Mrs. History PhD's F-bomb!!

Tonight, while puttering about with a 6mm GHQ M42 Duster mini, which is in keeping with her fascination with the Vietnam War, Mrs. History PhD dropped the F-bomb!! No, not the profane four-letter-word that you're thinking about. "Flames of War"!!!

And, as if that wasn't horrific enough, she then casually mentioned that she'd like to try painting one of their Vietnam War vehicles! OMG!! 15mm!?! Really!?! Really!?! She's gone over to the dark side!! It's too late!! She's already changing!!

Save yourselves!! I'll hold her off while you all run for it!!

There's only one way to stop her!!

But far be it from me to stifle her desire to paint miniatures. Being that it's her birthday next weekend, I'll just get a small surprise ordered tonight. Don't panic! I've already bought a couple of other gifts that are more "wife appropriate". 

I'm expressly forbidden to tell you which birthday it is that she'll be having, but it ends in a zero. 

Uh-oh! She's watching. I can't say more. Just laugh and look casual....

No more artillery (for a while)!!

I've polished off one last East German artillery battery. My reserve and training unit, part of the 20th Motor Rifle Division, is equipped with outdated equipment, as would have been the case in reality, so I needed a battery with semi-obsolete guns.

The D-20 152mm howitzer:

went into service in 1955 and it was intended to replace a variety of types of 152mm WWII-era guns still in Soviet service, primarily the ML-20:

The ML-20 had entered service in 1937 and ceased production in 1947, so the design was showing its age by the 1950s. (That last photo is the North Koreans. They were probably executing someone standing right in front of the muzzle. Gotta love the Norks. If something's worth doing, it's worth maniacally overdoing. Anyway....).

The ML-20, like all superseded equipment in the WarPac, never really got to retire, as production levels of its successor never met demand. As far as possible, it was relegated to second line units, such as the East German 20th Motor Rifle Division. 

Here's my battery:

The usual 1V18 forward observer vehicle and a BTR-60PU for the battery commander. As the ML-20 weighed virtually twice what the D-20 did, I've elected to go with a heavy prime mover, the AT-T:

As an aside, for those of you that game WWII in 3mm, O8's ML-20 mini will easily pass for the Soviet 152mm M1910/34 howitzer.

The only appreciable difference between the two was the M1910's barrel was 14'4", excluding the muzzle brake, while the ML-20 had a 10' barrel, again excluding the brake. That 4 feet translates into 2mm at this scale. Certainly noticeable if you really look hard enough, but not an "in your face" difference.

Hopefully, I'll get in a busy painting weekend. I need to get another battalion of East German T-55s finished so I can complete an armored regiment. We'll see how busy Mrs. History PhD keeps me with BS...I mean "necessary household projects". More next time!

Further thoughts on samurai

I've been thinking about:

Not really. Just kidding.

Some time ago ("I've got that old familiar feeling again!" - March 1, 2015), I wrote that I've decided to stop fighting my addiction and give in to my long-held desire to begin a samurai project. 

While that's all well and good (unless you ask Mrs. History PhD):

it begs the question: in what scale? Nothing in wargaming is more ridiculous and abhorrent to me than the "12 guys are a regiment" syndrome. Therefore, you couldn't give me 28mm anything, even if it's free. It also lets out 15mm. So, "mass effect" being my weakness, that leaves 6mm and 10mm (sadly, there are no samurai in 3mm).

For 6mm, Baccus is about it (don't even get me started on Irregular):

I can get them from a U.S. distributor, postage included, for 20¢ per figure. Direct from Baccus in the UK is actually slightly less (17¢), but takes longer to arrive.

On the other hand, Pendraken 10mm:

from a U.S. distributor is 37¢ per figure, postage included. Direct from Pendraken in the UK is only slightly more (41¢). Again, let's don't even bring up Irregular's 10mm.

I see that Kallistra in the UK has a samurai line and although they're billed as "big 10s", Kallistra seems quite open about the figures actually being 12mm. Either way, they won't mix well with any other line, so that let's them out.

