StuGs and StuHs - StuG Battery

More German armour... The humble StuG or Sturmgeschütz (Assault Gun) was the first boxed set of armour I got for my  fledgling German forces a few years back... The BF boxed set contained 5 vehicles and looking through some of the army lists I was using at the time, I noticed an option to upgrade one StuG to a StuH or Sturmhaubitze (Assault Howitzer), per platoon of StuGs. So I did that, making 4 StuGs and One StuH...


It wasn't until I was introduced to what 'breakthrough guns' can do to infantry, at the hands of Pauls SU122s one game, that I instantly became enamored of these deadly vehicles...

However finding an option to take StuHs in numbers with my desired German forces, was not always straight forward, as they often were not a support choice for the Mechanised German forces I was favouring using...

But they have stayed on my radar, and I have always looked to see where they may fit... Whenever I had used them they were proxied by my StuGs, but I really don't like using proxies... so with many other platoon options sorted, it was time to get some StuHs done, so I ordered a box from PSC...

You just cant beat the price of the PSC kits. Yes they are more time consuming to make than the BF resin/metal kits, and don't have the same heft as the BF ones. But when you can get 5 plastic ones for about the same price 2 Resin/Metal ones, its just a no brainer...

I decided to make 3 StuHs and 2 StuG Gs, with the Saukopf (Pigs head) styled main gun. This gun shape was better at deflecting incoming rounds, and would also help distinguish these newer vehicles from my existing BF StuGs...

More detailed info on the StuG and its variants here, thanks to wikipedia.

PSC 15mm StuGs and StuHs

3 x StuH 42

2 x StuG with Saukopf mantlet

Rear views...

Adding the BF vehicles, I can put out a platoon of 4 StuHs, the BF will be the command vehicle...

StuHs, plus the BF one to right as command vehicle

My BF boxed set was painted long ago and in a slightly differing paint style, but they still seem to match in well enough, though I may give the BF ones another coat of matt varnish to dull them down better to match in... size-wise there is very little difference...

BF StuG to left, and PSC StuGs

And adding in the StuGs, I can field 2 platoons of three StuGs, the Saukopf mantlets identifying the command vehicles

4 x StuH , & 2 x 3 StuGs

So I guess I now have the option to field a StuG Battery, another German force variety...

There's more to this story however... During the making of the PSC kits, I noticed that there was damage to the top hull, in the same places on all the sprues, ... It looked like some kind of damage had occurred as the sprues were taken from the mould? I let Will at PSC know my concerns, and despite still being able to make the kits, with a little greenstuff repair work to each, Will sent me a replacement box free of charge!
Now that's excellent customer service!

So I'll shortly have another 5 vehicles to add - I'll most likely add more StuHs, as I have finally come across a force which combines my 'beloved' half track force, with StuHs - The Fuhrer Begleit forces, currently a pdf armylist from BF website... looking forward to trying it out at some point in the future. I just need to order some Begleit tank riders from BF for the StuHs... watch this space for more...

Ferrets feast of fortuitous freebies...

I don't normally go in for these sort of things, but the good Mr Ferret certainly is giving away a veritable plethora of goodies...

Check out his blog here, for further details and a chance to win some gaming cornucopia

One of Ferrets great Empire of the Dead battle reports, featuring Aliens and Chinese, great stuff!

Well done Mr Ferret on a successful and entertaining blog!

Police Inspectors - Empire of the Dead

The last of my police inspectors done...

... this just leaves 3 half done civvies to finish off and one pack of street thug types to finish before, Requiem Arrives...

Converting FoW Infantry Teams

In my ongoing quest to find a German list that actually works, I have been playing about with more army list options, more drama on this topic can be read here.

One of these involved a change from my regular Panzergrenadiers, to the SS variety, who have an option to upgrade a number of teams from the platoon to being Panzerfaust equipped.

Rather than buy a whole new packs of Grens to do this I decided to just add the Panzerfaust teams, via rare earth magnets...

So I took an existing base of 4 guys;

Standard base awaiting conversion

... and carefully removed them from their base. I prep'd  the Panzerfaust guy and drilled out his base from the underside, and superglued a magnet into place.

I then drilled out a hole in the original base and glued a magnet into the hole, getting it flush fit with greenstuff from the underside. Then I put the original 4 guys back on the bases and re-did the flocking. Panzerfaust guy was painted up, and hey presto, he sticks nicely into place. So no having to guess or remember which stand is the panzerfaust...

Magnets in place and original figures rearranged...

