A prequel 'Planet of the Apes' wargame - The Initial Confrontation

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Last summer saw the release of some ElastoWitt 54mm Planet of The Apes figures (I think) from the original movies. At the same time, I saw several reviews of these figures on other blogs and Facebook groups. I'm a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes series and I've been planning to do a 'fantasy' and 'sci-fi' gameplay, so a POTA-scenario would be ideal. -But as with all miniatures and soldiers; These Planet of the Apes figures are just impossible to get in Norway, and the shipping costs, rising prices in general and bad exchanges rate can't justify it.

While writing the blogpost on prehistoric warfare, I found information that chimpanzees not only went to "war" and fought other chimpanzees, but they were also found using very simple weapons such as simplified "spears" for hunting. Chimpanzees have also been reported to have attacked both humans and gorillas. Chimpanzees are very territorial, about 4 times as strong as a human of similar size, and they can reach speeds of 40 kph/25 mph.

This got me thinking if Planet of the Apes could not only be a good sci-fi story, but with some liberties and artistic licenses could it really have happened somewhere in 'The Darkest Africa' for example? At least for a fantasy wargame scenario?? Just "What-if"???

Records show that soldiers have been attacked by wild animals during conflicts in the past. One of the most famous attacks was from World War II when reports claim that hundreds of Japanese soldiers were attacked and eaten by crocodiles during the Battle of Ramree Island in 1945. Could such a thing have happened if soldiers encountered a group of enemy chimpanzees armed with spears in "Darkest Africa" ​​defending their territory ? It's probably not very likely, but it makes an interesting scenario for a skirmish wargame; one side with ranged weapons vs. the other side that doesn't, but that is faster and far more superior in close combat.

Creating an Ape Army

Since I wasn't going to buy the POTA figures from ElastoWitt, or from any other manufacturers either, I had to look elsewhere to build my 'budget ape army'. On Thingiverse I found some free Planet of the Apes files (#2 and #3) that I decided to resize, repositioning and print on my new (and upgraded) 3D printer, a FlashForge Adventurer 3. -It's still an FDM printer though (with all it's limitations creating miniatures...). Some step-by-step photos of creating the ape army can be seen in the 'March Workbench updates'.

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The human army is simply made up of regular army men I've painted and used in previous wargames.

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The Rules

For this little skirmish game I wanted to use Thor Sheil's OMOG - One Man, One Gun rules in combination with OMOK - One Man, One Knight rules. They are very 'similar' (just for different periods) so I use OMOG for the 'human army' due to their ranged weapons and OMOK for the ape army because of their pole arms.

To keep it simple, I used the quick reference sheets created by Steve Snark, which can be downloaded from the OMOG Facebook group's files section.

However, some house rules seemed necessary; Since Chimanzees are very fast, I let them move twice as fast as a "human move". They have brutal strength, a strong bite and deadlier teeth, so I think they will be far superior to humans in hand-to-hand combat, so they get an additional +1 in melee for their physical strength.

The Scenario

To keep this related to the Planet of the Apes, I have placed this scenario to the same period as the original POTA book La Plaète des singes was written by Pierre Boulle in 1963. Wild chimpanzees are only found in West and Central Africa. Fortunately, I already have miniatures covering that region and period. During the Congo Crisis, troops from the newly independent Republic of the Congo, the Armèe Nationale Congolaise (ANC), were sent into the South Kasai region to fight the rebels there due to a rebellion and insurgency there in the period of 1960-63.

Some time during this campaign, a lightly armed squad (among several) of 8 soldiers from the ANC was on a search and destroy patrol at outskirts of the jungle in a very remote area of ​​the South Kasai region in 1962 to look for Kasai rebels there. To be able to move quickly, they were lightly armed, only with rifles and a submachine gun. The squad fights as 2 fire teams with 4 members in each.

The ANC squad is totally unaware that they are moving into territory claimed by a group of 15 hostile chimpanzees armed with simple thrusting spears. Unlike the human army, they have no ranged weapons, but are superior in hand-to-hand combat. The 'ape army' is not 'organized' but fights as 3 groups of 5 each.

The Game

The ANC search and destroy patrol...

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...are totally unaware that they are about to enter territory claimed by a pack of hostile Chimpanzees and that they are being watched doing so.

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Suddenly groups of Chimpanzees armed with spears came rushing out of the bush, screaming, towards the ANC squad...

