Pictures of real WW2 vehicles from Bastogne Barracks in Belgium.

Such a nice little museum....loved the tanks and vehicles, lovingly restored!

ISU-152

JS-3

Panzer IV

Matilda, Valentine, Sexton

Chaffee

Sherman 76

M-47 Patton, or a Hollywood Tiger tank

Gaming with Combined Arms, modern version of Command Decision WW2 rules

A-10's target Soviet armor.  We use 1/700 aircraft and 1/285 ground forces.

An M1 Abrams platoon destroyed by a Hind gunship.  Sadly, my Americans aren't painted for the European theater.

Some more 15mm armored goodness!

M-13/40 from Battlefront's line.

Semovente with long 75mm gun.  It took me quite awhile to apply the camouflage to this one. 

Super Pershing.  This one is a GaleForce 9 expansion kit for Tanks.  You can build the kit as a Pershing, or the Super Pershing.

I don't have pics of the completed kit.  I will add them later....since I have painted the MG's and other details since I took this picture.

TACAM R-2.  A Romanian tank destroyer model from Battlefront.  Cool little kit and it looks the business with the crew painted and decals added.  In the Tanks game, I use this as a Stug-IIIg for now...

The Romanians prepare to ambush the American armored column.  Must be some sort of alternate history here!

A Battlefront Pershing surveys the river valley below, scanning for targets.

Tanks! A battle near Messina, Sicily

A game of Tanks! (by GaleForce9) using my Italian paper village for some rather challenging scenery.  We played with two objectives that you can see on the town's main road.  Two Shermans and two M-10 tank destroyers against a Tiger and a Panther.  

The American are trying both flanks.

The Panther moves to contest an objective near the crossroads.

The M-10 tank destroyers didn't do that well.

The big cats close in for the kill.  Game over man, game over.

15mm Tanks added to my collection

A Zvezda Stug-IIIb, painted and decaled as a vehicle
 from the Grossdeutschland  Regiment

Zvezda Panzer 38T's ready to roll off to the Russian Front.

My first attempt to airbrush a tank.  A Panther tank.
This one is from the Tanks! Sherman versus Panther game.
I hate how the humidity gave me the puffy primer coat.
Oh well, still looks good on the table.

Decals for the 10th SS Frundsberg Division

My second airbrushed batch, this time King Tiger tanks for the 505th Schwere Panzerabteilung.  Once again, the models are from Zvezda.  These models were a joy to build and have plenty of detail.

An ersatz M10...A Panther disguised as an American tank destroyer ready to join 

Otto Skorzeny's detachment for Operation Autumn Mist!  

A beautiful resin and metal kit from Battlefront. I find these to be fiddly to build, 

but they do paint up nicely.

Tanks! A Brief Review

Tanks! by GaleForce9.  A simple game of tank combat.  It is like playing Star Wars X-Wing, but with WW2 tanks.  The game comes with 3 plastic model tanks in 15mm scale, 2 Shermans and a Panther/Jagdpanther.  You get cards for American, British, German and Soviet tanks in the box, as well as various upgrade, equipment, crew and ammo cards to kit out your armored force.  The game is good fun and can easily be played in under an hour.  Unlike X-Wing, you have to build and paint your tanks!  There are plenty of upgrades and it is easy to make your own cards for tanks not included in the game yet.  The game is played on a 3' x 3' surface.  Terrain is 2-dimensional and included in the game, but we often use our own 3d terrain items.  Initiative numbers determine the order in which the tanks move and shoot and high initiative is probably the biggest key to victory, other than a spot of luck!  My tank collection has been growing because of this little game.  Zvezda, PSC, Battlefront and others are good sources to add to your arsenal.  This was an early game in a campaign I am running for two groups.  Our groups have been having a good deal of fun playing this game.

A Panther tank explodes after a close range hit from a Sherman.

German bunker eats some high explosive.

A video of the burning Panther.