John at “just add varnish” blog was having a clear out and thought I might like some between the wars armour. That is ww1 to ww2 so 1920/30’s era.
Thank you John. These were most welcome and have allowed me to dabble in some tank or tankette gaming while I paint up my infantry.
So here they are. A wopping 15 items! Generous John or what.
three columns plus a kit
The John@justaddvarnish inventory
First Column
French AMR33 or AMR35 reconnaissance tank by Early War Miniatures
French Renault NC27 by Shapeways
2 x Soviet FT17 – based on Hat kit
Italian L6/40 by Frontline Wargaming
Second Column
Mexican Revolution armoured truck by Shellhole Scenics
Vickers Light Dragon gun tractor maybe by Early War Miniatures
Laffly W15T gun tractor Paint & Glue Miniatures
1930’s sedan by Frontline Wargaming
Third Column
Morris C8 gun tractor ex Matchbox
6 wheeled Crossley armoured car by FRontline Wargaming
4 wheeled Marmon Herrington armoured car may be by Wespe Models
Japanese type 95 Kurogane Scout Car unknown manufacture
Austin Putilov armoured car (in kit form)
Here are some of them in close up. They show the excellent artwork by John@justaddvarnish
Two fantastic armoured cars – Marmon Herrington to front and Crossley to rearA pair of Soviet style FT17’s These types of armour typify the 1920-30 period between the two world wars. Just what I need for Fauxterre 1930.
Thanks John these will definitely be appearing again in my “between the wars” games I have entitled Fauxterre 1930 and Fauxterre 1930+.
My current preoccupation with a sideline project about the inter war years (between ww1 and ww2) has led to the acquisition of “armour”. To be specific, armoured vehicles and not some renaissance suit!
As it happened I was a bit slow on this aspect of 20th century warfare having focused on the infantry who appeared in my scenario Observer.
The idea was also that infantry heavy weapons would follow. And then finally the armour. The heavy weapons are still in the painting queue. The armour is on the factory production line………or maybe in the repair shop.
And of course the next problem is how do you fight armoured vehicles using infantry with no heavy weapons or anti tank kit either?
Use “What a Tanker” of course!
What a Tanker (WAT) by Too Fat Lardies is a game that only uses tanks and in my case some armoured cars – or rather thats all you need and actually you only need a 4-6 to play a game.
I have suddenly thought you could probably play 1 tank a side if the scenario was sufficiently rigged to stop one tank simply moving off table to end the game prematurely.
Maybe you could play a really powerful tank which is unable to move versus a much less powerful/armoured tank which has to try and manoeuvre to get in its killer shot before it is picked off.
In my next post I will explain the armour on show which is a story in itself. Suffice to say it is not what WAT is aimed at. WAT lovers I suspect lean towards the back end of the war with greater variety and dare I say it the more impressive bigger tanks.
I have got into WW2 only because of my interest in inter war era mechanisation and some various blogs that promote the Spanish and Russian Civil Wars plus 1941 Vichy middle east etc. In other words, variously considered marginal theatres in the journey from the WW1 tank invention to the great tank battles of WW2.
First up I am using armoured cars which don’t even feature in the ruleset.
I simply took a look at the values and had a punt. So this game was in a way a test of the rules to cope with weak kit. Would the game even work. Actually the secret is in the Japan tank table where some really weak options can be chosen. And I think TFL(Too Fat Lardies) really test their rules hard.
The Reds had three Renaults
2 Renault FT17’s – they got armour of 2 and strike of 3
leading this pack was a Renault NC29 apparently exported to Japan by a France that straight after world war 1 had the largest tank army in the world and led tank development. Armour 4 and a whopping strike value of 5 was given.
The Blues had
One Crossley 6 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 3
One Marmon Herrington 4 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 4
The Blue force was led by an M3 Stuart or maybe its a Honey Armour 4 strike 4
As WAT abstracts heavily WYSIWYG does not have to apply and I was the only one looking so that was fine. Apologies to the purists.
I put the two big tanks in the centre opposite each other.
No scenery was provided so it was a straight knock out.
looking more like insects you get the drift some homemade counters I made for the WAT dashboards
I belatedly got the camera into action so what follows is a truncated record of the action.
unfamiliar with the rules meant an untidy table! The FT 17 at the top of the board raced past the Marmon Herrington while the M3 did the same on the NC27. The two opponents at the bottom of the picture just got the wrong dice – you can’t see them tinkering with their faulty engines……….abstraction opens up so many possibilities!
