My Generation Was Killed - Part 8 - Regulators! Mount UP!

 

‘Sup Killers? Well, that was the week that was… Been away all week with mahi, so not a lot of work achieved on the list. However, I did manage to squeeze some painting and assembly in on Monday…

WARNING: This week’s ‘back in the day’ section gets pretty close to the bone. Look away now if you are easily offended…

I decided to build The Iceman’s Hummer to see what it would look like, and I got about 80% of the way there. As you can see in the pics below, I fitted The Iceman, Ray, Trombley and Rolling Stone into the Hummer, almost losing all of them in the process…! I kind of new they would disappear once I got them inside, but maybe wasn’t quite prepared for just HOW lost they would become…

You can see in this first pic some bits of sprue below the truck. That’s parts of legs, body’s arms and Hummer chassis that I had to keep trimming in order to fit the team inside..! Oh well, at least I know they are there…! Still to finish are the high-viz panel on the hood, and more detailing to the MK19 and then final paint including door markings.

At this size, these are more like 54mm than 15, so excuse the roughness, but it does show the crew to good effect, especially Rudies Elvis Sunnies, and Brad’s NVG scope 🤩

In other news, I was fortunate enough to visit a major firearms collection this week. Around a dozen C96’s, two-dozen Lugers, 50+ bolt action rifles, around 10, TEN MP40s, MG42, MG34, Thompson’s etc etc… However, the real standout for me was this beauty; S1 FG42 in MINT condition. I even got to handle it! Such a shame it cannot be legally fired any longer 😢

FG42 surrounded by MP38, MP40, MP41 and others 😎

So, what’s on the ‘back in the day’ menu for this week, I hear you eagerly ask…?? Well this week, we get into some ‘military tourism’… A fascinating subject…! These pics were taken some time after the first round of fighting had taken place and we had pushed into Basra, after the Battle of Basra which took place between around 21 March to 6 April 03.

For obvious reasons, I have zero pics of those days, just the ones that remain in my head… Of course for me, the main event of this period was the loss of my friend, Matthew ‘Marty’ Hull of the Household Cavalry, who was killed by USAF A10’s on 28 March 03.

Matty and I were Section Commander instructors at ATR Pirbright in the late 90’s-early 2000’s, he was originally a Pioneer but transferred to the HCR to get more out of the Army.

28 March started for me in a holding area that we had moved into a day or two before. I remember the usual routine, woke up, had a scrape, did some dobie, checked some CBRN gear, made my rounds to check other gear in outlying units.

Then sometime in the afternoon, don’t remember when, a Rover arrived. Out jumped three of my mates, who rushed over to me. With tears in their eyes, they told me that Matty had been killed by the Americans.

I was overcome with grief.

I joined them in the Rover with the intention of driving to the nearest US unit and getting some payback.

Fortunately for us, we had a divine intervention that prevented us from carrying that mission out… That’s something to explain to people farce-to-face, but basically we were going to commit murder, and God stopped us from doing it.

Tough day in the office…

These pics were taken sometime after this event, when in usual military fashion, I had had to move on and carry on with the mission. Time to grieve being zero… This event was to traumatise me for decades to come, and I thank God everyday for getting me through this and keeping my family with me. 🙏

So, here’s some happier pics, first one of me on / in a T55. In one pic I am holding up a copy of ‘Motorcycle News’, which I was again meant to send in to them in the hope of some goodies, but never did…😝

Mad thing about this tank was, as you know, it was of Russian origin, and now being used by the Iraqi’s. However, I was able to operate all the turret controls with ease, due to the fact that all the controls were labeled in ENGLISH…😂 No wonder the Iraqi’s got slapped around so quickly, they couldn’t read the instructions in their own tanks…

Next up we have an IMR, engineering vehicle based on the T55 chassis, note the prominent gap between the 1st and 2nd roadwheels 🤩 

We found the T55 abandoned in the middle of nowhere, and the IMR was in a holding area for captured Iraqi armour. Fun times were had by all 😜

Well, that wraps it up for this week. For those of you reading that know me, you know the journey I am on, and I appreciate all of your love and support over the years. It’s YOU that have helped me to be able to tell this story. 🙏❤️

Till next time, Stay Frosty 🫡

Workbench weekend

So, given the long weekend here, I got stuck into some serious construction. I picked up a few models for my Deathwatch recently with a view to making a bit more an effort to get them on the table. 

 I started with a couple of Storm Speeders. Honestly, when 8th came out, Dark Angels or Deathwatch was a coin toss and DW came out on top. So this is a nod to the  fact that I loved the 2e Landspeeder as well as having a sensible tactical use in bringing some mobility and some decent armaments. 

