Coming soon ... Airfix Shermans v Hasagawa Tiger (and PSC Panzer IV)

Airfix Battles Scenario Three: Shermans v Tiger (and a Panzer IV). The long standing heros of my modelling youth, I give you the venerable Airfix Sherman (see below, the one on the left is from my "fair hand" the other two [with more professional/better highlighting] are from a very skilled model maker called Denis):

The sinister forms of a PSC Panzer MkIVH (first saw action in 1939 and still going strong through all those production upgrades, from the Plastic Soldier Company) and a "Terrible Tiger" (the coveted Hasagawa special of my teenage modelling days). Will these be too much for the Allied tankers? (see below):

I do intend to paint up the original Airfix kits to honour these rules, The Tiger poses a problem as it required considerable "pimping" (aka the rear turret stowage bin was the hardest part) and I still need to add some mud-flaps. Something (as in a project) to keep me interested in the forthcoming long winter nights (as well as Game of Thrones).

Hint to Airfix: If you can add a little extra sprue of special bits to your other kits to make interesting variants such as the:

• Sherman Crab
• Sherman Calliope
• Churchill Crocodile
• Churchill AVRE Bridgelayer
• Matilda Hedgehog

Then the iconic Tiger I surely deserves a rear stowage bin and mud-flaps - so the damn thing does not look so bloody naked!

Constructed at last, the "Last American" Sherman (Manic Laughter)

The skirts and spare track assemblies have finally been added (see below):

Paint it black again and this is what you get, ta da! (see below):

Was it worth the wait, well if it manages to get on a wargaming table, yes.

OK I still need to paint is green, but there is a queue of 1944 British Tommies in the way. They have been patiently waiting for some time now (years in fact) on the 'Painting Tray' frantically shouting "Oy! No blooming queue jumping mate!"

Is this really still the "Last American" Sherman build still a WIP?

I can literally "smell" the finish line (of the 'construction phase' anyway) but the danger is my stamina may fail me. The "silver track" has now been assembled onto the chassis (see below):

For the track assembly it is the classic style "do it with the office paper stapler" (no messing about with hot screwdrivers of super glue). The staple is just visible in the track assembly photograph (see below):

So if it looks like a Sherman, if it moves like a Sherman, if it shoots as poorly as a Sherman and if it gets blown up as easily as a Sherman, then it must be a Sherman (see below):

It sure looks like a Sherman to me! But I still have to don the mud skirts and assemble the "fiddly strange spare tracks assembly" as per the instruction booklet before I officially finish. Tune in for the concluding episode.

Paint It Black (undercoating the "Last American" Sherman)

The interior engine detail of the Esci/Italeri Sherman implied interior painting (ho hum) which in turn implied first of all a black (Tamiya XF1) undercoat inside and out (see below): 

With the undercoat duly administered the interior engine compartment was daubed liberally in Anita's Acrylic Metalic Black, which was then mixed with Anita's Acrylic Silver, in three step up shades (percentage of Silver to Metalic Black being increased to suit the eye). The turret was popped on for the complete Sherman look and feel, although I still have to connect the tracks together (see below) 

I can almost hear the engine turning over (see below):

The close up detail looks nice, but the only way I will ever see it is to ensure that tehe engine decking can be lifted off. That means expect a future blog post complaining bitterly about "how stupid I am" when the said 'engine decking' and 'Sherman' part company, ending up in separate boxes in the loft!

In many ways the Sherman kit reminds me of the awful Esci/Italeri M6 GMC truck transmission (including the M6's  37mm AT variant). That was nightmare model to make for the sheer complexity introduced for a completely hidden feature, but then again "I made it anyway" because it was there! Later Italeri to their credit produced kits (like the M8 Greyhound) that had a simpler 'wargamer rather than modeller' assembly option with less fiddly parts.
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Can you see what it is yet? It's my last [American] Sherman: (Part III)

And it came to pass that I put the turret onto the hull (see below):

And then I put the hull cover onto the chassis (see below)

Now:  "Can you see what it is yet?" The Sherman form is emerging.

But I still have to complete the rear engine deck (but I also need to paint the insides first) and put the tracks on ... this is a modelling diary in a 'stop-start' mode, more 'bitty' than usual.

Making 'that' last American 1/72 scale Sherman for my US Tank Battalion (Cont)

Edging ever closer to completing that last American Sherman (see below) ...

