The Draw of Cold War Wargaming

I have been listening to a number of Twilight 2000 podcasts lately. It has reignited my interest in Cold War wargaming again. I would prefer a game set in the 1980s over the Twilight 2000 setting. This had me surfing eBay for some pieces that I had yet to get for my Cold War forces. I ended up with three painted FV432s for my British platoon. (I really need to find those infantry I was given.) I also picked up a pair of M114 scout vehicles.

I have also been looking at the items that I have bought but not yet printed from Flank March Miniatures. I really need to warm up my 3d printer again and getting these moving. I was going back through the blog for where I left off. I know I want to get my M113s finished. I have one that is not Merdec camo'ed up. I should have forces ready for the table top. I really don't have a clue what I am missing or even have for my Soviets at this point.

US Cold War Forces

I went downstairs and began pulling the drawers for these forces. The US forces are interesting. I have three well painted M1 Abrams tanks. But they are painted a different MERDEC pattern from my M113s. There is also a painted Bradley and a painted LAV. Each of these area really nice. I have an unpainted Team Yankee plastic M1 Abrams and three more resin M1s but only one is assembled. I have a primed M60A3 that I want to paint up. I also have two other metal miniatures that I have not been able to place. The bags are labeled "MAT1". I thought they were QRF models. But that may not be right. On Scale Creep, I can't find the code but MAT02 is the M1 Abrams. That brings me to the M113s. One will ned to be repainted in a matching MERDEC pattern with the others. That should not take too long. The Infantry plastoon is ready to go. The extra miniatures that I have are apparently giants as they are much larger than my QRF cold war US Infantry. I have some unpainted infantry on a painting stick but not many figures. I am going to look at supplementing with the Flank March minis that I bought. Definitely want to create some Engineer teams. Lastly there is a Mercedes. This may be better served with the Syrians or PLO. Definitely an objective of somekind.

I would like a complete platoon of M60 tanks to support my forces to represent more reservist units. Also a platoon of bradleys for more regulars with the M113s assigned to reserve units.

Soviet Cold War Forces

Finally, I have a straight picture. The Soviets are in the best shape of all of my minis. Mostly because I received a number of figures from Brian English after he passed away. The miniatures I painted are on the Circular bases for big men and square bases for the soldiers. His area all on round bases. There is a full platoon of mounted infantry. I have the option of BMP-1 mounted or BTR-60 mounted troops. For support options, I have a tripod mounted machine gun and a AGS grenade launcher. There is aslo two Soviet jeeps (not sure if they are UAZ or Gaz). I also have a 3d print of a flat bed truck that needs to be painted. Then a single BMP-2. I am not sure how many BMPs that I have left from the box I purchased a while back. I also have a command vehicle that seems to be based on a BTR chassis. A nice find was the 8 casualty figures. From Brian's collection, there is also 3 Sagger ATGM teams. These offer a nearly ready force that can be used.

Now, I have enough armor that they were stored in a separate drawer. The bulk of the armor is T-64s There are ten of these. However, all have taken some damage. One vehicle had its gunners come loose. All lost their external fuel tanks. It should be a short amount of work to correct. They also need touch up paint on the barrels. Then there are four T-55s. The question I have is should I transfer at least one of these to my Syrians? Only one of the T-55s is painted. Then I have two T-72s. The unpainted one is missing its smoke dispensers. I think they are in the bag in the picture so it is not a tragedy. The painted T-72 looks like it has lost gas tanks as well. The T-72s are Team Yankee Plastic models. Lastly I have a ZSU-23-4. The radar dish has come loose. All relatively simple fixes.

Israelis in Lebanon 1982

I also looked into my 1982 Lebanon Israelis. I have a full three squad Platoon with headquarters. I have one Uparmored M113 and three standard M113s for them. These are all painted. I also have a squad to use as a support element as well that is painted. I have a single M60 Magach with home made ERA armor that is painted.

I also have two 3d prints of a M60 Magach 6. In addition, I have a metal M60 as well without ERA Armor. These all need to be painted. I also have an M113 with the VADS system on it that needs painting and a M113 mortar carrier that needs some paint. Also in the lead pile of shame is a Nagma Sh'ot personel carrier that is undercoated. Lastly, there are three jeeps. They havean MG mounted. If I can find one, I would like to mount a recoilless rifle on one. In addition, I have a large number of spare painted miniatures that need the bases painted. I need some infantry support elements like machineguns. But it is still close to being done. I also have a large number of unpainted infantry as well. I need to check on what I have. I thought that I had purchased a Merkava I but I can't find it.

1982 Lebanon Syrians and PLO

I have a full mounted platoon of Syrians. I also have a wrecked T-55 and a painted T-55. Both painted very differently. I actually like the look of the wrecked one better. The infantry needs work done on their bases. I have some Sagger ATGMsand additional infantry that needs painting. I also have several packs of unpainted Peter Pig Miniatures as well. I only have 8 PLO figures.

