AMX-10P Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the AMX-10P tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9. Set in a fictional 1980ies world war 3 background, this game is the followup to ww2 "TANKS" (also made by GF9) with an slightly advanced ruleset and air units.

As usual, this kind of expansion contains a 1:100 modelkit made by Battlefront Miniatures and some cards for the game. First a look at the kit which came in this box:

The kit comes in one green sprue containing all parts needed to built this tank. I can not see any flaws, there are virtually no mouldlines to remove, no sinkholes were found and any ejectormarks would not be seen when this kit is built. As usual, this is a nice engineered kit, like all of the newer BFM kits.

After a look at the plastic, next are the cards included in this box, first we have the card for the unit itself:

The French AMX-10P is a light support tank with a relatively high Initiative and the "Scout" ability which means this tanks should stay in cover. It has with its Rapid Fire ability 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, and if it is equipped with MILAN missiles it has the ability to attack any unit on the battlefield. But this arnament is needed since its base attack is only 2. For 13 points (including the missile option) you get a light tank which is pretty fragile with only 3 hitpoints and 0 armour, but it may be a threat to any enemy unit.

Beside the actual card for the unit itself, the following crew and equipment cards are included in this expansion:

First there is the equippable "MILAN Firing Post" missile launcher for only 2 points which adds the option to  attack with 4 missiles. This may be a nice option, but I think it will not be used often, to be honest, I think that the French forces for "TANKS The Modern Age" can rely on the AMX-30 with its Rapid Fire 5 ability.

Then there are (as usually) the hero units for the French.

The driver "Henry Delacroix" offers the possibilty to re-roll one Defence dice when the tank has a speed token, this is not bad for the cost of 4 points. When you discard the card, this ability is gone but the tank then can do an additional single move in the movement phase without adding a speed token.

"Andre Mareau", the gunner, adds an additional Attack point and gives the ability to re-roll up to 2 Attack dice when the target is in close range. Costing 5 points, this seems like a must-have for any French platoon, since this card offers a big advantage.

Next is a card which the (French only) "charging" pre-fix, this time it is the "Charging Gunner" for 3 points. He adds an additional Initiative point during the Shooting Phase. Since this is one of those revealable cards, when this is revealed, for that round the tank gets an additional attack die when shooting the side of the enemies tank for that round.

The last card included is the "Artillery Observer", which is well known from the ww2 TANKS. Just read the text on the card for yourself , this card is very useful, if you rely on artillery tanks this is a must have worth two points.

There it is,  a closer look at the third and final expansion for the French.

It offers a light support unit capable in bringing down helicopters. The kit of this model once again has a high standard and the grade of detail in fine for its scale. The new crewmembers offer more tactical choices, especially the "Artillery Observer" is very useful, since the French are the only nation which can use artillery.

But the usefulness of this unit is unclear. For only 2 more points you could choose the AMX-30 which has way better stats. But since all reviews for the French expansions are done, it is time to get a view at the possible tactics and platoon builds for them in a future post.

This has nothing to do with the AMX-10P, but since the tank got painted in the same style and I am to lazy to take a picture of it, here is a picture of the 3Dprinted/bitsbox AMX-AUF1 artillery tanks for my French platoon, in the foreground a potential custom unit can be seen.

It is possible that I will add one or two additional posts tonight, at the moment the "TANKS The Modern Age" Cobra helicopter and another 3Dprinted/bitsbox hybrid are waiting for their sealing with matte varnish.

Rügen'46 Gangs Of Sassnitz (1) Schwere Mechanisierte Infantrie

The first pictures of some 28mm miniatures I finished for lasts years first Rügen'46 game. I built for all players a combat squad consisting 5 - 7 figures, since most of them were done in the last moment, the paintjob is pretty sloppy.

But anyway, I was (still am) very satisfied with the results of these exhausing nights before the game.

For more informations about Rügen'46, I suggest to read this post.

These powerarmoured troopers were built from minis of the "Void" starterpack. There were two factions included, each squad was built from one of those.

The heads were taken from the SHS range of Westwind Productions, I took a closer look at them in this post. Their arnament and additional equipment was taken from the ww2 German infantry box from (now closed) Wargames Factory.

The shields were also included in the "Void" box.

A closeup of some of the figures with the flash of my camera activated, just to give a better look of the two different color schemes. I think the small Balkenkreuz decals came from Dragon Models 1:144 ww2 tanks range.

Without any paint, the blue/black painted troopers looked like that:

Of course, these troops needed a worthy leader, and that was was they got.

Take a look at "Karl Heinz von Diskowitz", this mini was built by combining some parts of the "Void" box and "Horace Jackson" of Reaper Miniatures Bones range. The look may be anachronistic, but I like this unusual mini.

For some last minute improvised minis, I am happy with them. For years I had no use for the "Void" minis, but now, used for these minis, I am happy that I did not gave them away.

