Working crazy hours this week but that doesn't mean I didn't have a few minutes to slap some paint on some tanks to try and get them ready for an epic SABRE SQUADRON game this weekend.
The plan is nuts but if it works, it will be one of my greatest wargaming accomplishments....
Going to come off night shift Saturday morning, sleep for a few hours, get up, drink copious amounts of coffee or mountain dew, then head to Ken's house to take on his 15mm BAOR Brits using the full Sabre Squadron rules! What's not to love?
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| The Red Horde! My Quality Castings T-80s with their "tankovy green" basecoat. |
Today the name of the game was undercoating the kit and tracks. Tomorrow I will detail, ink, drybrush, decal, and seal them all.
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| 2 x T-80 platoons, a BMP-2 Platoon, and I'm using a squat, smallish looking QRF BMP-2 as a Recce vehicle Forward Observer (AOO) |
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| Did I mention how I love the Flames of War Tankovy Green? |
And the infantry have been rebased in accordance with the Sabre Squadron basing scheme. 6 total teams and 2 command teams. Figs are Khurasan and Command Decision. They will be flocked tomorrow when their glue dries.
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| platoon leader stand |
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| Other command stand with an LMG. Since I ran out of RPG gunners, the assistant gunner has an RPG backpack. That should be enough to remind me they have the weapon. |
Must flock the flockin' infantry and seal them as well but for the most part these babies are done. I even have enough left over for a "skirmish platoon" or to start another Soviet infantry platoon.
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| The infantry platoon (BMP) |
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| WIP T-55s who will sub as T-62s as well. The camo scheme works well for just about any country I want them to fight for. They'll be able to fight in any modern conflict I need them to! |
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| 3 stages of done from left to right. |
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| Spare parts that will go on additional T-55s. Fuel barrels, ditching log, and even a Tank Commander I found in the bits box! |
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| This guy just needs his decal and matte sealer and he's good to go. |
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| The pine trees in the background make for a good "we're fighting in Germany" look! |
Very nice indeed! You are a painting and modelling machine lately Steve!
ReplyDeleteI like that you are simulating the cumulative effects of battle fatigue on Commander decision making process in your upcoming scenario. To balance it out, I think it only fair that Ken drink at least 4 beers before you get arrive :-D
PS I am a little excited that we might get to meet up at Fall-In!
Paul, I love the plan - the only conceivable flaw is that I would most likely join in drinking a beer or three - thus going from fatigued to something much worse!
DeleteI actually basecoated these bad boys a couple weeks ago on a day off. They've been sitting patiently in their bin waiting to be finished. In all honesty today I only threw some black on the kit and track.
You said it perfectly before, it's a forlorn hope, but we'll give it a shot! I've been wanting to have a "SOUND OFFICERS CALL" blog T-Shirt made just in the unlikely event I actually get to attend a convention. If this looks like it will be a reality, I'll have a couple made and bring one to you.
Awesome idea - in keeping with your blog theme I suggest some sort of camo, either a WW2 German scheme or 1980s BDU!
DeleteIf this happens, I'll send you pics of me wearing it at a convention in Australia :-)
The Tankovy spray is a rather attractive color. I'm becoming deeply interested into shades of greens and blues these days. I think it is these old eyes of mine getting even older, Ha! :-P
ReplyDeleteBattlefront's line of 15mm moderns look quite promising as they are plastics heavy which means greater detail and lower prices. :-)
I really like it. I am kind of a connoisseur of various types of "greens" and Russian armor green is a particular favorite research material of mine. The FoW "Tankovy Green" is one of my favorites. I think Tamiya's olive drab 2 is good too.
DeleteThere are a few others I like as well. Model Master's "Russian Armor Green" is a good color. Surprisingly for WW2, one of my favorites is the Krylon "Light Olive" which is a great look for Soviet vehicles once you get a small amount of ink and then drybrush. Formerly my entire WW2 force was basecoated in the Krylon stuff.
