White Elephants - The 'War Elephants' of the United Nations

Regulars readers of this blog may have noticed that I've been using the UN Operations during the Congo Crisis in the early 60ies for many of my wargaming scenarios, as these were very offensive peace enforcement operations. For these wargames I painted regular plastic Army Men as generic UN-troops from the 60ies. For some of my wargames I've been improvising some vehicles, but eventually I wanted to add some prototypical vehicles to bring my UN-troops into battle and be able to provide some fire support as well. 

During WW2 Sweden designed an Armoured Personel Carrier based on a 4WD truck chassis; M/42 KP or KP Cars. This design was so successful that it was still in service Post War and it was brought to Congo by Swedish UN Forces. It was so successful that the UN even bought 15 of them to deploy with other UN units as well. In UN service they were nicknamed "White Elephants". They were later also deployed in other UN-missions. The last KP-cars were withdrawn from Swedish service in 2004.

During my Motorcycle tour to Sweden in 2024 I saw one of the KP-cars from Congo at the Swedish Tank Museum Arsenalen:

So a KP car would be a suitable vehicle for my miniature UN troops. At Thingiverse I found a free STL-file of a KP-car for 3D-printing:

It was designet to 28mm scale, but I resized it to roughly 1:35 scale to go along with my Army Men and 3D-printed it. -And some 5 hours later:

The bonnet didn't look so good due to the angle it was 3D-printed and the layerlines involved in this type of 3D-printing. Since I read a blogpost at Grid Based Wargaming where Peter used Gesso to add texture to some models, I've been curious to try out a similar method on 3D-printed models. It was soon clear that the Gesso was a little too thin for this purpose, so I used a more thicker variant from the craft store; Acrylic modelling paste.

Then it got some coats of auto body filler spray:

Then it was painted:

I then added some 'UN decals' which was simply just printed self-adhesive labels. From reference photos it looks like there were no norm of marking these vehicles, as they had a lot of different variations on their 'UN markings':

I also wanted to add a crew-member to operate the machineguns. Since I'd 3D-printed this APC to 1:35 scale, I was looking in an old box for old and odd bits and pieces from different old 1:35 projects. I found a useful 'upper body' which I altered the arms:

Now my miniature UN-troops can drive into battle in a periodic and prototypical vehicle which also will provide them with some firing support. One single vehicle is actually enough to carry 2 squads with 8 men each. 

Now it's just to find some (free) usable wargaming rules and make a scenario so I can put this APC into service. Stay tuned and please follow this blog if you aren't already.

MOW/PWM-Train Part 3 - Making a Crane Wagon on a budget, followed by another 'Day Out'

Earlier this spring I've converted a couple of LGB-wagons for Maintenance of Way and Permanent Way Maintenance uses.

You can read more about these conversions on these two links:

• Remodelling a Permanent Way Department wagon
• MOW/PWM-Train Part 2

To help the maintenance crew getting sleepers and rails on and off their wagons I thought it might be helpful to add a small crane to this Maintenance rake and get a complete Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Department train. I found free STL-files to 3D-print for a complete Crane Wagon on Thingiverse. Even if it was made to Standard Gauge in 'Gauge 1' (1:32) it still had the same gauge (45mm) as my narrow gauge 16mm (1:19) military trains, and could be printed and used as is:

I already have several similar looking G-scale wagons primarily from LGB, and didn't actually need to add another one to my growing fleet at this point. Besides this was a Gauge 1 wagon with standard gauge buffers which would look a little too small and odd for my 16mm narrow gauge. Therefore I decided to just make the crane on a removable false floor just like I did with the rails and  sleeper load so I could add it to an existing wagon when needed. I have too many wagons to run them all at once anyway, as my engines can't pull that many. To make the crane base fit my standard-sized LGB-wagons and making it less like 'Gauge 1', I increased the size about 30% before printing it. 132,64% of original size to be exactly if you are going to follow this description and make one for your self.

Than all the 3D-printed parts was assembled and painted. The stones for the countherweight I found at an island at our cost during a day out with my family.

This can be fitted into any 'standard sized' LGB-wagons to temporarily turn them into a crane wagon:

Togheter with the 2 earlier mentioned MOW/ PWM wagons I can now make up a short Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Maintenance train:

Another 'Day Out' at Heine's Garden Railway

When I finished this project fellow model railway club member Heine coincidentally suggested that we could take our weekly club-evening in his garden for a running session as the weather was good. This was my first chance to run all my MOW/PWM wagons together as a complete Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Maintenance train:

These smal rail-buses were also used to haul local goods on Branch lines

This maintenance of way train rake is perhaps not so 'warlike', but I imagine that military railway operators use many of the same kind of cars as civilians. Besides, now my military trains are able to repair any (battle-) damaged tracks if it gets blown up by partisans or aerial bombings.

