Ersatz M10 - Work in Progress

A quick update on some work in progress.

I'd wanted this Dragon kit for some time, and I think Dragon first put this kit out about 10 years back, maybe even longer. 

I was put off by the high price of the kit and was glad when I saw one online at a reasonable price. The box was a little dog-eared but the contents were complete.

And to be honest I'm glad I found this cheap because when I took it out of the box, I noticed the flexible tracks were in a little plastic bag which was full of a kind of sticky oil. 

Very strange I thought.

Then a kind of  "Quatermass and the Pit" event happened as I took them out of the bag - after their years of being preserved in there, they crumbled and cracked into little pieces ! 

So now I've got myself a lovely Ersatz M10 with no tracks.

I've gone the quick route to solving this and susbstituted the whole track and bogie assembly with a one-piece set taken off an old CC-Lee Panther kit I had in the stash that I never got around to building.

Now undercoated on the painting table waiting for a little free time over the weekend to try and finish it off.

So, a lesson learned with regard to this Dragon kit and its old flexible tracks - over the years they leach oil and fall to bits.

In spite of the track problem, I've got a vehicle I've wanted for quite some time.

Game Report - Battle of the Bulge - Bolt Action Wargame in 1/72 Scale

We finally got around to starting our Ardennes campaign last week with our first practice game and in the process baptised our new "sand" table

When were looking around for ideas for a Battle of the Bulge campaign last year, we bought a Battlegroup rules downloadable pdf supplement called "Wacht am Rhein" by Warwick Kinrade for gaming the Ardennes from the plasticsolder.co.uk website.

We used a scenario taken from this supplement called "Ambush at Ligneuville".

It's based on events that took place on December 17th, when Peiper's spearhead encountered their first serious American resistance as they raced into the village of Ligneuville to secure the small stone bridge over the river Amblève.

In the scenario, the Amblève crosses the width of the table east to west across the board with the bridge in the centre. The river is lined with dense bushes, scrub and trees, with various buildings on either side of the bridge.

The scenario we used is part of the larger campaign from the book, so a previous game, and this scenario's result are geared to points later in the scenario book's campaign itself.

This was just a one-off game, so we kept the scenario's main German objective to secure the Bridge by turn 5.

Another of the objectives was to stop the American Brigadier-General "Timberlake" from escaping off the table.

The Americans had to delay the Germans from taking their objective by turn number 5, and in the process either get the Brigadier-General off the table or avoid his capture or elimination.

Over the years our group has gamed with various rulesets, all of which have their pros and cons, but we decided that for this new Ardennes campaign we'll be using the Bolt Action rules by Warlord Games which we've found are ok for fast-action skirmish scenarios like this.

All the vehicles and troops used in the game are as per the published "Ambush at Ligneuvile" scenario, and even though the scenario is geared to the Battlegroup rules, it migrated well for use with Bolt Action.

The game was played on a 1.60 x 1.20m table, and we got to use our new sand table and used four or five bags of cheap table salt sprinkled over the surface to represent snow on the ground (see previous post HERE)

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GENERAL VIEW OF THE TABLE



The road leading into the village is the German entry point, top centre is the small stone bridge over the river, and to the left, the large building represents the hotel where the US commander is staying.

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TURN 1

The German spearhead thunders into town via the main road, led by "Obersturmführer" Werner Sternebeck in his Panzer IV passing by parked up transports of the American HQ.



Following close behind is a second Panzer IV + two SS Pioneer squads, each in a SdKfz 251.

Brigadier-General Timberlake's jeep was parked out in view of the oncoming Panzer IV so he decides to make haste with his two aides out the back door of the hotel and try and escape on foot.



The rest of the Americans are some 20 odd rear-echelon troops divided into small rifle and BAR teams, a .30 cal MMG and an M4 Sherman.

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TURN 2

A bazooka team try and take out Sternebeck's Panzer IV. These are green inexperienced troops and miss miserably (also due to a terrible dice throw). The M4 Sherman also makes a brave attempt to take out the leading Pz IV but misses too.



SS pioneers dismount from the leading Sd.Kfz 251 and head away from the road towards the bridge from behind the cover of the building where the bazooka team are lurking.



The second group of SS pioneers dismount and take out the Sherman with a well-aimed panzerfaust.



Sternebeck's Pz IV blasts at the hidden bazooka team and makes mincemeat of them.

A Panther tank rumbles onto the table from the road and heads toward the bridge following behind the leading tanks.

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TURN 3

Reinforcements arrive in the form of two Shermans and an M10 Wolverine coming in from the road on the US side of the river.

Firefights break out between US troops and the SS pioneers heading on foot toward the bridge.





Timberlake meanwhile makes his way through the bushes and rough ground along the riverbank. The Germans spray him with machine-gun fire and his two aides fall, leaving him alone.



Another German half-track appears on the table on the road toward the village, carrying Peiper himself.

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TURN 4

As Sternebeck crosses the bridge he meets a Sherman waiting in the middle of the road on the other side.



Both tanks exchange fire, the Sherman hits but fails to penetrate. The Panzer IV returns fire, hits and completely destroys the tank.



