Monday 21 March 2016

Easter DLC Sale!


It's time for an Easter Sale!
Everything from Victory Works is included at a great 50% off so grab yourself a bargain or two.. or three.. or four!

Click on any picture below to go directly to each Steam page, or click here to see all Victory Works DLC on Steam.(note that this list doesn't seem to show discounts on everything, but if you go to a specific item then it does - silly Steam!)
































































Friday 18 March 2016

USATC S160: Rolling Stock, Part 3

As promised here is the final part of the rolling stock for the S160, all with a USSR and Eastern European angle.

In the last blog post we showed the USATC 56ft Flat Car, available in standard and 1520mm gauge with Willison couplings and they were shown loaded with US6 trucks.
But we've provided armour for the other allied S160's so it wouldn't be fair to leave out our Soviet friends and what could be more iconic than the T34 tank, the backbone of the wartime Russian armoured divisions.
But there were a few variants of the T34, so which one? Well 2 of them in fact - the T34/76 and the T34/85.



The tanks are shown chained and blocked to the flat cars but they are also available as static scenery and come with random numbering on the turrets.

The T34/76 was also used by the Polish and as we're including 2 Polish liveried S160's (the Tr201 and Tr203, pre and post war) there is also a version loaded with a tank with Polish insignia, the 56ft flat having hook couplings for this version.


Now we move on to a purely Russian wagon.
Shown here, the 20 ton flat car available with Willison or hook couplings and air brakes.


It features dyanmic numbering and can be set with the side panels in 4 different positions: all up, middle down, ends down, all down.


These were used to transport pretty much everything however we rather liked a picture of one carrying yet another piece of iconic Soviet weaponry - a rocket launching platform mounted on various types of truck, known as the Katyusha or "Stalin's Organ".


Although looking more like a pile of girders on top of a truck it was a very powerful weapon - arguably as important to the allied victory as the Spitfire or the Sherman tank. 10,000 of them were produced during WW2 and testing showed that just four of them could unleash the same firepower as 75 field guns onto a 1.5 square-mile patch of ground in less than half a minute. They could then relocate quickly to avoid counter attack.
Also loaded onto the 20 ton flat we have the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun. 2 of these are mounted facing each other and can be shown covered or uncovered using the flat cars dynamic numbering.


And finally to finish off both this post and a train of Russian cars, we have a WW2 era USSR brake van.


Also available with 1520mm and standard gauge wheels, and with Willison or hook couplings, the brake van features an animated handbrake and a guards view.
We have provided this in both brown and green liveries.


And that wraps things up for the stock side of the S160.

Next week we'll have one final post listing the exciting features of the S160 locomotive/s and a list of the full contents of the pack including the 10 scenarios covering 3 different routes - so it should have something for everyone.

Friday 11 March 2016

USATC S160: Rolling Stock, Part 2

It's Friday! And that must mean it's time for more rolling stock.

This time we focus on the USATC 56 ton Flat Car. Produced in huge numbers these were shipped all over the world for use by allied nations and were primarily used to carry vehicles, both soft skinned and armoured.

This is the empty version, available in all 4 styles of coupling and brake types, and with animated handbrakes.


Then we needed to add some appropriate loads to it.
We were very impressed last week when I showed a very blurry image of the flat with an armoured vehicle on it and within 2 minutes somebody had correctly called it: an M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyer. So we'll start with that one!

Available in Buckeye/Air, Hook/Air and Hook/Vacuum versions. The M10 is modelled with the turret facing the rear and the gun resting on it's travelling mount.
Note the blocks and chains used to secure all of the vehicles shown today - we don't use magic glue to attach 30 ton vehicles like some others might do ;-)


Next we move on to a British tank, the return of our old friend the Cromwell. A completely new model and texturing, again shown here on the USATC 56 ton flat and available in Hook/Air and Hook/Vacuum versions.


Although not available in anywhere close to the numbers that the M10 and Cromwell were at this point in the war we really wanted to provide a French tank to go alongside the 140U version of the S160. A small number of  Char B1 tanks were still being used by the Free French Forces in 1945 and so this tank is available on the 56 ton flat with Hook/Air fittings.


Finally for today on the 56 ton flat we have a vehicle produced in the hundreds of thousands which saw use all over the European theatre, the US6 truck.
Fitted for all 4 coupling and brake types (under lend lease agreement these trucks were shipped in large quantities to the USSR as well), and also in versions loaded singly or in pairs onto the 56 ton flat.



There are 5 versions of the truck and when the flat car is placed a random selection will be provided to give a great mix of stock on long consists.
The trucks are available as:
  • Open, filled with barrels
  • Covered
  • Open, with benches
  • Open, empty
  • Half covered, engineers equipment


All of the armour and trucks shown are also available as static items (without blocks and chains), valid for use in scenarios, so they can be used as scenery in your own creations.

Finally for today we have another old friend returning, the British Warwell. Originally provided with the Bulleid Q1 Add-on we wanted to give it a re-texturing and of course to make use of the new armour models, specifically those that would have been transported in Britain.




You may have noticed a distinct lack of Soviet equipment in today's blog post. That is because we will be showing all of the USSR equipment next week in the final rolling stock post. Some of it is very famous Soviet armour using the 56 ton flats we've looked at today. The rest is very specific to the USSR and we wanted to show it all together.

We've had a lot of people asking us when the S160 will be released. We can't give a time as yet but we are pleased to say that it will be going into testing very soon.

Friday 4 March 2016

USATC S160: Rolling Stock, Part 1

Over the past few weeks we have shown you all of the liveries for the S160 so now it's time to show the accompanying rolling stock.

We start off with a very unusual and very heavy load.
Of the 2120 S160's built, 200 of them were built for 1520mm gauge and shipped to the USSR. Named Ша (pronounced ShA) these locomotives built in the USA needed to be taken from the factory in Philadelphia to the coast for shipping however due to the difference in wheel gauge they couldn't simply be pulled on the track. So the locomotives and tenders were loaded onto flat cars and thanks to DTG allowing us to use their 40ft flat cars we have been able to reproduce this from a photograph provided by our Russian friend Artem.



One of the included scenarios has a consist of these being pulled by two S160's and banked (attached at the rear) by another!

Scenarios for the route are currently in progress and we can confirm that there will be scenarios for multiple routes using relevant liveried S160's so when purchasing the pack you will hopefully own at least 1 of the routes and have some pre-made scenarios to play.
There are also 68(!) included Quick Drives so even if you don't own the selected routes you will have a lot to play with.

Moving on with the rolling stock we have below the start of the USATC lend lease equipment. This was rolling stock produced in huge numbers in the USA and shipped all over the world to help the allies, like the S160 itself, and much of it remained in use after the war as countries began to rebuild.

The 9,900 gallon tank. These were used for transporting all kinds of fuel for ground vehicles and aircraft. We have created 3 liveries including one specifically for aviation fuel.
The tanks are available with hook and buckeye couplings and air braking, although we have 2 photographs showing Newport Ebbw Junction packed full with them prior to Operation Overlord so we expect that they were often pulled as unfitted stock as well using local British locomotives which were only fitted with vacuum brakes.


The USATC also produced many brake vans (cabooses) for use overseas and we have produced the simple 20 ton version made of a basic chassis topped with metal bracing and a thin plywood frame. Also available with hook and buckeye couplings and air braking, with a guards view and animated hand brake.


Hey Victory Works.. what's that blurry mess on the right of the last picture?
That's for next time! Let's just say, it's armour and leave it at that for now ;-)