Matilda II - Test Model

I was going to wait until I had the whole troop/squadron done... but then decided that was stupid. I painted one of the Matildas yesterday and... I am relatively pleased with it... 

"Auk" - this tank belongs to the commander of A Company, 69th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, 37th Army Tank Brigade. 

I decided that these tanks should all be part of entirely fictional units. The Matilda IIs will be elements of A Company (specifically A Company Commander "Auk", 2 tanks from #2 Section "Adder" and "Anaconda", and two tanks from #3 Section "Antelope" and "Aardvark"), 69th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, 37th Army Tank Brigade. 

Bolt Action allows platoons of five... I have five of these... I figured I'd field them all together. All five add up to 785 points, so.... I CAN do that in either a 1000 or 1250 point force! (Sure... there's not going to be much else in the 1000 point force but a VERY understrength Rifle Platoon...). Tank Troops, however, (or sections in earlier war Tank Regiments) were only made up of three tanks... so I decided that the "Platoon Commander" will actually be the Company Commander leading elements of two understrength Tank Sections. 

I tried painting it in the Caunter pattern. I've seen it interpreted in a few different ways with different shades of colours... these colours probably aren't exactly historical... I've seen the Caunter camouflage scheme in tan, light green, and dark green.... desert yellow, light blue and slate... yellow, blue, and dark green.... I do know that pink and green were used for tanks at some point. I know that both LRDG and SAS trucks made use of pinks, greens, yellows/tans, and blues... so... 

As they are fictional, no one can tell me the tanks of that brigade were not painted in this particular pattern of camouflage.... 

Also, I figure if there can be a movie and two entire seasons of a TV show about the adventures of a pink submarine in the South Pacific, I can have some fabulous tanks with pink, yellow, blue and green on them!

I'll probably finish up the rest of them over the next week... then I'll probably work on the Cruiser Mk.I (A9) tanks. Those are going to be part of 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Yeomanry. The 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Yeomanry DID actually exist... but it was a deception unit made up of wood and canvas... We'll pretend this one had real tanks and served in North Africa as part of the 38th Armoured Brigade in the 5th Armoured Division. 

Desert Rats

 The 3D printed ebay tanks arrived! 

(Okay, technically, the Matildas are very definitely NOT Desert Rats, as I'm pretty sure they were all in Independent Tank Brigades and not part of the 7th Armoured Division... but "Desert Rats" is a bit more evocative than "8th Army - although some of these would have seen plenty of action before the 8th Army was even formed... "Western Desert Force Tanks"...?) 

ALL THE TANKS! 

Cruiser Mk. I (A9)

Matilda II

The thing I love about these is NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED the tracks and hulls are all one piece, and, unlike other one-piece-cast resign tanks... there isn't abig blob of resin under the hull and behind the tracks... in fact, the hull isn't even a solid chunk - they're HOLLOW?!

I felt like this was taking a big risk ordering ALL of these... but, wow, I am feeling like that gamble paid off. These are really good quality!! 

Do I finish the half-assebled, partly painted German and Italian tanks... or do I give these a scrub and knock them out... 

There is a part of me that feels like maybe I should only paint three of them in desert colours and do the rest for France 1940...? But I'll probably just do them all as Desert Tanks! 

WW2 - British (Commonwealth) 2-Pounder Anti-Tank Gun

Another little addition to the British Commonwealth 8th Army in North Africa forces!

Ordnance Quick-Firing 2-pounder Anti-Tank Gun with a commonwealth crew in North Africa... could be Brits... could be Australians... could be South Africans... 

Considering half of the infantry I have are in Australian hats, I'm feeling like the Infantry element of the force is becoming nominally Australian! As these would be in an Infantry Battalions Anti-Tank Platoon of the Support Company, they're probably going to be Australians! 

The entire 8th Army force, so far... 

I have some TANKS on the way for these guys. I took a chance on ordering some 3D printed ones off of eBay... we shall see. 

I also have a 6-Pounder AT gun - for when these guys have to fight something more dangerous that the early war Italian tanks I have to oppose them!!

The complete force and the breakdown of options for Bolt Action can be found in the 8th Army in North Africa Gallery:

WW2 - 8th Army in North Africa

WW2 - Taking Stock of the 8th Army

 Well not the WHOLE 8th Army... just a few Diggers... 

