Bunkermeister

Nov06

Even More T62 Photos

Categories // Bunkermeister, Syndicated Blogs, Figures & Toy Soldiers




To make this set up, I took a broom out to the backyard and swept the dirt. You don't want your dirt to be dirty. That is the large pebbles, sticks and leaves that are on the lawn need to be removed because they don't look realistic with models. I cut the dry riverbed with a shovel and tossed the dirt to either side. Then I swept the riverbed and the banks. This gives the river a more natural appearance.

The roadway is asphalt roofing shingles. These make an excellent roadway because they are actually asphalt. Cut them into strips two inches wide and about a foot long and you have instant road. It works as a two lane highway, four inch wide strips make a four lane roadway. They are very cheap, durable and can be cut easily. I used a heavy X-Acto knife blade to score where I wanted them cut and then just snapped them apart.



The stone bridge is some resin bridge I picked up forever ago. The gray troops are the Esci Spetznatz troops. The other vehicles, not the T62s, are from Permit, they used to make vehicles that were sold in the Eastern Bloc nations.





Obstacles like rivers are important for military movements due to the need to find bridges that are strong enough to support tanks and other heavy military vehicles. A ten ton civilian cargo truck is nothing compared to a 30, 40, even 60 ton tank. While a tank may have a low ground pressure to keep it from sinking in the mud while moving cross country, they still carry a lot of weight in a small area. Careful reconnaissance by map, and then my engineer troops is important to find bridges that will hold a tank. Tanks can also be very hard on roads and bridges, so often military bridges will be erected in parallel with the civilian bridge to take some of the heavier traffic. Vehicles backed up waiting to cross a bridge are also lucrative targets for artillery and enemy aircraft.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Nov05

T62 in the Attack

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As a way of honoring Robert Petner, of Petner Panzers, I have gone into the backyard and set up a bit of the Fulda Gap scenario. This single lane asphalt roadway goes over a stone bridge. You can see PT76 light tanks leading the attack with BRDM scout vehicles. A company of T62s are lined up along the river bank to provide overwatch cover, while the main force continues the attack.




On the left we can see a T54 ARV pulling a damaged PT76 out of the dry riverbed. A BTR sits just over the river with a SA7 hand held antiaircraft missiles on watch for enemy aircraft. A pair of 57mm AA guns also watch the bridge crossing.



Military police block truck traffic to allow the rapid passage of T62 tanks. The trucks back up as only one tank at a time can cross the stone bridge, slowing the attack and creating massive traffic jams. In the background one tank company stops to refuel from trucks. By fueling up now their fuel tanks will carry them farther while the other tanks will stop to fuel. This insures that at least a few of the force will aways have full fuel tanks and be able to continue to advance.

This close up shows the SA7 team and the blue border police armored car in the background.





This ARV was converted from the old Roco T54 tank by removing the turret and adding a rear facing boom. Other bits were added as spare parts and supplies.



A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Nov04

Thank You, Robert Petner

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Years ago if we wanted to play modern wargames we could field a massive American Army with M48, M60, M60A1, M60A2 and even M1 Abrams tanks, and M113 and Bradley fighting vehicles, but the Warsaw Pact / Soviet forces were pretty slim. About our only choices were $30 each for a Trident lead vehicle if you could find them or the Roco T54. So I have about a zillion T54 since they had to face a very strong American force when they come through the miniature Fulda Gap.

Then a Hero Of The Hobby arrived, by the name of Robert Petner, founder of Petners Panzers. He made an HO injection molded T72. Later, another company, Armourtec, made an HO scale T62. Unfortunantely, Armourtec did not last and Robert Petner purchased their old stock and their mold. Robert spent thousands of dollars on an upgrade to the Armourtec T62 and made it into a much more accurate kit. While rummaging through his stuff recently, Robert found a box of those old T62 and gave them away for the price of postage. I managed to get a few of them from him. They came in a big cardboard box, with drawings on it to simulate a wooden shipping crate.

I got my box last Friday and put everything aside to build T62s. Each kit is ten parts and that came to over 200 pieces. The kits are nearly finished now and I am very happy. Robert Petner is a great guy and has given a tremendous boost to our hobby by making both the T72 and his upgraded T62 HO scale, 1/87 tanks.



This drawing was on the side of the package, showing the completed model, and the simulated wood grain of the cardboard crate.