Vengeful Trails - A Gatling Requiem

Since I played the Delta 6 rules by Adam L. Dobbyns earlier, I really wanted to try out the 'Hero section' in these rules with a 'hero going rouge' with a machine gun in a skirmish scenario and cinematic game. I know the rules says "1980's Hero", and therefore suggests some kind of (modern) 'Rambo Character'. I have no 'Rambo' figure, but when when I played and reviewed the Delta 6 rules, I got a feeling that these rules can be amended and used for several other periods as well. This made me think of a figure conversion I made as a 'Machine Gun Hero' last year; The Django looking Gatling armed Cowboy. I think the Delta 6 rules can be amended and played in an 'Old West' scenario. The Gatling will have the LMG stats. I will play the 19th century repeater rifles as the 'assault gun' as they are fast to reload. Other rifles will only score one hit on the roll of a 5. Pistols are Pistols according to the rules (a roll of a 5 can still score 2 hits as it can be 'fanning' the gun).

Preparing the game

I don't think the 'Hero' this game are carrying his Gatling gun on his hip all the time, so I found further inspiration from the Django movie to 3D-print a carrying case for it. This was printed just before the game, so due to time the settings were medium resolution and printed with a 'wood-looking' filament so it was 'ready made'. This 'wooden filament' was really challenging to print, clogging the nozzle and make the print look good. Won't buy it again (!)

Then the printed the coffin was blackwashed:

The Scenario

After a Shootout and killing an Army patrol of 5 in a shootout in 1884, the gang of 'Sinful Eight' was reduced to the 'Sinful Six', and wanted by the authorities alive or dead. They fled and hide in the small and remote frontier town of Dullstone, where they killed the Sheriff and kept the inhabitants under their 'domination'. Until the day 2 experienced Bounty Hunters who had teamed up for the large reward for the 'Sinfull Six', entered the town. After another Shootout the outlaws actually managed to take out the Bounty Hunters, but at the same time there was only 2 gang members back. They had to flee Dullstone as just the 2 of them couldn't keep terrorizing the population of Dullstone alone. They got even more wanted and the reward for them got higher after the last 'shootout'. So they're still chased by the law and Bounty Hunters alike. 

It's rumored that the 2 last gang members fled only a day of riding away from the Mexican border, where they broke into a house, killing the owner and kept his widow as a hostage. This way they could flee to mexico by horse if they were caught up by the law again.
- Until the day another stranger was passing by...

Forces:

• 2 remaining gang members from the original gang of 'Sinful Eight'. Both having a health of 6.
  
  
• 1 mysterious hero armed with a a Gatling gun with a health of 10.

Mission:

• Outlaws: To kill the mysterious Hero, or escape by their horses through the pass behind the building.
• Mysterious Hero: To kill the 2 last members of the outlaw gang and free the woman from captivity. 

AAR

Time:    20 minutes

Turns:   5

Result:  A victory for the Mysterious Hero

Since the Outlaws are unaware of our Mysterious Hero, I let the latter activate first; A stranger is slowly crossing the desert at foot dragging a coffin behind him. He can see a distant house ahead: 

When coming closer he uses his Army binoculars to better observe it. Are there any threats ahead? Then he recognize the horses and their saddles and immediately know they belong to members of the outlaw gang of the 'Sinful Eight'. There should be only 2 of them left now after the 'Dullstone Shootout':

He moves in a little closer, and slowly in the cover of some vegetation he opens his coffin and take out a Gatling gun:

Then he opened fire:

He shoots at the Outlaws' horses to cut off the Outlaws' retreat and escape possibilities. I don't let horses roll for a save when hit, and one off them drops dead:

The shooting alerts the outlaws in the building...

...and they rush to the window and door to return the fire:

As the Outlaws discover that they're taken under fire from a long distance, they understand that they'll need to get out of the house and get into more favorable firing positions if they'll manage to meet this threat. One of them gives covering fire...

...so the second one can run into cover and give flanking fire. Meanwhile the machine gunner has advanced further and is now in cover of a fallen tree. Both of the Outlaws are skilled shooters and scores hits on the mysterious machine gunner, but non of them are critical:

The mysterious Hero opens fire with his Gatling again, and take out one of the Outlaws with a 'headshot':

The last Outlaw fires another shot but misses. He's clearly outgunned by the massive fire from the Gatling gun. To continue to exchange fire will be useless and a 'deathtrap':

So the last Outlaw does the only reasonable thing he can; He makes a run for the last remaining horse to try to escape towards the Mexican border:

The mysterious machine gunner are more on the offensive now, and leaves his cover and moves towards the horse pen. He opens fire again...

...and takes out the last horse, and cut of the last Outlaw's retreat possibility:

The last Outlaw now understood that he could not escape this situation, and the only way was to take up the fight. He took cover behind the well and opened fire again. Unsuccessfully:

The machine gunner takes cover and returns fire...

...and successfully take out the last Outlaw with another 'headshot':

Our mysterious Hero silently wraps up his things and slowly continues ahead towards new 'adventures', leaving behind him a 'trail of death': 

Conclusion

Even if the Delta 6 rules clearly are made for more modern warfare in mind, I think amending them for a 19th century skirmish or a Old West shootout worked just fine. 

Even if the "1980's Hero" have more health and better close combat skills than 'regulars', he's still very vulnerable as it actually only takes a single unsaved 'headshot' to permanently take him out of action. Perhaps he should be allowed to roll 2 D6 for save rolls as well, keeping the best? - Or give him 'Johns' stats and let him 'Fade to Black'?

I had a good time and enjoyed the narrative and cinematic feeling of this game. Time will show when and where he appears next time, or if I actually get around to acquire a 54mm 'Rambo' figure...