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 The last KP-cars were withdrawn from Swedish service in 2004.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.

New Army Men to the Collection?

This Blogpost could just have been another shelfie, but I saw these Army Men for sale in a Norwegian Online Store, Teknik Magasinet, and it was a little too difficult to get an impression of them just by looking at the few photos posted in the webshop. Besides they they looked like some I've reviewed before and later painted to represent 2 different armies, which was so good looking Matchbox Knock-Offs that I decided to buy another box or bag to have a look and perhaps expand my existing armies. Besides they only costed kr 86,- or approx £ 6,43 or $ 8,52 or € 7,46 for 48 pieces. Those I bought back in 2019 was only 32 pieces.

The box it self looked almost identically like those I bought back in 2019 at the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, with the same name, text and photos. -Therefore I expected the content to be identical as well.

So, were these identical except for the number of soldiers and the price?
The first thing I noticed when I opened my new box of Army Troopers was that they have the same poses as their Matchbox American WW2 Infantry originals.

There were 12 different poses:

-But only 1 each of these, which I didn't mind as they're not my favorite poses for wargaming anyway:

The second thin I noticed was that these knock-offs looked notably smaller than the originals and the knock-offs I reviewed in 2019. These are closer to 45mm in height and somewhat between O scale (1:43,5) and 1/35 scale :

Second I noticed was that the quality of these new Army Troopers was very poor in comparison with the larger ones from 2019, which was really good looking knock-offs with crisp moldings. The new ones was semi flat and had really poor reproductions of the weapons, and the details were more indistinct and had softer edges:

The representation of the original M2 Browning 0.50 Cal. was very poor and incomplete. It barely resembles a (cut down) 0.30 Cal. 1919 Browning Machine Gun:

So these figures are not great or very accurate miniature reproductions of the the originals and they are not true to their Matchbox origins. Are they suitable as toys for kids? -Probably not as their bases are very small and wobbly and will tipping them over very easily. I'm not sure what to use these figures for as using them for expansion of my armies of similar soldiers are out of the question as they're both smaller and has poorer quality than the Army Men I usually use for wargaming. I do have some other 40mm-ish Army Men from earlier, and I might use these as an opposing force for the 40mm Germans perhaps (?).

These Army Men are distributed by Tobar, and should be available in a lot of different countries, but be aware when seeing these at first sight similar looking boxes as the content in them are very different regarding quality and sizes. If you're into 54mm miniatures you should look for the boxes with 32 pieces, as the 48 pieces labeled box contains about the same amount of plastic just not shaped so well. 

The included bag was identical thought...

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...

Army Men in unlikely places

I know fellow blogger Mark at Man of Tin blog Two often posts updates on his blog when he finds army men or toy soldiers appearing in tv-series or movies. By coincidence I recently found some Army Men in a very unlikely tv-series. I'm actually not very interested in football, but when Norway was going to meet England in The World Championship in football I just had to watch the match. When approaching our tv, I noticed that the present channel was 'nickelodeon junior' showing Barbapa. -with Army Men (!). This was a very unlikely setting so I made some quick screenshots before zapping to The World Championship.

The Barbapapas were playing with traditionally toys together, including some Army Men. 

This was as far as I could catch not a very favorable episode for 'Army Men' as the Barbapapa who played the little soldiers eventually used them to dominate the others play...

...until another of the Barbapapa children brought robots and dinosaurs to finally take them out. - and invented a wargame (?). I've considered Barbapapa for being 'politically correct' tv for children, so I found this setting was somewhat a little surprising. Perhaps that's why they looked so less offensive only being armed with binoculars, radios or flags. Some of the poses looked familiar:

Inspired by a Matchbox American WW2 Infantry? 

Inspired by Airfix Russian WW2 Infantry? 

And the match? That was an exiting and very close one. Congratulations 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 !!