News from the Bosnian Front Pt. II

Flushed with success from knocking out a Nod BRDM platoon, Republican forces await the advancing Nod forces.

A company of Republican T-55s advance, intent on making a spoiling attack in the Nod staging area.

A company of Republican volunteers advance in support of the T-55s.

Nod infantry and armour  prepare to assault Republican forces.

Nod attacks the Islamic volunteers.....

While the Citizen Militia companies await the coming Nod onslaught.

Republican armour moves up to support the hard pressed Islamic volunteers.

Republican troops await the reinforcements.

The Islamic Volunteers engage Nod at the edge of the BUA.

And suffer for their bravery.

The T-55 company swings left to engage Nod forces.

...such as a battery of Nod 122mm SPGs

...which is eliminated, causing alarm in the Noddist rear.

A company of Nod T-72s is pulled back from the front to solve this problem.

The Republican T-55 company is destroyed by the Noddist T-72s, however the spoiling attack is a success, despite the high cost in Republican lives.

The battle is far from over - fortunately my next blog post has more information!

News from the Bosnian Front. Pt. I

One of the wargaming campaign backgrounds that I use for modern games, is that of  an "alternate history" version of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Without going into too much detail, the main points of difference between my alternate version and the actual event are as follows:

·         Both the UN and NATO have a greatly reduced involvement.

·         The role of Islamic volunteers in defending the Bosnian state is greatly increased.

·         The involvement of the Brotherhood of Nod.

This means that AARs from my Bosnia campaign are going to be somewhat different from the actual history…. 

The game was played at Frank's about a month ago. I have been quite slack about posting it, and been quite busy with work and other concerns, so the blog has been a very low priority. I have opted to posting this without TOEs, but as a series of captioned pictures. Some bias may be revealed in the captions...

The initial setup. Forces of the Bosnian Republic prepare to defend against the might of the Brotherhood.

Elements of of a Nod Motor Rifle Regiment prepare to advance.

A Nod BRDM-2 recon platoon. Equipped with AT-5 Spandrel ATGMs, this is a major danger to the armoured forces of the Republic.

Three companies of Citizen Militia prepare to defend their hamlet.

A company of Islamic volunteers takes up defensive positions on the edge of the village.

A Company of T-34/85s waits in reserve. Headquarter elements of the Army of the Republic occupy many of the old Turkish colonial buildings in the town.

Noddist Headquarter elements occupy this hamlet, while Nod SPG and AA elements deploy nearby.

A Republican motorised light attack column. Many of the volunteers who have flocked to the defence of Bosnia have experience in the use and creation of  'technicals'.

Not all the assistance received by the Republic is military. This column of ambulances is manned by volunteers from across Europe.

The Noddist hordes advance on a wide front towards the Republican positions.

The Republican line must hold, or Nod will achieve yet another break through.

Platoons of Noddist T-55s and T-72s on the advance.

Nod infantry dismount and ready themselves for an assault on Republican positions.

Republican Sagger teams prepare to open fire.

First blood to the Republic! The BRDM-2 platoon is destroyed by Republican Saggers.

 More pictures in the next post...

Cannon

Some time ago I had a conversion with Glenn about some of his wargaming projects. For one of these projects he was going to remount some artillery pieces onto new carriages from the Billing Boats range.  This seemed like such a good idea I decided to steal it for one of my own projects.

Red Cannon - Evolution, Pale Cannon - Orion.

 The cannon needing new carriages are from the Orion English Pirates set, and the Evolution Pirates set. Links are to the reviews by PSR. The cannon suppilied in both of these sets are too big for their respective gun carriages, so I had been considering building up replacements with matchsticks, or massively cutting the guns down to fit the tiny carriages.

A Billings Boats sprue containing parts for two gun carriages.

 I was able to obtain these off the shelf from my local model store for around NZ$7. The packet contained two sprues, each with enough bits to build two gun carriages. No instructions are contained in the packet, but figuring it out is not too hard if you use an existing gun carriage as reference, and try a dry run first.

Some cutting down was required to get the gun to sit in a pleasing manner.

Comparison to the Hat Royal Navy cannon.

Orion cannon, pre and post treatment.

Both Orion guns finished.

I still have a few more bits and pieces to do on this project, but it is progressing nicely. Thanks again to Glenn for his idea!

Fun in the Snow

I just finished putting the flock on these guys. I also though that today's snow would provide a nice backdrop to a photo shoot.

AT-ATs trudge through the snow.

I placed the AT-ATs on a plastic lid to stop the MDF bases from absorbing moisture and swelling.

Snow was still falling when I took this photo.

A quick bit of fun on a winter's day home from work!

Recycled French Pt. 3

So I have managed to create a total of eight V&B infantry stands out of the preloved French I acquired from the Archduke in May. After removing them from their bases, I gave them the briefest of retouching where the original paint job had peeled off or cracked. Very little was done in way of attempting to improve the existing paintjob, as the purpose of these stands is to give me a fieldable force to use against Frank while I finish off painting my Airfix French. I am strongly considering buying a box of the Hat 1808-1812 Line Infantry to add into them, as a source of Grenadiers, Voltigeurs, and Officers on foot. Plus, the figures look awesome!

Looking down the line.

 Currently my French forces stand at eight infantry stands, three artillery stands, and one command stand. of these, only the command stand was painted by me. The rest were all acquired painted, with the exception of the replacement cannon on the artillery stands.

Washed, flocked, and matt varnished.

Moving down the line - more French infantry.

And some more infantry stands...

The flags are all from Warflag, a great free resource.

I also took some photos with Frank's British forces, and plan to do a post featuring his work soon. I did ask about him starting a blog to showcase his work, but he said he doesn't have the time to do so currently.

French vs. British.

Two infantry stands vs.  cavalry.

Another view of the same.

French infantry on the advance.

More French stands.

Airfix artillery crew with Esci guns.

Both lines meet.

 Overall I am very happy with the look of the finished stands. While the flags probably aren't the right size, a number of flags are sans eagles, and many other faults are present, these stands will allow me to field an ok force on the tabletop.  Most importantly, they will allow me some breathing space to finish the painting of my Airfix horde for use against Frank!

French Generals - More recycled French (Pt. 2)

I took the photos for this post about two weeks ago, but have been quite busy with other matters (work, computer malfunctions, etc) that have precluding making any posts until now. Christchurch is experiencing a snow, and currently half the city is off home from work.

The figures are part of the haul that I obtained from the Archduke back in May, so I was very pleased to acquire some nice command figures for my French forces.

The three generals debased.

The first is a metal 25mm figure that the Archduke suspects is a Minifigs figure.

The figure certainly has plenty of character.

The Archduke believes this is also a Minifigs figure.

Again, the figure has plenty of character.

The final figure is an Italeri Prussian officer, from the Prussian Infantry set, mounted  on a horse that is from the Italeri Austrian and Russian Allied General Staff set.

The figure sits rather awkwardly in the saddle. Hopefully, carving away some plastic will remedy this.

The simple green vat.

Rather than just give a wash over the existing paint jobs, I decided to remove them and start afresh. The figures are very nice, and I wanted to see if I could to see if i could paint up some reasonable looking command figures.