Secondly, a bunch of Primaris Gravis Marines, or Phat Bois, as I've taken to calling them. These 8 marines and a Gravis Captain will join a couple of Aggressors to become an Indomitor Kill Team brining some much needed firepower to my DW collection. I haven't bought a Land Raider to put them in yet but so help me I am tempted. 

Finally, a unit of Outriders had to go into the collection. I picked up the amazing Outrider Chaplain donkeys ago and have never put it on the table. This unit solely exists to get him on the table. 

 It was a solid reminder of why I LOATHE GW's Primaris Easy Builds for Deathwatch. I had to commit some serious violence on the shoulders in order to chop off the moulded pauldrons and replace the left hand ones with Deathwatch shoulders and the right hand ones with embossed chapter pauldrons. Ugh. But they're done now so they're the first that are going on the painting queue. 

 Next Time

I dunno. I'm thinking I'll break out X-Force for a game of 40K this weekend and I am musing on a game of Kings of War too as I haven't played that in ages.   

My Generation Was Killed - Part 7 - Paint Your Wagon

 ‘Sup Killers, hows it? Happy Matariki! We had a great local event in Havana / Shannon that was well supported by whanau, so cool to be a part of a smaller community ☺️

Whilst I am not Blogging for numbers here, its interesting that the apparent number of pers who are rereading this has dropped from over 150 for part 1, to ZERO for part 6… Not sure what’s happening there as I know at least half a dozen people who have read it, as they comment to me about it!! 🤩

Anyhoo… Enough tears…! 😂 What’s been happening this week..? Well I thought I’d start to paint the Iceman’s PL of four Hummers, so that’s been a focus this week. Also I made more stowage from my mould, I seem to have hammered that somewhat and may need to make a mould from the mould…

If you remember from last week, I had a go at moulding some TOW launchers using Blue Stuff. Well… That was as expected, a bit average… I get the feeling that it works fine for 28mm shields and arms, but not so good for 15mm support weapons that are around 12mm long and 2mm in diameter..!

Pics below show what I mean…

This was my second attempt at a mould. This time I super-heated the BS in the Mikrowelle for 3 MIKES as instructed by a professional. This made it super goopy, which was great, but the ickle TOWs just wouldn’t push into the stuff enough. And that was with using a LEGO wall and base to stoop the stuff from pushing outwards as I pushed the TOWs into it…

One of them MIGHT be OK with about 15 MIKES of fettling… But that’s too much squeeze for not enough juice owww!! So I have ordered some GSW 2-part moulding putty as used by Mr Allen. That should arrive in a week or two, and then it will then be moulding REDUX… If that fails, I’ll be taking ZT-Boss up on his offer of attempting to print some…

So, back to SGT Colbert’s Hummers. I started with a black undercoat, then did a zenithal pass in white, both using Vallejo paints. Then I started with the base coat of my new AMMO ATOM colours as recommended by Mr Allen. 20009 US Tan and 20066 NATO Green. A few drops of 20510 Thinner and they went on just beautifully ☺️

Then I had to work out how to replicate the tiny camo pattern on Colbert’s trucks. In the show it looks like some type of mask has been applied to the base European MERDC camo, and then the US Tan sprayed over it. If I was forced to make an assessment, I would say they used a standard CAM net as the mask… Anyway, that was way to much for 15mm, so I went with US Tan overall and then stippled on NATO Green and Brown using a sponge chipping technique. It looks OK and will come out better once I start applying washes etc. Pics below show what I mean.

In the last pic you can see Nat Ficks HQ truck in green as in the show. That will be getting the full 3-Color MERDC Euro pattern the week after next.

I also did some work on my O Gauge Pannier. It was a MESS… The dude who had it before me did some odd painting on the buffers and side rods using real thick enamel paint. That all had to be removed with acetone. I then decided as the rest of the paint was in such bad shape that I would model it off an actual engine and renumber it to 3681 as seen on 25 October 1965 at Bath on the old S&D line. 

Pics taken from the excellent work by Jeffry Grayer as above, one of the four books he has written on the S&D in its last days and death throes.

My attempts as below. I paid particular attention to the oil and dirt accumulation on the wheels, rods and underframe, and the mass of boiler wash-out waste on the smokebox and running plate as seen below.

Oil and Grease courtesy of MIG enamels such as ‘Fresh Engine Oil’ and ‘Fuel Spills’, such good mediums to use in this scale. I got the build up of oil and grease effect using weathering powders mixed with Nuln Oil to a thick paste and then layered on to get the effect I wanted. Pretty happy with that side! 

