Cobra Helicopter Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the Cobra helicopter expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. The game is a follow-up to "TANKS" with an extended ruleset. While in the old "TANKS" you have only control over ground units, in "TANKS The Modern Age" you can also use air units for you platoon.

As usual, in this expansion one 1:100 model kit, taken from the "Team Yankee" tabletop game and some cards for the game are included, a flyerbase for the helicopter is also included.
First we take a look at the plastic, this kit comes in 3 different sprues.

The kit is almost flawless, there is minimal flash to remove, neither sinkholes nor visible ejectormarks were found on the sprues. Also there are virtually no mouldlines. As other kits from this range, the qualitiy is top.

Different weapon configurations can be attached, the instructions, as usual simple but well made, show only one version, for other weapon configurations you have to search the web. At the end of this video the leftover bits are shown and partly explained.

The flightbase is casted in good quality, gives you two height options and offers the choice for magnetization, but it works fine in my Cobra/Hind helis without magnets.

The last picture of the plastic shows a comparison between this Cobra kit and the 1:100 Revell Cobra kit, can you see, how oversized the panel lines are? I am no aviation expert but it seems like that the kits show different versions of the Cobra.

Beside the model kit some crew and equipment cards for "TANKS The Modern Age" are included in this expansion.

First there is the card for the unit itself:

The Bell AH-1 Cobra offers an Initiative of 7, what is pretty good, its Attack of 2 is very low but you may equip the missiles included in this expansion. The armour of 3 is pretty high but the helicopter has only 4 hitpoints. Its rapid fire ability offers 5 dice versus unarmoured vehicles and other helicopters. For the cost of 26 points (both missiles included) you get a unit which can attack everaything on the battlefield.

The included equipment offers the additional armament for the Cobra, the "M159" gives you a 3 dice attack against all vehicles in close range, the targets can only roll their base defence. The "TOW" missiles give you a 4 dice missile attack for 2 points.

The other two equipment/doctrines cards are "Defensive Manouevres", which gives you a reroll of your defence dice when you discard it, and "Countermeasures", for 3 points you may discard this card, this defence throw 3 also counts for defence.

After the equipment and doctrines  cards, there are only the crewcards left. First the 2 US heroes included, "Harry Stevens" gives you for 8 points an additional armourpoint and you may change elevation without taking a speed token. This is perfect for the heavy use of missiles.

"Connor Styles" gives you an additional dice if you use rockets and you have the possibility to reroll a sucessless attack. For 6 points this gunner is a very useful addition to any US helicopter crew.

Then there is the "Defensive Pilot" which lets you reroll one defense dice for the cost of 4 points.

Last but not least there are 3 different gunners included, the "Risky", the "Ressourceful" and the "Bloodthirsty Gunner", all 3 can be used by all nations for all vehicles. The "Risky Gunner" would work fine with the M159 missiles.

Again this is a nice addition to the game, the modelkit is fine (except for the oversized panel lines), and the cards will offer additional choices to equip your troops. The cobra must prove its worth, but I think it may stop the enemies Leopard 2 tanks when the Americans will try to conquer Germany after the Soviets are defeated.

Next in line are some more closer looks at some helicopter kits, pictures of the Hind expansion and the Revell Hind are already uploaded, both will come this weekend, and then we will return to Sassnitz, showing the miniatures I prepared for last years first game of "Rügen'46".

Update:

The kit was finished faster than this post. Take a look at the finished kit (and my chaotic hobby desk) at the picture below, only the heckrotor has to be attached, but it will get painted seperately and then it will get glued on the tail of the Cobra. 

1:100 Helicopters for TANKS The Modern Age

Some pictures of the 1:100 helicopters I (almost) finished for use in "TANKS The Modern Age". Since I am not satisfied with the Battlefront models of these helis, a closer look at them will come soon, I am using 1:100 "true" model kits.

First I finished the Revell 1:100 Mi-24 Hind, a closer look at this kit will come in the near future. The building of the rotor was a small struggle but finally all parts fitted as desired. While I built this kit some smaller parts disappeared but I did not care about it since it may not get noticed and this heli is for gaming use only.

Both helicopter models were painted with Revell Aquacolors, the most work was done using my airbrush.

