SITREP

 Hope you watched The 70's on BB2 this evening..... Britain going to the dogs, SURVIVORS on TV, football violence, the birth of Punk, private armies in the shires. Pure Winter of '79 fare.

Several streams of wargaming consciousness are coming together right now. In no small part due to the new MJ Figures Falklands 1982 figures, which have helped put me into an inspirational place.

We will return to Abergavenny in 1979 next week, with an operational level game using bespoke home brewed rules, seeing the Government forces trying to break into the city and wrest it from the control of the Free Taffs and armed populace. I'm hoping the operational level game will spark a couple of lower level skirmishes in the streets, alleys and churchyards of the city, which I think are best run with the original Ambush Alley rules.

Speaking of Ambush Alley, I'm contemplating using them to refight Goose Green towards the end of May. I think their enemy generation and friction rules are perfect for recreating the elements of unknown that 2 Para found themselves facing. Suspected or potential Argie positions being treated as 'hot spots' in this case. Whilst Im sure it would be lovely to have an eight/nine foot long table with the isthmus and Goose Green settlement laid out and 2 Para attacking from one end - that game would probably have more in common with playing out the Inkerman or the Alma using Black Powder than the type of wargame I'm actually looking for to represent the essential elements of the battle. 

Here's another MJ Figures British Para from their Falklands 1982 range. Nicely executed netting on the helmet btw. I'm going to scrim in like crazy, though a few pieces of the appropriate Woodland Scenics scatter material may work equally as well.

Stopped by Games Workshop in Aberdeen today. Regardless of the critiscm that GW employees seem to garner in the forums, the guys in Aberdeen are good blokes and always really helpful. My mission today was to seek out the GW Modular Hill and gauge it's suitability for a quick and easy fix for our forthcoming hill battles. I took in a 20mm figure to get an idea of size and consequently am left thinking that I'd need two Modular Hill sections to make into one bigger hill on the tabletop which will be spruced up with additional rock outcrops to make it more characteristic of the defensive ring of hills outside Port Stanely.

Jury is still out as I have some pink insulating foamboards in the garage and they give me another option if required. To be honest the old fashioned wargaming felt draped over books, with stands of rocks deliniating crest lines and rock gullies or other major features may just be the right K.I.S.S. principle to adopt.

Cheers
Mark  

Preview: MJ Figures 20mm Falkland British

Second order of MJ Figures new 20mm Falkland 1982 figures have arrived together with some samples of forthcoming figures that Mark kindly sent me to share with you.

 

 MJ Figures: Falklands 1982 British

Mark tells me his new 20mm Falklands 1982 range will begin by mirroring the existing 15mm Falklands range - Paras, Marine Commandos, Guards/Gurkhas, SAS/SBS, Argentinian troops. Then expand to include heavy and support weapons, plus extras such as Rapier and the Gemini assault boat.

The British packs will be available in berets, M76 Para helmet, MKIV/V 'turtle', cold weather caps (photo: bottom left) and I've suggested a few in knitted woolly hats too. Two packs of berets (BF01 and BF02) are available now. The Para helmets have a mix of DPM covers, netting and scrim/foilage. Cold weather caps are modelled both with ear flaps up and down.

Got to say I am increasingly impressed. Both by these miniatures plus Mark's enthusiasm for the period. The quality of the sculpting and detail equals many 28mm ranges. They scream to be painted - now, now, now! Best of all, the poses by and large have a dynamic realism and they capture the feel of the Tom from the Cold War era.

Am I excited by the new Falkland figures from MJ? Maybe. Inspired? Definitely.

Cheers
Mark

Operation Parakeet

South Georgia, April 1982. British arctic researchers and naturists are held by Argentine Special Forces at the old coaling station of Penguin Inlet. With all attention on Grytviken, a scratch team of SBS/SAS troopers and a platoon of Royal Marines are tasked to "get the bloody Penguin twitchers out and don't let anyone slot them."

The SAS / SBS land at dusk and observe the settlement; the Marines are delayed by strong currents and engine trouble, with dawn rising and the Marines slogging up the far side of the Glacier, Sgt Chaz tells his 7 lads - "let's just f**cki*ng do it."

Penguin Inlet: South Georgia

They divide into two bricks - Sgt Chaz and troopers Gaz, Daz and Baz going left and Sgt Mike, Jake, Stan and Goffy going right; each brick has M16s, a M203 and a couple of LAWs. The first buildings are empty. The next, to judge by the empty tins and a grimace from Stan, are occupied.....an Argie steps out of the right hand shack, goes to call an alarm and is dropped. It all goes loud as 203 rounds thump into the shacks, followed by M16 fire. The buildings are clear. Mike's brick pushes up to the house adjacent to the slipway and spot a clutch of Argies over the road; they open fire and drop the Argies but Mike goes down. Meanwhile Chaz's brick is up to a small shack on the road, Baz and Gaz break left to move up to the house next to the Church......"Action LEFT" as a squad of Argies bundles out, firing...."ACTION FRONT!" as FNs are poked out of the windows of a house over the track.

