Blimey!!!! They are doneeeeeee!!!!

Okay,

if you have followed this blog you know I had started a 15mm WW2 British North Western Europe project sometime ago. I stopped posting the progress because I was lazy... but I did not stop working on it.

End result:

Three infantry platoon, one MG platoon in carriers, one Carrier platoon (only two sections plus comman), one AT platoon with 6pdrs, one Motor platoon, assorted engineers, a 25pdrs section, a whole load of AFVs...

I also removed the QRF Churchills (now replaced by PSC ones) and the QRF Achilles, now with two plastic BF ones proudly taking its place. Of course I can add more... but to be quite honest, I am satisfied with painting battledress...

The 'funny' thing is that this horde of troops has more or less never been planned. I was expecting myself to limit myself ot US troops for the NWE campaign. But then I received some leftovers from a friend (I painted his British troops) and started to add small bits... usually in plastic. Actually almost the whole force is plastic!!! Plastic fantastic (I like to build plastic vehicles, they paint better than lead or resin, they are much lighter for storage). Now let's go into details.

A squadron of comet from the 11th Armoured Division, FOW plastic. Two Squadron command tanks, two troops of three Comet each. I know it is a marginal WW2 tank as employment goes, but...

1) I like it
2) It was used.
3) I want my 1945 version of the force to have a specific character.

Mixed picture, you can see one of the PSC infantry platoon on FOW rural bases, and the artillery units. Two FOW lead 25pdrs (quite old, I think I forgot about them, but they ended up quite well), on PSC quad, one PSC OP Carrier, one PSC Sherman V as OP. And load of tanks... you can see the PSC Churchills, the Comet and the line up of Shermans.

Lovely PSC Churchill AVRE with its petard mortar, and the PSC AT platoon; guns and Loyd carriers. Behind the ATs, the FOW plastic motor platoon.

Center stage for the Carrier unit. The Carriers are a mix of FOW (old the initial leftovers!) and PSC.  Infantry are a mix of FOW and PSC.  Behind them Joe Vandeleur command unit, and 2 FOW resin M5 Stuarts.

The Motor platoon again, the Churchills (three gun tanks one CS), the two Achilles and Shermans!

 
Tank photo shot.

FOW plastic infantry in close up.

For a project started with leftovers from a friend's commission (let's be honest, one Matador truck, two carriers, 10-15 infantrymen, two Fireflys...) it has gained traction, mainly due to the attractiveness of plastic.

The Sherman line, two FOW resins in the foreground, the rest are PSC, 75mm or Fireflys.

One last tribute to my madness!! Now I only need to bring them on the table!

Something... unplanned!

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

again some update from the Forward HQ. First something that I was not even supposed to do. I had some old QRF M48 tanks painted (twice I am afraid...) at least a decade ago sitting around and unused. I was thinking to get rid of them via gift or donation or even LAF forum sales...  then I got struck by the idea to try to do something new. I had some stuff that could be thrown together in a small Jordanian force (I hate when people says 'army') for 1967 and 73 and decided to give it a try.

For once the pictures are even good! I know the model itself is not perfect, but it looks the part and the new camo works, at least for me, quite well. It has now been joined by two other friends (making an M48 tank platoon and an armoured infantry platoon for the 70s (with US helmets and M16, themselves recycled PP Vietnam US Infantry).

British Armour, Part 2

Well,

Saturday was another decent days so I was able to take pictures, and the first Sherman V platoon of the Irish Guard is here  for your perusal.


What you see is a typical 1944 British tank platoon, with three 75mm tanks and on firefly, the Firefly not being the command tanks for obvious reasons (big gun, prime target). Again they are Plastic Soldiers Company models this thime with some added Skytrex stowage. The latter is  a really good pack; it is available both through Old Glory and Skytrex and gives you tarpaulins, bundled Camo nets, fueld drums, jerrycans, and boxes. I have been informed Will and his PSC design elves are doing something similar for PSC but at first it will be released in 20mm...

Anyway back to the models. Basically you get five Shermans with two options per Sherman: 75mm gun or 17 pdr gun. You have two different hull and two different turrets. As usual for PSC tanks they fit together very easily and building them is a pleasure. As you can see from the pictures the level of detail is high.

