More 20mm, means more Second World War

I found January a very productive period for a number of different projects, not least of which was more 20mm for the Second World War. I painted quite a few figures and, to give myself a change of scene, I made up a few plastic kits that had been sitting in the stash. Among those was a Marder III Ausf M from UM and a Jagpanther from Revell. The latter a bargain I couldn't resist at a Bring & Buy.

I have a few kits from UM and they can be fiddly at times, but no matter how frustrating, I'm always happy with the end result. The Marder III is no different and a crew from AB Figures sets it off nicely.

The Plastic Soldier Company Pz38t set allows you to also build two earlier versions of the Marder, but not the later Ausf M. It's noticeably different, because it involved a major redesign that saw the engine relocated to the middle of the vehicle, thereby allowing a proper sunken cab to house the crew and give them better protection. Here's the UM Marder next to the PSC version of the Marder III Ausf H (also with a crew from AB).

Here you can see clearly how the earlier Ausf H retains the original chassis of the Pz38t and simply replaces the turret with the new gun mounting and shield. Not the most secure of positions for the crew to work from if under fire.

Revell have always made good 1/72 kits and while the Jagdpanther is hardly a new kit, it produces a very fine finished model. Once again, I've added a crew figure from AB.

The kit came moulded in black plastic, a strange choice for a number of reasons but not least because it's an awful colour to work with. As with the UM kits, this becomes irrelevant once it's all come together and has paint on it.

I was able to fill out the US Marine force with figures and weapons teams that aren't covered in the Eureka range (which make up the bulk of my Marine squads).

To fill those gaps I've acquired figures from a couple of other ranges sold through Grubby Tanks - Britannia Miniatures and Kellys Heroes. This can occasionally be fraught with danger, as not all ranges work to similar sizes or sculpting styles, but I'm reasonably happy with how this has worked out. 

One of the issues with the Grubby Tanks website is that many of the ranges have no pictures of the figures. This was unfortunate because I placed an order for 50cal MG teams from the Britannia range and what I actually received were M1917 water cooled MGs. While they certainly look the part for a sustained fire MG role, they are not the heavy calibre of the 50cal, but they will have to suffice for now. Using the dedicated loader figures and a couple of others, I can make up a five man team.

If I have an issue with the Britannia Miniautres figures, it's to wonder why they've been sculpted with backpacks? I would imagine the operators would most likely have removed these in order to operate the weapons more efficiently. It's not a big issue, but it does seem a bit odd.

Originally, when I was ordering the initial batch of figures from Eureka, I didn't look too closely and made the quick, but incorrect, assumption that their mortar teams must be 60mm mortars. They are in fact 81mm M1 mortars. 

The lack of M2 60mm mortars has been addressed by using sets from Britannia Miniatures. The difference in size of the 60mm mortars from the Eureka 81mm mortars is a stark reminder that I should pay more attention when ordering figures.

I added a couple more bazooka teams, one from Britannia Miniatures (on the left), the other from Kellys Heroes (on the right). Once again, the Britannia figures are fully encumbered with backpacks, while the Kellys figures look more casually dressed and more fitting to a combat role.

A couple of figures with satchel charges will always come in useful. One from Kellys Heroes and another from Britannia Miniatures (I don't think I need to tell you which is which!).

Frankly, it's hard to imagine that someone wanting to move as quickly as possible to undertake a quite hazardous task would want to be weighed down with all that kit on their back. The Kellys Heroes figure (on the right), seems more appropriately dressed for the occasion.

To complement the men with satchel charges, I have added a few other figures carrying out engineering tasks. These are all from Kellys Heroes and include teams clearing minefields and barbed wire.  

One other specialist is a sniper figure. While 'sharpshooter' was a qualification attained for marksmanship, the actual role we might consider of a more traditional sniper was different and was sometimes referred to as a 'scout-sniper' or simply 'sniper'. It goes without saying that most snipers also held the sharpshooter qualification. To help differentiate the figure, I've painted this one in full camouflage, not just the helmet cover.