Back on the other side of the river, Timberlake is still pinned in the brush on the riverbank and miraculously escapes unscathed from numerous volleys of shots from the Germans.

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TURN 5

Sternebeck rumbles into town past the burning Sherman. The small groups of green rear-echelon US troops in the surrounding buildings are powerless to stop him.



The remaining Sherman and the M10 Wolverine both make a vain attempt to take out Sternebeck's Panzer IV, but the "Dice God" intervenes again and both miss the target completely.



The Pioneers secure the bridge while the Panther gives covering fire from the riverbank.



At this point the bridge is now secured and Timberlake, still pinned and unable to escape, finally falls under a hail of fire.

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CONCLUSION

Victory for the Germans and a crushing defeat for the US defenders (until the next time that is .... )

Sternebeck and Timberlake discuss the finer points of the rules 

The game played out well, the Germans took the bridge, as they did in reality.

Timberlake didn't escape, though in reality he drove off in his jeep when he heard the German tanks approaching and escaped, The fact that he tried to make it off the table on foot was a big mistake.

The Americans had the disadvantage of being classed as "green" and the Germans had the positive modifiers associated with SS troops and it was going to be difficult for the Americans to win a decisive victory.

That said, the Americans could have at least done a little better, but on this occasion the dice throws meant they didn't have the ability to hit a barn door.

Even though we gamed on a heavily snow covered table, when this skirmish took place on 17th December 1944, from all accounts it wasn't snowing at that point in time.

The scenario was well written and it plays out well. It was easy to use "as is" using all the vehicles and figures mentioned in the scenario, and adapts well to the Bolt Action rules. It would be nice to play again maybe with some other ruleset.

All in all, a very enjoyable time with two of my regular gaming mates Alex and Carlos who aptly played the winning Germans.

Wargaming Nostalgia - Manchester Visit + MAWS

Back in the Summer I was in my old town of Winton in Manchester and I got the chance to game in the very same church hall where I used to wargame as a kid with my little plastic Airfix soldiers and tanks.

Back then the group was called the "Winton Warriors", and every week, with other kids my age, historically incorrect battles would be fought out with Tigers and Panthers against Centurion and Patton tanks, and other similar aberrations, but we loved it. At the club I'd marvel at the lovingly painted armies I'd see on the other tables there and the much more historically correct games being played by the older gamers who tolerated us youngsters and our plastic battles.

I've not been back to that church hall since the mid 70s, so just actually going back inside that very place after so many years made me feel nostalgic, to say the very least - nearly even brought a little tear to my old worldly eyes.

The fact that I also actually got to have a game there 40 years later, gave the nostalgia even more significance.

I'd seen on Facebook that the Manchester Area Wargames Society (MAWS) were going to be playing a big Normandy game in 20mm on a Sunday in August that coincided with my visit to the area, so I contacted them to see if I could come along and watch - well if you don't ask the answer is always no - and they kindly said yes ! They even went so far as to ask me to join the game as a player, which I course jumped at the opportunity,

And I had a great time, superb table, good friendly welcoming company, and a big game in my favourite scale.

Thanks to the MAWS lads for letting me join in on the day, I got thoroughly hammered during the game, but enjoyably so, and met some great blokes and made some new wargaming friends.

Flakpanzer V Coelian by Bram Corts

By Bram Corts (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)

The green Panther-conversion is a so-called flakpanzer V coelian






It's a what-if project because the Germans only made a mock-up of the vehicle. The turret is scratch-build and I used the Hasegawa Panther G with steelwheels as base.

Copyright Bram Corts, Netherla

Shermans Galore - By José Ventura

Shermans Galore - By José Ventura  (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)

All started when a friend of mine bought some ESCI's M4A1 back in 1978. Being also a wargamer, very soon these 75mm Sherman were exchanging rounds against my Pz.Kpfw. IVs and Vs.

As we used to play 1:1 skirmish (using them Charles GRANT Battle wargames rules, with Tank/Gun tables from Bruce QUARRIES' NW Europe Wargaming from PSL) very soon my friend was asking for a heavier punch -something dejá vu.

After buying Shermans in Action, the despair increases, first the version presented in the ESCI box, never existed (well now we know that it did, but.) and we needed a new turret to mount a heavier gun, nothing like the Firefly: same turret, new gun - wise guys those Brits.

With some searching, the discovery of the Hasegawa Sherman, with a complete out of scale hull, but a right scale turret, saved the day. And so started our conversions.

First, it was simply a question - after improving/correcting the Hasegawa part - of inserting a 76mm turret on an ESCI Hull.



At the same time, the original hull, started to be converted back to a 60º hull, by reinforcing the back of the kit glacis (with Araldite), and with some hard cutting and scratching reverting a 47º hull into that inclination. After that there is only a question of rebuilding the hatches, from a angle opening to a direct side opening, and so on, to be used as a 75mm gun tank.





Next a M4 Hybrid was made, by cutting part of the sides, replacing them with some plastic card, and creating with putty, the angles typical of this version.





