Collectable Wargaming Rules and Manuals

I was fortunate to have recently been the recipient of a treasure trove of Militaria and Wargaming books.

 Among these were these two gems:

Perry's Wargaming rules for 54mm Miniatures

Probably considered too large a scale for most of today's wargamers, but ground breaking at the time (1977)

Blast from the past

I have been rearranging my book collection lately, having recently been donated some wargaming and military history gems.

I was introduced to wargaming in the late 1970s, by my friend Barry van Wyk. His father, the late Phillip van Wyk, was a keen wargamer, and at the time refighting the WW2 Desert War in North Africa, fielding an Allied Army (British 8th Army)

We were allowed access (as teenagers) to his prized books and 1/72 models, including the rules used at the time from Featherstone's Wargames  and Advanced Wargames, including those for airborne operations, published in 1977

Sometimes I wonder about all those Allied models that appeared in Barry and Hugo's Armies, and if Phillip knew that they were at times residing on the games table at our house to counter my growing passion for the Wehrmacht.

I trust Barry and Hugo (his brother) have preserved Phillip's collection of militaria and literature including the rule books.Of particular interest in one of these books by Lionel Tar and Donald Featherstone was a picture of Phillip umpiring a re-fight of the battle of Waterloo at the South African museum, captioned "South African wargamers refighting the Battle of Waterloo" or something to that effect. Napoleon won on that occasion.

These are the covers of the books that we used at the time:

(I don't have actual copies, unfortunately, other than the Complete Wargaming )

"War Games" is the book I cut my wargaming teeth on

Followed by this one once we'd mastered the basics of Featherston and Tarr's rules.

Both books had been liberated from Phillip van Wyk's collection, and lived at our house for weeks and months on end, where the two of us had built a landscaped gaming table. 

Philllip's sand box was probably a more suitable set of terrain than our first attempt.
Barry and I thought it a good idea to build a great big paper mache mountain in one corner.
This took weeks to dry, and left us with well on an  eighth of our gaming table only useful for mountain troops. I found it particularly a hazard to my Falschirmjaeger.

I did build a V1 installation up there on the Mountain once, (A modified 1/100 Kawasaki Hien) but Barry only allowed me to use it for one game. Funny that. I felt the same about his M40 SP  Howitzer.
So I got a Jagdtiger with my next pocket money. The arms race was on.

We got this volume from the local public library. 

I think I may hold the record for the most successive renewals of any book in their collection ever !

The ideas in this book got me going, given what an important role the rail system played during WWII. 

We could never afford to play any rail based games as teenagers. The Lima and Hornby  train sets that were for sale then were way out of the reach of our thin wallets; and no-one was parting with theirs second-hand.I particularly lusted after Lima's "Leopold" Rail Gun. 

I'm living out that childhood desire now, having recently acquired a train set off Trade Me (NZ equivalent of Ebay) that is just great for the purpose. 

No Leopold as yet though, as nice as it is, it is only good for a  scenario in a table-top WW2 game.

We have had one rail-head skirmish battle at the Kapiti Wargames Club so far, set in the desert. 

Wonderful thing, disposable income at last...

 This book is still on my shelf:

I believe Donald Featherstone is in his 90s (if he is still alive.) Thanks Donald, wherever you are; and all of those gamers that came before (and after) you, that have made wargaming such an absorbing and enjoyable hobby!

Of Cabbages and Kings: Gotta brag a little

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things:

 Of ships, and shoes, and sealing wax

Of cabbages and kings..."

Have to brag a little, know this has absolutely nothing to do with wargaming, but my wife's catering company, PartyPerfect, catered for the Prime Minister of New Zealand yesterday.

Link:

PartyPerfect Catering Blog

Puma Days

Puma Days

Puma Days or Puma Daze?

Still building up my Summer WW2 German 1/72 Force. 

Refurbished an old Matchbox SdKfz 234/2 puma, and built and painted an Italeri Kit.

At the weekend I obtained a turret-less 234 matchbox body at the KWC swap meet, that I intend to convert to a 234/1 command vehicle. The body has already been undercoated in grey, and I'm working on the open top turret. The two 234/2s with the 50mm gun in the turret have already been painted in the grey/dark green camo of the rest of my force and given a wash or two to weather them.

It was a strange sense of familiarity to hold the Matchbox kit and box in my hands again after 30-odd years. Funny how the brain works...

Quite a difference in size between the two kits. The matchbox may actually be 1/76. 

Lower on it's chassis too (But maybe that's just that my modeling skills have improved over 30 years)

Someone else's interpretation of the 234/1 to inspire my scratch-building the turret.

The difference between the 234/1 and 234/2 (FoW models 1/100)

Wiki info: The combat experience of the existing 8-wheeled armoured cars during the German invasions of Poland and France, indicated some deficiencies in the current design. Therefore, in August 1940 an improvement program was started, based on a new set of requirements learned from these combat experiences. The result was the SdKfz 234.

