Pretoria Regiment Shermans, Italy 1944-5

A pair of Shermans to add some teeth to my 28mm South Africa 6th Armoured Division force. They are my first attempts at SCC 15 - the British and Commonwealth interpretation of Olive Drab. By all accounts, this paint color faded towards light green, as opposed to the US paint mix, which faded towards a brown ochre hue.

I have been putting off adding olive drab vehicles to my South African force, simply because I enjoy the look of the Light Mud + Black camo pattern, and wanted to keep the force coherent when fielded together. However, that did limit me to vehicles used for a particularly narrow time period - that is from April until September 1944. From that point, more and more SCC 15 - and indeed US Olive Drab  - vehicles become evident in pix of the division.  That is not to say there were not camo pattern vehicles around after September 1944, and it is clear from the evidence that the SA 6th Armoured division was not particularly diligent about the general order to repaint, and the latitude afforded by the order - it gave a range of priorities for repainting - was well exploited... But the bottom line is this - if I want to accurately depict the SA 6th Armoured in Italy, I know I have to become friends with SCC 15.

The Firefly VC is the older Warlord kit released in resin, and was a fine kit to put together. A glance at the newer plastic kits compared to the resin kit suggests that the detail on the resin kit is a bit crisper, and "deeper" than the plastic kit - which betrays its origins as a scale-up of a 15mm kit. (I haven't yet built a Warlord plastic Sherman VC, so this criticism might be misplaced and unfair, but my first impression of the plastic offering is that the detail is "flat" and "soft".) Crew figure is from Perry Miniatures, and the baggage bits and bobs from Die Waffenkamer and Warlord Games.

It depicts a vehicle from C Squadron, Pretoria Regiment. Its not overly clear from the evidence I have at hand as to exactly when the Fireflies were issued to the South African tank regiments, and when and in which units they were replaced by 76mm Shermans. There are photos of the Pretoria Regiment at a parade in 1945 with both 76mm Shermans and Fireflies, so clearly not all were retired in 1944 as suggested by some sources.

The Sherman 105 is the (now discontinued) M4A3 kit from Rubicon Models. Very easy to put together, it produces a model with plenty of neat detail. However, the track detail leaves a lot to be desired, and I assume this was one of the reasons it was withdrawn from the Rubicon range (and apparently there were detail errors on the 76mm turret option included in the kit). Rubicon have announced it is to replaced by a more detailed Sherman kit, and the 3D renderings of the track parts do indeed show much more detail. Again, crew from Perry Miniatures, and stowage from Warlord and Die Waffenkamer.

It depicts a vehicle from HQ Squadron, Pretoria Regiment. Again, it is not clear to me exactly how the 105-equipped Shermans were distributed amongst the troops, but Marshall does mention that they are eventually grouped together to provide additional field artillery support, so I have assumed that the HQ squadron was a good enough place for that to happen.

And finally, another couple of family portraits, the last one together with an earlier attempt at a Sherman V as used as an OP vehicle by a field artillery regiment...

Konflikt '47

Just off the painting table, a kit for the weird WW2 game by Warlord and Osprey - Konflikt '47.

This is the "Spinne" light mech from Warlord and Clockwork Goblin. This kit was lightly modified - I added steps and grab handles, an antenna mount, baggage, and some mesh turret hatch covers. I wanted the commander figure to be a bit more dynamic than the kit offering, but all the panzer crew I had on hand were a bit too "authentic". So with a Heer infantryman torso from the bits box, and a gasmask head from Westwind Miniatures, I managed to knock together something more to my taste. Yes, I am fully aware that webbing and helmets and turrets dont go together, but guess what,  it is ultimately a for fantasy genre, and if there is anywhere strict authenticity can be dispensed with, its here. Camo is the 1948 "leopard toad" pattern in the western Europe colour mix.

And then a unit of genetically modified wolf/dog/human stormtroopers... the majority of these figures are from Westwind miniatures - one is from Warlord Games.

