Stump the Blogmeister (continued)

Here is the second one, unfortunately it is not a very good picture, the weather was really bad that day:

It looks to me that this one is the M6. It had a 3 inch gun (which is equivalent to about 75mm)AND a 37mm gun side-by-side in the turret. It also had twin .50 cal. MGs in the bow and it weighed 63 tons! That would make it comparable in size to a Tiger II wouldn't it?

The Miniatures We Use

For the most part, our figures and tank models are Battlefront Miniatures however we have a few that are by Old Glory as well.

Another minature manufacturer we have seen in 15mm is Quality Casting, which is actually by Battle Honours Miniatures of the U.K.

In addition, the terrain you see in our games is in part terrain that we have created ourselves, but we also put out some buildings by The Miniature Building Authority.

The Platoon that didn't move. This M14/41 platoon was in range of the British command section from about turn 2 or 3. They sat still to maintain their rate of fire and supported the light tanks and armored cars in their valiant attempt at assaulting the British left flank.












The Lancia da 90/53s burn. They were both knocked out on turn 2 or 3.

The British Headquarters dies in flames at the hand of a combined assault by the light tanks, the last surviving Autoblinda, and the M14/41 platoon that never moved!

Two Panzer III tanks burn, vicitims of the combined fire from two Desert Rat Grant tank platoons. Their platoon-mates are not amused.











M14/41s and Panzer IIIs advance towards the objective.

A pair of Grant platoons suffer from the combined fire of the Lancia da 90/53s, and a platoon of m14/41s, supported by Afrika Korps Panzer IIIs.












In a mad rush, a platoon of 'Honey' Stuarts charge into the rear of the M14/41 platoon on the Italian right flank. They put the smack down on that platoon - but are denied by lucky rolls.












Another platoon of Grants rush to support the crumbling British left flank.

The Semoventi 75/18s take the first round of fire from the British Grants. With it's powerful 75mm gun, this was a dangerous vehicle. Unfortunately it had the same armor as the M14/41s - which is to say, not enough.











Another view of the destroyed village where the British Infantry were dug in and supported by tanks.












I move the L6/40 light tank platoon forward into harms way. A two-man tank armed with even less armor than the M14/41, and a 20mm gun. I didn't expect great things from this platoon! Still, they are great little miniatures, and looked good on the table.

We created much of the terrain using model train scenery gear. The hills are all from foam, painted with a textured paint I mix up especially for this use.












The light tanks are slightly behind the Autoblinda armored cars as the British HQ unit moves forward and prepares to open fire.

The Autoblindas race forward. A 20mm canon and six wheels with light armor! Avanti! Charge the tanks!











The Panzer IIIs of the Deutches Afrika Korps 'stiffen the resolve' of the poorly armed and amored Arieta Division M14/41 tanks.












Lancia da 90/53s gaurd the captured Hurricane IIC. This was a wicked little model to build. Interesting bits and pieces for a start, not to mention that enormous AA/AT gun!
Apparently this was the Italian version of the dreaded German .88 - and it proved effective when it fired!












British Infantry prepare for the armored assault of the Arieta Division, backed up by a platoon of Grant tanks.

The buildings are those mentioned in an earlier post, made by The Miniature Building Authority.

First round of photos from our "Flames of War" game

As promised, here are some shots from our latest game using the "Flames of War" (FoW) rules. FoW is the hottest thing going right now when it comes to wargaming World War II with 15mm miniatures. FoW is a fast paced game that enables you to play out large engagements in a fairly short timeframe. You will be amazed at how quickly you can play out a typical scenario. If you want to learn more about it go to the "Flames of War" link down on the right margin of this page.

In these two photos a company of Italian M14 tanks from the Italian Ariete Armored Division, supported by four German Panzer IIIs, are "squaring off" against a company of M3 Grants from the British 7th Armored Division.












A platoon of Battlefront Miniatures Italian M14/41 tanks protects the objective while a platoon of Autoblindas and a platoon of L6/40 light tanks (also by Flames of War, Battlefront Miniatures) moves forward to death or glory.











Grants of the Desert Rats, 8th British Army supported by an infantry platoon gaurd their objective.

Avanti!

Bwana Bill and I played Flames of War last Saturday; another desert battle took place!

This time it was the Italians in the hot-seat against the British 8th Army’s Desert Rats.

I had just barely finished the great little models of the L6/40 light tanks, the M14/41s and the Semoventes, not to mention the Lancia da 90/53 Anti-Aircraft/Tank gun on the back of a truck. In fact the army isn’t really finished to my normal standards, however it was good enough for us to have the opportunity to do something different.

I added 4 Panzer IIIs from the DAK to stiffen the resolve of the Italians.

