Desert Shermans

Continuing on with the desert theme here are the Shermans

First the original pale stone colour


Then the desert pink (I'm glad there won't be too many of these)

Vehicles are the M4A1 from Frontline, with the exception of a reworked Airfix Sherman in the first picture.

That feels better

Haven't been to shows for a while and there appears to be less plastic figures on sale at them. Hence a bit of retailer therapy a week ago, and at now the figures have arrived from Harfields. So what did I get and what's planned?

• Hat Hedendowah camelry (needed for my Dervishes)
• Hat Taashi camelry (ditto, and I still need to source sufficient cavalry)
• Hat Austrian Artillery Crew (I need a couple, and the others might become WW2 Romanians)
• Hat Pak 36 (Need the DAK crews, might use the guns as wrecks as they are useless)
• Hat Pak 36r (The guns are needed this time for my late period DAK)
• Lucky Toys Turks (To add some variety to my Ottomans)
• Lucky Toys Vlad Tepes (Ditto)
• Strelets Medieval Crossbowmen
• Strelets British Light Infantry (Egypt) (Can't resist the period)
• Strelets British Line Infantry (Egypt) (ditto, with the Hat Marines I should have enough for a reasonable landing force)
• Strelets French Light Infantry (Egypt) (To add more variety to my Egyptian campaign French)
• Strelets Mamelukes (I plan to mix them in with my existing Hat Mamelukes) 
• Strelets Jacobites part 1 (boosts my Xmas presents to sufficient for an army) 
• Strelets Jacobites part 2 (ditto) 
• Waterloo Dervishes (To mix in with the Hat Dervishes from Xmas)

5.5" guns completed

It's been a while since I finished the guns, but at last I've done the crews. They are all plastic figures, based upon the ideas from an old article by John Sandars (thanks Charles) The key part is converting the RAF emergency set stretcher bearers to carrying a shell.

Aircraft bases for sea terrain boards

These are the first pair of bases using the magnetic extending rods I bought in Tesco. Rather than having to use a bolt on top of an aerial I can now just use this straight and it gives a firm grip to the net on the undersides of my aircraft. The base is an old CD painted up to match the sea with a clump of rocks providing the means of fixing the rod. Texture is just painters caulk.

50 RTR Valentine

For Chris, a copy of the image from George Bradford book

No idea why the Liver bird is on a yellow background as the book shows it as white on an earlier page!

Off to the desert (at last)

I've completed my first batch of British armour, the remainder are on hold, while I wait for more stowage to come in the post

A squadron of Grants, the basic model is Airfix, plus a replacement turret from S&S Models.


A couple more, I'm having to scavenge to get the vehicles I need so most of these are repair/repaint jobs on the right a Fujimi Valentine that took some saving.


An A15 Crusader squadron. There are no Arm of Service markings on any of the tanks as I've not yet decided which units they will become.  Airfix Models.



Another Crusader, and that Valentine again.

Highs and Lows

Yes, it's been a fun weekend over at Deeside Defenders with the Club gaming weekend, but the highs and lows were not directly wargaming, but

a) deciding it was time to "invest" in more figures from Harfields as no one seems to stock much in the way of 20mm plastics at the shows anymore.

b) My trusted anglepoise that has given over thirty years service has packed up so I'll need to sort out some decent lighting to replace it. Luckily today it was sunny and just warm enough to work outside.

AS for the weekend, mainly boardgaming on Saturday and I ran a very strange WSS Black Powder game on Sunday, can't remember when I last saw such extreme results and there wasn't a single blunder rolled. Typically I forgot to take any pictures, but hopefully one of the other club members will post their's shortly so I'll add a link.

Pictures of the weekend are now up on the club Facebook page

Sdkfz 250/9

At last another vehicle completed, it's a combination of a couple of items bought at Crewe last year. I thought the turret was suitable as a replacement one for the Airfix 222, but it was the Hangelafette version used in the late war, but it ideally went together with a Sdkfz 250/1 Neu to make the 250/9 by simply filling over the front of the compartment and glueing on the turret.
Behind the scenes a lot of work is going on with British desert armour.

Barbed Wire

Due to a problem in the supply of Humbrol 121 Pale Stone, now sorted (thanks Colin), I sidetracked and worked on the barbed wire. So its now completed.



It's basically large lolly sticks with matchstick supports and then aluminium mesh for the wire. Although it was reasonably effective, it's not that strong. The lolly sticks also seemed to distort drastically at first, before a PVA coating on the reverse seemed to straighten them out.

Although I knew I'd use it for the Gauntlet Vietnam game, I used my normal desert basing. I just added the first available figure to give an idea of scale

On the workbench - April 2012

Looking around my workroom I realised that it's got very untidy as I have pulled out various boxes for figures and kits, just looking for odd figures and other scenic bits, plus quite a few recent purchases. So a bit of a tidy up is needed, but I'll be trying to paint stuff rather than put it away.

• Assemble as paint as much as possible of the British desert armour lying around, which comprises nearly twenty vehicles;
• Crews for the 5.5" guns, I've now sorted out the figures;
• Finish the odd vehicles that are lying around still
• Make some barbed wire that will be needed for the Vietnam game at Gauntlet
• Paint a few of the British tank riders, I found I couldn't do much with the majority as I really need crews for my Bren Carriers.

Otherwise it's going to be a quiet month as there are no shows to attend, just a club wargaming weekend on the 14th/15th (club details)

What!! 25% of the year gone already

Time seems to have flown by and I haven't really made any impression on the theme of the year, which is desert forces, but I do have excuses.

• I don't know what side I'll be fighting in the big Alamein game yet - hopefully I find out soon
• No one at shows has had the new Strelets Napoleon in Egypt figures - guess I'll have to order on-line.
• I keep changing my mind on how to use the Hat Sudanese and whether I should mix them in with my existing figures, buy more Waterloo Dervishes or just use them as is.
• and I got distracted by the tank riders and Russian 85mm AA guns

But I've made substantial progress on finishing off the British paratroops started last year - I only need to sort out the artillery now. Overall progress to date 365 items, which is only just below target of 375.