 SAS/SBS Firing line working forward

The entire settlement is engulfed as the Brits put out fire. The Argies to the left are grenaded and scatter but a stray round drops Daz; Baz puts some down range but a rife grenade goes off far too close and he's down too.  Mike's brick is under fire now with Goffy put out of action.

Its looking a bit tight for the SAS/SBS but Chaz unlimbers a LAW and fires it at the house across the road - demolishing the chimney; its followed by some 203 rounds that rattle the windows. Doors are slamming and some Argies run towards the church - are they going for the civvies? They get dropped.

 Protagonisti: Chaz, Gaz, Daz and Baz

Mike is cut off from his guys as they are on the other side of the shack putting fire down the road - he slots a couple of Argies across the slipway and ducks back head ringing from a grenade. Shaking his head, he gets the M16 online and drops two more Args. He steps back into a porch and covers the right flank.

While everyone else (about two blokes in all) put out covering fire, Chaz leads Gaz in a looping run around to the side door of the church...."BRITISH ARMY!!".....size tens are applied to the door which is stuck firm. Cheers and singing of Rule Britannia are heard from the church as the door gets another good kicking but succumbs to a pew wielded by some large Arctic Survey lads.

Two brave Argies run out the back of the house

to set up a fire position in cover

Bullets rip into the settlement as an Argie MAG MG up on the hill opens up. Its a long shot but Jake cycles his 203, raises the M16 and plonks a grenade onto the gun team. The civilians pour out of the church and are ushered to cover; its all oddly quiet. The troopers scout around quickly and help their wounded up and away. Sgt Chaz gets on the radio "Penguin One Alpha to Penguin Actual. We have run out of Argies. Out."

Sgt Chaz: unhurt
Troopers
Gaz: unhurt
Daz: torn 'tache
Baz: killed

Sgt Mike: unhurt
Troopers
Jake: demon with the 203
Stan: ripped copy of Penthouse
Goffy: dented tin of Chicken Supreme

Game hosted and run by Mark, played with a liberally interpreted Voyages Extraordinaire from Wessex Games.

Cheers
Maff

20mm Street Furniture

Just popped over to The Scene to pick up some 15mm 'You lose it here and you're in a world of hurt' US Special Forces for my Posse Commitatus project. Whilst browsing the webstore I found they now do a series of skips in their Scrap Yard range in both 15mm and 20mm and at very reasonable prices.

The Scene UK: SK2001 

£1.80 for 2 empty skips

The range includesnot just empty skips but also skips filled with various ballast, building materials and waste/scrap metal. I had planned to make some of my own skips from spare card but at these prices it's a no brainer to buy straight from The Scene!

 S&S Models: UrbanJunkandRats 1

Shaun at S&S Models has released this pack of generic urban junk with rats. Great as markers and generic battlefield debris. Like the traffic cones in particular. Next month these will be on the shopping list along with his previous urban barricade and burning debris to add to my burgeoning piles of rubbish bags to give my urban setup a much more fought over and inner city decay look about it.

 MJ Figures: Sand Wars - Clan Falcon

What are these?  Near Future/Cyber Punk cops. No, not really, they are MJ Figures new 20mm Sand Wars: Clan Falcon Sci Fi figures. Two packs of these figs and I thought in the right urban camouflage they would make great Near Future SWAT team keeping order on the streets in 2079. There are two packs of very nice figs. I'm going to get some to try out and also see if they would work with Winter of 79 with some added SLRs from my spares box.

Cheers
Mark

ps... tonights game is a joint force of SBS/Royal Marine Commandos retaking the fictional settlement at Penguin Inlet, South Georgia, 1982.

S&S Models OTO-Melara 105mm Pack Howitzer

I have to admit a soft spot for the meccano-like 105mm L5 Pack Howitzer (aka Italian OTO-Melara Mod 56). Some of you who are my age would have had a Corgi diecast model of one of these as a kid back in the early seventies. So I'm delighted that Shaun at S&S Models has released this iconic weapon in 20mm.

£5.50 inc postage to UK

April 2012 Update PDF

The L5 saw action in Aden, Borneo, Vietnam and Malaya with British and Commonwealth forces. The Argentines also deployed three batteries in the Falklands in 1982.

The pack howitzer was designed to be easily broken down (into 12? parts) by it's crew and as a result it was not suitable for being towed over long distances unless you had a REME wagon following behind to pick up the bits that fell off. I believe the offical handbook restricted road movement to a MAXIMUM of 20 miles and shows it porteed on the flatbed of a Bedford truck, though the principal means of battlefield transport was meant to be a 3/4 ton Land Rover.

