IDF Infantry Platoons, Halftracks, and some more Egyptian Infantry for the Yom Kippur War! And Palm Trees!

Back with some more "content" from the Yom Kippur War. This time we'll start off with the IDF infantry I've finished off.

The models are quite nice, they're from Khurasan of course. I ordered enough models for two "understrength platoons", as Mr K. described them.

What you get in an understrength platoon is this: two rifle packs (FN FAL), one Uzi pack, and one section weapons and command pack. This gives you enough for the whole platoon: two sections each of seven men with FN FAL, one man with a heavy-barrel FN FAL and rifle grenades, and a couple Uzi-toting dudes as leaders. For the record these guys' uniforms are painted GW Death World Forest and the webbing and helmets are Vallejo Khaki. Everything is washed with Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted in the base colours.

The weapons section of the platoon is a man with an FN MAG (light machinegun), Blindicide (anti-tank) team, light mortarman, and another Uzi-toter. Sorted!

I also built a weapons platoon to support this understrength company. That's two M2 Browning HMGs (Khurasan also provides .30 MGs if you prefer) and two mortars and crews. Fun.

Lastly for the IDF, I've done up five M3 halftracks. These are plastic kits from Plastic Soldier Company and I think they worked OK. I am given to understand that the IDF didn't use the cupolas from the M3A1 and just went with a pintle-mounted .50 cal Browning. But they also equipped each track with a .30 MG sticking out the driver's side "front window"! To model this I used a small square of plasticard drilled to take a scale .30 cal barrel. I didn't bother with modelling the breach-end of the weapon as it's pretty much hidden anyway.

Of course I painted the typical white stripes (no blackline as these guys didn't get the memo) and as always, I painted some crew too. 

You have to squint a bit at these guys as they are WW2 Americans. Most are unarmed but there are a couple Garands and Thompsons in there. I don't know of anyone that sells IDF seated infantry (Peter Pig's have Galils I think) so these will do. I also loaded up the vehicle sides with stowage.

Of course these guys have to have some terrain to fight over so I bought (more) palm trees from an Amazon seller, I think it was $18 CAD for 20 trees, which seemed to me a bit of a bargain.

I based the larger trees on washers and the small ones on pennies. The smallest ones are pretty small (these are a Perry DAK dude and a 15mm Khurasan Egyptian) but most of the trees will work.

Lastly for this post are some more Egyptian infantry from Khurasan. Right here we've got two squads and a weapons platoon.

I had to re-work the paint formula as I'd painted the first bunch of these guys over 10 years ago, and (of course) GW has redone all its colours since then. Anyway these guys' uniforms are Rakarth Flesh, washed with Agrax and highlighted again with Rakarth and then with Rakarth mixed with a splash of Pallid Witch Flesh to lighten it a bit. The assault vests are Tallarn Sand washed Agrax and re-highlighted. Skin is Doombull Brown and Ratskin Flesh. 

Each squad is seven guys with AKMs, an RPG-7 gunner, and one man with an RPD or RPK LMG. The squad leader has an AKM or Port Said SMG.

 

Here's the heavy weapons - two Sagger ATGM teams, a heavy machinegun team (DShK) and a mortar.

Would hate to be an IDF tanker looking down the end of this!

Anyway I think that's mostly sorted the IDF and Egyptians for now, I just have some BTR-60s to paint yet as well as some Israeli recce and TOW jeeps. But more importantly we need to get this stuff out for a game!

Shalom and Youm Sa'id!

15mm IDF Halftracks - Yom Kippur War

IDF halftracks from Battlefront

Some more Yom Kippur painting as we prepare for Prairiecon 2014! In this post are a pair of Israeli M3 halftracks.  The models are from Battlefront - the halftracks themselves are from their WW2 range, but they are tricked out with upgrade bits from their really, really awesome "Fate of A Nation" expansion for the Six Day War.

Mix of resin, plastic and metal - all in one little 15mm APC!

The US M2/M3 halftrack was the main APC of the IDF armoured infantry battalions during the Six Day War.  The IDF was in the process of replacing the M3 with the M113 by the time of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but as is so often the case when bringing new kit to your armed forces, the IDF still relied on the tried and tested M3 as their reserves mobilized to meet the surprise attack by the Arabs.

