Quick progress update

Well, nothing “quick” about the build.  Just the update.  Here is the car minus the wheels.  The gun looks a bit long and thick.  I should have trusted my instincts and gone shorter and a thinner piece of plastruct.  Oh well.  Fun build if not a bit tedious and time consuming.

Just need to add wheels. I will keep much of the fine detail off as it is a wargame piece and will be handled a lot.

 

Sdkfz 222 start

Here’s a quick update with a couple of pictures of the Sdkfz 222 model from Paper Tiger Armaments.

The front fenders were a bit tricky if only because there were no guide marks on the model. You have to eyeball the placement. The reference picture that comes with the model was a big help.

The chassis and body were easy enough to assemble. It was only 2 pieces.

The Secret to Getting Stuff Done

Part of my “block” clearly was my feeling of being overwhelmed by the two main projects I have going right now.  Rapid Fire demands some moderate forces.  If you want to game the Siege of Tobruk, you needs a fair few figures.  I don’t know that I will ever get to that level but even the more moderate sized forces seem a bit daunting, especially since I am using card models for my vehicles.

I’ve broken my build process down by unit and am currently trying to stay focused on the early part of the Desert War.  To that end, I am starting with the 5th Light Division and it’s recon battalion.  It does require about 13 figures, 3 armored cards, a pair of combo motorcycles 2 kubelwagons, a half track, 2 heavy cars, an infantry gun and a PAK 36 AT gun.  I’ve already  built 3 kubelwagons.  The third can either be used in the motorcycle infantry battalion or as part of the later era recon battalion.  I have all the infantry though I need a 5cm mortar and one anti-tank rifle.  Both, I believe I can scratch built out of plastruct and card.  Junior General has an ATR.  I can try cutting one out just the stock and replace the barrel with a thin piece of plastruct.  The 5cm Mortar is really a tube, a base plate and a very small kick stand.  It is not very different from the British 2″ mortar.  Probably only the stand.  I’ve already posted a picture of the kubelwagen.  I am currently working on an sdkfz 222. The OB also calls for a 221 which only has an MG and has a smaller turret.  I may just make them both 222s and not worry about the small turret.  I can even make an alternate turret in case I want two 222s.

The final bit is the Horch 108 type 40 heavy car.  I cannot find a card model for it.  I believe Best Paper Models had one in 1/48 scale but it has not been posted to their new site yet.  In fact, they only have posted about 20 of their more than 500 or so models so far.  They are moving slowly.  So, I will probably be venturing into the world of card model design.  The Horch is relatively square.  The hood should have rounded edges to make it look somewhat authentic.  That will probably be the hardest part of this effort.  I think I can do it though.

I started working on a Valentine tank, another not represented by a card model.  That is a later era desert tank though.  It shall sit on the back burner for a while, along with my M-3 Grants.

 

 

1 Success and 1 Failure

Over the weekend I worked on a couple of models seen below.  Both models are by Rawan.  The first is a Kubelwagon as part of a “kit” which includes a tiger tank recolored in desert colors.  I rescaled it from its original 1:100 scale to 1:72 scale.  For those not in the know, you can simply divide one denominator by the other to rescale.    To make a larger scale print, simply divide the smaller by the larger.  Example: 100/72 = 1.39.  That is the amount you must increase your image by.   But enough of the math lesson.

The vehicle went together easy enough with the main chassis being one “box.”  There were few extras except the wheels and the fenders.  The rear fenders protrude a bit much but not overly so.  The front fenders are a bit skewed.  the designer probably should have tapered them, something that I will try tonight,.

The second models are German BMW motorcycles.  One with a side car and one without.  This was an extremely fiddly model.  Again, I rescaled it to 1:72 scale for the build.  I couldn’t imagine trying to make the build in 1:100 scale!

I quite like the Kubelwagon.  It is a solid piece that is easy to build.  Great traits to have when you need a dozen or so for your wargame table.  The BMW, I am afraid, is too difficult and fragile for a wargame.  I was taking a close look at my motorcycle with the side car and accidentally dropped and broke it.  So, I will not pursue those as an option.  It is a nice looking model and does go together well, but you have to have a lot of time per vehicle to get them together.  I ended up ordering the 11 motorcycle platoon from Plastic Soldier Company.  It works out to about $3.50 per bike and sidecar and has the bonus of coming with two riders.

BMW Bike with Sidecar, BMW Solo Bike, Kubelwagon. All are in rough form without touchup paint though I did ink the wheels with a Sharpie.

TSR Chainmail back in print!

Wargame Vault and all of their affiliates finally have a PDF on sale for $4.99.  This was probably the first Medieval Wargame I ever played.  I remember setting up those Sheriff of Nottingham figures on the living room floor and fightingout battles.  I never had enough cavalry to overcome the archers of Sir Robin.

The game is quite simple in concept.  Each hit causes a kill and the front rank of a formation gets to strike.  The whole formation counts when determining the victor.  I’ve always had a couple of gripes with the game though, minor as they are.  First was the way missile fire is handled and its power.  The number of figures are cross indexed with a die roll on a chart.  There are two possible outcomes separated by just one point.  It made archery kind of deterministic.  If you only had five figures left and the enemy could do 3 to you at a minimum, well good night Irene.  On top of that, archers could often fire twice if they were not contacted by the end of the movement phase.  I guess Gary Gygax liked his “shooty” things.

The other issue is the way combat outcomes were handled.  I don’t mean casualties.  That is pretty straight forward as I mentioned.  I mean the process of determining who won and who lost.  It was a 5 or 6 step process which involved some multiplication.  I don’t think it’s so bad since you rarely dealt with more than about 3 or 4 combats a turn anyway, but it is cumbersome.

It is otherwise a wonderful game and some say it is the game that started the whole DnD craze.  You can get it here.