Again, as usual when PSC is concerned, I cannot fault them  for anything. Ok, I could have complained about having only basic stowage, but it is not too bad.

 Here you can see the details of the added stowage.

Here it is even better (and with better focus). The decals are from PSC too. They are quite easy to work with, but... well I have a complain. The tactical markings are not soo many. They seems to have been designed more for Rapid Fire than for 1 to 1 representation and leave you a bit short of specific Squadron markings.  As an additional note... when I was placing the tanks back in their shelves my inattention caused a potential disaster... by sheer bumbling (shades of one of my literary alter egos, Major Bumblejones...) I had one of the tanks falling to the floor. I was about to scream in horror (and then cry). No need, being plastic the tanks was completely safe, not even chipping on the paint...

One last parting shot!

Beside the 4 Shermans in that photo shoot I also took out an oldie. A Quick Reaction Force Achilles tank destroyer. you know my relationships with QRF, some of the models are excellent, some not so much. The Achilles is on the plus side. It comes with crew and has some stowage already casted on. The HMG is a bit poor, but the model itself is crisp and nice, if a bit plain (no big rivets!).

I put it ona spare Kerr and King base I had at the time because it was an one off model and I wanted to add some personality.

 I think it does the right job.

Well for the first tank platoon this is all.

See you for the next post...

Further troops get ready to move to Kiev...

as usual in my 15mm world...

Anyway I promised to show the infantry supporting my British armoured force and yesterday also promised to put some pictures on the blog. Thus without any further ado,  after having found a decent day to take pictures and following my usual laziness in  posting here we are. QRF contemporary UK troops for your perusal.

I like them even if the pictures, being quite extreme close ups do not give them justice, also they show how bad the close up of a 15mm multicam is...  anyway the problem is that if you look very close the multicam resembles a DPM in 15mm.

I have created this force to be used in Force on Force and Cold War Commander. Thus I have gone with some group bases (3x3 cm ones with 3 figures) accompanied by  fire team leaders and other support figures (Plt Commander, Sergeants, RT operator) based singly. 

Here are some group shots of the entire force, the Armored Infantry Platoon and the Tank Troop together.

In these group pictures I  hope the DPM is showing a bit better. Anyway this project is done. I have the Javelin teams to paint (I will do them even if they are not platoon assets) but the large majority of the force is, finally, done. I really like both Challengers 2 and Warriors. They have been nice to paint. The same cannot be said for the infantry. As much I am satisfied with the final results painting them has been a chore. Still the character of today British infantryman seems to be here. One thing I have to admit is that the British Camo scheme is not really good if your camera decides to put up its flash anyway.  I will take some other pictures soon(ish) but I really wanted to share this, completed, project.  

Some words on it. This relatively little project has been an eye opener. It started around 10 years ago, if not more, as a small British force to be played with AK 47 (original) in my Aftermath Iran setting (a weird thing with Russians, Western Troops, pretty aliens with mecha, and mad mullahs). It was based on AK467 so much less mechanized. With time it moved to Battlefront WW2 Cold WAr version, CWC and other rules. expanding, shrinking, expanding again.  The stuff sat unpainted in my storage boxes for years. In the end it was done. but how many forces you need for a project? There was a time I was happily playing platoon sized stands in 15mm, nowadays I think that 6mm and 3mm are much, much better for that.  I have entertained the idea of doing company sized 1 to 1 forces for post war... but let's face it. Even with my 6x4 table a company of Charlie 2 will look cramped. I realized that trying to cram my panzer and soviet tank companies for WW in the same table. I realized that for my table 15mm companies are fine if they are infantry with armoured support again 6mm works better for tank actions. On the other hands platoons are fine. I have finally reached the point where I am confident in what a table could manage without too much scale distortion. And for 1945+ mechanized warfare is a couple of platoon at most. This also ties nicely with money. As much 15mm is still convenient tanks are still not cheap (except for Will and his PSC stuff...).  Thus all my forces are being tailored to this approach. WW2 infantry companies are fine, but the vehicles are scaled down a notch. I will keep you posted on this process.