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...the soldiers are taken by surprise but some of them managed to open fire (before it became too late), and kill some of the raging Chimpanzees...

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-But the Chimpanzees didn't care if they lost some fellow members of their group, and just kept storming into the ANC squad and entered hand-to-hand combat... 

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...and clashed into a brutal fight...

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...even if some of the soldiers managed to kill a couple of Chimpanzees in this nasty close combat...

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...they just didn't have a chance against the Chimpanzees. The rearmost soldiers tried to retreat when the rest of their squad was wiped out...

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...but the raging Chimpanzees were faster and kept following the retreating soldiers...

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...until the last man standing were surrendered and killed.

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Even if they lost about half their members, this was a victory for the apes as they managed to take out all the intruders of their territory. 

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When the remains of 'the lost patrol' was later found by others, it was clear that the casualties had injuries matching both Chimpanzee-attacks and spear injuries. The apes was gone for now, and so was some of the rifles from the eliminated ANC squad..... (did the Apes take them?)

When these observations was later reported perhaps that inspired Pierre Boulle to write 'La Plaète des singes', the book which the later films of 'Plante of the Apes' was based upon...

Conclusion

This scenario took just about 10 turns and 20-30 minutes to play, so I actually had time to play it 3 times. In a fight between someone with firearms and those without but having better close combat weapons, it's clear that those with firearms are only effective if they manage to keep their opponent at a distance for a time. In such a scenario the side with ranged weapons does not have a lot of time to use them and their advantages, before being in close combat, where other weapons are more effective.

Some updates on Thor Sheil's OMOG and OMOK rules

At the time it looks like the late Thor Sheil's  salvaged army men website are 'down' again, and so are the links to his free wargaing rules. I'm not sure if his website will be online again this time, so I'd thought I'd share some links where you can still find several of his free wargaming rules:

• At the Facebook-group 'Wargaming with Toy Soldiers and Army men - Everything Free Wargame-rules' I've uploaded a lot of free online wargame rules in the file section, including some of the rules earlier found on Thor Sheil's website.
• The Facebook-group 'Shambattle and OMOG Toysoldiers Games' are created by Thor Sheil himself and dedicated to his games. In the groups filesection many of his wargame rules are uploaded. This is an open Facebook group with few members, so in courtesy feel free to sign up as a member when using the rules.

If Thor Sheil's website doesn't return, I must consider to update this blog's link sections and replace inactive links to his rules with my own downloads. Updated: Already done thru Waybackmachine with those few URLs which were saved there. Too bad not all of them were.

An April Workbench update - Bombs Away! (Mostly 3D-prints)

As I've been away for almost a month there hasn't been much time for wargaming, modelling or to generate so many new modelling-projects for April. Now I'm back again, so I'm slowly starting to get something on the workbench again by preparing new modelling-projects by firstly making parts for them on the 3D-printer.

A friend and a member of my MRC was inviting other friends and members for a running-session on his garden railway this Easter, and I wanted to give him something back and an item for an 'Easter egg hunt' in his own garden and within my rake. Not making the gift too obvious it needed to be camouflaged into something that could be loaded on my military garden trains. Some few more pieces were 3D-printed. 

Assembled on a bottle of beer it becomes more obvious what kind of load I'm turning the gift into. Bottles of beer are usually best served cold, and they have a shape that can vaguely resembles grenades. That's why I usually just call them "Kalde Granater", which would translate into something like "Cold Grenades", and is a Norwegian jargon for practicing grenades. Despite being an aerial bomb, considering the scale, this is pretty much literally a "Kald Granat" I think.

To make it look like a load which belongs in a military train it needed some further cover. I decided to use the same technique I used when Covering a model not looking so good by adding tarpaulin to it.

I used gladpack between the bottle and tissue-paper when adding the diluted pva glue, so the tarpaulin could easily be removed from the bottle again and uncover the real load. It lifts of easily as a lid and can be reused several times.

Mounted on flatcar I think this looks pretty acceptable. Keeping in mind that the railcar is 1:19 scale, this must be a really big aerial bomb. 