The plan is to paint up a few more modern tanks for them and possibly some BMPs. I should have some spares. The infantry also needs some additional support elements.

NOTE: I am pretty sure I messed up Identifying the Soviet tanks.

Sharp Practice AWI

Also on the table is odds and ends from my British Legion project. I want to pull these back out as well and see what is left to do. Then I want to print some more of the Turner Miniatures models that I have. Mainly, I am interested in some regular British and some more cavalry - Continental and British Legion.

Blenheim IVs, Hurricanes and Gladiators

I managed to get some painting in over the weekend. First off we compleing the three Blenheim IVs. There is significant differences between the Blenheim Is that I have and the Blenheim IVs. I think the Blenheim Is are from Tumbling Dice and the IVs are Pico Armor. Or I may have that reversed. Not sure. But the IVs seem to be finer lines while the Is are more chunky and a slightly larger model. I gave them both the same camo paint job.

I also finished off the Hurricanes. I kept the markings the same as the previous 8, they are just darker.

I also started working on some Gladiators. I have eight of these and have at least gotten the base paint down.

In working on these, I found three more Ba.65s. I will paint these up at some point. I just have no idea how I painted the first three. I am hoping I saved the paint scheme somewhere. But the whole force is just about ready. I started to clean the painting table to get the next game on.

Tomahawks Completed

I finished the last four Tomahawks this week. They look OK but the paint scheme is slightly darker than the originals. But I will just assume those are replacement aircraft that have not started to bleach out in the sun. I painted the markings on them again. Would rather use decals but I wanted them done.

That leaves the three Blenheim IVs, four Hurricanes and eight Gladiators to complete out my British forces. That will complete my current desert forces. Very excited to see this come this close to being done.

Weekend Roundup: Battlefield Walk and Painting

It was a good weekend. I was able to get out to the Kettle Creek battlefield over the weekend. The DAR has done a fantastic job of taking care of the battlefield. It is now listed as an archeological site and a graveyard. They have found 29 bodies buried on the property. There is a really nice trail that goes around "war hill" where little of the fighting took place. The trails leading to where Clarke, Pickens and Dooley advanced on Boyd's position are overgrown. I learned a bunch about the topography of the battlefield to the point, I want to redo the scenarios. Much of the land was pasture in 1779. Now, most of the property is wooded with new growth timber. You can still get a good idea of how the battle took place. Also, it was good to get a perspective on how deep Kettle Creek is and was with the research that has been done on the site.

When I wrote "This Land Divided," the battlefield was not very accessible. People knew where it was and amatuer archeologists with metal detectors had dug up a number of artifacts including some cannon balls for a small caliber gun. Now that is prohibited on the site. It is part of the national battlefield trust. Archeology is carefully handled now. I am looking forward to going back.

I did get some painting done over the weekend. The last of the British are all lined up. The bellies and topcoats are done for the Tomahawks, Hurricanes and Blenheim IVs. I still have to glue the magnets to the Gladiators before moving forward on them. I also managed to base coat my East Front Germans. I won't move on those until the Gladiators are finished.

It was a pleasant weekend.

More Painting Progress - Blenheim Is and Cr.32s

The Blenheims Is came out OK. The British camo paterns are not very difficult but I think these are darker than my original aircraft that I did. I probably have a more European scheme than desert. But it is close enough.

The Cr.32s I had in a different base coat to start. I didn't like it and went with a different one based on the recommendation of my app. I like how these turned out enough. One day, I may get decals for these planes instead of painting them but for now this is enough.

I also managed to glue magnets to the four Hurricanes, the four Tomahawks and the three Blenheim Ivs. I also have the eight Gladiators ready to go. My thought with the gladiators was to give them an earlier paint scheme where the bottom of the aircraft is half black and half white. I think that the Gladiators in Greece may have had that but it has been a while since I looked that up. So that is just 19 more aircraft for the Western Desert. I think I have enough painted to finish the campaign. I had bought some flak emplacements. I started to paint one and stopped. I would like to get a couple of those done at some point. I want to reaquaint myself with the bombing rules again over the weekend. I want that to be part of the next day's missions for Operation Battleaxe.

MC.200s Complete

With the last 3 MC.200s painted, the Squadrillia is now complete.

I now have 12 of these ready to go. While working on them, I also managed to finish a Lysander. The example that I had, didn't show roundels on the top of the aircraft, only the sides. I started on the second Lysander but didn't finish it. Instead of finishing the last 3 Cr.32s, I started on the four Blenheim Is. I have the base paint on them and still need the camo, markings and windows to paint.

