Tuesday, November 29, 2016
1943 British - Motor Anti-tank Platoon
I've completed the next platoon for my 1000pt 1943 British Motor Company - a Motor Anti-tank Platoon of 6pdr portees with a dismounted option.
Since Battlefront don't have anti-tank crew in their Italian Campaign range, I've reused some of my old 8th Army crew, with shorts converted into trousers using Milliput to make them better match the rest of the figures.
I have found very little information about the use of portees in Italy. For the camouflage scheme, I have largely based it on the standard 3-ton truck pattern, with further inspiration taken from video of the United Nations Parade in Cairo, 1943 (portees appearing at 2:45). I've painted the racked ammunition boxes in SCC2 brown to provide a point of contrast.
The portees in that video are on the Bedford QL chassis, whereas the Battlefront model is a Ford F60 - unfortunately I have no idea of the prevalence of each type, and there don't appear to be any Bedford-mounted 6pdr portees in 15mm anyway. A conversion of a QLT kit might be possible, but we'll leave that challenge for another project.
I still have three carriers and the Company HQ to paint. I've painted the remainder of the infantry and only need to base them, so things are looking like they're on track for completion over the next week.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
But First, a Slight Diversion
In December the club is holding a themed FOW one-dayer in memory of Nick Garden, who passed away last year. I have taken a slight detour from my preparation for ValleyCon in order to put something together for it.
The theme is Italy in 1943, at 1000pts. This is a huge challenge, mainly due to the price of armour. A lot of the tanks you would expect to see at this stage of the war (British Shermans, Panzer IV H, StuG III G) are all 150+ points each, making them prohibitively expensive. The exceptions are the Americans and Canadians, who both get 115pt Shermans. I expect this will lead to seeing mostly infantry companies, with a lot of lightweight armour: Stuarts, M10s and Marders. There may be a few StuGs, though, as they can be bought in pairs. Hopefully some armoured cars, too.
Without the time to research, acquire any new models and build a force specifically for the event, I decided that the best approach for me to take was to spin the infantry teams I am painting for ValleyCon into something out of North Africa, bolting on other platoons from my existing collection, so that in the process I'm still working towards what I need for January.
My first instinct was to put together a Rifle Company and Night Attack my way through the event, but while it's a solid option it didn't seem like a whole lot of fun and would have required painting up a large number of additional teams. So instead I will be taking a Motor Company, because this just requires two PIAT teams and two extra Bren teams over and above the teams I am already working on, adding some kits from the stash and repainting some of my older models to suit. And for some illogical reason I have decided that it absolutely must include a 440pt platoon of Shermans...
I had the necessary transport for the CHQ and infantry platoons in the stash, which I have painted up in Light Mud/Blue Black camouflage and markings for 1st Rifle Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, and based to match the infantry.
And I have refreshed an old troop of Sherman IIIs to match, with markings for 5th RTR.
I still have the portees and carriers to repaint, plus the infantry to finish, but this shouldn't be too much of a stretch with three weeks to go.
The theme is Italy in 1943, at 1000pts. This is a huge challenge, mainly due to the price of armour. A lot of the tanks you would expect to see at this stage of the war (British Shermans, Panzer IV H, StuG III G) are all 150+ points each, making them prohibitively expensive. The exceptions are the Americans and Canadians, who both get 115pt Shermans. I expect this will lead to seeing mostly infantry companies, with a lot of lightweight armour: Stuarts, M10s and Marders. There may be a few StuGs, though, as they can be bought in pairs. Hopefully some armoured cars, too.
Without the time to research, acquire any new models and build a force specifically for the event, I decided that the best approach for me to take was to spin the infantry teams I am painting for ValleyCon into something out of North Africa, bolting on other platoons from my existing collection, so that in the process I'm still working towards what I need for January.
My first instinct was to put together a Rifle Company and Night Attack my way through the event, but while it's a solid option it didn't seem like a whole lot of fun and would have required painting up a large number of additional teams. So instead I will be taking a Motor Company, because this just requires two PIAT teams and two extra Bren teams over and above the teams I am already working on, adding some kits from the stash and repainting some of my older models to suit. And for some illogical reason I have decided that it absolutely must include a 440pt platoon of Shermans...