And finally, a few Steppe ghouls produced by mixing parts from the Mantic ghoul and zombie sprues, and the Warlord Games plastic Russian infantry sprues. (Figures in the background are Westwind Russian zombies...)

PWG: somewhere in Afghanistan, sometime in the 1980s...

These are some pix of a recent Peninsula Wargames Group game - using the fanmade Bolt Action "Modern Wars" rules (available here). The rules, as we used them, worked well, and the scenario - the Russian objective was to get a convoy of soft skin vehicles through the valley - was a lot of fun.

All appears peaceful...

But the Russians are taking no chances, and send in some infantry and supports to sweep the village...

 Afghani regulars keep watch from a hilltop position.

First signs of trouble... an armoured car is knocked out, before having an opportunity to report on any hostile forces...

Heavy air support arrives to help to identify Muhajideen positions, but falls foul of American-supplied anti-aircraft tech... "How do you say Black Hawk Down in Russian?"...

Realising they are in a fight, the Russians respond with a slow and steady approach - using air cover and heavy weapons to destroy the village, building by building... while cautiously advancing their infantry...

However, the Russians keep taking casualties, and the convoy halts as the advance falters....

 And the locals begin a counter-attack...

The game was conceded by the Russian players after 7 turns. Their tactic of destroying buildings to deny cover hadn't done enough to degrade the Muhajideen forces to a point that the soft skins could enter the village safely.

Many thanks to those PWG members who supplied all the figures, vehicles and terrain for the game.

Paint your wagon...

Nothing is easy for a landser. Just when they get a nice new wagon to carry their kit, the military police throw red tape across their every path...

Just off the painting table, the HF2 field wagon is from Warlord games, and the MPs from Black Tree and Warlord. Apologies for the grim little vignette of the firing squad - I debated whether I should paint these figures. In the end I figured they didn't have to be seen to depict a summary execution of, say, a partisan. Completely plausible that they could depict a post-court-martial execution of a deserter. No less grim, but at least not a depiction of a war crime...

A couple of Crusaders

This is my attempt at the 1/56th scale Rubicon Crusader Mk II/III- a kit I reviewed earlier in the year.

The kit was a pleasure to paint - plenty of crisp details to pick up with washes and dry brushing. Also, the way the kit goes together allows sub-assemblies (running gear, turret, hull) to be painted separately and then assembled.

As I mentioned in the previous post on this kit, I was set on painting the vehicle in a Desert-Sand/Blue-Black pattern used by some vehicles in the Tunisian campaign. I wanted a change from painting a series of Light Mud/Blue-Black vehicles for my Italian campaign force.

So I knew that would mean I would have to represent a vehicle in the 8th Army at around the time of the assault on the Mareth line, (as opposed to one of the 1st Army, in the north of Tunisia).

But I didn't ever get to grips with the insignia and markings of the various units that made up the Desert Rats, and when they had Crusaders, and when they applied various camo patterns. So I must confess, the markings are a bit of conjecture. I think I have represented a vehicle from A Squadron 3rd RTR, brigaded in the 7th Armoured Division. Maybe. Or maybe not at all. Rivet counters can look away, or better still, point me to some clear and comprehensive references.

And below, pix of the same hull with the Mk II turret.

 

At the same time, I painted up a second Mk II Crusader, this one from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. In this case, decals were spares from the Rubicon kit (and I am not sure if the Blitzkrieg kit includes decals, as this one came to me secondhand), and I was hoping to represent a vehicle from the same unit as the model above, but a bit earlier in the campaign. While the detail on the Blitzkrieg kit is not a patch on the Rubicon offering, it produces a very neat wargaming model once painted up. Standing alone, it looks the part. Its only when you put it alongside the plastic kit that you notice the difference in detail.   I am sure there are wargamers who would choose the ease of assembly of the Blitzkrieg kit over the particularly detailed but slower build of the Rubicon kit...