Bolt Action - Panzer Grenadiers! (Part 2)

Having decked out my halftracks (most of them at least) it is time to look at the infantry.

There are 6 'body' sprues in this set, the standard infantry box contains 5 of these sprues;

Each has five bodies (I think I was a little hasty and clipped one off before taking the photo), one running, one kneeling and three standing poses, so quite a bit of variety can be gained in each squad.

Also there are a bunch of heads, more than enough are helmeted for every model to have one, plus one in an officer's peaked cap and one in a forage cap.

There is even a selection of back packs for your squad.

A couple of things disappoint me about this sprue, firstly there are very few arms designed to hold the MP40 or MP44, which is a nuisance for players using late war squads heavy in automatic weapons.

The second thing is the massive heads, almost as if they went true scale on everything, but decided to go Heroic on the head. It reminds me of the 'Big head mode' cheat on the original Hidden and Dangerous. Here are a couple compared to Tamiyas 1/48 Russians;


 



Its a shame about the heads as the one thing they really managed to scale back were the guns:

  Metal figures often come with guns three times the size they ought to be and so blobby as to be indistinguisable except as a generic rifle or SMG.

There are four of these sprues in the box (if I remember correctly), and they are very neatly detailed.

6 K98 rifles (one scoped, one with bayonet), a single G43 semi-automatic rifle, 2 MP40 SMGs, one MP44 assault rifle, one MP34, one MG 42, a Luger, a Panzerfaust and a bunch of other assorted bits.

Excellently scaled, the rifles do tend to snap if you aren't careful.

The Good
Far more detailed than the old metal models, especially the guns, with lots of optional extras.
Enough models to make a whole platoon, at a reasonable price.
Lost of variety for the unit.
These were the first plastic Germans in this scale on the market, but they are no longer alone.

The Bad
Silly bobble heads!
Guns are fiddly to attach, the rifles break rather easily

Overall a good set, although I doubt I will add any more to my collection. I am tempted to pick up a box of Wargames Factory's Germans for a comparison, or better yet wait for The Perry Brothers Afrika Korps to come out.

The army so Far

Command and some spare panzerfausts

 

Kneeling Rifle squad

 Standing Rifle squad: The MG42 gunner is from one of the half tracks

 Standing SMG squad: Converted grenade bundle

 Running SMG squad

  Since the SS nabbed all the cool camouflage schemes I had to content my self with lowly Sumpfmuster, basically the same colours as the half-track camo.

Next update will be after my PSC order arrives, time for some Flames of War I think.


~ Bob

Bolt Action - Panzer Grenadiers! (Part 1)

The new club is well under way, we have a venue and have joined the GCN. If you happen to live near Poole check out our website and forum at http://poolegaming.wordpress.com/ or like Poole Gaming Society on Facebook, sessions should start on the 7th of May.

Because of this I've found a lot of people interested in Flames of War and Bolt Action.

I've had some of Bolt Action plastic Germans sitting in a corner untouched and unloved for lack of opponents, so I was time to have a second look.

This set is £60 and comes with 3 half tracks and 30 Infantry, for today I'll focus on the half tracks.

The vehicles are the Sd,Kfz 251/1 Ausf C, so suitable for any period from Blitzkrieg to Bastogne

 

The vehicles each come on two frames, this one with the Machine guns. You get one MG 42 for the rear pintlem and one held by the gunner for the forward mount, and the same again as a set of MG 34s.

A nice option for those doing early war battles, or if you want to have both weapons unmanned...

Sadly I can see why people might want to take that option, the gunner is rather poorly done. Only two parts, gun arm and a body (with the left arm and head attached), this leaves some unsightly filling round the left arm, and removes it from Warlord's 'Figure Head System'. It is almost as if they took their metal gunner and copied him exactly with barely a thought to the casting method.

  

The second sprue, with even more stowage. Nicely detailed, but lacking any further crewmen, passengers may have been a stretch, but a driver would have been nice. The sprue also lack any optional upgrades save the rear pintle option, and as yet Warlord have yet to announce any. 

