1980s “Modern" Warfare - a nostalgia project

As often happens when I get to Autumn my thoughts turns to what I’ll be working on for the rest of this year and what new projects to look at for the year to come.  This year I’ve been quite focused, and a combination of clearing the backlog and buying very little that needs doing, has left me in a good place to start something new.  There’s a few projects that have been on the to-do list for a while, but the one I’ve decided to kick off in what remains of 2024 is a 1980s Cold War "what if?" project.

Being of a certain age and long being interested in military matters, I remember very clearly what seemed the continuous threat and fear of an enemy horde advancing across Europe from the east.  Not much changes does it?  However, current events aside it did have an impact on my formative years.  Being primarily an aircraft modeller at the time I made models of lots of service aircraft like Harrier, Jaguars, Phantoms, Tornadoes and A-10s and also some contemporary tanks.  I also remember poring over the WRG 1950-85 rules in what nowadays would be classed as ultra-modern.  I never got round to gaming the period then as other distractions took me away from wargaming. 

Since returning to the hobby a decade later the 1980s has been one of those periods that I've periodically looked at and accumulated rules for.   These range from the incredibly involved Challenger rules that were comtemporary with the time through Force on Force and then Team Yankee which couldn't be more different to Challenger.  Nothing has really hit the mark

However, that has changed since I recently picked up Battlegroup Northag and it’s been the catalyst to finally get started.  I've long waffled on that most of my 15-28mm games are set at platoon with some support level, and I've wanted a different level of engagement for any new project.  Northag is set at that larger company/multiple platoon level. 

Having decided on rules, scale was next.  Northag was written for 10 or 15mm and is armour-centric.  To field a basic Soviet force you’ll need 20+ vehicles. Although there's all the lovely Battlefront kit available in 15mm, I don't have the playing space for this size game in 15mm.  On my playing surface, the games would be one of those those unrealistic tank park things you see.  Also, the cost is beyond the budget I want to spend for this project.  10mm would be slightly better but for any of the Timecast, Pendraken or Red3 vehicles I’d be spending about £80 just on Soviet vehicles.  When you add in infantry, aircraft, helicopters and also the NATO side it’s going to be a good few hundred pounds.

Having worked through the options 1/300th (6mm) was the only viable scale.  I had a few Heroics & Ros and Butlers Printed Models afvs from when I’d looked at this a few year ago.  I preferred the H&R.  I also had some Scotia Grendel Soviet afvs from my South African Border Wars project, which I also liked, so I knew the manufacturers to use.  I ordered up samples from H&R of the vehicles that I didn’t have from Scotia, so I could then choose which manufacturer I preferred for each vehicle.  I’m now at the position where I can work out my initial British and Soviet forces and get them ordered.  I’ve already got some suitable buildings I can use which is an additional reason for going with 6mm.  

I’ve thought about this project on and off for so many years it’s great to finally be starting.  There’s a massive sense of nostalgia involved: I'm going to include aircraft (I was an aircraft modeller before armour and figures); my cousin served as a driver in Scorpions; and H&R 1/300th was the first “proper” wargames models I had and played with (albeit Second World War).  I’m hoping that due to the simplicity of many of the paint jobs and working in the small scale, that I’ll be getting this on the table sooner than I usually do with many of my projects.