"1/144th Cold War Armored Battle Photos?" Topic

Seems like all the 1/100th, 1/72nd, and 1/285th scale gamers are having most, if not all of the fun, and posting pics of their terrain, armies, armor, and Cold War battles on-line.

There are very few pics on the web for armored vehicles in this scale, and even fewer that are shown in battle, or even in staged shots, which have been taken, just for grins.

I think that needs to change, since 1/144th scale is a great option for Cold War gaming, if you want a larger battlefield in the same space on the tabletop, and are on a budget.

So, I'm asking and challenging you to share your photos of your 1/144th – 1/150th (1/160th) scale armor and troops, buildings, and terrain, to help inspire others gaming in this scale, to make their games and tables look better.

Who knows, we might even convince a few 1/100th scale gamers to switch scales, in order to avoid the "parking lot" syndrome, and to get more than twice the battlefield in the same space.

I'm operating on a shoestring budget currently, but fortunately, have some vehicles and troops to do a bit of gaming (I still need to get a lot of them based – troops, and/or painted – vehicles and troops). I'm having to create a lot of my own terrain and buildings though, in order to stretch the very limited "defense budget" a bit further. That's primarily allocated to the procurement of vehicles and troops in 1/144th scale. Most tabletop terrain will need to be produced from scratch, or from low-cost materials.

Fortunately, I did have a nice, felt mat already, and some pre-made evergreen trees to help along with way.

Buildings and roads shown below are home-made, and I'll be working on a lot of other stuff too, in order to make the battlefield look a lot more interesting, e.g. I'm planning on adding fields, streams and a river, a small village, bushes, bases for the homes to make them look a bit better, etc., etc..

So, please add some photos below to help show what can be done in 1/144th scale, and to help inspire others.

The battle scene below is a 3' x 3.5' section of West Germany, not far from the inter-German border, and in the rolling hills/mountains, and valleys present in the area.

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Note, I'm interested in seeing everything, e.g. painted vehicles, troops, commercial and/or scratch-built buildings, roads, fields, forests, etc., etc., for inspiration.

I suspect a lot of other people may be as well.

That looks great! I don't game in this scale, but I find it fascinating to look at. This makes me want to do some historicals in 6mm. Thanks for sharing!

Looks good, glad to see that you have not gone mad with hedges!

Tally Ho!

Here you go.
Models mostly 1/144, some photos of terrain, CADD, and 1/144 actual models and Maps mostly of 1/144 games. Thrre are a few other photos, sorry, some 1/72 of the dessery variety.

What no hedges!

A hedge and ditch on a muddy field is both an obsticle fore vehicles and cover for the grunts. They can also be a code for a raised or sunken toad so thgat vehicles cannot gey off the road. US manuals make the point obsticles are addative. A steep slope may be passible with no tress but add 4" diameter trees and its impassible.

Europe and many places will have a village every 2 to 4kn in the arrable portions. They need hedges and ditches. Water obsticles proably evety 4 to 10km. 3ft deep 20 ft ditch ft is enough to stop most vehicals without engineering support. Terrain is key to a credible game.

UshCha, what part of Germany are you referring to? Hedges around fields very very rare to none where we were, BAOR.

Ditches around fields on the other hand were common place,

Tally Ho!

Not modern era, but these are mostly 1:144 Dragon models or N-gauge (1:160) trains:

Mako,

I have literally tons of modern posts showing 10mm modern troops, equipment, and batreps. A lot of the fights were 'ultramodern' and Imagi-Nation-type stuff, but I did play a couple Cold War games:

A Marine TOW fires over advancing infantry. Batrep: link

US Army TOW fires on advancing T-72s. Batrep:
link

Hope you like it!

V/R,
Jack

Haven't had a game in a bit, but here are some 1/144 models I built and painted for future games.

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Ben,

Those are absolutely amazing! The stuff I sent is pretty humble, comparatively speaking. What the heck were you thinking? ;)

V/R,
Jack

Jack – You're no slouch. I absolutely hate painting up infantry, so that's what really attracted me. I'm still wrapping my head around all that you sent.

Well, you should have plenty of that! Me, I hate painting vehicles ;)

And painting the infantry was part of what drew me to 10mm. I prided myself on the fact I could put together a company of infantry for a very reasonable price in a very reasonable amount of time. I got to where it was only taking me about four hours to clean up, prime, paint, and base nine rifle stands plus some command and heavy weapons.

Like I said, it's Christmas! You can't comprehend how much stuff it is until you see it all in one place. I sincerely hope you like it and have a great time with it, I certainly did. I only sold them because of "wargamer's disease," that illness that makes us keep buying stuff, even if we don't need it. I was buying and painting and playing, rinse and repeat, then noticed that I was pretty much recreating all my 10mm forces in 15mm. I'd really gotten into skirmish-level gaming and all my 10mm stuff is multi-based, so I decided to sell it and keep going in 15mm. I suppose that means 20mm is coming up in about another eight years…

Now play some games and post some batreps!

V/R,
Jack

Those look really great!

Thanks for sharing.

Need to make some flying missiles I suspect, for my armor that have ATGMs.

I finally got Minifigs to produce the Jadpanzer Kanone, and they do the Jaguar with TOW. Need to convince them to make the earlier Jagdpanzer Rakete with SS-11 missiles, and/or HOT, since the hull is essentially done with the Kanone. Just need some minor hatch changes and missiles/launchers sculpted to make two more vehicles for the Bundeswehr.

I've lobbied them already about that, so feel free to do the same, if you'd like to see those too, for the earlier Cold War period.

Keep the photos coming, especially of gaming battlefields you've set up, and/or home-made, or other buildings, etc..

