Category: Modern

Before I get into the Senkaku Project update, which is a project that I am planning for Historicon 2024, I have a couple of bits of news to report. Both of them involve blowing my own trumpet a little bit, but hopefully regular readers of the blog will forgive this little bit of self indulgence.

The first bit of news is that following my modern naval game at Historicon, “The first battle of the war of Taiwan”, I submitted the game as an article to the Admiralty Trilogy Group. From conversations that I have had with them, the article will be published in the October SITREP. The battle pits a Chinese Type 55 and a Type 54A ships against two US Arleigh Burke ships in the Gulf of Aden in early 2024. I will give more details when the SITREP is published.

The second bit of news is that I managed to take home the GM of the year award from HMGS. This was a combination of winning best of theme for my Battle of Ravenna, Italian Wars game and the Best of Show for my Modern British Afghanistan game. I also like to think that my Cossack Uprising Project helped, even though it has never won an award. It was a great honor to receive this award as there was some stiff competition. Here is a photo of me with the awards.

Now for an update on my Senkaku project (before I get back to painting US Marines for my game at Fall In! in November).

The Senkaku islands are a small group of islands off the coast of Taiwan that are contested by Taiwan, China and Japan. They are uninhabited islands. The game is going to involve a small unit of Chinese infantry claiming the islands in early 2024. The Japanese are then going to respond with a naval and Amphibious assault.

1/2400 models

The game is going to be a two part game and have multiple scales. The first part of the game is to be a modern naval battle using the Harpoon V rules. It is going to involve the Chinese navy and Coast Guard defending the islands against a small Japanese task force with a tank landing ship. This battle will be played out in 1/2400.

The vessel at the top right of the photo above is the Japanese tank landing ship Osumi. It carries two LCAC and two Chinooks as well as multiple vehicles and marines. If forms the key component of the Japanese amphibious force for the game.

1/700 models

The naval game will determine whether the landing is within sight of land or is carried out “over the horizon”. It will also determine if the Japanese have naval artillery support.

When the naval battle is complete, the naval vessels that survive will then be represented by 1/700 scale models. Above is again the Osumi, but in 1/700 scale. In the photo you can see two small LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushioned). The Osumi is the first of nine 1/700 models that I will need to build. I still need to paint the Osumi.

20mm models

These 1/700 models are a perfect size to represent the ships off-shore for a 1/72 (20mm) amphibious assault using Force on Force rules. I chose 20mm as many of the kits that I need are available only in 20mm. In particular the LCACs and the AAVP-7A1s are available. Here is a picture of the two LCACs that are still in the process of construction.

I still have a lot of parts to add to these LCACs which are about 14 inches long. I will also need to weather them. It has been fun building them and airbrushing the metallic paint scheme. I have also built three AAVP-7A1s in both out of water and in water versions. The in water versions still need some basing and wave effects, but I am waiting for my terrain mat to arrive so that I can match the water color.

Cutting down the AAVP-7A1 kits to make a submerged version was a bit time consuming, but I think the effort will be worth it.

The infantry, both Chinese and US (I will paint in Japanese uniform colors), also arrived. They are from Elheim. I managed to base them and clean them up, but I have not done anything else with them and don’t plan on starting to paint them before Fall In!.

In the image there are some Japanese FH70s. There are two in deployed mode and two in transport mode. The transport mode will be for carrying under the two Chinooks from the Osumi. Speaking of the Helicopters, here are the two Chinooks and also the VF22 for the Japanese forces.

Terrain

Finally, for the terrain, I have ordered a really nice coastal mat from Warsigil. I will then be constructing hills and some dense jungle terrain. I have also ordered a lot of scatter terrain from Anyscale Models. Here is my first trial attempt at the jungle terrain, which overall I am very happy with. I still need to make some tall canopy trees from scratch.

Now back to my figures for Fall In!

