First game for 2009

A fortnight back, Peter and I went to NWA for a game of Panzerfaust: Iron Fist. Here’s what happened:

First thing was to set up a map for an Encounter scenario. The map agreed upon was thus:

Just a road with some hills, copses, a burnt-out forest (impassible terrain for vehicles – see earlier posts for its construction) some thickets and good grassland. A roll of the dice resulted in there being No Wind for the duration of the game. I asked that we play lengthways, rather than the traditional widthways. Since I was fielding Jagdpanthers, Peter agreed to this…even so, there was some concern that it might take too many rounds before enough tanks were in effective range to decide the outcome of the game.

I was playing with 5345 Points Value (much higher than normal) – 4 Jagdpanthers, 6 Tiger Is, 4 StuGs – that comprised one ad-hoc company. Peter had three tank companies.

TURN ONE: The objective was to reach the exact centre of the board.

Peter reckons he’s stumped about deployment, but I’m not. Any plan is better than no plan! My Tigers will take the left flank, the Jagdpanthers the copse on the right flank, and the StuGs will hold the middle (but just hold it…they can’t expect to kill much).

The StuGs and Jagdpanthers advanced to or through woods, depending on their proximity to same  . The Tigers stayed in the woods and opened fire on the IS-2s that appeared opposite them. There was one hit but it bounced off an IS-2 hull.

TURN TWO: I continued to cautiously move the StuGs and Jagdpanthers forward. Another Tiger scored a hit but to no effect. The Russians moved the bulk of their threatened IS-2s to hull-down positions while three returned fire, knocking out Tiger #22. I tested Morale – all OK.

TURN THREE: Now I aggressively pushed my StuGs and Jagdpanthers forward, trying to get them into optimum firing positions. The Tigers moved cautiously. A company of T-34-85s now made their presence known, emerging from behind a wood. The IS-2s hit a second Tiger, destroying its main gun (the mighty 88mm). To protect his comrades, that Tiger laid down a smokescreen with his smoke launchers.

TURN FOUR: The Jagdpanthers finally reached their firing position, from where they could gain a little concealment and kill the ISU-152s opposite them. The StuGs knew they had to fire a smokescreen to block the LOS (line of sight) of the ISU-152s, so they swivelled and loaded smoke shells. The Tigers moved to a better position to try to deal with the superior IS-2s. An ISU-152 killed a StuG, but the remaining StuGs successfully laid down a smokescreen .

TURN FIVE: Battle was now truly joined. Both sides manouvered extensively, jockeying for position.

The ISU-152s and Jagdpanthers opened up on eachother, with one Jagdpanther lost for two knocked-out ISU-152s. A second Jagdpanther was tracked. The Russian Morale Check was passed OK.

The StuG platoon command vehicle was immobilised. This was bad, but there was no need for me to test the whole platoon’s Morale, just that of the command vehicle itself.

TURN SIX: The Jagdpanthers swivelled to shoot up IS-2s and T-34-85s . StuGs that could advance did so and the Tigers stayed obscured by trees while they advanced.

The Jagdpanthers then experienced a savage exchange – two more were lost, including the platoon command vehicle. I checked the survivors’ Morale – Shaken. I tested the whole Company – OK.

TURN SEVEN: With more IS-2s killed, the Tigers came back into the action. My lone Jagdpanther was Shaken – so he simply held his position and fired, since he was not being forced to flee or surrender. He killed a T-34-85 platoon command vehicle , and that platoon became Shaken. Trying to get revenge, the T-34-85s returned fire and hit the Jagdpanther, but to no effect.

The Stalins killed another Tiger, but I rolled a strong Morale check of 11 – Fine! I was still in the game!

TURN EIGHT: Where the T-34-85s failed in killing that lone operational Jagdpanther, the ISU-152s succeeded. I tested my whole Company – a 9 – Fine. Then the IS-2s killed my Company Command Tiger – and that was the end of the game.

RESULTS Not only did the Russians put a lot of my vehicles out of action, they got closer to the objective than I did. I got to see the killing power of IS-2s, ISU-152s and Jagdpanthers in action…those Jagdpanthers are deadly, even at long range.

I was disappointed by my Tigers vs. those IS-2s…but this was a historical outcome, the Tiger was outclassed and outgunned by the IS-2, even the early IS-2s.

Tip for the game? Use my smokescreens earlier!

All photos are over at my Flickr account.

