15mm Congo Crisis Project

In the comments of a previous blog entry, I was asked what I would use for my 15mm 1960s Congo Crisis Project.  So I am making this entry about that since it is rather lengthy.  I am not going over the vehicles that I will be using, as I need to make up a complete list of vehicles need, but I know most of the vehicles are now available in 15mm with the exception of the Ford Armored Car and various civilian vehicles.

First off, for basing, I plan to use the Flames of War size bases, but with squared corners instead of the FoW rounded ones.  I will be using the dice frames from Minibits in one corner and a placing a tag along the back for the base’s ID on the medium size bases, so the rounded corners will not work.  This way I can use them for a FoW type game system (not my 1^st choice, but a very popular system), or with TooFatLardies’ B’Maso (my 1^st choice.)  The dice frame is for keeping track of kills to the base for effectiveness. 

Simba rebels: 

I am mainly using the Peter Pig’s (PP) AK47 Republic line’s Militia with bolt action rifles, command, and weapon crews.  As I mostly have the old out-of-print version of the Militia (all bare chested and almost no military kit), I prefer them versus the new versions for some of the figures.  In 15mm, I am not worried about the proper rifles as long as they look close.  I think I have some of the newer Militia with bolt action rifles that will mix in with the old.  It is a shame that PP doesn’t have more versions of the Militia with bolt action rifles as they do with the AK47’s.  Some of the old command and crew figures will be converted to be the palm leaf waving witchdoctors to change the enemy’s bullets to water.  I have not decided how to have a mix of ex-ANC rebels with in the forces yet, but either will do some head swaps with PP’s separate head with British WWI BEF caps or WW2 US helmets.  I plant to use the PP Military Dictator figure to be leader of the Simbas, but will modify the cap to have the monkey scalp on him to protect him from air attacks.  Also have the old out-of-print PP machete armed mob from the Pirate line.  These were all shirtless too and fit in better than the current version. 

Basically, I plan to have the number of figures required for the TooFatLardies’ B’Maso’s Congo scenario, with the infantry being mounted 5 figures to a medium FoW base.  That will be 24 stands, plus some leader stands, and a few weapons stands (mortar, cannon, and a MG).  I might add a few more stands, but not much more if I do as pitch battles rarely occurred, so this should be plenty.

Civilians (Hostages):

I plan to use the PP’s AK47’s civilians and mix in some other figures, probably some of the modern civilians from various manufacturer’s zombie lines, unarmed of course.  I plan to only have about a dozen stands with 3 to 5 figures a stand.  Again, I will be basing the number I need off of the B’Maso scenario.

Congolese Army (ANC):

I am torn using PP’s AK47 Regulars with the G3 rifles and swapping heads for US WW2 helmets.  Basically the would look right, but I am thinking the G3 rifles might need to be altered too.  I plan to only have two full platoons of ANC troops.  I can mix these with the Katanga troops to increase their size if needed. 

Katanga Army & white mercenaries:

I plan to use a mix of PP’s AK47 Regulars with the G3 rifles, their Professionals with the FN FAL, and maybe some WW2 British XIV Army, with head swaps with berets, US WW2 helmets, and jungle hats.  I will do at least one Bazooka team, probably with PP WW2 Marines.  In the autobiography, Mad Dog Killers, by Ivan Smith, there is engagement where the mercs had scramble around to find a Bazooka to knock out a Simba improved armored vehicle.  I plan to have a platoon of white mercs and platoon of Katanga troops.  This will be the most mobile force in the project with jeeps, trucks, and armored cars.

Belgian Para-Commandos:

Either WW2 British paratroopers or PP AK47 Professionals with head swaps will be the bases for this force.  I plan to have only two platoons.

UN Forces (ONU):

This force is going to be a mixed representation of the ONU in the 1960s.  My main focus will be on the Irish with two platoons.  Each of the other nations will only be one platoon (Ethiopia, Indian, and Sweden).  The main reason for the Irish to get the “star” role for the ONU is to replay Jadotville and the Battle of the Tunnel, 1961.  The Swedes are represented because they were fairly mobile columns for convoy games.  While both the Indians and the Ethiopians get represented because they were in some of the biggest military operations during the crisis and they both were general targeted by the Katanga and their white mercenaries to be attacked over the Irish and Swedish troops.  It also helps that the Ethiopians were attached to the Indian Brigade, so I call easily combined both of them in a game to increase the ONU to two platoons for a game. 