Bill has some photos, and I’m sure he’ll post them soon, so there is some new eye-candy to look forward to!

Avanti Savoia!!!

More Shots From Aberdeen

Today we will get back to looking at photos from our recent trip to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. In the workshop/warehouse that we were allowed to see there was a British Crusader Mark III tank and an Italian Semovente Assault Gun. The Crusader Mark III can be identified by the large muzzle brake. The Mark III had a 57mm gun (called 6 pounder by the Brits) whereas its two predecessors had 37mm guns (2 pounder). Both of these vehicles were very common sights during the epic struggle between the British 8th Army and the German Afrika Korps during World War II. Both of them had very recently been restored and they look like they just rolled off the assembly line!

More Shots From Aberdeen (continued)

Here is the Italian Semovente. It looks good, doesn't it? These vehicles carried a 75mm gun and during the North Africa campaign anything with a gun that large commanded a lot of respect. I can not identify the unit markings on this vehicle. If anybody knows please leave a comment.

Whitewash City card-stock models

Okay everybody, let’s take a break from looking at tanks for a while and talk about something else. Lately I have been setting up a new Zulu War scenario for some “The Sword and the Flame” action. I have a scenario description called “the Church.” In this scenario a force composed of British regulars and Boers needs to round up some settlers from their widely dispersed homes and get them into a built-up camp in the middle of the table. Meanwhile the Zulus are entering from various points all round the table creating mayhem. I needed to come up with three rustic looking houses and a small church. I agonized over this for a long time because I did not want to spend much money on them. I knew about the Whitewash City models designed for Wild West gaming, but I never had much success with card-stock models in the past, so I kept on looking and pondering. But then I just decided to give it a try. I didn’t see why these models wouldn’t work in a Zulu War setting. So, I purchased a set that I was able to create myself for only $9.99. I think I got five models all together. That’s pretty cheap! Eric Hotz, the Whitewash City proprietor e-mailed the PDF files to me after he received my payment. Using Eric’s instructions I discovered the correct way to assemble these things. It turned out that it is a lot easier than I thought. My past problems stemmed from the fact that I just did not know what I was doing. The most important thing is using a metal ruler, not only to cut the pieces out, but to score a nice little scratch in the card stock at each spot that needs to be folded. You score the side that will be opposite the direction of the fold. I found that is makes it easy to get all the pieces to fit together nicely. Also, you need to find some cardstock to print the patterns. Eric recommends 110LB cardstock. I had to go to an office supply store to find it. I didn’t buy it there though because they only sell it in large reams. Instead I went to Michael’s craft store and bought some loose white cardstock that they had in their bins. I don’t think that what I ended up with was 110LB; it was probably more like 80LB. The bins at Michael’s were not marked so it was hard to know. Anyway whatever it was that I ended up with, it worked well. You have to run it through color laser jet printer and this paper worked well in an ordinary laser jet. So, I think they turned out pretty nicely. Have a look, this one is called House #2:

Whitewash City Town Church

This one is called the Town Church. The last picture shows another nice feature of these Whitewash City Models. They all come with a floor plan that you can print out and place under the model. That way, if your action moves inside you just pick up the model and play it out on the floor plan.

Russian T34 cutaway

As I mentioned on Feb 6th, we visited the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum a few days ago. (See Below) Here are a few more pictures from that visit. This is a Soviet T34/76 that has been cut away on the left side so you can see the entire interior. We were lucky to be able to see this, it is in a building that is not open to the public.

T34 close up

Here you can see both the turret and hull a bit better.

T34: views of turret interior and hull interior

Here is a view of both the turret and hull close up.

A Visit to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum

This past Saturday your blog hosts, Bwana Bill and El Bandito, drove up to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. We received an invitation through the Flames of War Northern Virginia Yahoo Web Group. Bob Smart, who is a regular volunteer at the museum invited everyone in the group to Aberdeen for a special tour. About a dozen of us dedicated gamers braved a bad rain storm and took Bob up on his generous invitation. We got to see things that are not normally open to the public. It was a really great opportunity even though the weather was really bad. If you scroll down you will see photos of three tanks that we saw. We saw a lot more of course, and we will post those pictures later. Hopefully all you Tabletop Gamers out there will find them useful in terms of the colors used and the markings.

U.S./British M3 Stuart (Honey)

The M3 Stuart was a speedy and reliable U.S. built tank that was used by both the U.S. and British armies in WWII. The British nicknamed it the "Honey," because they thought it ran like, "a Honey"! This one bears the paint scheme of the British 7th Armored Divison, the "Desert Rats."

German Panzer IV F1

This Panzer IV F1 bears the paint scheme of the German 15th Panzer Divison which was part of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

U.S. M-10 Tank Destroyer