I suppose I should explain what a Bronekater is. Basically these are Soviet armoured river gunboats (literally Armoured Boat). In the mid 20th Century rivers were particularly important transport arteries in central and eastern Europe, mainly because the road networks were either poor or non existent. The Soviets took controlling these rivers very seriously, and produced a series of small armed gunboats to patrol and protect them. In typical straight forward fashion they simply mounted a medium tank turret on a small, shallow draught gunboat hull, giving the Bronekaters a rather beefy main armament considering their modest size. The turrets retained their original armour, and other areas such as wheelhouse got between 8 and 14mm of armour plate - probably enough to stop small calibre hits but not a lot more. Bronekaters had rather a busy war, with almost 250 built and fighting on rivers and coastal waters, supporting landings and putting troops ashore. There were two main versions, the Project 1124, weighing in at around 50 tons and having two turrets and the slightly smaller Project 1125 at about 36 tons with one turret. Lengthwise they were between 75-80 ft long, about the same as a late Vosper or PT boat. Both versions had armament variations including mounting Katyusha style rocket launchers to give support fire to landings.
Given all that, they are a strange choice for a game about fast attack craft, but I suppose they did serve on Lake Lagoda and could have encountered the German and Italian fast attack boats there. For whatever reason Warlord have 4 types listed in their stat charts for the Soviets in Cruel Seas, three listed as early, middle and late "Bronekaters", and the fourth as Project 1125. The stats are suspiciously generic, but it is safe to say the 1124 is represented by the "Bronekaters" and the 1125 is self evident, even though it looks like Warlord got the speeds and some of the other stats wrong.
So what options are there available for those of us who don't want to wait or who feel like looking somewhere else for our Bronekaters?
First up, and very definitely the bargain option, is Heroics & Ros in 1:300. It is part of their vast WW2 land range. This is a simple 3 part metal model of the Project 1125, with one T34 turret, and a couple of cast on MG turrets. Detail is ok, if a bit soft. the real eye opener is the price, at only £2 each they are a very good choice for those of us on a budget. Their website is a bit disappointing, with no pics, but when you look at the range that may be excusable. If you are ordering anything from H&R for Cruel Seas remember to pick up some of their WW2 AA guns from the 1:300 land ranges. Again lack of pics is an issue but not insurmountable.
Next is Scotia - Grendel from their "Ship to Shore" range. Again in 1:300, this is a resin hulled model with metal details, and it is the earlier \ larger Project 1124. This comes with two T34 turrets plus a twin AAMG turret, and some masts and ventilators. Casting quality is nice and crisp, but on the one I got I think they have miss packed one of the T34 turrets which is different to the first and doesn't fit the hole in the hull. Even so this is a nice model, but quite pricey compared to the H&R model 1125 at £9. On the other hand this is still quite a hansom boat and the only Project 1124 I'm aware of, so is probably worth picking up. Like H&R they produce these models mainly as an adjunct to their 1:300 land range but the selection is much more extensive and there are several models in there that may be useful for Cruel Seas. They do mostly have pictures of the Ship to Shore stuff, and they also have some useful AA guns and crews to augment any Cruel Seas models.
Last up is very much the best. This is the GHQ Project 1125 in 1:285 scale. GHQ are by far the best micro scale manufacturer out there, with a level of detail most 28mm manufacturers would be envious of. GHQ actually do two versions of the 1125, an early one with a T28 turret, and a later one with a T34 turret. I got the T28 version just to be different. Both models come with an optional rocket rack (bonus). The models are metal and detail is exquisite, but you do pay for that, with a GHQ 1125 costing £11.90 in the UK from Wargames Emporium, or around $17 direct from GHQ. Being 1:285 rather than 1:300 is not that much of an issue. The only criticism is that some of the masts and MG turret barrels are very thin and will almost certainly get damaged if not handled carefully, but you do get spares of each in the blister.
Here are all three side by side. Top is the Scotia Project 1124, middle the (still unpainted) GHQ Early Project 1125, and bottom the Heroics & Ros Project 1125.
I'm aware of one other model of the Project 1125 but I decided not to look at it. Zvezda has one in plastic available from their Art of Tactic game, but it is in 1:350 scale and may be a bit too small given the size of the models a difference from 1:300 to 1:350 will be noticeable. If that doesn't bother you they're available on ebay for about £3-4 each.
This is a really hard choice. If I had unlimited budget I would go with GHQ and Scotia, however it's impossible to overlook the sheer value of the H&R models (they do a G5 , D3 and BMO as well). Warlord have not as yet revealed how much they will be selling their Project 1125 model for - the only comparison so far is the Japanese T14 MTB which they are bundling together as a blister at 4 for £15.
Of course these all do not come with the wake markers and data cards that Warlord will be supplying. That should not really be an issue as if you have the rules you will probably have enough wake markers and the stat cards will be easy to produce. The Warlord model has not been released yet, but when they become available I plan to do a side by side comparison.
I should add that all three companies also do aircraft suitable for use with Cruel Seas.
If you like this sort of thing and want to get notified of any future posts please click on the "follow" button top right.
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment