Cold War Commanders

With the first of this years Cold War Commanders Weekend Events planned for the last weekend in May I have made a start on some of the new terrain pieces I have planned. As the first weekends theme is Arctic Strike - Norway 1985 I decided to have a go at the iconic Arctic Cathedral in Tromso.

So armed with a couple of boxes i'd saved (Corn Flakes and Bakers Complete) I set to work. Now I was never planning on buildings an accurate scale model, for one thing that probably would have resulted in the model being too big for the tabletop. I did struggle initially with the height of the Cathedral as there are numerous different heights stated on the internet so as the model had to fit on a 125mm x 100mm base I decided to go with what looked right for 6mm (1/300th) games. 

Construction was fairly easy using the box card to build up the different layers to the roof over a initial full length main building. The sections were then added one by one on top of the central core with smaller sections added to create the effect of the roof.

Overall I'm very happy with the completed model and will be adding some additional surrounding sections to allow the model to fit nicely with my existing terrain.

As always thanks for looking. Part Two will follow shortly once I have completed the additional sections that will eventually surround this model.

Dan Hodgson from Reveille Studios was recently selling a few painted 6mm bits from his collection on Facebook and after a quick peruse through his wares I spotted this excellent church from the Total Battle Miniatures Black Powder European range. After a quick message to Dan and it was on its way. 

When its arrived it was based on a 80mm x 60mm MDF base which Dan had done all the ground work so I didn't want to remove it from its original base so I remembered reading a great little article over on Richard C's "The Land of Counterpane" blog where he details a great method of adding extra sections to smaller bases to achieve the required size. Link - City Planning 

So I decided to make a separate section to make the base 100mm x 100mm the same as our standard Terrain bases in our CWC games. 

Decided to add a bit of colour by adding some red scatter

In the previous post I showed the WIP Hawk battery that will be used in our CWC Weekend game in October. I mentioned that I planned to use the base for a similar Soviet battery that could be used in future games.

OK activity has been very slow on this blog for various reasons, real life, health problems plus the inability to access this blog for a while due to problems with Microsoft Bing not allowing access to Google Chrome stuff. I've finally sorted it out so over the coming months I'll be posting information and progress on preparations for our annual CWC Weekend get together later in the year.

This years event takes place over the weekend of 18/19 October at The Unit in Stone, Staffordshire and will involve between 12 and 16 players battling it out for control of the Jutland Peninsula in the mid 1980's. Forces include Danish and West Germans reinforced by UK and USMC vs Soviet and East German Divisions reinforced by Naval and VDV troops.

Over the years we have built up a considerable collection of forces and terrain but each year I try and add to the terrain collection. This year there will be a few bits of new stuff on the workbench. First up is a Hawk Missile battery that will be more of an objective rather than a weapon system (but you never know 😉). 

On Friday 5th April I headed over the Peak District to the wonderfully picturesque village of Dungworth situated near Sheffield for Crisis Point 2024 a wargames weekend organised by my good friend and fellow Cold War Commander Richard C. The original plan was for three games but unfortunately after a couple of people had to drop out due to family commitments and ill health we were down to two games, an 8 player TacWW2 game and a 4 player Cold War Commander game. The TacWW2 game was to be run by Richard C himself and the CWC game was to be run by Andy T and Neil M. Both games would be set during the fictional Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the Summer of 1948. Our timeline presumes that the coup earlier in 1948 was unsuccessful and Russian forces had crossed the border and were heading for Prague. 

I met Richard C at the Plough and after a rather nice cottage pie and a pint of Farmers it was off to Dungworth Village Hall to begin setting up for Saturday morning. This was the first year we had used the Village Hall as the venue as all previous events had been held at the local school but the hall is a bit big and we don't get access to the kitchen whereas at the Village Hall we have access to all the amenities. 

Between the two of us we managed to get the TacWW2 game tables all set up ready for deployment Saturday morning. The CWC table was to be set up by Andy T and Neil M on Saturday morning. 

From what I find the VDV 118th Engineering Regiment was issued with a DPP-40. There are also mentions of the 1377th Separate Pontoon Bridging Battalion being issued with a DPP-40.

The main difference between the DPP-40 and other pontoon parks consisted of the fact it could be transported by AN-12, AN-22, and Il-76 transports, and could be either landed or air-dropped. Each AN-12 could carry two pontoon trucks laden with pontoon links.

The main element of the park is the pontoon link, consisting of the middle pontoon and two unfolding side pontoons. The middle pontoon consists of a hermetically-sealed metallic box, and the other two are divided lengthwize into two parts. The internal half is hermetically sealed, and the external one is a container for an inflatable floating device.  Two pontoon links linked together form a bridge ferry. On the junction of the links a "Vikhr" [Whirlwind] outboard motor is attached. These power the bridge ferry. The kit comes with 16 of these motors, one for every bridge-ferry [2 links]. The folded link fits in a specially-prepared GAZ-66. The link is normally deployed by being dropped into the water unfolded. For this purpose the vehicle approaches the water in reverse, uses its winch to unfold the side pontoons and a dedicated air pump to fill the floaters. After the floaters are filled with air, the link takes up the shape shown in the image. The GAZ-66 retreats until the water covers the hub of the rear wheel - i.e. the depth at the drop location is about 0.5 meters. The crew fixes the side pontoons in place and lets the link fall into the water. If there is not the space to unfold the pontoon, it can be thrown in without the floaters inflated, and the floaters can be inflated on the water using a long hose from the automobile.

Every bridge-ferry is manned by two pontooners and two drivers. After the GAZ-66 is no longer needed, the drivers take their trucks into shelter, and further work is done by the pontooners.

When building a bridge, the ferries can be linked into a single ribbon, which is unfolded using the outboard motors, finally linking the shores. The bridge's usable part is 4.2 metres wide - standard for military bridges on hard bases. Tracked vehicles can move on the bridge at 10-12 kph, 20 metres apart. Wheeled vehicles can move 20 kph on the bridge. No vehicle may depart by more than 45cm from the bridge axis, which is especially important for heavy vehicles. The kit can also be made into 8 40-ton or 16 20-ton ferries, which use the "Vikhr" outboard motors to move. 

When a DPP-40 is transported, an AN-12 is filled with two pontoon links and their GAZ-66 trucks. Transporting the full kit requires 17 aircraft journeys. When paradropping, each GAZ-66 and its link are placed on a PP-128-5000 air-dropping platform, and then loaded onto the aircraft. The crew airdrop separately.

The kit consisted of 32 GAZ-66 trucks and their links, 1 auxiliary GAZ-66 with extra gear, and 16 outboard motors. A pontooner company of 80-90 men is required to operate the kit.

The dust has settled after the fantastic Partizan 2022. There was a really buzz in the hall and around the Cold War Commanders table.  While we were at Partizan the topic of conversation turned to what has to be our favourite show of the year, the Joy of Six show up in Sheffield. The Cold War Commanders will be there with an extended version of the table that was seen at Partizan. 

So it was back to the workbench to start work on few terrain pieces to add to the table as well as the terrain collection for 'The Unit Wargaming Centre'. First up a double track railway line. This will come in useful for some of the games we have planned later in the year at both 'The Unit' and at GWS (Grimsby Wargames Society).

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.