The Irish will be WW2 British with various head swaps, a mix of WW1 BEF caps and US WW2 helmets.  As I am focusing on the early years of the crisis, they were still equipped with the Enfield rifle and not the FN FAL.  For the Swedes, I am going to use PP’s Regulars with the G3 rifles with head swaps for US WW2 helmets or berets.  For the Indians, I plan to use the PP’s WW2 Indian troops for the Desert and some figures form the XIV army set.  Finally, for the Ethiopians, I plan to use the PP’s WW2 Desert Rats with head swaps for US WW2 helmets as all of the pictures of them have them in shorts from what I can find.   

Other factions:

For the Simbas, I am adding a Cuban advisor of the old devil himself, Che!  It has been a while since I read parts of his diary about his time advising the Simba rebels, so I don’t know what he was armed with.  But I have an old out-of-print PP SCW pack of Thompson gunners.  One of the figures has one hand raised over his head and a beret.  I green putty a beard on him and painted him up to be Che to support the Simbas, even though he didn’t think much of them during his time with them. 

Next, I plan to have a US Army Special Forces team (squad or two) for possible random event for the “rescue the hostages” game.  The US was very tempted to deploy a small force of SF troops near Stanleyville to rescue the US consult staff, but in the end they didn’t.  There were however, SF forces in the Congo during the 1960s, but I have not had much information on their nature of operations during their stay.  There is a book out there called, Slaver’s Wheel, by Sully de Fontaine & Jack Lawson, who was one of those SF men (de Fontaine) in the Congo during the Crisis.  It is on my list to read.

Finally, another figure has no head walking and firing his Thompson from the hip, (IIRC, I got to dig him back up).  I plan to add a PP skull to the base.  But I will have to add some green putty for glasses and a cigarette for it too.  It will get bonus attacks versus Swedish ONU and Simbas…and of course Van Owen.  (How could I not have this figure for a Congo game!)

Shapeways goodies! And I need to pick a new book to read!

So, I got my Shapeways' 15mm m/42 armored personal carriers for the Swedish UN troops for the 1960s Congo Crisis project.  Very nice little models, even though they are very expensive little buggers.  I love the hand rails around the vehicle too!  But I can see them being broken with slightly rough handling.  I guess I am going to have to act like a nun with a wooden ruler if I see any gamers getting a rowdy around them.  

Below are some pictures of the model prior to painting.  The pictures were done before the bath to clean the wax residue off that the Frost Ultra Detail material comes in.  From what I read on different forums/websites for the cleaning, I am going to do a soapy water bath first, followed by a mixed water and Goo Gone (US), then a soapy water bath again, then a mixed water and Simple Green (US) bath, and followed again with a soapy water bath and a final clean water bath.  I just did them and I am waiting for them to dry out and see if the wax is gone.

Also in most of the pictures is a base of 15mm Peter Pig's modern African militia with bolt action rifles (the old out-of-print version) from their AK47 line.  The figures are mounted on a Litko's Flames of War (FoW) medium size base (2”/ 50mm wide by 1¼”/ 32mm deep) for size relations.  The figures were painted by Fernando Enterprises painting services as part of my original order to see how their services were before committing big time.  They were painted in the Showcase quality.  I didn't have them do basing or flocking as I was still debating on if I was going to mounted them individually or in groups.  I will be basing them in groups on FoW size bases, but not with the rounded edges as I will be putting a Minibit's die frame on one corner and identification tag along the back edge.

