Heavy Support for WWII Minis

 Just finished some German 15cm heavy artillery along with 15cm Infantry Gun and 5cm PAK.  And some Soviet 160mm mortars.  The infantry on snow bases in the pic are Germans in greatcoats armed with Russian SMGs (courtesy Peter Pig minis).   these are all 15mm sized minis.  Thanks to Jim for printing the 15cm heavy artillery.

The little shiny objects in the corners of the bases are magnets I use to hold any status markers.  For Rapid Fire rules, they aren't really needed but I also use the stands in operational level games where a stand can be a battalion or regiment.  I usually dull down the shiny magnets with a black or brown Sharpie marker.  

WWII In The Pacific

 I've recently started acquiring Allied and Japanese naval fleets for 1942 naval battles.  A friend, Rocky, has devised a set of naval rules that resolve battles in around 3 hours with simple methods of calculating firepower at range, chance to hit, and damage effects of hits and with all the various weapon effects from plunging fire, torpedoes and aircraft.

We have been using 1:2400 scale ships along with 1:900 scale aircraft.  Mostly from XP Forge, a 3D Print company. 

Here are pics of recently formed Allied fleet and IJN fleet.

The Allied fleet includes British, Dutch, Australian, and United States ships along with Buffalo fighters and British carrier based aircraft.

The IJN fleet includes battleships, cruisers, and destroyers along with twin-engined bombers and float planes.  

I'll log the detailed order of battle as a separate page off the blog.

British Churchills

 Three varieties of Chruchill Tanks;   Mk VII (75mm armed), Mk VIII (95mm armed), and Mk VII Crocodile (flame-armed).  15mm Battle Honors/Quality Castings figures.

Command Decision WWII Game Tirgu-Frumos (Romania) May 2-4 1944

 The Tirgu-Frumos Battle was the second of three Soviet offensives launched by the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

The first offensive in April failed as the Front's forces were spent following their winter offensive and they failed to punch through hardening German defenses.  In the May offensive, rejuvenated Soviet troops ran into reinforced German defenses including an up-to-strength Gross Deutschland Division and again failed to make strategic headway.  The Germans even managing a stiff counterattack as the Soviets regrouped and went over to a defensive posture.  The third and successful offensive occurred in August 1944.

This particular scenario covers the three opening days of the May offensive.  Several events are scripted into the scenario such as the Soviet planned fire strikes, Soviets completing objectives to open othter offensive sectors, further completing objectives for the Soviet 2nd echelon (tank corps) to enter, German armor withdrawing from the battlefield to deal with other situations and possible German airstrikes including a possibility of Hans Rudel and his tank busters.

That's a lot going on but we're playing this on a 12' table.  And it will take multiple sessions to resolve.  Command Decision is not the best set of rules for resolving multi-day battles as the terrain scale is too small but what the heck it should still make for a game with challenges, success and failures for both sides.

In our first session we got through half of Day 1.  here is a photographic chronology of how things went.

Pic 1.  Western Sector-Soviet Rifle Regiment with tank brigade and SU-152 Regiment supporting.  Their objective is to secure hills and strongpoints (the fortified BUAs) to open up the Eastern Sector and allow arrival of their second echelon (tank corps with heavy tank reinforcement).  This shot shows where the Soviet rifle regiment will arrive.

A Romanian armored battlegroup and a Gross Deutschland PzGr battalion hold the line along with the Panzer IV and Panzer V armored battalions in the rear.

Pic 2.  From the German side, the Soviet fire strikes pummel strongpoints and hill entrenchments.

Pic 3 and 4. Turns later, Pz IV battalion is moving to the front.  To their right, Pz V battalion is crossing stream to take up positions on the hill.

Pic 5.  The Romanians on the Axis left flank are pushed out of their forward strongpoints and mortar fire begins landing on the hill.

Pic 6.  Panthers have made it to the hill and are delivering a brutal fire into the tank brigade supporting the Soviet infantry.

Pic 7.  Mike contemplates how to deal with the superior Panthers on the hill with his limited resources.  His commander is yelling over the radio he has to take that hill!  And a timely wave of Pe-2's arrive and bomb the Panthers on the hill (black explosion markers).

Pic 8.  The airstrikes have affected the morale of the Panthers but they are holding on.  Mortar fire covers the Panthers and a supporting panzergrenadier company.  Most of a Soviet infantry battalion is lost assaulting the hill but a company grimly holds one end of the entrenchments.

Pic 9.  The SU-152's turn to lob shells at the Panthers on the hill but are themselves covered by a German barrage.

