Red Dawn Objective - Wonalds...ish

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well as we crest past a far too warm Halloween. This is just a quick post to showcase another completed element from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Air Assault Battalion Starter Set. This fabulous box came with a Red Dawn (1984) inspired unique objective taken from the movie stills showing a few commies posing it up for mommy in front of a distinctive/iconic fast food establishment.

Battlefront elected to go with 'alternate' branding inverting the yellow arches into a W...in my haste to unpack the box and look at the goodies and then ignore them for a random amount of time before hitting the work bench...I inadvertently lost the decals to declare my objective as Wonalds.

So, adapting and overcoming...I instead took inspiration from the fact that any given small town in the Canadian Prairies is home to its own Chinese food restaurant. This of course is due to the reality behind the internment of folks who were of Japanese or Asian descent and living on the western coast of North America during World War 2. This happened in the US and certainly in Canada and resulted in the aforementioned proliferation of small-town Chinese restaurants. Having lost all when they went into internment, these folks had to adapt and overcome (with much much more at stake than missing decals) and provide for their families.

With those folks in mind, and their contribution to their communities, I present you with appropriate signage for Won's Chinese Food emporium. Complete with BMD-1 at the curb, along with a couple of Ruskies and a sufficiently mid-winter grimy/dirty street to stand in.

Enjoy!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         134, +3

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +172

Red Dawn - Soviet Airborne VDV

Hey folks,

I hope the week has been well for you on our respective side of the internets. Just a quick post to bring in the weekend, I finally got around to finishing up the BTR’s and the troops from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Assault Battalion. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I finished the BMD’s and its a good feeling to get the AAA and grunts finished.

The BTR’s are resin and metal…and I think I preferred the plastic BMD’s…the prep on them felt about the same and the metal figures painted up really well. All in all it didn’t take to much time to get the 2 platoons finished, along with the special Red Dawn command stand, and I think they look great…even with all their berets. I think I would’ve preferred a mix of headgear…but they look really movie cool,so there’s at least that.

The box came with some extra command figs, Officer and radioman, so I did them up as singletons for Force on Force and whatever other modern ruleset I can fit figs into.

Anywho, here goes with the pics…enjoy.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         100, +51

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +137

Team Yankee/ Red Dawn - Canadian Iltis

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well. Just a quick post to show off one of the new units that you can get with the latest NATO book…a Canadian Airborne Regiment Iltis patrol as part of the continental Canadian Army and Force Mobile Command (FMC). The patrol comes as a 4 vehicle blister with 2 x TOW mounted vehicles and 2 x MG vehicles.

I’m not going to lie, I had been waiting for these little delights for some time. At one point, I had been trying to find a suitable maker until Battlefront caught up and made these as part of their NATO release. These were in service with the Canadian Army from the 1980’s up until early 2000’s (03-04 if I remember correctly). These vehicles just seemed to takes constant beating and yet, kept on ticking.

Anywho, in the context of Red Dawn/Team Yankee, these patrols are available to the Canadian commander as part of FMC and the Canadian Airborne Regiment. 

The vehicles were fun to paint up…the only con that sticks to mind, is the finickiness of the figures and trying to work my brush around them to get them painted up. Otherwise, pretty quick build and paint. In my case, I went with the NATO standard camo pattern, and dropped the khaki tones only using green and faded black/grey.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         27, +14 (4 x Iltis and crew)  

28mm+         7 

Bought         8

Progress   +26

Team Yankee - Soviet VDV BMD's

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your respective fronts. I gotta say, I'm not really digging this minimal snow-early spring weather...I do miss the subzero temps and white stuff on the ground. I'll have to find some way to manage...

As mentioned in my last post, I had been busy like Bob T. Builder putting vehicles together from the various boxes that I've bought over the past few years. At the tops of my list, and in line with some future Northern Dawn scenario ideas, I thought I'd start my painting with the VDV folks and their battlefield rides.