My worktable shows two dozen T62s with the parts laid out and trimmed off the sprues. The white plastic boxes on the left hold the machine guns, snorkel, hatches, and searchlights. I trimmed all the parts off the sprue and assembled all the kits together, after doing one for practice. Two dozen tank kits in three days is fast, instant Soviet Army!

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Nov02

More Red Army Artillery

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The Soviet Army still carried flags at the Battle of Berlin. Everyone wanted to be the first to plant the Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag. Stalin believed that was still an important building, but in reality it was bombed out and vacant, except for a large number of SS troops.
Soviet units often had their own flags, and this one here was drawn by one of my friends. I mounted it on a bit of plastic rod and give it a flocked base.



Those tired old Airfix Russians as artillery crews. I also converted some of my hard plastic Esci infantry into artillery crews. These guys are very helpful to add some specificity to the artillery crew.

These hard plastic Esci figures have laid down their weapons and taken up Roco eight inch artillery shells. Actually these poses work very well for artillery and painted in a light gray they go well enough with the Airfix guys.


Nothing is wasted, even the sprue from the Esci Russians gets re-used. I cut the sprue up and made a box out if it and mounted the box on a bit of sheet styrene. Then covered the box with cotton gauze. The gauze is dyed with regular Rit cloth dye a nice dark green color. It can also be painted, but I think the dye looks better. You can do enough to camouflage the entire Eastern Front with one little box of dye.



Inside the camouflaged fire direction center there is a table with map. I painted the ground dirt color on the assumption that any grass would be pounded under the heels of the Soviet Red Army. I did not paint the sprue since it was a tan color, I figured it looked like natural wood and the glue from the netting would adhere better.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Nov02

USSR FDC

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The Roco M577 model comes with a big plastic antenna. I took one of those and made it into a ground mount for my Russian artillery. The base is flocked sheet styrene, the guide wires are thread stiffened with superglue. This gives me a big long range radio for contacting forward observers near the front. Note the Airfix former infantry have been transferred to the artillery. I put a bit of plastic on the base of the running SMG guy and removed his gun. He stands up much better now.

A tiny bit of wire cleverly whipped into a pair of scissors telescopes. It is mounted on painted sheet plastic with minimal flocking. Another item to place near the fire direction center for the battery, or can go with the forward observer team. In the back you can see I took a couple 55 gallon drums and glued down some styrene plastic with a wooden board pattern on the top. It makes a nice map board.


Here is a good close up of the Airfix soldier and the map board. I often glue maps and other papers on them for more authenticity. Sometimes an SMG, radio or other bits add some extra realism.





Considering the advanced age of these figures they are not too bad. The weapons were the worst part and without them the figures are much better. Artillery crews are often scarce and and expensive as well, so retraining these guys when I replaced them with the Esci, now Italeri, Russian soldiers seemed a economical alternative.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Nov01

Bring Out the Big Guns, Camrade

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In my rule system, for guns to be able to make indirect artillery fire as a battery they have to meet the definition of a batter. The guns must be close together, they must have fire control center, they must have an ammunition supply and if they intend to adjust the indirect fire, they must have a forward observer. Shown above is one of my ammo dumps. It is the same sort of boxes tailored to fit the back of a Roco truck bed. I give each of my artillery batteries a two letter identification number. I often make a little plaque like the RC shown here to designate which battery gets the ammo dump. This is Russian battery, letter C.

This photo show the ammo dump for Russian battery, D. The figures are from the old and nearly uselessly outdated Airfix Russian Infantry. The set is pretty terrible, but then it is close to fifty years old. Many of those old soldiers have been sent to the artillery; this figure has had his rather nebulous sub machine gun removed and now he pushes boxes around.


In the olden days before we had expensive European resin kits; did I say fragile? I meant to say expensive, fragile European resin kits there was Lyzard Grin. This company made 1/76th scale cheap, soft metal artillery. They had a huge range and it was cheap, and durable. These Russian 203mm guns are from then and are probably close to thirty years old. I based them on a sheet of styrene and then flocked it with Woodland Scenics flocking stuff. Set up side to side like this they make a really nice Russian eight inch artillery battery.



The gun is huge and it ways a ton, I think I paid less than $3 each for these guns, a great deal. My Airfix / Esci crewmen will man these monsters when the Battle of Berlin comes.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct31

20 MM AA

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With American planes patrolling the skys every day, all day long, the Germans in WWII needed to field as many anti-aircraft guns as possible. I had a number of old Opel Blitz trucks that were slightly melted in the heat of the summer sun. I converted these four trucks into AA gun platforms.