Pic 10.  Advancing Mk IVs take advantage of the suppressed SU-152 and manage to knock out two of them.  But fortunately for the Soviets, half the German armor on the table is called to withdraw to support another threatened sector.  You can see the withdrawing German armor in the top left of the photo.

 In the end the Germans abandoned the hill; the Panthers withdrew to meet the withdrawal conditions.  They weren't accomplishing alot as they were suppressed by the mortar fire and they were pulling back as morale failures piled up.

But the Soviet infantry had taken the Romanian held hill and satisfied the conditions for bringing on Soviet reinforcements.

So the next game will pick up from here.  Soviet Tank Corps will come storming across the tabletop and it will be the turn of the Gross Deutschland Grenadier Regiment to stop the Soviets.  Manstein is rushing the Gross Deutschland Tiger Battalion to the scene but they have not arrived yet.

The Eastern Sector will be in play next time also.  A Soviet rifle regiment backed up with tank brigade and SU-122's will be facing Gross Deutschland Fusilier Regiment supported by a StuG Battalion.

New Vehicles from Butlers' Printed Models

These are the first 3D printed models I've formally added to my WWII collection.  I haven't used 3D printed models before because the quality and cost factors always moved me to choosing cast models.  Analog vs. digital and I'm just an analog guy in a digital world.

The quality problem with 3D Printed Models for me is the resolution problem.  Vertical surfaces show the deposition layers in the 'Z' dimension (up/down) and for sloped surfaces it is even worse as they show the resolution problem in the Z and X/Y dimensions.  Sine, cosine, and all that stuff.  The better the resolution of the printer, the less noticeable the striations.  And the resoultion also limits the amount of detail you can include on a model.  Think of rivets and such for armored vehicles.  

The better the resolution and the more expert the person creating the digital file and the printer setup  are the better looking the model will be.  That all comes at a cost and for me I have always decided on cast modes vs. 3D prints as the quality of cast is better and the price is cheaper.  

But I've added a new factor into my choice of models.  With 3D printed models, a manufacturer can have a large inventory of digital files compared to the master sculpts and master molds a casting operation requires.  It is cheaper to create a digital file than a mold so a 3D print process can offer lots of variations without much added cost.

I needed French Lorraine vehicles, specifically I needed a radio vehicle for 21st Panzer Division in Normandy.    None of the businesses I normally buy from do a Lorraine much less a radio vehicle version.  I would settle for a 3D printed model if I could find one that was decent.

And I did with a UK company called Butlers' Printed Models.  These guys had a large inventory of digital models and judging from their descriptions about their process and looking at the photos, they seemed to know what they were doing and the price was better than what I pay for cast models.  So I ordered some vehicles to see how good they were.  I ordered the Lorraine 37L+ fuel trailer to stand in for a signals vehicle.  Looks like a spool of signal wire on the fuel trailer to me.  Close enough!

I was impressed.  The size of the vehicles fits well with my other 15mm vehicles. The better resolution printers and material that Butlers uses gives  a model that does not have thick bulky sides, the model is not fragile, and does have a good level of detail and the striations on the vertical and sloped surfaces were tolerable to me.  And the price was right.  So overall I am happy with the Butler models and will add them to my buying list.  Service and delivery time from UK to USA were all excellent.

Some photos below with OG15/Quality Casting figures included for comparison.      

Here is a shot of the models right out of the box.  There is some clean up (expected)and you always have flash removal and filing to do with cast models) to remove the support surfaces produced in the 3D printing process.  No problem using a sharp x-acto knife.

This is a shot of the the models after clean up.  The red arrow points to a support surface I missed and removed later.  Often the support surfaces to be removed can look an intended surface so you have to look twice before calling clean up complete.

And below are the painted vehicles.  The basic Lorraine 38L will go with my French 1940 collection and the "signals" version will go with the 21st Panzer Division "oddballs" collection

 

Book Recommendations on WWII Pacific Campaign

H.P. Willmott's "Empires in Balance" (1982) is an excellent book, easy to read and includes detail of both the early war Allied and Japanese strategies and operational moves.  It focuses on pre-war Japan, conflict with China, political strategies vis a vis the West, and a quick study on resources of the Japanese Empire.  It begins military operation in detail starting from the 7/8 December Japanese strikes, campaigns in Indonesia and Philippines and continues to April 1942.  Pretty much a season of disaster for Allied forces.