So the next thing is what books am I going to read next?  Right now I am at a crux in deciding what I what to read next as I just have too much choices and I want to read too stuff.  Whatever I decided to read next, the following book will be on the same topic as I tend to like reading two or three books on the same topic in a row.  So you can help by chiming in on a vote for which topic would be the best for me to start next.  I plan to finally pic something by next Saturday.  Below are the topics in no specific order:

1) Congo Crisis of 1960s (for obvious reasons)
2) Russian Civil War (going back to it and staying topical with the audio book that I am listening to)
3) US Banana Wars of the first half of the 1900's (my next 28mm project that I want to start on next year)
4) The Mexican Revolution and Pershing's Expedition (it ties into the 28mm Banana Wars project)
5) US Interwar Crime (I can't get enough of reading about the crime waves of the 1920s and 1930s)
6) Forgotten military actions from the US history (Specifically on the King Philip's War and the US Navy's Anti-Slavery Squadron off of Africa pre-American Civil War)
7) Explorers and Expeditions (Roy Chapman Andrews and Ann Axtell Morris most likely, possibly H.M. Stanley or various Polar expeditions) 

Cheers,

Joe

Can you hear the Congo drums?

NUTS!!!  I am going to be spending some money this weekend...

I just saw this on Shapeways.  It is a 15mm Swedish KP-bil m/42 armored personnel carrier and I have been wanting a model of one for many, many years.  They were used by the UN forces during the 1960's Congo crisis.  I have always had a fascination with this conflict, probably because I watched "The Dark of the Sun" one too many times a kid.  So it looks like I need to start up my 15mm Congo War project again!   I think I am going to have to listen to "Mad" Mike Hoare self-narrate his audio-books again too!

be seeing you

Sapper

Audiobook "The Road To Kalamata: A Congo Mercenary's Personal Memoir" read by "Mad" Mike Hoare

This is a quick update about my current audiobook that I am listening to today.  I had to do a lot of driving for work today, so I finally started to listening to one of "Mad" Mike Hoare's books that is available on audio.  They are also read by the man himself too!  

So I started with The Road To Kalamata: A Congo Mercenary's Personal Memoir, which is the shortest of the books, plus it is about his 4 Commando, so chronologically comes before his other books even thought it was written much later.  I really am enjoying it!  I have about an hour left and plan to listen to the rest of it before I go bed tonight.  I am not sure when it was recorded, but Hoare sounds great.  Considering the book was published in 1989, that means that he was 70 or older when he did the audio for it.

Anyways, it got some great stories (and some sad ones) that can make some interesting scenarios for games in the 1960's Congo, or even modern African games.  I don't want to give away too much as I might be tempted to get back to doing B'Maso and want to save some things for unsuspecting players.  But besides that, there is something unnerving to hear Hoare say, "Come to Daddy!" Just not something I would expect to come from someone like him.

Sapper

Patrol Markers for Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command and other news

I think I finally figured out how to use the Google Drive to make PDF’s and other documents available on my blog for others, without out making all of my files accessible (Sorry folks, there are just some things I don’t want to share!)

An update, the Congo, and Marshall

Well, I am still around and still coughing (but will be seeing a doctor about that next week).  Still have not got anywhere on miniature gaming or reading TFL’s Chain of Command.  But what I have done since last update was get a few more chapters read in Ivan Smith’s, Mad Dog Killers, just over half way through.  His version of how the 5^th Commando was in the Congo in 1964 is totally different than “Mad” Mike Hoare’s.  Speaking of “Mad” Mike, I started to listen to one of his audio books and only got maybe 10-15 minutes into it before I had other stuff to do, but Mike Hoare sounds great and is very interesting to listen to.

While on the subject of the Congo, a good friend, Thomas, visited the Swedish Military Museum just recently and took some pictures of the Swedish UN displays for me (THANK YOU, Thomas!!!!)  The link to his photographs is the following link. 

http://getitpainted.blogspot.se/2013/09/swedes-in-congo-especially-for-sapper.html

 

 