While the bazooka didn't make an appearance in the Pacific campaign until 1944, the 37mm anti-tank gun, which had become obsolete in other theatres, gave service throughout the war. It remained capable of knocking out most Japanese tanks and fired a very deadly canister round against infantry. The gun below is from an s-models set of jeeps. The crew are mainly Kellys Heroes, with one Eureka figure thrown in to make up the numbers. One nice feature of some of those Kellys Heroes figures is that they are wearing t-shirts which adds a nice mix to the appearance of the crew.

The only figures remaining to paint from this recent addition are crews for the LVTs. These are from the Britannia range and come with the figures standing on a pile of ammunition crates. While this brings them to the height they need to be to operate the MGs, they are a little too high for these particular LVT models. That involves trimming off some of those crates - in short taking a hacksaw and cutting through a chunk of metal. For that I need a vice, something I don't have, so that will need addressing in due course. Just when you think you're finished, you're not.

Chain of Command in 2025

Previously, I've put together a post with a broad overview of my gaming year, but with the release of Chain of Command v2, I thought I'd narrow the focus for 2025 to look solely at what I've done that relates to Chain of Command.

 

The second edition is not so much a new set of rules as an evolution of the original. In fact, we found it a very smooth and seamless transition. There are several new mechanics and a few refinements of existing rules and they inspired the creation of suitable markers.

Now there is a need to keep a reminder of the remaining number of missions for a mortar bombardment. As forward observer figures are no longer required on the table, this was simply a matter of repurposing my original figures with the addition of a mini-dice frame so that we can count down the missions.

Replen points are a new addition and represent support options for extra supplies for weapons like the PIAT that have limited ammunition. The German marker below made use of a few spares from one of the Plastic Soldier Company sets, while the British one used a surplus ammunition carrier from AB Figures.

For the Japanese, I used an old Airfix figure and horse from their Jungle Outpost set.

For the Americans, I used spare figures from Simon's Soldiers.

The US 60mm mortar has limited ammunition, but deploys with an automatic Replent Point, effectively giving it six rounds. For that I included a mini-dice with a figure from AB so that it would be easier to track the number remaining.

The Germans have a support option for 'Mines in Verges'. While this is abstracted and doesn't require representation on the table, I thought I could make a marker that could serve as a reminder these are in effect. It was a good way to make use of an engineer with a hammer from one of the AB Figures sets that would otherwise have remained in the spares box.

One small change to the army lists is that the British platoon lieutenant and sergeant now come armed with a pistol and a rifle respectively. They can be upgraded to a Sten gun as a support option. Once again, I raided the spare box for suitable figures and based them as I do all my senior leaders. 

Talking of senior leaders, I carried out a simple conversion of an AB figure to make a wounded leader to act as a game marker to replace the original leader figure once they were wounded. 

That inspired me to raid the spares box once again and carry out a few conversions to create options for a few nationalities.

As always, there were other figure projects and additions. Whilst sorting through the spares box I also found a use for a few of the extra MG42 gunners from earlier projects. Normally, I base these as two men teams. I think if you don't base them as a pair then the figure loading the belts of ammunition looks a bit forlorn if not placed suitably next to the gunner. While that solves one issue, it creates another. When that figure is a casualty I have to use a marker to indicate the loss. As I have so many spare gunners it seemed logical to base a few of these individually to save adding clutter to the table when the team is reduced to a single man.

These are all from the Plastic Soldier Company German infantry set, but I thought I'd also do one in pea dot camouflage for the SS. As with so many of these additions, this wasn't a case of buying new figures, just raiding the spares box or converting existing. 

That said, there were some new figure purchases. Well, of course there was. I'd noticed while doing the game reports that nearly all my German figures are standing and the only prone figures were a few MG42 teams. AB Figures do a nice set for a prone section and so I added them to an order I was placing. 

That order also included a pair of Russian flamethrowers.

A set of British engineers clearing mines.

A crew for this Sexton from the Ready to Roll range.

A crew for a Fallschirmjager le18IG infantry gun from Zvedzda.

Later in the year, I placed a second order with AB later to fill a few more gaps, like these German snipers. It's a set of six and I've painted them in various schemes so that I can use them with the SS, regular Heer and Volksgrenadiers.