OK, well that’s modelling for the week, now onto ‘back in the day’… If I’m honest I am not sure which milk brings the boys to the yard, the minis or the active duty stories… You tell me… 🤔😉

So one day I am up at my favourite USMC HQ hang-out having just arranged some more DECON training for my team and the Boots, when I saw this little event going down. At first glance it looked to be a literal ‘Tug O War’ between an AAVR-7A1 and an M88 as they were joined by the same towing cable…

After chatting to the crews, they explained what was happening. These AFVs had not long come into theatre and needed their towing cables and other systems recalibrated after the voyage. So this was the method they used. 

I remember thinking at the time that I’d take loads of pics as they would be useful for modelling purposes in the future. Just hadn’t realised it would be like 22 years later…😂 I plan on making objective markers of each of these, which will be a cool side project. Just need some 3D printed minis… ‘Cough-Cough, T-Boss, Cough-Cough…’ 😜 I love the name on the AAVR ‘Psychosis’ so cool 😎 

This event sticks in my mind as only a few hours before there had been the first of what were to become an unfortunate series of events, culminating I guess in Mattys death on 28 March 03. US troops seemed prone to so-called ‘Friendly Fire’ (NOTHING friendly about it), or ‘Blue on Blue’ events, so named after military war games where the S3 uses Blue for FF and the S2 uses Red for ENY.

Anyhoo, a few hours prior to these pics being taken, some Marines in the Supply PL were cleaning their personal weapons and someone had an Unintentional Discharge (UD) or as we called them at the time, a Negligent Discharge (ND). This resulted in another PL thinking they were taking effective enemy fire and reacting to it. Net result thankfully was no KIA but several wounded that needed hospitalisation.

Little did I know at the time that a similar lack of discipline would result in my mate being killed and my whole life being turned on its head.

No pics of this event unsurprisingly…

It was funny as the line-Marines I spoke to about it afterwards were full of contempt for ‘POGs’ (Person Other than Grunt) who they looked down on with disdain. In the British Army these were called ‘REMFs’ (Rear-Echelon Mother Fckuers), and the funny thing for me, was I WAS one of those POG / REMFs, although as I was to find out later, this would not prevent me from getting involved in things I would not normally be expected to be involved in.

I think it was about this time that we got our first ‘real’ NBC alarm and had to take cover, but we will save that tale for the next time…

Until then, thanks for reading, (if anyone did..!) and if they didn’t, it sure helps me to write things down 🙏

Stay Frosty…🫡

My Generation Was Killed - Part 6 - The Storm…

 

‘Sup Killers, what a week… If you haven’t had enough rain yet, you’re obviously NOT reading this in Aotearoa… I wouldn’t say it was wet, but this week I saw a dude with a massive wooden boat full of animals float past my house…

So what’s been happening..? TBH, not a great deal… I purchased a bulk load of O Gauge railway gear on TM and picked it up. That saw me tinkering with it for a wee while…! I’ll get into modelling in a bit, first up, what’s with this weeks title, eh..?🤔

As you know, this list is based on GK, well in Episode 1”Get Some” there are two events that happened that made me realise these were the dudes I was working with. And if I have mentioned these before, please bear with me… I decided to finally watch the series in 2023. I was on my own in a hotel in WLG working for the week, Sarah was in the UK visiting whanau, and I decided now was the time…

The first event was ‘The Storm’. As you can see in the opening Meme pic, things got a little ‘dusty’… I took that pic in the morning, AFTER the storm had finished. I wouldn’t say it was a big storm, but there was an 800m long sand dune to the left of our position that ended up on the right…

Here’s a couple of pics from GK, poor screen-grabs as I couldn’t find any on T’internet.

Go check the episode out, things get a little hairy, “I Need Marines with hammers NOW…”!!!

A little back story: We arrived at the concentrating area to find a sea of local-built tents as seen below:

We were allocated a tent, and as it was all SNCO’s and Officers, we had it fairly cruisy for space as you can see below. Mines the space with the larger Cross of St George. Note the absence of anything remotely desert coloured…!

Sleeping mat on the floor was eventually upgraded to a folding ‘Z Bed’, but that’s a story for another time… 😉

So, local tent, middle of nowhere in the desert. Our CSM, Laurence “Lol’ Wood (Named before LOL was a thing…!) Mustered us on day one after we had dropped our Bergen's and told us we were going to, “Water the Tent”… Many looks of ‘Has he lost it already’ were passed around, but no, he went on to describe what we were to do, each and every morning. 

