Wheels for the Western Desert

The beauty of keeping a blog is that I can look back and see when various things happened or started.  And so it is that I see I've been working on my 15mm WW2 Commonwealth North African collection for over six years.  Now finally, their transport has arrived.

 A trio of dingos, on the prowl for babies, eh Axis.

Morris AA tractors for my two Bofors.

Putting the wheels on these models was a bugger.

They just didn't fit - the total opposite of the precision work on Zvezda kits.

Brigadier JC "Jock" Campbell.

Couldn't resist this set. 

CMP 15cwt trucks.

I'm still thinking about this style of kit.

Nothing to assemble is a plus based on my experiences putting together the other kits in this post.

Inbuilt base... it is at least small and I should add a bit more detail, but I'd prefer not to have it.

Solid windows - definitely not sure I like this style.

 Morris 15cwt trucks, made them so I can detach the canopies for some variation.

 Marmon Herrington III in Cauntor.

The nice feature of this kit was the option to have the top hatches open,

this was a one piece casting, all you had to do was glue in the commander,

no fiddly tiny little hatches to try and position.

 Not a Battlefront kit, manufacturer unknown, but at least it is now ready for service on the tabletop.

It has the code number 551 etched into its base.

The swarm.

Eins Sdkfz 222, Zwei Kubelwagens, und Drei Stug IIIs

Continuing the theme for the North African Theatre build-up, and also working through some accumulated kit, we now have some German reinforcements, circa early 1941.

 This little beauty is by Zvedza.

 It went together perfectly.

 The decals are PSC and while fiddly, actually worked.

 Unknown metal.  Really need some crew.

 This time the DAK emblem decal didn't work, pity.

 The odd one out is by Zvedza, the other two are unknown metal.

The metals models were missing their barrel assemblies.

I used the one from the Zvedza model to cast replacements.

 The Zvedza Stug is the same length, but noticeably wider.

It was another dream to assemble.

Only one vehicle came with the regulation paint, the others are still in factory grey.

The paint scheme was Tamiya black undercoat with Tamiya German Grey top coat.  

Then I applied a wash of VJ Buff, followed by a dry brush of VJ Bluff.

Blitzkrieg Holland 1944

Today Richard and I used Blitzkrieg Commander on a breakout scenario in Holland 1944.  I was the allies and my task was to capture the town, exit units or break the German morale. All models, terrain are Richard's.

 Things got off to a bad start when my right wing armour force suffered a command blunder.

This immediately put the Allies behind schedule.

(There are only 12 turns in this scenario)

 End of the first turn and and the second tank force and the infantry are still to make an entry,
due to the roadblock caused by the first tank force's blunder.
Imagined radio traffic: "Blue leader, after you"  "Red Leader, oh no, after you sir"
"Blue Leader, no I insist, age before beauty"

 But second turn things get moving with a vengeance,

 as the right wing armour gets to make a double move.

 Things get better when the Germans suffer a command blunder, going into a momentary retreat.

 End of the second turn and the left flank armour is advancing.

The off road area is plodder and not suitable for armour.

 The right flank has run into a dug in Pak 40.

 Call in the RAF which took out one enemy antitank nest.

 But oh dear, a second call resulted in a monumental blunder...

 Friendly fire takes out four allied units.

 End of the third turn and the left flank has advanced a bit further.

 But the right flank does nothing. 
It is in an understandable state of shock.
(Note: not the rules, just how the command rolls turned out)

 Fourth turn and the left flank has engaged the enemy, or rather vice a versa.

 While fourth turn on the right sees the allies trying to clear the Pak 40.

 The mortars prove useful.

 Pak 40 cleared, although the toll in armour has been very, very high.

 The cause of much of the allied armout loss.

However allied infantry in their halftracks have been able to speed past.

 But on the left things are bogged down.

 Another successful airstrike.

 Right wing troops still yet to exit.

 Germans still hold the town.

Left wing waiting for a miracle.

The allies had lost over half their strength, but passed their morale test.  The next turn the Germans had also dropped below their half strength mark, but failed their morale test.  Allied victory of sorts.

I must say this about every game Blitzkrieg Commander I play: the arbitrary and abstract nature seems odd, but it produces results that seem right.

Zvezda Dingo

I've really enjoyed the 1/76th scale Zvezda kits and so was keen to try one of the 1/100th scale models for my 15mm force.  This kit, along with the Cruiser IV I purchased at the same time, was a dream to put together.  The tank will take a little while to paint up but this little guy, all nine pieces of him, painted up real quick.  I was thinking about doing the unit signs and giving him a name (Ernie being the obvious one), but decided for now to keep things simple.

The model is very small.

Doesn't look small...

But it is.

Hard to get a good focus on it.