Covered in soldiers' kit...I like the look - makes them look "lived in"

As with the venerable M51 Sherman, the M3 saw service with mobilizing reserve formations and saw action in both the Golan Heights and against the Egyptians in the Sinai peninsula.

Battlefront offers these models for their Fate of a Nation supplement.  The model is (of course) the US WW2 M3 halftrack with a conversion kit.  The pieces in the kit let you have the halftrack festooned with spare kit and bags, as these vehicles often seem to be when seen in photos from the Arab-Israeli wars, and also add the little ball-turret .30cal MG in place of the right-side front vision port. The air-recognition decals are also from Battlefront. 

Details were done on the hull by pin washing with GW's Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade

The Battlefront APC itself is a mix of old and new trends in gaming model design - the hull is resin, with plastic accessories. While overall the kit is very good, I'm not totally wild about the quality of the Battlefront plastic...it has an odd, rigid quality to it and not as much detail as the metal parts. Gamers often clamor for more and more plastic, and I worry we will regret this...

The .50cal MGs are plastic...and not inspiring plastic...but overall these are still real beauties to work with

And yet, even with my grouchy-old-man-style bleating, these are fun kits.  I am very much enjoying Battlefront's entry into 15mm Arab-Israeli wars as it is overall providing us gamers with some great stuff! The only problem here is that I should have finished four of these halftracks - not two - in order to mount the entire platoon.  I sort of ran out of bases...I hope to get the other two done in time for Prairiecon! But if the bases don't get sorted in time, we'll just add some M113s :)

We will be test driving the Prairiecon scenario at Dallas' place this week.  Looking forward to getting these on the table!

More Pico Armour Painting

1/600 scale IDF troops ready for action

Some more Pico Armour painting - this time from the Arab-Israeli wars.  Up first is a group of IDF infantry in M3 half-tracks.  Depending on what level of abstraction is going on in the game, these could represent either a couple of platoons of infantry, or if going Spearhead-style (where each base represents a platoon), an entire mechanized infantry battalion.  The two smaller square bases have support half tracks - one an AA track with .50 cal MGs, and the other mounting a 90mm AT gun.

M3 half tracks a-plenty

Magachs ready to roll

Up next is a group of M48 Pattons - known as "Magachs" in IDF service.  As they did so often, the IDF modified these tanks, giving them a bigger gun (105mm, up from 90mm) and changing the commander's cupola, removing the strange little MG turret. These models do not capture those changes - on a 3mm scale tank, I don't worry too much about it, but I have to say the muzzle brakes and camera (or whatever that box thing is) over the main gun give it away - a credit to the amazing sculpting on these little figures.

You can see a couple of the M113 TOWs mixed in with the Magachs here - sorry about the blurry pic

There are a few M113s with TOW launchers mixed in with this group.  The Yom Kippur War was a real coming out party of sorts for ATGM weapons like the Soviet Sagger and the US TOW missiles.  The IDF used these weapons as part of their crushing of the Egyptian offensive toward the passes in the Sinai.

BMP-mounted infantry and support

Company or battalion, depending on the game scale

On the Arab side I have a unit of BMP-1 infantry, with an attached BRDM scout car and a ZSU-23-4 AAA tank.  Again, depending on the game, these could represent either a company or a battalion.  The BMP-1 made its big combat debut in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but the results were not great.  They equipped a few infantry battalions attached to independent tank brigades in the Egyptian and Syrian armies.

T-62s ready for action in the Sinai

An attached ZSU-23-4 and PT-76, used as a recon tank, provide support

And last but not least a group of Egyptian T-62 tanks, again with a couple of odds and ends for support.  The T-62 also made it's big time combat debut in the middle east during the 1973 war, but they were roughly handled by the IDF.  Still, their heavy main guns and unique ammunition (I believe this tank was a pioneer of sorts for using fin-stabilized rounds in the main guns) were noted.

I've got a lot more Pico Armour painted up, but I ran out of bases, so I am waiting for my next Litko shipment to arrive.  In the meantime, stay tuned for more random projects and painting work.