15mm WW2 British desert vehicles

 More of Bergman's STL files, this time for the desert war.  All need decals to finish them.

A Dorchester ACV.

Bedford MW 15cwt trucks, an MWC water carrier on the left and an MWR radio communications truck on the right.

Another view of the Bedfords, MWR on left and MWC on right.  I'll add some regular trucks as infantry transports for the desert army and for the NW Europe British.

Austin Tilly light van.

A pair of jeeps, one open, one canvas covered.

Jeeps again.

I printed off some Dingos, a troop of M3 Honeys and a pair of Bishops to fill some gaps in the British ranks for the desert war.  More on those later.

Thanks for looking.

More 20mm WW2 Crusaders

 Lots of things stacked up on the painting table.  Unfortunately, real work and the loss of my painting mojo through getting bogged down in trying to shift a load of WW1 German infantry has resulted in a bit of a hiatus on the painting front.  Gradually building back up again, so got these three Crusaders finished - they only needed decals and matt varnish, so were relatively quick to wrap up.

I went for these in plain stone grey washed in Agrax Earthshade.  All are Armorfast Crusader II kits with a PSC commander.

The command tank.  Hatches needed to be cut with a craft knife to open them up.  Stowage is from various Sgts Mess packs.

Nice propaganda pic of the troop.  Should have Jerry quaking in his boots.

Lots more on the go, with NW Europe Shermans and various German panzergrenadier platoons.

As ever, thanks for looking.

20mm DAK infantry platoon

I enjoyed painting the motorcycle Kradschutzen section so much recently, that I decided to add another DAK platoon to the collection.  These guys are a mixture of Esci/Italeri, Airfix, Revell and Caesar and I painted them up using the colours and techniques in Farnsworth's painting guide.  I really like the washed out colours, which give them a dusty, sun-bleached look.

The whole platoon, a 6 man command rifle section and three rifle sections, each of 5 men with a 3 man MG34 team.

Mainly riflemen.

MG34 teams.

Three of the command team, from Revell, Caesar and Esci/Italeri (L-R).

The other 3 command figures from Revell, Escii/Italeri and Airfix (L-R).

Airfix grenadier.

Revell NCO.

Esci/Italeri officer.

Airfix rifleman with fixed bayonett.

Esci/Italeri grenadier.

Caesar SMG trooper in sun helmet.

Esci/Italeri SMG gunner.

Airfix MG34 gunner.

Airfix rifleman.

Another Airfix rifleman.

Esci/Italeri SMG gunner.

I still have enough figures for three more platoons, so not sure what I will do with these.

As ever, thanks for looking.

20mm Desert Ambulance

Another addition to the North African 8th Army force for WW2.  This time the Austin K2 Ambulance from the venerable Airfix RAF Emergency Set.


I assembled this over the Christmas holidays, but didn't get around to base coating it until Easter and only recently finished washing and varnishing, plus adding the striking decals.

This vehicle will provide some medical support to my 20mm 8th Army support, alongside the stretcher bearers and medic from Zvezda, which can be seen here https://sedimentswargameblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/clearing-up-some-20mm-ww2-mini-projects.html


Thanks for looking.

20mm 25lbrs North Africa

I've been working on some 25lbrs for North Africa, mainly using the PSC set with Morris Quad tows.

Here is a 2 gun section, complete with limbers and Morris Quads.  I've also added a CMP tow vehicle from Anyscale Models as an HQ vehicle or spare tow.

These are painted in desert yellow, washed in Agrax Earthshade and dry-brushed Iraqi Sand.

These 25lbrs were a gift from Ian at the club, spare from his set made up for NW Europe.

The original guns from my set (on left) were assembled as 18/25lbrs for early artillery support, although they were also issued as relatively effective AT weapons, mainly to Australian units.

All the guns, 18/25lbrs on left and later 25lbrs on the right.

18/25lbrs.

25lbrs

I also found some suitable wheels, so made up a second pair of 25lbrs with muzzle brakes, although I've obviously put them in a safe place, as I couldn't find them for the photos.

Thanks for looking.

20mm North Africa Italians

As Battlegroup Tobruk allows you to field 25% of an Afrika Korps force as Italian allies, I thought I'd take the opportunity to add some Italians in the shape of an Italeri 90/53 AA gun, an impulse buy at a model shop in Chester, and an Early War Miniatures M13/40 tank from the bargain bin at the Derby/Bruntingthorpe show in October.

First up, the 90/53 AA gun.  The gun itself comes with two seated crewmen as well as 6 standing/kneeling crew.  These should allow a crew of 3 or 4 to serve the gun, plus a 3 man loader team with a spare kneeling figure with binuculars, who will make a great artillery observer.

The gun is painted in desert yellow, washed with Agrax earthshade.  The figures are painted in khaki grey, dry brushed yellow ochre.

The M13/40 needed some bubbles filling with Miliput.  Apart from that, it was good to go out of the bargain bin.

The model was painted desert yellow with an Agrax earthshade wash.  Unit insignia were added by hand to represent the 2nd vehicle of 1st platoon, 1st company (red bar with single white stripe and number 2 in red above).

Nice models, the gun was pretty straightforward to assemble and the tank needed no assembly at all.

I can feel the need to add to this force at some point.

Thanks for looking.

A couple of games of Battlegroup Tobruk

Will and I played out a couple of games of Battlegroup Tobruk over the last couple of club evenings.

First up, to ease us into the game, we tried one of the scenarios from the book, "The Buffs Last Stand".  The scenario sees a platoon of British infantry, supported by 2pdrs and 25lbrs (both on and off table), dug in on a slight rise in the desert.  They face off against a DAK force with 2 PzIII platoons with PzIV support, an infantry platoon and off table medium and heavy artillery.

