Plastic Soldier Company IS-2s

Just in time for the end of Tanktober I finished this platoon of IS-2s for Battle Group Fall of the Reich. With the replacement 85mm turrets I did for my T34s and a few SU 85s and 100s completed, that pretty much finishes off what I needed to do to adapt my Kursk Soviets for 1944-5, although I will add some more infantry.



As always, these PSC IS-2s are ajoy to whack together, and should scare the fascist vipers quite a bit.

Late War Panthers for Battle Group

The first fruits of Tanktober are these three Panthers for Battle Group Fall of the Reich. Kits are from PSC, with one of the commanders from Peter Pig.



I was wanting to give them an early 1945 look, so painted one in ambush scheme and the other with a hard edged Rotbraun and Dunkelgelb over green base colour.



The foliage on the gun barrel is mainly there to cover where I snapped it while trying to fit it into the mantlet.

SAS for Battlegroup Fall of the Reich

One of the Recce options in Battle Group: Fall of the Reich is a SAS Jeep Patrol. It isn't cheap, costing 66 points, but it is very powerful. Each jeep carries a three man team, including a Bren Gun, and are classified in the rules as Assault Troops, so are particulalry good at close assaults. The Jeeps each carry two Vickers K guns, and in their Recce capacity the teams are able to act as artillery and air spotters and benefit from the Behind Enemy Lines rule, meaning they can be placed anywhere on the board after the rest of everyone's recce has been deployed and then start the game on ambush fire.



I had a couple of airborne recce Jeeps lying around from Skytrex (I think), so did a bit of rough converting so they resembled SAS Jeeps from 1945 in NWE. There are lots of things wrong with them. The Vickers K mounting at the front should be for twin guns, the shields aren't right, blah blah blah, but I think they sort of look the part, and I'm certainly looking forward to trying them out. I'm also reasonably happy with my first attempts at Denison Smocks in 15mm.

Battle Group Bits and Pieces

I'm still regaining my painting mojo after time away and busyness. However, the Dux is not one to be idle! Goodness me no. Here are a few bits and bobs for Battle Group. First up, some 15mm Brits, including:

A brace of Morris Quads from Flames of War...


...four Lloyd Carriers from Forged in Battle...


...and a couple of Forged in Battle 6pdrs.


My Soviets have also received some reinforcements, with a couple of Zvezda Sturmoviks.


I also got around to painting up the T34/85 turrets left over from my Plastic Soldier Company T34s. so now I can field an entire company of the tanks for Kursk all the way to 1945.


It's good to be getting a few things painted again!

Soviet Tank Destroyers

I've finished a box of the 15mm Battlefront plastic Soviet Tank Destroyers, and they are really lovely. The fit of parts is as good as PSC, and the metal crew figures are a nice bonus. Unlike PSC the box also includes decals, although be warned! They are very fiddly and prone to disintegrate. Sadly, there are no items of stowage to make the vehicles look less uniform. All the slogans are hand painted.



The box set allows you to make five SU-85s or Su-100s. I made three SU-85s, which first appeared in the aftermath of the Kursk battles. As a result, they don't appear in the Battle Group Kursk rulebook, but official lists were published for them in Dispatches 1, an occasional Battle Group supplement published on the official forum. The list allows SU-85s to be bought in units of three.



SU-100s appear in Battle Group Fall of the Reich, where they can be purchased as a battery of two vehicles, so that's what I did with the remaining two from my box set.



So there we go. Two units of tank killers from a very affordable box set box. I'm very happy about the increasing move Battlefront is making to plastic sets.

Universal Carriers and a Crab

My 15mm British force for Battle Group Overlord and Fall of the Reich continues to grow. Plastic Soldier Company taunted me with the release of their lovely 1/72 Universal Carriers to the point that I found I couldn't wait for them to come out in 15mm, so went ahead and bought a set from Forged in Battle.



These are pretty nice little resin kits, but I was a little disappointed that they only came with a couple of crew figures. I added some, especially the Bren gunners, from Skytrex, but they don't really fit as well as I'm sure the PSC ones will WHEN THEY GET AROUND TO RELEASING THEM! Sorry...I just really like Bren Carriers.



Like all the infantry units in my battle group, these are painted as belonging to the 9th Cameronians Battalion from the 15th (Scottish) Division.



Also from Forged in Battle is this Sherman Crab from the 79th Armoured Division. The kit is made from resin and metal, and was a bit of a bastard to put together without consulting photos. Some necessary shortcuts are taken with the moulding, for example sculpting the flails as a single block of resin that makes it look as though the flail chains were far denser than they actually where, but the finished beast looks pretty good, I think.



Probably the turret should have large numbers in red, edged in white, but I don't have anything suitable and don't want to chance painting them freehand. They might be something to add in the future.



I'm looking forward to trying this out in a scenario attacking a German defensive position. Now, where can I get a 15mm Churchill Crocodile....

Unboxing the Flames of War Soviet Tank Killers

I'm not generally a fan of Flames of War minis. Not that I have bought many at all, having usually been put off by the price, so I usually only resort to them when I need a specialist vehicle or two.

However, I was tempted by these. One of the great side effects of the glory that is the Plastic Soldier Company is that they have obviously scared Battlefront quite a bit. Far be it from me to suggest that Battle Group books should have 'The MUCH BETTER World War II Miniatures Game' emblazoned across the front in large letters. That would be churlish. It is great to see though that Battlefront are starting to embrace plastic kits. Partly out of curiosity, I picked up a box of their plastic Soviet Tank Killers. Partly out of curiosity, but also because it is actually going to require little effort to turn my force for Battle Group Kursk into a Soviet army for Fall of the Reich. All I really need to do is paint all the alternative T34/85 turrets that I still have in a box, buy a box of the new PSC IS2s, and get some tank destroyers, where is where this box set comes in. Actually, I reckon PSC really missed their chance on this one. Since they already had their T34 box, it can't have been too much work to have turned it into a release of SUs ready for Fall of the Reich, but Battlefront got there first with this release for Flames of War.



The box follows a similar format to PSC, offering five complete vehicles. They cost more, $55 AUD compared to about $42 for an equivalent PSC box, but they do include decals. The sprues allow different options to build five complete SU-85s, SU-100s, SU-85Ms or SU-100Ms. Metal commander figures are included along with decals, but no instructions, so a glance at some photos might be in order if you don't know which way round the exhaust pipes go or how the top hatches open.



These are lovely kits. The armour surface has a great slightly rough surface, and all detail is beautifully defined. I have put together one SU=85 so far, and everything fitted perfectly. Very impressive, and I think they will look even better with the addition of a bit of clutter and stowage.



All up, this box set gets a couple of thumbs up from the Dux, and I think this should be popular with BG players wanting to build a late war Soviet force. Kudos to Battlefront for being inspired by the Glory of PSC (see what I did there?) and I'm looking forward to seeing more new plastic goodies from them.