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