General Wargaming

Yesteryear...

Posted by Harry Faversham on 02 Feb 2021, 12:19

Yesteryear: I seem to be spending more time there than in the real world these days. Saturday night's swirling mist of Tetley's Best Bitter fumes revealed a vision, that takes me back again, maybe never to return!
Neil Thomas is a ruleriter who I believe was cloned from the DNA of Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant so his 'One Hour Wargames' rules are nailed on, for mi' next braynwave.
Using the book's unit stats, two units will be created, one British the other German. The units will all be Airfix models from the dawn of time, painted as we did in the sixties...

British.

One Infantry Company (British Infantry Combat Group)

Two anti-tank guns (6pdr. and carrier)

One Artillery Battery of two guns (25pdr. and Quad)

Tank Troop (Churchill and Sherman)

German.

One Infantry Company (*)

Two anti-tank guns (Stug 111 and SDKFz.234)

One Artillery Battery of two guns (88mm Gun and Tractor)

Tank Troop (Tiger and Panther)

(*) Them vintage Airfix Jerrys with the drainpipe bazooka thingy and that little anti-tank cannon?

That should make a nice collection of the crappest looking figures and vehicles still in existence. When they're done we'll fight all the OHW scenarios in order (there's twenty odd, I think?) and find out who really did win WW2 in yesteryear!

:oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Minuteman on 02 Feb 2021, 13:21

It all sounds very good and brings back happy memories. My first ever box of OO/HO soldiers was the Airfix Infantry Combat Group and my first ever model AFV was the Airfix M3 Halftrack. I used to pack those little plastic infantrymen into the back and 'drive' it around the floor, with some Airfix 1st generation German infantry soon being purchased for a few pence (literally) from Woolworths to provide opposition.

The concept you have here, Lt Colonel Faversham, is also very reminiscent of the great book 'Operation Warboard', which has simple, playable and fun rules and features real old school Airfix models and not much else. Wonderful stuff from a simpler age. I've got an old copy of the book; it's pleasing to note that on Amazon second hand copies are going for £45+.
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Minuteman  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 03 Feb 2021, 03:23

"And you Harry? You get the prize!"

We're using Gavin Lyall's rules for this little dust-up!

:yeah:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 11 Feb 2021, 11:26

Staying with the 'old skool' theme I've added some armoured support. The last time I built this kit was the year England won the World Cup!

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:oops: :oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 16 Feb 2021, 02:05

Airfix Churchill ready to rumble into action...

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Got one of the British Infantry out to see how they'll paint up. They are tiny...

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:oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 16 Feb 2021, 09:29

Those figures are tiny indeed. I have them myself somewhere in the stash. Together with the other first versions of Airfix! ;-) :thumbup:
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 16 Feb 2021, 09:42

Next on the stocks is the Airfix Tiger. Back in the day, we thought it was an awesome kit, today it's truly dreadful, so plain it looks almost sinister. There's no detail on this model at all, how Airfix twirled selling the thing right up to a couple of month's ago, is beyond me.
I'll test paint a German infantryman to give it some support agin the PIAT bombers!

:oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Minuteman on 16 Feb 2021, 10:32

Those tiny Infantry Combat Group figures! My first ever Airfix set and, probably, the first Airfix figure I ever 'painted'. In those days, painting meant a dab of flesh/pink on the face and hands...and that was pretty well it! I think I had a set of 'paints' in very small glass phials and the colours included a pea green...so some of the British infantry (as was) were probably in a vivid green colour once I decided on painting more of the figure.

But you have to start somewhere, don't you?

As for a PIAT: well, in those days we didn't know what one was and our 'anti-tank' man against a marauding German tank (probably the old Airfix ready made Patton until we managed to build a Tiger kit) was the Combat Group grenade thrower figure...if only he would stand up and keep standing up on the carpet!

I think I have a couple of the old Airfix Churchill still unbuilt: Airfix had the right idea, modelling a Mark VII, but the kit itself certainly shows its age now and is also (1/76) 'tiny', especially if you compare it with, for example, a PSC Churchill.

Looking forward to more of this project, Harry.
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Posted by Beano Boy on 16 Feb 2021, 18:17

The 1/76 AIRFIX kits are the nearest to HO OO Railway Scale you can get. If displaying on trains. BB
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Posted by Minuteman on 16 Feb 2021, 20:21

Beano Boy wrote:The 1/76 AIRFIX kits are the nearest to HO OO Railway Scale you can get. If displaying on trains. BB


Yes, they are! In the 1970s I used to spend summer holidays with my cousin whose parents ran a big pub in Dartford, Kent (on the Princes' Road, just in case Harry knows it). His brother - my older cousin - had a great railway layout in their loft, which featured some military stuff in amongst the railway clutter and OO/HO (Airfix civilian) commuting passengers. Inevitably, it was the military stuff that caught my eye...there clearly was a 'war' going on in the background to the '5.15' commuter service from Clapham Junction to Esher (with apologies to The Who, if you know the song '5.15'....)....
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Posted by Wiking on 16 Feb 2021, 20:57

Out of topic.