Jagdpanthers, Hetzers and a Horch

While logging in to YouTube, it recommended the following video for me. I normally ignore these recommendations because they are usually far, far off key…but this one was good.

Modellers, take your cues from that. I liked the simple yet realistic camouflage scheme and that it had a few side skirts. But that gun…deadly.

Now, Eastern Suburbs Scale Modelling Club had their annual second-hand kit sale. Best purchase of the day for me was a platoon of UM’s Hetzers (Commander’s version) for $20 AUD. I was reliably informed by the very knowledgeable Neil G. that the external differences between this unit and a standard unit should only be an extra radio mount, so I won’t get yelled at for fielding four of these as standard vehicles.

Lastly, today was the second most intensive day spent working on the Horch 108…which isn’t saying much. I’m not enjoying building it and I’m especially annoyed that of the only piece to go missing, it had to be one that holds the gun in place on its mount. Why not a freakin’ wheel?! Got plenty of spares of those in my leftovers collection…

I don’t know why this kit has to be so troublesome. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to post a bit more on it.

“Follow the homemade caulk road, follow the homemade caulk road…”

So begins one of my summer terrain projects – making up lots of Russian roads for the Eastern Front.

This is following the techniques publicised by Mr Nikolas Lloyd, for whom I have great respect.

First of all, gather what’s needed:

Sheet styrene; an Olfa cutting blade; measuring tape (not shown); caulk and caulk gun; some sprues of extra truck wheels, to inprint “realistic” tyre tracks in the surface.

Second, begin cutting the lengths and then the widths with the cutting blade:

I’ve used a Jagdpanther to get the widths correct. The roads around Leningrad during Operation Barbarossa seemed to be about 1.5 Tiger tanks wide, so making these roads about 1.5 Jagdpanthers wide should be fine.

Third, make sure what you want will fit in the carrying boxes – this is something you can easily forget about as it’s easy to get carried away while cutting/carving/shaping…

I’ve ensured the maximum length still has at least 1cm clearance for the smallest size box I use for carrying/storing terrain (pictured on left, with those unfinished Tigers living in them). I’ve also done three different length…while fixing up and shaping the sides later, I made a fourth length. Not everything will fit on the table.

I also made two different crossroads, two different t-intersections and two different curves/bends.

Now I need lots of caulk, so it’s time to put this aside for a day or two.

Platoon of Jagdpanthers, ready to ‘brew up’ any Allies!

So here they are:

–> the Commander’s vehicle is on the left…

–> being the other three.

–> Detail of #811, the commanding vehicle.

–> The whole platoon.

The mud (Vermin Brown) was splattered fairly liberally on three of the four, and I took efforts to make sure it also went on the lower bits of any nearby lichen.

The photos don’t do justice to the decals, which turned out far better on this project than when I applied them to the UniModels Marder III’s that I did.

A visiting friend on Sunday afternoon was also surprised that these were 1/76, given that next to them were the Revell 1/72 Tigers that are still unfinished and in his eyes, the Jagdpanthers fitted the scale of the Tigers. So I’m very happy with this kit – quick to build (just wish the tracks weren’t vinyl one piece items!), good detail that is enhanced by a bit of modeller’s love (and careful use of leftovers) and careful brushwork. Can’t wait for them to get on the table and start reversing the Allied advance!

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My thanks to all of you for reading and commenting. I’m going to briefly indulge is off-topic banter for a moment, but before you stop reading, the next two months will involve finishing those Tigers, starting those Horchs and doing a lot of scenery (since it’ll be good and hot and the caulk should dry more quickly).

OK, stop reading now if you want.
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My thoughts go out to those whom are working to bring peace and end wars and also to those whom are helping the unfortunate. Peace on Earth, war (only) on the (wargaming) table.

Why drinking tea leads to better detail on your wargaming tanks

I didn’t end up using 6lb fishing line to secure the lichen to those Jagdpanthers…nor did I go into heavier gauged lines that I have, like 15lbs, 25 lbs or even 35lbs. This was because I realised I wanted to have the “wire” or “rope” tied around the lichen – if I painted the fishing line with Shadow Grey first and then tried to tie the fishing line around the lichen, I knew the paint was just going to come straight off. There was no way to paint the Shadow Grey on after tying the line around the lichen first.

I realised that string would be a good substitute for rope at those scales (1:72 & 1: 76). The twine I have in my toolbox was too coarse and shedding its fibres too freely. The different balls of string I saw in newsagents were no better.

