M40 RCL

Looking to boost my anti tank forces I have been throwing together a couple of M40 recoilless rifles. Pretty rough looking I must admit, but hopefully after adding a few more bits and a green paint maybe they will look better, hopefully...A cam net is also an option!

Monthly Additions

A quick post to relate my incoming additions. First up, Al popped in today and gave me a sprue of the old ESCI NATO Pilots and Groundcrew figures. These will come in very useful and I have plans for them.

Next up is this Combat Tanks T54 diecast. $10.00NZD, I quite like that the Czech's used their own version of MERDC. Quick spray an play for this.

And lastly another Combat Tanks Challenger 1. Note the front bussle is clear plastic...must be a reject. I picked this up for $5.00NZD which I was quite surprised about as I had forgotten I had bid on it. All in all a cheap month here.

Chopper Month: UH-1B Double Trouble Continues

Situation Normal all fudged up! Blogger continues to play up and I have switched to Chrome just to post. I will answer comments that all you good people have posted tomorrow when I get a little time. Back to today's posting, the Italeri UH-1B double up has been progression nicely and I have finished them to about 95% of completion.

Trouble started with a missing front windscreen for one of the birds which is bloomin hard to fix so I am not bothering about. The next kick in the pants was the destruction of the decals I was going to use. I had plans to make both of them into Royal Australian Navy Hueys but the Italeri decals simply fell about, I have not seen anything like it, so I had to improvise and gave them a small stars and bars and a simple serial code on the tail plane.

Paint wise I gave them a dirty grey scheme that seems to give them a real worn look which is just fine by me. I still need to finish off some painting on the rotors and add a crewman or two. The end is in sight anyway.

Operation Possum Dagger Part 3

Blogger still entering the rapture at the moment leaving me free to post articles etc but unable to post comment, even on my own blog. I also note that my own headbar at the top seems now to be locked in Greek, at least Thanos will be happy with that. Here is the last of my posts on Al and I's last game. Excuse the photo's but I forgot to take a lot of shots as it was supposed to be Al's turn at Press Officer.

The two beachhead assault and heli insertion on Ping Pong Island was carried out simultaneously within about 5 minutes of each other. No Naval gunfire support was used in order to surprise the Garrison and try to stop any destruction of the WMD. Air support was to be provided by the Cobra’s on station.

Bootneck Beach at the south end of the island was overlooked by the garrison gardens and undefended for 300 or so metres. Here 43 Commando landed without incident and proceeded to advance inland to the rear of the harbour area.

NK Coastal troops deployed on the outskirts of the harbour soon made contact with the Marines and P Company was particularly targeted as they had to break cover and advance up a slope into a lightly wooded area. Each Platoon suffered casualties and it was only the élan of the troops that they continued to attack without pause. Morale was high for the Commandos and the NK troops were soon retreating into the harbour area itself with moderate casualties and failing morale.
Meanwhile on Koala Beach to the north the 1st Commando Regt too had advanced after the landing into contact with elements of NK Coastal troops. The Beachhead here was smaller and the Regt split into three forces with four Platoons of each Company advancing on each side of the island while the two Recon Platoons went up the guts towards a known AA Battery and the compound. Like the Marines the Aussies soon took hits and one platoon was forced back, however after a mêlée the NK’s were soon in full retreat leaving the Companies to probe ahead and look for the weak spots in the crumbling defence.

The heli assault on the knoll in the centre of the island went in without incident, and the Support Platoons of the Marines and Australian Commando’s soon were organized and in particular the 43 Commando Mortar Platoon and Sustained Fire MG Platoon were supporting the other forces in the assault with accurate and telling fire.

A hasty assault towards the LZ was crushed without delay, then the NK changed tactics and sniped at the hill with medium and heavy weapons from an abandoned vile. This was little more than annoying to the forces here and soon attempts were being planned to eliminate this weapons Company however these plans proved to be unnecessary as events transpired.

On station above the LZ the Huey Cobra “Snake” Flight soon had the feared Elite NK NBC Company in its sights and permission was given for strafing runs at the human elements inside the compound. 2.75 inch rockets were soon raining death and destruction without mercy on the defenders and when the Cobra switched to guns the NBC Company ceased to pose a worry to Allied troops, and those who survived managed to scurry to the harbour with shocking morale. For the Allies this was the turning point in the battle.

