The random number generator has spoken and
Jacob Shober
won the draw!
If you read this, Jacob, please get in touch with us!
And if you happen to know him, please tell him that he won!
And the Winner is...
Sorry for the long delay, but I am still trying to get in touch with the winner!
The random number generator has spoken and
won the draw!
If you read this, Jacob, please get in touch with us!
And if you happen to know him, please tell him that he won!
The random number generator has spoken and
won the draw!
If you read this, Jacob, please get in touch with us!
And if you happen to know him, please tell him that he won!
Rien ne va plus!
That's it, the raffle is closed. I will determine the winner in about 4 hours, but will take a bit longer until I am back home at the computer to post it.
But what I can tell you is the total of the funds raised through this project.
387 sold tickets mean we raised an astonishing
But what I can tell you is the total of the funds raised through this project.
387 sold tickets mean we raised an astonishing
774 NZ-$ (515 US-$)!!!
Many thanks to everybody who contributed, and it was great to see so many familiar names on that list. It is an awesome feeling to see this kind of solidarity in a community. Thank you!
And good luck to everybody for the draw!
I will contact the winner via email as soon as possible after the draw, and will announce the name after that.
Unit Reveal - M8 Scott
And another vehicle ready for action - the 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 Scott from Butlers' Printed Models:
The M8 was a pretty crowded work environment - during march, the commander and gunner would sit in the turret, and the loader would sit next to the driver in the hull. When going tinto action, the commander would switch onto the anti-aircraft machine gun position, and the loader moved up to the turret.
The 75mm howitzer could fire either high explosive or white phosphorus shells at a range of 8.8 km (5.5 miles). The rate of fire was around 6 shots per minute, and the vehicle carried 46 rounds of ammunition.
After the war, it stayed in service with the French army and some others, and was still used in the Algerian War in the early 1960s.
Our M8 is painted in the same scheme as the rest of the vehicles, and was nicknamed "The Bomb" by its crew.
The M8 was a pretty crowded work environment - during march, the commander and gunner would sit in the turret, and the loader would sit next to the driver in the hull. When going tinto action, the commander would switch onto the anti-aircraft machine gun position, and the loader moved up to the turret.
The 75mm howitzer could fire either high explosive or white phosphorus shells at a range of 8.8 km (5.5 miles). The rate of fire was around 6 shots per minute, and the vehicle carried 46 rounds of ammunition.
After the war, it stayed in service with the French army and some others, and was still used in the Algerian War in the early 1960s.
Our M8 is painted in the same scheme as the rest of the vehicles, and was nicknamed "The Bomb" by its crew.
Unit Reveal - Group Picture!
It's D-Day, and here is a picture of the full force in all its glory!
I thought it would be nice to get a picture of everything, including the WIP parts, to give you an impression of what's at stake!
We have the US Army on the bottom left, the finished Airborne on the bottom right, then the vehicles, including the unfinished Deuce and a half and armored cars, then a WIP platoon of Rangers on the top right and the unfinished Airborne on the top right.
So, with us being a bit behind the painting schedule, we thought it would only be fair to extend your deadline, too!
And just as a reminder: You can get raffle tickets by contributing through PayPal (there is a button
on the top right of this website, if you can’t see it, switch from mobile to web view at the bottom of the page!). PayPal
also allows you to use a credit card if you don’t have an account.
I thought it would be nice to get a picture of everything, including the WIP parts, to give you an impression of what's at stake!
We have the US Army on the bottom left, the finished Airborne on the bottom right, then the vehicles, including the unfinished Deuce and a half and armored cars, then a WIP platoon of Rangers on the top right and the unfinished Airborne on the top right.
So, with us being a bit behind the painting schedule, we thought it would only be fair to extend your deadline, too!
Raffle tickets are available until
Saturday, June 8th,
8 PM CST (Beijing), 1 PM BST (London), 8 AM EDT (East Coast USA), 5 AM PDT
(West Coast USA).
One ticket for the raffle is 2 NZ-$, which I about 1.35 US-$
or 1.20 Euros. Multiples of that give you multiple tickets, e.g. 20 NZ-$ give
you 10 tickets.
So, when will we have the army finished? I can't guarantee anything, but I would say we will ship it to our lucky winner on the 17th of June, fully painted and ready to go.
What's next? I hope that we will have pictures of the finished M8 Scott, Deuce and a half and at least a squad of Rangers before the deadline for contributions on Saturday.
Everything else will get its unit reveal, too, but likely after the raffle is done.
Everything else will get its unit reveal, too, but likely after the raffle is done.
Unit Reveal - Airborne Support Weapons I
Here we go again, this time with some heavy fire power for the Airborne troops:
Two men with Bazookas to stalk Panzers in the Bocage, and two men with flamethrowers to take care of those pesky German pillboxes!
Later today, we will have a nice group picture of the whole force (albeit with some WIP models), and then there are only a couple of odds and ends to finish.
Two men with Bazookas to stalk Panzers in the Bocage, and two men with flamethrowers to take care of those pesky German pillboxes!
Later today, we will have a nice group picture of the whole force (albeit with some WIP models), and then there are only a couple of odds and ends to finish.
