Tag Archives: 6mm

From the Shed: another batch of 6mm Russians.

I’ve been painting up some more 6mm bits. I’ve been enjoying them recently as they are quick to paint. I find myself worrying less about individual vehicles and more on the mass effect of a unit.

6 bases of T55s- good for the whole Cold War really. From the early 50s right up to the armies of the Warsaw Pact allies of the 1980s.

A base of TMM bridgelayers. The models came with deployed bridges so I did a little base to show the bridge deployed. I’m thinking that a river crossing scenario is on the cards here.

A BTR 152 and a BMP1- I had these models spare so decided to give them a quick paint job them mount them on single bases.

Moving forward into the 1990s here are some BTR80a APCs and dismounted infantry. These should be good to go up against my friend’s later Warriors and Challengers.

To give them some support I did some 2S23 Nona SVKs (120mm breech loading mortars on the same BTR chassis).

As usual I’ve used two vehicles (and some infantry if appropriate) on a 50mm square base to represent a company and single vehicles on a 30mm base for a platoon sized attachment. This is how I’ve been organising my forces for Nordic Weasel’s 5core: Brigade Commander, my go to set of rules for 6mm Cold War games.

Cheers,

Pete.

Game Report: Cold War action in 6mm.

One of the (many) facebook groups I’m on posted a link to a you tube video… it was an old British Army of the Rhine instructional video of how to defend against a Soviet attack in the early 1980s. I’m a sucker for that doctrine/ training type of thing so gave it a watch. It did give me an idea for a 5core: Brigade Commander scenario and, mindful of the current climate, decided to run it for Evan and Bill.

Bailey has inspected the terrain set up and approves.

The video shows the escalating attacks of a Russian division as it contacts a BAOR defensive line. The video ends with the Soviets forming up for a bigger attack in regimental strength. For the scenario I swapped Brits for West Germans (all provided by Evan) and let the Soviets (from the collection of Bill) deploy after the West Germans had set up. Bill picked two points of Evan defensive line and deployed a company, followed by a battalion 6″ back and the rest of the regiment another 6″ behind that at each point selected. If you watch the video you’ll see where I was coming from with this deployment. The objective for the game was the crossroads.

The crossroads were the key terrain of the game.
The Soviets deploy in depth from their chosen routes of attack.
Leopard 1s further back in reserve.
The Soviets push forwards

As usual we used the Brigade Commander rules from Nordic Weasel. We three are big fans of the system and have built up considerable forces between us. We use a 50mm square base to represent a company and a smaller base for a platoon sized attached asset.

The dug in positions protected the vulnerable Leopard 1s from the worst of the fire, but they were slowly forced back.

With anti air support the BMPs push towards the crossroads.
The West German defenders in the BUA.
Airstrike: unfortunately the SU24 was driven of by the Gepard SPAA.
In return the West Germans send in their Alpha jet with impressive results.
The lone mechanised infantry company makes an attack against the German held BUA.

The game swung backwards and forwards with the crossroads changing hands a few times. In the end, although casualties were very light on both sides, Bill had pushed Evan back from the area around the crossroads and had disrupted Evan’s armour so I decided it was a winning draw to Bill’s Soviets.

I may do a urban skirmish game based on the final, defeated assault of Bill’s mechanised infantry company. Something for later on….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: 6mm LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushioned)

More from my printer: this time a rescaled (to 1/300th) LCAC from the ever prolific Mr. Bergman. The LAVs and M1 are also 3d printed. The sea spray is made from teased out teddy bear stuffing glued to the underside of the hovercraft before it was glued on its base.

The LCAC is used by the US Navy to transport troops, vehicles and Cargo from ship to shore, 1 MBT being at the upper end of its load limit. I’ll use mine for some US Marine landing in Norway I think, it should provide some interesting game scenarios.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Smugglers boats and Narco Subs.

One of my more leftfield projects from my recent list was a 6mm South America riverine set up. The first bits have been done for it…

Here we have 4 fast boats and 4 Narco subs. These will be great objectives for the game, I may also write a mini smuggling game to go with them too. These are 3d resin prints I bought from Spinneyworld and are wonderful models.