The advance of the Bootneck Beachhead soon reached the harbour area and again P Company was in the thick of the fighting losing a Platoon of Marines against a stiffening NK defence. In a 600m extended line the Marines charged into the NK Coastal troops with bayonets fixed and the defenders broke and ran towards the pier to surrender.

Mortar support from an 82mm Battery proved ineffective and the Royal Marines soon were advancing towards the compound to hook up with the Aussies, leaving the two surviving Platoons from P Company to guard the prisoners.

Meanwhile at the Koala beachhead a few Platoons of NK Coastal troops soon replaced the shattered NBC Company in the compound but they were soon surrounded then overrun by the advancing two Australian Companies with seven Platoons effecting surrender on the surviving defenders.

The two Recon Companies managed to destroy the Northern AA Battery without mishap before being poised to support the assault, however they were unneeded as the mission had been completed.

So ended the battle of Ping Pong Island, a relatively short game, completed in four moves or about three hours in actual time. Lessons were learnt this night and a few new skills were put to the test.

1. If you have lots of Infantry use mass to isolate and destroy smaller pockets of resistance. This is a game winner against smaller or less trained opponents. The steam roller process creates panic amongst your enemies and sends them into retreat.

2. Helicopter Gunships or Attack Choppers can turn a tightly defended position with crack troops into a graveyard. Spread your defenders out to eliminate mass casualties, and use SAM stands wisely.

3. Remember to plan ahead and hold troops back for admin purposes such as surrender monkeys.

4. If you build something, use it. I have had my LCM3’s and LCVP’s for about five years and two paint jobs yet never used them. It’s more fun using them than storing them.

5. Have fun with short games. The games do not have to go on for days, sometimes little is more than enough.

Cheers to my partner in crime Al who is dropping off some aircrew figures for me next week.

Chopper Month: UH-1B Double Trouble

I have been slowly working on two UH-1B Hueys over the past few days. I quite like the look of the earlier model. Blogger continues to stop me posting comments so my apologies to those whom I normally comment on. I must have logged on 100 times in the past 3 days and am totally sick of it, might be time for a change of blog location.
The first kit is a Italeri B model.

While the second is a Tamiya model. Both kits are exactly the same, except for those nice chaps from Tamiya add 7$ onto the same kit. Top blokes!

Chopper Month: UH-1H Zero Three Repaint 2

Finished the overcoat of this Huey and added decals.
Not the prettiest but will do the job on the table. Dammed super glue.

Stupid blogger is playing up again and continually logging me off and not letting me make comments. I have no idea why they have to mess with these things. Tossers to be sure.

Operation Possum Dagger Part 2

Ping Pong island was the target for the raid with 43 RM Commando and the 1st Commando Regt (Aust) being the assault force. Enemy forces were identified as two Companies of Coastal troops and one Company of Crack NBC troops, along with support Platoons and 3 AA Guns and harbour defences.
43 Commandos beachhead at the islands garden about 500m from the Harbour.

1 Commando beachead, about 700m from the WMD Compound, with hilly ground to the right.

The Harbour itself was too defended for a suprise assault so was left to be attacked from the rear later in the battle, after the main objective had been achieved.

A heli assault was planned next to the compound on a hillock. The supporting Companies would be landed here to provide a base of fire to the other two beacheads and break up any reinforcement effort from the compound.

The compound itself with classic European features, would this be a tough nut to crack?

IDF Zelda and Squad

Blimmin flip just as I was about to post the second part of my Possum Dagger Operation, Dave send me a few pic's of his latest finished project involving the Dragon IDF figures he constructed and painted earlier in the month. Possum Dagger can wait!
I believe the Zelda is an Academy kit. Of course the Zelda is a upgraded Bardehlas (M113) with Toga armor suite - perforated steel plates mounted on an external frame around the front and sides of the vehicle.

Dave has used a picture frame as the base of the diorama, a tactic he has done several times before, I like it myself, and I plan to copy it on a project later on.