While drinking my morning cup of tea at work, I saw the solution right in front of me – to use the string from the teabag. String on teabags? If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a picture.

I saved the strings, brought them home, completely immersed them in Flesh Wash to give them a good, dark colour and let them dry. When dry, I tried using one – perfect results.

So all that remains with those Jagdpanthers is to paint on some fresh mud using Vermin Brown, then apply a coat of protective Dullcote, and they are finished.

Tanks and felled trees…impassable terrain 3

The “felled trees” impassable-to-vehicles terrain piece is finished!

I was unconvinced that I’d done a good job until after the Dullcote was dry – I don’t know why, and I’m sure lots of wargamers and modellers probably don’t add a protective varnish coat to terrain, but I find it has a slight darkening affect but also makes the ingredients look more natural and more to scale.

With this piece, I was just going to stick to using the Dark Green Bushes…but I ent all out and even added some Forest-blend bushes as well. They turned out pretty well! I did expend all my “useful” lichen, though, so I went and picked up three single packs of lichen (natural colour, light green and medium green) so I can work on some big hills over Christmas (more about this another time).

Here’s two Jagdpanthers so that you can see the camouflage patterns / scheme that I used:

Today I finished all the annoying details and applied the decals. Tomorrow is just fixing up the remaining odds & ends with Desert Yellow and then I can do the weathering with Kommando Khaki.

The Tigers also had all detail finished and will get final Desert Yellow touching-up tomorrow, but I didn’t get up to decals. I really want to finish these Jagdpanthers, so I’m driving hard (bad pun, I know) to finish them first, so that the Tigers can get more care (because I can use them more in games).

Jagdpanthers, trees and wire

The one thing I neglected to mention about camouflage for the Jagdpanthers is that because the Allies had air superiority by the time Jagdpanthers were entering service, many German vehicles had additional camouflage added to them by draping or securing tree limbs and branches to them, to further break up their silhouette.  This certainly happened to Jagdpanthers – there is plenty of photo evidence of them having foliage draped over them to break up their shape and also to provide localised camouflage so that they could be used in ambushes, which was an effective tactic for these tank hunters.

I’m going to replicate this by glueing lichen to my completed models and then securing the lichen to the vehicle hull with 6lbs fishing line, to represent wire, which was often used for that purpose.

So, once I’ve finished the fine detail and corrected any mistakes, the glue comes back out, lichen and fishing line get glued on, any last mistakes are fixed and then lastly on goes the Dullcote and then they get “blooded” in a game.

I’ve provided a scan of Revell’s own painting instructions for these Jagdpanthers:

The colour code is as follows:

1. A = “Matt Sand”, #16
2. B = “Lake Green”, #48
3. C = “Matt Brick”, #37

and those names and numbers are for Revell’s own line of paints.

The reason I posted that scan is to show some more Jagdpanther camouflage schemes / patterns…not stripes, not mottling (still not exactly sure what mottling really is) and not plain DunkelGelb. I suppose more of a disruptive scheme?

Panthers don’t have stripes!

…but my Jagdpanthers do.

The Revell / Matchbox Jagdpanthers are nearing completion. That means that they now have a completed camouflage paint scheme / pattern on them and I’m just doing the little details like painting stowage and overpainting  errors.

I did some reading to see what sort of camouflage patterns and colours were used on these tank hunters. I found a drawing of one that had been with GrossDeutschland, but it was just in DunkelGelb (Dark Yellow) with a partial coat of whitewash, as winter camouflage. The other drawings all had many different patterns (as well as another with just plain DunkelGelb) but stripes of colours (in parallel, mostly on an angle) was the majority of patterns I found.

I have found extremely little on how long GrossDeutschland may have had Jagdpanthers…my guess at the moment is that probably as little as two or three months. (Those out there who know – I’m happy to be corrected). Now, it wasn’t going to be fun to have plain old DunkelGelb vehicles…that’s already being done with my StuG III’s, will be done with those Horch FlaK heavy cars and to some degree with my as-yet-unpurchased Panzer IV’s.

So, I selected a scheme for a vehicle that was operating on the Eastern Front but labelled as “Unit unidentified” and decided to paint a platoon of them. It had parallel stripes on an angle,  similar to this vehicle. However, the difference was that the colour stripes didn’t simply alternate between green and brown, but instead had a repeating pattern of green-green-brown with one green stripe being bigger than the other.