 

This is another 'project' I've recently printed currently working on, and shows the different stages from a 3D-printed model into an assembled and ready for paint:

Some models needs to be divided and printed in smaller parts due to my 3D-printer which limits the maximum building size to 15×15×15 cm

They needs to be removed from the raft (base) and be cleaned for supports. Then I dryfit the parts to see that they fits each other and adjust if necessary 

I use CA-glue to attach the parts together. When fully cured I use filler in the cracks and sand them...

...To a smooth finish. This model is printed to a 'standard' resolution and have visible print lines. If you want to remove them you can keep on sanding the model...

...or use car filler from a rattle can. This is how smooth it gets with 3 layers. You can sand between the layers, but I didn't do so, and like how it turned out.

Due to work anf 'every day life' this project is still ongoing, and will return in a future blogpost when ready.

Please follow for updates

Since Alan from  The Duchy of Tradgardland showed his 'workbench clutter', I was inspired to show some of mine and reveal a hint or two of what to expect in this blog in the future...

Moving from miniature tabletop wargaming...

... - to 1:1 scale wargaming. - At least for a short while. When you're reading this the large NATO exercise 'Nordic Response '24' has recently been held in the Northern parts of Norway, but due to I've registered that this blog has several visits from Russia I didn't want to post anything before it was all over. 

I am a reserve as a Military Police Senior NCO  in the Norwegian Combat Support Service Battalion, and still do Service with that unit every now and then. So now I'm back after about 3 weeks of service, so that has influenced on my time for modelling, wargaming and updates on this blog. I covered my absence with scheduled blogging posts, but my comments on fellow blogger's posts during the same period has only my name signed to it as I wasn't able to log in (and reveal positions to Google).

Nor CSS Bn is a unit which provide host nation support, service and logistics to USMC during their operations in Norway. 

I'm not going into details here, as this blog apparently also have readers in Russia, but I can give you some few general impressions.

In Norway civilian vehicles can be mobilised into military service. So this time my MP unit 'uniformed' 2 civilian cars into police patrol cars to try this out. The process looked like a giant kit-building with instructions to where to place the decals:

And soon we were ready for Service to support both Norwegian and American units:

And the vehicles performed very well under challenging conditions too:

Even if the accommodation is 'simple' members of the Nor CSS Bn are great to make it comfortable and give it a feeling of 'luxury':

The 'breakfast-buffet' is an important happening and social gathering

An improvised cinema was arranged in one of the tents. Off course a war-movie was chosen for the occasion

I'm very impressed by and proud to serve with so many good and skilled colleagues. They really makes the Nor CSS Bn perform beyond it's expectations. They're truly 'brothers in arms' (!)

By the way; The Northern parts of Norway is also a very good place to watch polar lights:

So now there will probably be some more time to do some table top wargaming and military modelling again. Follow this blog for updates to come.

Military trains in large scale hitting the news

I'm a subscriber to Norway's only model railway magazine called 'Mj-Bladet' (simply translated into 'The Model Railway Magazine'),  which have 4 editions a year.

When I receive a copy I usually sits down, relaxing with a cup of coffee and enjoys the issue.

When receiving the latest issue today, I was surprised to see this large photo of my large scale military trains, which I has covered in this blog, almost making it to the middle pages too.

This was a very nice surprise to see my work from this blog at print and published.

A LGB Toy Train wagon + salvages for the 'scrap box' = Another Heeresfeldbahn military load going to the front

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One of my other interests other than the military modelling, wargaming and railway modelling is riding my motorcycle. I'm not only riding it a lot just for commuting to work (60 km away), but for recreational rides as well. But motorcycles are a seasonal thing in Norway, as we have long, cold and snowy winters where running conditions are bad or non existent. So when I had to park my motorcycle for the winter in October, I said that when "when one mc-season ends, another one starts..." as I had a couple of indoor motorcycle modelling projects on my workbench for the winter:

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The plan was to make a Kettenkrad and a BMW motorcycle with sidecar on my 3D-printer as military loads for 2 flatcars I was going to use for my G-scale Heeresfeldbahn. The Kettenkrad-kit turned out just fine, but the motorcycle with the sidecar did not look good when upscaled and 3D-printed on my printer. Both of them was originally made to 28mm scale as wargame items, but only the Kettenkrad looked acceptable when scaled up to 1:19 scale. The sidecar-motorcycle didn't print well in my 3D-printer and looked so bad and crude that I finally replaced it with a 1:18 scale diecast BMW model I was able to get cheap instead. I was just going to throw away the parts for the 3D-printed one, but somehow I just kept them laying around on my workbench for a while as I could use them for paint tests etc.