It would nice if they sold their metal and resin weapon options separately. Currently buying a whole resin vehicle is the only option, and most of them are Ausf D.

The Good
Nicely detailed
Lots of stowage
The only plastic half track I know of in this scale

The Bad
The gunner is a missed opportunity
No crew bar the gunner
No optional upgrades for variants

Now for some painting

I'm going for Pioneers as Pioneers get cool looking stuff, especially the Sd.Kfz 251/7 with bridges on top:

Bolt action do a resin version of the vehicle, but only as an Ausf. D (produced from September 1943) which is not suitable for mid-war eastern front. Plastic Tanks make for easy conversions though. I also need to buy some red-white number decals, as the black ones from the box really do not stand out.

I also had to convert one to have an open rear door. It's always fascinated me how the mad thing opens, I suppose it is part of the reason they simplified the rear armour for the Ausf D.

Warlord do plastic the chunky GW style, 2mm thick. At this scale it works out as 100mm thick armour, same as a Tiger. Admittedly I would never have noticed had I not cut open the hatches.

From above the Gunners bulk becomes obvious, he has to aim slightly to the left as his legs are too chunky for anything else.

I leave you with the classic Band of Brother desaturated look.



I'll get round to the Infantry soon enough



~ Bob

Britannian Starter Fleet

After a couple of weeks of painting trauma I have painted my Britannian starter fleet for Dystopian Wars:

Dystopian Wars is an epic scale Steampunk wargame from Spartan Games. Standard late Victorian setting with standard factions for the period and a combined ruleset for Land, Air and Naval forces (Naval games seem to be the standard though). Sounds simple enough? Well it aint!

The rules are actually rather simple at the base level, but the rulebook is so badly written that the only way to learn is to play someone who already knows them, or find an unofficial play guide PDF to explain the rulebook!

That aside it is a fun game with some very pretty models.

The Ruler class battleship is the centre piece of the starter set. It is a rather nice model, but the original steam reactor section was pretty ugly, leaving large gaps in the super structure, so I replaced it with one from the Dreadnought model that I bought as extra to the started set.

The Tribal class cruisers are a trifle too short and squat for my tastes, but they have impressed me on the battle field; a single torpedo salvo from these guys wiped out my opponents battleship, and the next turn they mortally wounded a couple of cruisers.

The little frigate are proving difficult to master. Unlike the larger ships all their torpedoes are mounted on the broadsides. This means you have to tack and jibe constantly to get them on target, whereas the larger ship simply steam straight towards the enemy, following their torps and finishing them off with the main guns. The Box is supposed to come with nine frigates, but mine contained ten for no apparent reason.

These Doncaster Bombers were the only survivors from a bad can of spray paint, the rest have been stripped. I know Vallejo do excellent paints, but their Primer is thin, watery and all round rubbish. It did not help that I tried to paint the belly with a gloss white spray that came out far too gloopy and finished the models off with a five year old brown Ink wash that had separated into orange and black.

This Fleet came around due to the club I attend having several players of the game, and one of the committee members happens to be a Spartan Distributor.

There soon will be a rival club that I am helping to found, and there seems to be a fair deal of interest in Flames of War, so hopefully that project will get back on track. Although there is also some interest in Bolt Action, so I may get drawn back into that game as well.

~ Bob

The Kurganova Sisters

I ordered these beauties last year before they even came out, I was that impressed by the sculpts. Raging Heroes has some very pretty models on their website, a limited range, but excellent none the less. I opted for the Limited edition full set (which I believe is still available), on the reasoning that I would want to get them all at some point anyway, and it arrived in a nice little box;

Now I was terrified of the models, scared that I could never do the models justice... And it seems I was not the only one as I have found less than a dozen images of painted models, and none look much good.