The models themselves went together fairly smooth, I think I had minimal issues...I guess I could re-read my post to verify...

Yup...fairly smooth. They painted up really nicely as well and I have to say it was very enjoyable painting up Soviet vehicles in something other than green...the camo pattern was a nice diversion. I think I stuck fairly close to the pattern in the Red Dawn book, but also reflected some of the reality that I saw when I did my googling. Either way, definitely some randomness to the elements reflecting the general pattern.

Here are a few pics - trying to show some of the straight on, overhead, side profiles, rear aspect, and in-closer views to give a few perspectives on the camo pattern…I hope you enjoy the pics.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         13 (BMD's and crew)         

28mm+        

Bought       00  

Progress   +13

Hello There 20-24

Hey everyone,

Winter is finally upon us…we made it until the second week of January before we saw any snow to follow-up our original snowfall back in mid November. Depending on where you are in Canada right now you are potentially feeling some -40 to -50 Celsius weather, and in some areas that very rarely get any subzero temps…so stay warm Canada.

So, with the dawning of the new year, I guess its time for the mandatory review and some forward thought…last year, my plan was fairly straight forward (I think): paint up more figures, focus on 15mm, get some more gaming in, try some new games, and work through the pile of lead (shame). By year’s end, I was sitting around 133 x 15mm figs painted (vehicle and troops) and 62 x 28mm figs…not my best output, and certainly not my worst output. I worked through a bunch of moderns and Team Yankee figs and I was happy that I started to get into some old starter/expansion boxes that I had laying about.

I didn’t game as much as I wanted to, but I was really happy that I got to give Marvel Crisis Protocol a shot and really enjoyed the game and mechanics. It was pretty cool, finally seeing some figs on the table. 

I had intended on working towards some set projects, but admittedly, I just couldn’t muster the focus. I put plenty of thought towards Afropia, but most of it stayed in the brain pan…although, I did work through some 15mm Team Yankee Red Dawn Insurgents/Militia that will fit in nicely. Funny enough, in the last week before end-year, I ended up looking through some of my terrain collection, put some thoughts towards potential actions, and am thinking that I may need to do a re-think and sync on the project.

So, that leads into the soothsaying and what will the next year hold. Painting more is an ongoing objective, I have plenty in the pile to work through, and some great looking MCP characters to bring to life. So that will continue to be a thing. With the release of NATO Forces, I have some Canadian Airborne Regiment and Special Service Force troops to put together for a continental Canada force. I had started a Cold War scenario some time ago, so I will continue developing that. I have been painting up a good amount of moderns over the last 2 years, so I would like to see them get to the table.

I think I will try to focus my efforts around the following projects and see how it goes:

1. Work on a proper Red/Northern Dawn scenario, ideally 2 of them, and that includes the terrain to get it to the table. So, I would like to work through the VDV starter box, and fill out my Cdn Abn Regt;

2. Work on a 15mm scenario inspired by some of the Bush War actions, I think this will be a good kickstart for me to push som progress on the greater Afropia idea - and really work on some of the wider mechanics and construct of that verse; 

3. I’d like to get some moderns to the table, so thinking of either Danger Close, Spectre Ops, or Force on Force, but moreso a limited small action scenario; and

4. Continue with MCP…and get my Hoth force for Star Wars Legion moving.

I think that covers enough variance over genre…and approaches more of the lead pile. So, we’ll see how we go over the next few months and start getting onto the verse’s.

Take care folks.

Team Yankee/Red Dawn - New NATO Forces book - quick thoughts!

...is that an update or are you just happy to see me?!?! Cause HOT DAMN! I'm pretty happy to see you!

Thats right folks! If you're living under a rock like me, you may have just seen that Battlefront are set to release their next Team Yankee/Red Dawn book that updates troops & kit available to NATO and Free forces for the pseudo-WW3.

