Elephants, Snow, Ice, and Mammoths

These are some of the elephants that I got in the Lakeshore Tub of Wild Animals I got a few days ago. They are a bit on the small side, but they will help to give my elephant herd a bit more variety. An elephant herd has several uses. Big game hunting, Tarzan games; using the old Airfix / HaT Tarzan figures, and even Afrika Korps / 8th Army goes very far south wargames!






















The set also included these animals. They make a great giant creature for those exploring the unknown jungle games.























Finally, I got a couple more mammoths from Tedco Toys. I have combined them with the Nature Toob igloos, the Matchbox Arctic explorers, and the Copplestone Arctic Camp. I placed them on a white plastic sheet to simulate an Arctic environment.























In WWII the Germans, Finns, Russians, Americans, Canadians, Japanese and British all had troops working in the Arctic regions. Often they were small groups of soldiers, sailors, and airmen monitoring the weather. The weather is often created in Arctic regions and the Allied bomber offensive against both Japan and Germany was very weather dependant. They were usually small groups that often were dropped off and expected to winter over without re-supply. These small forces sometimes fought each other and when they discovered the enemy, they would sometimes call in more forces. These little battles make quick wargames because they have small forces, and very limited terrain.

Arctic Adventures

This is the 28mm Arctic Explorer set from Copplestone Castings. It has two arctic tents, four wooden crates and two sets of skis. Tents are one piece resin, and the other bits are soft metal. All are flash free and well designed and cast.























Matchbox cars have a set that comes with two figures and a sled, they are show here with the tents. While these figures a just a tad larger than 1/72nd scale, they seem to do well with these tents.























In the back I have added a couple of the igloos from the Nature Toob set to make a nice start on an arctic diorama. Adventure games often take place all over the world and this group of sets allows you to inexpensively and easily venture into the Arctic or Antarctic regions. These items are good for wargaming too. The Nazis landed troops in northern regions for weather forecasting and they sometimes had to make do with living in tents, at least for a while. They were operating in Greenland, northern Norway, and even talked about going to Canada. The work was important to allow proper military planning because the weather from Western Europe was formed in the Arctic. There were several times when both American and British units fought small battles with these German troops in this harsh environment.