First thing we had to do tho was ‘dig the tent in’. This meant taking that flap that is at the bottom of the tent and instead of folding it outwards, digging a 2-foot trench all round the tent, dropping the flap back in, then re-filling the trench with sand, covering the flap. The Toms in the next tent just stared at us and thought we were mad. I must admit I too thought it odd…

We then had to ‘water’ the tent pegs, ‘flap trench’ and poles. That meant taking bottled water, of which we had COPIOUS amounts, and pouring a bottle on each tent peg and pole, and the flap trench. Day after day, bottle after bottle… After about a week, we basically had a 2-foot concrete post around each peg and pole, and a solid concrete trench holding the tent to the floor. This was to prove to be pure genius…

You see, this was not Lol’s first trip to the sandpit, and he knew a few things. He was Para-Trained and had some skills to pay the bills. I was glad he was in our basha, and also glad we got on like old friends.

So, week or two in, and we had what became known as ‘The Blockhouse’. Then the storm hit… I remember waking up at Zero-Dark Hundred, unable to see or breath. Someone shouted, “Get your Rezzies (S10 CBRN Respirator) on!!” So we did. Headtorch on top of Rezzie we headed outside, as the inside of the Blockhouse was a swirling maelstrom of sand.

Outside. Well, that was a thing… This was a full-on ‘Haboob’ and it was a doozy… Tents were being ripped from the sand and flung around like FOW minis at a J-Flip. Port-A-Loos were spinning through the air, depositing their blue fun-fluid alles uber die platz… It was absolute chaos.

We helped others where we could, then eventually retreated to the ‘safety’ of the Blockhouse to await our fate… The Haboob eventually blew out, and we got what felt like 7 minutes sleep. 

Waking the next morning it was an absolute disaster outside. See those tents in that pic above? Well apart from ours, EVRY SINGLE ONE of them had been ripped from the sand and smashed to bits. The mess-tent, the stores tent, EVRY THING… Not to mention the loos, man, that was BAD… And who did we have to thank for this escape from the clutch of the Haboob? Yup, Lol, the desert vet… Good times!

After a while, a truck load of locals arrived and began to reassemble tents, and clean and fix the loos. It was at this point that I thought I had better check on my buddies from the USMC. So I went to find my Rover. The pic below shows what the MT Park looked like after the storm. Needless to say, I had to strip and assemble the air-intakes and filter, and a number of other items before I dared start the truck!

So, I drove up to the Marines LOC and wow, what did I see..? It was a similar scene of chaos, but unlike in our camp, that had a mix of locals and troops doing the mahi, (Not the loos tho, that was a local only job..!) the Marines were just doing it all THEMSELVES…😳

I’ll never forget seeing two boots in full MOPP gear trying to reassemble a smashed Port-A-John… They were COVERED in blue fun-fluid, and heaven knows what else… I have to admit I was pretty shocked, as up until that point, I had viewed my US-cousins as being the all-singing, all-dancing super-troops, yet here they were, clearing up poo… I spoke with the S2 who basically said they didn’t trust any locals to come in and do anything, so they did it all themselves… Mint…!

So, that was a thing, and I think I have rattled on enough there, so I will save the other event for the next part…!

Modelling, yes, modelling. So, I finished the stowage on Shady Bs PL trucks, just need to add one TOW. And I upskilled LT Fick’s truck to look as it does in the show. Ficks Hummer needed stowage and a Jerry-can rack at the rear. I carefully snipped this from one of the 3D trucks and glued it on, it fitted so well! This really lifted the truck into what I wanted it to be, so happy-happy, joy-joy! 🥳

Trucks from Shady Bs PL with the added GreyStuff stowage courtesy of the mould!

Nate Fick’s truck. Much like the Iceman’s, this is a signature vehicle for the show, so I wanted it be as spot on as I could make it. 

And to close off, TOW… AS you know, I had most of my Hummers 3D printed by T-Boss. Now they are great an’ all but do not come with weapons… I have loads of Fifties, Mk19s etc, but only THREE spare TOW launchers. BF gives you one TOW per Hummer sprue, and I needed like, 16… What to do..? Well, here’s where last weeks episode comes in again…

I mentioned this need to T-Boss, who video called me and took me through some options for making my own moulds and casting the TOW I needed myself. Man is a LEGEND. 🙏 So, all I needed was some ‘Blue Stuff or similar product. Easy right? Contact Mr Bowman, pick some up!

Bowman - Out of Stock. Mini Kiwi Land - Out of Stock. Every Other Model Shop in NZ - Out of Stock…

Mint. 😑 But then guess what? Another friend kicks in. Having asked Bowmen when the next shipment is due in, his reply “Weeks”… He said he had some used Blue Stuff kicking around that he would EXPRESS POST to me and let me use it! Another LEGEND right there… Next day it duly arrived…

Now, this is another whole new avenue of modelling for me, so buckle up princess…!