The colours and schemes are authentic one that have come from this excellent source, however not all of the schemes I picked have neccassarily been used on these particular craft, but I thought in this case the rule of cool trimuphs, at least for the visuals.

I can also highly recommend the author’s website for all matters naval.

Right now to get some more boats and infantry done for them….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Afghan hill village.

I’ve been rather busy of late and have got a backlog of completed items to photograph and blog about. Painting for 20 mins a day is working out well and is getting quite a bit done so I am working through things. The 3D printer is out of commission at the moment sadly as it all need recalibrating (if that doesn’t work something more drastic may be required) but I’ve plenty to paint that I’ve already printed.

The basic building came from a thingiverse file here and was shrunk down to roughly fit in with my 6mm scale stuff. I made up a base with an old CD, the basic hill was made with scraps of foamcard and them a couple of plaster rock castings were added in, the whole lot was blended in with celluclay and then painted. The final touch was to add some grit for extra texture.

It should make for a nice objective in my 6mm Afghan games, I’m thinking it would be ideal for heliborne troops to assault.

Cheers,

Pete.

Game and Painting Projects for the next few months…

During lockdown I’ve had a bit of a think about what I want to work on as I’ve got loads of half- finished projects lying around. So I wrote a list…

… and found it was a bit longer than anticipated. Still it should keep me focussed and get the backlog of unpainted bits cleared quicker than I have been doing. This is what I either have on order or have in the shed in varying levels of pre paint preparation. One of my new drives is to get forces in both 6mm and 20mm so I can do a campaign where games can be run at different levels, I started doing this with printing out the two different sized watch towers. I’ll start with my Cold War forces first before moving back to Vietnam then World War Two and before.

6mm:

Helicopters and Rules: During a bout of insomnia I wrote some helicopter rules for gunships versus tanks in the cold war. I’ve a few helicopters and suitable ground targets to paint up so I can begin testing the rules.

Cold War US: Got enough to do several 5core: Brigade Commander battalions of Cold War Americans with M60 tanks and M113 APCs.

Early Cold War Brits and Soviets: As I have these in 20mm I’ve got a few useful bits spare that I can make a start with in 6mm.

African: This will be based around the later 80s battles with the SADF 61 Mechanized Battalion.

Afghanistan: So much of my Soviet stuff will cross over here that it should be fairly easy to pull some extra Taliban stuff together. Will look at basing for both 5core: Company Commander and Hind and Seek as the 6mm infantry is so cheap. Vehicles will be good for both.

Riverine stuff: Based on a magazine article I read and my interest in Colombian military history from playing Andean Abyss I’m considering getting a few bits for 1990s South American brown Water Navy games.

20mm:

Winter Brits: I’ve wanted some Brits for ages and as several of my gaming friends already have Summer infantry, I went for a platoon’s worth in the winter issue windproofs for the very end of the war. I may even do some in all white too. Some Brit vehicles in winter whitewash could look good too. I’ll also do some Bren Carriers for them as they always strike me as a quintessential British WW2 vehicle.

Winter War Finns and Soviets: I’ve had some bits of winter Finns lying about the shed for ages, but I finally ordered enough for a game and some Soviets to oppose them. There is a Skirmish Campaigns scenario book available, so I’ll concentrate on building forces to play through those games.

Crossfire/ Megablitz based WW2: Having played a bit of Crossfire at the historicals club I decided that it was time I got my own suitable based forces for the game. To keep things flexible, I’ll arrange things so that I’ll be able to use them in other games such as Megablitz. I dug out some old plastic figures and made up a Soviet and Hungarian force- they just need painting now.

Boer War: A random buy of a box of rather nice plastic figures started this project. I think I’ve got some Boers in the shed too that I can add in.

Cold War US: I’ve already got the vehicles done so I’ve got a platoon of infantry based and undercoated to go with by two scale Cold War project.