Empires in the Balance

The other recommendation is Ian W. Toll's "Pacific Crucible" (2011).  A very engrossing read, the author keeps the reader in the story.  This is book 1 in his Pacific War trilogy but each volume can stand by itself.  Similar in scope to "Empires in Balance", the volume does provide more focus on Japanese politics, inter-service rivalry, and social contexts leading up and during WWII by using numerous Japanese sources, a rare thing in western writings.  Unlike Willmott's book, "Pacific Crucible"  takes the reader through the early US strikes and the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.  For me at least, the volume also provided new perspectives on Admiral King, the powerful figure at the head of the US wartime navy. 

Pacific Crucible

UK Commando and Italian Troops

 Finished some UK Commando and Italian troops.  I already have a bunch of British special forces, SAS/SBS types, and German Para and Brandenburger type troops.  These will all be used for battles on Rhodes and Leros and other islands in the Aegean Sea.   Not a lot written about the British Offensive and German counter-offensive but one good book is "Churchill's Folly" by Anthony Rogers.

USA WWII Heavy Weapons

 Worked on some USA machine gun and mortar troops.  Figs are Battlehonors 25's.  I sure could do with a game of FUBAR!  the troops are ready to go.

USA WWII Minis for Scott2

Just finished some WWII US figures for a friend

 M2 Halftracks

Jeeps

M4 Shermans

A Few Items Completed . . .

First up is a sample of Artizan 28's of US WWII Infantry in greatcoats.  Two squads worth of infantry plus MG and Bazooka support are ready to go.

Next are a couple of units I finished for my growing 15mm Medieval Lithuanians.  Medium cavalry and the Commander-in-Chief stand.  Minis are Essex.

Finished Kevin's Japanese Infantry Regiment

These are 15mm Battle Honors/Quality Castings figures based for Command Decision rules.  Photos are a bit dark as boards were too big to fit completely under my bright lights.

Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion

2nd and 3rd Battalions

Tank Group, Trucks, and Limbers

Kevin's WWII Japanese

Next project on the table are the first of what will be a reinforced Japanese WWII regimental battlegroup for Kevin L. based for Command Decision rules.  Figures are 19th Century Miniatures/Old Glory 15/Battle Honors/Quality Castings or whatever you want to call them.  In this photo, the black primed figures are getting their uniform base coat, a gold brown and plague brown to provide some variation.

Not very exciting at the moment, but with some highlights and detail they'll soon start to look 'more better.'

Now with the uniform and kit detailed, here is what we have (changed to macro lens for better close-up) . . .

Brown-wash and highlights next, followed by varnish.  Stay tuned.

And the final product. . .

Now just 200+ figures to go and a dozen or so vehicles . . .

Muddy, Snowy Tanks

Painted some 15mm Soviet armor I had sitting around.  Tanks are in winter whitewash with a liberal application of mud, rust, and grime.


First batch are T-70's, an interesting little tank . . . well armored and a good gun for its size.  Not much use by '44 though except as a recon tank.  These are all Plastic Soldier Company models.










Second batch are T34's.  Again these are Plastic Soldier Company models.  Also have a set of turrets to convert them to T34/85's, though the wheels and hull are not correct for T34/85 but close enough for gaming.











And third batch are Battlefront Models.  A KV-1, two factory types of T34, and a T-60.

WWII Skirmish Troops

Here are some troops I intend to go with my British Commando, Italian troops, and German Brandenburg.

Some Greek/Cretan Irregulars . . . .











And some German Mountain Troops.

All these figures are from Gorgon Studios  Nice range of figs and good sculpts.

Eureka WWII Soviet Infantry

Really nice 28mm Figures from Eureka's new line of Soviet WWII Infantry.  I like how these turned out.

Soviet T34-85

A Warlord 28mm soft plastic T34-85.  Not sure I like the model . . . the soft plastic has edges that are "too hard" visually and surfaces are "too flat."  Resin or metal give a better painting surface, or better complement my painting abilities.  Anyway, I need to dull down that shiny turret some more.

Next up will be some new Eureka 28mm Soviet infantry to accompany Mr. T34.  The new Eureka figures look great.

French Infantry 1940

Painted and based two battalions for Command Decision-Test of Battle.  15mm
Minis are Old Glory, guns by Quality Castings/Battle Honors

Best Snowy Base

Trying a few different ways to get snowy bases.  Left hand technique is white glue (that dries clear) and Woodland Scenics Snow.  Center technique is white glue, brown ballast, and then latex paste (dries white)  as partial cover and snow.  Right hand technique is latex paste and snow.

Center and right techniques could complement each other on the tabletop.  I think those are the techniques I'll go with.

Minis are WWII winter Soviets, 15mm from Peter Pig.