At this point, for the desert, I have the following to finish:

Aircraft

Number
Blenheim I	4
Blenheim IV	3
Cr.32	3
Lysander	1
Ro.37bis	2

I may or may not paint both of the Ro.37s. I am not sure how useful they would be. There are a number of bomber that I lack a full squadrilla of for the Italians and a full squadron for the British. The Germans also lack enough Bf110s and Ju88s for a full Staffel. I am not sure that I really want to flesh these out. I want to get these done and start to work on the East Front aircraft that I have bought.

Once the Blenheims are painted, they should be in my next game.

Pico Armor Order Received

Once again, Pico Armor delivered quickly. I spent the afternoon cleaning up the He111s that I received. I now have 8 of them. In addition, I got my pack of I-16s bringing that total up to 18 of them and a pack of SB bombers. I think I now have 12 SB bombers. This gives me a good mix of aircraft for the work I am doing on the Ustilug supplement. I have some painting to do. I have all of the German aircraft prepped and ready to prime.

For the End of my Operation Battleaxe campaign, I have one more game for the current day and then I need to roll up the second day. I should have the Mc.200s completed this week. I also should be able to get my Blenheims and Lysanders as well. The Hurricanes and Tomahawks need magnets glued to them. Hopefully, I can get to those as well. In total, I can really see my desert collection coming together. The pictures I took were off center not worth posting. Hopefully, I can get these knocked out and get some good pictures of the aircraft.

Desert Painting and Soviet Cards for Bag the Hun

I have a set of cards for Italians, British and Germans for North Africa that all share the same format. I downloaded a set of Soviet Cards from the Facebook group but they are very different from my existing cards. Also they don't have enough cards. I managed to edit the British cards that I have in the PDF and create a matching set of Soviet cards. They came out pretty good. I updated the graphics on them to show Soviet aircraft and pilots and printed them out. This is a good step closer to getting ready for some East Front games.

The Father's Day weekend gave me an opportunity to get some painting done. I managed to complete 8 Cr.42s for the Italians. I have one more that is partially painted. I would like to pick up two more of these to finis out the squadrillia. The Cr.42s are from Pico Armor and were fun to paint up. I had three previously painted ones that I touched up and matched them with the new ones. Now I have 9 aircraft complete.

Then I did some work on the G.50 aircraft that I purchased from Pico Armor. I am not happy with the paints selected by the paint matching tool for these for the base color of the upper surface. But I do not want to redo them. I am not very proud of these.

I am getting so close to completing my Italians. I have just three Cr.32s that I have started and an additional three Mc.200 that are left. I managed to get the underside and the surface paint on them. The camo, nose paint and markings are left.

While waiting on the paint to dry on those, I started on my remaining British. I got the underside painted on some Blenheim Is and the Lysanders.I need to mount magnets on the four Tomahawks, the four Hurricanes and three Blenheim IVs.

I also have been looking at Maps. Specifically maps of eastern Poland/Western Ukraine from around 1941. I am using them to locate the areas where Soviet air bases were located on the morning of June 22nd. I have a wonderful document that I found by Henry L deZeng IV. It is "Luftwaffe Airfeilds 1935-45 Russia (Incl. Ukraine, Belarus & Bessarabia). It is dated 2020. It has some coordinates for the airfields. I am able to get a pretty good idea of where they were and what they looked like. Using Google Maps, you can get an idea of the landscape they were in. Of the ones I have looked up, little remains.

The reason for this is to figure out what kinds of targets would be at the airfields. This will inpact future bombing missions. I started laying out the Germans that I have for the Eastern Front. The Ju88s that I had 3d printed look good but do not match with the three that I have painted up for the desert. I will not use any of these for the desert. But I will have 15 Ju88 aircraft for the Eastern Front. This would give me a full Staffel of bombers and a Stab element. I am looking forward to getting started on these.

I also have received my MiG-3s from Pico Armor as well. They were all metal but what is interesting, the wings and the fuselage are separate for these where the first set I received came together. Both have the same packaging and the same part numbers.

Anyway, progress has been made.

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.

Monday, June 15, 2026

Weekend Painting

It was nice to have some time this weekend to get some paint on miniatures. I focused on the Bf110Cs for the desert. I managed to get two schwarms of 4 done, which is good as that was all that I had. I only need to buy 4 more to complete the staffel.

I think I had posted this earlier but I had finished a Ju52 and three Ju88s for the desert as well.

I got some Ju88s from Wargaming3d and had a friend print off some for me. These were originally 1/900 scale that were increased to 1/600 scale. I should pick them up tomorrow. He printed way more than I had asked for. I will have more than enough to have an entire staffel for the desert and enough left over for a few for the Eastern Front.

I have been making some really good progress with my desert collection. Here is everything I have so far. There are a number that are primed but not painted yet. But that number is far less than it was.

With what I have finished, I will have my desert forces done by the end of the summer, I think. That means the fall will be back to the Eastern Front.

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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