From SylvainR: Tray 1 - Italian, Tray 2 - British (140 points)

Ernest, who recently joined the SAS, was on his way across the desert to get to the main base for training and painting.

Ernest suddenly started to gasp for air when he realized that the dunes he was driving over were not the Sahara Desert... His tiny little face was too featureless to express the full horror of the truth about his existence: he was only a 6mm scale figure...

 

 

Since I assembled 100 nice mdf trays that ByronM laser cut for me, I use them all the time! In tray number 1, we have a complement of units for my WW2 Italian army in North Africa. You might remember that I painted many Italian units last year, but there was only one company of tanks, while the British, which I painted since, had the equivalent of six battalions. So unfair! I definitely needed to buy some more Italian units. Unfortunately, my favorite company for 6mm models, GHQ, is not the cheapest. GHQ offers very sporadic discount over the year, but I know they always offer good rebates on Black Friday. So I waited patiently to get 20% off my big order and got the models just in time for this year's Painting Challenge. All the units shown in the tray are new acquisitions for the Italians, as well as all the units (minus 2) in tray number 2. Since there is a lot of the same, I will show only one model per type. Unless noted otherwise, all models are from GHQ.

First, some air defense was lacking in my Italian army, so I got four of these cute Breda 20mm Autocannons mounted on Dovunque trucks. I like the look of the front wheels projected forward.

 

 

Next, we have an L6/40, in my opinion the cutest tank of WW2. On the left, we have an M14/41, the heavier brother.

 

 

 

 

 

Now three variants of the Sahariana. From left to right, a command version, a 47mm AT Gun and a 20mm Breda Autocannon. These desert raiders are very dangerous opponents for the British SAS and LRDG units! These are organized into a "Raggruppamento Sahariano AS" of 9 elements.

 

I created a Battalion HQ for the "Raggruppamento Sahariano AS". This tiny diorama features Del Pozzo, the commander of the aforementioned unit, visiting the Italian outpost at the Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert.

 

The paper building is a leftover from a set I bought from PaperTerrain.

Here is the second tray I created. The British army for North Afrika I got from my was huge: it fills 12 trays, but there were a few units I did not have, including British desert raiders. Let's take a closer look.

The picture shows a Scammel, a heavy tractor/recovery vehicle for the British Army. I painted a series of "logistics" units (water, cantine, fuel, ammo, transporter, etc.) for the British with the plan to include some form of rules for logistics advantage/disadvantage in future games.

 

 

When I completed the British 8th Army, over the course of 2022, I forgot to paint these heavy guns: BL 7.2-inch (182mm) howitzers. So here they are. These models are from Heroics & Ros.

 

 

 

 

 Here we have two different camouflages for the LRDG Chevy trucks. On the bases, I created terrain rougher than usual to show that these guys are experts at navigating tough landscapes.

 

 

 Next we have SAS jeeps, the same model I showed in the palm of my hand at the top of this post. Details are very tiny, but it's the kind of masochistic fun I enjoy...

 

 

 

The final model is a Battalion HQ for special operations in the desert. We see Prendergast, commander of the LRDG, liaising with a team from the SAS to coordinate a raid against the D.A.K. I wanted to show how the SAS would evade aerial search by taking position in a ruined house covered with camouflage netting. The camo net looks a bit rough at 6mm scale, but until I can find a finer mesh, it will have to work.

 

The grand total for this post is:

- 12x figures for 6 points

- 2x support weapons for 2 points

- 66x vehicles for 132 points

For a grand total of 140 points.

Thank you for reading.

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Wow, Sylvain, these wee stands look absolutely fabulous. I recently enjoyed watching 'SAS: Rogue Warriors' and so these very much remind me of scenes from the series. I love the tiny vignettes and the attention to detail that you've managed to cram into each one of these. So impressive.

I look forward to seeing more of your North Africa project come to realization over the Challenge.

- Curt