Felix, Author at Felix's Gaming Pages

Building the Chicago Way

Though I still have to paint some models for The Chicago Way and make up the Shotgun House I bought at a recent show, I have been thinking about other potential buildings.

Looking over the film The Untouchables, which was the inspiration for the rules, has some nice shots of buildings.

Zooming in (click the images to see larger versions of the screen grabs) we can see the stye of buildings used in the film to represent the 1920s.

These are quite Victorian in style, which is why I might also use my Gaslamp Alley VSF buildings from Sarissa Precision.

4Ground already make a range of really nice buildings for The Chicago Way and they look really nice and appear to fit the game well. I already have one of the Shotgun Houses, but that is still on the workbench.

I think there are other potential buildings from 4Ground that would also work well, especially some of those in the 28mm Gothic City range. I really like the Tenement building range and could see those as ideal background scenery for The Chicago Way games.

From other companies I have also been looking at Sarissa Precision, both their new retro American range and their City Block range.

Steaming along

I am making progress on my Sarissa Precision Old West steam engine. The first part I attempted was the tender.

This went together really easily and is a clever design, turning what is flat pieces of MDF into a three dimensional model. Laser-cut MDF models use to be mainly buildings, or thing with straight lines, however companies like Sarissa Precision have taken it to the next level, using flat MDF to create complicated curved models such as the steam engine.

It has to be said that the tender is more akin to the buildings with slab sides, though I do like the angled tender sides at the top.

It wasn’t the easiest of builds and I found the instructions slightly confusing, but I got there in the end.

Heer 1946

One of the games at the wargames show at Bovington that I did a good look at was this 15mm 1946 game complete with a range of alternate German and Allied tanks that were designed, but either were too late for action, or never got further than the drawing board. I have to admit I never got round to checking what actual models were represented on the table, but there were E-100 and E-50 tanks as well as Panther IIs.

This photograph shows a Sarissa Precision Factory. I really do like this model (and the huge one for 28mm too). Around it are finished and partly finished tanks of a variety of types.

A large tank on a railway wagon. The table also had a lot of HO 1/87th scale buildings that did not seem out of place on the table. There are a range of HO buildings that would be ideal for 15mm games, especially those of the industrial variety.

Here is another Sarissa Precision factory with a couple of JagdTigers outside. As with the other, it looks like the RAF has been busy trying to stem the production of these new German tanks.

Here is a overview of the table. There were TT scale trains, wagons and track (which are just about an appropriate scale for 15mm).

In the box to the side of the tables were 15mm models of the Black Prince, the Tortoise and Centurion Mk1 tanks.

All of these could be found (for real) in the Tank Museum itself.

Wondering about Jaguars…

In one of my previous articles on Team Yankee I did say:

I think it would be nice to have seen the Kanonenjagdpanzer, but you can’t have everything.

What I hadn’t realised when writing the article that as part of the German releases, Battlefront have released the Jaguar Jagdpanzer Zug.

The Jaguar 1 and Jaguar 2 were German Raketenjagdpanzer (rocket tank-hunter) tank destroyers armed with anti-tank guided missiles.

The Jaguars were converted from Kanonenjagdpanzers, so in theory you could spend some time converting the Jaguars back. One issue would be adding the main gun back, probably more challenging to remove the applique armour.

As this is alternate history, you could argue that the existing Kanonenjagdpanzers were upgraded with applique armour.

Challenge would be more of a tactical issue playing games with these tank destroyers, as the 90mm gun of the Kanonenjagdpanzer was ineffective against contemporary Soviet tanks of that era.

Where is Team Yankee going?

Really interesting video from Beasts of War about possible alternate futures for Team Yankee games.

Red Dawn gets a mention with the idea of a game with Cuban paratroopers landing in mainland USA, not necessarily a fully fledged invasion, but possible raid to secure US oil wells.

Bolt Action Commando LVT-4 Buffalo Amtrac

I was pleased to get for a present the Warlord LVT-4 Buffalo Amtrac for Bolt Action.

The LVT-4 is a 1/56th scale 28mm resin and metal kit and comes in a box with a picture of the completed model on the front.

I am in the process of building a Commando team to fight alongside my partisans for games of Bolt Action. The force is taking its time to put together, but now I have transport for them.

I am also going to use these models as UNIT troops for some Doctor Who scenarios that I have been thinking about, the LVT will probably not be used for these games.

