Leopards Roar - Bundeswehr upgrades to nato camouflage

 Bundeswehr upgrades

As the majority of my Bundeswehr are painted with Ammo RAL6014  for the true Cold War period I do have sitting in storage plenty of kit to extend the date past 1984 which is my current cut off. 

This year I have decided after joining a few of Bob Mack’s kickstarters I will go past my cut off date and add Bundeswehr in three colour NATO. My new additions will include-

• 3d printed Marder 2 
• Diecast Fuchs
• Diecast Luchs
• 3d printed trucks 
• Diecast Leo 2
• Diecast ME 109 SP artillery (battery of two) (need to change the muzzle break to reflect the FH70)
• MLRS (M270 Rocket launcher) battery of two 
• Plastic fennek 
• Plastic weisels 

This will extend the playing period past 1986 and plan to paint them all in the coming 8 weeks over summer. 

NATO 3 colour was adopted and rolled out over three years being completed in 1988. Team yankee has a fine guide available Here , I will be using AK three colour nato in their new real colour range. 

Cheers

Matt

Bundesgrenzschutz part 9 - VW 181 car

 One of my Bundesgrenzschutz units is a 1/72nd scale VW181 to complete my command platoon. 

The Germania Figuren vehicle is made from resin and is a very nicely cast model. Hardly and flash and no bubbles. It comes with two options roof on or folded back, plus driver (which is a bonus) with four head variants. Assembly was quite simple and the cabin went together well, although take care with the windscreen removal, and fitting the back parcel shelf and seat which I fitted incorrectly! 

It was a little pricey at €16.50 plus shipping but a great little kit never the less. A solid 9 out of ten, only mi us was the instructions and broken windscreen 

A simple Tamiya nato green paint job, with  highlight, then black lining. The driver was painted in bundesgrenschutz camo smock. Really happy with the result. 

Cheers

Matt 

Bundesgrenzschutz Part 8 - Ambulance

 Another piece for my Bundesgrenzschutz regiment a VW ambulance this time, a few more vehicles to come and a helicopter before the regiment is complete. 

 The vehicle is from Jonny Lightening and needs a windscreen warning lights and rear window and the Elhiem driver adding before truly complete. Really happy with it, I striped the original paint scheme back to bare metal as the acrylic paint did not cover properly over the matt guide coat. Second time round much happier. The crosses are from a job lot I picked up years ago, gloss varnish, then decal, then gloss again, followed by a complete Artist matt varnish. 

Bundesgrenzschutz Ambulance 

Bundesgrenzschutz Ambulance 

Cheers

Matt

Bundesgrenzschutz Part 6

  Bundesgrenzschutz VW Van

While I was airbrushing a lot of vehicles last week (while the weather was pleasant) I quickly painted up my remaining Bundesgrenzschutz vehicles. For completed off the table is a van, pretty much match box recovery that had the front pillars missing, which I rebuilt with green stuff and styrene, plus the traffic light which is also green stuff. I have also molded a plastic windscreen in hot water from a vegetable pack, but cannot find it on my messy desk so a cleanup may occur tomorrow! 

I am planning also to add Bundesgrenzschutz writing on the sides in black, but will complete my helicopter and other vehicles first before I play around making up the transfers to be printed, then complete all of the vehicles at once.

 I only have the checkpoint and four more vehicles to come (one truck, one ambulance and Jeep , plus the helicopter and they will be completed. In the meantime I must complete some more vehicles before this weekends Yom Kippur anniversary game! 

Cheers

Matt

VW 181 Kurierwagen Germania Figuren + kit review

 As I start to complete my Bundesgrenzschutz units I thought I would find a 1/72nd scale VW181 to complete my command platoon. 

The Germania Figuren vehicle is made from resin and upon inspection is a very nicely cast model. Hardly and flash and no bubbles. It comes with two options roof on or folded back, plus driver (which is a bonus) with four head variants. Assembly was quite simple and the cabin went together well, although take care with the windscreen removal, and fitting the back parcel shelf and seat which I fitted incorrectly! 

It was a little pricey at €16.50 plus shipping but a great little kit never the less. A solid 9 out of ten, only mi us was the instructions and broken windscreen 

Cheers

Matt 

Leo 1 Bundeswehr

 Leo 1 Diecasts

So Clive (at Clives Diecast and kits) had some Leo 1s on sale recently and I could not resist picking up some to add to my Bundeswehr, so now a new complete battalion,  a second battalion for my cold war Bundeswehr army. I hope to get some games in this year and try to stem the Soviet and Warpac hordes...A repaint in the workshop over the summer months, some stowage and some crew added is on the cards!

cheers

Matt

Cold War Bundeswehr Kampfgruppe

Bundeswehr Kampfgruppe

I recently completed some more Bundeswehr from Elhiem miniatures. I am very pleased with the results, two more battalions to complete for my Bundeswehr kampfgruppe, along with support vehicles.

Cheers
Matt

30 day kit build challenge

So what is the 30 day kit challenge? Well, something I Copied from Gunbird and his blog "20mm and then some". As I have moved from a house to a unit I need to make room with the tons of kits that I have. So with that in mind I'm starting the 30 day kit build challenge also

Goals are simple, you will build kits during the 30 day challenge:
Any material (plastic, resin, metal, wood).
New in the box or partially built, it matters not.
Gun, tank, truck, aircraft, ship, animal? Your call.
Kit must be basically finished, based if you prefer that, to qualify.
Finished kit must be ready for primer.
Resin and metal upgradesets can be applied after the build.....the goal is to get kits built and ready for primer, not to finish them with paint and varnish etc.
You decide how many kits/models you want to build in the 30 day period.
You set the penalty for not meeting your goal (and after that it is the honor system)

Anything beyond that is up to you

My goal is, in the period from 6/6/17 up to 6/7/17, is to work on a kit every single day, up to a grand total of 20 kits. If I can build more kits n the month, then bonus, if I can't build too many during the week and have to finish them in the weekend, no problem. 20 is my goal and I'm sticking to that.

My penalty is that if I don't make my target, is to sell any unmade kits at the end in my stash.

So, starting with Day #1 (22nd of May 2017), I'm starting with a kit.
Feel free to join in btw.


Cheers
Matt

Operation "Popcorn chicken" Попкорн курица

Get it while it's hot, Popcorn Chicken!

Damien, Dan and myself decided to have a midweek game at my place this week, and a modern game using Modern Rapid Fire rules Able Archer.

Damien selected the west Germans and Dan the Soviets, I umpired the game, the game was a seesaw game, the soviets finally won though after both Leo 1s were destroyed and the infantry failed morale roll and surrendered. The soviet troops successfully captured the KFC for a bit of popcorn chicken!

Bundeswehr Infantry Kampfgruppe

The other part of my Task 1 for the Guild wargamers year long group build, I bought these second hand thinking they would be suitable  for my cold war project, the figs are more suited to late 90s and early 2000s, so I painted them in desert flecktarn, I am still not happy with the result though.

cheers
matt

Bundeswehr Marders

Bundeswehr Marder 1

I needed to have these finished for task 1 of the "Guildwargamers" year long build, I painted them in the standard three colour camo, I also converted the M113 to a mortar carrier, until I can find a actual kit!

cheers
Matt