Unit Reveal - Airborne Characters
Today we have a real treat for you - Stoessi's Heroes' Airborne characters are ready to fight!
US Airborne Technician Fourth Grade Eugene Gilbert Roe, Sr. and US Airborne Captain Richard „Dick“ Winters.
US Airborne Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole and US Airborne Staff Sergeant “Wild Bill” Guarnere
US Airborne Lieutenant Ronald C. Speirs and US Airborne First Lieutenant Lynn “Buck” Compton
Tomorrow the Paratroopers will get some more firepower - and then it will be time for a group picture!
Rules Review - What A Tanker!
What a Tanker! is one of the newest releases by Too Fat Lardies, and they were so kind to donate one of the books (and a matching token
set) to our project!
What a Tanker! is designed as a multi-player tank duel game. It is recommended that each player fields a single vehicle, but you want at least 2 vehicles per team, and in my experience, each player can easily control up to 3 vehicles. There is a point system that gives you an idea which vehicles are roughly equals, and it works very nicely. Of course there are some very powerful vehicles like the Jagdtiger, which will give your opponent some head ache if he invested in a more balanced force, but these kind of matches should be very rare.
What a Tanker! is designed as a multi-player tank duel game. It is recommended that each player fields a single vehicle, but you want at least 2 vehicles per team, and in my experience, each player can easily control up to 3 vehicles. There is a point system that gives you an idea which vehicles are roughly equals, and it works very nicely. Of course there are some very powerful vehicles like the Jagdtiger, which will give your opponent some head ache if he invested in a more balanced force, but these kind of matches should be very rare.
The game also features rules for campaign play, in which
your crews earn experience, get promoted to more expensive vehicles and gain
special abilities. Five kills give you ace status, and you’ll gain a special ability
or upgrade to the next tier of tanks.
Each tanks has two main attributes, Strike and Armor. Strike
is the strength of your gun, and armor is, well, the strength of your armor. Besides
that, there are some special rules like Fast (more opportunities to move), Rapid
Fire (only needs to reload once per turn) or Iron Fist (better chance to deal
permanent damage).
Each player uses a dashboard for each vehicle to keep track
of its status.
The activation is kind of similar to Chain of Command. Each
tank has 5 command dice whih are rolled at the start of each activation.
Different results allow different actions: 1 is movement, 2 is target
acquisition, 3 is aim, 4 is shoot, 5 is reload and 6 is a wild card that can be
used as any other dice, to give you an advantage for initiative next round or
to modify to hit numbers. Yes, you need to go through a lot of steps to shoot
at your enemy. And yes, you may be all set up and ready but can’t get the “4”
that will actually allow you to deal out some pain. But in reality, these
moments are rare, and they are what gives this game spice. You will be very
often have those “stand up”-roll, when this one drive or shoot dice will make
or break your gamble.
Once you are unleashing on an opponent’s tank, you roll 2D6
modified by movement and terrain to hit. After that, you roll your Strike dice
and your opponent rolls his Armor dice. Depending on positions, you’ll need
different results to score kits. For example, if you hit the front armor, you’ll
need 5s for hits and 6s for critical hits, on the rear armor you’ll get hits for
every die showing a 3 and criticals for every result of 4 or more. The target
needs 5s or 6s for saves. Compare the results: More saves than hits means the
shot didn’t do anything. An equal number of hits and saves means minor damage
and the target falls back. If you score more hits than saves, you’ll do damage:
temporary damage if you rolled more ordinary hits than criticals, and permanent
damage when you rolled more critical than ordinary hits. If you have 3 more
hits than the target has saves, the target is outright destroyed by your shot. Temporary
and permanent damage costs you command dice, and permanent damage also affects
your hull or turret.
If your tank is reduced to zero command dice, the crew will
bail out and the vehicle is destroyed. Matches often develop into a game of cat
and mouse when each side hopes for the right combination of dice to come up to
support their fiendish plans, but it never gets dull.
This is What a Tanker! in a nutshell. It is a fast, fun game
with a lot of randomness, but it rarely feels frustrating. Definitely on the “beer
& pretzels” side of gaming, but still pleasantly sophisticated, and a great
way to have some fun with a unique way to play.
And the winner of our raffle will not only get a copy of the
rule book, but also a set of tokens for their dashboards!
Unit Reveal - Airborne Pathfinders
This time, we have a small, but important, unit of Pathfinders:
Pathfinders were volunteers who received special training to set up and operate navigational helps. Their units also contained bodyguards, whose job it was to defend the pathfinders (and the designated drop zone) during set up.
The night of D-Day marked the first combat jump for the Pathfinder units. Just after midnight on June 6th, 1944, around 200 of them became the first Allied soldiers on the ground. But bad weather and heavy air defense scattered their planes and even when they found their targets, those were often heavily defended and in some cases flooded.
The pathfinders redeemed their value during Operation Market Garden, when they guided the Allied paratroopers to their targets in the Netherlands. After that, two sticks of Pathfinders would parachute into Bastogne during Battle of the Bulge to set up beacons for supply drops.
