Armies Move on Their Stomach

Sure, armies move on their stomach, but how many cooks does your wargame army have? Recently, I have been working on adding mess sections to my WWII German units. Imex makes a number of sets that are helping me. Their Eastern Friendly Indians have a nice campfire and a woman in braids and a long dress. Often the German army hired local help to assist in the mess. This figure will become one of those; as will a second female figure, kneeling grinding meal.

The Imex Pioneers are a huge boost to German dinner tables.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=IMX&code=516

They come with both cattle and hogs. German units included butchers and were expected to slaughter and prepare livestock for the dinner table. The six hogs in the Pioneers set are quite well done. They will become 1/72nd scale sausages for my German war machine. Also included in this set is a campfire with pot hanging on a pole, and an old woman preparing food on a small wireframe stove. Several of the men are chopping wood, and resting around the campfire. With a few quick head swaps, these too will be enlisted into the Wehrmacht. My favorite figure in this set is a milk maid figure with two buckets carried on a pole across her shoulders. She too has enlisted to carry for the army.

In my ruleset, each unit must be fed every 24 hours are the cease to be able to move. One mess section is able to feed one company for one day. A mess section is made up of a mess trailer or truck with four to six cooks, dishwashers, and burger flippers. Try adding a food supply to your army and see how much better it moves.

French as Germans

Odemars makes a set of historical leaders in 1/72nd scale that includes a nice figure of Charles de Gaulle. They also make a set called "German Commanders."

http://www.odemars.com/

HaT makes a set of WWII German MPs on Motorcycles, which includes an officer figure.

http://www.hat.com/Curr00/Bx99011ZU.html

In the Second World War thousands of Frenchmen served in the Waffen SS and other formations of the German armed forces. The majority of these troops wore standard German uniforms, but many wore some or all of their French uniforms during parts of their service. I have been building units for the Battle of Berlin, and French troops serving in the German armed forces were there. To create the unit, I have simply used German infantry for the bulk of the troops but I wanted my officers to be different.

I cut the heads off of one of the Odemars German Commanders, and the Odemars Charles de Gaulle figure. I took the head from the German officer in the HaT Armourfast Military Police on Motorcycles set. The HaT head I glued onto the Charles de Gaulle figure and the Charles de Gaulle head I glued onto the Odemars German Commander.

Since these are soft plastic figures, they don't take glue like regular model kits. The HaT set is made of a new glueable soft plastic, but the Odemars sets are not. I took a short piece of wire and using a needle nose pliers, pushed it into the torso, leaving about three millimeters sticking out of the body. I placed a drop of gap filling superglue on the wire and then forced the head down over the wire sticking out of the torso. The gap filling characteristic helped fill in any small spaces caused by an irregular fit.

This gave me an officer wearing a German officer uniform and a French kepi and an officer wearing a French uniform, with a German officer cap. Now my French SS unit has two distinctive French looking officers to command them.

In game terms, this will help to designate a unit that will be inclined to fight fiercely because they can't go home if the war ends in defeat for them. I give them a morale bonus to reflect this desire to avoid capture.

Ultra Modern Wargaming

Most of the 1/72nd scale figure companies don't make much in the way of modern, science fiction or ultra modern figure and equipment sets. The quest for these items has led me to the toy department of my local Target, and Toys R Us stores. I found Matchbox, the people who make the little die cast cars and trucks, also make a line of products called "Battle Kings."

These sets typically contain ten parts, to include three troops in about 1/72nd scale, two die cast vehicles, a towed weapons platform, a small bunker, and a flag. The troops vary a bit in size, but I found them all usable for sci fi games and most usable with any 1/72nd scale plastic troops. Each set is about $5 per pack.

In the left front of the photo we see three Caesar Miniatures 1/72nd scale Modern US Army figures in a sort of gray / green color. The front right corner are three figures from Matchbox that are perfect for 1/72nd scale. One is kneeling firing a rifle, one is standing holding his rifle at the ready and directing others, and the third is kneeling firing a large ATGW. This figure is very nice, the missile tube is hollow in front, which is an excellent detail.

In the left rear are three Matchbox figures, one standing firing a light machine gun from the hip, with a finely detailed bipod, one kneeling and loading a cannon projectile and the third kneeling and firing an assault rifle. These troops are also in perfect 1/72nd scale and will work well as modern troops or sci fi troopers. In the right rear are some gray figures from Matchbox that are a bit large. They are wearing some kind of breathing gear and so I use them as power armor or environmental suits.

Check out these sets, I have been buying them up to reinforce my science fiction and ultra modern collection. The vehicles are good too, but that's another posting.

New Stuff in the Bunker

 

I got word that my order from Unicraft is in, I go to pick it up on Monday. Unicraft makes unique resin models in 1/72nd and other scales. Most are aircraft, but they also make a submarine, and bombs.

The submarine is a Grundahi German Miniature Submarine. They are a tracked submarine that drives along the floor of the ocean. The USSR made similar vehicles, post war. By driving along the seabed you can avoid sonar detection and do heavy work. Such subs can have arms to grasp undersea phone and telegraph cables and cut enemy communications. They also can get frogmen close to shore so they can attack beach obstacles or naval installations.

Also included in my order was four different designs for WWII era German atomic bombs, and a conversion kit for an Arado 234 as an AWACs plane. German scientists were well along on atomic bomb research and so these seemed to be interesting subjects. The AWACs should make a good addition to my German airforce. The technology acts as a force multiplier making few planes operate more efficiently, allowing better interception of intruder aircraft.

Finally, I got a McCulloch MC-4 helicopter. One of the early US military aircraft from the 1950's. I remember this helicopter from some old sci fi movies of the era. I think it was in GOG, an early robot movie.

Miniature wargames can be greatly enhanced by the use of aircraft. How many times have you played an armor game and had the enemy attack with a massive parking lot of tanks? Knowing that there is no aircraft lurking overhead makes people complacent and they will cluster their armor. Just adding the potential for aircraft will cause most wargamers to disperse greatly.

Aircraft miniatures can be hung from the ceiling or placed on a pole. Take a small bit of wooden 2x4 and drill a hole in the center. Glue a foot long metal rod into the wood block, I used a length of wire coat hanger. Find the balance point in your aircraft model, and drill a small hole there. Insert the coat hanger into the hole in the aircraft and your planes can fly over the table. I figure on single engine fighter is worth about five tanks.