Team Yankee US forces so far

The below photos show my US forces so far for my 1/72 Team Yankee / One Hour Wargames home brew rules.

I can now call on 1 M60A3, 4 M1 Abrams, 2 Sheridan light tanks and 2 units of Mechanised Infantry mounted in a pair of M113 APCs to defend Western Europe from the Red tide of Communism. God bless America (and their main battle tanks!)

I got a job lot of Abrams in a lucky ebay purchase so I converted one to serve as scatter terrain. After attacking the hull with some pliers and a liberal application of black / brown paint over the damage, I had a wrecked tank to put on the wargaming table.

Team Yankee APC and Recon vehicles repaint finished

Sadly I haven't been keeping the blog up to date recently, I actually finished these over a week ago!

The Soviet units, a small BMD-2 and two BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, are painted to match my T-55s, a simple scheme with limited weathering, inspired by the artwork of the Team Yankee rulebook.

The US units are two M113s for transporting my mechanised infantry, and a Sheridan light tank. I toned down the initial camouflage scheme as it was too busy. I'm much happier with the black and off white sections of the paintwork having stripped it back a little. One of the most common problems for model painters is not to go over the top with a new method or colour scheme!

Here are the photos:

WIP Soviet repaints and M113 / Sheridan MERDC camouflage repaints

Just a couple of photos of vehicles I'm working on this weekend.

The two BMP-1s and BMD-2 are made by S-model and are great kits, solid tracks and tons of surface details. I made these back in 2015 at a time when I had just discovered Games Workshop inks, and consequently inked my vehicles to death!

I have redecorated with the usual Tamiya camo green base coat followed by a generous application of Athonian Camoshade ink to give definition. The next stage for these guys will be some drybrushing around the tracks and possibly some decals.

The M113s in the photos are Easy Model die cast pieces and I'm getting on well with the redecoration. The Sheridan, however, is another story - the camouflage is now too busy and needs toning down before I do anything else.

Reinforcements have arrived...

After a busy Easter weekend followed by a weekend up in York, and with work / daily life activities in between I haven't had a lot of time to update my blog.

The main event to report concerns my Team Yankee collection, which has been significantly bolstered by a visit to the original bunker in Kent. There I was able to pick up the following for my Allied / NATO army:

2x M113A2 Easy Model APCs that I managed to get at an agreeable price on amazon. These are in the photo below but repainting them with MERDC camouflage has already begun. These two will transport my mechanised infantry into battle and provide limited fire support from their .50cal machine guns.

1x previously assembled Sheridan tank. This and its yet to be assembled partner form my reconnaissance vehicles for the Allies. I was debating keeping the darker Vietnam style colour scheme but have since opted for more MERDC because I have really enjoyed painting MERDC previously on my M1 and M60.

Another addition is a small AA unit, in a smaller scale (1/87 I think). The M42 Duster was used in Vietnam and would have been phased out long before the Team Yankee era, but as I don't have the funds for the Italeri M163 Vulcan, it will have to fill the gap. It's one of my few 'Counts As' vehicles. As this Duster is from my Vietnam collection, I will not be repainting it.

Also in the photo below is my first mechanised infantry squad, with a Dragon AT missile launcher at the ready! 

The Soviets also have reinforcements but these will be covered in another post. 

Plastic Soldier Company T-55s - 1st pair finished

After beavering away this weekend I have managed to finish my T-55AMs and I'm really happy with the finished tanks. A final drybrushing and highlight using GW Karak Stone has really brought out all of the raised surfaces.

I have used some Volksarmee decals to denote the pair as East German tanks - after all, being in the Warsaw Pact means everyone working together, right?

These tanks were definitely worth the wait and the expense, they'll hopefully give my NATO and US forces something to worry about. So what's next in my Team Yankee pile of plastic? Well I do have another 4 T-55 models to put together. However, I have also liberated two S-model tanks from storage in Kent - a US Sheridan and a Soviet BMD-2, so decisions, decisions!

Plastic Soldier Company T-55s - 1st pair

At the end of February I received my two boxes of the new T-55s from the Plastic Soldier Company. Due to other commitments (alas real life gets in the way of models all the time) I haven't had chance to do a review to date so here's a preview.

I have assembled the first pair of T-55s as modernised T-55AMs - these have more gadgets and attachments to make them more effective on the modern battlefield. These additions include additional armoured 'cheeks' on the turret, a unique barrel for the main gun and distinctive side skirts. The models went together well but I had to use reference photos (cheers Google) to try to get most of the turret furniture as correct as possible. A particular challenge was the smoke grenade launcher on the right hand side.

Keeping with the remainder of my Soviet forces I am painting the tanks in Tamiya acrylic XF-73, a greyish green that I really like. I have recently inked the base coats in GW Athonian Camoshade (dark green ink) which has really helped to bring out the details on them.

In my OHW Team Yankee wargaming rules I will keep these particular tanks flexible, to be considered as main battle tanks or medium battle tanks as necessary. This saves me both space and short term expense buying other Soviet MBTs. The other four T-55s will be made up as older T-55As - that way they can be used as medium battle tanks in Team Yankee, but are also able to be employed in earlier wargaming periods, eg as NVA tanks in Vietnam.

WIP Team Yankee British Challenger 1 and Warrior IFV

Here's some photos of my British repaints for Team Yankee so far. I've managed to get the camouflage colours how I want them through liberal inking and I'm happy with my drybrush highlighting of the vehicle surfaces.

My Challenger 1 is pretty much there, just need to apply some Games Workshop Karak Stone around the tracks and track guards to give it that finishing touch of dust and grime.

The Warrior needs some brown inking on the two fire extinguishers (these are probably not red in reality, but I wanted to break up the drab camouflage with a feature or two). Then the obligatory dusting of the tracks and underbelly.
I haven't decided on a role for my Warrior model - it could be a reconnaissance vehicle or a transport for some infantry. With the sadly snapped-off main gun (the Rarden cannon should be longer) another option is a representation of an AA unit.

I'm looking forward to getting these finished and arranged with my American tanks in a 'before and after' comparison photo.

Team Yankee / Cold War OHW

So one of my side projects for 2018 is to generate a Team Yankee / Cold War version of One Hour Wargames, that is, a quick and simple "World War 3" game.

Looking at the WW2 One Hour Wargames rules, for force compositions I need 4 different types of military unit. On top of this I'm going to add on two extra unit types that will be inter related for the sake of balance - aircraft (including helicopters) and anti aircraft vehicles.

The 4 units that come to my mind are tanks, mechanised infantry, reconnaissance vehicles and artillery.

I'll look into each unit in detail in due course. Firstly I need to repaint some of my older 'modern' models to closer resemble Team Yankee participants. As the battles are mainly set in West Germany / Europe, this means repainting tanks that were last out of storage around 2011. All will need a thorough clean up and a bit of TLC to make them great again (agh, Trumpism!). The vehicles pictured are a Revell Warrior IFV, a Revell M60A1, a Hasegawa M1 Abrams and a Revell Challenger 1 tank.