WWII British Vehicles. (Western Desert)

Just as a break from the show report and before I type up our game (which both sides claim the other has won)>  here are some WW2 Western Desert vehicles. While they were originally British so many items were used by each side that perhaps it is not as clear cut as that.

Starting with an SHQ Vickers mark 6 The light tank Mk 6 was produced by Vickers Armstrong while not the best tank of the time by any means it did serve quite adequately until it was replaced.  This is an old model and has been painted by me three times (this being the last time). The model is by SHQ and does come in a variety of makes each with different weapons. This is the Mark c and is part of  my old collection repainted. LINK (http://www.shqminiatures.co.uk ).


I have also finished a Tilley. this is by Frontline Wargaming (http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/) And is one of the smaller ww2 vehicles that was used in the western desert. It also had far more commercial use and was used as a shop van as often as not. But in the western Desert you used what you could and while you may complain it was better than walking. Perhaps used as a staff car or more likely a crew transport it is quite easy to imagine these being all over North Africa and being used by every side.


 It was used as a shop van in civilian life perhaps delivering bread or perhaps used to carry workers to dig up the road. However in the Western Desert it could be anything from a staff car to a light tow to bomb disposal or even carry a mortar and crew across the desert. Yes and some were used as staff cars as well.

Just a useful light truck used in the war and for many years afterwards .

The Tilly is by Frontline wargaming and the MK 6 is by SHQ. Just click the links to be taken to them each respectively. I will do a battle report in 2 days time to finish the Broadside show off. That's for looking and with luck I will see you soon.

All the best Clint

Re-purpose, re-use-recyle, RE-PANT!

AFTER

😎 I will let you decide am I a tight skinflint or an eco freak!  The truth is it just does not matter.  Here are my latest 20mm (1/72nd Scale) Western Desert Vehicles. I have taken 2 vehicles I was not using and repainted them to be 2 vehicles I intend to  use.

BEFORE

A quick re-purpose and they are ready to go. Clearly these are Horch Personnel transporters and were used where the German army went in WW2.

The models are by FRONTLINE WARGAMING ( LINK ) So depending on the year and where you want to fight WW2 they can be quite a variety of colours and Markings. In the new versions I have settled on Western Desert where they were used Typically they would carry a squad of troops but they could also be used as tows pulling either light antitank or Infantry guns or trailers of supplies. Quite versatile and frequently used much more so than any tank!


I have also lost the bases but generally they remain the same.

While they will not be a huge influence in the outcome  of a wargame they are quite important as they allow players to appreciate how troops arrive ready to fight.

So Far I have done German soft skins but I do have a couple of British/Commonwealth vehicles in paint as we read this. So the British will be coming next week. Barring accidents.

Until then have a great weekend and enjoy the sun, if it is sunny where you are.
Best Wishes Clint

 

Grubby tanks German Radio truck. (1/72)

Over the Christmas period (I forget exactly the date). Pete at the club gave me a HEAVILY undercoated Opel Blitz  radio truck that he got as part of a job lot. So he passed it on to me. And this is how it turned out.

I must say I was pleased with the result. Yes parts could have been done a little better and if I was a modelmaker I probably would have. Taken more care. None the less it has come out OK.

Here is a link (Link) to where one can be bought.

I think Peter  will be both pleased and surprised with how it has come out. While I have no current use for it. I do have plans! Ssssh say no more in case they don't come to fruition. Several previous plans have failed to materialise. Still enough of that.

All equipment in the desert in WW2 was used by all sides so it is possible this may be used as British as I have deliberately left all insignia off.

I am in 2 minds whether to put it on a base. for now I will not but do not be at all surprised if in later posts I do! I will see if I can find any suitable MDF 2mm bases at the show on Sunday.
So time will tell if this gets a base or not.

One thing I do know is that there are very few 20mm manufacturers/sellers at the show (I think just 2, but I am willing to be surprised and wrong!)

I have included 4 pics so an all round view might be achieved. It just gives it a better three dimensional look.

Looks wise I wanted it to look used and abused. So I have weathered it appropriately, after all not so many car washes in the Desert! (At least not in war time).

Thanks for looking.

For those going to Broeadside I will be taking some fudge (Made it yesterday) BUT supplies are not inexhaustible so maybe only a taster!

With luck see you there.

And if not take care and enjoy the weather/election/whatever.

