From FrederickC - Elements of the British 8th Army in North Africa (471 points)

The deadline is approaching like an oncoming train, so this last week has been a mad scramble to get my last big project completed before the bell rings. It consists of elements of the British 8th Army in North Africa. Again, I was inspired to delve into that arena by fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscript, DallasE, who had recently painted up some 8th Army and DAK troops. Like my Italians that I painted earlier in this challenge, I wanted to do something a little different, so I went with earlier models of tanks, and infantry units of the 4th Indian Division. The four tanks are by Blitzkrieg Miniatures, while all the rest are from Warlord Games.

I have always been interested in the early years of the North African campaign so I acquired two Vickers Mk VI light tanks, one of which is the B version, mounting .303 and .50 Vickers machine guns, while the other is the C model with co-axial 15 mm (0.59 in) and 7.92 mm (0.312 in) Besa machine guns. Of course, you have to have an Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda. Finally I have a Valentine tank that I got in a trade with DaveV, another member of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. The Matilda and Valentine tanks were resin castings, while the two Vickers light tanks were 3D prints. Both methods have their pros and cons. The details are much crisper on the 3D prints, but a lot of cleanup of supports was needed around the road wheels. Keeping with the early war theme, I painted all of them using the Caunter Camouflage pattern, although that introduced a slight historical anachronism. The Caunter scheme was phased out in October 1941, but the Valentines didn't become operational in North Africa until December of that year. The method and colours used closely followed those outlined in a video by Sonic Sledgehammer.

British armour in the desert

Valentine and Matilda (front)

Valentine and Matilda (back)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (front)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (back)

Next up is the 8th Army Carrier Patrol from Warlord Games, to which I added a third Universal Carrier that I had in one of my storage boxes. The Carrier Patrol box comes with four metal figures wearing shorts to ride in the back, and some heads with helmets without the later war scrim, and two 8th Army infantry sprues to make 12 figures on foot. I decided to assemble them as members of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, and swapped out a few heads for the carrier crew to give them Punjabi turbans. The carriers were painted in the same manner as the tanks, while I used another Sonic Sledgehammer video for the infantry, with a few minor modifications. All the figures were primed with Vallejo Desert Yellow, and I used the Cork Brown option suggested for the skin colour. I also used Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade instead of the special mixture shown in the video.

Carrier patrol of the 4th Bn 16th Punjab Regiment

3 Universal carriers in Caunter scheme camo (back)

3 Univeral carriers in Caunter scheme camo (front)

In a similar fashion to my Italian force, I bought a Warlord Games 8th Army Support Group boxed set consisting a Headquarters, a Vickers medium machine gun team, and a 3" medium mortar team. The Headquarters group has some nice sculpts depicting a senior officer smoking his pipe and having a cuppa, a medic with a stretcher, a company havildar-major (sergeant-major) carrying a Thompson with a drum magazine, and a radioman feeding a monkey some bisquit. 

8th Army Support Group

Next is the mainstay of my infantry, a 36-man platoon of the 2nd (Royal) Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade. It consists of a headquarters with a British officer with Enfield revolver and whistle, a havildar (sergeant) with a Thompson, a Boyes anti-tank rifle team, and a 2" mortar team, and three 10-man sections each with a Thompson-armed naik (corporal), a Bren gun team, and seven sepoys armed with SMLE No. 1 Mk III* rifles. The miniatures are from the Warlords Brtish 8th Army infantry box, to which I added an additional sprue of 6 figures. I have a love-hate relationship with multi-part figures. I like the ability to customize the miniatures, but I find assembly is sometimes frustrating due to the fiddly small parts (not helped by have a finger in a splint), and not all arms fit well on all torsos. I also found that the arm options were a bit lacking, and a few figures were assembled after cutting off whatever the soldier was carrying in that hand to just leave a closed fist. I opted to make rectangular bases out of plastic card for all the prone weapons teams, rather than mount the figures individually. They were painted using the same method as the Punjabis.

