Panthers from Plastic Soldier Company

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Originally posted 25th March 2012

Here are my latest tank models from Plastic Soldier Company:  a Zug of Panthers.

Although up to now I have focussed on the early war period and tended to buy Battlefront tank models, with my movement into the later war period I have expanded into using other manufacturers. These Panthers, along with the Panzer IVs, are plastic models from Plastic Soldier Company, and three out of four of the SdKfz 7/1s are from Forged in Battle. 

The reason?  Simple:  expense. I can field five tanks from PSC for at least half the cost of the Battlefront models: worth it when you're buying tanks by the Zug even if in principle you prefer metal to plastic!

One thing to note, however, is that the track assemblies can be a real pain to put together. If you look closely, you can see the difficulty I had in matching the top and the bottom of the track up properly on the bits right at the front and back. I don't understand why they can't just cast the whole track area as one piece, like Battlefront do. It would make life much easier!

Here's another shot of the Panthers:

Plastic Soldier Company T-34s

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Originally posted 3rd March 2012

Buying Battlefront tanks can be an expensive business, so recently I've been augmenting my collection by adding platoons of Plastic Soldier Company 15mm tanks to my core Battlefront platoons.

Next onto the building/painting table were the T-34s...or, as I should say, the T-34s and the T-34/85s, as each kit comes with two turrets and guns allowing you to field both. That's one hull and two turrets per model : damn good value if you ask me!

Building them proved easy: even the track assembly wasn't too difficult (unlike the flipping Panthers I'm working on now which are a right pain in the arse). Painting them was equally easy.

So, in summary, PSC T-34s (and 85s!) are highly recommended, even if their weight (or lack of) does take some getting used to

Deployed as T-34s

Now deployed as T-34/85s: same body, different turret

LCVPs from Battlefront

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Originally posted 12th February 2012

Here is the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) set from Battlefront. The ships are nice models, and paint up well, but the infantry-being-carried were bloody awful: badly cast with none of the usual detail.

Incidentally, the infantry come in strips of four half-bodies. I mounted six strips in two rows of three on a thin base so that I can either have the LCVPs full of men, or empty, or put a vehicle in them.

These three are now all ready to carry the Rangers ashore for the fourth scenario from the Sicily pack: Gela 1!

Christmas Painting Part 1

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Originally posted 7th January 2012

With the forthcoming launch of my IABSM-based, company-sized, sci-fi rules, I also spent a lot of time painting sci-fi figures. The biggest holiday project was painting up the Chewks from Khurasan: they are cracking models a bit like the Jawas from Star Wars.

One of the best things about Khurasan is that they make an effort to produce figures that will give you more than just infantry squads: as a rule, each of their ranges (and they have many!) have infantry, command, support weapon and vehicle models...and lovely models they are too. Particularly good are the Chewk drilltanks: vast tunnelling AFVs which come with option to have a chewkannon artillery piece mounted on a boom arm. Here they are in troop carrying mode: click to go to the gallery to see the whole range.

Other manufacturers are also realising that they need to produce entire ranges rather than just infantry squad models. Highlander Studios, manufacturers of the excellent Space Bug range, have augmented their basic offering with anti-tank, anti-aircraft and flamethrower teams: also painted up over Xmas.

Finally we go back to Khurasan again for some APCs for the Karkarine Landser "shark-headed" infantry from their Pelagic Dominate range. Called, appropriately, Karkwagons, these are all plastic kits that are really nice to paint. They seem a bit small for the size of the Karks themselves i.e. it looks like it would be a tight fit to get a squad of seven inside...but they will look good on the tabletop anyway!

​So that was Christmas 2011: a couple of cracking games of IABSM3 (see the AAR below) and a load of painting. About 150 foot and nine vehicles: not Kev standards, but not bad! Roll on 2012!

AAR: A Canadian VC (or Three!)

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Originally posted 29th December 2011

A magnificent day's gaming today!

It's always nice to welcome a new player to your favourite set of rules, so I was very pleased to be invited round to new-to-IABSM Paul's house for a game. 

Here is the report of how we played the "A Canadian VC" scenario from the IABSM3 rulebook not once, not twice, but three times in a row. I'm shattered!