15mm Plastic Cold War Kit

 

I got one of these Team Yankee starter sets for thirty quid on eBay last week, not for the rules but for the plastic AFV's that you get in the box, the plan being to use them for Seven Days to the River Rhine. I ummed and arred about the scale for this but, as a lot of the Team Yankee stuff is now relatively cheap if you hunt about a bit, it makes sense to go for the 15mm option I think. The alternative is 10mm, which would be great if it wasn't so expensive for what you get, although it would be my first choice. I may well look around for another starter box set, as it would give me enough kit for two decent sized battle groups minus the infantry, for which I already have some Peter Pig figures that I could use.

Cold War Plan Postponed

They look a lot better in the photos! 

I got the 10mm Plastic Soldier Company British in the post today and first impressions aren't great. The proportions of the models and the scaling looks right but the plastic resin stuff they're cast in is pretty nasty, with mushy detail and bendy or snapped off barrels. These were second hand but supposedly new, so it's not a great result, although they are still useable with a little remedial effort. It's put me off 10mm, however, as I was relying on this range to form the bulk of my battlegroup, mainly due to the price tag. I've decided that 6mm is probably the best way forward now, using Scotia or Heroics and Ros 1/300th scale kit, which is still cheap enough to be cost effective without being too small. However, this will have to wait until later in the year, as I have other projects to clear first including Bag the Hun and Strength and Honour, both of which are on the workbench in the next month or two.

PSC 10mm Modern British

As a bit of a dip of a toe in the water, I've managed to get hold of a Plastic Soldier Company 10mm British starter army via eBay for a lot less than the full price. I've heard some good things and some not so good things about these models and figures but at least it will give me an idea about whether I like them or not and, if I do, I will have a solid set of units for a Seven Days to the Rhine battlegroup, to which I can add more units as I go along. The set consists of four Chieftains, four FV432's with 36 infantry and two Scorpions / Scimitars, so not a bad force and worth around 400 points. If I don't like them, I can always switch to another range or go back and look again at 3mm or 6mm instead. 

Cold War Options

I've been mulling over the options for the Seven Days to the River Rhine potential project over the last week or so but still haven't been able to make up my mind about the scale. I did remember that I backed a Kickstarter several years ago now for 15mm Soviet and British figures in arctic kit, which was launched by the now defunct Armies Army. I don't think they available any more and I'm also not entirely sure where they actually are in the lead pile but it's a possible option for some Norwegian scenarios. I quite fancy the idea of some Norwegian 'What If?' Cold War wargaming, which would be a change from the usual North German Plain tank clash. 

Jim's Wargames Workbench: Armies Army Cold War Kickstarter (jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com)

I also have some very nice 10mm Royal Marines from Pendraken, which I bought for Norway as well but stashed them away as no suitable 10mm Soviet figures were available. I have subsequently discovered that Red 3 make a range of Spetnatz that would double up as VDV airborne troops or Soviet marine infantry, with a white paint job to give them arctic camouflage suits, so that's yet another possible option. The Red 3 airportable and amphibious AFV's are also really nice and I'm sure I could justify some armour too, perhaps a platoon of ASU85's or PT76 light tanks. I just need to make up my mind about which scale to go for, once I've excavated the figures to have a closer look.

Seven Days to the River Rhine

I persuaded myself to buy a copy of these popular, fast play Cold War rules last week, having joined the FB group and enjoyed reading some AAR's, despite my best intentions to scale back on my wargaming. The rules are very well presented and clear, with lots of illustrations and examples to help explain the mechanisms. I think they look pretty good and, as I used to dabble in 1/300th scale moderns back in the day with the WRG rules, I will probably go ahead and get some 6mm AFV's from Scotia or Heroics and Ros. 

I'd like to go 10mm but the cost is way more than the 6mm option, so it will have to be the smaller scale for this if I do bite the bullet and go ahead with it. I also thought about 3mm, as that would be really cheap and I could afford two decent sized battlegroups for the price of one, but that's probably a bit too small for what's essentially a company level set of rules. Whatever, I'm trying to stick to my plans for the year, so something else would have to be shoved aside if I did blow it all and start a Seven Days the River Rhine project.