No snazzy title tonight, just progress on the hobby front - LOTS of progress. It's been awhile since I've posted, but that doesn't mean Ive been idle here in the SOC Bunker - far from it!
First up, I recently took my GHQ British Desert "Combat Command" purchased from GHQ almost 20 years ago and completely repainted and rebased the Desert Rats so that Rommel's DAK troopers have someone to fight against other than the Ami's.
 |
| The venerable Matilda! |
As an added bonus, you all get to see my desert table, which lies underneath my "temperate" table!
 |
| Ahhh early British tanks! I love the early war stuff. |
 |
| GHQ British WWII infantry NW Europe theater. I was NOT about to pay for a pack of desert infantry and so these fellows will do double duty in NW Europe, as well as Africa and Italy. |
 |
| Support stands in 6mm. A VIckers team and an AT gun. All GHQ. |
 |
| Some "Brazen Chariots" for you. Like the Bernard Cornwell stuff and Napoleonics or Dark Ages, it's usually a book that gets me into a wargaming era. In this case, MAJ Robert Crisp's book is a must-have for any WWII wargamer's shelf. |
 |
| Humbers! I couldn't get the lighting right which is a shame because they look really good. They're one of my favorite vehicles of the war. |
 |
| Carrier Platoon. Another Must-Have for any Commonwealth force. |
 |
| The whole lot. |
Also on the microarmor front, I spun the wheel of fate and ordered some "1/300 Axis and Allies Italians" off
ebay so I would have some proper Italians to play in 6mm and I was frankly not disappointed! For a bargain price I picked up a bag (each bag was under 10 US dollars) of 15 M-13 medium tanks, 15 Semovente SP Guns, and a bag of 25 x M75 howitzers which of course will do double duty as AT guns. 3 times the tanks in one bag and it was still less than a pack of 5 GHQ tanks! Look at the detail which is frankly pretty good, then look at what this purchase would have cost had I gone with GHQ...
 |
| M13s on the left, Semovente's on the right. |
 |
| The detail is good enough for my eyes. |
 |
| Semovente SP guns. |
 |
| M75 guns. I have lots of them! |
Not wanting to stop there, I spun the wheel of fate again and purchased some "sight unseen" 1/285 3d printed Stug IIIs, Panzer IIIs, and Panzer IVs from Plastic Soldier Company
Plastic Soldier Company. Gosh they look excellent for the price and my only hope is they expand the line because these guys are terrific. They'll fit in nicely alongside my GHQ stuff and with the nice crisp edges, they might even be able to serve in the same units.
 |
| 3d printed Stug IIIs. They came off the supports easily. Nothing like Butler's Printed Models which were a huge pain. |
 |
| Here they are on the supports. |
Not ever able to stay away from Napoleonics for too long, I started the rebasing project in earnest, completing one to two units per day. As you can see I still have a shed load to do (and these are just the French. There is a massive Austrian, Russian, and British collection awaiting their bases next.) I should speed up and refight Quatre Bras!
 |
| Even without flock it's still a damned impressive sight! |
 |
| 10 Infantry Units - 8 Line Infantry Battalions and 2 Legere Battalion so far, along with 2 batteries of Artillery. |
 |
| 8 French Battalions to go, then I start the foreign troops on the right in the picture.. 16 total Infantry Battalions left to rebase, then I'll start on the Cavalry... |
 |
| What a mess! But we'll get them sorted out. There are 6 Dragoon units, 3 units of Cuirassier, and 6 or 7 Units of Hussars somewhere in this pile. |
On the procurement front, tons of money continues to pour out the door as I ordered more DAK 1/285 Germans from GHQ to round out the force if I wanted to play Flames of War or Battlegroup. Wheeled recce including a pack of SdKfz 231 8-Rad, DAK Artillery crewmen (who will do double duty as AT gunners...), a pack of Pak-38s, and a pack of 105mm howitzers all arrived this week.