All the best Clint

Progress (2 steps back)

At the moment it if 2 steps back for one step forward. However this will change very soon. Since yesterday I have (working in an unventilated garage) given each hex tile an undercoat. This should get them all to the same colour. (Fingers crossed we will see how it dries)!!

Yes there are issues. I had to paint over the existing flock which has left some bumps. Also as I had previously varnished some Wadis they are some what smooth. But at least they are all now the same colour. And Being the same colour is an excellent place to start. The Previous version (shown on the right) was a mix of colours. Now as you can see it is all one colour. This means that I am able to make some more tiles as well and they will fit in perfectly.

The next stage will take a while so no more quick updates.
I have to purchase enough flock in desert colours to add sufficient vegetation everywhere. While this WILL be time consuming I am not even tempted to do any work on it until at least 2 weeks.

That is it for today. Thanks for looking

All the best Clint

I am inspired

Yes this is a LONG term project bought back to life. NOT a new project but 25-30 years old!

Yes that long ago I started planning and working on this project, now It has finally got the go ahead... yes it could have gone faster.

1/200th or 10mm wargaming western desert.

Most of my old stuff in Skytrex and I do not think is still even produced. Let me know if It still is. I may well place an order. Not that I want much at all.

What I like about the Western Desert in WW2 is many fold. Firstly no single side had all the advantages. There was no big heavy tanks and as everyone used anything they could get their hands on no side can claim equipment superiority.  As see to the right a British tank being used by the Germans. Captured  use of trucks was of course far more common with a typical convoy having British, Italian and German trucks no matter the owners nationality.

In the next few weeks/months I will be re-making my desert boards I purchased the paint this morning! Here  is a pic of what it is currently like. I know not everyone like hex boards but they should work very well for the PBI rules I intend to use. As you can see several different sand colours were originally used as one "tester" pot ran out I switched to another. But instead I have purchased a 2.5 litre pot and intend to create them all in the same shade of desert.

This inspiration has come from several sources and the strong desire to actually finish this project.

I have raked out some of my OLD (Very old) figures and while the Infantry are just no good several of the vehicles are.

I have 1 0r 2 Companies of British 8th army infantry ready to start as well as Lee's Honeys, Valantines and a number of German vehicles as well. So while I will inevitably do some updates at least you know what I am working on when all is quiet!

CV33 (or L3)

Yes the tankette has more than one name.  It is the Italian tankette, a 2 man armoured vehicle armed with twin machine guns. Some were flame thrower equipped but they were quite rare from what I am lead to believe.

The model is by Frontline (LINK) wargaming and cast in Resin. The hull and the tracks are cast separately so some supergluing is required. But not much!

While it was used in the Spanish Civil war this is for my Western Desert Chain of Command forces. Which will be expanded on this year. (Crosses fingers and hopes not to get side tracked).

Again the reason for Chain of Command is the reliance on infantry and not heavy armour. You are more likely to be able to field an armoured car than a tank for example.

The bottom picture is clearly a real one and not a model, and is included for those that are not familiar with the vehicle.

That's it for today. I should have a Japanese ww2 Platoon finished by Thursday so I will try to show it then. So until Thursday take care, have fun and paint if you get the opportunity!

Best Wishes Clint

NAC SQUAD 1

Very occasionally I get some 15mm Stargrunt painted. It is a long process and one from which I do get side tracked incredibly easily! But now as I have finished my FSE (Federal States Europa) Platoon I have started my NAC (New Anglican Confederation) forces. At present I do not have much but I can see it expanding rapidly in the run up to Christmas.

While I prefer the look of the Ghurkha Squads and will be concentrating on them it is always worth having some normal squads. And this is a Normal squad.

8 men in a squad mostly armed with the L7a3 Individual weapon. (Advanced Assault rifle with grenade launcher). 2 support weapons are also with each squad, far right is a L5 Binary propellant light machine gun and (one in from the right) is a L18 Portable guided missile launcher.

I have yet to do a squad transport for them, but expect that this week.

The figures are Ground Zero Games ( https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/ ) 15mm Stargrunt figures. Painted for a desert world (In my Head Called "Burnett's Folly") so a couple of stripes of camouflage on the outfits and some light green to break up the guns. (Yes I could have painted the guns the same as the uniforms but decided that a little contrast might be a good thing.)

And when I get a platoon sized force complete I will happily do a group shot.