The camouflage pattern was created with liquid masking solution, using Sand and Fern Green. The bottom was sprayed Torquoise toned down with a minor amount of White. Before the model got an oilwash, it was sealed with a layer of clear gloss paint, this picture was made when I did it.

Some decals went to the sparebook, after the rest of them were set, the whole model was sealed with matte varnish, then I removed the tape from the cockpit, which was masked the whole painting process. The cockpit panels were painted and sealed by hand, but I am not too happy with the results.

The rotor was magnetized, I glued a screw in the body and a magnet on the rotor. This works fine and makes storing this model much easier.

The other helicopter kit I finished for the game was the Revell 1:100 Cobra, which got a closer look in this post.

This kit was built without any complications, then the canopy was painted black inside, glued in and masked, then the model got primed. For the basecolor I used Olivegreen, than the heli got a black wash with thinned oil paints. This darkened the basecoat too much, and I sprayed a very thin layer of Greenish Grey over the kit. Then came the usual procedure, glosscoat, decals, varnish. Too bad, the varnish got a little milky but it is not as worse as it seems on the pictures, at least the rotors will be repainted.

The canopy was painted by hand after the maskingtape was removed but I will repaint it soon with a better matching color, this should be done to the Hind too.

I still have to magnetize the rotor using superglue a screw and a magnet. At the moment it is only plugged in. I should have this earlier, the paintjob may get damaged because I have to widen the opening in the body.

As final step both model got the flyer bases which were included in the heli expansion boxes for "TANKS The Modern Age", I drilled a 6mm hole in the bottoms of the helis, after some little sanding of the base insert, it was glued in.

Both kits are ok, but I think I could have done better. Since I still have a Revell Cobra and 2 Revell Hind kits unbuild in my stash, I will try harder next time.

But not only I am building my helicopter forces, my mate Olli finished a BO-105 PAH, see how tiny this thing is, comparded to the Soviet Hind gunship.

I am taking some time to reorganise the postlabels of this blog, then one of the next posts may lead us into the ruins of the undead infested Sassnitz.

Revell 1:144 Hawker Tempest Mark 1B

I found some pictures while I made a backup from my old mobilephone. This is a Hawker Tempest I built last year, also these two were built at the same time. The built went pretty fast with no complications even when there was much flash to remove since the moulds for this kit are old and kind of worn out.

The Me 262 was built and painted by my mate Olli, while both bases were made by me.

I heard that the Revell Micro Wings kits will not be published again, what would be a shame. These kits were some of the first modelkits I ever built, more than 30 years ago.

This is just a quick post, I am preparing some lines about the helicopters I use for "TANKS The Modern Age", that post should go online soon. After that I am doing some maintenance on the labels of this blog.

BMP-1 / BMP-2 Tank Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the BMP-1 / BMP-2 tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9.  This game offers a ww3 scenario, if you own the matching cards you could use your models from "Team Yankee" for this game.
Just like all other expansions for the game, this box contains an 1:100 kit and some cards for "TANKS The Modern Age". First a look at the kit which is included.

I do not want to repeat myself but once again this is a kit without any flaws. There are virtually no mouldlines and any possible ejectormarks will not be seen when this kit is built. As you may have foreseen it, there are no sinkholes or any flash.

The building instructions are kept simple but easy to understand. Depending on which version you want to build, a complete upper structure with matching turret will wander in the bitsbox (more on that later).

After a look at the plastic let us check out the cards. First we have the cards for the units:

The BMP 1 offers a low Attack of 3, with an Initiative of 5 it is "slower" than the BMP 2 which has an Initiative of 7. The scout ability is useful because the unit has no armour and only 3 hitpoints. Equipped with the AT-3 this unit costs only 12 points.
The BMP 2 has with its Rapid Fire ability 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, and if it is equipped with AT-5 missiles it is a threat to any unit on the battlefield. But this arnament is needed since its base attack is only 2. For 15 points (including the AT-5) you get a nice allrounder which is pretty fragile with only 3 hitpoints and 0 armour.

Next are the crewcards, 2 Soviet and an additional crewmember are included. The Soviet hero unit "Ivan Kasparov" offers some nice advantages for only 5 points. You will not only get an Initiative boost of 3, you get an extra hitpoint. Also you get the possibility to reroll an attack dice if you have a speed token. This comrade is not only useful in a BMP.