Once again a sweet build. Cheers Dave and good luck trying to get Jasmin to agree to building a man cave in the garage.

Strikemaster Diversions Continued

More time on the Blunty this afternoon, I managed to refix the port wing with a superglue attack and removed the engine intakes and placed them on the correct side. I also blue tacked the decals as I only have some later low vis Kiwi roundels and no serials.
I gave it a spray of paint to cover blemishes and to hide some joints. I then applied some putty to hide more gaps in the nose and wing tanks. Left to dry and a sandpaper to remove excess putty. Cheers to Phil for the putty, four years on the shelf and I finally used it.

So after trying to remove the old super glue from the canopy and failing again (Thanks for the hints but still have not found a good solution) I looked for some pics to base the scheme on. Quite easy to find and have started painting.

Cold weather is a pig for painting with humbrol.

I also managed to remove a good amount of blue tac out of the cockpit as well which is a bonus. I will let this dry overnight before resuming the scheme.

Strikemaster Diversions

Okay I know its supposed to be chopper month and I really should be getting on with the five or so helio's I have in certain stages or some more posts on Possum Dagger, but while setting up for the game last week I stumbled across a kit I had not seen in an age, namely a Matchbox BAC Strikemaster.
My younger brother "Guts-ache" built and painted this in around 1984 when he was 11 or so.

I saved this about twenty years ago from the bin and have not thought that much about it since.

However owing to the situation in Korea, I will have to rebuild this Blunty to use it as some Air Support. Not a A37 but pretty close.

Buckled wings, upside down intakes, snapped wing mounts and over 25 years of old bluetac in the nose will not deter me...

I don't know about the decals, I might have to save them. Nice project to get carried away with.

Operation Possum Dagger Part 1

As mentioned in Al's latest posting, http://20thcenturywargames.blogspot.com/2011/05/cold-war-game.html we had a game on Thursday night for our Cold war Korean "What if" phase we are currently going thru. This post will concentrate on Allied Coalition Forces used in the Operation named "Possum Dagger". As the name suggested this was a Joint Australian and British Operation concerning the destruction of a NK island that was being used for storage of Radioactive waste that the KIA and CIA surmised would be used in the making of dirty bombs (WMD). Obviously this is not cricket and a quick task force made up of 43 Commando Royal Marines and the 1st Commando Regiment (Reserve) of the Australian Army was rushed to destroy the facility. Above 43 Commando RM and their transport for the Operation.
The LCM's carried the three Commando Companies minus the Support elements. They could have carried a Vehicle each as well, but we thought none would be needed.

The 1st Australian Commando Regiment was carried in a separate force. I toiled to the early hours on Thursday morning basing these bronzed ockers.

Each Commando Company for the Regiment (There are two) has five Platoons including a HQ, three Commando, and a Recon Platoon. I spent some time at Randwick last year where the HQ is based for this Regiment and they were a nice bunch of blokes, and were very professional for a Reserve Unit.

The next element in the Operation was 301 Signal Squadron, again a Australian Unit attached to the Commandos in Randwick. Hotchpotch mix of ESCI figures and one Caesar operator. This Unit made up of three troops were part of the Helio operation and were carried by UH-IH US Huey's.

Also part of the Helio insert were the 43 Commando Supporting elements and 1 Commando Regiment HQ. Carried by a Flight of US Army Chinooks.

The Close support of the Allied forces was supplied by a Flight of the venerable AH-1 Huey Cobras again from the US Army command.

For Al and I we were happy to have a nice and short game (I hoped...As I was the Allied Commander) that used our new and shiny Helios and especially for me the use of my Landing Craft that have sat around and not been used by myself, although Al has borrowed them from time to time.

Daves Italeri Elite German Infantry

Dave has sent me some more pics of his basing frenzy last weekend.
If you remember Dave painted these while on duty in a desert. Not a great choice of materials were available to him at the time.

Dave thinks the name is misleading and a better handle would be late war Germans.

I think they would benefit from a nice wash myself but I think Dave is quite happy with them as a reminder of sandy times

He just scored 19 kits off an auction today. Lucky blighter.

Busy weekend for Dave.

Cheers again mate.