Project Star Wars part 8: Speeders

Having gathered quite enough spaceships, I tunned my attention to land vehicles for my Star Wars project. Since wheeled or tracked vehicles are quite rare in the Star Wars universe the vehicles had to be land speeders. I looked around for official models but was put off by the cost. There are some beautiful examples of scratchbuilt land speeders on Leadadventureforum, but I didn't have the materials (and lack the skills). Rembering the more or less square angles on the speeders in Solo (the film) however, I decided to go for rectangular shaped speeders.

The speeders would all be based on leftover plinths from die cast models I use for my WW2 games.

When turned upside down and painted black it suggests hovering because of the shape. Polystyrene blocks would make up the body of the vehicle.  I then dove into my bits box and gathered useful bits.

There was enough to build 3 speeders: a truck, and two "technicals".

My first idea was to cover the polystyrene with bits and then seal the remaining surface so they could be spray painted. After some thinking I decided against this because of concerns that the spray paint would find an uncovered micro part of the speeder and eat away the polystyrene. I finally settled on covering the polystyrene with paper just like I did with my submarine.

Using images I found on the internet I stitched togethere some textures for the speeders and started building.

I'm afraid I forgot to take anymore WIP pictures so here are the finished speeders:

The truck

The truck contains plastic sprue bits, pen caps, mdf leftover bits from a futuristic bus stop kit, Mantic building bit (bumper), toothpaste cap and some other plastic bits.

The pick-up

The pick up contains pen caps, a wind shield made from a translucent bit from an old electrical appliance, bits from a sdkfz 250 kit, a GW sentinel driver with a Weequay head from Mel and Eldar arms and some other plastic bits.

The improvised tank

The improvised tank contains plastic sprue bits, a pen cap, Revell imperial patrol speeder bit (front armour), toothpaste caps, bottle cap, GW dwarven shield bit, Revell AT-TE gun bit, and some other plastic bits.
I magnatized the gun so it could be pointed towards its target in a game and for easy storage.

Project Star Wars Part 7: More flyers

 I bought some extra flyers for my Star Wars project:

• Darth Vader's TIE fighter (Revell 06780)
• X-Wing fighter (Revell 06779)
• Resistance A-Wing fighter (Revell 06759)

The TIE fighter and X-Wing box both state the scale as being 1:57. For the A-Wing the box states 1:44.

When I saw the pilot figures I got a bit worried:

A-Wing pilot, Legion scout, X-Wing pilot, Vader pilot

The supposedly 1:57 X-Wing pilot fits in Vader's 1:57 boot!!!

Fortunately after I built the kits (without Vader & the X-wing pilot) they all looked fine on the table with both Legion and Imperial Assault miniatures:

There are some very nice Revell kits with parts that fit perfectly and are easy to paint, but Vader's TIE fighter is not one of them. Paint keeps flaking off and I hard a hard time fitting the pieces together. (I put the kit together after painting because of the hard to reach areas on the inside of the wings and the clear plastic canopy bits). The X-Wing kit is better, but the protruding bits on the wings break off quite easily so it has to be handled with care.

The A-Wing is actually perfect for wargaming. It is pre-painted (I did paint the panel lines and put some wash on the engine and weapon parts) and quite sturdy (and cheap: 11 euros).

All American campaign: Probe along the road, 2nd attempt

The German attack in the first scenario of the All American campaign was repulsed by the US paratroopers (read the report here). So they had to try again. I decided to change my support options this time and went for 2 tanks with the idea of using the campaign rule that infantry using a tank as cover can move as one with the tank.

The patrol phase was not that different from the first game, except that my opponent now spread out his jump off points along his table edge:

I deployed a German tank and Obergerfreiter Kühn with his squad in overwatch, but my opponent deployed an entrenched squad of paratroopers led by sergeant Longabaugh to block the flanking move I attempted in the previous game.

Remembering that elite US paratroopers are very difficult to hit I decided to send as much high explosive their way as possible.

Which killed sergeant  Longabaugh! Not a good start for the Americans. Fortunately the US platoon leader Bob Dalton arrived quickly to take over and ordered the squad to fire on Obergefreiter Kühn's men.

Since I chose an adjudant as a support option, I could afford to send in the German platoon leader, Unterfeldwebel Wepper, to help keep the shock down.

It wasn't long before the Americans ambushed the German tank using a full Chain of Command dice.

The bazooka rounds missed however and the MG team of Obergefreiter Becker's squad wiped out the bazooka team. The rifle team started advancing together with the tank.

The American squad led by sergeant McNabb and the platoon mortar team now revealed themselves and destroyed the German MG team.

The second German tank now arrived and Chain of Command points had been building up to 2 full Chain of Command dice for the Germans.

And then, YES! a double 6 for the Germans. Time to start the mad dash to the board edge.

Obergefreiter Faber deployed on the other side of the hedge and started to run with his squad in the next phase.

They got a little further, using a full Chain of Command dice to interrupt the Americans, but then the concentrated American fire pinned them.

More US fire wounded Obergefreiter Faber, inflicted more shock and killed some of his men.

When the turn was ended with another full Chain of Command dice, the broken German squad routed, taking their wounded leader with them.

Although Gefreiter Schnecke managed to blow the second US bazooka team to bits with his immobilised panzer, Becker's squad behind the tank was taking casualties.

Until they too routed off table.

The Germans were now not only running out of options but also their force morale was dropping fast.

An attempt to get the panzershreck team to the other side behind the tank was also foiled by the paratroopers.

In a final attempt to reach the other side, Gefreiter Hammer backed up his panzer and Unterfeldwebel Wepper ordered Kühne and his squad to jump the hedge and advance behind the tank.

Meanwhile sergeant McNabb's paratrooper squad, joined by the platoon sergeant Wyatt Earp sneaked past Schnecke's panzer and made their way to the abandoned German jump off point, taking the German Force Morale down to 2!

It was all or nothing now for Wepper, Hammer, Kühne and their men!
With some lucky dice rolling they managed to crawl ever further towards the table edge, while being pounded by the American mortar and the entrenched squad commanded by Lieutenant Dalton.

The paratroopers got out of their entrenchment to be able to keep firing at the Germans. I decided to let the Germans make a break for it and rolled 3 dice....

Pretty good! Wepper and his men reached the table edge and secured a German victory.

This was an extremely exiting and tense game. The Germans won but only just. They now must win every one of the three remaining scenario's at the first attempt otherwise they will lose the campaign.
Due to the number of German casualties the men's opinion has dropped to -4 and in the next scenario (Holding the Line at Cauquigny) the paratroopers will be in stone buildings and even harder to hit...