Polish Armoured Division

2nd Armoured Regiment

10th Mounted Regiment

M-24 Chafee

At long last, I can now fight the Battle of the Bulge in miniature. I game in 3mm for my micro armor games and the American tanks were missing in that scale.

What I mean is I want to do a historical miniature battle based on the movie Battle of the Bulge. With the release of the M-24 Chafee, I now have the American Shermans and with the M-47 Patton already released I have the German King Tigers.

While not historically accurate a certain age of gamers remembers fondly this incredibly bad movie.

Now I just need to figure out how many I will need.

3mm Releases for WWI

Oddzial Osmy has announced their next batch of releases and World War I gamers should be very happy. With the previous release of the Mark IV we have four (five with the FT-17)

• GW-601    Mk A Whippet (15 pcs) - British 'fast' medium tank
• GW-602    A7V (15 pcs) - only German designed tank used in WWI, only 20 built
• GW-603    Saint-Chamond (15 pcs) - French heavy tank, armed with 75mm gun

The Germans used captures British models so the Mark IV will more common than the A7V.

Photos found here: http://www.fotosik.pl/u/marcin2501/album/1570933

Egyptian Lysander

As a teenager, one of my favorite science fiction books was one that used cover art from paperback science fiction. Most were of space ships. I did not know it was cover art until I saw the same images on paperbacks years latter in used book shops.

What I loved about this book was the story line were many of these space craft were personal craft or merchants that were fitted for war between Mars and Earth (I think).

While this is used in many science fiction novels and movies it does have a connection in real life. During the Falklands War civilian transports were used as reconnaissance aircraft. Often coming close to British Harriers. In the bush wars of Central America and Sub-Sahara Africa, T-6 Texan was often used in COIN operations. 

Now the aircraft I am interested in is very similar with an obscure history in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. It is the Lysander. An aircraft that was designed as an army cooperation aircraft before World War II and was found to be perfect for short range reconnaissance and photography. After the fall of most of Europe they were pulled from front line service. These aircraft received a second life as they were able to operate from unimproved airfields and could supply the resistance fighters in France and the Balkans. 

They were also used by Egypt in World War II to patrol the Western Desert. I saw never sure if there were watching the German and Italians, or the British forces. A few lived on to see action in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. These twenty-year-old well-used aircraft were still operational and on at least one occasion engaged an Israeli aircraft. The story is best told from ACIG.org. 

(I reached out to ask if I could use this excerpt but did not hear back. I will take it down if the owner so wishes.)

By Dr. David Nicolle  

From http://tinyurl.com/mh8a2wt

Conflict of another kind

The war had left Egypt’s shores months earlier, but other clouds were looming, both in Egypt’s increasingly tense relationship with Britain, and over the frontier in Palestine. For this reason, the REAF hung onto whatever aircraft it could. Although nine Lysanders were sent for scrap between October 1946 and January 1947, four others were overhauled and returned to the Miscellaneous List in June 1946. Some while later, these were attached to the new Royal Flight, which itself formed part of No. 3 (Comm) Sqn. Meanwhile, their original owner, No. 1 Sqn, had regained its original status as the REAF’s elite unit, being re-equipped with secondhand Spitfire LF.IXs as a fighter-reconnaissance squadron by the end of 1947.

Shortly before the Palestine War broke out in 1948, two of the REAF’s surviving Lysanders were re-equipped for aerial photography. According to Jabr Ali Jabr, writing about the 1948 war: ‘Very few Egyptian aircraft were equipped for photography and the only ones available for this purpose were two antiquated Lysanders. One of them was usually unserviceable. At the same time, there was also a serious lack of officers trained to interpret and comment upon aerial photographs. The same went for analyzing and using the information from such pictures.’

As a result, the two Lysanders were thrown into the early part of the Palestine War. One of these, or perhaps the third surviving Lysander, was soon involved in an extraordinary aerial combat with an Israeli Avia C210 (Czech-built Messerschmitt Bf 109) on June 9, 1948. Air Commodore Muhammad Abd al-Munaim Miqaati, one of Egypt’s first three military pilots, and now Deputy Director General of the REAF, was due to fly from al-Arish to Cairo-Almaza, but had been expecting trouble. This would, in fact, be the first day of the so-called Ten Day War, which followed the collapse of the first UN Truce. As Miqaati recalled: ‘It was Condition Red. I had been advised to keep the radio on, but I was still nervous as I set across the Mediterranean. Fortunately my gunner – I don’t remember his name – was a keen-sighted man and he spotted an Israeli Messerschmitt as it maneuvered into position to attack. Of course, my Lysander was a very old kind of airplane, but I’d flown these for a long time. Still, we were at a big disadvantage and you’d expect such a contest could only end one way… The pilot of the Israeli aircraft came up behind us. I told my gunner to fire just as the Messerschmitt came into range and I went down to about 100 feet. Then the gunner fired and I throttled right back. You know the Lysander can drop like a stone to land in a field, like they did when the RAF took spies in and out of France. The Israeli must have been concentrating on keeping me in his sights because he dropped his nose to follow. He overshot and went right in, almost level with me. I honestly felt sick in my stomach and, I don’t know why, I saluted him. Then we flew straight back to Cairo.’

The Israeli pilot was Bob Vickman, and his loss remained unexplained for the Israelis until Miqaati’s account was published. According to an unofficial report obtained by the British Air Attaché in Cairo in October 1948, No. 3 Sqn no longer had any Lysanders, but one was still listed as serviceable at Almaza in January 1950. Air Commodore Miqaati said that a Lysander was among many different types kept there in the early 1950s, intended for an air museum that was never built because of the 1952 Revolution. British bombing during the 1956 Suez War destroyed most of these historic aircraft. One way or another, Egypt’s Lysanders went out with a bang rather than a whimper, and they were surely the last to see combat.

