Zvezda Pz 38(t)

I felt the need of a spot more early war German armour, partly with an eye to Arras, partly with an eye to Barbarossa. I just could not resist these beautiful Zvezda Pz 38s, after all, who doesn't love a Pz 38, with all those lovely rivets. At £2.50 each (in a special deal) these guys were hard to beat.

I was only going to get three, but then I thought, what the hell, and got six. Coupled with my Pz IIs, Pz IV D/Es and PzBehfl III, that is enough for a whole battalion.

More of a close up of its angular loveliness. As with all the Zvezda kits this snapped together in a few minutes, the only slightly odd bits are the machineguns, but they look fine from a distance.

Engine deck, turret rear etc. The rivets stand out quite nicely here.

For this one I bodged up a commander from a PSC kit and just made up a hatch cover from plasticard. The hatch aperture is pretty small in real life, so I just cut the figure off flat and stuck it down and you can;t see that there isn't an actual hole in the turret.

I just did these in plain Panzergrau over a black, so good for 1939 to early 1943. I used Vallejo Panzer Grey, but it is ludicrously dark so I ended up lightening it with some added white. The turret decals are Battlefront, and otherwise I just heavily drybrushed the tracks and running gear in mud and finished the whole thing off with a very light overall drybrush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

These are lovely models and I'd recommend them to anyone. In fact I liked the some much, I then went and bought a load of Zvezda Pz IIs and Pz IVs to replace my elderly metal Peter Pig ones. Oh dear, that is going to be a slippery slope...

The Man who would be Rich

Tom put on this Afghan Wars skirmish game using a variant of the 5Core Skirmish rules. It was set up on the frontier and featured a stuffy and unimaginative British Colonel, a horde of revoltighmn natives and a daring and raffish ex-Lieutenant, Ahem. The good Lt had got it into his head that it would be a great idea to kidnap the Colonels wife, and demand a ransom for her safe return whislt holed up in an Afghan village. The Colonel duly set out to retrieve his wife, whilst various dubious looking Afghan tribesmen assembled in the hills. 

The village in the distance. The cloth, river and hills are my own, the palm trees are mainly Tims and the buildings came out of the club terrain box. The profile mountains are also mine, and the whole thing looks rather smart I think.

The brave Lt and his mutinous gang in the village with lookouts posted. The Colonels wife is in the courtyard with her pet dog.

Rebellious Afghans assemble on the other side of the river.

The Lt leads the Colonels wife out for a parley with the British relief column, only to be gunned down in a hail of Martini-Henry fire! War crimes! Fortunately the wounds are not serious, however I suspect the Colonel will be in for a  bit of trouble when his wife gets home.

The British troops close in from the east and the Afghans from the west. The Colonels wife is left bleeding outside the compound while the Lt is retrieved by one of his men. The mutinous riflemen manage to bring down some Afghan horsemen.

With enemy closing from all sides, the Lt makes good his escape, pausing only to gun down another Afghan as the enemy start to break into the buildings.

Sadly he doesn't run fast and far enough. His accomplice is caught by angry Afghans and the Lt is left lying wounded in the hot sun by long range British rifle fire. Oh dear, we all know what happens to the Remains on the Afghan Plains. 

This was all great fun and very much in the spirit of Flashman et al. The Colonel retrieved his (somewhat shot up and very cross) wife, the Afghans got to chop up some infidels, and the Lt showed that crime really doesn't pay.