Finished: 15mm PAH Anti-tank Helicopter Flight

Hi folks,

Chipping away at my 'Modern' Dutch force. Thankfully the end is now in sight... until the new 'NATO Forces' comes up in the next month or two and adds more options. Unfortunately, as I look upon the dwindling number of models still to finish, my motivation is also dwindling. 

Still, one of the outstanding units had been some West German helicopter support for my Dutch. I'd been helped out again by Dave, who'd used his airbrush to lay on the camo pattern on these. I was really unsure about painting these, but had fun doing the Tornados so thought I would bump them up them up the queue. 

Armed with up to six Euromissile HOT missiles, these Helicopters entered West German service in the late 1970s and only retired in 2016. They were also widely exported and served in the armed forces of a huge number of nations in a huge number of roles. 

These particular models are Battlefront 15mm plastic kits. From memory, they went together pretty easily. The main rotor assembly has been magnetised to allow easier transport, and the flight bases have also been magnetised. Decals came from the box. I may revisit the glass on the cockpit at some point, and add some more detail. 

I've not done any weathering on the decals of either these or the Tornados, but I may revisit that in the future. I like the aircraft looking a little more pristine, I'll have to see how it looks on the table. 

I also accidentally discovered a way of easily pin washing these models (without mucking about with enamels, etc), something I'm keep to experiment with going forward. Basically, painting some water onto an area would then give the qualities needed to have the wash flow as required. I think this might work even better with acrylic thinner. 

And just for the record, here's my tracking sheet as it stands. Peach represents built models, with shades of yellow, orange and green used to track progress. The light green entries are models that are currently WiP. 

 

Finished: 15mm Dutch M113 C&V Recon Platoon

Hi folks,

Another 'catch up' blog post. This time a pair of Dutch M113 C&V Recon vehicles. These are 15mm resin and metal Battlefront models. And dinky little things they are too. 

To quote from the Battlefront website:

"The M113 C&V (Commando & Verkenning) used by the Dutch reconnaissance troops has the same origins as the Canadian Lynx. However, in the 1970s M113 C&V had its machine-gun cupola replaced with a Oerlikon-Bührle GBD-ADA turret fitted with a 25mm KBA cannon. The 25mm cannon allows them to suppress an enemy position before making their escape."

This vehicle was made by the manufacturers of the M113 APC, and was designed as a private venture but took part in the US Army competion to select a new recce and command vehicle. It lost out to the M114, but went on to be exported to both Canada and the Netherlands. Interestingly the M114's selected by the US military were considered to be failures, and were withdrawn from front line service around 1979 (according to Wiki). Whereas these vehicles carried on in service with the Netherlands and Canada into the 1990's. 

I have another 6 of these vehicles to paint, and will be doing them in pairs alongside small troops of Leopard 2s and PTRL AAA tanks. This should then give me enough to field a Dutch Recce force, when combined with Leo 1s or 2s. 

Basing and aerials to my usual standard, BF decals added (but like most Dutch vehicles of the period, there were very few markings). I have continued to pick out lights and indicators, as they provide some small splashed of colour, alongside painting the vision blocks in periscope blue. As usual, these models were weathered using Tamiya weathering powders, which come up oddly on the photos but look much more natural in person. 

Finished: 1/144 Panavia Tornado IDS aircraft

Hi folks,

Another rush job for the large game I attended at the end of July. These two strike aircraft are Battlefront repackaged Revell kits - something that Battlefront moved to due to the cost, fragility and complexity of their older resin aircraft. 

The models came with Battlefront decals for the Luftwaffe, as currently the Dutch in Team Yankee have no organic air support. I do have a distant notion to get a couple of 1/144 F-16s for my collection in the future, but for now these jets will do. 

As a child of the 80's, these bits of kit were always iconic. The area I was born in was regularly buzzed by a variety of RAF and other NATO aircraft, and these things at that time were top of the line. Futuristic, with their swing wings, speed and payload they were perhaps my favourite aircraft of the period. I definitely felt old when these started being retired from service by the RAF. 

They did see the table at the gaming day - but not my table. So the above shot is a propaganda pic after the fact. When they did make an appearance, one was downed by soviet AAA, while the other was taken out by tank self defence AA fire... the fate of most newly painted aircraft models!

Kit wise, these were easy enough to build, though not of great quality. I decided to include the plastic missiles, as well as the BF resin cluster munitions dispenser. the model also comes with a BF resin solid cockpit. Dave helped me out by kindly airbrushing the camo, which I put a wash over and attempted to highlight. Decals were then added, and I decided not to weather these as they look cooler nice and fresh on aircraft. 

Air support wise, I've only a couple of German Helicopters to finish - which hopefully will be just as quick as these pair turned out to be. 

Finished: 15mm Dutch Leopard 2A4s

Hi folks,

I've been working on my Dutch WW3 force for a while now, with a few diversions into Necromunda and other bits. However, I'm not on the end stretch!

At the end of July, I attended a Team Yankee gaming day with Prince Bishop wargames Club. This was the first outing for my army, and gave me some impetus to get more bits finished. Having been threatened by the possibility of copious T-80s I decided to try and get some 120mm armed tanks finished. 

I was certainly glad of having them, as my Leopard 1 squadron got wiped out far too easily!

This batch represents the squadron HQ tank, and the first platoon/troop of three tanks. 

I've used BF decals on these, and my usual dust weathering. Two aerials per tank, with the two command tanks having commanders poking out the turrets. The usual basing process, to match these in with the rest of the collection. 

I've now got 6 more of these to do, for my whole squadron. Of course, I'll probably get the unit finished just in time for the new 'Free Nations' book, which will apparently give the Dutch access to Leopard 2A6s. 

Anyway, these bad boys did well in their first game, although I ended up fighting a horde of T-55s and no T-80s.