But going back to the Ivan Smith’s book, I am more inclined to believe Ivan Smith’s version of how the mercs fought and served in the Congo.  As such, I might have to relook at how I am planning to represent the Congo in future gaming.  Basically, rank meant nothing, so the concept of Big Men (to steal the term from TFL) would not be the officers or the NCO’s, but the instead the few men who really loved to fight with everyone else just supporting them (ironically, this is the key concept with TFL games and S.L.A. Marshall’s book, Men Against Fire, which just strengthens the their argument).  While Ivan Smith really only refers to what was going on with his Commando (roughly a platoon size element), it probably represents the mercs as a whole fairly accurately, especially when I remember one scene in particular of one of “Mad” Mike’s books where one merc stopped after river crossing and refused to advance any further as he was busily trying to dry his payroll check on a rock in the sun.  As Ivan Smith describes, the more aggressive mercs rode in the jeeps as they were the ones with the machines guns and did most of the patrolling without the bulk of the rest of the Commando.  Also, he stresses again the strong psychological effects of shamanic magic on the Simbas and the Congolese army.  While TFL’s B’Maso does not have “magic” and everything I have read from all sides state that “magic” was major role in the Congo war, I have to figure out how to do a fairly realistic rule on the use of “magic” in the games.

Now, on to discussing Marshall!  No, this is not about S.L.A. Marshall’s, Men Against Fire, but about the Battle of Marshall, Missouri.  An odd twist of fate means that I will be back home next weekend and will be able to attend the 150^th Anniversary reenactment of the battle in Marshall.  The battle is one of those battles that really interested me for some unknown reason.  It was not a big battle, there was almost no casualties (0 killed on the Union side and 4 or 5 on the CSA side), and really did not resolved anything.  But I like reading about it all the same!  The battle occurred on October 13^th, 1863 (yes, the reenactment is being held a month earlier, so it is more like the 149-11/12^th Anniversary instead).  The battle was the turning point of CSA’s General Jo Shelby’s 1863 raid, one of the longest cavalry raids in the war covering about 1500 miles.  Most of the ill got bounty that Shelby got on his raid was lost at Marshall when he was defeated by troops of the Missouri State Militia (MSM) and the Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia (PEMM) under Gen. Egbert Brown (the only Union general to defeat Shelby twice and had the chance to defeat him a third time but became indecisive and was relieved of command.)  The battle is very doable for small Civil War game with 1800 Union cavalry vs. 1200 CSA cavalry.  While the MSM were cavalry units, they were in fact more like mounted infantry with muzzle loading muskets or rifles instead of carbines and sabers.  The PEMM were generally not even uniformed, except maybe a colored band around the crown of their hats or armbands.  Of course Shelby’s CSA were from the Trans-Mississippi army with was horribly supplied and armed, so a sizable percentage of them would be in a mixed butter-nut, civilian, and Union clothing, probably even more so in the later with Union clothing supplies that was captured earlier in the raid. 

So until my next update,

Sapper

Congo Update: How I got “Mad” Mike Hoare to read me a story!

Well, I got a pleasant surprise earlier this week when I was looking for Kindle books on the Congo Conflict and noticed that there was an audiobook of one of “Mad” Mike Hoare’s books.  After checking a little further, I found that not only was the audiobook was an unabridged version, but it was read by “Mad” Mike himself!  Then the topping on the cake is that there is a total of six unabridged audiobooks read by Mike Hoare.  I have ordered four of the five, but have not listened to them yet.  I am not too sure how he will sound as he is 92 or 93 now and I am guessing that he only did this a couple of years ago at most.

Anyway, if you can get Amazon’s (US) sister company, Audible.com, you can download them at a fairly reason price at $4.95 each.  I am not sure if you can get them outside of the US, but I bet so.

The audiobooks available are listed below with a brief description from the Amazon site:

Congo Mercenary A book in which the author, Colonel Mike Hoare, tells of his part as a mercenary in the armed rebellion in the Congo in 1964. The book is intended as an accurate account of the military response to the rebellion.

http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Mercenary/dp/B00AO6JU6U/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375335656&sr=1-1

 

Congo Warriors - Col. Mike Hoare's favorite book consisting of 21 short stories, giving new insight into the minds and hearts of the adventurers who became mercenary soldiers. It captures the spirit of mercenary soldiering.

http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Warriors/dp/B00AO9M2J4/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?ie=UTF8&qid=1375335597&sr=8-1&keywords=Congo+Warriors