Bit by bit, one sprue down, with the tracks and turret still to do! The cup of char (French for tank, get it? Groan!) comes in handy ;)

I will have to do a bit of interior painting before I seal the superstructure to the chassis (unheard of in my past modelling experiences ;)

20mm Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) US Sherman 76mm

Again the PSC "quick builds" comes the rescue of my flagging WWII Command Decision US Tank Battalion from the US Armoured Division Orbat. I cannot think of a more contrasting experience, the Airfix/Esci/Italeri/Matchbox/Revell (and worse, Fujimi or Dragon) 80-100 parts per Sherman versus the PSC 20 or so. Instead of months of hobby time, three M4 76's took less than a nights attention (see below):  

These Normandy+ "Tiger Tamers" (well that's what they were supposed to be) can add offensive weight one per US Sherman company (see below): 

The US Sherman Tank Battalion "box" suitable from when the Americans threw away the concept of having a separate "light M3 Stuart battalion" in the Armoured Regiment and instead integrated a light "Stuart" company as one of the companies in a Sherman battalion (and padding the original Stuart battalion up with displaced Shermans, thus retaining the same number of tank Battalions, for use in their Combat Commands). This allows me to field a force ranging from "post-Tunisia (Italy) to Berlin (Normandy, Break-Out, Aredennes, Germany)" (see below):

Note: As per my earlier point it is still waiting for one last, in this case Italeri (aka ex-Esci), Sherman to be made.

Left hand side (Light Tanks):

• 3 x M3 Stuart Company (1942-43)
• 3 x M5 Stuart Company (1944+)

Right hand side (Medium Tanks): 

• 5 x M4 75mm Shermans (1943-45) + one still to make
• 3 x M4 76mm Shermans (1944-45)

Top row (Command Company): 

• 1 x M4 81mm Mortar Half Track (1943-45)
• 1 x M8 Howitzer Carriage "Close Support" (1943)
• 1 x AA Recon Jeep 
• 1 x M4 Sherman 105mm "Close Support" (1944-45)
• 1 x M4 76mm HQ Tank (1944-45)

Note: An additional Sherman could be useful to downgrade the Command Tank in 1943-44 scenarios to a 75mm Sherman (in teh meantime the Sherman 105 can take its place)

The remaining US AFV's now fit into a separate box, which I will carry up into the loft very, very carefully (see below):

Also of interest are:

• 3 x M3 Lee (Tunisian Campaign, somehow making "another seven" does not appeal, for a tank formation that was quickly phased out of service. See bottom left)
• 3 x M24 Chaffee's (Late 1945 "Bust Berlin". See bottom middle)
• 2 x M36 Jackson's (1944-45, see top right)
• 2 x M10's (1944-45, see top left)
• 1 x M6 Pershing (1945, see top middle)
• 1 x "Easy Eight" Sherman (1945, middle right)
• 1 x Sherman Calliope (1945)
• 2 x M8 Priests (1943-45)
• 1 x M12 (155mm, 1944-45)
• 1 x M40 (155mm, 1945)
• 1 x 155mm "Long Tom" Artillery Piece (1942-1945)
• The 'mis-filed' DUKW (Interestingly for which I have not as yet found/devised a table-top scenario to fit in for 20mm, though candidates from reading various history books 'could be' D-Day, Market Garden and the Rhine crossing. Trouble is I may need more than one and my stamina to make another is not that great!)

There is another box full of US soft-skin/half-track transport to ferry the infantry about, but there is also the case of time to paint that infantry first.

My First Game of CrossFire: 1944 US (attack) versus Germans (defend) Opteroon Crossroads (Part I)

CrossFire and me, the background:
I had been waiting for this moment for about ten years. The copy of CrossFire had lain dormant for that time half read (a couple of false starts) but with 'no other interested parties to play with' it seemed an exercise in futility in getting 'half into' yet another rule system (despite intriguing comments passed on to me through various sources of its novel style of play). I had played an enjoyed Spearhead (an above battalion and Divisional and below 'level' of game [typically using 1/200 and 1/3000 toys]) by the same author, so CrossFire seemed to hold great potential to me (from platoon up to battalion level) for a 'practical' use of my collection of WWII 20mm kit (originally gathered together for Command Decision but after much soul searching I came to the conclusion I did not like the aesthetics of the ground scale, in extreme cases of AFV combat you could get a Tiger tank touching a Sherman "barrel-to-barrel" resolving fire combat, but to me it looked like "ramming" combat). So it came to pass, when of an offer of a game came to me by email I decided to "jump in and fill my boots".