I was tempted to call it "Taking Stock of the Desert Rats"... but, technically, the Desert Rats is just the 7th Armoured Division and, while at some point I'd love to have some of the armour the 7th fielded... there weren't no diggers in the BRITISH 7th Armoured Division. 

None of this is newly painted (well... I did repaint the 25 Pounder - as it had been olive green!?)m just taking stock of what I have and thinking about what, if anything, I might add at some future date?

All of my 8th Army in North Africa forces. 

It's not a lot... But it's a start... and to this I would totally, at some point, add a pile of armoured options - probably some Matildas to start (as that's what would have populated the Army Tank Brigades that likely would have been supporting the Australians. I going with them being Australians because... well... half of them are very definitely Australians in their iconic Slouch Hats... and the rest in tin hats could me more sensible Australians! 

Here's what this would look like in Bolt Action:

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander 

30 points (Regular) 

First Infantry Section 

1 NCO + 4 men (Regular ) 50 points, +5 Men @ 10, + Light Machine-Gun @15, +Submachine-Gun @4 = 119 points

Second Infantry Section 

1 NCO + 4 men (Regular ) 50 points, +5 Men @ 10, + Light Machine-Gun @15, +Submachine-Gun @4 = 119 points

Honestly I could probably mix and match these to there is an assortment of slouch hats and tin hats throughout the force... If there is just the two, though, having them in different hats makes the two sections more easy to identify!? 

Artillery Platoon

Artillery Platoon Commander

30 points (Regular) 

25 Pounder 

Light Howitzer 45 points (Regular) + AT shells @5 points + Gunshield @5 points = 55 points 

Spotter for the 25 Pounder 

+10 points

Armoured Troop

Rolls Royce Armoured Car 

70 Points (Regular) + Command Vehicle @10 = 80 points

Did Australian Infantry Divisions have Armoured Cars in their reconaissance units...? I have not idea... It's just what I happed to have (from WW1 gaming!) 

TOTAL: 443 points

Not a lot... I'd need a fair bit more to make this into a viable force... There are staggeringly few makers of metal 8th Army miniatures anymore. I think most of these were produced by Battle Honors...? and it doesn't look like they make their WW2 line anymore. Perry Miniatures and Warlord games have plastic 8th army troops and they're so cheap... it's hard to compete with that, I guess... 

So a part of me feels like maybe that's all I need and this force will predominantly be armour!? 

For right now it would do for a game of Five Men at Kursk... but kind of even lacks the stuff that could be rolled for on the random support tables... 

TO DO

I think I have a second Rolls Royce Armoured car somewhere... so I could actually make a troop of them. Other than that, I have nothing else to assemble or paint for this force at this time.

I did order 2 Pounder and 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns and teams... they should be here next week. But that will really only add 50 and 70 points, respectively...  Luckily, they show up as part of an Artillery Battery (Platoon) so I don't need to dig up another officer!

STILL TO GET

I'd love to get a bunch of armour for these - and I don't mean Second El Alamein/Supercharge/Tunisa kind of Desert War... I'd love to have a force of those crazy little (and BIG) tanks they had in North Africa when the Italians invaded or for Wavell's offensive (Operation Compass) up to the introduction of the Afrikakorps... 

Like the Mk VI Light Tank, or the Cruiser Mk I (A9), or Cruiser Mk II (A10), or Cruiser Mk III (A13)... or maybe the Matilda II - which, as I mentioned, was what populated the Army Tank Brigades which would have been supporting Australian Divisions... I'm a little reluctant to get those as they had such crazy thick armour, it was difficult for the Italians (and later Germans) to actually destroy them with the guns they had available at the time (learned THAT playing Flames of War)... and My intentions are always to build things that make historical sense and not take stupid broken stuff that my opposing force wouldn't be able to deal with...!? That's not fun!?

(having a look at the rules, it is only rated as Medium Tank 8+... so.. that isn't THAT bad...) 

Warlord Games DOES sell a Matilda II troop... That would add 475 points to the force! 

It'll be a while before I can add anything else to this. I went a little overboard ordering things the last few weeks... and really need to get all the stuff I have (or at least the stuff I recently bought) painted before I go buying anything else! 

I may or may not add a heavy weapons platoon with mortars and machine-guns...