I have only played WAT a few times properly and spaced out over time – end result was I could not remember the rules. I played the “long ball” set up – with three vehicles per side – set up opposite each other. Points were not the priority so absolute balance did not matter..
A “rushed to the front” (no time to paint it let alone apply camoflage) Stuart M3 catches a Renault NC27 side on and fails to make a kill! Poor dice left the NC27 a sitting duck
The Renault NC27 succumbed but so did the Marmon which seeking to support the M3 left the FT17 behind only for the dice to roll very kindly for the FT17. The FT 17 simply took the Marmon in the rear.
Meanwhile the other FT17 eventually destroyed the Crossley and returned to the remaining action just in time.
The Stuart M3 busy failing again to take out another Renault tank – an FT17. The Stuart M3 is caught in the rear by a second FT17 – ok I had the wrong gun pointing at the time! plus sometimes the dice roll for you.
Luck was running out for the M3 Stuart and so it did. It failed to quickly destroy the FT17 by the Marmon and so the two FT17’s were able to slowly kill it with some good dice throwing.
a final strike and its all over for the the Stuart M3.
So the M3 Stuart was first deprived of its weak armoured car supports and then finished off by the FT17’s. Thats Fauxterre 1930+ for you – what a tanker style.
One of my latest side projects is World War Two, like most projects I soon reach for the online supply chain. Lockdown has driven this approach even more.
And to start me off my first purchases were from Hannants and Models Hobbies. These companies have given me great value especially for projects where I buy all I need in one go.
But hang on I was/would be buying mainstream stuff, not obscure or discontinued lines. And this was to be a side track slow burn project. So bulk buys would not be the order of the day.
Then it occurred to me that I could go out of my way, with lockdown easing, to visit real hobby shops.
I also decided my interest would be more early war, ideally more inter war era. Just to make life difficult again, this is not the popular end of WW2. Yet this was a fantasy ww2 happening on Fauxterre so anything goes and flexibility is the watchword.
Ok so far, but hobby shops tend to stock the popular, as in, that’s loads of late war armour with a preponderance of German kit.
And then I had another brainwave. After going through online availability I realised I had a massive choice. I would just buy the cheapest stock available in dribs and drabs.
This random approach really started to appeal. It would also make this project different again.
Such an approach interestingly is increasingly not online (and certainly not ebay) + white van man, despite Amazons best endeavours. Don’t get me wrong, online has been fantastic for choice and it still offers great value and even ebay can give you amazing bargains (the effort required though has changed).
So I decided – cut out the postal costs. I would buy piecemeal and when other activities had paid for my journey.
Then if a shop turned up I would go in and see what was available.
This actually fed my Fauxterre ideas. The opponents are both struggling to resource their forces. The parallel for WW2 is the Russians. They took various kit from the USA, France and Britain before getting their own plants working to meet demand. And the Germans reused thousands of captured kit. Probably the most useful panzer they had early on was actually the Czech built 38T? The Russians also benefited from the US inventions of Christie that ultimately led them to the T34 as I understand it.
So a bit of history bashing and Fauxterre sees two protaganists poorly armed going to war with essentially inter war/early war kit and with inter war mentalities.
Next up was – which forces to use – given I had decided no german kit.
I chose the Russians simply because this whole sidetrack project was started by Charles Grant and his Battle Gaming book from 1977 – a charity shop surprise discovery.
Airfix came up often as the low cost option online and seeing as they had made Russians, the very ones in Charles Grant’s book, so that was it. Only they don’t make them any more and old sets are now online and vintage and with a price to match!
In the shops its allied west or german it seems.
After some wrangling I decided I would stick with the Russians and that led me to The Plastic Soldier Company and their good value sets. The Russians kit would be opposed by American kit with splashes of any other kit I liked, while playing that “buy cheap in a real shop” game.
I have made some progress and here are my first kit builds.
ok the PSC gaz trucks work, venerable bren carrier + 6 pounder is cheap and the semovente by Italeri are good value. The jeep and gun was a failure – I assumed I was getting two jeeps not two build choices – look harder before you leap next time. The mountain gun – well the gun dates from 1920 so its just the carriage thats a bit modern.
Lets see how I get on with this slow burn side track project.
The Wargaming Erratic 