So I didn't get mixed up with magnet polarity, I marked this base H for helmet for the panzerfaust guy, as the other was wearing a cap (I did two bases at the same time)

Magnets drilled and glued into position

Hey presto, Panzerfaust MG team.

And of course when being used as a regular MG team, the panzerfaust guy comes off, and a magnetized twig from the garden works as a fallen log to fill the gap...

MG team with 'fallen tree trunk.'

You could of course get really clever, with the 'gap fillers', but the twig had to do quickly as I had a game that night...

Two MG/Panzerfaust teams

Two MG/'log' teams

I really wanted to do this right as its damned annoying when someone is using proxy teams and you get up close and personal only to find out, "...oh, that's the panzerfaust team, didn't I tell you?".... yeah right...

Flames of War tournament action from Wellington Warlords Call to Arms Event

The weekend of 3-4th August saw the Wellington Warlords host their annual Call to Arms tournament, which saw me and two mates; Paul and Brett from the Kapiti region, compete in their Flames of War event.

The event consisted of 5 games played over the two days, and the setting being Late War, and armies at the traditional 1750 points level.

The missions to be played were fixed before the event, being Encounter, No Retreat, Breakthrough, Free for All and Fighting Withdrawal.

Paul and myself documented our progress game by game, over on the Kapiti Fow Gamers blog.

Here's the links to the Game reports:

If you have 5 minutes and a cup of coffee by your elbow, I'm sure you'll find them an interesting read!

Enjoy!

DAY ONE
                                                         Reports by
Mission: Encounter                  Scott                     Paul
Mission: No Retreat                Scott                     Paul
Mission: Breakthrough             Scott                     Paul

DAY TWO

Mission: Free for All                 Scott                    Paul
Mission: Fighting Withdrawal    Scott                    Paul

Victorian London gentlemen - Empire of the Dead

With the EotD Requiem figures getting nearer to their delivery time, I have been trying to clear my back log of Westwind EotD figures - mostly civilian background types, that can be used as 'prey' in some of the scenarios, or indeed 'the mob' in another...

Here's the latest four I have managed, London gents...

On a stroll past the cemetery...

Gent about town...

Mysterious gent...

Fending off the muggers...

"Hello ol' chap, how the devil are you?

I have some more police inspector types to do, and more general civilians, plus a bunch that will make a nice mob or street gang...

Not long now till Requiem!

Stuka zu Fuss

An impulse purchase, from Macks Track, yet one I had been considering for some time, and a perfect accompaniment to my half track horde, especially since I recently completed a pioneer platoon; the "Stuka zu Fuss" half track.

So named, and translating roughly as 'Stukas on foot', as the impact of this rocket launching system was equivalent to the ground troops half tracks having their own stuka on call with them...

The half track was fitted with 6 launch tubes each containing a 28cm diameter rocket. Where ever these landed would cause extreme devastation...

stuka zu fuss

In the game, the vehicle gets a one shot artillery barrage, but with 6 chances to range in... so the sooner you range in, the more rockets have hit their mark and the greater the impact...

Looking at the weapons stats and since it was going to be a one shot weapon, I wanted to figure out what best to shoot it at, and I think the best, or most vulnerable target is going to be either gun teams that have fired, due to their low 5+ save, or troop concentrations, even when dug in, or in buildings... open topped armoured vehicles could be good targets too...

The weapon only has a fairly low armour penetration of 3, but a huge 1+ firepower, and that last factor is what makes it deadly against dug in troops...

Once fired, the half track can still function as a mobile machine gun in support of the pioneers.

I look forward to trying it out...

In modelling terms the model was a little fiddly to put together, as all the racks had to be attached to the half track sides and the rocket cases attached to these... but it was fairly straight forward. Painting was my usual tri color camo, though the half track rocket frames have picked up the final dry brush perhaps a little excessively, giving the vehicle a slightly brighter yellowy tone than the rest of the regular half tracks... but I am happy with it. I even got decals on, simple black crosses, on vehicle sides between the rockets and one on the rear lower door panel, though they don't show on the pictures.

Kerr and King - European Mansion

I finally managed to finish off the last of my Kerr and King buildings, their large mansion style house.

I set it in some grounds as appropriate with some of the new bottle brush trees I made and had a quick game to myself :-)

Stately home

Lift off roof and lift out top floor so troops can be placed inside as required. And as before its 15mm scale.

Tradesmans entrance, sorry about the panzer parking lot!

The usual greenstuff and dremelling required before painting, but they come up well.

Its was  good game too, I won for change, but then again, I was playing , myself! ;-)