More Armour, More Aircraft

Chain of Command is at heart a platoon level game and I often tell people who are just starting that they really don't need too much in the way of armour and other supports. Why is it then, I ask myself, that I always seem to be adding more and more to the collection? 

Frankly, I think it says a lot more about me and my completist tendencies than it does about anything else. It's a disease, I tell you, but I'm in no hurry to find the cure.

Sometimes the additions are planned and sometimes they are serendipitous. When I was visiting the Tank Museum at Bovington last year I came across a boxed set of PSC 1/72 M4A4 Shermans in the gift shop. These have been hard to track down of late and I've been eager to add more to my collection for the late war in Burma. The PSC models are sturdy gaming pieces, but that comes at a cost of chunky detail. I addressed some of that by drilling out the lifting hooks; replacing the bow MGs; drilling out the 75mm gun barrel and adding aerials.

The decision to purchase this set was partly influenced by the release of sets of decals in 20mm for Indian armoured brigades by District Miniatures. My only other Sherman for the Burma theatre made use of a few decals I could find in the spares box. 

After the initial base colours had been applied the new decals were added, before I moved on to painting details and weathering.

It has allowed me to draw on the inspiration from this book and have appropriately marked Sherman Vs for Burma.

If all that didn't make my decision easy enough, I had painted a set of AB tank crews for other vehicles in Burma and had several spare figures left over looking for suitable mounts. With the crews and stowage added, the tanks were complete.

I find I can be very productive with the airbrush when painting in batches. I've had a couple of PSC StuG III primed and waiting to be painted. As I'm playing the Old Hickory campaign at the moment I thought it wouldn't do any harm to have a few more StuGs to hand. I tried to give these quite a worn look and paid particular attention to making the side schurzen look chipped and worn.

The addition of foliage made from rubberised coconut fibre and model railway leaves gave it a particularly suitable appearance for German armour in Normandy.

When 172 Scale Miniatures had a 50% off sale I found it hard to resist the urge to fill a few gaps. It didn't help that I was playing a game in the Driving Charge campaign for Chain of Command and my opponent surprised me by taking three Type 97 Chi Ha as a support choice. I didn't have three of the early variant, I had only two of the old Airfix Chi Ha and one of the 172 Scale later model Shinhoto Chi Ha, which proxied for the missing earlier model. 

The sale at 172 Scale Miniatures was the perfect opportunity to make good this deficit. I knew the Airfix Chi Ha at 1/76 scale was unlikely to match those from 172 Scale Miniatures so I ordered three early model Chi Ha and then added another two of the Shinhoto versions to give me three of each type. Excessive? Probably, but I think it guarantees I'm covered should a similar situation arise.

Anyhow, did I mention I can be particularly productive with the airbrush when painting in batches?

The distinctive yellow lines over the Japanese camouflage was a feature of the early war and was no longer in use after 1942, so the Shinhoto versions I have painted in a late war three colour scheme. 

While I was researching the Saipan scenario for CanCon that I ran earlier this year, I discovered that quite a few Shinhoto tanks were used during the Japanese counterattack against the beachhead, so I didn't really need any convincing that this should be the subject of my scenario. Everything happens for a reason (at least that's how I convince myself all this makes any sense).

The colour scheme for the early model Chi Ha retained the yellow lines. From what I understand Japanese tanks were not repainted in the field and any tank still in service after 1942 was quite likely to retain those earlier markings, so that even if these were to appear in games set in the late war they wouldn't look out of place.

While painting those, I also completed a couple of diminutive Type 97 tankettes. These are from S-Model, plastic kits from China and a manufacturer who's products I like a lot. With two kits in a box they offer value, as well as a high degree of detail for a quick build model. 

This particular set comes with decals for the Chinese PLA which used captured versions, but I've painted them as Japanese with decals from Skytrex.

While air support does exist in Chain of Command, it is abstracted in the rules. There is no need to actually represent it on the table with models. However, that's never stopped me. Even since I built the Airfix Stuka to use in the AARs for our Many Rivers to Cross campaign I've wanted to find a way to incorporate models on the table to remind us that the effects of air support are in play. 

In the Far East I did something similar for the Zero Attack! for the Japanese.

And the Hurribomber for the British.

It goes without saying I was keen to do it for other forces. If nothing else, I find making aircraft an enjoyable diversion. While the Pacific Handbook for Chain of Command has yet to be released I find it hard to imagine the US Marines won't have access to some form of air support. I've always found the Corsair F4 an attractive looking plane, there is something quite elegant about the gull wings. With little encouragement needed I picked up an inexpensive 1/72 kit from Hasegawa. 

As I've done with the Zero I've modelled this without the propellor blades so that it doesn't look too static. I did experiment with discs of clear plastic to represent the spinning blades but they ended up looking like, well, discs of clear plastic. I think the impression of movement is just as obvious with nothing there.

While I was in the model shop I spotted a Mustang P51A, the earlier version before the bubble canopy was introduced. This kit from Italeri came with decals for the 1st Air Commando of the 10th Air Force, a unit that flew close support missions for the Chindits in Burma. That was just too tempting. I have written a campaign for the Chindits that exists in draft form, it may be that I need to revise that to introduce an element of air support now that I have a suitable aircraft.

Are any of these likely to see the table top in the near future? Quite possibly, but then I'm also a modeller at heart so I never need much of an excuse to add something new, even if there is no immediate need for it right now. 

Second World War Early War German armour in 20mm

I don't have a collection of German infantry for the early war (well, not yet anyway) but for various reasons I seem to have gathered a small collection of armour for those years. At this stage I'm probably more interested in playing 1942 on the eastern front and a part of this collection has been put together with Fall Blau and the Stalingrad campaign in mind. It’s by no means comprehensive. I’ve tended to acquire models as I’ve needed them for other games or campaigns. 

