It appears I actually bought T-90s instead of T-80s.  I can live with it if you can ;)

A closer look at the "Panzer Regiments."

And the Panzergrenadiers.

The West German recce element.

Their artillery.

And their command.

A look at the West German infantry.  I used HR's relatively new "M28 Soviet Motor Rifles" for both sides, and I love them.  I'm a fan of all the HR infantry I've come into contact with, but these are the best I've seen, really great poses and proportions.

And over to the Reds: the two Tank Regiments.

And the two Motor Rifle Regiments.

Soviet recce.

Soviet artillery.

And the Soviet command.

Leo IIs on the prowl.  I've always had an affinity for the Leopard II, just a really beautiful (in a martial way), deadly looking beast.

And I've always been a fan of the German Marder IFV.

Leopard Is. I think I may have accidentally bought the Canadian model?  Not sure, I'm not much an expert on the various models of Cold War tanks; that is, I know the various types (M-1, Challenger, Chieftain, Leopard, etc...), I just don't know all the different models (couldn't tell the difference between a T-64A and a T-64BV)...

The Fuchs armored personnel carriers.  A little Star Trek looking to me, but pretty cool.  I can still remember seeing my first one at Camp Lejeune, NC, back in 1995, with 2nd Marine Division, the NBC Platoon had some.

M-113 armored personnel carriers.

The Luchs ("Lynx") reconnaissance vehicles.  Those things are absolutely huge!

Two Jaguars with HOTT missiles.

M-109 Self-Propelled 155mm howitzers.

The West German command element; my clumsy ass knocked one of the muzzle brakes off the damn Gepard.  A very cool model, I'll have to buy a replacement.

My Soviet T-80s (T-90s).  Yes, I actually did camouflage!  It's been awhile.

BMP-2s with Spandrel ATGM and 30mm autocannon.

Early model T-64s.

BTRs, actually BTR-80 models.  Painting all these wheels (combined with the BRDMs, Fuchs, and Luchs) nearly stole my soul...

Soviet recce.

And the BRDMs with Spandrels.  Yes, it's a rule that anytime I paint AT weapons I have to put some yellow on them...

Soviet 2S1 SP 122mm howitzers.

The Soviet command element where you can see the T-55AM2.  I love the Shilka, while my youngest boy (five years old) is in love with the SA-6.  What kid wouldn't be? ;)

Some closeups of the infantry.  These are West Germans, who, for some reason, I decided to give camouflaged helmet covers to, in 6mm...  Great little sculpts.

Again.

And some of their Soviet counterparts.

And one last pic.

Very cool, so happy to knock this out and need to get them on the table, but I've got a bunch of work to do in South Leon before I can get back to Cronistria.  Soon...  It may seem like a bit of a travesty, but I'm going to do up some good guy and bad guy infantry in desert bases, and all these vehicles will also be used for when Cuba deploys to the sandbox in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm!

More to come.

V/R,
Jack