Well the commission work has been going along at a great rate of knots, and the long-promised piccies of Late Roman infantry and Germanic tribesmen are not far off now. A shoutout is required to my very long suffering client, who has been most understanding during my uni and prac madness these last few months.
Anyway, while you're all waiting for the late antiquity figures, i though i should post up some pics of my British platoon as i've had a couple of requests.
As i've said before, the infantry are mostly plastic soldier company, with a smattering of the excellent Kelly's Heroes figures to add some character. After reading Ian Daglish's superb 'Over The Battlefield' book on Operation Epsom, i've decided to paint this force up as a platoon from the 6th Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers, from the 15th Scottish Division which had it's baptism of fire around the towns of Cheux and St Manvieu during Operation Epsom. The shoulder insignia is from various photos and also from Osprey's '
British Battle Insignia (2) 1939-1945. These guys were the first fully finished gaming unit I'd ever actually completed.
They had their own baptism of fire this past Wednesday night, where true to form for newly finished armies, they suffered a major defeat at the hand of Mick's Germans. the scenario was a beach assault, where myself, and two other allied players assaulted across the dunes and into a small town defended by three German players. We are using a home brewed set of rules which is simple, fast and fun, and takes a fair bit of inspiration from Rapid Fire. As all members are first time gamers, it's a great way to get our heads around the way things work, gradually adding more and more as we go. I'd eventually like to persuade the blokes at club to give Troops Weapons and Tactics a try, as I love the way Lardies rules emphasise the role of 'Big Men' overcoming the chaos and 'friction' of the battlefield. That, and the historian in me believes that they really do represent the way platoon battles actually took place. For those of you interested in such things, I'd direct you to Lardies head honcho Rich Clark's fantastic blog post on 'Friction or Fiction' which he presented at Historicon. Here's the link
http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=508.
Anyway, enough of my proselytizing, on to some pictures, and there are quite a few this update.
First off, the platoon HQ. This consists of the platoon leader, a lieutenant, the platoon sergeant, a two man 2" mortar team, two man PIAT team, and just for the hell of it, a sniper. These figs are all Kelly's Heroes. Closeups of the mortar team and the two platoon leaders are in my last posting.
Next up, the final two infantry sections. Like the first section shown in my last post, each section has a corporal with sten gun as section leader, a three man bren gun team and a six man rifle team. I've painted a small strip of colour on the back of the bases to differentiate each section.
Now, some support. Our first game scenario was a beach assault, and called for some armoured support. I've had a trio of the Britannia minis DD Shermans lying around and decided to do this one up as from the 13/18th Hussars, which supported the landings on Sword Beach. The crewman is from AB figures, the sculpting of these is absolutely amazing.
Being that my platoon with one lousy Tommy Cooker and a mortar supporting was assaulting a German platoon with armour, AT gun and mortar support, i thought that i might need a little extra help from the Royal Artillery. I'd painted up this AB figures spotting team, only to discover that off board support was not yet in the rules. Still, they looked pretty and will provide sterling service in future battles.
Now, these guys haven't yet seen action, but they are part of my 'toolkit' of platoon support. First off is a Milicast Churchill IXLT, an uparmoured Churchill III. This is painted up from A Squadron, 9 RTR which supported the 15th Scots during Operation Epsom. The commander is another of the lovely AB figures.
Next up is a troop from the 15th Reconnaissance Regiment, RAC. The 15th Recce was the eyes and ears of the 15th Scots division. The vehicles are all Raventhorpe RTR from Pete at Battlescape, the car commander sitting out of the hatch is from AB.
Finally, a couple of armoured cars from the 2nd Household Cavalry, the armoured car regiment which supported the 11th Armoured division - and arguably the 15th Scots - during Operation Bluecoat. Reading Daglish's book on Bluecoat, i've always loved the story of how two armoured cars under command of Lt. Dickie Powle managed to slip through enemy lines and seize the bridge over the Souleuvre (which has come to be known as 'Dickie's Bridge') enabling the 11th Armoured to break through German lines. So, this is a Daimler AC (Hasegawa with Britannia commander) and Daimler Dingo (Britannia) under command of Lt Dickie Powle. The Staghound is included because i like the look of these beasts, it's from Raventhorpe RTR, and marked up for the 2nd Household's regimental HQ. The turret camo netting is a method taken from C_Collins over on the guild, and not only looks great but covers up some dodgy casting on the gun mantlet.
For the Beach assault scenario, i also had some of the Defence in Depth 'Tobruk' bunkers i'd purchased from Grubby along with the Kelly's heroes stuff. The two gunners with the shields came with the resin tobruks, the bloke with the MG34 is from AB. I based them on wire, and drilled holes in the cupolas so they can be moved around and removed to show if the bunker is occupied or not. The bunkers painted up nicely, and provided a perhaps unneeded speed hump for us allied players.
Finally, a couple of group shots, one of the platoon with the Churchill and 6 pounder in support, and another of all the vehicles.
That's the Brits for now. I've got a troop of Shermans and a Firefly to paint up as from 11th Armoured, as well as some bits and pieces including a Crocodile and a Morris LRC armoured car i want to use as a forward observer for the RAF. I'd ideally like to expand this force to a full company in time for the release of IABSM3, but that depends on my uni and commission workload next semester.
Now, back to finishing off those Late Romans.
Well, as promised here is an update on my 20mm Normandy British. I've been building this up for the last year, using the Guild forum's project build to track my progress. I must say I'm very surprised to say that i have a fully gameable British force, which has been seeing a fair bit of action at the local gaming club. We've been playing with some homebrew fastplay rules, but I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of Rich Clark's latest, I Ain't Been Shot Mum, version 3 while over in the UK.