Also a pair of teams crewing tripod mounted MG42s. These were not so much filling gaps, rather they were replacements for my existing teams, which were my original Plastic Soldier Company figures.

There were more figures in that second order, but they are yet to see the paintbrush, so expect to see them in a future post in 2026. 

Unfortunately, I had a much more painful process with another order, although not from AB Figures, who have always been excellent. No, this was with Grubby Tanks. An order placed in January had failed to materialise. Despite some brief communication all went silent and any further attempts at contact came to nothing. By May I'd given up hope and so resolved the issue with a PayPal dispute and a full refund. The problem was, it wasn't about the money.....it was about the figures. 

I was eager to fill some gaps in my US Marines collection and the Kellys Heroes and Britannia Miniatures ranges sold through Grubby seemed to have what I wanted. It was at this point that friend of the blog Rob came to the rescue. Rob is UK based and offered to try to pick up what I needed at one of the shows. Cut a long story short - Rob was an absolute champion and by November the figures arrived here in Sydney. 

I wasn't able to paint them all, but was eager to do a few to see how well they fitted in with my existing Marines from Eureka.

Pleased to say they are a good match with similar sizes and sculpting style.

Last, but not least, I added a few extra junior leaders for the Fallschirmjager force, this time from Adler.

Looking back across the year, I seemed to have added a lot of British vehicles. An Airfix Churchill bridge layer was a gift from a relative that I hadn't seen an immediate use for and so it sat unmade for some time. 

I'm not sure it will ever see use in a game, but hey, you never know. I've also left the bridge unattached, that way it can be removed and used separately, which is the more likely outcome for a game setting. While that version of the Churchill might not see much tabletop action I had a more immediate need for a regular version of the tank for our Scottish Corridor campaign. I needed a second one for a game and surprised myself to discover, while I have lots of versions - AVRE, 90mm close support, Crocodile - I didn't have two regular versions. What I did discover was one from the Plastic Soldier Company tucked away in the paint queue. It was already made and primed, just waiting for paint. That was rectified very quickly.

When I was back in England in late 2024 I paid a visit to the Tank Museum in Bovington. Always a worthwhile trip but this one had the added bonus of finding a box of Plastic Soldier Company Sherman M4A4 in their gift shop. Just what I was looking to add to my late war collection for Burma. Very serendipitous. They were made and painted this year with decals from the very good District Miniatures range.

Talking of the late war, the Comet was one British tank not in my collection. When Vespid released their 1/72 kit I was eager to get my hands on it, as I'm a big fan of their models. Here it is with two crew from AB Figures.

British armoured cars were also a feature this year. I picked up the old Hasegawa Daimler MkII kit very cheaply at a Bring & Buy. It was a quick and simple build.

The year was also a venture into more 3D prints. This very lovely Lanchester armoured car was from Dark Castle Terrain here in Australia (although I believe they print under licence for designs coming out of Ukraine).

Sabotag3D sell the stl files for the very unique armoured cars built locally for the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. This one was kindly printed for me by someone at the club.

Seeing a Pathe newsreel from Burma of a 5.5" gun firing over open sights at Fort Dufferin in Mandalay inspired me to pick up the venerable old kit from Airfix. 

The 5.5" was rarely used in a direct fire role, so it's not a weapon likely to feature in many games set at the scale of Chain of Command. That said, I do understand they were also used to do something similar in the Arakan campaign, so you never know. I guess that means that at some stage I'm going to need to add a crew....

These two M3 75mm GMC are from Italeri and were additions to my US Marines. They have already seen action, featuring in the Saipan scenario I ran at Cancon earlier in the year.

A couple of unpainted Plastic Soldier Company StuGs were also sitting in the paint queue and they were a refreshing change from painting in British Olive.

Every now and then I feel the urge to make aircraft models. While air support does feature in Chain of Command, the effect is abstracted and there's no need to actually represent the aircraft on the table. But you can, if you want. Naturally, I want. However, I think I may have gotten a bit carried away this year, but sometimes it's just good to have a change.

These are all 1/72 plastic kits. First up, a Hurribomber for Burma.

