The ‘Nostalgia’ Project revisited … in passing
Posted: October 1, 2011 Filed under: Imaginations, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 2 CommentsAfter a short break for lunch, we then visited the estate agent through whom we are buying the flat on behalf of my father-in-law. The vendors have accepted the off we made for the flat, and we managed to sort out what steps we now have to take to purchase it. It was too late in the day to visit a local solicitor to arrange for them to act for us, but we have the name of a highly recommended one whom we shall contact early next week.
As a result of all of the above, I have not had a great deal of time to even think about wargaming. Once thing I did do, however, was to look through and begin sorting my archive of photographs of Swedish Armoured Fighting Vehicles … and as I did so I was struck by an idea.
Years ago I had an imagi-nation called Opeland. It was very similar in many ways to Sweden, and the tanks that I built for its ‘army’ were loosely based on various Swedish tank designs. I have wanted to resurrect this imagi-nation – and its archrival Upsland – for some time, and I named this my ‘Nostalgia’ Project. It has been on the backburner for some time, but today, when looking at the following photograph, I thought that this particular design looked like an amalgam of two other tank designs … a Pzkpfw III hull with a T34/76 turret atop it.
I very quickly used my image manipulation computer programs to add a drawing of a T34/76 turret to that of the hull of a Pzkpfw III … et voila!
I then realised that I had 1:100th-scale models of both a Pzkpfw III and a T34/76 to hand (both are from the range of Axis & Allies Miniatures) and it was a matter of a few seconds work to put the T34/76 turret onto the Pzkpfw hull.
The resulting design is not exactly like its Swedish original … but it is not that different.
Food for thought, I think … especially as Zvezda make very reasonably priced 1:100th-scale models of both the Pzkpfw II and T34/76.
PS. The Swedish tank is a Stridsvagn m/42.
Model bargains
Posted: February 26, 2010 Filed under: Imaginations, MIscellaneous musings, Modelling, Nostalgia Project 12 CommentsLast night my wife and I visited our local, large shopping centre to do the weekly food shopping. As usual we also made sure that we set aside a bit of time for ourselves whilst we were there, and I spent mine visiting a branch of Modelzone.
They are currently having a sale of plastic kits, and these included several models manufactured by Pegasus Hobbies. The one that caught my eye was the ‘Jaguarundi’, which was a projected design by Porsche for a small tank to be built for the Wehrmacht in 1946. The project was also known as ‘P245-010’, and the hull and turret look more akin to a 1930s Science Fiction concept for a tank than a serious design developed as a result of six years of combat experience.
That said, the turret looked like it had been taken from an 19th century ironclad, and therefore has potential modelling uses. As there were two models in each box, and Modelzone were selling them for £2.99 per box, I bought three.
On getting them home I discovered that the trackwork and chassis of the ‘Jaguarundi’ tanks will be useful when I get round to building armoured vehicles for one of my 1930s and 1940s imagi-nations, and that the turrets will be ideal for small ironclads and/or gunboats.
The ‘Nostalgia’ Project
Posted: January 30, 2010 Filed under: Imaginations, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 6 CommentsIn amongst the large collection of military books on the shelves I found a 1964 copy of DAS KLEINE PANZERBUCH by Dr F M von Senger und Etterlin. Amongst the vehicles featured in the Swedish section were:
- The Strv 74 tank
- The Pvkv 71 self-propelled gun
- The Ikv 103 assault gun
These vehicles are the going to be the designs upon which the AFVs used by Opeland will be based (see my previous blog entry on 13th August 2009), so having both data and – more importantly – scale line drawings is going to be of great help when I finally get this project underway. In the meantime, here are some images of some of the line drawings I will be using:
The ‘Nostalgia’ Project – my decision … sort of!
Posted: August 27, 2009 Filed under: Imaginations, Laurania, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 8 CommentsFirstly I have decided to continue with the ‘Nostalgia’ project, but over a longer timescale. I will continue to collect the necessary models and figures, and may even make some prototype vehicles and ships. I will not, however, start serious work on the project for at least several months.
Secondly I have decided to finish the back-history of Laurania that I started some time ago. This also includes a guide to the Latinate language of Laurania. I will also draw up an outline of the Lauranian armed forces during the 1930s for future reference, as they may well make a good enemy – or ally – for the Opelanders at some time in the future.
All I have to do now is stick to my decisions!
The ‘Nostalgia’ Project – my wife speaks!
Posted: August 24, 2009 Filed under: Imaginations, Laurania, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 14 CommentsNow I have to admit that she is right. I have not yet exploited the potential of Laurania anywhere near as much as I should or could, and the model buildings are very suitable for it. In fact, they are – with the exception of the ones bought in Copenhagen – all from Adriatic region, which is roughly where Laurania is situated.
My wife’s interjection has left me in somewhat of a quandary. Do I persist with creating a back-history and wargames army for Opeland or do I complete the already extensive back-history of Laurania – and finish off their nascent armed forces – before embarking on a ‘new’ project?
Time to do some serious thinking, I suspect.
The ‘Nostalgia’ Project – my most recent thoughts
Posted: August 20, 2009 Filed under: Imaginations, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 4 CommentsArmoured Brigades:
- An Armoured Battalion
- Two Motorised Infantry Battalions
- A Motorised Artillery Battalion
- A Motorised Assault Engineer Company
- A Motorised Reconnaissance Battalion
- A Self-propelled Anti-tank Gun Company
- A Self-propelled or Motorised Anti-aircraft Company
- A Brigade HQ Company
Infantry Brigades:
- Three Infantry Battalions
- An Artillery Battalion
- An Assault Engineer Company
- A Motorised or Bicycle Reconnaissance Battalion
- An Anti-tank Gun Company
- An Anti-aircraft Company
- A Brigade HQ Company
I also intend that the Opelandic Army will be supported by an Air Force equipped with Fighters, Fighter-Bombers/Ground Attack Aircraft, Bombers, Reconnaissance Aircraft, and Transport Aircraft, and a Navy that has at least two (or possibly three) frontline Coastal Defence Battleships, Destroyers, and Torpedo Boats.
This may well be a bit over ambitious, but I won’t find out if it is until I start!
Swedish inspiration for the ‘Nostalgia’ Project
Posted: August 13, 2009 Filed under: Imaginations, MIscellaneous musings, Nostalgia Project 6 CommentsThis is one of the books that I have been looking at for inspiration for my ‘Nostalgia’ project, and I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the Swedish Army will make an excellent basis for the army of my vaguely Northern European/Baltic States/Eastern European imagi-nation, Opeland.
The reasoning behind this is that the equipment used by the Swedes looks similar to, but not the same as, that used by Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s. For example, the Stridsvagn m/37 looks similar to the PzKpfw I …
… and the Stridsvagn m/38 is about the same size as a PzKpfw II but is armed with a 37mm gun.
The Stridsvagn m/42 has a 75mm gun, and is about the same size as the later model PzKpfw III.
The Swedes even used the chassis of the Stridsvagn m/42 as the basis of a self-propelled gun, just like the Germans used the chassis of the PzKpfw III as a basis for the StuG III.
If I do use the Swedish Army of the late 1930s and early 1940s as the basis on my Opelandic Army, I will need to acquire quite a few ROCO PzKpfw IIIs and/or StuG IIIs as well as some other bits and pieces.
