M14/41 Tank Expansion For "TANKS"

A closer look at the 1:100 M14/41 tank expansion for "TANKS" made by Galeforce 9. This game is a spin-off from Battlefront Miniatures "Flames Of War" wargame. It uses models from that range, but concentrates on tank battles only. As you have have read in the past, a lot of the previous posts are dedicated to this game and its successor, due to the simple fact that they are played by me and some friends of mine, and building and painting these small models makes a lot of fun, at least for me, they offer a nice distraction after work.

As usual this expansion contains one 1:100/15mm modelkit and some cards to use ingame. But with no further words, first let us take a look at the plastic which comes with this expansion:

The kit comes in a sandcolored sprue of styrene. As with most BFM model kits, I can not see any flaws on or with the sprue. Except for some mininal mouldlines arround the tracks, no further cleanup is needed, the kit is nicely moulded. The overall grade of detail is fine, the rivets may be a little oversized but they still look fine. The tracks offer a simple but nice grade of detail comparable to the better made Zvezda "Art Of Tactic" kits.

Some stowage and spare tracklink parts are also included on the sprue.

You can build two different tanks from this box, but more on that later. Before that let us take a look at the cards which are included in this game expansion:

The Italian M14/41 tanks is a pretty weak tank with a low attack of 3, 0 armourpoints and only 4 hitpoints. Its initiative of 6 is in the medium range, but a bunch of them could be a potential threat to every unit with a lower initiative, since this tank can join your platoon for the low cost of only 12 points and the Italian special ability which aims at larger tank groups, it should be used in groups with at least 3 tanks.

With the introduction of a new nation, also its special ability is revealed. Italys "Avanti" offers an additional armour point if two allied Italian tanks are in close range. This is a useful ability which offers some different strategies.
As far as I found out, the Capricorn logo of the new Italian cards belongs to the 132nd Armoured Division Ariete , but I may be wrong about that.

With this expansion come 7 crew and upgrade cards, and the first thing that we see, is that there are no global cards in this expansion, all cards can only be used by Italian tanks.

Starting with the 4 crewmembers, first comes the Italian hero card "Luigi Arbib Pascucci", this commander offers the benefit of 2 additional initiative points. also all other Italian tanks of your platoon get +2 initiative as long they stay in close range.

For 5 points this guy is pretty useful, especially in combination with "Avanti".

The next 3 cards have the Italian exclusive "Risky" prefix, just as the French for "TANKS The Modern Age" use the prefix "Charging".

First there is the "Risky Commander", for 2 points you can choose between 2 critical hits if you got critically hit but only if you are in close range of the attacking tank. Not bad, but I would prefer to stay out of close range, but other Italian crewmembers are beneficial too, if you go on close range to the enemy.

If you choose the "Risky Driver" for a tank, you will not have to substract one defence die on close range. For 2 points this can be useful if you go all in to fight the enemy on close sight.

The "Risky Radio Operator" is another crewmember that supports attacks on close range. If your tank is within close range of an enemy, this and all other allied tanks get +1 initiative. This may seem pretty useful for 2 points if you play with allied German tanks who have the "Blitzkrieg" ability.

The other 3 cards are Italian doctrines.

"Believe! Obey! Fight!" offers for 2 points an additional +1 to armour if an enemy tank is on close range. Another card which supports rushing into the enemy.

"Always Forward, Italy!" gives you for 2 points an additional initiative point, and all other "Risky" crewmember would cost 1 point less. You could fill your Italian tanks with these crewmembers (at least from this expansions) for only 1 point each, if you would use this doctrine.

The next card, which is the most interesting card of this expansion, has text on both cards, depending if you want to use Italian tanks for your German platoon or vice versa.
On one side we have the "Italian support" doctrine, for 1 point you can use this doctrine to add this or any other Italian tank to a German platoon. Theoretically you could use a bunch of cheap Italian tanks combined with some high level German units, and I think I am going to build an Afrikakorps squadron including some allied Italian forces.

On the other side we have the "German Support" doctrine, with this upgrade you may add any German tank to your Italian platoon, but for that are only non-hero German and global upgrades allowed.
For 1 point you could add a Tiger (for 29 points) or any other German tank to get some more firepower.

This expansion for "TANKS" offers a nice 1:100 kit with two options (only one is supported in this expansion) to build a cheap unit for the game which may be a threat when at least three of them are used.

As we have seen, the strengh of the Italian tank forces is staying together in groups to benefit from "Avanti" and other advantages from crew and doctrine cards. The addition of the doublesided support card offers the choice to use either Italian tanks in German platoons or to use German tanks in Italian platoons, the choice is yours.
The only minus of this expansion is the absence of any decals and any commander figures,  a fact that this game expansion shares with all of its kind.

How good this unit actually is will be seen in a future game.