The original motorcycle I 3D-printed, but decided not to use.
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I found this 1:18 scale ready made diecast model instead, which looked the part except for the postwar windscreen and seat. It would be easier to fix those rather than making the 3D-printed model presentable 
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About the same time I went on a trip with my MRC to a model railway exhibition in Germany, where I ended up buying another colorfull LGB flat-wagon, which I could use in my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake:

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This wagon was going to need a load to make it look more interesting. After seeing a video on YouTube on how to make tarpaulin loads, I was curious to try out the technique my self, and was happy that I didn't throw away the parts for the bad looking 3D-printed BMW motorcycle with sidecar.  It would work as a testpiece for the tarpaulin-technique, as it was ruined anyway. Now I could try to cover up the mistakes literally. 

Making a tarpaulin load

After assembling the motorcycle-model I didn't care to paint it. I just covered it with a sheet of regular tissue-paper (3 layers), and soaked it with diluted PVA-glue (close to 50:50 ratio) using a broad paintbrush to push it into crevices. I started on the highest part of the model, working downwards to the lower parts. I got a couple of rift and tears in the soaked paper, which I just patched up with small tissue- paper pieces and gave them the same treatment, and they blended in perfectly.

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I let the diluted PVA-glue dry until the next day. When I checked it the tissue-paper had turned into a hard shell, but still it felt kind a little fragile. As I was going to use it outside under different weather conditions, I wanted it to be much sturdier so it wouldn't dissolve in rain or snow. To make it harder and sturdier, I gave i 3 coats of ModPodge, which I have good experience from using it as a sealer for wargaming miniatures.

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Even if ModPodge include som kind of Vinyl, I wanted it to be sturdier against soaking, so I gave it a couple of layers of varnish as well. By now it didn't feel so fragile anymore. 

Next it could be painted:

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A wash and some drybrushing really brings out the 'details':

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-And finally placed on the (repainted) flatcar. The flatcar was simply painted 'Panzer Grey' with a rattlecan, and drybushed withe some brown acrylics.

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That motorcycle looks much better now hidden  under a tarpaulin. Throw away nothing, your scrap can be hidden under tarpaulin and be uses as loads or terrain-pieces in wargaming.

This was a fun and quick build and made me feel confident to make more such tarpaulin loads in the future. Just by following the instructions from the YouTube video, this technique worked the first time. Have a try for your self. 

Did I mention that I like motorcycles?

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My LGB Heeresfeldbahn rake so far:

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A March Workbench update - Creating an Ape Army

Ready for some action!
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Due to finnising a somewhat longterm conversion of LGB rollingstock into my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake and making a small army for a 'casual wargame in the garden', some other modelling-projects fell behind. One of those projects were the apes I briefly presented in my January Workbench update. 

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They were made up and sliced together by elements from a 'kit file' found on Thingiverse. When put together in desired positions, I found out that they were not so easy to 3D-print, and needed some tweaking and adjustments to suit my needs.

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The bases I'm basing them on did I also find for free on Thingiverse. They were originally made as 'Bolt Action' bases, but I just resized them to fit the Apes.

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After basing them, they were ready for some priming. I just used inexpensive mat black from a rattle can from the car shop.

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Just primed they looked almost ready for the gaming table already as they don't require an elaborate paint job.

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Not a very complicated 'scheme' on these miniatures; How they look after they got a basic coat of paint:

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Washing them with a brownish wash, drybrushing them and texturing the bases really brings out their details.

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My intention was to 3D-print some spears for them from a 28mm 'weapon-pack' on Thingiverse, but I suppose primates like these would only have very simple spears just made of wood. In the grocery store I found such spears made of the real thing and just about the right scale. Since you just can't buy a few 'coctail sticks' I've got enough to arm a battalion. The spears was given a coat of 'brown wash'.

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Bringing it all toghether. I don't think these look too bad considered they are 3D-printed on a FDM printer on not a 'resin printer'.

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Another unfinished project from the 'January workbench' is the 'piece of crumbled paper'. Now I finally got around to paint it, so now it's somewhat more obvious what it is and what it's hiding:

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Please hit the 'follow button' and subscribe to this blog to see updates on how I'm going  to use this month's workbench projects in coming blogposts of wargames and railway modelling.