From ChrisP: 15mm WWII New Zealand Maoris (264 points)

I really like this stand with the camels and bedouin - no mistaking where this is!

Chis sends in this great force of WWII New Zealand Maoris in British desert service dress. 

These are 15mm Battlefront castings.

The 25pdr battery below benefits from a scavenged 105mm German gun. 

From Chris: 

'The Maori fought as part of their own battalion (the 28th), and were legendary as great light infantry, but also as amazing scavengers! There was a period of time where a company command's transportation was provided by a captured german halftrack- complete with towed 88!'

This group will give Chris a very tidy 264 points. Great work, Chris!

From ChrisP: 15mm New Zealand WWII Armour (60 points)

Chris sends in this interesting group of various New Zealand armour from World War Two. 

First up is a pair of Shermans. The one with the '17' on the hull is the squadron HQ tank, while the other serves as an artillery spotter with a suitable observer jonesing' out of the cupola.

The three above are 'Jalopy' conversions that Chris made, based from M5 'Stuarts'. 

'The Jalopy was essentially an M5 Stuart light tank, with it's turret removed. The allies found the 37mm gun woefully inadequate against enemy tanks, and given the muddy terrain they removed the turret to make the whole vehicle lighter, improving it's cross country performance. In place of the turret, a 50 calibre Browning HMG was added, offering good infantry support firepower. The Kiwis not to be totally without protection added armoured plates around the gun itself, to give the gunner some measure of protection. 

The Jalopies are converted Battlefront Stuart tanks, with plastic 50 cals spare from the Sherman tanks, gun shields from spare M113 ACAV vehicles (more BF stuff!) and crewmen from universal carriers. Then done up in the khaki/black camo scheme, with the regimental symbol (diamond) and the tank number in the same style as the Shermans.'  

Finally we have a T2 recovery tank.

'The story goes that the 4th armoured had only wheeled recovery vehicles on their Order of Battle, but the terrain in Italy demanded the need for something more capable! The 20th Armoured Regiment came upon a suspicious looking haystack in their advance in Italy, lo and behold an armoured recovery vehicle was inside, bogged down! So once the kiwis had pulled it out under sporadic mortar fire, they painted over the allied star and then it was theirs! Eventually the Americans wanted it back, but the 20th managed to keep it. Once the 20th had gotten theirs, the other armoured regiments got one through far more legitimate means!'

Great models and great little bit of history - thanks Chris!

These six tanks will give Chris a base of 48 points but I'm giving him an extra 12 points for the 'Jalopy' conversions. So, 60 points total. Nicely done.

From ChrisP: 15mm Kiwi Shermans (72 points)

Mr. Pooch has sent in this great set of eight Shermans for use with 'Flames of War'.

These are 15mm Battlefront castings which Chris has modeled as A Squadron, 19th Armoured Regiment of the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade. Chris has some great background information that I'll on this unit:

'The story goes that the Kiwi's had a pretty bad run with tank support in the desert; on more than one occasion they were to be relieved by British tanks, only to have them shell them instead. So when the opportunity came for the Kiwi's to get their own Armoured Regiment, it was done without any haste! The Regiment was equipped with Sherman M4A2 tanks, but had a tendency to "acquire" tanks from other sources, it was noted by one historian that there were no less than 3 Shermans with the same serial number listed with the official establishments! The 2iC has one such "acquisition", having a .50cal Brownings HMG which has been borrowed from some unlucky American unit. The unit I have painted up is representing A Squadron in their battle at Orsogna- where they were acting as infantry support for the NZ infantry but also as trying to make armoured thrusts themselves, they were repeatedly beaten back by Panzer IV's and were unable to capture Orsogna before being reassigned into the Cassino campaign. 

The most novel thing that happened around Orsogna was the German use of Flammpanzers- Kiwis had taken their objective and withdrawn, deeming that it would be too hard to hold over night. They were proved to be right when a platoon of Flammpanzers appeared and began to flame thrower the buildings, setting fire to any likely sites that the Kiwi's would have been hiding in- had they not withdrawn. The Shermans supporting the Kiwi's simply used the flames as a targeting aid, destroying all of the Panzers, for not a single casualty!

The models themselves are painted in the blue-black two tone disruptive pattern. The large yellow numbers on the sides were hand painted by the crew; and the pictures of the tanks makes them look pretty rough! Thankfully they were better tankers than they were painters! This is why I have gone for hand painted numbers; hence their deliberate (or semi at least) roughness. The Yellow triangle means they are from A squadron, they still followed most standard british conventions.'

Excellent work, Chris. These vehicles will give you 72 points to add to  your total (including a few added for the cammo and numbering).