Breakthrough to Berlin Campaign - starting the 1st scenario build.

[Gunbird]

I've decided to make the switch from 20mm to 15mm. I have a metric ton of 20mm that will fund this, so that's ok I guess. The lack of 20mm gamers in the Netherlands has made me make this choice, there are so many more 15mm players.

To curb my squirrel like spending habits I bought some used lots to get a feel of things and decided to focus purely on the 1st scenario for the Fall of the Reich campaign, Breakthrough to Berlin:

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf

Starting off fresh, I've entered everything I need to build in Excel to make sure I'll do everything that is needed. Everything I have is dumped in one big project box for ease of keeping it tidy. A German lot, a Russian lot and a Scenery lot. I'll start off with the Russians first, and they need a T-34/76 Tank Company, so that is 10 T-34's, plus a PT-34 for which I've managed to squirrel some Battlefront minerollers. Not in the list, but if I'm building that many T-34's, I might as well add a T-34 ARV and do the paintwork on my T-34 Beute. 14 T-34's.....

As I have hardly any parts. I've started doing what I did when I started in 20mm aeons ago, with scratchbuilding on the ARV. By now all of the T-34's have their hulls built, weighted and magnetised, next up is building and magnetising all of the turrets.



I'm lucky that in a lot of used and abused German stuff I bough where several track sections of PSC T-34's (there were no T-34's in the lot), so I've been cutting and sanding parts from it to fit in the loadbed (made from a incomplete German Truck sprue from PSC). I've turned what looked to be an axle or something into a gas cyclinder for a cutting torch. Cause nothing says Russian like storing flammable objects close to each other.

And that is it sofar, hope to keep you updated from time to time, hope to make this a long running project.

[Gunbird]

 "liberally scatter shell craters around the tabletop" the scenario says. 3 evenings worth of work later and, well, it's a start



I think I will build 10-15 more of the bigger ones. But not anytime soon, I've been reminded again that I effing hate factory line painting.

[MaleGriffin]

Well worth the 3 night's work! Wewe they cast or sculpted? Ya can't have a realistic battlefield without them!

[bluewillow]

Great stuff, only your ww2 or all kit?

Cheers
Matt

[robh]

Is this campaign the Battlegroup version of the Seelow Heights battles?

[Gunbird]

Is this campaign the Battlegroup version of the Seelow Heights battles?

Yes it is.

Well worth the 3 night's work! Wewe they cast or sculpted? Ya can't have a realistic battlefield without them!

Handmade, 25mm and 50mm MDF discs, cut at angle on the sides with a scalpel, tne half a bar of Milliput did all of that. Sand, paint, done.

Great stuff, only your ww2 or all kit?

Cheers
Matt

Atm I'm making the switch for 1945, Vietnam and AK-47. Still not sure about the rest, but in no rush.

[robh]

Is this campaign the Battlegroup version of the Seelow Heights battles?

Yes it is.

Cool, please include an overview of the forces involved in the scenarios. We are part way through Steve Shann's excellent Seelow campaign for Rapid Fire (being played in 1/300 with Panzer Korps rules) so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

[Gunbird]

Cool, please include an overview of the forces involved in the scenarios. We are part way through Steve Shann's excellent Seelow campaign for Rapid Fire (being played in 1/300 with Panzer Korps rules) so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

As I'm doing this one build at a time, this is what is needed for the 1st Scenario and the map for a 6x6 table (which I don't even have, but that is for a later concern)





The following scenario's will come after I finish this build.

[robh]

Nice balance of forces.  It looks as if the BG campaign starts off a little to the south of where the RF one begins.

The Seelow museum clicky on Google Maps has a few pictures and a short video of a 3D model of the battlefield. Map scale rather than model scale but does show just how imposing the heights were/are in the geography.

[Gunbird]

Nice balance of forces.  It looks as if the BG campaign starts off a little to the south of where the RF one begins.

The Seelow museum clicky on Google Maps has a few pictures and a short video of a 3D model of the battlefield. Map scale rather than model scale but does show just how imposing the heights were/are in the geography.

I've been listening to this series

[Gunbird]

A little bit of progress, magnets finally arrived, as well as 2 sets of PT-34 mine rollers kindly donated to me (if that isn't motivational, I dunno what is) and I picked up a new bottle of Mr Surfacer 1000 for texturing the turrets, but I will do a test first to see if it even shows up.



Swapped out a few roadwheels for spare Panther ones (if I'm buiulding a 1945 force you damn well make that look like a 1945 force), which is....interesting to do.


Ah, progress....

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Great stuff. With the Panther wheel I presume from your pics that you dissected the original hub, cut and filed the remainder of the chosen wheel to be replaced and then sat the Panther variant (after trimming top and bottom) on top with new hub inserted?

I didn’t know that they were interchangeable in real life: was it an exact fit or did it need fettling to fit? With my T34’s sat in a ‘built but not painted’ holding pattern I’m tempted to return and try this on one or two. Any suggestions for further reading/research on this?

Thank you for starting me off down another small detour.

Balm

[Gunbird]

Great stuff. With the Panther wheel I presume from your pics that you dissected the original hub, cut and filed the remainder of the chosen wheel to be replaced and then sat the Panther variant (after trimming top and bottom) on top with new hub inserted?

I didn’t know that they were interchangeable in real life: was it an exact fit or did it need fettling to fit? With my T34’s sat in a ‘built but not painted’ holding pattern I’m tempted to return and try this on one or two. Any suggestions for further reading/research on this?

Thank you for starting me off down another small detour.

Balm

According to the Internet, modifying a Panther wheel to fit the T-34 took about 30 minutes.

In this case I used the spare wheels you get with the (Jagd)Panther from Battlefront, and cut off the hub cover from the T-34....and then rammed my Dremel grindel knob thing through the T-34 wheel, totally oblitterating it. The trim the top and bottem of the Panther wheel, stick it in the gap covering the remains of the T-34 wheel and put the hub cover back and Bob is your akward relative. It's maybe 10 minutes of work in all.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Brilliant, thank you. Slightly more aggressive than I expected (I think I need a Dremel) but hopefully doable, if longwinded, by hand.

Thank you for the inspiration,

Balm.

[Gunbird]

Not a whole lot, hands are not agreeing with me this week.

Used .5mm lead wire for the cable, cut the ends at a slant and looped then ends back so it resembles the loop at the end of the cable. Not perfect, but it's 15mm so nothing that will be terribly visible. Hung the other cable from the stowage box, glued the gas bottles in place and now looking for a crate. When it has all set I;ll do the milliput tarp and then it is ready for primer I guess?

I might do this to one or two more tanks, maybe a wreck.....but that is it.