The normal M4 version was accomplished by cutting an old Airfix hull, so that it could be inserted in an ESCI kit chassis, with new sides and rear in plastic card, and rebuilding the detail.





A normal M4A3 (dry) could be accomplished by the same method, as Bjorn shown on the Missing Links site , but very soon, the problem of the lousy protection arises. Those 76mm armed Shermans while capable of defeating StuG & Pz.IV and with a lot of luck and skill even Panthers and Tigers, could not withstand the 7,5cm L/48 or L/70 powerful punch, with the same easy as the Germans, so in most cases they were death meat.



So started another Quest, and at first, my friends models started to use Sandbags - using those from plastic boxes as Fujimi, Nitto's, ESCI and even made from DAS Pronto modelling clay - Extra Tracks & Wheels and Logs/Planks, to cover the thin armour.







But some new look on that marvellous in Action book, gives us clues about what now were named Expedient Jumbos (excellent article from P. DYERS in a old MM).

Simply by attach cut out parts from another Shermans, or Tigers/Panthers to the Hull front and Hull/Turret side, they increase the protection.



The present version used a ESCI M4A3, with a 76mm Hasegawa turret, a cut out Hasegawa frontal glacis, glued on the original ESCI ones, and some other bits of plastic. We also discover that some of them even carry US Army Field Issue 1" Armour plates, for the M4A3 family.



A exceptional photo of a M4A1A (W) even carries 2x1" Armour plates - photo in In Action, carrying a pair of boxing gloves and a switched loaders/commander hatches - so another model in the production line...

After some work and reorganisation of the Battle units, a M4A3B (105mm) was made using plans from Bellona Books; looking at the Fujimi Kit; and discovering that they used the same turret, from the 75mm, but with a new mantlet mount.



With some measurement, I discover, that the Fujimi Mantlet is something above the 1:76 scale, while not exactly at 1:72, but as the ESCI turret, is something bellow 1:72, and the thing looks good, Who Cares?

I also included a MR Models Combi Kit - Parts in resin and metal, to convert the ESCI M4A1 - M4A3B (105) so you can compare both things.

My model (made by me, but in the collection of Filipe Cunha) was based on a normal ESCI M4A3 and it have 2 turrets, the normal 75mm and the 105mm so I can swap for the scenario requirements.



More impressive conversion was the M4A3E2 Jumbo or Cobra King - the uparmoured Assault Tanks issued in July 1944, and first used during Operation Cobra - using as basis the "famous" ESCI M4A3.

Cutting the frontal and sides parts from an Hasegawa M4A3E8, using the transmission block from Hasegawa, gluing them over the ESCI kit, after some rework, and making a new turret from Balsa Wood, to the dimensions (in 1:72) of a Bellona plan, did the work. The Commander cupola, is a Hasegawa 76mm turret "clone", moulded using the "Plasticine/Araldite" method (see instructions below), while some bits came from the ESCI model, while others from the Hasegawa ones. And voilá a Cobra King (the name we normally give to this version, reserving the Jumbo one for the 76mm armed Tank) to blast those pesky Krauts (most of them mine).

As in the previous model, a MR Models Combi Kit, to compare - this time I lose, as their model is exceptional, just look at those tracks, with end connectors and the serial numbers on the cast turret.



In the case of the long narrow hood M4, I just presented my standard process of converting them, as I always made versions with frontal appliqué armour. But in the case of anyone interested in making a early long narrow hood, without the appliqué the description is more or less wrong. The corners are not totally round, from top to bottom, but indeed with "taper chambered corners" in the words of Phil Dyer, as the rounding starts on top but the bottom do not have round corners, but the normal angular corners.

Most M4 used by the British & Commonwealth, were late versions, meaning also re-manufactured ones, but all with the 1 piece tranny, most, if not all, with the sharp one.

While some of the British M4, do not have the frontal appliqué armour, all have the ones on the side.

Almost all rolled/welded hull Fireflies Ic were build on late version M4, so a sharp tranny, and a front travel lock (taken from Fujimi kit)

Some Canadian units, from Operation Veritable onwards used a special smoke launcher on their M4 and Fireflies. These "smokers" were installed on turret top deck, more or less on the central axis of the gun, as could be seen from the pictures posted on the Files section in the MiniatureZone Forum. For this just get a suitable brass or plastic tube and made the mounting. Sorry I didn't have any plans of it, perhaps some of the members of the group could help.

Another innovation, used for the first time during Veritable (February 1945) was the All Round Vision Cupola, indeed a improved system to be standardized on all British AFV, associated or not with Tabby (The British Infra-Red Vision system). Most of the cupolas were to be installed on the Cromwell & Churchill, but some of them were also retrofitted in some Shermans (M4, M4A2 and M4A4). For this I intend to used the one from Matchbox Comet (I didn't remember if the Airfix Churchill Mk. VII has one, as I never build any), and insert it on place of the original double hatch commanders ring.

The new cupola must have short diameter, as the original, so an adapter ring should be made from plastic (in reality a simple annulus, like the real thing).


By José Ventura (March-2002)