To start with I ruined them. I wanted halberds to fit with my 'Space Russian' theme; as a 17th century nerd/historian a Russian Soldier needs a Bardiche (Pole axe used as a musket rest), and the officers need fancier version of the same basic weapon type. The weapons actually included in the set are Sabres and Chainswords for the most part, and I have not shown the rather cool Teutonic wardog that comes with the Limited edition.

3D modelling is all well and good, a nice technique, but it is not the be-all-and-end-all of sculpting, like soem companies seem to think.

To start with there are issues with translation into physical form. Sure you can digitally sculpt a hello kitty badge two millimetres across (No its seriously on one of the models), you might even be able to cast it successfully for your master resin model...

But white metal cannot cope with that level of detail, nor can many painters water there paints to a level were it is not obscured instantly.

Showing your CAD sculpts on your website is not very helpful as it does show a customer what the model Really looks like, it also confuses people as to what material you are using (the website shows Resin levels of detail, in a resin grey colour).

Otherwise excellent models with only a little flash and mould line removal required.

The following is work in progress;

I figured that part of the reason other peoples models looked rather poor was because they all went for the 'Commissar in Black' look. It fits the design of the models, but black is a hard colour to get right. Models like these need colour to show off their curves.My commissars wear officers regimental uniform, similar to WW2 Soviets, but worn under a snowy white greatcoat with red lining

Admiral Olga Kurganova

Olga (Agnes to me) looks good from the front, but the scroll-work on the greatcoat just is not working.

Kaptain Ivanka Kurganova

Ivanka (Rebecca) is the one I am most happy with, the non-metallic metals work rather well, but not as well as I had hoped

In truth the Eagle looks rather rubbish in person and in good light, maybe I am just a really good cameraman?

Kommander Malinka Kurganova

Malinka (Michelle) has caused me the most trouble, the pose seems flat from many angles, the stuck out tongue is a nuisance to paint right, and the halberd keeps falling off. I have re-pinned her now, so next I'll have to tidy up the paintwork.

~Bob

Soviet Starting Forces (Painted!)

This is a rather basic force I put together from the late war Forces book. Just Infantry, nothing special that might create confusion whilst learning the basics.

Strelkovy Battalion 500pts

 

Strelkovy Battalion HQ

Left to Right: Company Command Rifle team, 2iC Command Rifle team, Battalion Komissar team

30pts

Strelkovy Company with two MG/Rifle Platoons and Komissar team

 

255pts

Strelkovy Company with one SMG Platoon

130pts

Strelkovy Machine-Gun Company with one Machine-Gun platoon

80pts

Total 495pts

I painted a few other models that didn't make it into the list:

Anti-Tank Gun Company with four ZIS-3

Anti-Tank Rifle Platoon 

There are also a couple of spare infantry teams for when this force expands. I have a lot of spare 'odds and sods' that will form some more command teams, but I will need another box of PSC's soviet infantry to make a true hoard.

~ Bob

 

Zvezda Katyushya

I was hunting around for paints the other day (how many colours of Khaki can there possibly be?) when I came across this little gem hidden in the corner;

Zvezda 1/100 BM-13 'Katyushya'

I had made a deal with myself not to buy any new models until I had painted the current force, but at only £3 I could not help myself.

I have seen the Zvezda models on the Plastic Soldier Company's website, and even considered buying a platoon of the KV-1e models, figuring that it would be rather unique compared to the ubiquitous horde of T-34s.

In the end I demured on three grounds,

1) I never buy a model unless I can see what it actually looks like, PSC only show the bow art

2) While the KV-1e served for most of the war, the KV-2, KV-1s and the KV-85 superseded it, and I would quite like some of the later options.

3) I heard that PSC might be making their own version, with the additional options

 The Katyusha, on the other hand, is a rather standard piece of kit that changes little over the years and is the most iconic piece of WW2 Soviet artillery.

 The sprues are rather simple, snap fit so little chance of variation from the basic model. The most annoying part of the construction was the bonnet, which needs to be carefully bent into shape. Some of the components were very tight fitting, requiring a little shaved off for them to fit snugly.