This Roco Opel truck has an open cab with no windshield glass. Notice how the dark interior makes it look like a solid cap with the window painted black. Roco makes two versions of their single German anti-aircraft gun. I selected the smaller of the two as this one looks more like a 20mm gun than a 37mm gun. Eadai / Grip / Arii used to make a large SdKfz 7 halftrack in 1/72nd scale. They came in an artillery towing version and a AA gun version. The artillery towing version had the rear deck walls of the AA version in the kit. I used these as the rear sidewalls for my conversion of these trucks.


The cab roof of this truck looks like it rolled over and was put back in service. I planted the entire Roco gun and base from a old Roco SWS armored halftrack.




These trucks are good basis for conversions. The original rear truck bodies were totally destroyed by the sun and so I could then use the trucks for other purposes. I try and use every bit in my collection so that nothing goes to waste.


A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct30

Windows You Can't See Into

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Adding resin vehicles to your collection can really expand the number of different vehicles available for wargaming. This group of German heavy cars has been in my collection for about 20 years, since Roco / Herpa only released such a vehicle recently as a plastic kit, it has allowed me to get a 20 year head start on using them in a wargame.

Most resin vehicles come unpainted in a yellowish or gray colored resin. These were yellow resin. I painted them just as I would any plastic kit, a quick wash to remove any mold release, a primer spray paint and then paint with brush, airbrush or spray can with regular model paints. The only real difference is this kit came as a solid block of resin. Tires, canopy, body all one part. Very durable, those ham fisted wargamers can't easily damage this model. But then comes the question of how to paint the solid window glass. I have used several techniques and they are illustrated in this series of photos. Here the windows are painted chrome silver, and then painted over with a gloss coat for added depth. Not too bad, looks particularly good on darker vehicles like this panzer gray vehicle.



Here I used a gloss black finish, with an extra gloss coat of clear. When the lighting is just right you can see the shine off the gloss and it looks very effective. If you look at most cars from a distance of a hundred feet, the windows will look dark in the daytime because you are looking through the glass to a dark vehicle interior. Hard to see in the photos but I take just the tiniest bit of chrome silver as a dry brush over the black. All in the same direction, usually at about a 45 degree angle. This makes this medium tan vehicle look a bit darker.



Light blue windows, with a chrome silver dry brush and gloss coat over brush on the windows. This looks best on a light colored vehicle like this tan heavy car. On a very bright sunny day with no clouds, the windows on cars will sometimes reflect the blue of the sky. This works well for desert units. I try and do at least entire companies the same, if not entire battalions, it just seems they look more uniform that way.
These vehicles have windows that are not recessed in any way. Vehicles with more of a recessed window tend to look best with the gloss black with gloss clear coat. I think by the window having a set back from the edge of the door it makes us expect the dark due to the depth.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct29

Another Bridge

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The mighty Blitzkrieg was not just masses of tanks rolling across the plain, the infantry were still the backbone of the army. The infantry had to cross rivers too and not everyone wants to get their feet wet doing it. Engineers can toss a bridge like this one across a stream pretty quickly.



Once again I have used our friend the Roco pontoon bridge, but this time I have used the Roco rubber raft as the pontoons. These assault rafts were very common in the German army in WWII and the Roco one is a pretty good model.





I used the roadway edge and one set of handrails, turned four of the treadways sideways and made a skinny footbridge. Bridges like this allow troops on foot, even on a motorcycle to cross a river or stream and stay dry. It also does not slow down movement in my wargame rules, like crossing a stream would do; everyone hesitates before wading into a waterway. A bridge removes that hesitation. The rope handrail is thread, backed up with superglue to make it superstrong.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct28

Roco Stug III

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This old soldier is the Roco Strumgeschutz III. They have been around over 30 years and it is still a good, sturdy wargame model. The kit is only a few parts, upper and lower hull, two rear road wheels, cannon, machine gun shield, and hatch and two side skirts, not shown here. Only seven pieces so it goes together quickly.

A few extra bits on this model makes it look much better. I added some extra track links on the side of the superstructure and a few fuel cans on the back as well as a machine gun in the shield.



The fuel cans were places all over these vehicles in real life. I glued them in several different ways for a bit of variety.