Watched some YouTube vids to get the general idea, but they all show like 28mm and up recasting, not tiny-teeny 15mm… Anyhoo, I gave it a crack…

First pic shows the ‘bottom’ of the mould, the second is the top. Once the top had set, I had to pry the parts apart, which was real fun… Then filled the indents with Grey Stuff. Now, I have done that and they are setting as we type… So next week you will get to see the results. How’s that for a hook for part 7..?! 😜

I am stating it now: I think I used too much Grey Stuff, I don’t think the moulds are deep enough, and I don’t think the detail will show enough for me. BUT, lets wait and see, I have been known to be wrong on occasion…😂

Right team, thanks as always for reading this far, and as always, if you didn’t, then to quote WoTC, “This may not be the product for you..” 😜

Till the next time Killers, as always, Stay Frosty 🫡

In which I have views about heroic 17pdr crews...

Blogger Pel is taking his British Paras to a Flames comp at GenCon this year so we had a bit of a test game to see how they went. 

We rolled up "Killing Ground" as a mission and I put the objectives as far apart as I could. Pel wasn't really in a position to make use of the flank deployment zones as that would have left the objectives underdefended against my fairly quick armour! One objective was held by a Para platoon and the 6pdrs and the other by a mortar platoon and 2 17pdrs with a second Para platoon and a Carrier platoon in a position to move one way or the other. His Bofors platoon was in ambush - it's a feared weapon against all my FA3! 

I pushed the objective defended by the minefields with my L6s, M14s and a Paracadutisti platoon with Lancia da 90s and Semovente 75/34s providing overwatch. I realised that the Semoventes were basically not going to be much chop as an AT weapon so they settled in to bombard the Brit infantry. I started the game failing to get any successful Elite rolls and failing every 2+ Avanti roll I made bar one in the first two turns!

This next pic was turn 2/3 after Pel sprung the Bofors ambush and, mercifully, only popped a could of L6s and brought on his Churchills from reserve in the right place (chagrin!) 

 

I'd managed to pop one of the 17pdrs with a Semovente bombardment and the second Semovente bombardment kept the mortars pinned, allowing my Paracadutisti platoon to advance largely safely.  The Churchills unsuccessfully engaged the M14s and in the exchange of fire between the remaining 17pdr and the Lancia da 90s the 17pdrs emerged victorious killing one and the other failing it's Last Man Standing test.

Meantime, in hilarious times, Pel's armoured cars arrived in completely the wrong place so decided to see what a 15mm Besa could do to a Semovente. Short answer, not a great deal. The 17pdr passed a Last Man Standing Test.

I set up for the final shove on the objective here - over the next turn I set about clearing a minefield, removing the Carriers with my CO, flamethrowering the Bofors off the board and machinegunning a lot of the Para Platoon. Pel made 11 3+ infantry saves. Out of 11 as I tried to sort them out. In the end, the Semoventes did the heavy lifting, destroying both the mortars and a lot of the Parachute platoon. The second Parachute platoon arrived in the centre of the table and, after killing my CO in assault, set about trying to prove they were better paras than the Italians. The 17pdr passed a Last Man Standing Test.

The photo below is, I think, turn four or five where I decided to ignore the Churchills and break through the little gap between the minefield and the wood and drive onto the objective. Pel made sure my Paras were definitely toast by then but incoming fire on the M14s was lacklustre, killing only one. But the 17pdr passed a Last Man Standing Test.

The game finished up with my last three M14/41s on the objective and Pel's first unit of Paras and his CO wiped out. His response was to bail all three of the M14s (!) with the infernal 17pdr and the Churchills and move up his second para platoon to retake the objective. 

 I had one turn to see if a bombardment from the Semoventes and the last couple of L6 tanks could wipe out that second Para platoon and break the army but no such luck.  I got a few of them, but not enough to do the job.

It was a good match and while I doubted that attacking the objective protected by the mines a couple of times, not having to drive into 6pdrs AND the ambushing Bofors guns seemed like the right choice. Genuinely, I think if that 17pdr had run, it was a whole different game - when there are Churchills on one side, honestly it feels like if you get the big guns out of the way, in this case my Lancia da 90s, it made for more of an uphill struggle. 

Still, I'm happy with the list and will definitely run it again. If I was playing at a round 100 points, it would be slightly different (I'd be running Engineers instead of Paras I think) but the concept is sound.

Next Time

I'll be doing some painting over the next week. Who knows what you'll get!