NVA Build Log - Painting Progress on T-72 and BMP Formations

I know it's been a while since I posted an update on my East Germans for Team Yankee. Rest Assured I've been working on them steadily, and I'm finally to the point where I can show some progress on the miniatures. They still have a ways to go before they're fully painted, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a train!

Because full modulation colors don't exist for the NVA late 1980's camouflage scheme, I decided early on to go with the Black and White technique using Ammo of Mig paints. This is in effect a pre-shading technique using their proprietary thinner which makes the colored paints semi-transparent better preserving the pre-shading. I started with the T-72's and the BMP's because they were fairly numerous (15 of each), but even at that I think they only represent about half of the force or a little less.

BMP and T-72 tanks with the black and white applied

Armor of the Arab-Israeli Wars - or - Mike's Visit to Yad La-Shiryon Part 4

With the new update of Fate of a Nation on the horizon for Team Yankee, I wanted to pick up where I left off with my photos from the Latrun armor museum.  In this installment we move on to the self-propelled guns. As with any modern force, Israel has required self-propelled artillery capable of keeping up with their armored advances. The IDF has used a variety of models over the years, and this entry will detail several of them including models purchased outright and those converted by the IDF itself into unique vehicles.

Known in Israeli usage as the Romach (spear or lance), the M107 175mm SPG is a fairly devastating platform. Used by the U.S. army through the 1960's and 1970's, the M107 lacks the enclosed fighting compartment seen on many self-propelled guns and howitzers. The reason for this is because of the gun's extreme range (21mi / 34km in its standard configuration), it is generally not expected to come under direct ground assault. The IDF used the type to great effect during the 1973 Yom Kippur War using the gun to target Egyptian SAM batteries in the south and to shell Damascus in the north once Israeli forces had broken through in the Golan. These were later upgraded with new ammunition increasing their range to 50km.

The M107 175mm SPG and a few of its friends

Why We Game - Redux

In May 2016, the guys over at WWPD (What Would Patton Do?) wrote an article entitled "Why We Game" where they discussed the state of things at WWPD, a loss of interest in Flames of War, which had served as one of the foundations of the blog and podcast, and other challenges. They also brought in a few new guest authors (including me) to provide content for the site - especially for gaming systems they had less interest in at that point. Over the last year and a half I've written several articles for WWPD, though not as many as I would have liked, and over the past several weeks many of these have been making their way to the pages of this blog.

The reason for that can be found in today's post on the WWPD blog.  There's a final podcast as well. This represents the end of the line for WWPD - no new content or podcasts, and one of the staples of what many consider to be the golden age of Flames of War will be gone. Other blogs, such as Breakthrough Assault have already been filling the role as previewer and release partner for Battlefront so in some ways this represents the passing of the torch, but more than that I think it represents the end of an era marking a fundamental shift in what could be collectively referred to as the "Battlefront Community." I for one will greatly miss the guys over at WWPD as their contributions over the years have nothing short of awesome, and I wish them the absolute best in any future pursuits!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

In retrospect and purely from my own personal perspective, 2017 has been simultaneously a good year and a terrible year when it comes to miniatures gaming. We finally moved into our new home and I was able to not only have my own studio for model building and miniature painting but set up a proper gaming room as well. This means I can run miniatures wargames with terrain in the comfort of my own home, which I actually managed to do during the recent Firestorm campaign - and my son was able to get in on the fun!

As with any new space, I'm still working out the bugs and planning next steps. I really need to set up a proper spray booth area, but right now our "mud room" is doing fine. I'm hoping to pick up an airbrush spray booth after the first of the year, and I'll post the details once I have them! I also want to build a game table along the lines of what you used to be able to get from the now defunct Geek Chic. I have a carpenter friend who is willing to help out on the project too. Again, more photos when available!