The construction of the kit went straight forward, everthing sits and fits well, the finished model is shown on the picture below:

You get a complete upper hull of the Semovente tank (to disapper in the bitsbox) if you build the Fiat M14/41 and first I wanted to magnetize this kit to have both tanks usable, what seems pretty easy to do, but after the examination of the Italian cards, I will turn on the 3D printer to make a matching hull and use the leftover bits as I did before. Since I also own the Semovente expansion for the game, I think I will use the upper structures of the M14/41 for two new hybrids.

The next post will include a new custom unit, either for ww2 or ww3 "TANKS". Tomorrow I should have the time to visit my local copyshop to get some testprints to see if the cards are alright. This would be a good opportunity to showoff some of my mate Ollis tanks, before he picks them up in the next days.

If everthing works as supposed, you will be able to download the KV-2 and a new German cold war kitten custom unit cards tomorrow.

Update:
I did not see that one of the cards had text on the other side, too. Not only that, the same thing happende with the Semovente expansion, in which this card also is included.

Faces Of War (7)

More pictures from the second world war. My grandfather took these while he was a part of the German invasion troops on the African continent. He died while I was still a kid that I had no chance to ask him about these dark time, but the pictures give some clues, where he had been.

By the way, I still remember him enough to know that he in not the guy on the picture above, he is shown on this picture.

On the first picture you can see a damaged British airplane, a quick online search showed that this could be a US P-40 in British service or as they called it, a Kittyhawk.

While I wrote the last post about these old pictures, I found out that he at least visited the Lybian Marble Arch, found on this picture, near Ra's Lanuf. This time there are no special landmarks on these pictures but we may get some more hints about his military past.

The first picture of this group shows something like a cantina. You can read the Italian words "DI RISTORO PER MILITARI" what can roughly be translated to "refreshment for military". This may be a hint that his unit was connected with some Italian units.

Update:
A reader from Italy mentioned that the whole phrase should say  "PUNTO DI RISTORO PER MILITARI". Thanks for that addition, mate.

The plane on this picture seems like a Messerschmitt BF-110. There are a lot of clues that my Grandfather could have been a member of the Luftwaffe since there are a lot of planes on these old pictures.

I suppose this plane shows a Messerschmitt BF-109 as it seems. The insignia is showing the Berlin Bear with a crown above that. This could be a hint, in which unit he could have been. I will try to find out for which unit this sign stands and will add this to this post.

Update:

It seem that the Berlin Bear insignia was used by the second squadron of the Jagdgeschwader 27.

This picture of the Bear seems almost identical to the one on the plane above.

Dieses Werk (ausser dem Bärenbild aus der Wikipedia) ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung

 - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International Lizenz. -

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Sunday, funday. Today I am going to build some 28mm figures using some bits I got from the bay. There are a dozen of unbuilt Britons and some Germans who will get new weapons and the rest of the Westwind Productions gasmask heads. I hope this will work, there are way enough arms and weapons for the British troopers but I do not have any clue which of them belong together, this may include a lot of puzzeling.

While I am looking out of the window, I reminds me to the fact, that the color gray was invented here in 1254.

In tonights post we will keep staying in Africa, I am going to take a closer look at the first of the two available African themed Italian expansions for "TANKS", and a first look at the included cards shows, that the tanks are pretty weak, but the available crew and upgrade cars are pretty strong.

Zvezda 1:100 Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdtiger

A closer look at Zvezdas 1:100 Sd.Kfz.186 Jagdtiger for their 1:100 "Art Of Tactic" wargame. As I mentioned in earlier posts, the use for these models is not limited to the Zvezda game, virtually this Jagdtiger model could be used for every 15mm wargame which rules support this tank.

But without any more words, let us take a look at the plastic modelkit which comes with this expansion:

The kit comes in two grey sprues and somehow the plastic feels different from their green plastic, it feels minimal softer, but it is still hard and sturdy enough for a modelkit. The kit can be build without the use of glue, but it takes modelglue well and binds pretty fast, but it seems not as fast as the green stuff does.

All parts are moulded well, without any sinkholes or flash, but there are some mouldlines which should be removed. Some tools and the towropes can be found moulded onto the hull. The trackdetail is simple, with low details on the outer trackside and no details in the inner side of the tracks except for some guideteeth.

In contrast to the Tiger 2, the sparetracks are moulded onto the hull, but I think this is because there was no more room left on the sprues for them.

But all in all this is a nice kit with some ignorable faults, there are no decals included, the tracks are pretty simple, and it would have been nice to have the option of an opened or closed commander hatch.

But we must not forget that this is a simple wargaming kit which is pretty cheap, a quick check on some (German) onlineshop shows that this kit costs below 4 Euros.

The construction of the Zvezda 1:100 Jagdpanther model went on pretty fast without any issues, but on some parts you will need a serious amount of pressure to avoid gaps. As usual for most Zvezda 1:100 tanks, due to its inner frame structure its construction may seem complicated, but the well made instruction leaflet is easy to understand.

After I built this model in less than 30 minutes, with some paint and decals my Jagdpanther is ready to be used as a custom unit for "TANKS".