The next batch of miniatures used in the "Rügen'46" game will be shown soon.

Originally this post should have contained a 3D print timelapse video, but due to some technical issues, the first try of making that video was a fail. But I will give it a second try sooner or later.

Zvezda 1:100 T-72B

A closer look at the 1:100 T-72B modelkit from Zvezda. This Russian producer not only makes scalemodelkits, also it has several ranges of wargames with mostly 1:100 models, but their grade of detail differs from kit to kit.
This kit comes from Zvezdas "Hot War - Battle for Oil" wargame, but I will use it as proxie unit for "TANKS The Modern Age".

I like the design of this tank with its reactive armour, and when I got the chance to get one of those for a reasonable price, I took the opportunity to get it, but no further words, let us take a look at the model kit:

This kit comes in 2 green sprues, containing 14 parts, the flagpiece excluded, to complete the model. All parts are nicely sculpted and casted, I did not find any sinkholes or visible ejectormarks on the sprues. There is no flash, but you have at least to remove the mouldline of the one-piece turret.

But since the used plastic is not as soft as the stuff they use for their for "Art Of Tactics" range, this should be no problem.

This kit can be built without using glue, the fit of the parts is very good. When I built it I was sceptical how the sideskirts would fit, but the fit is excellent, even when sometimes some pressure was needed.

Beside the included instruction leaflet, finally there is the decalsheet of this box. Seems that there is a third set of generic Soviet turret numbers for "Hot War" model kits.

For future reviews I call these decals "type 3", this is now "type 1" while this is "type 2".

Suspecting the same quality than other Zvezda decals, these should be fine.

On the left side you see the built Zvezda T-72B compared to the plastic T-72 from the "Team Yankee" range of Battlefront Miniatures. While the general shape of them is pretty equal, the main difference is the reactive armour of the Zvezda Model.

And while I am at the details of this modelkit, the boxart shows a different version of the T-72B, it was taken from Zvezdas 1:35 kit of this tank.

This is one of the better Zvezda 1:100 kits. A nice amount of details and a sharp casting make this kit very nice. Building this kit should go on pretty fast, even whithout glue, the parts fit and sit very well, and the result is a nice looking Soviet cold war tank

The tracks could have some better detail and the addition of an AA machine gun would be nice, but I recommend this kit beside that minor points. 

There is always the possiblity to add some bits to improve this kit, on this Tank I added the leftover mineplows from my other T-72 and an AA gun which was taken from the bitsbox.

Todays modelling session was successful, beside all that modelmaking, in D.I.Y. tradition I built a handy tool, but at the moment I can not find a matching power source.

Maybe it would be better if I would not find one.

Update:
I almost finished the model, there is only some dirt to be added, just watch the picture below:

Aces Of The Autobahn

While my mate Olli just arrived for another roguish Montagsmaler session, I wanted to share this picture I made some weeks ago.

An actual posting will come tonight.

Victrix 1:100 Ju 87 G2 Stuka

A closer look at the 1:100 JU87 G2 Stuka model kit made by Victrix Models. This is one of their two new kits of 1:100 planes for wargaming, the other kit available at this moment is the Hawker Typhoon IB, also in 1:100 scale. A closer look at the Typhoon is not planned.

First, as usual, let us take a look at the plastic included in this kit:

The kit came in one grey sprue containing all parts needed to build the Stuka. On a first look, the kit seems without any flaws, no injector marks or sinkholes and virtually no flash.

This kit seems great, but more on that when it is actually built.

Some details of the sprue: two pilot figures are included, and a detailed look at one of the 3,7 guns which will be attached under each wing.

Also icluded is a nice flightbase, the socket may be pretty huge, but this thing allows to show different heights by expanding it like an antenna.

Too bad that I already lost the clear plastic rod which should be attached to the sprue, but this will be replaced if I should use this thing.

The detail picture of the clear parts shows that the plastic is very milky, maybe some polishing paste may help, but when I saw the clear parts I was pretty unsatisfied.

The instructions which are included are colorcoded and are kept simple and understandable, I have seen a lot of worse building instructions but only a few in this great quality.

The last item included in this kit is a decal sheet, which allows you to build one of 4 different planes using this sheet. Since I did not use them I can not say anything about their quality but the print looks good.

This is a pretty nice modelkit with a decent choice of decals. The subject of it is chosen nice, I think that this is the only tankhunter version of a Stuka in this scale.

The only flaw is the pretty milky clear sprue, I hope Victrix will fix this issue when new units will be produced. But even whith that flaw, this kit is great in detail, and it seems that it will be nice to build this kit.

I think if Victrix would sell the flight bases only, they would be soldout in short time.

Originally I wanted to use this thing for the "TANKS" thing I am working on, but since this plane is pretty big, I will stay with my 1:144 Stuka, which can be seen in this post.

A lot on mini reviews will follow in the next time, but it will will try to keep the blog content balanced between closer looks at kits and actual hobby posts.