The L5 was progressively replaced by the L118 Light Gun from 1974 to 1978/9. Read more about British towed artillery in the seventies in my previous article.

From a Winter of '79 perspective the L5 105mm pack howitzer, with it's compact size and ease of transportation amkes it a perfect weapon to equip rebel formations whether regular or militia. The fact that the L5 could be placed in the back of a Bedford gives us ample opportunity for building some fun hastily armoured lorry 'technicals' for Winter of '79.

The 105mm pack howitzer is also available from Skytrex but in this instance I prefer the look of Shaun's so email is on the way to order one to start off my rebel artillery park. 


Cheers
Mark

MJ Falklands 20mm British: Go & Buy

Back on Tuesday evening I ordered several packs from MJ Figures new 20mm Falkland 1982 range. Wednesday they sent an email to inform me the figs had been despatched and duly enough on Thursday, there was a note through the letterbox to say they're waiting for me at the post office.

MJ Figures: BF01 £2.50

So this morning I walked up to the post office in the village to pick up the parcel. Made it back just before the rain but I wouldn't have minded, as these little beauties would have been worth the soaking.

The photos on the MJ webstore don't do them justice. The actual figures are well sculpted, crisply moulded, with no flash or mould seams. Unfortunately one figures arrived without most of his rifle, which had obviously broken during packaging, but I'm sure in this instance I can rustle up a spare Sterling for him. The minis are very naturally posed with well articulated faces (obligatory Tom Selleck moustaces in evidence on some figures) and above all, the berets look absolutely cracking, giving these Toms plenty of real soldier character.

Even better, these MJ Falklands British match with my ex-Hotspur figures - hallebloodylujah! I'll be buying at least one additional pack of the MJ's simply to whip the beret heads off and convert some ex-Hotspur Falkland figures.

The figures mostly appear to be wearing 68 pattern DPM Windproofs and a couple are wearing the longer and more voluminous 68 pattern Waterproof. In this scale the 68 pattern Windproof can easily double as a combat jacket with detachable hood, whilst the Waterproof can be painted as a civilian or ex-foreign army parka.

The 58 pattern webbing is in fighting order (sans bumroll). IMO the various pouches are too small on many of the figures to be truly accurate, especially waterbottle and kidney pouches, but I guess they suffice to look the part in this scale and a small niggle considering how good the figures are overall.

The L4 (Bren) LMG and SLR are very well sculpted, though the L4 looks a little short to my eye and there's no bipod in evidence. A small sprue with folded and extend bipod options like Elhiem provided with their GPMG gunner would have been a great addition. All SLRs have bayonets attached. Too often a pigs ear when attempted by other manufacturers, are in this case, well moulded and look like they can do the business.

Pack BF02, includes a bareheaded casualty lying face down and a separate SLR on a base, which even on it's own would make a good morale marker.

Summing up, what do I think? Well, these MJ Figures Falkland 1982 British are hot out of the parcel and I'm about to place a second order, so that should say something in itself. I hope Mark at MJ expands the range to include helmeted variants, GPMGs, Charlie Gs and support weapons as I'd love to see more Toms of this quality available.

Cheers
Mark

Noddy Suits

Throughout the Cold War, the threat of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare was taken very seriously. Any picture of the British soldier in 'Noddy suit' and respirator remains a chilling reminder of those days.

Elhiem have just released BAOR 2,  a 20mm Cold War British infantry section in full NBC protective kit including S6 respirator. The figures are based on the previously released BAOR 1 pack. Nice poses, the NBC gear this time round gives them additional character. 

 Elhiem Figures: BAOR 2

So how useful are these minis in Winter of '79? Surely they are best left for British 1 Corps in NORTHAG or defending an RAF Leuchars from WarPact VDV? Well, I  say if you want troops who represent the faceless authority of the government in areas where there is open rebellion and civil war, these are it. They make a great juxtaposition to opposition forces in more regular British Army combat uniforms.

OK, so the NBC overshoes are a bit of overkill, agreed, but we can largely go into squint mode. Combat chic was popular in the early '80's and I remember young people wearing the 'Noddy suit' smocks as fashionable (go figure) items of outdoors wear. As a quick and easy way to uniform a citizen militia though, possibly not a bad choice either as the 'Noddy suits' are worn over normal clothing.

And if you are put off painting DPM, then the 'Noddy suit' is your deliverance young man. You can even 'speed paint' your Toms in a grey-green colour all over, followed by black respirator, gloves and boots. That just leaves the olive webbing and weapons. Add some colour by giving the weapons wooden stocks and drybrushing the hessian strips mid and light khaki. Done.

A wonderful flashback, plus immensely useful for TW2000 and Zombie games, so definitely on my shopping list.


Cheers
Mark