Platoon of the 2nd Bn 11th Sikh Regiment

Boyes A/T rifle, officer, havildar, 2" mortar

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

As a final bit, I have a few pieces of terrain that got painted up during periods of contemplation that occurred during the challenge - a set of light smoke/heavy smoke/flame markers, and three scaling ladders made from a plastic piece to which a set of Christmas lights were clipped. It was heavily trimmed to remove all the slots for the lights, primed with dark brown, and then dry brushed with lighter shades of brown. My Uruk-hai with make good used of these when assaulting Helm's Deep.

A point's worth of miscellaneous terrain(?)

The points being claimed are as follows

 

64 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 320 points

 

1 x 28mm artillery @ 10 points each = 10 points

 

7 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 140 points

 

.05 x cubes of terrain @ 20 points = 1 point

 

Thus concludes my third year of participation in the AHPC.. We will see you all at the afterparty.

 

"Chocks away!"

***

 

Congratulations Frederick on another tremendous Painting Challenge. While I may have moved away, I will always consider myself a "Fawcett Avenue Conscript", and as a member of that extended gaming clan I am confident to say I know all of us are glad to see you running up spectacular points totals on some great projects. Need to keep the Conscripts up at the top of the scoring table! These figures you have shared here will all provide fantastic service on the gaming tables in Winnipeg (I mean, after they get their "newly painted figures" game out of the way). They will particularly be welcome in the middle of a prairie winter, which I find is always an even better time to stage some Western Desert WW2 games. 

 

Seeing Caunter camouflage appear is always a treat too, and I think you have achieved some excellent results here. 

 

A fine "points bomb" to conclude your participation in AHPC XIV. Well done!

 

GregB 

From FrederickC - Early War French Division Légère Mécanique [New Acquisitions] (580 points)

My third submission for the challenge is a selection of early World War 2 French tanks, transports, and troops of a Division Légère Mécanique (DLM), or Light Mechanized Division. They are something that I have been thinking about for a while, and they have finally come together in time for this year's painting challenge.

 

First up are the armoured vehicles consisting of a mix of Char B1 bis, Somua S35, and Renault R35 tanks. The Char B1 tanks are 3D prints by the same friend who did my Polski FIAT trucks, while the latter two types are Solido diecast tanks that were repainted to give them a unified camouflage scheme. Historically the DLM tank battalions were equipped with Hotchkiss H35/H39 and Somua tanks, but I already had the R35s, so I went with that. The heavier Char B1 was not found in the DLM, but I always liked the look of it and added two to my French force. All the tanks were given a coat of USA Olive Drab surface primer using an airbrush. (In the case of the Char B1s, they got a coat of black primer first.) The brown and yellow were applied by brush, and then the whole tank got a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade. After the decals were applied, all the vehicles got a wash of Vallejo Model Wash European Dust around the tracks and road wheels.

 

 

 

The Char B1 served in the armoured divisions of the French army, the Division Cuirassée (DCr). It was armed with a 75mm howitzer in the hull, and a 47mm gun in the turret. Although well armed and armoured, it suffered from the design of a one-man turret, where the commander had to act as both loader and gunner as well. My two models are 3D prints done using an STL file I found online. There must be a flaw in the file because the right track system printed with the tracks misaligned so that they touched the fender at the back of the tank, and didn't sit evenly on the table. To solve the problem, I used a fine blade saw to cut off the right track, reposition it correctly, and glue it back into place using super glue and baking soda (or sodium hydrogen carbonate for the chemists in the crowd 😉). My friend used different resins in the two prints, giving one model more flex than the other. That was the first one where I sawed off the tracks, which worked fairly well. When I went to do the second model, pressure from the blade caused the back part of the fender to break off, along with part of the exhaust system. I still don't know where the missing piece went, and it has probably been sucked up by the vacuum cleaner by now. I was able to rebuild the missing area from bits and bobs from my box of scratch-building supplies. I also added radio aerials to both tanks, but I probably only needed to do that on one model. Radio sets were not distributed below command tanks in the French army.

