Thursday, 26 May 2022

PARTIZAN 2022 - Soviet Assault at Rendsburg 1985 (Part Four)

After a pretty quick table set up at Newark Showground on Saturday afternoon with the help of fellow Cold War Commanders Andy T and Ian S we retired to the hotel to meet up with the Pendraken team and a few other traders for a very pleasant meal washed down with some real ale! 

Early breakfast on Sunday and then off to the the venue to meet up with the other Cold War Commanders, Stephen G, Mark J and Richard C to put the final touches to the table and start deploying the troops.

As expected we didn't get many turns completed as most of the day was spent discussing the new rules, the terrain, the miniatures and many other aspects of the hobby.





















The Cold War Commanders (l to r)
Leon P (Pendraken), Ian S (British), Andy T (West German), Mark J (East German), Richard C (De Groots Fire Brigade NATO), Richard P (Mark Fry's Terrain Guy!) and Stephen G (Soviet VDV)



Thanks to everyone who came along and said hello. Some great comments on the table we are looking forward to Joy of Six where we will be putting on an extended version of this table. Hopefully we will see you there. My new venture 'The Unit Wargaming Centre' situated in Stone, Staffordshire is nearly up and running and there will be more updates on that soon.

As always thanks for looking and take care!


Wednesday, 4 May 2022

CWC II Update

 


The 2nd Edition of Cold War Commander is nearly with us. Pendraken will be officially releasing the new rules on Sunday 22nd May at Partizan. 

PARTIZAN 2022 - Soviet Assault at Rendsburg 1985 (Part Three)

A quick update on the table for the CWC II game at Partizan later this month. Still got the canal to paint and a few more roads to finish off. Plus I have a bit more detail work to do on the bridge but we are nearly there.








Also decided to have a go at representing a road tunnel going under the canal. I think it should work. Just a couple of WIP shots so far.




As always thanks for looking and stay safe!

Friday, 29 April 2022

PARTIZAN 2022 - Soviet Assault at Rendsburg 1985 (Part Two)

As promised in Part One here is the information on the parts and suppliers used to construct the 6mm representation of part of the Rendsburg Loop as it crosses the Kiel Canal.



Railway Track

The railway track comes from Wonderful Walt at Commission Figurines http://www.commission-figurines.co.uk 

Fencing

The railside fencing again comes from Commission Figurines (see link above) and are from his 6mm Rail Fence Pack (Code: 6Fence). The sections are 100mm long which work great with the 300mm railway sections. 

Bridges

I got the bridges a few years ago from the fantastic Ali at Iliada Game Studio based in Turkey http://iliadagamestudio.com I'm not sure if he still makes them as I couldn't find them on his website the last time I looked but it might be worth contacting him if you are looking at getting some.

UPDATE (29/04):- Just spoken to Ali and he is still making them and they are on special offer at the moment.

Bridge Supports

These were designed by me and Leon at Pendraken very kindly got his Laser Team to turn them round in double quick time so they could be collected at Hammerhead. 

As well as the bits mentioned above the track beds were cut from Plasticard and the bases are 2mm MDF with a few 2p coins attached to give the pieces a bit of weight. I'll go into a bit more detail on the finishing of the pieces in the next part where I will also be working on a simple conversion to a Baggage Train road bridge to add a bit more detail.

If you are interested where the train came from, I got them off eBay about 10 years ago. They are originally from a Japanese equivalent to a Kinder Egg I believe. I got them from a chap in the UK for no more than £2.00 each but last time I checked the UK supplier was no longer trading and there were a couple available Internationally but they were over £30 each!!!

As always thanks for looking and if your are interested in coming along and playing on some of this terrain in the future please keep your eye out for details about weekend events coming up later in the year. In the mean time stay safe and enjoy the hobby.

Wednesday, 27 April 2022

PARTIZAN 2022 - Soviet Assault at Rendsburg 1985 (Part One)

You may have seen that the Cold War Commanders have been invited by Pendraken to put on a Display/Participation game at the Partizan Wargames Show on Sunday 22nd May 2022 at the Newark Showground to celebrate the release of the CWCII ruleset. We will be located on Table PG16 right opposite the Pendraken trade stand. If you are planning on attending the show please come and say hello and maybe roll a few dice.


The game will see Soviet and East German ground forces supported by Soviet VDV attempt to secure the bridges and gain a foothold on the northern bank of the Kiel Canal around Rendsburg. British and West German troops will attempt to hold them long enough to allow reinforcements to arrive. 

Preparations are well underway and I will start to post progress on the table during the run up to the show. The table will include one of the largest terrain pieces I've made, a 6 foot long railway bridge to represent the Rendsburg Loop crossing the Kiel Canal. I will go into more detail on the construction of the bridge and where all the bits come from, but for now here are just a few WIP pictures.










As always thanks for looking and if you are interested in coming along to one of our events please get in touch by email coldwarcommanders93@gmail.com. 


Friday, 1 April 2022

TERRAIN - Pylons

One thing that immediately says Modern on a wargames table are Pylons. So finally I have added some to the Cold War Commanders terrain collection ready for this years games. They are from Butler Printed Models. These will no doubt make an appearance at Partizan in May and the Grimsby weekend in October.



GRIMSBY 2022 - Return to Venlo 1985

I am delighted to announce that the dates have been set for one of this years Cold War Commanders event to be held at the home of the Grimsby Wargames Society over the weekend of Friday 7th October - Sunday 9th October. I say one of this years, as I will be getting the keys to the new unit this weekend and we will be arranging some Cold War Commander events in the new venue based in Stone, Staffordshire. More details on those to follow once I have organised the unit and got the tables built.

2012 Dungworth

As it is the 10th Anniversary (actually 11 years but we missed one due to the recent pandemic) we are returning to the theme of our very first event held in Dungworth, near Sheffield way back in April 2012 and basing the game on events around the Venlo area and the Krefeld Salient as detailed in Hackett. I am delighted to say that at the same time as our Grimsby events our CWC friends 'down under' will also be holding a weekend event on a similar theme. This is something we have tried to do in the past and I will post more details as things progress.

All places are now filled for this years Grimsby event but if you are interested in coming to any of the other events in Stone or further events in Grimsby please get in touch or visit our Cold War Commanders page on Facebook.