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Yesterday we play tested the modern 28mm Afghanistan Force on Force scenario for Cold Wars 2023. The scenario involved various Taliban units trying to attack the 3rd Para British Forward Operating Base.

The game result was that the Taliban inflicted heavy casualties on the two units of Afghan National Police. Eventually, the British forced the Taliban to withdraw under heavy fire. The British remained within the defenses of the Forward Operating Base rather than coming out to engage the Taliban at close quarters.

As a result of the play test I will be modifying some of the initial deployment positions and adjusting some of the victory conditions. I want to encourage the British player to be more aggressive.

I took most of the photos below before the game started, showing the initial table set up. As I was busy running the game, there are less photos once the game commenced. As a result there are not many images of the actual combat.

Photos of the battle.

Overall, the play test went very well. The 28mm Afghanistan Force on Force captured the feel of modern combat.

My Cold Wars 2023 modern Afghanistan project is on a tight schedule. I have a play test in two weeks time and then there is only another two and a half weeks until the convention. the rule set will be Force on Force. This post is just a very short update of some of the things I have been up to for the project.

After the play-test on the 18th February, I will post some pictures of the completed layout.

I still have many things to complete, the most demanding will be painting another 30 Afghan civilians that I am expecting to arrive from Empress Miniatures in the next few days.

As they did not arrive before last weekend, I found that I was short of things to do. So I pulled out two M777 Howitzer kits that have been sitting in my To Do pile. These are from Table Top Tactical Simulations. Although they will not be used in the game, they can provide a scenic piece inside the Forward Operating Base. Over the weekend I managed to assemble, paint, weather and base these huge howitzers.

The lighting for the photo is not great, but the colors do look good in real life. As they are only for scenic effect, I do not need to paint the crew for Cold Wars. The town in the game would be much too close for these guns to be used. Also the game will be full of civilians which would make artillery use impractical.

I also constructed some very nice British vehicles from White Dragon Miniatures. These are two Foxhounds and two Mastiffs. Again these will not be used in the fighting but will be add to the scenery of the FOB.

In addition to the civilians, I have a range of scenery to complete. The items include, blue rain barrels, road signs, explosion markers, and a petrol pump. I also have a large Chinook Helicopter that I hope will arrive to carry some SAS troops. If all goes well everything should arrive soon and should be painted for Cold Wars 2023 in March.

I have been slowly working on a 28mm modern skirmish project using the Skirmish Sangin rules. As part of a scenario I am putting together I have been building a British Forward Operating Base for Helmland Province, Afghanistan.

I decided to only construct the front of the base as that is where all of the action will take place. I built a guard tower at each of the corners. The walls of the base were made from Hesco bags with razor wire on top and in front of them.

S&S Models made the Hesco walls. The image above shows two approaching British Foxhounds (still to paint). White Dragon Miniatures produced the two Foxhounds and these will support two larger Mastif MRAPS. I also have 4 quad bikes for SAS interdiction scenarios.

The entrance to the base consists of a guard shack, New Jersey barriers and a barrier all made by Miniature Building Authority. I will also add a moving chain link fence at the back.

Along the road I have some billboards. One of the billboards was built from a model kit, the other two were scratch built. I will be installing some Afghan election posters on the billboards.

On top and in front of the walls is some razor wire made by Army Painter.

In the back-ground of the above photo is a command post and barracks. These are made from containers from the Miniature Building Authority with one of their satellite dishes on top.

The Hesco walls at the front of the base have a lower level of Hesco bags behind allowing soldiers to patrol the wall. Many of these design choices were made after viewing photos of actual Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan.

The guard towers were made by using two containers as the base. A staircase and platform were then made from Plastruct girders and other items. A Hesco bunker from S&S models was then placed on top of some H beams. The roof of the bunker is removable to put figures inside.

I will be purchasing a better, larger desert terrain mat as well as adding more ground clutter to the base including pallets, oil drums, signs and a table tennis table.

I am also working on scenario to include the British Forward Operating Base. This will be a large scale Taliban assault on the base.