Team Yankee - NATO Forces

There have been a few videos so far, I really like the review from Fog of War, as well there is a great blog post from Big Lee over at Breakthrough Assault:

YouTube - Fog of War - NATO Forces Review

Breakthrough Assault - NATO Forces Overview

Now, I remember watching the videos and post with much anticipation almost a year ago when Red Dawn was being announced and we were getting snippets to mull over. Seeing the invasion map and route through the Prairies as well as the map symbol with Canadian Mech Troops in Grizzly/Cougar was really cool to see. Having reread the posts and videos that I have seen so far, I'm even more pumped...now, I'm not going to say that I can see into the future, or have influenced Battlefront in their design...but I like to think that maybe someone has heard me or even read a few words that I've dumped into the internets.

However, I did post that one of my pet-peeves was that Battlefront went with the short barrel 1970s M109 for the RCHA even though we were sporting the longs in the 80's... 1 RCHA battery for 4 CMBG

And, I may have said that with the push Red's push into the Prairies and axis of advance going past Edmonton and into Calgary...along with the new Airborne Assault rules...that maybe this would be a good time for the Canadian Airborne Regiment to make an appearance... Red Dawn North

So yeah, a lot to be pumped about...in Edmonton you had the Airborne jump school, 435 Squadron and their Tactical Airlift School, 1 Brigade Headquarters in Calgary, and a bunch of various Militia regiments along with the Regular force regiments that can make for some Force Mobile Command goodness.

I'm looking forward to the Cougars and Grizzlies, but gotta admit I'm really excited for the Iltis jeeps and TOW carriers...maybe odd, but I may have cheered when I saw them, lol.

We'll see what comes downline, the pre-order timing looks to be 21 October and there are a few pre-order deals offered for Direct Order from Battlefront. I just jumped on the book, cards, and objective deal which nets you an objective (and maybe 10 figs) for free...the deal is $35USD and the book and cards separately are $25 and $10 respectively...so...

There is also a Canadian Mech Infantry deal that comes with upgrades for 3xM113 to the new TUA carrier. All in all, its 2 x infantry platoons (with Carl G or Eryx), 2 x M113 transport boxes (for 10 x M113's), and 2 x M113 frames (for 2)...all coming in around $160 USD. If you do the math, I think you'll end up saving about $10-15 vice buying everything separately. Not an insane amount of savings for buying a 'starter' collection, but that gives you either a pizza or a few beers while you put all the models together.

Anywho, looking forward to the breadcrumbs being thrown out over the next few weeks to see what is what. All in all, pretty happy to see what comes...hopefully the Canucks can get their own partisan/militia types as well (Cobras/Badgers/Bisons/Bears ?!?), there were definitely motivated folk who would've been happy to shoot at a Red or two.

Take care folks.

Wolverines, Grizzlies, or Cobras, oh my! Northern...I mean, Red Dawn

Either way…we got some 1980’s homegrown kill a commie-for-mommy insurgent militia goodness coming our way..

And thanks to their MOVERINES comrades, they can punch it all out around the battlefield in pick-up style! The figures were pretty cool…you have the Red Dawn iconic crew of Swayze and the gang…and the rest of the platoon is filled out with appropriate looking militia-ites. The teams are armed with a mix of Soviet and US military small arms and whatever shotguns Elmer Fudd or farmers moms have in their closet…along with some M72 looking anti-tank rockets and of course an RPG or two…and a 60mm mortar.

As far as game play goes, I have no idea but I hope to find out in the near future…of course I’ll have to finish up some more troops for the game. Anywho, they were fun to paint up and since I’ve been talking about the whole northern aspect of Red Dawn, the basing is a little more in keeping with what there would have been on the Canadian prairies…

Swayze and the gang front and centre. Brad Savage and Doug Toby are to the left of Swayze, C Thomas, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey to the right, … 

I found a suitable figure to paint up as Powers Boothe’s character LCol. Tanner, eagle driver…

And in the theme of downed aircrew…I painted this fella up as a Captain in the Canadian Air Force, CC130 Hercules aircrew. The name tag on his right chest is shaped like a Herc silhouette, was the typical style for Herc crews.  