The Road to Kalamata - Col. Mike Hoare describes how his 4 Commando supported Moise Tshombe's breakaway state of Katanga against both the UN forces, and the Baluba tribesmen who used poison arrows, pit traps, marijuana, spells, jungle drums...and even reported to ritual torture and cannibalism.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-to-Kalamata/dp/B00AOAGAPA/ref=pd_sim_b_1

 

The Seychelles Affair - Col. Mike Hoare tells how he planned to overthrow the militant socialist government of the Seychelles, what went wrong at Mahé airport, and of his trial and imprisonment in South African jails.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Seychelles-Affair/dp/B00AO7LJ9K/ref=pd_sim_b_4

 

Mike Hoare’s Adventures in Africa - Go with Mike on foot across Basutoland; by motorbike from Cape Town to Cairo; to sea in a 36-foot ketch; into the Kalahari desert - and more. In the final chapter he describes how he and his wife move to an Edenic island in the Okovanga delta, and the terrible and wonderful events that took place there.

http://www.amazon.com/Mike-Hoares-Adventures-in-Africa/dp/B00AO0BUPA/ref=pd_sim_b_4

 

Three Years with Sylvia - Mike and his family sail the Western Mediterranean in a 72-foot yacht - a converted 100 ton Baltic Trader. The yachting anecdotes bring out the Irish in him.

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Years-with-Sylvia/dp/B00AO8D2C6/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1375331288&sr=1-6

Happy reading, …err…listening!

Sapper

Slight Congo War Update

Well, I have not started reading Mad Dog Killers, yet.  But much to my happy surprise, Congo Unravelled: Military Operations from Independence to the Mercenary Revolt 1960-68, by Andrew Hudson (part of the Africa@war series) is now available as a Kindle.  I have the paperback version, but left it behind before my travel.  I picked up the Kindle version as I am eventually going to replace some of my physical copies with electronic versions to save on space.  So I have been reading that to bring myself back up to the political and social backgrounds of what was going on in the Congo before starting Mad Dog Killers.  

I am also glad to see that many, if not all, of the Africa@war series is now available electronically.  I am planning to eventually start reading on the Mau-Mau revolt of the 1950's.  The Africa@war series are not super detailed books, but they give you enough information to get a history in a nutshell for a great little primer on the various post-WWII African conflicts, especially in about 70-80 pages.

Be seeing you

Sapper 

Congo War, 1960-66

I mention before about gaming the Congo War of the early 1960’s and my interest in it.  By sheer chance, I stumbled across on Amazon that Osprey is going to be releasing a booklet on the Congo Wars, 1960-2002, by Peter Abbott.  I am very pleased with this news.  It will be officially the fourth booklet from their Men-At-Arms series for the Modern African Wars.  Its expected release date is in February, 2014. This also happened to occurred after I dug out my 15mm Peter Pig Africans while cleaning the basement and thinking about mounting them on FOW bases and start getting back my Congo project.  I am taking it as a sign that the Congo must be free (of mineral wealth) again! 

I just happen to finish my book on the Civil War in Louisiana and will be starting up a new book, so it looks like I will be starting Mad Dog Killers: The Story of a Congo Mercenary, by a former ‘Mad’ Mike Hoare’s 5^th Commando merc, Ivan Smith very soon.  I have already read both of Mike Hoare’s Congo books, so I am looking forward to this one as well.  Unfortunately, most of the books on the Congo War that I don’t have are hard copies and not electronic.  I was hoping to eventually cut back on my book collect but getting everything electronically.

I have plans on how I am going to convert some figures to do the Irish, Indians, Swedish, &Ethiopian UN troops, as well as the Katanga and Mercs troops.  I will not be able to get them 100% accurate, especially with some weapons, but I will have to live with it.  But the big thing will be to find someone that will take on the job on making 15mm SKPF APCs and Ford Thompson armored cars for my UN troops, as well as the odd look tower turret for the M8 Greyhound that the Katangese army had.  I am going to start checking some of the different manufacturers about custom orders.

C’est le Congo!

Sapper

C'est le Congo Pt II and what is going on with me

Well, first I am sorry that I have not been updating my blog or doing much towards gaming, including gaming.  But work has my sole and my time.

