Westwind SOTR Paras Starter set - first squad

This is the first completed squads of Westwind's Weird War 2 British Paratroopers.

All five are armed with Assault Brens and are wearing body armour.

 One of the problems with airborne assaults is a lack of heavier firepower. These Paras are being backed up by an M5A6 Jackal.

I have not quite finished with the Jackal yet.

Westwind Stug Mech part two

So, as I mentioned the Westwind Stugmech had the feet attached to a base. I cut them off with a razor saw. I drilled through the hole in the foot to take the locating pin.

To attach the hip joint, I drilled through the ball joint out through the outer part of the leg. As you can see I have pushed a brass rod through to demonstrate. I then removed the rod and placed the hip joint against the pelvis sockets. I then drilled through from the outside. This was then used to pin the hip joint. The foot was then placed in position on the ankle ball joint and again drilled through from the underside, pinned and glued,

Once one leg was in place, the other leg was pinned at the hip and the foot attached to match.

The Stugmech with William Killian for scale.

A  Warlord Games Galahad armoured infantry suit.

A Westwind SOTR British Steel armoured infantryman.

A Westwind SOTR M100 Comanche walker

A Warlord Games SDKFZ 234/2 Puma armoured car.

 A Warlord Grizzly for scale.

Westwind Stug Mech

At Salute I bought two of Westwind's recent Weird War 2 mechs. They come in unlabelled black boxes.

This mech comes as seven resin and four white metal pieces.

The integral base is a bit annoying and there are large mould marks across some faces (note the right leg and the pelvis).

 The leg mouldings are slightly odd, not sure how the knee joint works.

Westwind SOTR Paras Starter set -Squad leader 1

Westwind SOTR British Para squad leader armed with an Assault Bren (assault rifle).

He has pulled up his gas mask to better command his squad.

Westwind SOTR Paras Starter set

When Westwind released the Paras for SOTR, I bought a set at Salute (when, I cannot remember but I suspect before 2015).

The box came with a full colour wrapper.

Which showed a guide to the contents.

These are the supplied pieces.

There are the following:

• Five command figures (pistol, STEN/Owen hybrid, three Assault BRENs) - bottom right.
• Two four man sections armed with Assault BRENs - bottom left.
• Two man Bazooka team.
• Two two man AntiTank Rifle teams
• Three man medium mortar plus spotter

In Konflikt '47 terms that is 514 points (Assault BRENs count as assault Rifles not Automatic Rifles).

There are one Airborne (B.O.B. SHS) helmet sprue, one Beret (B.O.B. SHS) sprue, one SOTR command beret head sprue and three SOTR beret with gas mask sprues. Some of the masks look like they have a fill issue, so I modified the gas mask filter with plastic rod.

The berets as supplied are at rather a jaunty angle, see the UNIT figures way back when, so I have removed and replaced some of them with Greenstuff ones.

British M100 Comanche walker

So some additional decals have been added to the model.

A recognition marker on the shoulder identifies this as a British machine.

A W prefix number on the thigh (and the back of the hip assembly) identifies the vehicle. A green squadron mark is more a check on placement and size than a final item It should probably be a white ones, and smaller (20 or 15mm scale).

 On the cannon arm are similar set of markings.

View of the back of the walker. The exhausts are missing (I seem to have lost them). They will need to be replaced with scratch built items.

Size comparison with a British Steel Armoured Infantryman.

Weird War 2 British Armoured Infantry

There are currently two manufacturers making British WWW2 armoured infantry, Warlord/Clockwork Goblin and West Wind.

The Warlord/Clockwork Goblin Galahad armoured infantry man.

 The West Wind British Steel armoured infantryman.

Two comparison shots

The British Steel is armed with a Vickers medium machine gun, the Galahad with a Bren light machine gun fitted with a drum magazine (if it was a K gun I would expect a higher rate of fire).

The British Steel is also available with a Boyes anti tank rifle, a flamethrower and a grenade/mortar gun. In the rules there are options to add disposable anti tank rockets (PIAT-D).

There are no weapon options on the Galahad,

British Steel WWW2 Armoured Infantryman

Here is a nearly completed West Wind SOTR British Steel Armoured Infantryman,

Armed with the water cooled Vickers medium machine gun, He carries a spare magazine on his left hip.

 Size comparison with William Killian,

 Supported by an M5A1.

Rubicon SDKFZ253 as a Totenkontrolfahrzeug

Rubicon released a kit that could build the SDKFZ250/1 Alte or the SDKFZ253.

Unlike almost all SDKFZ250 family vehicles (and German halftracks in general) the SDKFZ253 has a roof. It is not too much of a stretch to make the vehicle airtight which would make it a perfect vehicle for SOTR as a forward observer vehicle for V-Gas artillery and as a pinger control vehicle (Pingers are a radio controlled zombie which allows the directing of the normally uncontrolled zombies in SOTR).

Of course, making it airtight would mean that the crew might asphyxiate rather than suffer the effects of the V-Gas. So it needs some form of air filtration system.

The Rubicon Tiger tank kit has the desert filters as an option, and I did not use it on the first one I built, so I have a set spare.

First, here are the sprue photographs (Rubicon publish the assembly instructions on their web site).

Because the 253 has a roof, quite a lot of the bits are not used.

The kit went together easily (the problem with the parts not gluing together I experienced with the Studebaker did not occur with this kit). I basically followed the instructions except I have not glued the wheel assembly to the body, I will spray both parts with Citadel Chaos Black spray and then the body with PSC German Dark Yellow spray.

Left side

Front

Right side

Rear. The structure on the rear of the vehicle are the cyclone air filters from the Tiger kit.

 Rear again. This shows the jerry can holder. It needs some smoothing out. The rack and the box on the door are inspired by the photograph on page 56 of the Terry Gander book on the 250.

Comparison shot with a Bolt Action SDKFZ251.

It shows the SDKFZ250 series is tiny.