Finally, in a moment of weakness while on the PSC site, I ordered a grab bag of 1/300 model planes from the PSC "Battle of Britain" box. This came with a serious amount of DO-17s, Bf-110s,and of course Stukas. The question is what are these green models? Also - what the he** am I supposed to do with all of these 1/300 planes now!?!?! Clearly a 3-ship squadron for my Eastern Front, Western front, and Mediterranean fronts are all in order -but what do i do with the remaining 40???
 |
| This may have been a plane too far... |
 |
| I am not sure what this biplane is. *CORRECTED* This is a Gloster Gladiator |
 |
| I am also not quite sure what this guy is. *CORRECTED* This is a Boulton Paul Defiant |
 |
| Bristol Blenheim *CORRECTED* and Messerschmidt Bf 110. Not bad for board wargame pieces. |
Anyways that's all for now. I plan on playing Martin Rapier's 1HW Napoleonic rules in a game soon, but un-hexed. Also I'd like to get a big 6mm Desert game played with either FOW or Battlegroup, and I'm working on a 15mm Bolt Action "Epic" variant so I can play with my multi-based stands. And since you stuck with me this far, I'll let the cat out of the bag and let you all know I'm starting a new 15mm WWII project - the Italian Army - because why only have an army in one scale!!! Stay tuned!
Wow...busy times Chez Sreve! Everything looks great...the 3d printed stuff is excellent as are the planes...the two you can't I'd may be Soviet I think.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir! Busy times indeed. I am half tempted to run a picture of those green planes through "Google lens" to see what comes out on the other side.
DeleteI was shocked (in a good way) at the 3d print quality. Both the ebay purchase and the PSC stuff are fantastic minis.
Certainly a lot going on, and your WW2 British desert forces are looking very nice.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Peter! I was inspired to get some desert WW2 battles on the table and my Desert Rats were languishing in the attic. They're ready for some action now.
DeleteExcellent work across all fronts there Steve:)! As for the green planes, in descending order they are a Henschel Hs-123 divebomber, a Bolton-Paul Defiant fighter (used mainly as a night fighter as it was not that good IIRC) and finally an early Bristol Blenheim bomber.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve!
DeleteI stand corrected on the Gloster Gladiator front! Back to aircraft identification classes for me;).
DeleteApparently I'll be joining you Steve :)
DeleteI think your green planes are from top to bottom: Gladiator; Paul Bolton Defiant; Blenheim I.
ReplyDeleteThat would be consistent with British Battle of Britain planes. The Gladiator and Blenheim saw service in the early Desert campaigns pre 1941.
Painted examples here:
https://wargamingwithbarks.blogspot.com/2017/12/psc-battle-of-britain.html
Neil
All good stuff: I suspect the green aircraft are British. The biplane looks like a Gladiator, the single-engine monoplane with a rear turret is a Defiant, and i reckon the twin-engine bomber (alongside the black Me 110) is a Blenheim or some variant.. All 'early war' types..
ReplyDeleteThanks David.
DeleteThe aeroplanes are (top down) Gloster Gladiator, Boulton Paul Defiant and Bristol Blenheim Mk1. All bar the Defiant served in the Med, so that’s a good haul. You only need three Gladiators in Malta to keep the Italians at bay.
ReplyDeleteThanks and good to hear from you Jeffers!
DeleteCheers - I pop by occasionally to see if you’ve settled on a Napoleonic basing scheme. I’ll give this one a month 🤣. If you have a spare couple of minutes, take the Defiant, carve off the turret and build up a longer cockpit with green stuff or styrene. That should give a passable Fairey Fulmar for another Med aeroplane. Or chop off the cowling and replace with it with one from a Gladiator and modify the tail for a Blackburn Roc (not in the Med, but fun).
Delete100% deserved and 100% accurate! Thanks Jeffers I'd settle for a Napoleonic rules set that made me rebase more. Apparently I have no idea what I want.
