Shantytown BUA for CD, Harad WIP

I'm again procrastinating from painting up Airfix French for my Volley and Bayonet army. And what better procrastination than making terrain for a different period and rules system!

Most major urban centers in Harad have gained shantytowns on their outskirts. These shantytowns lack virtually everything except poverty and desperation. In CD terms, these shantytowns can be represented by multiple templates. As with other BUA (Built Up Area) templates, a balance is needed between the number of items required to represent what the template is, and the ability to place stands throughout the template.

Balsa wood, cardboard, straws, and a MDF base.

Another view of the same. In keeping with the feel I was going for, nothing was measured, just guesimated.

Template measures aprox. 5 inches by 6.75 inches. Not a bad size template.

And now with added militia.

Roofs have been kept flat in order to allow placement of stands.

A view from above.

I might put rubble or other clutter where the 'missing' corner of this building should be.

The plan is is make up a few more shantytown templates, and at least one or two tent city templates, to add to the Harad terrain collection. I plan to add posters of various products to place on the walls in order to add to the general charm of the place.

Harad National Guard

One of the  Haradian forces I am building is the Harad National Guard. The HNG was founded by former Imperial military personnel, liberal politicians, pro western academics, and other concerned citizens after the revolution. Much, but not all, of the HNGs equipment is of western origin.

HNG Officer dressed in  uniform of Imperial Army. Green collar tabs show arm of service as being Infantry.

All this Command stand needs is a command...

The figure is a conversion using the top half of a Hong Kong knock off Airfix German Officer, and the legs and webbing from some presumably modern US Army figures of unknown Chinese manufacture. These mystery figures were purchased at The Warehouse during 2002 and 2003. These figures were also rumoured to be available at Dollar Stores in the USA during the same time frame.

HNG Forward Observer.  Due to supply shortages units in Harad often have a non uniform appearance.

Rear view of figure from our mystery Chinese manufacturer.

More HNG stands. Figures are all from our mystery manufacturer. The base plastic of these figures ranges for very, very, soft and bendy, through to quite hard. Colour is either green or tan. I decided to use these guys as HNG as they lacked decent detail to mix in with Modern US from Caesar, Esci, Forces of Valour, or Revell.

HNG Weapons stands.

HNG Rifle stands. The weapons these guys are armed with are very poorly sculpted.

A detachment of HNG organised as two companies of two rifle platoons and one weapons platoon. HQ company consists of one command stand, one FO stand (attached), and one patrol stand.

Given the quality of the figures I decided to try and paint them as having a less uniform look. I wanted to have blues and greys in the colour mix (So they could double as Noddist troops), but also lots of sand, and brown too. All of the figures were given a wash of Devlan Mud, and then their bases had sand  put on them, and the edges painted black . And finally, for Katherine, I added sand to the bases of these guys too!

Based militia. With added sand. Because my wife told me to... :)

Support stands for modern games.

At the moment I am looking at getting a moderns campaign going that is loosely based on the collapse of Yugoslavia. Part of this project requires me to have available for player usage a number of HMG, and other support stands. Some time back the blog Plastic Warrior had a great idea for making Sagger teams for use in CD. Since it was such a great idea, I thought that I would make some up too! Thanks Paul for sharing such a great idea!

Figures are from the Atlantic Machine Gunners and Mortars set.

Saggers are made from cut down Katyusha rockets and an ammo box from a Fujimi kit.

While the fins are far too small, and the missile the wrong shape, they look suitable for the purpose. In the version of modern Cd my group plays, teams like this are represented by single figure stands, allowing greater flexibility than if they were represented by one stand for a whole platoon.

Another type of stand required for the game will be that of the media. A number of stands will be created, but here is one of the first.

The dreaded Fourth Estate! Flee!

Figure is probably a knock off of a Galoob/Micro Machine figure. 

The role of the media in the campaign will be something I will blog about should the project manage to get up and running. In the meantime here is some work in progress on some HMG and MMG stands that I am making up.

 

Figures are Caesar WW2 Underground Resisters and one Esci Modern Russian Paratrooper. HMGs from bits box and the one the right the Atlantic Machine Gunners and Mortars set. Resin ammo boxes from the Leva Productions Russian Infantry equipment set.