Nickdmmersett

Just outside Berlin:-

Google maps

link

QED

UshCha,

spent a few years exercising in Germany in the 80s, no hedges, rolling Hanover plains, link

Not sure where "just outside Berlin" fits into the scheme of things,

Tally Ho!

Yea, a lot of the images I've seen from various places in Germany show pretty wide open terrain too.

Of course, there are some small hedges, bushes, and tree copses here and there.

Photos of the hills and valleys in/around Fulda show fairly wide open fields, and trees/forests primarily on the tops of the hills, and hillsides. Some other random cover here and there, but not too much cover.

I need to look at more photos though, of the area, as time permits.

These are great pics.. some amazing.
Im not likely to switch now as I started a cpl of 'reinforced' armoured Co.s to try BA's Tank War in 1/100.
But always thought 144 would be a great 'middle ground' between Micro 1/285 and 1/100.

But unless Im mistaken 144 is pretty hard to find.
Of course if I found a producer that did them in plastic.. I'd probably jump on them. lol

Ditches around fields could pose quite a hazard to drunk squaddies walking back from the pub to Chieftain Tanks!

Keep an eye out for the new Timecast 10mm stuff, both Cold War Kit and buildings. Barrie, like myself, is an ex Cold War Warrior with a good eye for detail. Their 6mm Cold War Buildings are superb and capture the German Buildings perfectly,

Tally Ho!

You can find quite a bit in plastic – mainly tanks, but can supplement those with other vehicles in metal, from Minifigs, Timecast (just starting their Cold War range, but the sculpts look superb), Pendraken, and some others.

I've listed a few things I have that are surplus, in the Marketplace, if anyone needs M-1 tanks, helos, or A-10s, in 1/144th scale. There are a few 1/100th scale vehicles too, e.g. Leopard 1A3s/1A4s, and Jagdpanzer Kanones – a platoon of 5 each, for the older Heeresstruktur orgs.

Timecast is planning to do Soviets, British, Americans, West Germans, and French, so I've been told, when I contacted them about their plans.

I love their buildings too, and their bridges, and hope they will produce more Cold War buildings too, to supplement the nice offerings they currently have for sale.

We use AOTRS.SHIPYARDS on shapeways for stuff that you cant' get or if you prefer 3D printed like us (you can get spares and it survives most falling off incidents without even damaged paint).

1/144 is an excellent scale for gaming, no doubt about that! I use it for modern-inspired sci-fi skirmish games; the small figure size looks excellent on a normal-sized board and really allows for long-range engagements at something closer to true scale.

Mako, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to work on your Shapeways requests. I'm frankly swamped by engineering classes and haven't had much spare time of late.

Mako11
You can find quite a bit in plastic – mainly tanks, but can supplement.. other vehicles in metal, from Minifigs, Timecast.. Pendraken, and some others.

Ive ck'd Pendraken, they looked great. BUT..they are listed as 10mm and IIRC 10mm is roughly 1/161 scale. While 144 is closer to 12mm.
And of course 15mm is 1/100.

Now Im really curious, 'who' out there is doing 144 armor in plastic? (just my luck.. Im going to find something IMHO in the 'perfect' scale and prefered material, plastic after begining my 15mm collection.
Oh my acheing back LOL.

No worries, SouthernPhantom.

The defense budget is nil currently, anyway.

I hope the engineering classes are going well.

Apparently, English "N" scale is 1/150th, so there's only about a 4% difference in size. Given most tank sizes, that boils down to only a millimeter or two, depending upon dimensions and sizes.

I just got a few M41s for the Bundeswehr, since I really like the look of their new sculpts, and was surprised how large they were compared to my 1/144th scale M47s.

I suspect as long as you don't mix tanks from different manufacturers, side by side, you'll be fine in many/most cases.

I do admit though, that I prefer the 1/144th scale, myself, in many cases (didn't want the Minifigs M41 though, since it had covers over the tops of the treads in their sculpt).

The Pendraken troops are superb sculpts, and mix very nicely with those from Minifigs. I hope the same will be true of the Timecast figs, when they're released.

I'm using Falklands Argentines for very early, late 1950s – early 1960s, Bundeswehr, as well as for Danish Cold War troops too. Had to go with a British Carl Gustav man though, since Pendraken don't make one of those. Their Argentine recoilless rifleman works pretty well for a 3.5" bazookaman, and is in my preferred prone firing position too.

Just to throw this in quickly, our vehicles are scaled to 1:150th, so not too far from the 1:144th vehicles. There'll be a bit of difference, but as Mako says above it's not that noticeable unless you line them up side to side.

SouthernPhantom
1/144 is an excellent scale for gaming, no doubt about that!..
the small figure size looks excellent ..at something closer to true scale.

and the ever present fact, the smaller the model, the more 'toys on the table" (often at a lower cost).

Ive never found 144; just sheer speculation here, but IF they did a line in plastic.
I would think w/'most' armor the lower hull & tracks would be 1 piece.
Then the upper body, then turret and the barrel (depending on length) might be a sperate piece.

Almost all of them, even the pre-assembled and painted ones are a bit like plastic and/or metal kits, e.g. with separate upper and lower hulls, tracks, turrets, and other misc. parts, if any.

Nature of the way they're pressed into the molds as the liquid is injected into them.

Now though, Timecast do seem to be raising the bar with their models, with one-piece hulls and tracks molded together.

As far as I know, in 1/144th scale, they're the first to do that, in metal.

Other manufacturers do that for 1/285th and 1/300th scale minis.

That should make getting them on the tabletop a bit faster, and much less frustrating.

Some of the other minis I have need a bit of filing, and/or other cleanup, in order to get the treads/bogies properly in line with the hulls, since there's a small turret ring overhang, and there's a box in the way on one side, preventing me from assembling them as they should be. Annoying, but hopefully won't be too time consuming to correct.