You'll notice that I've removed the propellor blades from all of the flying models. I think this looks more effective in the game report photographs, giving a much better impression of flight than if the blades are static.

The British used their lend lease Thunderbolts only in Burma and so, why not add another plane?

It gets worse. I added a second Thunderbolt, this time an earlier razorback version. Tragic, I know.

Staying with Burma, the US Air Commando operated Mustangs in ground support for the Chindits. Well, that was all the excuse I needed....

Naturally, the US Marines would need something to represent their carrier-borne air support and I do love the look of a Corsair. And, let's be honest, how often do you get to paint something blue for the Second World War?

I couldn't let the Far East steal all the glory, surely there will be a time to represent British close air support in NW Europe? I stumbled across this very reasonably priced Academy Tempest and was tempted.

Before I forget, I also made a crashed Japanese Zero as a scatter piece for the Pacific and Far East.

Talking of terrain pieces, there were a few new additions here as well. I picked up a resin bunker in a Bring & Buy. It is supposedly for 28mm, but I figured it actually sat somewhere in between 28 and 20mm. So much so, I've used it for my 28mm First World War games as well as my 20mm Second World War games.

I bought this Warbases Far East building in a sale from 172 Scale Miniatures. Interestingly, it's not available from Warbases in 20mm, so must have been created especially for 172. As I've done with my other Far East huts, I've clad the exterior and roof using textured craft papers. You can see more about those in this post.

How I go about doing this was also the subject of an article I wrote for one of the issues of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine (#137) published during the year.

The decision to embark on the Westwind Konigsberg campaign inspired me to address the lack of German style buildings in the collection. Too often my 'German' tables have looked a lot more like Normandy than anywhere else, so this was long overdue. The buildings are from Sarissa and there's a longer blog post here on how I made them.

While not actually German, these Russian Townhouses below, also from Sarissa, have a look that could work for Russia as well as many other places in eastern Europe. They're a very useful addition and have already been used to represent buildings in East Prussia.

I combined them with the French chateau from Sarissa to try to recreate the girls' school near Metgethen for the Westwind Konigsberg campaign.

While it's all very well and good collecting terrain, figures and models, I wouldn't want to lose sight of the purpose, which is of course, playing the actual games. 

The year started when I ran four participation games of a Saipan scenario at Cancon using my US Marines. Lots more about it in a post from January that you can find here.

Guy Bowers, the editor of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine, asked if I'd like to write up the scenario for a future edition of the magazine and it made an appearance in issue No138.

As always, there were pint sized campaigns to play. Readers will be familiar with those I play against my regular opponent Dave, all of which are documented here on the blog. This year featured only the Scottish Corridor campaign, a continuation of the linked campaign with Operation Martlet. We played out eleven games, with Dave's Germans earning a hard fought campaign victory.

Last year I taught a friend to play Chain of Command and ever since then we've been playing regular weekend games and running through several of the pint-sized campaigns. Other than A Driving Charge I haven't been documenting these on the blog, but this year we have managed to play through a few more.

The first was A Green and Brown Hell, a Hurtgen Forest campaign published in the 2024 Lard Magazine. Featuring tables dominated by forest, this was something of a terrain challenge and not too dissimilar from trying to create jungle tables. I think I found a reasonable balance between dense yet playable terrain.

We stayed with a late war theme in the second campaign of the year, but moved our attention to the Eastern Front with the Westwind Konigsberg campaign. This was where the recently made German buildings made their first appearance on the table top. 

Last year Dave and I played through a short mini-campaign that I had devised about the actions on Nunshigum Ridge during the battle for Imphal in 1944 (the game reports for that are on the Campaign AAR page). I'm pleased to say that was published in the 2025 Lard Magazine and so is now widely available.

All in all, a very productive year in Chain of Command terms. Of course, that doesn't mean I wasn't playing or painting anything else. There's enough there for another post in itself. Let's hope 2026 can be equally productive and rewarding.

Lastly, I want to wish all readers the very best for the coming year. Many thanks for following along with the blog, making comments and/or buying me a coffee - it is all very much appreciated.