British Motor Company (Italy) - North Africa (2016 Revision)
Company HQ, 35 pts
Motor Platoon + PIAT, 155 pts
Motor Platoon + PIAT, 155 pts
Scout Platoon, 105 pts
3 x Universal Carriers + Extra MGs
Motor Anti-tank Platoon, 95 pts
2 x 6pdr Portee
Armoured Platoon, 440 pts
3 x Sherman III
Total Cost: 985 ptsIt's an awful list: five platoons, with nearly half the points tied up in three average tanks, no templates, truck-mounted anti-tank guns with no HE, two small six-stand infantry platoons, and a bunch of trucks that won't feature in any of the games. Should be good times.
I had the necessary transport for the CHQ and infantry platoons in the stash, which I have painted up in Light Mud/Blue Black camouflage and markings for 1st Rifle Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, and based to match the infantry.
Friday, November 11, 2016
ValleyCon 2017 - Modelling 1st Armoured Brigade
In this post I take a look at the decisions I've made for modelling for my ValleyCon 2017 list, themed on 1st Armoured Brigade in Greece, 1941. Photos show a wide variety of colour schemes on Commonwealth vehicles, the result of the rush to get units deployed, and one of the challenges will be achieving a coherent appearance.
Infantry
The weather in March had been cold, with snow and heavy frosts, gradually improving through April. Photos show infantry in full battledress or greatcoats. This raises a similar issue to that which I encountered last year, with a lack of early war 15mm figures meeting this description. As a result, I will again compromise and build on the infantry I painted last year from the 'Italy Campaign' range, meaning I already have one platoon banked with one more plus the Company HQ to go.
Infantry
The weather in March had been cold, with snow and heavy frosts, gradually improving through April. Photos show infantry in full battledress or greatcoats. This raises a similar issue to that which I encountered last year, with a lack of early war 15mm figures meeting this description. As a result, I will again compromise and build on the infantry I painted last year from the 'Italy Campaign' range, meaning I already have one platoon banked with one more plus the Company HQ to go.
Armour
Part of my background reading for this project has included "The Gods Were Neutral", an autobiographical account of the campaign by Robert Crisp, a troop commander in C Squadron, 3rd RTR. In the first couple of chapters he describes the various colour permutations that their tanks went through between arriving in Egypt through to deployment to Greece. Starting with "having their camouflage altered from the green and brown of paddocked England to an exotic shade of red and yellow" - the scheme for the Sudan - through "hot yellow" - when it appeared that they would be sent to the Western Desert - to "a more civilised olive-green effect", "broad, deceptive patterns of green".
In his book "The Caunter Scheme", Mike Starmer provides drawings for, and spends quite a bit of time discussing colours for, the average scheme for 3rd RTR. The suggestion there is either Slate over Light Stone, or Silver Grey over Portland Stone, and I will be running with Light Stone/Slate.
While 3rd RTR had their tanks painted in Egypt, the 4th Hussars war diary has their vehicles being recamouflaged on arrival in Greece. The photos I've found appear to be a light base colour with a darker disruptive colour, but I can't discern any consistent pattern. Mike says that a number were deployed in European colours without repainting, and some were in Caunter.
I was confused for a while on the issue of tac signs. With 4th Hussars having a '51' Arm of Service Flash and 3rd RTR having a '52', in theory their tac signs should have been red and yellow respectively. Photos show Mk VIb tanks in Greece having tac signs in both dark and light colours, probably red and yellow. 3rd RTR tac signs are too dark to be yellow and are different to the red divisional symbol, so are possibly blue, although I've read one opinion that they might be in the regimental colour of green. I'm wondering whether the colours have something to do with the King's Dragoon Guards. They were the senior armoured regiment in the brigade until they converted to armoured cars in January 1941 and handed their Mk VIbs over to 4th Hussars. This combined with moving to Greece at short notice might help explain the apparent discrepancy but I have nothing solid to back up this thought.
Transport
The 1st Rangers war diary for 12 and 13 March says "During this period opportunity taken to spray paint carriers and scout cars at Athens aerodrome, all vehicles at this time being camouflaged for the desert." I have taken this to mean that the soft skin transports were either in Caunter or overall Light Stone, but it provides no further clues.