Flames of War - Vehicles of the 761st Tank Battalion

The Battle of the Bulge compilations for V3 of Flames of War were the last to come out, and one of the new added to the Allied compilation were light and medium tank companies from the 761st Tank Battalion - the first African-American armored unit to see combat in the U.S. Army. The unit has a very fascinating history fighting essentially their own version of a "two-front war" against prejudice and bigotry at home and against the Germans in Europe. I won't go through the unit's full history here, but there are several good books covering the unit including Joe Wilson's The 761st Black Panther Tank Battalion in World War II and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's (yes THAT Kareem) Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes.

Organized as a independent battalion with four combat companies and an HQ, the unit used a variety of medium and light tanks, though the exact mix was different than seen in some of the standard armored divisions. Companies A, B, and C were medium tank companies and used a variety of Sherman tanks. Company D was a light tank company equipped with Stuart tanks until the end of the war.

Flames of War - Japanese Type 88 75mm Anti-Aircraft Gun Review

The Japanese Type 88 75mm Anti-Aircraft Gun was first accepted into service in 1928, and was designed to combat commonly encountered aircraft of the late 1920's and early 1930's. By the beginning of the Pacific War, the gun was largely obsolete, but it continued to serve until the end of the war with over 2000 being constructed. Allied intelligence regarding the gun was weak, and it was initially assumed that it was a copy of the German FlaK 36/37 gun, but only the names were arguably similar.

The Type 88 can be fielded in virtually any Japanese list taken from Banzai as a support choice (Heavy Anti-Aircraft Platoon). In addition to serving as a heavy anti-aircraft gun, it provides useful anti-take capability with AT 10 and firepower of 3+. However, the gun is immobile (though it has a turntable) and lacks a gun shield, so it can be vulnerable to ranged attack.

Flames of War - Type 97 Te-Ke Platoon Review

The Japanese Type 97 Te-Ke tankette was designed as an improvement to the machine-gun armed Type 94 based on the Imperial Japanese Army's experience in China. While the Type 94 had been useful, especially when deployed en masse against the Chinese, its armor was thin and the vehicle was vulnerable to Chinese anti-tank weapons. While externally the Type 94 and Type 97 tankettes are similar, the Type 97 was truly a completely new vehicle and could be equipped with a 37mm gun or a machine gun as primary armament. In Flames of War, the Type 97 Te-Ke can be fielded as Divisional Support in either a Tank Platoon (three to five vehicles) or a Recon Tankette Platoon (two to three vehicles) in Japanese Lists from Banzai. Battlefront has recently released this tankette as the Type 97 Te-Ke Platoon (JBX05) which contains five vehicles.

The first thing you'll notice when picking up this particular platoon box is that it is very light compared to other Battlefront offerings in the same-sized box. There is good reason for this.  Opening the box you'll see that the Te-Ke hull is molded tracks and all as one piece using Battlefront's new two-part mold process as detailed in their recent factory tour.

Flames of War - Painting Japanese Army Infantry for the Pacific Theater

The Japanese used a variety of uniforms during World War II which varied in function and coloration (sometimes quite dramatically). In Rising Sun, Battlefront provided a painting guide for Japanese infantry and gunners based on the uniforms fielded in 1939. Unfortunately with the release of Banzai, the painting guide has not been updated to reflect the uniform colors common in the Pacific War. Of course, the figures themselves are the same as the ones released in support of Rising Sun, so there will be some variations between the miniatures and some of the fine details of the actual later war uniforms. However, updating the color palette will give your force a more Pacific War feel to it.


The Uniform

Any time I try to color-match paints to photographs or historical artifacts, I create a color swatch over the primer color I'm using for that batch of miniatures to ensure I match them as closely as possible. Below is the swatch I'm using for my Pacific Japanese - please bear in mind that for all images in this blog entry, the colors will vary somewhat from a true visual color because of the limitations of the scanning process.

At this point I'm still using all Vallejo colors as I have a large library of paints, and see no need to move over to the new Battlefront colors at this time. Battlefront recommended Khaki Grey (880) for Japanese Uniforms when Rising Sun was released. They now recommend the equivalent Comrade Khaki followed by Zhukov Shade with a highlight of Military Khaki. To my eye, these colors are too brown for the Pacific Theater. Japanese Pacific Uniforms tended to be greener than those paints would indicate.