Figures are Airfix WW2 Russians on left, and one Airfix Modern Russian on right, with an Atlantic figure from the Machine Gunners set.  MMGs are from the Leva Productions Russian Infantry equipment set.

HMGs are Atlantic, figures are Esic Warsaw Pact, Caesar Underground Resisters, and two Imex North Koreans.

More Atlantic HMGs crewed by an Esci Modern Russian Paratrooper, and three WW2 Airfix Russians.

The last of the Atlantic HMGs! Crew is Imex North Korean and Esci Vietnam War US special forces. The MG stand on the right are metals of unknown make, but are a WW2 German MG42 team.

Once these stands are finished, work will start on the mortars. Hopefully, I will be able to get this project all ready to go by the end of January.

Haradian Irregulars

About six months ago I acquired ten metal 20mm Taliban of unknown manufacturer. Two of them had been painted, while the rest were just undercoated. looking at these figures I thought they would be perfect to recruit into a militia unit for use in Harad games.

Some friendly Haradis.

The local Mullah also acts as militia commander.

Two of these figures were areadly painted, so I just put them on 20mm bases and gave them a wash of GW Devlan Mud.

The Mullah (Command stand) and a Patrol Stand.

Another view of the same stands.

One of the house rules that my gaming group has is that of having snipers in CD. This came about as the result of a series of debates over the nature of what a stand represented, the nature of urban combat, the role of snipers, and if having snipers could result in more enjoyable games. Snipers under our house rules act like Anti Tank Assault stands (CD3 Rule 10.4), in that they are eliminated after just one hit, as they represent less than the normal minimum ten personnel required to be a single figure stand, and they only have their special form of attack. Sniper stands cannot be created during the course of a game. Snipers fire as per a normal stand with a ROF of one, but instead of a hit causing a hit on an enemy stand, it results in a pin. Depending on the scenario, this pin is either allocated by the target player amongst eligible target stands as per normal small arms hits, or for a more brutal game, the pin is allocated by the firing player.

Haradi Snipers, or if you prefer, Patrol Stands.

Naturally, all house rules are only used with the complete agreement of those playing.

Three platoons of militia. The GW Devlan Mud is becoming a favourite of mine.

I tried to give these guys the look of having access to some official form of supply with a mix of olive drab clothing items.

I like these guys, but they look like they need a Chieftain.

Since I have become more active in my posting, it has been a real pleasure to receive so much positive feedback on my work, so I would just like to say thank you to everybody who has started following this blog, commented on it, or just popped in for a look. Cheers!

Haradian Chieftains

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the backgrounds my gaming group uses for moderns is Harad. Harad is a troubled land, with many armed factions seeking to gain control of the country. One of these factions is the Army of the People's Islamic Republic of Harad. Like many groups in Harad, it's equipment ranges from elements of the old Imperial Army, ex Warpact equipment, purchases on the open market, and finally local production of various utility. The Chieftain models are plastic knock offs of the Matchbox Battle Kings Chieftain.

Tanks and spray can of primer.

Missing gun is replaced by sprue.

The hole on the Matchbox original has been blanked out on the casting that produced this knock off.

 While many factors possess Chieftains from the old Imperial Army (purchased at a time that the West was friendly to Harad, and the UK keen to sell arms for oil money), many of the tanks purchased are suffering from a lack of love maintenance. In order to simulate this, the breakdown number mechanic, has been adapted from GDW's Over the Top. Simply put, a vehicle is given a number from 1-10 that it must roll higher than in order to a) take part in the scenario, and/or b) roll whenever it wishes to move. Rolls are modified by crew quality. Naturally failure results in a breakdown and either no appearance in the scenario, or a lack of further movement.

Iraqi Sand is painted over the grey primer.

Suitable slogans are dabbed on the tanks in Arabic. The middle tank's is meant to be 'People's Jihad'. Between Google Translator and my painting it's probably reads as 'Green squiggle'

This could mean victory, but I bet it's just a nice looking squiggle.

Another view of the Chieftains. The road wheels are completely wrong, but the tanks were free.

Look! Flank Armour!

Victory on all three tanks.