The dark olive krylon or rustoleum camouflage works well too, especially combined with their lines of tan for camouflage.
Hi Steven you're a painting thunder...very interested in your basing. The rules state that infantry elements could have bte 3to 5 soldiers. The BMP squad has seven soldiers plus two crew members that stay in the adv once infantry dismount in order to man the adv gun. the lists available do not state at the moment how many soldiers need to be glue for each base. Waiting for the BF soldiers to be available (hope before Xmas) I was wondering how to manage this gap. I would expect to organize a sovietsquad in two bases one of 3 and the other of 4.Did you set the number to 3 for a multirules approach or for anyother reason grazie! Ciao.Marco
ReplyDeleteCiao Marco,
DeleteI am using the US Army's FM 100-60 for my Soviet MTOE:
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/100-60.pdf.
Page 3-8 lists a modern mechanized squad as having 8 members, 2 of whom stay with the vehicle giving me 6 dismounts. This could be for modern, Russian style as opposed to Cold War Soviets but it's close enough for me.
I have based them all 3 to a stand, but if you wanted to have 7 dismounts for a 9 man squad, you could easily just have 4 on one base, and 3 on the other (that's what I would do). I like how Battlegroup Kursk does it with 3 men in the German LMG section and 5 men in the rifle section.
You could make your LMG stand small (3 men) and you maneuver stand bigger (4 men).
I cannot wait for the Battlefront stuff to come out! I have Quality Castings Americans and while they're "not bad" I'm sure the Battlefront platoon will come with everything I need (Dragons, Radios, NCOs and an officer) And the vehicles look great! I already bought a pile of the Zvezda "Hot War" stuff so I'll only be buying the Soviet equipment from BF as I have all the Americans I need.
Still though - I can't wait to see it all!
I'm waiting for my copy of Sabre Squadron to arrive and am intending to use Oddzial Osmy's excellent 1/600 mini's with it ... BUT following your excellent blog has me thinking of getting 15mm for it as well!! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeletecmnash,
DeleteGoodness gracious 1/600!! That's tiny!!! :) Although I've seen some really excellent stuff using that scale and the miniatures you mentioned look really cool. I'm not sure my old eyes can get past painting microarmor!
I get the feeling the market for 15mm modern is about to open up with BF coming out with "Team Yankee." I'm really, really hoping for PSC to start making modern tanks or other modern vehicles. Perhaps with Battlegroup: NORTHAG coming out they will?
I like 15mm for most of my scales. I also like 10mm and 6mm but it looks like the majority of my equipment in most eras (ACW, SYW, Naps) is 15mm stuff. I just find it the best compromise of detail and quick painting. 10mm is nice because I can buy Horse & Musket figures in bulk and play "grand tactical" games, but for most low-level tactical games I like 15mm best.
Welcome to the blog, sir!
Thanks Steven; I'd heard about BF's Team Yankee, but not Battlegroup:NORTHAG - thanks for that!
Delete15mm is a great size for mini's; just getting back into it with SF - and more than tempted for moderns - which is all your fault!! ;)
You can imagine how excited I was to hear about BG: NORTHAG!
DeleteWhat I like most about collecting and gaming with 15s most is that the world still doesn't have to see how bad of a painter I really am!!!
If you are looking to get into moderns with 15mm it's definitely an exciting time. There are a number of really good, truly "modern" figure lines already out there with more coming I think.
If my blog has inspired anyone to adopt a new scale, era, rules set, etc all the better! (in other words, I take full responsibility!) I like to think it's you guys out there who continue to inspire me to paint more and game more.
Very awesome Steven. Epic game AAR needed. Do not forget the camera!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Paul! AAR will be forthcoming! I have the camera charging up now. I'll have to make sure I pre-position everything to bring on Saturday since I'll be a zombie when I wake up.
DeleteThat's my excuse completely for every foolish decision I will make!!!