Finished: 15mm D7 Bulldozer

Hi folks,

Another vehicle entry for the AHPC challenge! Only a single model for this last week, as prep for the game last Sunday and updating the 6 Pdr platoon (plus the NAAFI Truck) took up a lot of my time.

The NAAFI truck came 4th in the public voting for the 'Sport' round of the AHPC, so thanks to all who voted!

Anyway, for your perusal, a second D7 Bulldozer for my army:

This is the second of these vehicles, both of which as 15mm models from Skytrex. Long time blog readers might remember I finished one a few years ago (July 2015). I referenced back at the time I purchased the first model that a Bulldozer had been mentioned in 144RAC's war diary for Operation Totalize:

"Major Lovibond had gone on a good way towards the objective, accompanied only by a very gallant bulldozer who had been told to follow the tank in front and was faithfully carrying out his orders."

At the time, I believed that this Bulldozer would have been from 79th Armoured Division (149th Assault Park Squadron Royal Engineers, to be precise, part of 1st Assault Brigade) and as my RE Breaching Group required a Bulldozer, I decalled it up as such.

Subsequent reading and research seems to indicate that the D7's in the column may have actually come from (in part) the Royal Engineers 239 Field Park Company, part of 51st Highland Division. However, while I have a definite mention of two such Bulldozers being in the 144RAC Column, I don't think that the 51st HD had enough D7's to allocate this many per British column (they would have needed 6, assuming each column was the same - it seems that the Field Park Squadron's only had 3, according to the TOE I have seen).

Anyway, despite no current information confirming my guess, I decided I should have a HD marked D7. I like the model and it's already found a use on the table, helping construct a crossing point of the railway embankment in the last game. It also gives me the two I need for my column.

I added some stowage to the rear area, marked up with the usual recognition stars and edge highlighted with a light dusting of weathering powders. I also had dug out my original model for comparison, and realised just how much lighted my current painting style is. As a result, the old model also got some highlighting:

Nice big simple kit to put together, easy enough to paint! This model netted me 10 points for the challenge.