IDF vehicles: I’ve got the infantry done and I’ve found some nice 3d files so this will be a job for the printer. Be a big cost saving printing these out given the price of Israeli Army vehicles these days.

28mm:

Necromunda: Apart from the lovely new Van Saar models that have been released that I’ll be getting for my main gang I’ll just concentrate on getting the Goliath, Delaque and extras I’ve had in the shed for ages painted.

40k: Finish Death Guard Army, continue Chaos Space Marines (I have some Alpha Legion on the painting tray at the moment), Start Ad Mech force I need some opposition, right? Will start with a Kill Team sized force then expand out from there.

Cyberpunk: As a child of the later 80s/ early 90s Cyberpunk was my favourite science fiction sub- genre and now the new TTRPG is out I’ll revisit this. Also, there are some nice new skirmish games out there for table- top battles. Any scenery needed will be 3d- printed, I think.

Zone Alpha: I’ve been really quite taken with this little ruleset. It is the sort of narrative driven skirmish wargaming that I enjoy so much as well as having a great aesthetic too. I’ve got a few bits for this in both 28mm as well as lots suitable in 20mm. The Copplestone Future War partisans are next on the painting table so watch out for those soon.

My small-scale air war and naval haven’t made this list as they are all pretty much done. So really this represents less what I’ll be playing and more what I’ll be painting. Given that games are relatively few and far between painting is what I tend to do most of at the moment. As much as I’ll try to keep to this list there will doubtless be something shiny to distract me- which these days is mostly finding an interesting file to print….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: East German Watch Towers (B- Turm)

Beobachtungsturm were a type of watchtower used by the East Germans. I found a file of them on thingiverse and thought it would be a great addition to my Cold War games.

As you can see I did 2 of them of different sizes. The nice thing about 3d printing is this fllexibility- a 1/144 scaled original was printed out at half size and twice size, for 6mm and 20mm respectively.

Here they are unpainted and untextured. They were both given coats of Mr. Surfacer as an undercoat.

Now to write 2 scenarios to featuring them….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: 6mm sized WW1 tank.

I wanted something to test out my printer- to see how small it would go….

I had a look about thingiverse and found a pack of WW1 vehicles scaled for 1:200th. I hada look at the files and they vehicles were all modelled fairly robustly so I figured they could be shrunk further; so in my slicing software I scaled a Mk IV male down to 1:285th. I wouldn’t try shrinking down a more detailed, larger file as the finer detail would just fail to print.

I ended up with this:

After a quick coat of paint I got it to look like this:

Given how well it has turned out I’m now considering printing out many more for a ‘Plan 1919’ game to explore Great War armoured action, as envisiged by JFC Fuller, that could have occurred had Imperial Germany not collapsed and the war continued. Something to think on….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Yet more 6mm Russian tanks.

My Cold War gaming collection grows ever bigger with this modest set of additions.

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I painted up 3 company bases and 4 individual stands of the T10 heavy tank and 2 company bases of the PT76.

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The T10 heavy tank was the ultimate iteration of the IS tank from World War Two, the IS designation was dropped after Stalin’s death. Armed with a 122mm gun it was intended that these heavy tank would act in the overwatch/ supporting fire role to the smaller gunned T54/55 and T62 tanks. A battalion of them was to be found in a Tank division. With the advent of gun launched ATGMs their raison d’etre diminished and as the Cold War progressed they were relegated to more 2nd line units. Still they’ll be a useful addition to my Soviet collection as they’ll allow me to replicate earlier formations to fight my friends’ Leopard 1/ M48s in the case of the West Germans or Chieftans in the case of the Brits.

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The PT76 was similarly an early Cold War tank. Armed with a rather small 76mm gun their amphibious capability meant that they were an ideal recce tank. Given their rather weak armour and gun it is surprising that they saw service with the Russian as late as the second Chechen War in the late 1990s. They also served extensively in other theatres, notably in the Middle East and Vietnam. Painting up these two bases now allows me to field up to a battlion of them in 5core: Brigade Commander terms.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.