Chosen randomly (the coin came up heads) I played the German (Americans attacking top down to the bottom of most of the photographs, eagle-eyed readers will see the line of barbed wire and minefield [strung across the road]) that denotes the German front line. Continuing with the Umpire's narrative ............

Somewhere on the Belgian border, November 1944
 
The US Briefing

"The shelled out village of Opteroon is wreathed in winter morning mist. Lt Stott of C Company, 334th US Infantry looked carefully at the village, noting the belts of wire separating his forward positions from the unseen enemy. Stott had been ordered to make a Company attack on the village. He had a Sherman tank in support. Last week a platoon from B Company had been overrun by a Tiger tank, and the concerns about German armour meant he had brought extra Bazooka's "just in case"

Stott deployed with all three platoons on the line. His plan was for Third Platoon to hold his left, while First and Second platoon assaulted the large building in the centre of the village. Everything in place, he gave the signal for the Company mortar to begin laying smoke........"

The "Yank Tank" M4A1 (105mm) Sherman (see below) makes a statement, being brought up to support the US infantry attack in the centre of the village (the heart of German defence, the very crossroad itself, a very bold move).

The German briefing: 

"Lt Lange of 2 Kompanie 2nd Battalion 351st Grenadier Regt wished he could stay warm. He was tasked with holding Opteroon crossroads. He had a Company of Volksgrenadiers, with two more platoons of Volksgrenadiers in reserve. He also had a pair of MG42s and his company mortar, plus a single Pak 40 anti tank gun. He was worried about enemy tanks as his men had no other anti tank weapons. His troops were a mix of young boys and old men, stiffened by a cadre of veteran NCOs. He had deployed one platoon in the large building in the centre of the village, a second in the woods on the right, and his third in reserve at the rear left. He had his Pak40 emplaced in a wrecked house which covered the crossroads, one MG was positioned in a building covering the flank and rear of the central building, the second in a house covering the left flank. "

He set his HQ up in a building to the rear. (Ed's note: I didn't say I was going to be brave)

The Germans possessed only one weapon capable of taking a Sherman on at distance, the venerated Pak 40 75mm Anti-Tank gun. In gunfighter style it faced down the Sherman (see below).

2Stotts mortar fire woke everyone. The Sherman advanced up the road, covered by the smokescreen. First platoon opened suppressive fire on the large building.

The Pak crew manhandled the gun around to cover the approaching Sherman, but the Sherman fired first, and sent the gunners diving for cover. The Sherman then switched to fire on the large building, suppressing some of the defenders. Second platoon broke cover and charged towards the building, and then it went wrong........ "

The panoramic view of the battlefield. From this angle the Americans are attacking left to right, the dividing line going down the slightly left of centre of the village, behind the line of barbed wire and mines (see above). The Sherman tank can be seen top left driving down the road (see above).

Note: All the above kit is 15mm from the Umpire and American players vast collection

Next: All Hell Breaks Loose
The CrossFire initiative sequence of play comes into its own

The British and American Sherman Response

Just to prove there is more to my AFV collection than late war German heavy panzers.


As they came. Three decoys (the Airfix 1/72 Sherman) and the one that stood a chance (Matchbox Sherman Firefly 1/76) of a return kill on a German heavy. Nice to see the latter is back on the market through Revell. I will have to do the cunning Tommy paint trick (as per the Revell box art) of fore shortening the length of the 17pdr main armament with a bit of light sky blue on the underside of the barrel. Also to do is some work on the tracks to weather them down from that plastic look and naturally, the decals.


These come straight out of the wargames cupboard. I painted them over ten years ago with a ubiquitous base coat of Tamiya Olive Drab (XF-62) then highlighted it up. The rub being, for the three on the left I used Olive Drab (XF-62) with increasing amounts of Sand Yellow (XF-60), while the Sherman on the furthest right was painted at a slightly different time when I used Olive Drab (XF-62) with Yellow (XF-3) having forgot my previous recipe. Only later seeing the subtle difference!

The same Olive Drab (XF-62) with increasing amounts of Sand Yellow (XF-60) scheme was used for my American Shermans (All 1/72 Esci, although two slightly different types, the left and middle one type, the right hand one another) below:


They are begging for White Star decals and the US tank commander can do with a bit of shading and highlight.

The moral of this story: Paint all your tank troops together at the same time, even if it takes longer

:(