While I have played and helped design a number of flight and combat sims, I find it hard to believe (but not impossible) that a Lysander could down a Messerschmitt Bf 109. What can I say; the Lysander has a place at least for 1948 and 1956 conflicts.

I am happy to show these aircraft off in 3mm. These have just been released by O8 and came from PicoArmor.

The models are very clean with little flash. You can see here both the bare metal and primed and washed versions. 

I have also painted both the silver and camo patterns of the REAF. This will make a nice addition to my 1948 collection. While it is an aircraft that was available, I do not think I would want to be in one against any fighter. But that is just me.

Additional colors can be found at Wings Palette.

Airpower in Lebanon - Lardies Style

I have played around with the jet supplements to TOOFATLardies Bag the Hun and so far they seem to work well for my Lebanon 1982 project.  I like the miniatures from PicoArmor, the distributor for Oddzial Osmy (O8). These 3mm gems look good and allow for some really nice fur-balls. Right now I am only missing one type of aircraft and have access to two versions of the MiG-21.

Here is my list of what is needed for an air battle over Lebanon and the Bekaa. Valley. 
   
F4-E Phantom II       
MiG-21 Version Used - MF, PFMA, MS, SMT, bis (Pico has the MF & F-13)
F15-A       
F16-A       
A-4 (Not Available by Pico)
MiG-23 Version Used - MS, MF   
Su-22 (Using the Su-17 from Pico)
RF4-E (Using the F4-E from Pico)

So am I missing anything (other than SAMs)?

M109 AL

This model (I can not call it a miniature) looks like a house. And as usual Mark did a great job of painting it up. Please Click to see his work.

This house has an armor rating of 0/0 in Rock the Casbah. What gives? Well it is a big box (like a Walmart) with a hull of 1.25" rolled aluminum armor. What gives? Well a M113 has between .47" and 1.5" of similar armor. And as it has a ratting of 0/0 without the TOGA armor I guess I can live with the ratting. I just don't know what Mark is going to say. I may need to put this on my short list to get from PicoArmor.

All images on this post are from Mark's blog.

Tanks for the Memories

Civil Wars are famous as come-as-you-are conflicts. You use what you can find in the local arsenal or what you are able to capture. If you are lucky to have the support of a major power, you can often get from them, what their armies do not want. These hand me downs are often too old for their reserves or militias.  Sometimes they may even not work.

This does not only apply to Lebanon, but the following list of what may be available to the different sides proves my point. I have broken these down by factions. In Myth Buster fashion, after the name I rate these vehicles as Confirmed, Plausible or Busted.

Confirmed means I have seen evidence that there were used. An example is the M113 used by Lebanese militias. There is lots of photographic evidence to prove they were used.

Plausible means I have seen evidence, but it is conflicting. The Charioteer is reported to have been used during the Civil War but I do not know if it lasted into the 1980s.

Busted is that the vehicles are reported to have been used in the conflict, but never used by anyone in the Middle East. I have seen the T10M reported to have been used by the Syrians against the IDF even though none were ever exported out of the Soviet Union. (The T10M is a great vehicle to have on a battlefield though. As I have a regiment of them in 3mm from PicoArmor.) 

IDF
Merkava I - Confirmed

Merkava II - Busted
M113 Zeldas  – Confirmed

M113 TOGAs - Confirmed
Magach - Confirmed
Shot w & wo skirts - Confirmed
NagmaShot - Plausible
M163A1 - Confirmed
M109AL - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
M-107 - Confirmed
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Confirmed
M3 Mk. B - Confirmed
M3 Mk. C - Plausible
M3 Mk. D - Plausible
M3 TCM-20 - Plausible

Syria
T-55 – Confirmed
T-62 - Confirmed
T-72 - Confirmed
BTR-50 - Confirmed

BTR-60 - Confirmed
BTR-152 - Confirmed
BMP-1 - Plausible

Zil 157 - Confirmed
Unimogs - Confirmed

Lebanese Militias
Charioteer - Plausible
Sherman - Plausible

AMX13 - Plausible
M41 - Plausible
M42 Dusters - Confirmed
AML 90 - Confirmed
V-150 Commando - Plausible
M113 - Confirmed
MUTT - Confirmed
T34/85 - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
Gun Trucks w/ZPU2 - Plausible
Gun Trucks w/ZPU4 - Plausible
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Plausible

South Lebanese Army

Sherman - Plausible

M50 – Plausible
M51 – Confirmed
M113 – Confirmed
MUTT - Confirmed
T34/85 - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Confirmed
M3 Mk. B - Plausible


This is a work in progress that will be updated often. Once done I will add in stats for Troops, Weapons & Tactics and I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! so they can be used with Rock the Casbah.

The picture of the Charioteer is from QRF. It is to cool of a tank for me not to have at least one of them. I look forward to having it for my militia.

Update Part II

We the troops are ready. I have a few IDF (95 painted with 16 waiting to be primed). They can be used a South Lebanon Army as well. Patch is to the right. Of the 16 troops waiting to be primed eight are command that I need to complete the platoon.

I also have a Syrian commando unit painted up. All I need now is a few vehicals for the Syrians to go after.

Below is my work bench. To the right is my VBCW 28mm figures that have taken a back seat to my Lebanon 1982 project. I may have some time to paint them up as I am waiting on the M113 and the Merkavas and Shots.

The Work Bench

The troop waiting for orders and a Nagma-Shot waiting to be primed.

A close up of based IDF troops.

I hope over the next two weeks to get in a couple of games of Rock the Casbah. I am sure Mark and I can cause a little destruction. I am also playing around with a linked campaign system and 3mm troops by PicoArmor for the Bekaa Valley.