The same master must have been used for the ZIS truck Zvezda also sell, as the cab lacks the blast shields normally mounted on the Katyusha. Some of the other simplifications of design that are aimed at making it work as snap fit kit also reduce the accuracy of the model. The most obvious chose is to have all eight top missiles connected together rather blatently, and to not include any missiles underneath the rails. With a bit of cutting and glueing this can be partialy corrected.
 

 The model fits well on the large artillery base, with enough room either side for addition crew.

Conclusions

Cheep and cheerful, there are some obvious inaccuracies to aid the snap fit system.


On the plus side, the supports for the missile rack are in far better proportion than I have seen in any metal or resin model of the same vehicle.

I will be buying more in the future, but I will have to do a fair bit of conversion work to make them look proper, and to create variation within the unit.


The problem with the PSC Russian Infantry Company may well be that it offers too much indirect artillery, 4 light mortars, 4 medium mortars and 4 heavy mortars up to plus 8 battery guns, how does one expand into rocket artillery without going overboard?

~ Bob

Unboxing the Germans (Part 2)

Returning to the Panzergrenadier Company Deal which contains 3 boxs of 5 SdKfz251 for a total of 15 halftracks and one box of 130 German infantry

SdKfz 251 Ausf D Halftrack

 The box is fine, although there are no pictures of the actual models on front or back
 

I've assembled four of these so far, but the other two I converted a bit.

The models come together quickly and easily, with some fiddly bits like the machine guns

There are no options for the alternately armed forms of this vehicle, four of the options come in a separate 'conversion' box that I'll have to pick up at some point.
 

 With sensible glueing the models can come apart to make it easier to paint the interior, and to keep the fragile machine guns safe during storage.

The vehicle on the right has four sprues worth of passenger riflemen. There are four passengers (not counting the machine gunner and driver models) on each sprue, but  the guys with MP40s don't  fit together as tightly as the knee to knee riflemen.

German Infantry

 This time there's a photo of one of the models on the back, and it even seems to be the right scale.

 As with the Soviet box there are 10 Riflemen and 8 Submachine gunners on each sprue, but some of them are officers and two have optional weapons

K98 riflemen

R1 is two part with separate rifle and arm, he is also in a slighty different pose from; 

R2 & R3 duplicates with different hats

R4 & R5 are Exactly the same & R6 is a hat change duplicate, but it's a standard shooting pose.

R7 Standard kneeler

R8 Advancing and shooting guy

R9 two part advancing guy

R10 two part squating guy, same pose as the Soviet R2

 MP40 Submachine gunners

S1 looks to be an officer

S2 & S3 Hat change Officers. 
Look here PSC, I don't mind some duplicates in the Rank and File, but Characters Get Looked At!

S4 & S5 Disco duplicates, same as the awful Soviet grenadiers

S6 Two part, same as the Soviet S3 & S4

S7 & S8 Two part, these can have either a rifle or submachine gun

Slightly more poses here than the Soviets, which is good, the majority are re-dressed and improved soviet poses.

 

Comms guy is an odd three-part model (left side, right side, radio backpack) and looks rather good

Medic is wearing an obvious red cross tabard.
One medic for ever 26 men will look a bit repetitive, I'm sure there are other ways I can use him

G1 & G2 are twin Machine gunners

L1 & L2 are their twin Loader, cool models none the less, but I'd prefer a duplicate of;

G3 & L3 in their cool firing pose

It is nice to have a third squad MG per sprue, especially as you'll need a lot for the well equipped German forces.

No other heavy weapons, the anti-tank stuff is all in a separate box, which is another purchase I'll have to make as I expand.

Conclusions

Overall a nice set, less duplicated than the Soviets, but still a few bum poses.

The half tracks are easy to assemble, with crisp detail and a ton of stowage options.

I plan to use the spare halftrack machine guns to up arm my infantry, and the stowage backpacks will add even more variety to the infantry.

~ Bob