All in all, a cheap and simple way to boost tank numbers. While not the most accurate of Chieftain models, these have the over riding virtue of being free, and available in reasonable numbers. I am toying with a way of making the plastic trucks that you used to get with the bags of Hong Kong knock offs usable in a simple and effective manner, as the post war cab body would be perfect for use throughout the third world. My basic idea is to add rear wheel arches, a cab floor of some type, and possibly change the wheels or thicken them up in some way. If I can figure this out, I will be able to increase the motorpool by dozens of vehicles.

Japanese Pt. 3

These Japanese mounted stands came about as a result of me wanting to create some mounted Command stands, FO/Spotter stands, and Patrol stands for my Japanese. The inspiration for this came about from seeing a photo of a mounted officer leading his troops marching through China in the 1930s. So I looked through my bits box for spare Airfix and Esic horses and started to build some up. Various Airfix, Esci, and Hong Kong knockoffs were cut up and combined to create the riders. Naturally, the saddles and tack is completely wrong, and red saddle cloths are a product of my imagination. Actual research suggests a natural/tan colour when on was used. However, red does go faster  look good and give a uniform appearance to the nags!

None of these guys are Baron Nishi. 

Being able to have some variety in my Command stands has been a mixed blessing, as having Command, Spotter, and Patrol stands mounted tends to gain unwanted attention.

Blurry horses, well focused Italeri box. Sigh...

That's better! I find painting dark brown on a undercoat of black makes a nice horse. Plus it goes well with the red.

Sword waving stands tend to used more as patrol stands. The figure on far right is the mounted officer from Airfix Series 2 French Foreign Legion set. He has been remounted on an Esci horse and was painted up at the same time. 

One thing every Japanese WW2 army needs is bicycle mounted troops. I made mine by using Airfix bicycles, metal bicycles from unknown manufacturer that I acquired second hand, and my favourite Hong Kong knock off pose.

Gasp! A genuine Airfix soldier in the line up!

The metal ones are much larger.

Each one of these stands represents a platoon of infantry that has acquired bicycles by fair means or foul. While Japanese troops were issued bicycles (6000 per division according to Tsuji), they also used impressed civilan models for parts and replacements. Bicycle mounted troops were used in some Cavalry regiments as a reconnaissance element due to a shortage of horses. Infantry units during the Malaya campaign used bicycles to help speed their advance towards Singapore, but bicycles were used extensively in other theatres too.

Japanese Pt. 2

Leva Products used to make a set of resin 1/72 Japanese Infantry Equipment. This set contained lots of fiddly little resin bits that could be added to figures to make specialists, or to just jazz things up a bit. To add to the fun, none of the equipment was identified or came with assemble instructions.

Some Esci Japanese Infantry. The one on the right has gotten a resin Type 100 flamethrower.

As having flamethrower equipped stands are often useful in CD, I based these guys up as a stand of engineers that could be attached as needed.

The rear view showing the distinctive three cylinders of the Type 100.

 

 

The infantry weapons set also included a Type 97 20mm Anti Tank Rifle. The Type 97 has both AP and HE rounds, so the CD3 stats of not letting Type 97 stands fire on infantry  is wrong. My house rule is either to give it a 'P', or a 'P+1' rating, to reflect actual usage. As with all house rules this is subject to negotiation, thus there being two 'P' ratings.

Gunner is a converted Matchbox Japanese Infantryman.

Number Two is a Esci Japanese Infantryman.

Leva also included two Model 93 13mm Machine Guns. One of mine is currently awaiting repairs, and the remaining one has not yet been fitted out with crew.

This stand has got its P+1 rating, but is sadly lacking a crew.

One of the real gems in the set is the Model 94 90mm Mortar. 

Model 94 Mortars. Crew are (left to right) Hong Kong knock off, Esci, Unknown, Airfix.

Rear view of same, the mounted stands behind are for another day.

Also included in the set are some Model 11 37mm Infantry Guns. I enjoy fielding these as they add more variety into a force.

Model 11 37mm Infantry Guns. Crews are a mix of the usual suspects.

Under CD, the Japanese have a great deal of manpacked support weapons, which allows them to move rapidly into position on wargames tables with vehicle  unfriendly terrain.