From SylvainR: Tray 9 - 6mm Early WW2 Allies Minors Tanks & HQs + Italian tankettes (95 points)

I spent the previous week in New York celebrating 20 years with my wife, so production was halted, but this week I have a tray of newly painted WW2 goodies.

First, a small units of Italian L3-35 tankettes captured by the Greek army. All the miniatures are from GHQ.

I tried to simulate the rough terrain of the mountainous areas where the Greek army was able to fend off the Italian offensive.

Below, a close-up from behind on a single tankette. The plowed ground behind the tracks turned out well on this one.

Since I did not have any L3-35 for my Italian desert army, I made a company with some extra tankettes.

To complete all my Allies minors armies, the only units left to paint were battalion HQs. I added national flags to the name tags as a visual cue. The first three HQs are for the polish army. So far, my HQ vignettes are mostly colonels getting out of their staff cars and using their binoculars to observe the front. This time, I added a little bridge with a little river flowing underneath for the "general". I also started to add sign posts, often indicating famous battle sites. The tank battalion commander has two tanks ready to move forward. The names are those of Polish officers who fought the German invasion in 1939. The miniatures are a mix of GHQ, CinC and Heroics & Ros.

The next three battalion HQs are for the armies of Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. For the Netherlands, I simply picked the name of a high ranking WW2 officers. The Norwegian name is the maiden name of my mother-in-law, whose grandparents came from Norway to settle in Saskatchewan. The Belgian name is for Arthur Kepenne, a gentleman and retired policeman I met in Belgium in 1989, who fought the Germans in 1940, was captured, survived as a prisoner of war in Konigsberg. He was adamantly pro European Union, the only way, in his mind, to avoid future wars. I just wanted to honor his memory with this small vignette. I made the Norwegian terrain very rocky while I wanted some water for the Netherlands.

The last three battalion HQs are for the Greek army. Papagos and Pitsikas, two Greek officers, fought hard against the Italian and German invasions. Sangarangos is for a good friend and fellow wargamer in Regina. Again, very rocky terrain for all these bases.

 

The base for Sangarangos has a sign post indicating the village where his parents grew up that reads "Vogatsiko". You can see the colonel commandeering an abandoned Italian truck.

This is our gaming group in Regina, made into battalion HQs. I will add my name later, when I will get to work on the late war Canadians (see the "master plan" below), namely the "Vandoos", the Royal 22nd Regiment, composed of French Canadians. For the other Canadian HQs, I intend to use the names of our friends and fellow wargamers from Winnipeg. I hope this is OK with you guys :-).

The completion of these battalion HQs means that the Allies minors project is now finished, with a total of 7 trays.

I can now strike off another project from my "master plan".

Points claimed:

- 40x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 80

 - 30x 6mm foot at 1/2 point each = 15

 Total = 95 points

This will also count towards the "Really Little Guys" duel.

Thanks for reading!

Great work here Sylvain and I love the personal touches you've given your models. The family tribute is a lovely touch and I know anyone in our group would be honoured to have a namesake amongst your work. The 6mm-scale signposts are amazing - I'm assuming you've printed them out and stuck 'em on rather than hand-lettering - very clever. Excellent to see this progress on your grand project!

95 "big" points for you!

Dallas