 

 

 

The Somua S35 was considered a 'cavalry tank' in the French army, and was one of the main tanks in a DLM. It had good speed, adequate range, and a gun powerful enough to destroyed any enemy tank it was likely to encounter. Like the Char B1, it had to deal with the problems of a one-man turret, as well as poor mechanical reliability. Its suspension system was too weak, too complicated, and the cast armour made it difficult to repair in the field.  The models are Solido 1/50 diecast that I purchased years ago, but as I acquired them individually off of eBay, they had two different paint schemes. One was sold green, while the other had a random green and dark brown camouflage pattern. As well, one of the tanks was missing the gun mantle off the main gun and the turret machine gun, so I scratch-built replacements. Now they look like they belong to the same unit.

The last pair of tanks are Renault R35s that saw service with the French Bataillon de Chars de Combat (BCC), as well as some that were sold to Poland and other countries. It was armed with a low velocity Puteaux cannon. Again, it suffered from a one-man turret, and rather slow speed. Some of the men from the Polish 10th Motorized Brigade, having escaped to France, saw service in these tanks in May 1940. These are also Solido 1/50 diecast models picked up from eBay when they were still fairly inexpensive. One was originally solid green, while the other had a green and tan camouflage pattern on it. I prefer the look of the three colour green, brown, and tan, although all the various colour combinations were used in 1940.

Now we come to the transport part of this submission starting with six Laffly S20 TL trucks designed to transport a squad of Dragons Portés, or motorized dragoons of the DLM. These are again 3D prints done by my friend from an STL file I found online. The file generated a very detailed model, but one that may not stand up to the rigours of the wargame table. My friend said he broke off the two side mirrors and the windscreen while trying to get the first print he made free from the supports. Afterwards he adjusted the files to remove the support problem, and the rest printed successfully without any issues. I also managed to snap off a side mirror, and a rear tire of two separate models while prepping them for painting due to rather fragile axles on the models. Once again I resorted to the super glue - baking soda combination to get a strong repair. I also scratch-built replacement mirrors using some florist wire and a small plastic disc made using my leather hole punch. All the models were primed black, followed by a coat of USA Olive Drab. The seats were painted using Vallejo Tan Earth, and the whole truck got a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade, followed by Vallejo Model Wash European Dust around the wheels and fenders.

 

Repaired mirrors on the right

While I was working on the other vehicles. I remembered that I had a Tamiya 1/48 model kit of a Citroën Traction 11 CV staff car sitting in a box in the basement. I originally wasn't sure how I wanted to paint it up, but in the end I decided to add it to my French force. It was an easy kit to assemble, and I painted most of the exterior using an airbrush while the parts were still on the sprue. From unopened kit to complete vehicle in less than a day.

 

At last we come to the troops, in this case Dragons Portés. All of these figures are very recent acquisitions from Crusader Miniatures. We will start with a platoon of three squads and a platoon headquarters. Each squad consists of ten men, including a man carrying a Fusil-mitrailleur Modèle 1924 M29 light machine gun, and his No. 2 holding spare magazines. All the squads have an extra figure armed with a Viven-Bessières rifle grenade cup discharger, as this is one of the options in the Bolt Action rules. One of the squad leaders is carrying a MAS-38 submachine gun.

 

Finally we have have some support weapons consisting of two Hotchkiss machine guns, a Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun, an 81mm medium mortar, and a 60mm light mortar. At some point I want to add some ammunition boxes and spent casings to the bases, but I didn't have anything appropriate in the bits box. That will have to wait until some point in the future, but for now I am calling it done.