First though, we start at the very beginning with a PzIa. The two below are from S-Models. They were bought originally for my Sino-Japanese war project but somehow I’d acquired more kits than I needed, so when we came to play the Many Rivers to Cross the campaign set in the Netherlands in 1940 I made these up and painted them for the Germans instead.

They saw action in several games in that campaign.

Not long after I made them I came across the picture below. While my tanks may appear a slightly lighter grey than those in the picture I am pleased with the way my weathering matches up, in particular the way the running gear and tracks are noticeably dustier than the hull and the turret.

While I've been fortunate to visit many museums and see a fair amount of German armour the one tank that has alluded me so far has been the Panzer I. I suspect not many survived. 

The Pz38t was one of a couple of Czech designs that saw service right up to the Barbarossa campaign. Not a bad tank for its time with a decent mix of speed, armour and armament although by 1941/42 it was obsolete. That said the chassis was to see future use. This is a Pz38t from the Plastic Soldier Company set. While it's a sturdy model I think PSC have gone a bit overboard with detail like the rivets which appear over-scale. Unfortunately I've only exacerbated the issue by highlighting them with the paint job.

Here is one in the collection at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum and while the rivets are a noticeable feature of the tank they are not as pronounced as they appear in the PSC models.

Before I returned to miniature gaming I made a lot of models in 1/35 scale and the Pz38t was one of those. As you can see with this kit the rivets are more in scale and closer to the look of the original tank.

Although never intended as a main battle tank the PzII took part in numerous operations in the early war and were still present in some units as late as 1942. This is another from S-Models and was made with our Netherlands 1940 campaign in mind.

Unlike the Panzer I, I've seen several PzII in various museums. The one below is at the Tank Museum at Bovington and it's in the early war two tone brown and grey colour scheme.

There is another in the Canadian War Museum's fine collection of vehicles and AFVs.

The Musee des Blindes in Saumur also has one.

The main battle tank of the panzer divisions during this period was the PzIII. These are two Ausf G from S-Models.

There is a PzIII Ausf J at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum.

Also one at Musee des Blindes.

This is a later model ausf L from one of the PSC sets.

The Panzer IV originally provided infantry support with a short barrelled 75mm gun. By 1942 the design was taking on a much more prominent role and was up armoured and up gunned. These are both Ausf D versions from Armourfast.

The Armourfast models are inexpensive and quick to build but they do suffer from a shortage of detail. I have several kits from them and I've often found with a bit of additional detail like stowage they come up well. Unfortunately these are one of their most basic kits and I think have the least detail I've seen on any of their models. The AB crew figures are my best attempt at improving them.

The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum has an Ausf D.

Later models were up gunned and replaced the Panzer III as the main battle tank of the panzer divisions in the mid years of the war. This is an Ausf F from PSC.

Those later models are covered in a second post on the blog featuring late war German armour. I chose February 1943 (the time when German tanks went from grey to a base colour of dark yellow) as the watershed to cover the armour of the later part of the war.

The history of assault guns in the Wehrmacht is interesting and talks much to the rivalries within the army. The StuG III Ausf A provided close fire support for the infantry and after much internal wrangling was not classed as part of the tank force but rather of the artillery. Crew members did not wear the distinctive black uniforms of the panzerwaffe with the pink piping on collar and shoulder patches, instead they wore the artillery uniform with its white piping. These two StuG III Ausf A are from Trumpeter.

They have one of these early variants at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum.

A more rare assault gun, also mounted on the same chassis as the StuG III, was the Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B which carried the sIG33/1 gun. Only twenty four were made and the first twelve were sent to Stalingrad. The second batch of twelve were also intended for units serving in Stalingrad but by the time they were ready for delivery the 6th Army had been surrounded and so they were assigned to other units. Given this early war collection has been put together with the fighing in Russia in 1942 in mind, this model from Armourfast was an addition I couldn't resist.

Manufacture of the chassis for the Czech Pz38t continued after the original tank was considered obsolete and came to serve many uses, one of these was as the chassis for the Marder series of self propelled guns. The PSC sets give you the option to make up the Pz38t tank or to make them up as two version of the Marder III tank destroyer.

One of my initial reactions to the models was to think that once again PSC had gone over-scale with the muzzle brakes on the guns, although having seen the two Marders pictured below at the Musee des Blindes I'm less inclined to think that's the case.

The eight wheeled Sdkfz231 Schwerer Panzerspähwagen series of armoured cars were intended mainly for reconnaisance units. The Plastic Soldier Company make a set that allows you to build several of the variants, including the one below armed with a 20mm autocannon.

And one with an open top with the short barrelled 7.5cm gun.

They have the very similar looking later model Sdkfz234/4 version in the Tank Museum at Bovington.

While the Sdkfz 251 half track might be an iconic German vehicle they were not as numerous as one might imagine nor available in the sorts of quantities the Wehrmacht would have preferred. Nonetheless they were present in several panzer divisions from 1939. The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum has a variant of one of these that was built in Czechoslovakia after the war.

The Musee des Blindes have an engineer variant.

These models below come from the Plastic Soldier Company sets which allow for a few variants. I've kept mine mostly as Sdkfz251/1.

They supply a figure manning the light machine gun. It is easy to hold him in place when the MG is placed in the gun shield and so I haven't attached him permanently so I can remove him during a game.

It's also possible to create the Sdkfz251/10, the platoon leader's vehicle, which mounted the 3.7cm anti-tank gun.

At the moment these have given me enough to play several early war games and given us the vehicles we needed to play the Many Rivers to Cross campaign in the Netherlands. I suspect the collection will grow on an 'as needs' basis but it's always very satisfying to think about playing a game set in a particular theatre and to know you already have the models ready and waiting.....