I've been sent a photo of a 2nd Armoured Division Quad in Caunter, and there is one of a 2nd Armoured Division 15cwt CMP (here) that looks like it's in an overall light colour. There is a photo of an abandoned Rangers carrier in the Images of War book "War in the Balkans". It is definitely not in Caunter - it looks like a light base colour with a wavy darker disruptive pattern. It is also a Universal Carrier rather than the Scout Carriers specified in the list, and I will be modelling them as such.
Taking all of this into consideration, for the sake of coherency I'm leaning towards using a base colour of Light Stone on all vehicles, with disruptive patterns in Slate on the carriers.
Guns
I have found nothing for the colour of the Northumberland Hussars' 2pdr portees. There are a couple of relevant photos on the web: an Australian 2pdr in Caunter (here), and a spiked 2pdr claimed to be in Greece (here) that is in the two tone green European scheme. Both options are entirely plausible, as is light base colour with or without a disruptive pattern per the other vehicles. I'm going to paint this platoon last, once I've had a chance to see what works for the rest of the list.
Part of my background reading for this project has included "The Gods Were Neutral", an autobiographical account of the campaign by Robert Crisp, a troop commander in C Squadron, 3rd RTR. In the first couple of chapters he describes the various colour permutations that their tanks went through between arriving in Egypt through to deployment to Greece. Starting with "having their camouflage altered from the green and brown of paddocked England to an exotic shade of red and yellow" - the scheme for the Sudan - through "hot yellow" - when it appeared that they would be sent to the Western Desert - to "a more civilised olive-green effect", "broad, deceptive patterns of green".
In his book "The Caunter Scheme", Mike Starmer provides drawings for, and spends quite a bit of time discussing colours for, the average scheme for 3rd RTR. The suggestion there is either Slate over Light Stone, or Silver Grey over Portland Stone, and I will be running with Light Stone/Slate.
While 3rd RTR had their tanks painted in Egypt, the 4th Hussars war diary has their vehicles being recamouflaged on arrival in Greece. The photos I've found appear to be a light base colour with a darker disruptive colour, but I can't discern any consistent pattern. Mike says that a number were deployed in European colours without repainting, and some were in Caunter.
I was confused for a while on the issue of tac signs. With 4th Hussars having a '51' Arm of Service Flash and 3rd RTR having a '52', in theory their tac signs should have been red and yellow respectively. Photos show Mk VIb tanks in Greece having tac signs in both dark and light colours, probably red and yellow. 3rd RTR tac signs are too dark to be yellow and are different to the red divisional symbol, so are possibly blue, although I've read one opinion that they might be in the regimental colour of green. I'm wondering whether the colours have something to do with the King's Dragoon Guards. They were the senior armoured regiment in the brigade until they converted to armoured cars in January 1941 and handed their Mk VIbs over to 4th Hussars. This combined with moving to Greece at short notice might help explain the apparent discrepancy but I have nothing solid to back up this thought.
Transport
The 1st Rangers war diary for 12 and 13 March says "During this period opportunity taken to spray paint carriers and scout cars at Athens aerodrome, all vehicles at this time being camouflaged for the desert." I have taken this to mean that the soft skin transports were either in Caunter or overall Light Stone, but it provides no further clues.
I've been sent a photo of a 2nd Armoured Division Quad in Caunter, and there is one of a 2nd Armoured Division 15cwt CMP (here) that looks like it's in an overall light colour. There is a photo of an abandoned Rangers carrier in the Images of War book "War in the Balkans". It is definitely not in Caunter - it looks like a light base colour with a wavy darker disruptive pattern. It is also a Universal Carrier rather than the Scout Carriers specified in the list, and I will be modelling them as such.
Taking all of this into consideration, for the sake of coherency I'm leaning towards using a base colour of Light Stone on all vehicles, with disruptive patterns in Slate on the carriers.
Guns
I have found nothing for the colour of the Northumberland Hussars' 2pdr portees. There are a couple of relevant photos on the web: an Australian 2pdr in Caunter (here), and a spiked 2pdr claimed to be in Greece (here) that is in the two tone green European scheme. Both options are entirely plausible, as is light base colour with or without a disruptive pattern per the other vehicles. I'm going to paint this platoon last, once I've had a chance to see what works for the rest of the list.
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