Developed from the Büssing-NAG SdKfz 232, design of the Sd Kfz 234 began in 1940. It was to have a monocoque chassis with eight wheels, like its predecessors, and an air cooled engine for use in North Africa.

Chassis were built by Büssing-NAG in Leipzig-Wahren, while armoured bodies were provided by Deutsche Edelstahlwerke of Krefeld and turrets by Daimler Benz in Berlin-Marienfelde andSchichau of Elbing, with engines from Ringhoffer-Tatra-Werke AG of Nesseldorf.

[edit]

Potracted engine development meant the desert campaign was over before the 234 arrived, but it nevertheless proved useful on the Eastern and Western Fronts.It was quite formidable, but not many were built before it was replaced by the simpler 234/1, with a 20mm gun, in 1944.

[edit]Variants

SdKfz 234/3 with 75 mm L/24

234/4 with 75 mm L/46

There were four main variants.

• 234/1 - 1 x 2 cm KwK 30 L/55 autocannon, 1 x MG34 Machinegun. This design featured an open-topped turret. Around 200 were produced.

• 234/2 "Puma" - 1 x 5 cm KwK 39 L/60, 1 x MG34. Employed a fully enclosed turret originally designed for the VK1602 Leopard light tank. The turret front was protected by 30 mm armor set at an angle of 20° from the vertical. The sides and rear had 10 mm armor set at 25°, and the top plate was 10 mm armor. The gun mantlet was rounded and was 40 to 100 mm thick. 101 were produced between September 1943 and September 1944.

• 234/3 - 1 x 7.5 cm K51 L/24 in open-topped superstructure replacing the turret. 88 built between June and December, 1944.

• 234/4 "Pakwagen" - 1 x 7.5 cm PaK 40 L/48 in open-topped superstructure replacing the turret. 89 built between December 1944 and March 1945.

What is an army without opposition ?

Having spent some time on refurbishing my Wehrmacht and expanding its capabilities, it was only fair to do the same for my Allied armies. The Russians in particular were under strength  with regards to tanks and artillery.

This was soon rectified by adding a couple of T34/76s and IS 2s, a refurbished M40 155mm SP Howitzer


The Artillery received a couple of towed howitzers, 17 and 14 pounder guns, complete with tractors and limbers.Softskinned vehicles for support and HQ use.

A GMC truck with a .50 cal mounted, and two M3s with the same for troop transports

M3s with 75mm antitank guns act as tank destroyers. The first troops to receive a lick of paint were the Late War European Front Brits. The Yankees and Russkis are still languising without base coats. Have at least been removed off the sprues. A box full of ANZACs and Gurkas have also been obtained via Trademe, as well as some 8th Army Africa/Italy Commonwealth troops.

IS 2s (Josef (Iosef) Stalin), Sherman Jumbos and SP Howitzer

M3 Half track Troop Carriers and Tank Destroyers

Late war Sherman Fireflies and Churchill VI

"Easy-Eight" Sherman and GMC truck toting .50 cal MG

More Shermans

T34/76's

Alongside the IS2s to show relative size

Morris Gun Tractors with 17lb and 14lb Guns, Howitzers, German Summer Army in background

The Boys of Summer

Parallel Development:

The Boys of Summer are back!

I have been revisiting and expanding my original summer themed Western Front Wehrmacht Heer (middle to late war) alongside developing my new Autumn themed German Army.

This is the Army that I first started gaming with back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Somehow they survived my student days, moves to Cape Town from Johannesburg, and back; and then managed to follow me to New Zealand, to be rediscovered decades later ! The joys of gaming with them have not diminished any.

 A Unit of 4 PzKfw VI Tiger E's, a single PzKfw IV, a couple of PzKfw IIIs, a Jagdpanzer IV and a Jagdtiger (Jagdpanzer VI), the Pumas are being refurbished as we speak.

Artillery support is provided by two 88s drawn by SdKfz 7s, a couple of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, and a quad vierling, towed by soft-skinned vehicles, and a single Pak 40 75 mm gun, towed by a looted British vehicle. There is a Pak 38 somewhere on my bench, but it requires a vehicle to tow it. A Kettenrad or Horch may just do the trick. As you may notice there is also a lone Flak 88 languishing without something to tow it.

Meanwhile my Autumn artillery is progressing nicely, I think:

Light Field Howitzers LeFH 18s 

and

Anti-tank Pak 40s

Swap Day Success

We had a great Swap Day at the Kapiti Wargames Club today.

A great forum for wargamers to interact, sell and swap. Most of us found a treasure or two, and sold some of our unwanted gaming bits. My World Eater Army went to a good home, as did my dismembered Demon Prince and Raptors. Found a lovely stash of Fantasy Bits, some classic Chaos Warrior pieces, and a SdKfz 234/2 that I plan to convert to a SdKFz  263 Command 8-Rad, and a load of terrain material (deep green coloured lichen, trees and other basing material). Thanks to everyone that helped make the day a success!