New Team Member, upcoming reviews

Thank you gentle reader for tuning in for another post of "It's 500 Miles to the German Border".

Jason has asked that I join the team to present some articles/reviews on modelling and I look forward to the challenge and hope to share my insights, techniques, whats worked and what hasn't with various 1/72 scale models (20mm).

Fortunately I was in between jobs and housing at the time so it worked out. (At left the EvS workshop/mobile home)

The models I make are for my own Twilight 2000 group of family and friends and started out innocently enough now its become a festering disease of combing through bargain bins looking at other die-cast models that are close to same scale and hitting pretty well every hobby store within 100km (60 miles), not to mention recruiting others to do my evil bidding and having minions combing through garage sales looking for models, parts or anything that might "mad max" up models and die casts. Countless hours searching for deals , begging on the street corner for sprue...... well enough about that.

Nobody starts off awesome in doing models but anyone can get good enough in quick order. Ill even show a few of the ugly models with the good ones. I don't use airbrushes or use anything super expensive, trying to keep it "beer can budget". Having said that I do sometimes buy a fancy paint but nothing outside of the budget or reality for the majority of gamers out there.

Some example model builds/mods I will be covering are all for the purpose of using in  our Twilight 2000 game sessions.

1/72 scale LAV-25 (Trumpeter)

Variety of AFV's , including APCS,  IFVs, Tanks, etc.

Also covered will be models from Revell, ICM, ACE (the bane of my existence but willing to give another shot), Academy, ERTL, ESCI, etc

1/72 scale 2.5 "Deuce" Truck (Academy)

Lots of other cargo vehicles, jeeps, etc

Modified Die Cast Cars

 Matchbox, Hotwheels, Corgy or whatever I cant get my hands on.

Making Cam nets and other scratch build items

Its time to dust off those "arts and crafts" skills, using whatever the hell we can find in the junk drawer, the neighbors junk drawer (you just have to move quicker than them and their dogs!) or wherever you can find "odds and sods".


Thanks again for tuning in and I thank Jason for bringing me to his team. 

Sincerely, EvS! 

Book Review: The Iran-Iraq War, Volumes 1 and 2

Pictures taken from Hellion Publishing Website

The Iran - Iraq War, Volumes 1 and 2, The first volume covers the period of September 1980 to May 1982 and the second covers June 1982 - December 1986. (There are Volumes 3 and 4).
Author: Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton and Farzin Nadimi
Publisher: Hellion and Company, 2016
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11"
Cover: Soft Cover
Pages: 80pp

I really wanted to like these books. I did. While they are chock full of wonderful insights on the Iran-Iraq War in particular, and a good idea of what two nations unprepared for war with limited resources looks like in general, the books had a lot of issues that really overall, detracted from my reading experience.

First, the good. As I said, the insights found in the books are quite interesting. The extent to which Saddam really didn't have a plan as to how he was going to accomplish his war aims (and even have any really well-defined war aims to accomplish) was startling. It seems the Iraqis stumbled into this being the wider conflict it ended up being.

The Iraqi army wasn't really ready for war either, as it's way of taking an objective was a slow advance while blasting the snot out of a random portion of desert with copious amounts of artillery because said ground was the day's objective. Guderian they weren't.

Meanwhile, the Iranian army was even worse off in 1980 than can be believed, whole units were understrength, and the mullahs really didn't care, as they saw it as a means to prevent a coup, once the war broke out, it is well known they were grabbing military experience anywhere they could find it, including the jails (who were filled with politically suspect officers still loyal to the Shah).

Another interesting thing. The human wave assaults by Iran that we saw in the West became more nuanced over time. How much nuance that really was is arguable, but it seems that the Revolutionary Guards (who were the primary practitioners of said tactics) got better at their execution of such tactics.

Another surprise on the Iranian part, the slow response of the Army. While the Air Force, and even the Navy, as well as the Rev, Guards responded to eventually put up a ferocious defense for Khorrmansharr, the Army was mostly not involved in the initial fighting in any real strength. It also had an interesting look at the fact both air forces spent more time either bombing the enemy homeland or engaging each other, than supporting the army, which fell to the helicopter forces on both sides.

The not-so good about these books? Well, for starters, Volume 1 was, from an editing standpoint, a train wreck. Often, when a range of numbers was quoted, like "500-1,000" the dash was often omitted so the numbers often looked like this "5001,000". It's a minor error, to be sure, but it was consistent throughout the book. There were several glaring errors with the photo captions, especially with regards to tank types, which, considering Hellion's status as a publisher of military history, should be a little bit embarrassing. Volume 2 does clean up a number of these errors, but both volumes suffer from the authors going off on tangential topics that at times had me going on like "What the hell was the point of this?"

Also, I think the MSRP for the books is a bit high at $35.00. I got mine at $24.95 in the bargain bin at a wargaming convention. It's taken me a year to read them properly for a review.

It's not so much that the books are bad...it's that they could have really been so much better.

But, where does it come into play for a Twilight: 2000 miniatures gamer? For starters? If you're doing an RDF-based game or two set in the area around Bandar-y-Khomeini - Khormansharr and Avhaz, the terrain write-ups in the books are damn useful. It gives you an idea of what the terrain is like there, as well as the terrain further west in the Iraqi regions around the Shatt Al Arab.  This is also useful for roleplayers as well.

Also, if you're doing RDF-based miniatures games, the color plates are useful, as it gives you an idea of what Iranian and Iraqi equipment would look like. The climate and the terrain aren't the Arabian desert with unrelenting sand. It's more lots of hills and sand, with some marshland to the west, and that's going to a) create a different look to the vehicles, and b) be a very different war.

So, to sum up, I gotta give both books 3 out of 5 mushroom clouds, there's value there, but I have gotta admit, they're a bit overpriced for what you get IMO, and the editing could have and should have been better, especially in the first book.

New Show in the DC Metro Area

I wanted to keep people apprised of a new one day wargaming show attached to the National Capital Model Soldier Society's annual show in the DC area. I happen to know the organizer and he's determined to make this first show a success. Therefore, I am doing my bit to get the word out.

The show will be September 8th, and the wargaming area has 3100+ square feet attached to it, so it should be preemo gaming space for just about everything. If you happen to be in the DC area, and want to play, or even run an event, come on by. I have posted the flyer for the event here, so as to put out the word of this event.

So please, show up, and make this first of what I hope to be many events, a success.

The Writing Team is Growing!

Well everyone, we have a new Associate Writer here at "500 Miles..." Evil Von Scary is a long time fan of the blog, and his modeling efforts on the Twilight 2000 fp and workshop page on Facebook are both prolific, and a sight for the eyes.

Those are the reasons I asked (begged him, really), to join the staff of "500 Miles..". I asked him to talk about the kits he has worked on, the methods he has used, and to review the kits he has worked on.

I am still slogging through the Iran-Iraq books I mentioned previously, its a tough read, and it's engaged a minor pet peeve of mine. Proofreading matters. I know they cost money, but running a foreign language book through Google Translate and calling it done is not a way to proceed. Believe me, you'll please more customers in the long run if you are publishing anything for sale if you give it a few good edits.

Rant over, and I will try to keep them few and far between, but I really needed to get it off my chest.

Also, forgot to mention that Henry Hyde, author of the Wargaming Compendium (an exceptional book ANY wargamer should have on his shelf), as well as former managing editor for both Battlegames and Miniature Wargames magazine, mentioned us during a Q & A on his podcast on his Paetron page (its members only to hear the podcast, but we here at "500 Miles" encourage you to join up!) Thank you, Henry!