I painted up the “gold” and blue character with a cool looking high school jacket…

Some more views of the militia group…

Painted 

15mm            73, +26

28mm+          28

Bought         121

Progress      -20

Team Yankee a Go-Go - more Combat Support

Hey folks,

I hope all is well on your end. Another week, another dump of snow…we got about another half foot or so thanks to some warmer temps compared to a few days ago. The year so far has been pretty productive and given the excitement around Red Dawn, I wanted to get a few more Team Yankee units completed and on the orbat.

For my Canadians and my 4CMBG force, I completed another 3 x M150 Tow carriers. Depending on the list you take, there are a few options for those launchers…I think you can have up to 2 x TOW sections (up to 3 x M150s per section) depending on whether your Battlegroup is Infantry or Armour based. Keeping with the overall theme of my 4CMBG build, these launchers are camm’ed up with netting and painted in NATO tri-colour. The main difference is that I haven’t included any national flags or emblems…there are some great pics online from back in the day of M113 carriers based in Canada that don’t have emblems or flags while their Euro-based counterparts sported the fancy decals. These carriers will fit in nicely with the Battlegroup, and they can also work for an at home defense Red/Arctic Dawn force for with whichever Canadian Brigade Group or formation would’ve remained.

For my Soviets, I was able to complete a flight of Su-25 Frogfoot...full disclosure, I have had these on my workbench since the time that Battlefront first released them as resin and metal cast…lol. But now is their time to shine, lol...anywho, I did some consulting of Google, found a really great modeling instruction that had a paint diagram and I also went to my stock of Osprey Publishing books and got inspired by their Air Vanguard book on the Su-25. Selecting two, I really like the variance of the schemes and for some extra fanciness, I di d NMM on the rocket pods and tried to give some impression of movement with the aircraft and added some extra highlights and contrast to give that sense...looks kinda neat, I'm quite happy with the result, and depending on the angle it makes me think that the aircraft are in a nose down attitude.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Canuck TOW toting M113's ready for action. These ones actually have the metal figs/gunners that were intended for the model. I had robbed a couple of tubes from the BF Humvee model for my first section.

Bring on the frogs!

See...speed highlights...works in my brain, not much else to say about that.

Painted

15mm            10, +9 (Frogfoot and M150 TOWs + crew)

28mm+          4

Bought         24

Progress      -10

Northern...umm Red Dawn...a Question of Weather(ing)

Hello everyone,

Here's hoping you're enjoying some winter weather and keeping cool. While I'm sitting here waiting for my Red Dawn book to arrive, I thought I'd burn some 1's and 0's googling my way through 1985. Specifically, out of sheer curiosity and a little stroll down memory lane, I thought I’d take a look at some historical weather data (thank you Environment Canada) and see what the weather situation was back in the day to see how weather would have affected the Sov's had this whole 'would-have' been…been.

So thanks to my screenshot from the great review video from Miniature Landscape Hobbies, I have an invasion map to look at, and we can check out the northern axis of attack through Western Canada. 

Starting with an airborne drop on 12 November, the Battlefront plan show us a variety of hooks and jabs as the Sov’s employ air assault, motor rifle, and heavy tank formations moving  eastward and south pushing through Edmonton, Calgary, and points South and East up until 30 November down into southern Alberta and Saskatchewan and near Great Falls and Malta in Montana. Looking at the map above and the table below you can see my stations of interest:

Of note, all temperatures are in Celsius; daytime high/overnight low

Station	12 Nov	15 Nov	17 Nov	23 Nov	25 Nov	30 Nov
Prince Rupert	+2/-6; no snow on ground	+4/0; no snow	0/-7; 2 cm snow	-3/-13; 2 cm snow on ground	-9/-17; 2 cm on ground	0/-14; 2 cm on ground
Kitimat	-2/-8; no snow	+5/+1; rain and snow	-1/-5; no snow on ground	-9/-14; no snow	-13/-20; no snow	-6/-11; no snow
Prince George	-10/-21; 40cm snow on ground	0/-10; snow and rain, 42cm snow on ground	-17/-26; 40cm on ground	-18/-28; trace snow, 30cm on ground	-27/-34; 30cm on ground	-17/-29; 30cm on ground
Edmonton	+1/-15; 7cm snow on ground	+6/-3; 4cm on ground	-19/-21; snow, 4cm on ground	-14/-24; snow, 9cm on ground	-28/-32; 10cm on ground	-18/-24; 12cm on ground
Cold Lake	-7/-17; snow and rain, 14cm snow on ground	+1/-15; 16cm on ground	-10/-18; 15cm on ground	+3/-3; 11cm on ground	Not observed	Not observed
Red Deer	+1/-19; 7cm snow on ground	+7/-7; 4cm on ground	-15/-19; snow and rain, 4cm on ground	-11/-25; snow and rain, 8cm on ground	-26/-31; 10cm on ground	-20/-32; 10cm on ground
Calgary	+3/-19; 8cm snow on ground	+11/-1; trace	-12/-19; 2cm on ground	-10/-21; 2cm on ground	-23/-31; 3cm on ground	-19/-30; 5cm on ground
Wainwright	-4/-19; no snow on ground	+6/-10; no snow	-18/-22; no snow	-19/-27; no snow	Missing data	Missing data
Suffield (Medicine Hat)	-9/-20; 1cm snow on ground	+6/-4; trace	-12/-17; 3cm on ground	-12/-23; 4cm on ground	-24/-35; 4cm on ground	-23/-25; 4cm on ground
Fort Macleod	-1/-24; 14cm snow on ground	+6/0; 5cm on ground	-14/-18; 3cm on ground	-12/-29; 3cm on ground	-25/-25; 6cm on ground	-18/-24; 8 cm on ground
Swift Current	-7/-19; 37cm on ground	+5/-5; 43cm on ground	-8/-18; 35cm on ground	-17/-30; 37cm on ground	-24/-26; 31cm on ground	-24/-27; 31cm on ground

As you can see, the weather situation would have been a rather interesting variable to manage...and certainly true to form, Alberta and the Prairies keep you on your toes...Afterall, if  you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes and it will change.

I would like to say I remember the weather well, just like it was yesterday, but really, I vaguely remember some warm and cold temps. I do remember being in Army Cadets at the time and doing fieldwork in October/November just before the snow hit and I vaguely remember snow on the ground for Remembrance Day that year and thankful that the temps weren't too cold. As the table shows, we had some pretty cold temps near the end of the month and while it didn't necessarily snow a lot, the temps and winds would've been more than enough to give some pause. And then you have Southern Saskatchewan adding some spice with a foot or two of snow. Overall you can see the temperature swings of 20+ degree temperature changes, which aren't uncommon nor extreme, but this would've meant some pretty good winds and potential Chinook conditions in Southern Alberta that could have made any potential ops interesting.

The push past Prince George would’ve been slowed somewhat by the foot or so of snow, not to mention the rain and freezing temps keeping the troops cold. The swing southwards from Edmonton would’ve benefitted from the long stretch of Highway 2 but winds and temps again would’ve kept heads inside vehicles. The transition from Alberta to Saskatchewan would’ve been a bit of a shock with the much increased levels of snow on the ground, and again you could reasonably expect some pretty high winds moving to Swift Current. All in all, some interesting weather variances.

I hope you get a kick out of what could've been or at least what meteorologically was..and if you're gaming any Red or Northern Dawn moments, maybe you add in some additional stressors or weather events to your gaming - maybe digging in is a higher skill roll, not available at all, or just runs like normal. Anywho, hope you enjoy.

Cheers folks. And yeah, this...is not getting old anytime soon.