Mystery Anti-Tank Gun

This post was inspired by Archduke Piccolo a mystery anti-tank gun.

When I saw his post I thought "I have that gun and I always believed it was a 5cm Pak 38".  I must say this had been wishful thinking as apart from the gun that came with the original Airifx Germans and Africa Corps all I had was 75mm Pak 40s and a few rare 37mm Pak 35s.

Here's my gun, solo and with a yet to be rebased old Command Decision crew (Matchbox and Esci figures I think).

I consulted my copy of Anti-Tank Weapons by Peter Chamberlain and Terry Gander , and now think it might be a 7.5cm Pak 50.

The model came with ARII's German Secret Strongpoint.  

All the stuff in the box can be seen here: http://henk.fox3000.com/arii.htm

But I see on the box they call it Anti-Tank Gun 50mm ...  

Pousard Leipzig Project – Part 5

Just giving this project an increased audience.  Battle is about to commence.

Relevant post from Lawrence Pousard on the Yahoo Group – The Unofficial Napoleon’s Battles Group

 “My Leipzig project is finally ready to be fought ( I know I am over a month late in getting the battle fought for the anniversary) . Final troop placement have been made, reserve forces in place where they will be coming on. Victory points assigned, villages terrain and troops labeled and "mood" music is ready...LOL Since I have four days off for Thanksgiving and my kids as well the battle is going to start on Thursday and go through Sunday (very awesome). Thanks for everybodies help to questions I had and giving me some ideas. Photos of the battle will be posted.

Regards 
Lawrence

Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:14 pm (PST)”

Allied Command

Army of Silesia

Austro-Russian reserves

Combined reserve forces

Combined reserve forces

Elements of the Army of the North

Over head view

View from the South West

View from the South

View from the South

Galgenberg Hill labeled with French/Allied victory points and a 28FrLN brigade and battery protecting it.

Kolmberg Hill with its 24FrLN brigade defenders.

The city of Leipzig.

The classic first edition of the rules by Avalon Hill and all necessary player aids.

The mood music ... I didn't know there was a soundtrack for Waterloo (it was seeing this movie that got me into wargaming).  It seems to be a collectors item now, but it is amazing what you can find on YouTube, just a pity the one I selected was the German soundtrack, but fair enough, if it hadn't been for their arrival on the battlefield ... well, who knows?. 

Good luck for the game, Lawrence!

Just to restate this is not my game, figures or pictures.  The aim of this post is to give wider access to people interested in the subject of refighting Napoleonic battles using miniatures, particularly 1/72^nd scale plastic figures.

Canberra Games Society mid 1980s - Ancients

Ancient in more ways than one.  More photos too good to hide away.

The Tin Soldier figures are mine, I had to borrow troops from others in order to field an army for WRG 6th Edition.  The elephants aren't mine - my army was Later Hoplite Greek.  I did add in elephants later.

Yep, 6th Edition, just look at those wedges.

Looks like a competition game.  My apologies to the guy in the black jacket, but I can't recall his name.

More competition games, that's Myron reaching across the table.

My boys!  These guys are still going well.

My army in battle against Myron's Tibetans.  All my figures now except for the Peltasts.  I later went overboard on the Peltasts (LMI, LJS, LTS - the super troops of my army as I recall - doh!)

I would have been pretty proud when I took this photo - my first (metal) army.  Before this it was only Airfix plastics, Napoleonic and WW2.

From memory I won.  I have a photo of a particularly glum looking Myron that I have decide not to post that I think coincides with this game.  Mostly the Hoplites wouldn't win - it was hard to get them into battle, Irregular A armies like the Tibetans had a good chance of rolling high on melee, and missile fire was very low (in contrast to the Tibetans were everyone had a bow - and were bound to get a good couple of results sooner or later).

The Canberra Games Society as it was back in the mid 1980s.  Again I can't recall all the names, but the black haired chap seated facing towards the camera but looking to his right is Louie and he was one of the guys who lent me figures until I got my army finished.  The bridge club was a good venue and I recall the games were nearly all WRG 6th Edition at that stage.

SAGA - Sydney Adventure Gaming Awards 1988

In sorting out my papers (I have a new attic to stock) I came across this article which I scanned in for posterity.

I can't remember writing it, or what it was meant for (probably the local Canberra Games Society magazine called Charge).  I reading it I was sure pissed off at WRG 7th Edition.

Bautzen Part 2

November 16^th saw a continuation of the game with the allies in some confusion due to a change of commanders and lost notes, but all par for the course and might have even added a little historical accuracy into the game that would be hard to do by rules alone.

The French attacked von Ziethen on the Kreckwitz heights from three sides (at least).  

