The Great Plastics Revival - More British

 Some touching up and rebasing sees some Italeri Highlanders (always thought that these figures looked a bit odd) and another ESCI Royal Horse Artillery gun and crew. These will now join the growing British plastic army:

The Great Plastics Revival - Airfix Prussian Landwehr

Another couple of battalions roll off the production line.  On this occasion it is a pair of Airfix Prussian infantry.  The figures, painted as East Prussians, were painted from scratch after they had spent a couple of weeks bathing in Dettol to remove the old paint.

I am quite pleased with the results and tempted to paint another two units:

The Great Plastic Revival - Prussian Cavalry

 This is the third batch of Prussians to be completed, in this case the cavalry.  When I went through the boxes there were lots of cavalry in odd colours, mainly white and gree.  I think they were supposed to be part of the Austrian army, however, they did not look quite right.

On closer inspection I worked out that, apart from some Revell black hussars and early war Revell Cuirassiers, the bulk were in fact ESCI/Italeri British Scots Greys wearing oilskin shako covers. I thought that with a dab of paint they could be passed off as Prussian dragoons.  Here is the result:

From a couple of feet away they don't look to out of place.

Next, I might tackle some of the Airfix Prussian Landwehr, but these are completely unpainted and will take a little longer.

Operation Barbarossa - Crossing the River Bug 1941

 Over the last couple of days, Phil visited and we decided to have a go at a WW2 scenario.

This battle is based upon the Rapid Fire scenario (which adapts the historical action to make it more challenging) and reflects the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.  The game sees the German 18th Panzer Division mount an amphibious assault over the River Bug on the Polish border.  The Germans have three objectives. Launching from their harbour area around Patulin, they must cross the river Bug and construct a pontoon bridge, break through the first defence line and take the town of Matykaly, and finally capture the bridge over the river Ljasnaja;

Map copyright Rapid Fire

The Germans start in a surprise move with the assault boats in the water and the first troops landing. An initial view showing the bulk of 18th Panzer Division, with the assault just beginning:

The Germans have a significant advantage in artillery with a complete regiment in support:

The initial objective, once across the river, will be to break through the soviet first line of defence, which consists of a pill box, a T-26 turret and quite thinly spread infantry.  There are wire and minefield obstacles too:

Beyond that is a soviet Rifle battalion holding the village of Matykaly with several anti-tank guns:

Further on, after crossing a railway line, is the river Ljasnaja and the key bridge.  A further soviet battalion is defending here, along with artillery and air defence weapons:

The Germans have two battalions in the initial assault, with a third following on.  There is also a Panzer regiment, as well as the full regiment of field artillery.  Here is the initial assault going in:

With more troops waiting in nearby woods:

The engineer field park is in the village of Patulin and nearby the tanks of 18th Panzer wait for the bridge to be built:

During the previous night German recce teams sneak across the river and take up positions in the trees on the enemy bank:

Soon the Germans have several companies across the river but they are exposed to fire from the pill box, the T-26 turret and a machine gun in the wheat field. Casualties are heavy as the German infantry attempt to advance over open ground:

Air support is called in but is not very effective.  German casualties continue to mount and now they begin to receive soviet artillery fire, directed from a nearby hill:

Even more worrying, the first tanks from the soviet reserve begin to arrive on the field.  Seen here is a T-26 trundling over the railway beyond Matykaly.

As soon as possible the Germans begin the construction of the pontoon bridge, having first laid a smoke screen.  Meanwhile the boats continue ferry troops across.

After suffering heavy casualties from machine gun fire from the bunkers, the pill box is pounded into submission.  Meanwhile, under cover of another smoke screen German engineers take out the T-26 turret with a flame thrower.

The first T-26 advances around the village but is hit by an airstrike and burns:

German Panzer IIIs line the bank to provide cover as engineers are close to completing the bridge. They receive a setback though when a soviet shell damages the roadway. The engineers work frantically to finish the bridge.

Now that the bunkers have been dealt with the German infantry can make some progress.

At last the bridge is completed and German tanks begin to cross.  The minefields have yet to be cleared and this creates an obstruction that will need to be bypassed:

The tanks fan out and begin to deal with the remaining soviet forward defences:

They flank the hill that caused the infantry so much trouble and approach the village.  To the rear of the village is an anti-tank screen, which will have to be dealt with before the tanks can break through.

An overview of the scene at this point in the battle. Soviet tanks sent forward piecemeal are quickly dealt with as two burn in the foreground as clearing the village begins.

Back at the bridge more tanks cross the river:

The Soviets bring forward another tank and their 3rd rifle battalion, but their anti-tank capability is all but destroyed.

The final German infantry units cross the Bug.

Using a spotter aircraft, artillery is rained down onto the German advance with little effect, however the one remaining anti-tank gun scores a hit on a Panzer III.

At this point, the remaining Soviet units begin to withdraw.  Their ability to stop the tanks is now very limited and their infantry are being cut down by heavy German artillery strikes. At the same time, the Germans have been severely bruised and decide to lick their wounds until more infantry support can be brought up, before attempting to capture the Ljanaja bridge.