This platoon is lined up in an ambush position. These vehicles were used up to the end of the war by the Germans. They were used as artillery, anti-tank guns and as substitute tanks.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct27

Bridge Work

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In World War Two the fast moving warfare style of the Blitzkreig required the ability to build bridges quickly.


To help simulate these bridges on the wargame table, I have taken the old Roco bridge and combined it with the boats from the Airfix pontoon bridge. I use sewing thread as the handrails, and strengthen it with superglue.

This gives me a unique bridge that is inexpensive and quick to build.


I don't glue the roadway down to the boats. This allows my wargame army the chance to "build" the bridge. There are resin companies that build the proper bridge, but they are very fragile and expensive, so I use this one. It is a standard size bridge, I build my streams to fit under this treadway.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct26

128mm Flak Gun

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As we all know, the Germans used 88mm anti-aircraft guns in World War Two. When the US B17 bombers started to bomb the Germans they went for larger and longer range guns to reach these durable and high flying bombers. They essentially scaled up the 88 mm gun into the 105mm AA gun. Later, they scaled them up again into an 105mm gun.

Eventually, they started mounting these 128mm guns in pairs so they could fire large caliber shells at the bomber stream.


In Berlin, the Germans built massive concrete flak towers as air raid shelters and to mount and control anti-aircraft batteries. I took a pair of old 105mm AA guns from Fujimi, grafted them together and made pretty good representations of the twin 128mm AA gun system.




These guns were mounted on pedestals on the flak towers. I used a simple bottle top for mine. Painted gray it works just fine.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct25

In the Rear With the Gear

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In WWII the Germans made much of their food everyday from scratch. They had various stoves and ovens with their units and butchers and would actually slaughter animals for fresh meet and bake bread. In the background you can see a soldier with a bucket of potatoes.

One of the ways the Germans kept the retreat from the East orderly was to set up road blocks. The road block would include a field kitchen and the fleeing troops would stop to eat and then the military police could round them up and form them back into units.

The troops in the far background are ACW men with new heads from the HaT Bicycle set. The HaT set has extra heads and they come in handy for conversions. The horse and hitching rail are from Atlantic. The Germans had large numbers of horses in most of their units and this gives me some horse maintenance men and accessories.





The seated man with his legs crossed is a combat artist. I put artists, cameramen, still and movie with my units. Units fight better and have better morale when they are on television or otherwise being watched by the folks back home. Germans had newsreels that played in theaters right up to the end of the war.


























A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct24

Cobblers Bench

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Generally, I don't paint the masses of my armies. With over 50,000 troops I really can't paint them all and so I don't bother to try. I will paint troops a solid color so that they will look like a unit. These troops are a mix of various metal and soft and hard plastic figures that will join one of my late war German regiments. Some started as ACW figures, some as civilians and many are actual Germans. I did a few conversions on a few of them, mostly head swaps so they appear more Germanic.







This photo shows the troops and accessories after I painted them. When I organize a regiment, I try and include all the various elements of the unit. As you can see from the troops in this photo there are radio operators, cooks, officers, horse handlers and others.







On the left side you can see the cobblers bench. I took boots from some of the "dead" guys in the plastic set to use as the cobblers work. The middle bench is the paymaster. He has a line of paybooks set out on top. Finally, the table at the right edge is the armorers table. An ammo can and two rifles to work on.








I used a bit of sheet styrene for the base, and table top. I cut up a ladder to make the table legs. I cut a bit of plastic box rod to make the crates as the bench. This gives me a more detailed headquarters than just a couple officers and a radio. It also allows my unit to repair broken infantry gear after a battle and keep morale high by letting them get paid!






A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making
Oct23

4 - 2008-10-23 06:02:23 -

Categories // Bunkermeister, Syndicated Blogs, Figures & Toy Soldiers





More of my Battle of Berlin game items. This is the office for my Luft Hansa company building.





The furniture is resin, metal and styrene. The floor is sheet styrene painted gold and then dull coated to look like carpeting. Figures are various Preiser in HO scale. I like to mix HO and 1/72nd scale figures to get greater variety. A thick base can help the HO figures look a bit taller and since they are usually civilians they look smaller since they don't have helmets.







The furniture was painted dark flat blue, but the "wooden" parts were then coated in a gloss coat. This technique makes the cloth look like cloth because it is not shiny like the wood.

A veteran of the US Army Reserve Bunkermeister writes about Historical Minature Wargaming, Military History, Plastic Army Men and Model Making