DeleteI have lots of green stuff for conversions and if I screw one up, I have lots more!
Fairey Swordfish and Bolton Paul Defiant are the aircraft. I think we may have to rescind your WW2 wargamer membership card for not knowing those.
ReplyDeleteI obviously need to look closer. It's a Gladiator. Didn't see the cockpit until I enlarged the picture. I shall hand in my WW2 wargamer membership card now. ;-)
DeleteThanks Ashley, the blog will be deleted by days end and all of my minis thrown out.
DeleteYou me both it seems. :-)
DeleteFair enough! As I said to Martin, all "knowledge" of WW2 British planes I have comes from the 1969 "Battle of Britain" movie. Guess I should beef up on my reading.
DeleteGosh, you have been busy! I love all the GHQ British stuff, beautiful models, you just need sooo much armour for the British. The mysterious green planes are British, the biplane is a Gladiator, the twin engined bomber is a Blenheim, and the fighter is a Bolton Paul Defiant. You could carve off the turret and pretend it is a Hurricane... The Blenheim and Gladiator both saw service in North Africa.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin. The sum total of my knowledge of British planes comes from the 1969 Battle of Britain movie...
DeleteI love the GHQ models but they're too expensive anymore.
I was pleasantly surprised at the PSC 3d printed models.
Came to comment 0n the green planes, but I see that is well covered. The Italian tanks and artillery look great, but the Semovante is mislabeled. The rear engine deck should be the same as the M13-40 and there should be fewer slopes on the armor. I think what you have are Hungarian M43 Zrinyi assault guns. I do not know if people will really care in 1/300 scale, but it is evident in the photos.
ReplyDeleteThis has to be some kind of record for corrective action comments. Maybe even more than when I painted epic minis while still in the sprues. On a 1/300 model I don't really care. They'll be painted nicely and based as the others.
DeleteWell, I think it has been proven that the best way to get answers on the internet is to post something incorrect. People ignore questions, but "OMG, someone's wrong on the internet!" brings lots of responses. Yeah, most people won't notice or care about the Hungarian assault guns playing Italians, but the Ebay vendor should have been more careful.
DeleteI've read "the miniatures page" long enough to know you're right.
DeleteHaha - then I take full credit for getting you the "right" answers Steve - by saying I thought all those early war British planes were Soviet and inspiring everyone to jump on and prove me wrong - and I don't have a WW2 license to cancel (or any other, for that matter!)
DeleteKeith this post will go down in history as "the infamous ww2 British planes post of 2024". Definitely a first for this blog and the comments absolutely exploded. If you care about blog traffic and want to increase it , just post an incorrect guess and watch the comments pour in!
DeleteI’m just looking forward to seeing you paint a snake on the Stuka… https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/ju-82b-2-snake-marking.41574/
DeleteChallenge accepted!
DeleteRe the 15mm Italians, I may be able to help. Contact this honest and devilishly handsome salesman: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116201903406?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=IoKXeScIQBO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=IoKXeScIQBO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
ReplyDeleteI meant to note - strong second on "Brazen Chariots", which has been a favorite for years. Last year I tracked down an affordable copy of Crisp's other book, "The Gods Were Neutral" covering his experiences with the BEF in Greece commanding A9 or A10 cruiser tanks. Little tank fighting (although he gets credited with a Pz II), mostly retreating and "scuttling" tanks as they break down with no time or parts for repair. You might also like "Armoured Odyssey" by Stuart Hamilton, a similar book about commanding Valentine tanks in the desert, then Shermans in Italy.
ReplyDeleteHi Pete,
DeleteBrazen Chariots remains one of my favorite accounts of armored warfare. It's a must have for any student of the second world war. I'll check out those other 2 titles you mentioned, particularly as I like MAJ Crisps writing style, and I'm very interested in the fighting in Italy.
Good stuff mate! (and +1 for Brazen Chariots!)
ReplyDelete