So, my initial thoughts are that 10mm will have more obvious detail which will require a more intricate and time consuming paint job. Also, larger figures equals less figures on the table. However, the sculpts are the deciding factor for me. If one or the other company just doesn't measure up, in my opinion of course, then the other is the winner by default. 

Though I am leaning toward 6mm, that's sight unseen, as I've never yet seen either company's products in the flesh. So, tonight I ordered a single pack of Pendraken and I'll have a look. After they arrive, I'll buy a single pack of the same type of troops from Baccus and I'll compare. Anyone care to buy the rejected pack from me?

Ok, now we wait on the post office to accidentally do its job and we'll hope like Hell that Mrs. History PhD doesn't bother to read this post! 

I think I have an artillery addiction

It seems I have developed an artillery "dependency issue". This weekend, I've finished off yet another towed artillery battery for my 1981 East Germans. 

When the D-30 122mm howitzer:

began entering service in 1963, it was intended that its predecessor, the M-30:

would be retired as quickly as D-30 production allowed. The M-30 was a barely modernized version of the M1938, which had entered service in 1939 and ceased production in 1955. There were two versions; the most common, without a muzzle brake:

and a less common version with the brake:

Industrial production in the Warsaw Pact being what it was, it proved impossible to fully phase out the M-30 and it continued to serve alongside the newer D-30 right up until the fall of the Soviet Union, though the Soviets retained fewer of them in service than did the other members of the WarPac. In fact, quite a few former Communist countries still have M30s in their reserves. 

I chose Star 266 trucks as prime movers:

The Star was produced by the Poles, but East Germany purchased quite a number of them for their army. As you can see, it most often had a peaked tarpaulin, but Marcin has given his a flat-topped one. And here is my battery:

with the usual 1V18 for the forward observer:

and a BTR-60PU for the battery commander:

I ran across this oddity when searching for images of the Star 266:

You rarely see wheeled monitors!! I wouldn't think that a truck with a curb weight of only 7.35 long tons could possibly stand up to the recoil that a gun that size must generate. It rather reminds me of the British Terror class monitors:

A whole lot of gun on not much ship!

I still have one more battery in mind. Some outdated guns for my East German reserve and training unit, the 20th Motor Rifle Division. More on that in the next post or two. 

How does one lose page views?

That's the overview of my viewer stats. See the post with the highest views, "You might as well use grains of rice!"? Two weeks ago, it had 828 views and it has been slowly but steadily falling since then. How does that work? After sober reflection, do people regret reading my blog and later they return and "take back" their viewing of it? Hmmmm....

She's really cranking them out!!

During the recent research my wife did in order to paint a South Vietnamese M8 Greyhound ("Mrs. History PhD strikes again!" - April 13, 2015), she came across an article that described several ARVN M113A1's that had been locally modified by adding turrets to them taken from non-operational M8's. She (and I) found this intriguing, though no amount of Googling since then has managed to turn up a period image. Undaunted, my wife has forged ahead and I have provided the necessary bits and pieces for her very first kit-bashing!! 

M113A1's in South Vietnam, were they ARVN, US, or Australian, generally had the flat, rectangular trim vane (really just a breakwater) that you normally associate with the M113:

But not all did. Others had a modified vane that was supposed to cause less buffeting of the vehicle as it swam and provide additional flotation:

That being the case, I had just the item lying about. The unused hull of a GHQ M163 Vulcan with the modified vane. This had the added advantage of having a turret ring already cast onto it. 

So here is Mrs. History PhD's offering:

She's really taken to the "severely grubby" look that I prefer. If you've never spent time around military vehicles that have been in the field for more than an hour or two, take my word for it, you really cannot overdo the muckiness. I bought the wife a bottle of Mig Productions Vietnam Earth pigment powder:

which I have never used before, but I must say that I'm very impressed with it! If she keeps on like this, she'll bring back my "Vietnam fever"!

That's the weekend done, so more next time!