Harry Faversham wrote:
The last time I built this kit was the year England won the World Cup!

I remember when Germany knocked out GB (as usual in the penalty shoot-out :-D )
Mrs Thatcher :
"They might have beaten us at our national sport, but we managed to beat them at their national sport twice in the 20th century. "

:mrgreen:
(I don`t know why but I like that statement.)
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Wiking  Germany
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 18 Feb 2021, 15:12

Here's a piccy of HQ Troop 51st (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment.
I wonder if Sergeant Donald Featherstone is among them?

Image

:yeah:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 19 Feb 2021, 12:04

Here's some more memories of yesteryear. British Infantry advancing down the St. James Road with a Churchill in support...

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Cripes, look wot's coming the other way!

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"Don't worry Tommy Atkins, my armour will stop him!!!"

:shock:

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Wot's he doing here...bleedin'n refugee from the front of this month's WI Magazine!

:oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 19 Feb 2021, 13:48

I really like what you did with those old soldiers! And that Greek is in danger! ;-) :mrgreen: :thumbup:
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Posted by Minuteman on 19 Feb 2021, 18:46

Even those tiny Infantry Combat Group figures look OK once painted and mounted on a wargames base.

And even the small and crude Airfix Tiger looks menacing when painted and properly based. All looking good!

Maybe it is time for an Airfix Hawker Typhoon from the 'cab rank'. I seem to recall that Gavin Lyall's air-to- ground attack rules were quite good....

As for the Greek...well, it makes me ask 'Why didn't the Brits' have some 'proper' names for tanks during WW2? I know we had the 'Achilles', and the Churchill, Cromwell and Comet sound OK-ish. But why not more rousing names like: Spartan, Trojan, Theban, Ajax, Hector etc etc...better than 'Matilda' and 'Valentine' perhaps??
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Posted by Pocho Azul on 19 Feb 2021, 22:33

Nice! Played a lot of games as a wee lad, using Airfix figures (unpainted, hadn't evolved to that level of obsession yet) , Roco Minitanks, and Mr. Featherstone's rules.
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 20 Feb 2021, 01:57

Thanks chaps. Today's build was the tractor for the 88mm gun. Finished up with two wheels left over and had to scratch-build a missing engine cover...
proper Airfix moments from the dawn of time!

:oops:
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Harry Faversham  England
 
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Posted by Minuteman on 20 Feb 2021, 08:07

Harry Faversham wrote:Thanks chaps. Today's build was the tractor for the 88mm gun. Finished up with two wheels left over and had to scratch-build a missing engine cover...
proper Airfix moments from the dawn of time!

:oops:


Great stuff! I still remember the day when, as a lad, I bought the Airfix 88mm and Tractor from a branch of WH Smith in Winchester, Hampshire. It was the most complicated kit I had built to that point in time (if you discount the Airfix 1/600 scale HMS Hood); I just couldn't understand why the Germans had put such a complicated set of interleaved wheels and tracks on their half-track...the Airfix US M3 was so much easier to build!
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Posted by Wiking on 20 Feb 2021, 13:34

Minuteman wrote:
I just couldn't understand why the Germans had put such a complicated set of interleaved wheels and tracks on their half-track...

I ask me the same question in the past.
One day I find an explanation.
The rubber at that time was not so good as today.
So with two wheels side by side the ground pressure (to the track) of the rubber was very high. The development of the half trucks get more and more bigger and so more weight was added.
With wheels additional in between you reduce the the ground pressure (to the track). Or you can increase the weight of the half truck or a tank.

I heard about Russian tests to use Panther wheels on the T34. There are a lot of lost Panthers.
They need an adapter. The tests result was a disaster. The wheels are in diameter too big and far to small for the the weight of the T34.
The wheels break,bend easily an the bottom of the tank was grounded.
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Wiking  Germany
 
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Posted by Harry Faversham on 20 Feb 2021, 14:26

Next up is the Panther and Universal Carrier and 6pdr. It's the happy memories these kits are conjuring up that's the best part of this project at the moment. Last time I built these two, Granny's nail scissors plus these were the tools of the trade!

Image

Image

:yeah:
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