I have a growing junk yard comprising nicely painted, but wrecked, vehicles. Nominally these are potential objectives for Crossfire, but I’ve only ever used one wreck. That was the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch for Papa Eicke. The rest of my junk yard are, well, waiting for inspiration for a Crossfire Scenario. These are all 15mm scale.
The junk yard
Like most of my kit, I store my wrecks in a Really Useful Box.
So far I have nine wrecks in my junk yard.
British / Commonwealth Wrecks
Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – British has two British wrecks:
- 241. Destroyed Sherman
- 565. Universal carrier destroyed.
I’ve only got the universal carrier. Painted by Simon Field.
Flames of War had one wreck in their catalogue:
- XX502 Destroyed Sherman III (Out of production)
Luckily I got this model before it went out of production. It is perfect for my Kiwi Armour in Italy. As I said in that post, “My chosen vehicle is that of Major Parkinson, the OC of C Squadron, 18 Armoured Regiment. This Sherman was disabled in December 1943. Admittedly Parkinson’s tank did not have the turret knocked off, but I thought it was cute to have a specific vehicle in mind.” Again this was painted by Simon Field.
German Wrecks
The first of my wrecks was a crashed Fiesler Storch from Kerr and King. Kerr and King have unfortunately gone out of business so this model is now out of production. Roland Davis is a bit of an aircraft guy and kindly painted this model for me.
Because I got the Storch model, I had to find a use for it, hence:
There are several wrecks amongst the Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – Germans:
- 322. SDKFZ 251 Destroyed
- 376. Pz III Destroyed
- 404. Tiger 1 destroyed
- 510. Destroyed Kubelwagens
- 528. PZIV Destroyed (early F1)
- 529. PZ IV Destroyed (Late H) R
I’ve got both the Panzer III and the Tiger 1. Simon Field painted both. For some reason I only took close ups of the Tiger.
Japanese Wrecks
I have the only wreck from Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – Japanese:
- 282. Japanese destroyed tankette
I figure this is a Type 97 Te-Ke Tankette, given the only other option from Peter Pig (281. Japanese type 97 Te-Ke tankette). Again painted by Simon Field.
Soviet Wrecks
Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – Russians has three wrecks:
- 312. Russian destroyed T34/85
- 575. Destroyed T34. Early version
- 576. Destroyed T34 later version
I got the early war T34 and featured it in my post Knocked out T-34. I painted it.
US Wrecks
Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – US has three wrecked vehicles:
- 241. Destroyed Sherman
- 313. Destroyed jeep
- 726. Destroyed M3 half track
I got the jeep. Once again painted by Simon Field.
Portuguese Wrecks
- 36. Destroyed Mercedes
As a bit of rest from the general WW2, here is my Portuguese Colonial War wreck.
I posted about painting the windscreen of my Wrecked Portuguese staff car. The photo below is an example of using a wreck for aesthetic reasons.
Steven’s Convoy for the Portuguese Colonial War
Help Wanted
Please let me know if you have any other suggestions for how to use my wrecks
What are wrecks good for?
Okay, so I have a lot of wrecks. What are they good for? Well, they could be on table for aesthetic reasons, as objectives, or misdirection.
Part of the reason I collected the wrecks is they are quite nice models. Those painted by Simon Field are particularly fine. You might not be able to see it from the photos but he has painted flowers around the destroyed vehicles. Anyway, I could add wrecks to the table just for aesthetic reasons.
The Papa Eicke Scenario is an example of using a wreck as an objective, which made for a remarkably fine game. So I could use my wrecks to feature in a scenario.
Finally, I could use a wreck as a form of misdirection. Make the wreck an objective, then mid-game change the victory conditions to something else. For example, while checking for survivors at a destroyed tank, the patrol discovers an enemy attack.
Very nice!
They are beautiful! Suggestions. 1. Unexpected. Scenario similar to the well-known film “Fury” (An apparently destroyed tank turns into a trap..). 2. Objective (recovery of the vehicle or of the wounded or bodies of the fallen or of the battle plans..). 3. Terrain element. (minefield, no man’s land,…).
You put love into your wreckage – nice!
Hi Steven, your passion and your posts have given me many hours of inspiration and happiness. Very much appreciated, especially in the lonelier times. To my mind, a freshly smoking wreck indicates a narrative foreshadowing of doom for that lone combat patrol! Nothing like a freshly smoking wreck with bodies strewn around to give a player pause. Perhaps a zeroed-in anti-tank weapon with a bonus to hit within a certain radius of the wreck., or a recent airstrike [look out for enemy air] … I’d use them primarily for narrative frippery to set/upset the mood – players should never relax with a wreck around, even an old one [clearly its a sniper’s nest]. Alternatively, an old battlefield strewn with wrecks does give a certain flavour, especially if you are attempting the same tactical problem their commander did. Thanks for the inspiration, bro.
I just found another blog post on wrecks. The Tactical Painter: Telling a story with vehicle wrecks. His are bigger and rustier, but look fantastic.