Ambush

The sailors are on the way back to the ship for supplies.

Suddenly they are ambushed!

A small group of Aztecs lead by a great general attack out from behind the rocks.

Only a few of the sailors are armed, but one has a pike, and another has a gonne.

Who will win?

Conquest

Spanish and Portuguese of the time would be very similar.

They sailed all over the world and made colonies in the New World, Africa, India, and Asia.

The sets have very little if any flash, and are nicely molded.  Each nationality has men rowing boats, carrying supplies, operating cannons, pulling ropes, and doing other sailing and combat tasks.

The ships of the era were usually small and carried about 50 men per ship.  Fleets might have a dozen ships or more and sometimes carried as many as a thousand men or more.

I will use these with the Revell and Caesar Conquistadors, and Aztecs as well as the Caesar Inca.

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Christopher Columbus

Redbox has released several sets of 1/72nd scale sailors for the Age of Conquest.

They have Spanish, and Italian, and several others.

Each country has sailors handling the ship, on board cannons, and a third of sailors handling small arms.

My plan is to us all of the Spanish and Italian sets for part of my Conquistador armies.

Sailors from the Italian states are well known to have served on Spanish ships.

Cristobal Colon for example, Christopher Columbus!

Welcome friends from the Netherlands.

Anti-Aircraft Tactics

I have set up these guns in a four gun battery.

Anti-aircraft guns often set up in a square or diamond formation.

This allows all four guns to bear on a target from any direction.

They can put the fire direction equipment in the center of the guns.

That way wire runs don't have to be long for communications to the gun directors.

When the enemy is expected from a specific direction, such as along the coast...

Guns can be set up in a long row.

This formation allows guns to cover a longer area of coastline than a square.

And it's easier to fire at multiple targets using different guns.

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German Bofors Gun

This is the 1/72nd scale Zvezda Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

The kit is sold as a British weapon and comes with a British Army crew.

I have replaced them with a four man German Army crew.

In my set of wargame rules guns must have a crew at least as large as the gun caliber in centimeters. 

So a four centimeter gun gets a four man crew.

The crew if from the Caesar Miniatures German Anti-aircraft crew set.

Up Close

Heavy weapons, machine gun and rocket launcher soften up the enemy.

Even so they don't look that soft.

Comms asks for an update on the situation.

The troops are blazing away at the enemy.

The fighting is very close.

And the enemy is everywhere!

40mm Bofors Gun

In World War Two the Swedish Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun was used as a ground mount by both Axis, Allied, and neutral powers.  They Germans both purchased and captured them.

The Germans used them on ships, on buildings, and as mobile mounts, with and without the gun shield.

Zvezda makes an excellent Bofors model in 1/72nd scale.

I already have the Airfix 40mm Bofors gun, and I have assigned them to my American Army.

Airfix makes an excellent kit and I have drafted the British crew into being a crew for early World War Two US Army troops in the Philippine Islands.

The Zvezda models have been drafted into the German Army.

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Metallic Blue Troops

Radio man, note the pistol holster on his hip.  I use him as an officer.  Like the others he is 60mm.

He also carries binoculars, note the wire from the handset to the radio on his back.  The pockets have buttons, the boots have laces, great detail.

Hand to hand combat soldier.  Note the rifle finally has a magazine.

I have a lot of these guys in three different shades of green, and a few of them in medium blue and just a squads worth in metallic blue.  Because these troops are so thin compared to the Tim Mee soldiers, I consider them to be more physically fit.  Therefore the green ones serve as US Army Airborne; paratroopers.  I need to pick up a few more metallic blue and medium blue ones.  I use the medium blue for US Navy, for repelling borders, as landing parties and as SeaBees.  The metallic ones I use as part of may fictional Naval space program.

Finally, I have one prone machine gunner.  Note the magazine, again reinforcing my belief that these troops have the M14.  The M14 had a squad automatic weapon version that came with a bipod and was designed to be fired from the prone.  It also had a fold up plate on the butt to help control the weapon in full automatic fire.

Three Thousand, Six Hundred, Fifty Posts

As near as I can figure, this is my 3,650th post on Bunker Talk.

That's one post per day, for ten years!

MPC Troops

MPC US troops in metallic blue.  This is my favorite color, metallic blue, just like this guy.  I only have a few of these troops and I don't have all the poses in this color.  His rifle seems to be an M14 based on the ridges on the top of the rifle.  However, he has no magazine in the rifle.

Another MPC soldier with rifle, again no magazine.  Maybe they could not figure out if they wanted M14s or M1, or a mixture of both.  Note the pineapple grenade on his chest.

Kneeling firing a rifle.  No base on this pose and it's too bad because it does not stand up really well.  They have a similar pose with a bazooka.  That guy has a bazooka rocket molding along is leg so that it helps him to stand up.

Walking at sling arms.  A useful, if unexciting pose.  Good for guard duty, patrolling, marching in parades, or even as a crew served weapons man.

Note the two similar but not identical poses.  One on the left has no hole in the base, the base is smaller, and has no cross hatching on his helmet.  He is also a little hunched over but is that because he is tired, or he was removed too quickly from the mold?