Latest Pico Armor Order

My next round of East Front reinforcements just showed up from Pico Armor. It is another pack of MiG-3 fighters. This will give me more than a squadron of fighters for the Soviets. In researching the version 2 of the Ustilug supplement, I am looking into the air campaign portion as well. Over Ustilug, the Soviets of the 14SAD didn't have any MiG-3s sadly. They were largely equipped with the I-16 and I-153 fighters and some SB bombers.

I have a single pack of I-16s (8) and a pack of SB bombers (6). I believe that I have a pack of Tumbling Dice I-15s laying around that I had ordered but are just in a drawer somewhere. I should have enough to get started for the Ustilug air campaign. May want a few more of each aircraft that I currently have. I wet ahead and placed a Pico Armor order for a pack of He111s (bringing that total to 8 aircraft, a pack of SB bombers (bringing that total to 12) and another pack of I-16s (bringing that total to 16).

While I do not have enough He111s for a full Staffel (8 of 12), it is enought to get started. I will need to play test some bombing missions. For the Soviets, I have a full squadron of 12 for the SB Bombers and more than a squadron of I-16s. This will perfectly match the aircraft of the 14 SAD.

According to http://niehorster.org/012_ussr/41_oob/kiev/air.html, the 14th SAD had the following:

As can be seen by the numbers, the strength of each unit could vary wildly at this point of the war. There was a modernizzation effort underway and it is possible that newer aircraft were coming to replace the older equipment at the start of Operation Barbarossa. On the German side, V FliegerKorps had three different groups of bombers and a single group of fighters. I have the Bf109Es but do not have any Bf109Fs. I think I will go with the E Model for now and pick up some Fs later. I have some spare Ju88s that a friend had 3d printed for me. I have 3 metal ones from Pico Armor and some upscaled 3d printed one That the original model was in 1/900 scale. If thesa match well enough with my existing models, I may look at doing some others. V FliegerKorps not only had Ju88s, they also had He111s. With the mentioned purchase above, I will have 8 total. That puts me one pack away from having a full staffel.

The next part will be how to represent bombing targets. One thought would be something drawn on felt. Use the overall shape of the hexes and cut out something that would lay on top of the mat. In Bag the Hun, it mentions ships as targets. That Nick used 1/600 scale aircraft and 1/1200 scale ships. I may try that as an option.

I need to wrap up my current campaign first though before I paint anything for Operation Barbarossa.

Friday, May 4, 2018

Supports for 1941-1942 German Chain of Command Army

I am working my way through the support elements of my Germans for Chain of Command. I want to complete out my force options. I have a number of them but I never sat them down to figure out what I had.

We will start with the 1941 list published from the TFL Website.

German Infantry Platoon June 1941 to December 1941

Unit	Location	Aircraft
HQ	Rovno
17	Lyubitov	26x I-16; 26x I-153
46	Dubno	56x I-16 & I-15
52	Ovruch	45x SB
89	Lutsk	71x I-16
253	Rovno	14x I-153

Base Platoon
Unit	Makeup	Pictures
Headquarters	LT, SR, Pistol Feldwebel, SL, SMG
Mortar Team	5cm Mortar Team w/ 3 Crew
Squads 1-4	Obergefreiter, JL, SMG LMG Team w/3 Crew Rifle Team w/ 6 men

Support Options
LIST ONE
Satchel Charge	Need to Paint
Medical Orderly	Need to Modify Figures
Mine Clearance Team, 3 men
Wire Cutting Team, 3 men	Need to Modify Figures
Demolition Team, 3 men
Adjutant	Off Table
Minefield
Barbed Wire
Roadblock	Unpainted
Kubelwagen
Two solo motorcycles
Motorcycle and side‐car
Entrenchments for one Team
LIST TWO
Panzerbüchse 38/39 Team, 2 men
5cm mortar Team, 3 men
Pre‐Game Barrage	Off Table
LIST THREE
Sniper Team
Flamethrower Team, 3 men
2.8cm  heavy  ATR w/ three crew
Panzer IB
SdKfz 221
SdKfz 223
SdKfz 251/1A‐C
LIST FOUR
PaK36 3.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew
leIG18 w/ five crew
Engineer Section	Missing Figures
Forward Observer
MG34 w/ 5 crew
Panzer 35(t)
Panzer 38(t)
Pz.III E‐G
Panzerjäger I
Befehlspanzer I
SdKfz 10/5 AA
Sdkfz  222
StuG III A‐E
LIST FIVE
Regular Infantry Squad
Flak 30 or Flak 38 2cm AA gun w/ five crew	Need To Buy
PaK36(t) 4.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
PaK38 5cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
Motorcycle Aufklarungs Squad
Sdkfz 231 (8 Rad)
Sdkfz 232 (8 Rad)	Need to Buy
Pz.II A‐C
Panzer II H or J	Experimental Models Not Needed
Pz.IV D‐F
LIST SIX
Panzer II D Flamm
Panzer IVF1
sIG33  15cm  w/ five crew

In addition, I had some extras as well. Including spare infantry and a couple of surrendering/shot guys.

German Infantry Platoon January 1942 to June 1942

Base Platoon
Unit	Makeup	Pictures
Headquarters	Feldwebel, SL, SMG
Squads 1-4	Obergefreiter, JL, SMG LMG Team w/3 Crew Rifle Team w/ 6 men

Support Options
LIST ONE
Add 2 SMGs to 1 Squad	Need to Paint
Compound Charge	Need to Paint
Medical Orderly	Need to Modify Figures
Mine Clearance Team, 3 men
Wire Cutting Team, 3 men	Need to Modify Figures
Demolition Team, 3 men
Adjutant	Off Table
Minefield
Barbed Wire
Kubelwagen
Two solo motorcycles
Entrenchments for one Team
LIST TWO
Roadblock	Unpainted
PanzerKnacker Team, 4 men	Unpainted
Senior Leader	Unpainted
Pre-Game Barrage	Off Table
5cm mortar Team, 3 men
LIST THREE
Sniper Team
Flamethrower Team, 3 men
Green Infantry Squad w/ JL	Unpainted
Regular Dismounted Cavalry Squad	Unpainted
Mount a Cavalry Squad on Horses	Unpainted
PaK36 3.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew
Flak 30 or Flak 38 2cm AA gun w/ five crew	Need To Buy
LIST FOUR
leIG18 w/ five crew
Forward Observer
MG34 w/ 5 crew
37mm AA Gun w/ 5 Crew
Panzerjäger I
SdKfz 10/5 AA
PaK36(t) 4.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
PaK38 5cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
LIST FIVE
Regular Infantry Squad
Motorcycle Aufklarungs Squad
Pak40 7.5cm w/ 5 Crew	Painting
LIST SIX
Marder II
Marder III
Panzer II D Flamm
LIST SEVEN
Regular Engineer Section	Missing Figures
Panzer III Flamm
Stug III F
LIST EIGHT
Elite Engineer Section	Missing Figures
sIG33  15cm  w/ five crew
Stug III G
Panzer IV f2
LIST NINE
StuH 42
LIST NINE
Tiger I