Even More Tanks

After a week of very little progress, Sunday night I worked on airbrushing another nine T-72s.  This will bring the total to 18.

T-72s in the paint shop

Poles 2 - BAOR 1

This past weekend, I played three games of Team Yankee against my brother.  He played British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and I played Poles using the Red Banner list for the first two games and the Volks Armee list for the last one.

Mid-way through Autobahn battle

Our first game was a Free for All, 100 pts, Poles attacking.  For objectives we agreed that it would be the two hills in each others deployment zones.  The Poles far-left T-72 company advanced through the Autobahn stop, winning the exchange of fire with the three Chieftains covering that avenue of advance.  The center T-72 company advanced to provide added pressure and the Hinds swept across the battlefield and engaged the BAOR command element.  The right T-72 company held the flank against the other half of the BAOR forces.  The capture of the hill gave the Poles victory.

Poles fail to hold Chow and Gas

Our second was No Retreat, 100 pts, BAOR attacking.  BAOR Recce elements advanced up their right flank flanking the defended gas stations and forest to come in behind the dug-in Polish infantry.  The Chieftains on the left defeated an advancing attempt by the BMP-2s through the farm fields, but only after losing two of their number to combined fire from the center T-72s and the advancing BMP-2s themselves.   NATO air power DEAD (destroyed enemy air defenses) and then added its pressure against the ground forces.  BAOR forces destroyed the present Polish forces as T-72 reinforcements arrived piecemeal and late.

Our third game was Dust Up, 50 pts, BAOR attacking.  (Sorry no picture)  BAOR Recce forces attempted to pincer the Polish forces, but Polish BMP-1 Recon elements pushed out along the BAOR right, flanking and eliminating advancing BAOR forces.  The delayed arrival of BAOR Chieftains resulted in what is best described as a stalemate between Spartans and a T-72M company on the BAOR left.  The arrival of Polish Hinds with infantry and a second T-72M company shifted the initiative squarely to the Poles, with the Hinds landing around the distant objective.  The successful destruction of 3 Hinds on the ground drove the infantry out of the helicopters early and gave the Poles victory.

Local Air Superiority

Last week, I completed the pair of SA-13s and four ZSU-23s I own.  I intend to add another pair of SA-13s in the coming weeks (preferably from a hobby store vice the internet).

Anti-Air Battery!

Having completed these tanks, I am on a slight painting pause and have gone to assembling some 30k miniatures before painting the first company of Polish infantry.

Tops of the ZSUs

In Work Mobile Air Defense System

In Team Yankee, all forces have access to aircraft.   This bothers me a bit, because I know history and can talk to people who was preparing to fight the Soviet machine back when I was 1-year old and fight against their Air Defenses specifically.

Soviet airpower theory was much more focused on gaining air superiority through the use of integrated air defenses.  The Warsaw Pact Air Forces recognized they lagged behind NATO Air Forces.  The Soviet Union instead invested in Air Defenses.  The inclusion of Su-25 Frogfoot in the Warsaw Pact lists seems like an unnecessary list balance effort.  NATO air-power, like might F-15 Eagle (102 Air-to-Air kills, 0 Air-to-Air losses), would have made getting a Frogfoot into the fight nearly impossible.  So, SA-13s and ZSU-23s to defend my armored columns against the rightly feared A-10A.

SA-13s & ZSU-23s

Helicopters

Despite it being a long weekend, I only managed to finish painting the first pair of Mi-24 Hinds.

First Pair of Mi-24s

They were a fun change of pace from tanks.  Next up will be four ZSU-23s and two of four SA-13s.

More pics below.

More Tanks

T-72s and BMPs

This past week I was fairly successful painting four more T-72s and five BMP-2s.  These however are only the beginning of a Volks Armee force, which I think is a better representation of the Polish Army than a Soviet Red Banner force.  This drives the inclusion of more tanks overall, adding probably about 10 more tanks overall.

1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

The Conversion from 40k to Mk III iron armor took longer than I expected, but I finally got the only remaining member of my original Rout army armed and ready to roll.  Introducing Villskap Redmaw  1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson Pack Leader of the Bloody Hunters.

Villskap Redmaw 1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

First 5 Tanks painted!

First Five Tanks  

I have completed painting my first five tanks and have dived into the next nine!  In painting these five tanks, I made the decision to use a dark grey for what might be metal on many models.  My theory for this is that a factory primer of some kind is always useful.

I also purchased a copy of Volks Armee, which provides an overview and lists for forces from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik's Nationale Volksarmee.  I think this list will work better as a baseline for my Poles than the main Soviet army.  The impact will be the total number of models (and thus cost) will increase.

My work space

Airbrushing Armor and Aircraft

This past week I ordered and received an airbrush.  On Sunday, I made my first attempts at airbrushing - 5 Tanks and 2 Hinds.  I am working on trying to be more consistent about working on models.  Hopefully I do not get too distracted this week's evenings.

5 T-72s

Pair of Hinds

BAOR Dragoons defeat Polish 2nd Armor

On Saturday, my brother and I played a 50-point game of Team Yankee at At Ease Games in San Diego.  He played British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and I played Polish 2nd Army (Soviets).

Just prior to Engaging

New Year New Army: My return to the Hobby

So, it has been a long time since I have posted anything to this blog and an even longer time since I did anything serious with the hobby.  This lack of time was largely due to my PhD program and in the last year getting back in the swing of "working" for a living.
For the past year I have also had an open debate about what I wanted to build. I knew I wanted to get into 30k (naturally their will also be side projects in other games), but choosing a legion took me forever.  Particularly when you see where I wound up...

As the pictures clearly indicate after much debate I opted to build a Space Wolves Legion, or as I prefer to call them the Rout.  The Rout was my first 40k army and eventually I became disenchanted with them for a variety of reasons.  I sold my army about half way through my PhD program and shelved all of my custom ideas for the army.

I have now pulled down that file and begun work on a 30k era Rout great company. Beginning with a chaplain/wolf priest:

 Although it does not show well in the photo's the model actually has six different shades/textures of gray.  I also still intend to add snow to the base, but I want a few more models finished before I mix up the snow.  Also my thanks to Brother Captain S. for the suggested conversion to the weapon.

Next I am going to take the only survivor of my original army shown below and convert him to match my new army. Then I will wrap up work on my first unit; a veteran tactical squad.

The last of my old wolves

Paragons of Honour and Duty

This past weekend I complete the first five (of ten) Invictarus Suzerains for my Horus Heresy era Ultramarines.  These five are all equipped with bolt pistols, boarding shields, and Legatine power axes.  The next five will include one equipped that way, two with plasma pistols, and two with Thunderhammers.  Thanks to Jason, my brother, for kitbashing from his bits left-handed Thunderhammers.

Leading from the Front

The models are very detailed, giving plenty of opportunity to break-up the blue of the armor and depart from heavy amounts of gold.  Other Invictarus Suzerains I have looked at make the shields blue and keep most of the details gold.  I departed from that.

Washes & Layers on the Suzerains

Slow, but steady progress on the first five Suzerains.As I began to apply the washes, the models really came to life and details started to pop.  The layers assured some details were differentiated.

Suzeriains in Progress