Model Storage

At last I found a way to store at least my 15mm models properly. Some days ago I was at a local discouter and found these boxes. I took the opportunity to get some of them for my minis, these things cost 1,99 € what is ok, and, what is important, in these boxes the models should be protected from (my eternal enemy) dust.

From a friend, who is musician, I got some accustic foam, he did not need this stuff anymore but I can use it for the bottom of the boxes to secure the models as you can see on the pictures above.

There was enough for the (first?) 10 boxes, if I would need some more of this stuff I could get it from him.

Each army got its own box plus two boxes for all planes and helis, on the picture above you can see my cold war US tanks (and a batch of Heinlein books), but since I ordered another dozen of Zvezda "Art Of Tactic" expansions (the whole range will get a closer look in the future), I may need additional boxes, some of them are already full.

At the moment the helis are stored sub-optimal, I wanted to glue some coins or stuff like this to the cover of the box, to attach the magnetized rotors on them, but most of the glues I already tested did not stick. And I should get a separate box for all heli and plane bases.

But all in all I am happy with this solution, and while I sorted my models to the new boxes, I noticed that I have a lot 15mm models, more than we will ever use for games, but I like these small things, and I will add more 1:100 models to my collection.

While I had a flue last week, I was not in the mood for any modelling or blogging, but last Thursday I was fit enough for another roguish Montagsmaler meeting. My mate Olli finished his Tiger 2 and started to paint another tank, while I painted several tank crews and some of the kits which I still want to review, luckily I made all pictures which are needed for this before I started to build them.

This weekend is dedicated to modelling. At the moment I have one half of Ollis 15mm Bundeswehr platoon on my bench, these kitten got an additonal layer of matte varnish and he left them here to dry. The new Vallejo matte varnish I use is great, works fine with the airbrush and the paintbrush

Just a random Montagsmaler picture:

At the moment I am planning what I will post the next days, I think it will be the Zvezda Sd.Kfz. 186, Ollis Bundeswehr models, both Italian expansions for "TANKS", and some ww2 pictures. I still have 4 "TANKS The Modern Age" expansions laying on my desk which I want to (mini)review, but one thing at a time.

Too bad, I already built one of them without taking pictures of the sprues. But I will improvise when it is time for the closer look at that kit. Not to forget to mention all the new custom unit cards I made in the past few days.

I just came home from work but now it is weekend and you can expect another post tonight, then I will take a closer look at the Sd.Kfz. 186 for Zvezdas "Art Of Tactic" wargame, I only need to take a picture of the finished kit and write some lines, the rest of the post is almost finished.

Zvezdas SU-76 Versus The Plastic Soldier Companys SU-76

After we took a closer look at the Zvezda SU-76 and the Plastic Soldier Company SU-76 in previous posts, in this post I will compare both kits. I am no professional but this should be no hindrance for a simple comparison of these two models.
Both kits were primed with AK Interactive Russian primer on most pictures.

A frontal view on both tanks. The PCS tank looks wider but they have the same width. Both tanks have some tools and a steelrope moulded onto the hull, what can be seen better on the picture below. But at an overall level, the Zvezda kit seems finer. A plus for the PSC kit is the option to build the drivers hatch openend.

You can see that the Zvezda model is a little longer than the PSC SU-76. While the front part of both tanks roughly measures the same, the Zvezda kit is a bit longer since its crew compartment is bigger.

A look at the rear shows that the PSC model seems higher than the other tank, but this is not the case, I choosed a bad angle for this picture. While the general grade of detail is ok on both tanks, I prefer the kit on the left side.
On the PSC tank I lost the box part at the right side and replaced it with a tarp from the bitsbox.

 

Both models from both sides. You can see some differences on these models, but the overall look is pretty equal. The exhaust pipes of the Zvezda kits are finer, also this kit has a spotlight, what is missing on the PSC kit.

A look into the crew compartment of the Zvezda model. The amount of details is pretty nice, you can see some munition racks and the gun is made pretty fine including a gunsight. The crew compartment is much deeper as on the PSC kit, on the first picture of the post you can see, that the crewfigure is hard too see, since it is almost at floor level.

A look into the crew compartment of the Plastic Soldier Company model. The inner details are given but simplified and the gun is pretty basic with a low grade of detail. But for a wargaming model, this is still fine.

If I would have to build a SU-76 platoon, I think that I would take the Zvezda kit, and no, I did not get paid by them to write this. Its amount of details is higher than on the Plastic Soldier Company model. This does not mean, that the PSC model is a bad kit, it is a nice model for wargamers, but on a personal view, the Zvezda kit is the kit which I prefer. A quick pricecheck showed, that a 5 model box of PSC SU-76 is almost priced equal to 5 single Zvezda SU-76 kits.

But at the end it is your decisision which models you would use for any games. But I hope, that this post may be helpful.

By the way, finally I found out how to change the name of my Youtube channel, and I replaced the retarded former name with the name of this blog and added a nice header image.