Monday, 26 February 2018

From AlanD - Desert Rats, trucks, guns, Carriers ...wow, lots of stuff in 15mm (179 points)


My little British force for Battle Group Tobruk continues to grow, boosted along by the recent fantastic games we have enjoyed in our club. I am a massive fanboy of the Battle Group rules, but I think Tobruk might be my favourite iteration yet. They really capture something of the sweeping, almost naval warfare sort of flavour of the desert war in 1941.

So, to support the Crusaders I posted up a couple of weeks back, I have added a platoon of motor infantry, with a couple of Vickers and 2 pdr A/T guns in support. The infantry are a mix of Peter Pig and Skytrex, with the 2pdrs from Forged in Battle.








Next up, my first attempt at the dreaded Caunter camouflage scheme. This is a little Carrier section, fielded as a unit in Battle Group. These are PSC kits, with added crew from Skytrex and Peter Pig. The PSC Universal Carriers box set in 15mm is a terrific buy, giving you 9 carriers with a massive number of variants including OP vehicles, flamethrowers and mortar carriers. 

My only minor gripe is that the crew figures are really meant for NW Europe from 1944, but they would have been struggling to get anything else on the sprues! My Carrier section has seen battle in one game so far, losing a Carrier to a German armoured car, but then having the officer in the section command vehicle call down a mortar strike on some Italians in response, which pretty much encapsulates the Italian experience of the desert war, I suppose.




Now some trucks from Battlefront.




And finally - and I love these guys - a brace of Humber armoured cars, also from Battlefront. Nothing says desert war more. 



Let's see... that's quite a lot for me. I count 12 vehicles, two guns, 39 whole infantry figures, plus another 13 in the carriers, a/cs and driving the trucks. If we count the partial figures at one point each, I make 72 points for the vehicles, 8 for the guns and 91 points in total for the infantry, for a grand total of 177 points. 

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Fantastic work, Alan!!  These Desert Rats really knock the ball out beyond the boundary rope in fine fashion - absolutely tremendous.  They're perfect for the Tobruk actions you're looking at, and you've done really well capturing the colours, dust, sand and camouflage patterns.  The 'attempt' at the Caunter scheme looks pretty much spot on to me - really effective and that'll look perfect on the tabletop.

The infantry are really excellent, and the Bren carrier section looks terrific - it would be something I'd love to take forward on any table. I love how you've added the "extras" on the Bren carriers - they really bring the unit to life.

Some super trucks as well, and then, the icing on the cake, those wonderful Humbers with their unit recognition pendants.  Those are just, simply, lovely.  

Cracking work, Sir!  A really evocative, perfectly formed and marvelously painted entry.  I'm adding a couple of points for the pendants, camouflage, weathering and super basing for 179 points - which gets you to within touching distance of your target.  

Good luck with the final push!!

14 comments:

  1. That's fantastic work Alan - everything looks tremendous, just a real treat!

    I'm curious - you are playing the "Battlegroup" rules? How do you find the grouped infantry works in those rules? I tried that and did not get good results, but I imagine you may have a more clever approach...?

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    1. Hi Greg - do you mean about group basing rather than individual? We just use dice to keep track of casualties, so nothing too clever there! But I really couldn't face individual basine in 15mm. The one thin I've done with these is cut the bases so that each Bren team lins up with the rest of its section. In BG the Bren forms part of the section, but you can separate it if you want, so I've tried to allow for that.

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    2. Clever stuff Dux...we just couldn't make the group-style basing work (was impossible to detach the MG teams, was an issue with the Germans in particular). Well done!

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  2. they look fantastic, just got the WW2 bug myself

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  3. Lovely looking desert war brits, my favourite is the vickers, no the 2pounder, no the trucks, bren gun carriers oh the whole lot!
    Best Iain

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  4. Beautiful work Dux! I particularly like the rounded base shapes and the grounwork - they have a real desert feel about them.

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  5. I soooo love Humbers, you have done them up excellently!

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  6. Love those Humbers, Dux, bringing back memories of one I built back in 1975!

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  7. I agree the Humber is a classic! Lovely basing as well.

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