The Soviet "Komissar" offers the choice to drop an equipment or crew card if you draw some special critical hits. For the cost of two points this may be an interesting choice.

The "Defensive Driver", usable for all nations, offers for 4 points the chance to reroll one attack dice each time you attack.

Last but not least there are 2 equipment cars included. Each BMP gets its additional missile launcher for 2 points. This seems like a must have.

At the moment this are the only Soviet anti air units, that why they are very important if the enemy uses air units, especially since Soviet intelligence reported that a Bundeswehr platoon with air support has been detected.

Once again I recycled the bits which were left over after I built the BMP 2 from this kit. I found this template at Thingiverse and first I printed the hull. I had to use some sandpaper to make it fit.
See the 3D printed part below, printed at 195 C with 100% infill and 40mm printing and movement speed in 0.1 mm layers. It took about 2 hours to finish.

But the 3D printed tracks went pretty bad, after 3 successless attempts, I decided to use another method to get a pair of tracks for the BMP 1 hull,which I choosed to recycle. In this post you will find a video how I made the tracks for the tank.

And the result looks ok, see for yourself. With a layer of paint it probably will look better.

Maybe tonight I will give you a look at the Revell 1:100 helicopter kits I finished for the game.

By the way I have to correct myself, I thought that the "Team Yankee"/"TANKS The Modern Age" helicopter units are 1:144 scale. But I was absolutely wrong. Only the planes are made in this scale.

A comparison of the Battlefront and the Revell Hind and Cobra kits shows that the BF kit comes in 1:100 scale, just as the BF Cobra.

But you may see for yourself in the next weeks when I will take a closer look at the Battlefront and Revell Hind kits and the Battlefront Cobra kit, which has ridiculous large panel lines.

M163 VADS / M901 ITV Tank Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the M163 VADS / M901 ITV tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9. This game is a followup to TANKS, and, as I would call it, a spin-off of Team Yankee. It contains a 1:100 model kit and some cards for the game.

First let us take a look at the plastic:

This kit comes in three sprues. The first two pictured are from the M113 box, the third sprue contains all parts needed for the M163/M901.
Just as the other TANKS kits in my collection, the kit came without any flaws.  All three sprues have neither sinkholes nor flash, any visible ejectormarks will not be seen when it is built, and there are almost no mouldlines.

On the first picture of the second sprue I marked the parts needed, even when you manage to build both versions from this expansion, I did it in this post, there are a lot of bits left over, the M40(?) recoilless gun would fit perfectly on a Toyota offroad truck.

After a look at the plastic, now it is getting interesting, a look at the cards which were included in this expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age".

First there are the two unit cards:

The M163 VADS (Vulcan Air Defense System) is a heavy hitter against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, its Rapid Fire ability grants 7 dice against them. And an Initiative of 7 is also pretty good. The Scout ability is needed because this thing has only 3 hitpoints with an armour of 0.

The M901 ITV (Improved TOW Vehicle) is armed with a 4 dice missile attack, useful against all other units on the battlefield, and the Hammerhead ability triples the armour given by cover, but this is needed because this unit has only 3 hitpoints and no armour.

This expansion comes with 3 crew- and 2 equipment cards. This time you can use the cards for all nations except for the heroic crewmember, "Clarence Tucker", which is a nice addition, for 5 points you will get an additional attack dice (*), and when you reveal the card you will get plus 6 Initiative for that round.

(* hmm, feel free to correct me, but I think this would not work with Rapid Fire and Missiles, and then there is only the Initiative boost left. Is this worth the five point cost?)

The other two crewmembers are the "Daring Driver" and the "Superb Commander", who are pretty nice crew members which are worth their low cost, additional Initiative or a defense dice reroll is always welcome.

"Camouflage Netting" offers additional armour when stationary, while "Ambush" gives +4 Initative in the shooting phase when you discard it, both cards are ok for its cost of 2 points.

The last picture in the previous post show the M163 VADS built and painted and what I did to build both possible versions of this expansion from this box.

The next post should be a closer look at the BMP expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" and some small words on the recycling of the leftover BMP bits.

By the way, I found a small batch of pictures which will be added to some older posts, but this get a separate post.