This is a HaT Napoleonic Cossack with a head swap, and new weapon. Rather than a lance he has an MP 40 machine pistol. Quite an upgrade in weaponry. He is on a HaT French Napoleonic horse from their Limber set.

At the end of World War Two the V2 ballistic system was so advanced that it was copied by the United States Army and the Soviet Red Army too.

Over three thousand V-2 missiles were launched by the German Army in WWII. They were a mobile ballistic missile system that was used both strategically to attack cities and major depots and tactically to attack bridges.

Wargame scenarios can be many things, they don't always have to recreate the Invasion of Normandy or some other large actual event, sometimes a good wargame can be a simple incident.

We had a couple days of good strong rain and it knocked down all the dust in the back yard, so I took some Caesar Winter Germans 1/72nd scale and the Hudson & Allen three arch bridge 25mm size and took some photos. The roadway surface is kitty litter. The nice thing about that is that over time it will just break up and go away, so there is no clean up!

Britain Releases More UFO Sighting Files

Where can you get good scenarios for science fiction or modern Cold War wargames? How about the news? Reports of missiles being fired at aircraft. Reports of space ships landing. Reports of space ships crashing.

Change the word alien and substitute the word Spetznaz. The Japanese in WWII had aircraft that would fold up and fit into a pressurized cabin on the deck of a submarine. They would surface the sub and assemble the plane and fly missions to bomb places or scout for enemy fleets. How about a Soviet sub with a similar cabin, they assemble a helicopter, and send troops in ahead of a major attack. Maybe days or weeks before a real attack.

You tell your NATO player that he gets a call of a UFO and space aliens. Maybe the Spetznaz are wearing MOPP gear so they appear alien. Farmers can shoot at them, the police can respond, gunfire between the police and Spetznaz. It could take a long time for the military to respond. Russian player has to take out the nuclear power plant, or the missile defense system, or big radar array. After that they have to go to the airport and steal a helicopter since theirs crashed.

Scenarios are not too hard to put together, you just have to look at the news and then reconfigure the events to fit you time period and the troops you want to use. Instant scenario.

Roco Stug III deployed in the open with one to the rear for resupply.

The WWII German Panzer III was a sturdy, well liked, reliable vehicle. The Germans made them in many configurations. While the Panzer IV and later the Panther were supposed to replace them, they were never withdrawn from service and were in the fight until the last day.

Every military unit that has horses has to deal with horses that get wounded in battle. They have to be evacuated, treated, convalesce, be retrained and then sent back to the front. Just like the human soldiers. Yet there are no 1/72nd scale veterinary soldiers as far as I know. Often we can't find specialized figures and troops for our wargames, dioramas and collections. One way to circumvent this situation is to make our own.

One of my favorite sets is the Imex Pioneers set. It is one of the most versatile sets ever made. I bet you can use those figures for a period of five hundred years or more. They have such generic American / European clothing, you can find people dressed like that today in some rural parts of America.

Boley Models has a well deserved reputation for making crappy military vehicle models in HO 1/87 scale. But they also make excellent civilian trucks, even with a license from the maker of the original truck. This is a Boley HO scale water tanker truck, in US Forest Service markings.

More than just people fled the advancing Soviet hordes at the end of World War Two. People abandoned their farms and homes and fled west to try and escape the Red Army.

I made several of these cradle wagons. I mount my wagons on .40 inch thick sheet styrene from Evergreen Plastic. It is thick enough to be rigid but thin enough to cut easily. I also trim the corners so they are not sharp, it seems to draw they eye to it if they are not rounded.

This is my most recent project, my WWII German Cossacks. Most of them are from Strelets*R and are molded in a dark green plastic, in 1/72nd scale. Strelets sets generally have all unique figure poses in an infantry set and in the cavalry you get 12 unique riders and two copies of six horse poses. These figures are designed for the Crimean War, about 100 years before WWII. I updated some of the weapons by trimming down rifles to make them look more modern and I also substituted a few more modern weapons too. Cossacks lived a traditional lifestyle as much as they could and wore the same kind of clothing and carried swords, even in WWII.




I don't generally paint my wargame armies, too much to do, too little time. I do at least paint the figures in the same over all color so that I can mix sets and still know who's side everyone is on. Here are some good examples. In this photo are Imex Pioneers, Orion Cossacks, a metal guy, HaT WWII Germans, Revell German Artillery and Strelets*R Cossacks. The dark green Strelets figures are the bulk of the army with a few Strelets Crimean Russian General Staff guys. Most all the various Germans have had their head gear or even their whole heads swapped with either Orion or Strelets Cossacks to make them fit in better. I painted all the non-Strelets figures Beret Green from Testors by hand and then sprayed Testors Dullcote on all the figures, Strelets and the others. The dull coating makes them all look more uniform, even the unpainted plastic ones and the Beret Green is an almost perfect match.




After the addition of a HaT horse from a French Napoleonic Baggage Wagon, along with wheels from the same and a HaT stumpf 75mm infantry gun and a few bits from the sheet styrene box it made a decent wagon. Revell WWII German Artillery limber driver with a HaT WWII German helmet head to make him look a bit different and painted green to match the rest of the Cossacks.