As well as this model, the Commandos plastic boxed set I also have a couple of blisters, a Mortar Team and the Vickers MMG Team.

The Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) is an amphibious warfare vehicle and amphibious landing craft, introduced by the United States Navy. The Marine Corps and Army used several LVT models during World War II. Five hundred were provided to the British Army. Originally intended solely as cargo carriers for ship to shore operations, they evolved into assault troop and fire support vehicles.

Fury

One of the displays that I really liked on my recent visit to the Tank Museum was that of the Sherman tank used in the film, Fury.

April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.

A M4A3E8 Sherman was used by the film makers and Bovington have kept the Sherman tank as it was in the film, complete with weathering, props and the name Fury painted on the barrel of the main weapon.

TheM4A3E8 Sherman has much wider tracks than other Shermans and this makes the tank look much taller and bigger than other Sherman tanks.

Most of the film was shot in Oxfordshire (and not Germany). The German town used in the film was built completely from scratch, which isn’t too surprising considering what happens there.

It wasn’t just the Sherman that was used in the filming, the film crew also used Bovington’s working Tiger tank too.

I really enjoyed the film and thought a powerful interpretation of the last few months of the war and the defiant last stand by the Germans despite knowing they faced eventual defeat, with the Americans wanting to finish quickly so they can go home. It has to be said that the end of the film leaves something to be desired, but remember this is Hollywood. I

Get Fury on Blu Ray from Amazon.

Download Fury from iTunes.

So what’s going on here then?

One of my limited number of purchases from the wargaming show at the Tank Museum was a blister pack of police officers from Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range, PLP586 Long Arm of the Law.

They were in a bargain bucket and cost just £1.00 which is a lot less the list price of £8.50.

These are really nice castings, here is the manufacturers picture.

I am intending to use them in Victorian Science Fiction games.

The British are coming…

…in the meantime let’s take a look at the Germans.

One thing that I thought that Battlefront would do when they released the Germans for Team Yankee was that they would do a minimal release and was pleasantly surprised by the range of models they did in fact bring out.

With the initial releases for the US (and Soviet) I was slightly disappointed with the limited number of models that we got. Though we had the M1 Abrams, we didn’t get the M60A3 MBT.

It felt like a really limited release, so when I saw that Battlefront were going to release German and British forces my expectation was that we would get a limited number of vehicles. So to get thirteen sets for the Germans compared to the seven for the US was really refreshing.

I did like the Raketenwerfer model, something very different.

I also was pleased to see the Marder too.

I think it would be nice to have seen the Kanonenjagdpanzer, but you can’t have everything.

As a result I have higher expectations for the future British releases. I am hoping to see the following models release for the BAOR forces.

I would like to see both the Chieftain and Challenger 1 main battle tanks, but if the American releases are anything to go by then we might only get one tank and I suspect that will be the Challenger.

I think we might also see the light tanks or armoured reconnisance vehicles the FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimiatar. They are very similar vehicles I can see how we could have both. The Scorpion and the Scimiatar were part of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) family. As they shared common automotive components and suspension I can see how easy it would be, if we get the Scorpion we could also get other members of the CVR(T) family such as the Spartan armoured personnel carrier (APC).

As well as the Sultan command and control vehicle, Samaritan armoured ambulance, Striker anti–tank guided missile vehicle and possibly even the Samson armoured recovery vehicle.

The main British APC in 1985 was the FV432 APC so I suspect that may be a likely contender for a model. 1985 is a bit early for the Warrior IFV that entered service in 1987.

In terms of artillery, though the British will probably get the M109 it would be interesting to see if we get the FV433 Abbot SPG. If we get the FV432 then we may get the FV438 Swingfire variant (as well as other FV430 series variants).

We already have the German Tornado, so no surprise if we have an RAF version.

I would also like to see, but don’t expect to see various British armoured cars such as the Humber Pig, the Ferret armoured car or even the Alvis Saladin Armoured Car.

So what do you think we will see for the Team Yankee releases for the British?

Image credits: Wikipedia and Battlefront

Steaming in the desert

At the wargaming show at the Tank Museum I managed to get a pictures of the games on show, but to be honest was distracted by the tanks. One game which did catch my eye was this desert game in 20mm with a train.

This was a very nice looking game.

Didn’t really get the details on the sides in the game (and I think it was a World War One game).