 

 

For painting up the Dragons Portés, I followed the guide below from 'Flame of War' fairly closely since I had all the necessary colours in my inventory. Two exceptions are that I used USA Olive Drab instead of Gunship Green on the vehicles, and I used Army Painter Leather Brown instead of German Camouflage Orange Ochre on the soldiers' ammo pouches and Y-straps. After the figures were painted, they got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. As mentioned in my previous submission, this leaves the figures with a glossy sheen, but I will spray them with a matt coat when it is safe to work outside. (It is currently -24°C, with a windchill of -33°C in lovely Winterpeg, Manitscoldout. 😱)

 

Since most of the vehicles and all the figures are new acquisitions, I will claim that Library category for this post.

 

 

 

The points being claimed are as follows

 

54 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 270 points

 

13 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 260 points

 

3 x 28mm artillery pieces @ 10 points each = 30 points

 

Library section 'New Acquistions' @ 20 points = 20 points 

Sylvain: If "Early WW2" were a family, I would be the "little" brother while you would be "BIG" brother. This is an outstanding submission in quantity, quality and description.

Quantity means the biggest point bomb ever for the Monday Crew.

Quality means an uncompromising paint job on these historically accurate miniatures.

 

Description means a text that reflects your passion and your research for this particular era.

Bravo!

From FrederickC: Siberian Veterans and Soviet BA-10 Armoured Car (170 points)

 

More Soviet infantry were completed this week, specifically 32 Siberian Veterans from the Warlord Games boxed set of the same name. The set consists of four identical sprues of multipose miniatures, enough to build 32 soldiers, plus two metal figures. (I diverted two of the plastic figures, and some of the Mosin-Nagant rifles to my Winter Soviets to beef up the numbers.) You also get a selection of metal heads and arms to add further variety to the figures, such as captured weapons, bandaged heads or hands, Eastern facial features, etc. 

These were all painted in my usual style, starting with a black primer. All the basic colours were painted using Vallejo acrylics, followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. The end result is a platoon of three 9 man sections each with two submachine guns, a mix of Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines,  a DP-28 light machine gun team, one Tokarev semi-automatic rifle, plus some hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, and a captured Panzerfaust, all led by an officer with a pistol. Add to that a sniper team, a soldier dragging a Maxim machine gun, and a Commissar with a speaking trumpet. 

Siberian Veterans defending the approaches to Moscow

 

Captured MP40, Molotov cocktail, and bandaged heads

Bandaged hands and captured Panzerfaust

More bandaged heads and hands

Machine-gunner pulling a Maxim and an officer with a pistol

Sniper team with scoped Moisin-Nagant rifle

"The man with the rifle shoots, the man without the rifle follows...."

Next we have a Soviet BA-10 heavy armoured car which is a 1/48 model by Uni-Model, another Ukrainian company stocked by my local hobby store. Like the Ace Model kits that I built earlier, these are very detailed and contain a lot of parts that I probably could have left out given that I am building something for the wargames table. The parts lack locating pins and holes to correctly align them, and the diagrams didn't always give a good representation of exactly where things were to be positioned. (One diagram actually had all the part numbers printed backwards. 😱) I also found the plastic to be a bit fragile, and a few pieces broke when trying to carefully cut them from the sprue. In the end I left off the optional tracks from the rear wheels and some of the tiny etched brass parts, and replaced the headlights and the steps outside the side doors with something more robust than provided by the model kit. 

Despite all the trials and tribulations, I eventually got it all together. It was primed black using an airbrush and then painted Russian green using acrylic paint. Highlights and decals were applied, and then the entire vehicle was given a wash of AK Interactive Dust. (In case anyone is wondering what 'А. Невский' means, it is for Alexander Nevsky, a medieval military leader who defeated the Teutonic Knights in 1242.)

The headlights were made from round push pins filed flat on one side

А. Невский on the side, just above the rear wheels

The plastic piece to support the step on the side was replaced with florist wire

The points being claimed are as follows:

1 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 20 points

30 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 150 points

(I am counting the four prone figures as two)

 A tough bunch of Siberian veterans Frederick.  I like the movement on the fellow pulling the Maxim, although that can't have been easy over anything but smooth ground.  I was amused by the trials and tribulations you went through with the BA-10, but it is a fine end result that you achieved.