The German chefs cook up a well earned gulash for the tired troops!

This was an immensely enjoyable game.  I played the Germans and Phil the Soviets. Fortune swung from side to side. During the early stages it looked like the Germanswould be stalled by the first line of defences. Fortunately attempts to disrupt the bridge building were limited and the late arrival of Soviet tanks in any number helped tip the balance.  Once the German tanks had crossed the river the end became inevitable, but it could have gone the other way.  This was a costly victory for the Germans.

We used home grown rules for the game.  The German figures are mostly from the collection of Eric Knowles and the Russians are from my own collection, consisting of a mix of Hinchliffe and Zvezda figures. The bridge, engineers and boats are all originally from Eric Knowles. The tanks and vehicles, mostly plastic come from a variety of sources.  The river came from the ABC wargamers collection and may have been made by Jack Alexander.  It was great to get all of these wonderful modles onto the table.

The Great Plastic Revival - Prussian Infantry

 The next batch of figures to be dusted off and rebased are the Prussian foot,  Consisting of Revell and Airfix figures they make quite a colourful contribution to the collection:

Next up will be the cavalry, after which I will turn my attention to the Russians.

The Great Plastics Revival - Prussian Gunners

 Over the last few days I have finished patching up and rebasing the first of the Prussian - the artillery.  I think they are all by HaT and look rather splendid lined up:

Ersatz Japanese Infantry

 I think I mentioned earlier the imbalance in numbers between the Russians and Japanese forces.  I have now reorganised all of the Japanese and ideally, I could do with another two or three battalions.  Finding 20mm Japanese for 1905 is near impossible and so I turned to converting some plastic figures.  Here I have paint converted some Airfix and Emhar WW1 figures:

I think that they will look OK from a few feet away!

The Great Plastics Revival - French Infantry and Artillery

 Over the past couple of months, I have been working through the mountain of French Line and Guard infantry and artillery.  The figires are a mix of Airfix, HaT, Revell, ESCI and Italeri.  

First off, we have the line infantry, with 11 battalions and three batteries of guns:

Airfix line infantry:

Esci line infantry

And the Imperial Guard, consisting of, five Old Guard battalions, two of Young Guard and three gun batteries:

I'm now starting to sort out the Prussians.

The Battle For Donville - Rapid Fire

 Bob Black came over for a quick game earlier in the week and after a beer and a light lunch we went to the war room, where I had set up a scenario borrowed from the July 2025 Miniature Wargames (credited for the map):

Essentially, US forces in the shape of an infantry company are holding the vicinity of the central farm, while elements of 17th SS Panzer Division, supported by Stug IIIs, Panzer IVs and the 17th Artillery Regiment.

The US forces have advance warning of the German attack and rush to send reinforcements to the area.

Here is the table, looking at the central farm area, viewed from the north.  The US infantry can be seen lining the hedgerows around the farm, a single Sherman has arrived and there is a machine gun covering the diamond shaped field within the small copse.  An FOO team has also turned up and moves towards the taller of the three buildings:

German infantry arrive, emerging from a wood on the western edge of the board and move towards the farm:

Bob, playing the Germans, sends his first Stug III rushing up the road and straight into the field adjacent to the farm. The Sherman takes aim - and misses.  The Stug fires and the Sherman is destroyed:

A US bazooka team flanks the Stug from the hedge, but they are out of range. Now the US troops are in trouble, with an assault gun in the area of the farm and nothing to deal with it.

Meanwhile the German infantry begin to work their way through the hedgerows:

Some enter the field and are mown down by the concealed US machine gun:

To add to the US woes a second Panzer Grenadier company with heavy weapons dismount from their half tracks and follow up behind the Stug:

The Stug, meanwhile, crashes through the hedge and engages the US infantry, some of whom retire into the farm buildings. German artillery hits the farm and HE rounds from the Stug cause casualties. 

The Panzer grenadiers close in, but they come under fire from US artillery and small arms:

The US machine gun is taken out by German artillery and heavy fire from the hedge, allowing the German troops to close onto the farm:

Most of the US defenders are either dead or wounded and the farm is quickly cleared and occupied by German infantry.  The Stug takes up position in the farm to cover the approach road:

To make matters even worse, a second Stug arrives and rumbles up the road to support the Panzer Grenadiers in the field, who have taken heavy casualties from flanking fire:

This final US defence is soon disrupted as the half track pours machine gun fire into their position. Despite three shots from the Bazooka team, all miss and the half track causes havoc:

At this point the first US reinforcements, in the shape of armoured infantry and heavy weapons company arrives:

But, it is too late.  The Germans have two tanks and a half track in the farm, with the remnants of two infantry companies.  Also, the US FOO spots more Panzer Grenadiers approaching the farm across the fields:

Outgunned and with the Germans in control of the farm and key road junctions the US commander calls it a day and withdraws what he can save.  This was a resounding win for the Germans.  A very interesting game that played well with Rapid Fire rules.  The loss of the Sherman early on was a major disaster and spreading the US infantry out too widely was probably a mistake, putting the Bazooka team out of range.