This also gave me a chance to try out the new-ish Citadel ‘Foundation Paints’. I can recommend the Orkhide Shade! It makes a nice alternative to using Dark Angels Green for green camouflage.

The saggy baggy Jagdpanther

Well, they may be 1/76 scale, but these Revell Jagdpanthers (originally Matchbox) come up looking the part.

This post will address two things, as follows:

1) These kits come with two jerrycans that are glued onto the starboard side of the Jagdpanther. The racks forward on the superstructure, where pioneering equipment was stored, are all empty. This clashes with all the other kits I’ve assembled or are assembling, where there are plenty of items of stowage or pioneering tools. There is a mallet on the rear plate, but nothing else.

Now, wisely I have retained leftovers from previous kits, so I’ve added plenty of extras to make these tank destroyers look like working units and not museum pieces. From the Roden Opel Blitz kits, I saved a rolled up tarpaulin. One got that. From the UM Marder IIIs, I saved spare picks and shovels. From the Italeri StuG III, I saved buckets. Picks and shovels were divided up and glued on different sides of different units. now they look like working vehicles! The moral of this is: always save unused materials, especially stowage. You’ll want them for kits that don’t have enough (or any at all).

2) Bad track sag – I mentioned that I’ve come to realise that the track sag I did with the first kit matched the track sag of a Tiger…but when I checked my sources, didn’t match a Jagdpanther’s track sag at all. For example, have a look at these historical photos. As you see, the historical evidence shows that the sag is more like a bow – the first vehicle I did looks like the tracks are much looser, so loose that they are lying on top of the return rollers.

Now, to get more accurate sag (using these horrible soft vinyl tracks that can’t do a proper job anyway) some more careful glueing was going to be involved. Two months ago, my household decided to retire all its old chopsticks and use freshly-purchased uniform ones from China. I saved all the old chopsticks for use with my hobbies. So, I cut them up, split them, broke them into little pieces, etc.  Then, wedging them in at the right places after shaping them, I achieved better sag with the remaining three. The moral of this is: always check historical sources first before assembly.

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The Tigers are moving forward slowly because I’m painting the stowed pioneering tools and all the other little fiddly bits. Procrastination strikes, too. As Summer is just two weeks away, I have to get a wriggle on, or it’ll get too hot to do much hobby work done.

A pleasure to be in Tankoberg

Even though it’s been spread over a week, it’s only taken about two hours to assemble a Jagdpanther. Now, the particular kit I’ve assembled is Revell kit #3152, “Jagdpanther & Deutsche Infantrie”. Although the box says that all the contents are 1:72 scale, the Jagdpanther is actually 1:76 scale. As Henk of Holland and On the Way! both state, many of these “Kombi-packs” of vehicles and soldiers contain 1:72 scale Revell soldiers but 1:76 scale Matchbox vehicles – kit #3152 being one of them.

I bought two of the Jagdpanther kombi-packs earlier this year and decided to buy two more, to make a platoon of four Jagdpanthers and also because I intend to use all the soldiers for a company of Panzergrenadiers. I decided to commence work on the Jagdpanthers now as a sort of flow-on from the most recent game of Panzerfaust: Iron Fist I played, so that rather than always playing early and mid War, Peter and I could play late War, when the Eastern Front reversed and moved back across Eastern Europe to Berlin.  I want to see those mighty tank destroyers up against some IS-2s.

Having undertaken my usual preparations of washing the sprues in hot water with some dishwashing liquid in it; thoroughly air-drying the sprues and finally undercoating them with Chaos Black, I began assembly and soon realised I was nearly done in only an hour. In fact, waiting for the glue to dry on the wheels was the longest part. Why?

Well, this kit has one-piece vinyl tracks. Yes, those old-fashioned, horrible soft vinyl tracks that harden and crack after a few years (less if left in the heat). Yes, they are too short to actually fit around the wheels of this kit (believe me, I tried). But if you can stand to put the vinyl tracks on and live with the gap by not trying to make the tracks into one loop (like I was forced to with Roden’s Opel Maultiers), then you get great track sag and quick assembly.

Anyway, it meant that last sunday I had to put all work on the first one on hold as I’d run out of Desert Yellow to begin working on it’s paint scheme!

It’s been a pleasant week, working on this kit. A lot of the detail is permanently fixed on the hull due to the mould, but it’s good detail and should paint up well. Tonight I was working through the Doug Chaltry track-painting technique. Tomorrow I commence work on more modular scenery (including working with another water product) and an AA vehicle!