We drew lots and I finished up taking on the British.  There are no objectives as such, this is a battle for survival, with the Brits winning simply by holding on.  I chose to concentrate forming a defensive perimeter around the highest point of the rise.  I traded off the threat of artillery against spreading out the defence and risking being defeated piecemeal.

This shows the situation at the end of the DAK activation on the first turn.  To the Brits, small clusters of infantry begin to appear out of the heat haze.

By the third turn, the DAK are moving forward lots of armour.  My off board artillery managed to knock out a DAK MG team, but the DAK artillery have broken the crews of a 2pdr and a 25lbr.  Fortunately, the Quad has moved up and hitched up the gun, towing it away to relative safety.  I thought I was doing all right when I used the guns ambush fire at long range (with the DAK artillery raining down it was use it or lose it) and was astonished to KO 2 of the PzIIIs on my right, while an offboard artillery strike had pinned the PzIIIs on the left (I also drew an immobilised chit when rallying pinned markers and played it on the command PzIII on my left.

I was even more astonished when a 25lbr strike on the right knocked out the last PzIII on my right.  It began to look like things might be going my way.  However, battle chits were building through removing pinned markers and losing guns to artillery fire.

Will rallied the PzIIIs on my left and brought up the PzII and PzIV in support.

 

A combination of off board artillery and aimed HE fire from the panzers then knocked out another 25lbr and pinned the rest of my guns.  With my battle rating counter total equal to my initial battle rating, I couldn't lift any pins, so decided discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew the survivors.  There had been minor collateral damage from artillery strikes to the British infantry, but most losses were amongst the artillery crews.

The final scene from the British defences.  I suspect next time I will disperse the guns more, as the artillery was the big killer in this game.  Lots of fun though.

Then this week we decided to be more ambitious and set up a multiplayer game based on the Battleaxe scenario in the Rapid-Fire North Africa 1941 supplement.  This pitted a greatly scaled back attempt by 7th Armoured and 4th Indian Divisions to sweep aside the DAK and Italian strongpoints around the Libyan border area and relieve the siege of Tobruk.  The scenario involved the inland actions, with 22nd Guards (represented by a lorried infantry platoon and carrier section plus supports)and 4th Armoured (represented by two Matilda II troops) Brigades on the British right advancing on Fort Capuzzo.  In the centre, the Crusaders and A9/A13 cruisers of 7th Armoured Brigade (2 Crusader troops and 1 troop of A9/A13s) advanced on Point 208 on the eastern edge of Hafid Ridge.  On the British left, the 7th Armoured Division support group (lorried infantry platoon and carrier section, 2 batteries of on table 25lbr and 2 sections of 2pdr portees) advanced into the open flank west of Hafid Ridge.

The British initial table edge deployment, 7th Amd support group closest to camera, 7Amd in the middle and 22nd Guards and 4th Amd in the distance.  The Italian strongpoints are just visible in the far distance, Point 206 in the open, Fort Capuzzo beyond to the left and Musaid at the far table edge.  Point 208 on Hafid Ridge is just visible on the left hand edge of the photograph.

Historically, the British were taken by surprise by the appearance of a counter attack in the form of 15th Panzer division (in our game 2 PzIII platoons, a Panzer IV platoon and supports) arriving on turn 2, and 5th Light Division (1 PzIII, 1 mixed PzIV and PzII platoon and supports) arriving on Turn 3.

This view shows Point 208, with Point 206 beyond to the right, Fort Capuzzo beyond to the left under the giant hand, which hides the Musaid strongpoint.

 

Turn 3 and 5th Light panzers advance in the shelter of Hafid Ridge in the foreground.  In the distance, beyond Point 208, 15th Panzer are in a firefight with 7th Amd.

5th Light Panzers behind Hafid Ridge (I took this as I really like the way Will has arranged stowage on these vehicles).

The teeth arm of 5th Light.

Ian managed to pick an aircraft chit and rolled a 6 to call it in, so in came an MG armed Hurricane.  It attempted to deal with the 15th Panzer 88mm, which was a threat to 4th Amd's Matildas advancing in the open in the far distance - an 88 at that distance struggles to hit, but if it does, the Matilda is very likely to be wrecked.

Fortunately for 15th Panzer, AA fire pins the Hurricane.

5th Light panzers have advanced to take hull down positions on Hafid Ridge, while their lighter forces have moved out around the western end of the ridge.  The Pz IIIs of 5th Light have pinned the Support group 2pdr portees, but have taken losses from the 25lbrs of the support group.  In the centre, 15th Pz are trading shots with 7th Amd and seem to be winning the firefight.

Shots continue to be traded.  The 25lbrs are very potent, even across the table, causing a steady drain on 5th Light vehicles.

Unfortunately, time was against us and we ran out of time.  Although not over, the British were finding it difficult to make progress.  The 4th Amd and 22nd Guards were threatening Point 206, although the Matildas had been immobile for several turns.  The 7th Amd had lost almost all their Crusaders, although they did manage to get an A13 up to the perimeter of Point 208, overrunning an AT gun in the process.  The support group had not lost much but were being kept pinned down, except for the 25lbrs, which remained a thorn in the side of 5th Light.

 

All in all a fun game.  This would have made a great weekend game, which could have incorporated more of 4th Indian Divisions struggle around Hell Fire pass.  We shall see if there is any interest.

Thanks to Will for supplying most of the kit for both games and for attempting to match an already heavily "bath-tubbed" Rapid-Fire version to the Battlegroup Tobruk organisations, which weren't always simple conversions.  Overall, it worked really well.

Thanks for looking.