But my Dragoons were coming to the rescue.  (A slightly blurred photo, but I felt it does the situation justice).  My forces were very congested and I spent a lot of time shuffling them about to enable me to clear paths so I could move them (and which in turn lead to a bit of a discussion about unit density which I am keen to see how would be handled by Napoleon's Battles).

My Uhlans were beat up in a second fight but were able to pull back (or rather rallied at a safe point near Klein Bautzen, although how safe it was is questionable given that the French were just about to assault it).  The carp pond interfered equally to both sides by blocking attack opportunities as they presented.

Sadly that was where I had to leave the game for the long drive home.

As they become available I will add in links to the ANF posts on the battle.  It is a massive undertaking to plan, organise and game such a battle and the ANF are to have congratulated for a sterling effort, which most importantly produced a fun game.  I consider myself privileged that I was able to participate and only regret I won’t be able to be there for the end.

Meanwhile here is one of James' photos as a taster.

Here is the link to the main report on this game:
 http://avonnapoleonicfellowship.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/battle-of-bautzen-2021-may-1813-day-two.html

Borodino in 5mm using Napoleon’s Battles

I’m chuffed!

I was sure I didn’t have any pictures of my 5mm Russian Napoleonic army and the game of Borodino when they had their big day out, but today I found these photos.

It was a good camera, 35mm SLR, for its day back in  the 1990s, but I wasn’t the greatest photographer.  These photos have been scanned in at 1200 DPI and that at least allows some “looking” at the figures which is more than I can do peering at the original photos.  Sadly a lot of the figures are out of focus.

I can recall almost nothing of the game except it was dominated by artillery. The other thing I remember was how dark it was looking at the figures.  As can be seen the labels are very prominent and essential to knowing who is who and what is what.  The terrain was done by me and is basically a hand painted sheet.  The redoubts were marked by tape.  The white church was mine (still have it – souvenir from a holiday in Greece ten years earlier; how about that for planning/foresight?).

I can't recall who the other players were but I think it was again hosted at Dave Gray's place.  A lot of the figures would have been Brenton's.

It would have been shortly after this game that I sold my 5mm army (the only time I have parted with any of my stuff for money) and switched into 15mm.

But I sure am happy to have these pictures.

Here is the link to the same game in 25mm: http://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/borodino-in-25mm-using-napoleons-battles.html

600 Points of Burgundian Ordonnance Ready To Go

The picture says it all:

The final thing I needed were three command elements and I now have right, centre and left wing commanders, displayed against a suitably commander back drop.  The photo does better justice to the paper flags rather than the Tin Soldier figures I have painted or the addition of fancy plumes on two of the generals and one of the horses.

Still in the works are the pikemen and a few more archers with plans for more artillery and some stakes and field fortifications.

Prussian Landwher Infantry and Vineyard

Prussian Landwher marching past a vineyard.  This completes a bag of Battle Honors figures I bought two years ago.  Doing the cross on the front of the hats was a brush stroke too far for my painting abilities unfortunately, but all the same I am very happy with them.

Of equal achievement is the model vineyard, but I will say more about its construction in a future post, but I have wanted my own vineyard for a long time.

Crossfire - Stalingrad

Just a quick post to record a game I had today with Mark of the Crossfire Stalingrad scenario using what I think is best described as my retro custom built terrain and random assortment of 1/72nd predominantly plastic figures.

Christmas Has Come Early

I had an opportunity to pick up a good deal on some AB Napoleonics painted by Dragon Painting Services.  Superb paint job and presentation.  Only a few are worse for travel (partly due to me being over eager in opening the boxes).

Twenty two units in total - 9 French infantry, 2 French cavalry, 1 Prussian cavalry, 5 Russian infantry and 5 British/Scottish infantry.  As always my army is going to have more kilted Highland regiments than there actually were, but they look good and at least for these I won't be painting their kilts, socks and other stripey bits.  Only problem is all my highlanders are all bloody Gordons!

The basing is perfect for Napoleons Battles, although I might tone down the flocking to more match my style.

Now when someone asks me what I want for Christmas I will point to one of these units.

WW2 Australian Infantry 15mm – Part 4

HQ, commanders, mortar and Forward Artillery Observers completed.  Just have Bofors, 2pdrs, some carriers and light tanks to do plus another HQ element.  The big question is will I get them done before Xmas?  This is important as some of those things I got for Xmas last year.

Random bit of resin cast terrain I've had hanging around for a few years completed as well.

I like how the colours have come up, but I am not happy with the composition.

Too much wasted space.  I should have shifted the officer over so that the radio operator was more to the side.  But they are done now and unless the irritation grows, that is how they will stay.