Pathfinders were volunteers who received special training to set up and operate navigational helps. Their units also contained bodyguards, whose job it was to defend the pathfinders (and the designated drop zone) during set up.
The night of D-Day marked the first combat jump for the Pathfinder units. Just after midnight on June 6th, 1944, around 200 of them became the first Allied soldiers on the ground. But bad weather and heavy air defense scattered their planes and even when they found their targets, those were often heavily defended and in some cases flooded.
The pathfinders redeemed their value during Operation Market Garden, when they guided the Allied paratroopers to their targets in the Netherlands. After that, two sticks of Pathfinders would parachute into Bastogne during Battle of the Bulge to set up beacons for supply drops.
Unit Reveal - Willys MBs
Two more transports today - the venerable Willys MB Jeep from Butlers' Printed Models:
Everybody knows the Jeep. Almost 650.000 of them were used during World War 2, and wherever US troops went, the Jeep accompanied them.
Nobody really knows why the Jeep is called "Jeep". One plausible and popular theory is that it derives from Ford's designation for the vehicle, "GP". There might be a connection to a character from the contemporary Popeye comic books!
General George Marshall, Chief of Staff during the war, called the Jeep "America's greatest contribution to modern warfare." Right from the start, the vehicle had a major impact and it was not unusual to have fleets of fifty to sixty jeeps roaming the Western desert hunting Rommel's forces.
The Jeeps served in any role imaginable, including as weapon carriers for machine guns and even as portee with 37mm guns, there was a British Jeep Wasp armed with a flamethrower and the US used Bazooka-Jeeps with improvised armor in the Ardennes. As one war journalist put it: "It does everything. It goes everywhere. It's as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule and as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for, and still keeps on going."
Our Jeeps are painted in the same colors as all the other vehicles, and loaded up with some extra supplies. They will serve your officers well on the battlefield!
Tomorrow, we will have more Airborne soldiers ready for you.
Everybody knows the Jeep. Almost 650.000 of them were used during World War 2, and wherever US troops went, the Jeep accompanied them.
Nobody really knows why the Jeep is called "Jeep". One plausible and popular theory is that it derives from Ford's designation for the vehicle, "GP". There might be a connection to a character from the contemporary Popeye comic books!
General George Marshall, Chief of Staff during the war, called the Jeep "America's greatest contribution to modern warfare." Right from the start, the vehicle had a major impact and it was not unusual to have fleets of fifty to sixty jeeps roaming the Western desert hunting Rommel's forces.
The Jeeps served in any role imaginable, including as weapon carriers for machine guns and even as portee with 37mm guns, there was a British Jeep Wasp armed with a flamethrower and the US used Bazooka-Jeeps with improvised armor in the Ardennes. As one war journalist put it: "It does everything. It goes everywhere. It's as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule and as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for, and still keeps on going."
Our Jeeps are painted in the same colors as all the other vehicles, and loaded up with some extra supplies. They will serve your officers well on the battlefield!
Tomorrow, we will have more Airborne soldiers ready for you.
Unit Reveal - Chevrolet 1 1⁄2-ton Truck
Today we show you the finished Chevrolet 1 1/2 ton truck from Minairons Miniatures:
This is the 1937 model of the truck, and it would have had quite a career to end up in Europe after D-Day. Nevertheless, the look of US trucks changed only in details during that time, and this model would evolve into the famous Chevrolet G-506 1 1⁄2-ton 4x4.
Over 160.000 Chevrolet 1 1⁄2-ton 4x4 trucks were built in 15 variants between 1940 and 1945. That sounds impressive, but in fact, it only scores the Chevy only fourth place behind the GMC CCKW (over 560.000), Dodge WC (over 255.000 ) and Studebaker US6 (over 219.000).
The most famous use for these truck is in the Red Ball Express, when 6000 trucks were used to move 12.500 tons of material per day from the Normandy beaches to the front. It ran for 83 days before the opening of Antwerp harbor significantly decreased the distance over which supplies had to be moved.
Although a venerable veteran in our army, the Chevrolet truck sports the same colors as the rest of our vehicles, and will be a welcome transport for some tired GIs or Airborne soldiers!
This is the 1937 model of the truck, and it would have had quite a career to end up in Europe after D-Day. Nevertheless, the look of US trucks changed only in details during that time, and this model would evolve into the famous Chevrolet G-506 1 1⁄2-ton 4x4.
Over 160.000 Chevrolet 1 1⁄2-ton 4x4 trucks were built in 15 variants between 1940 and 1945. That sounds impressive, but in fact, it only scores the Chevy only fourth place behind the GMC CCKW (over 560.000), Dodge WC (over 255.000 ) and Studebaker US6 (over 219.000).
The most famous use for these truck is in the Red Ball Express, when 6000 trucks were used to move 12.500 tons of material per day from the Normandy beaches to the front. It ran for 83 days before the opening of Antwerp harbor significantly decreased the distance over which supplies had to be moved.
Although a venerable veteran in our army, the Chevrolet truck sports the same colors as the rest of our vehicles, and will be a welcome transport for some tired GIs or Airborne soldiers!
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