Thanks for looking today, all the best Clint

Burpa batch 2 finished.

yep with slightly cooler weather I am able to paint more so I have finished the second batch of Burpas for Matt.

Now I could stretch these over a couple of days, but as they are done I see no reason not to show them as soon as possible.

Starting of we have a mounted leader on a palomino pony. I think this may be one of the few times that I have painted a palomino and I like the way it has come out. Not perfect of course but acceptable. This leader has striped trousers, a red jacket and Green Turban. a white sash and an orange waistcoat/under-jacket. As a leader I wanted to keep the colours quite rich and exciting as he would have a better share of any money or if a bandit any loot!

The next 5 are somewhat duller in colour and would be more run of the mill foot soldiers. They are all Foundry figures in 28mm from a variety of ranges but all suitable for North West Frontier, or Saharan adventure games. Two wear sheepskin jackets to keep out the cold in the mountains (Far left and far right) or the desert at night.

Overall they have come out quite well in all regards. And I will be able to give them back to Matt on Sunday at the club. And then he can give me some more to paint. So expect more Burpas in the next few weeks.

This gives me a  day to paint something for myself or maybe to carry on with the steam tank... Not sure what I will attempt next for me, I do have some Dark age 15mm figures that are calling out and some WW2 in 15mm that are also shouting my name.

And the final picture is them all in this batch together.  You will be able to blow the figure up quite large on screen and see all the mistakes that I make. I ask you NOT to point them out as I am already aware of them.

All the best Next post on Monday.

Dust clouds

Some of you may remember my desire to do some 1/300th scale Arab Israeli wars as I harken back to my youth. Well I have moved it ever so slightly forward as a Project. Yes I have painted 2 SU 100
Soviet Tank Destroyers used by the Egyptian army in the wars up to and including the 1973 Yom Kippur war. So that is an extra 2 vehicles done.

Also I think I have found the rules I like. Simple enough for big battles yet detailed enough to have a good fun game. The rules in Question being "Cold War Commander." The rules do cover most actions from 1946 to about 2010. But you may have to do some slight research to get balanced forces and NOT use vehicles out of period with other countries. For example some WW2 tanks, APCs and artillery were being used in the Yom Kippur war including German Panzer Mk 4s but the main front line troops were not using them very much at all. Also the famous Russian T34-85 was being used by both Egypt and Israel (Israel captured about 300 from the war of 1967 and they were used but only in desperation as the main Israeli tanks were either British Centurions or US M48 Pattons) and while the rules do give a very good place to start the army lists are very broad in regard to who can have what. But seriously nothing that a little background reading on the Net would not sort out, that is UNLESS you have players who want to always have the best equipment in unlimited numbers..... We have all come across them I am sure.)

 One of the things about the desert is the fact that vehicles moving (Particularly if moving fast) tend to have dust trails following them. I stole this idea shamelessly from BIG LEE LINK and I hope he does not mind me sharing it and does not want to batter me for doing so!

So following Big Lees example I decided to make my own.

This was done in a very few easy steps.

Firstly MDF bases were used, although you could use other types of bases and for bigger scales that is probably the right thing to do. To the MDF bases, some "Woodlands Scenes" Clump foliage was super glues.

Once dried I watered down some PVA white wood glue. (Which is technically a resin ("Resin W" if you want to know) ) I then soaked the clump foliage in the watered down PVA and left it for a couple of weeks. This allowed for thorough drying and... (Yeah it was up the garden shed and I forgot about it!I will confess!)

But Once dry it had a solid texture and not spongy like Clump foliage usually is. So once dry I sprayed the bases with Grey Primer. Other colours are available it was just what I had available. Then I used two Highlights to colour the dust clouds. Starting with the desert floor colour and then adding about 50% white for the second coat.

The grey still shows through and the desert colours tie the dust clouds to the terrain and setting.

Other than drying time (which was long... too long really as I forgot about them) the 15 dust clouds took about 45 minutes from start to finish.

Simply placing one behind a vehicle will tell me if it has mover either this turn or last turn.  Which may alter its chance to hit or be hit when firing occurs.

A simple game addition which will remind me if the vehicle has moved and will look the part in game without distracting from the look of the game.

Thanks for looking today.
I may not post for a couple of days as I am about to start a conversion and I dislike doing work in progress blog posts.

Cheers Clint