Anyway, I got a chance to take some pictures of the miniatures that I had painted up from my last batch finally, as well as some EBay or other purchases that I have made recently towards gaming.  But there is quite a bit to do in one blog, so what I am going to do is break them down into several blog entries over similar topics.   

Also we had another play test of IABSM3 that I will be covering along with some pictures.  But it might be a few days between each entry as my work schedule is still staying in high demand. I will try to type them up on Word and later cut & paste them over on to my blog (which means I might even get two entries up the same night, but don't count on it.)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera to the play test game and had I done so, I would have realized that my camera’s batteries were dead before I started taking pictures late that night.  So I had to use my crappy cell phone’s camera and that is why the pictures are not very good.  Remember to click on the picture for a bigger version.

First up – 15mm "C’est le Congo"

I already have quite a few miniatures for post-WWII African conflicts, which can be seen on this blog under the "tag" of "B'Maso" for the name of the rules set that I will be using for the Congo games.  I did sold off a large number of my stuff 2 or 3 years back, but I still keep a pretty large force both painted and unpainted miniatures.  This project will actually be started in 2013, but I am going ahead and picking up some of the figures & vehicles I need this year.  To meet that goal, I bought some 10 figure, 20mm circular mob bases from Litko.  I will be using these bases to move the various tribal / irregular mobs with as you can see with this picture below.

Peter Pig Militia miniatures on a Litko base

As you can see, I am remounting my figures on to pennies as well so they can be used with the mob bases.

Before I go any further, while I really, really want to do the 1960’s Congo Crisis, (I have been amazed by that conflict since a child after watching Dark of the Sun (link) on TV) but the proper vehicles for the period for the UN (which was heavily involved in the fighting) and civilians are just not available.  I am going to start contacting various companies to see if I can convince them to make some models just for me or as release if I get enough support (like S&S Models 15+ Club).  So, I am going to do a faux African country in an unspecific year for my games, but heavily mirrors the history of the 1960’s Congo Civil War (so it is possible for Hind gunship to pop up in the games.)  But I still really want to do the ‘60’s.

So with that noted, I made the following purchases off of EBay and Hobby Link Japan for the following jets for the Congo game.  For the Katanga “Rebel” State, I was able to buy an old Out-Of-Print Heller Starfix model kit of a 1/100^th Fouga Magister II. 

1/100th Fouga Magister II from Heller

Towards the beginning of the 1960 Congo Crisis, the Katangan Air Force had three Magister jets converted to be ground attack aircraft.  Due to various reasons, they only had one functioning jet by the time the conflict begun broke out between the Katangan forces and the UN.  The lone Magister was flown by the mercenary pilot, Joseph Deulin.  He flew unchallenged for quite some time as the UN failed to bring any fighter jets with them to their Congo mission to control the air.  It was not until the UN’s Ethiopian F-86’s and the Swedish J29’s showed up, that Deulin was finally check in his daring raids.  And speaking of the Swedish J29’s, I was also able to buy from Hobbylink Japan a 1/144^th J-29B with UN decals from Fairy Kikaku.

1/144th Swedish J29 Fighter with UN Markings

I am not concern that the two kits are not in the same scale as for 1) Neither where involved in dogfights and 2) unless I go to 1/72^nd scale, there are no other kits of both planes in the same scale.

10mm Vietnam

My plan is to run at least one Vietnam game for the Fall session of Recruits this year in Lee Summit, MO.  I will be working on re-basing some stuff, making new blinds for hidden movement, and painting up more NVA.  The reason for me to mention about this in this specific blog entry is because I also bought from Hobby Link Japan a 1/144^th Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces in the 1950’s kit set.  In that set is a M42 Duster and a jeep with a 106mm recoilless rifle, both will work for my 10mm Vietnam, especially for convoy actions.  I forgot to take a picture of the kit…sorry!


If everything goes good, the next blog entry will be about my upcoming 20mm Post Apocalypse and 1970's / '80's "Dark Days in America" projects.  These projects will be small in size for number of figures and will have some figures double with my "Anarchy in the UK" project. 

That is it for now.

Cheers