Finished: 17-pdr Ram Towers

Hi folks,

My first little selected unit after the end of my Team Yankee painting involved a little re-jigging of some existing units, and the painting of two new ones. I'd become aware over time that the Battlefront v3 information regarding Halftracks being used as towing vehicles in British and Canadian Anti-Tank units wasn't correct for the Normandy period. 

It seems that most units would use Quad tractors, with some using Crusader tows or Rams.

And having done some reading of the 6th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, RCA (the Anti-Tank regiment of II Canadian Corps), I had realised that this unit had a mix of 3" armed M10s and turretless Ram tank towers for their regular 17-pdrs. I've already got some M10s for this unit, and wanted to add the Rams as a nice unusual unit. 

I'd set aside four of the old 15mm Battlefront resin vehicles from my stash, and set to work. I'm pretty sure these are the wrong version of the Ram hull, but they'll do for my purposes. I quickly realised I wanted to make this unit look a little closer to some of the images of Ram towers I'd seen (see below). Laden with ammo and stowage and crammed full of gun crew. That involved a large amount of digging through my spare figures and vehicle crew models, as well as some chopping and squeezing... 

The process of sorting out the various units I wanted to update saw me rebase and apply some light weathering to my Skytrex limbered 17-pdrs. The guns had been on larger bases, but I scaled them down to match the towing vehicles. I'd also found some old Battlefront ammo limbers in my stash, and having seen these used alongside the 17-pdrs I thought I'd get them built, painted and added in. 

Decals were the usual mix, with squinty stars to mark these as Canadian units. I'd picked up some II Canadian Corps markings from Doms Decals back in the day, and modified some Royal Artillery markings to have the Corps white bar and AoS number 2. This was a bit rough (I can't freehand) so it was covered with a liberal application of weathering. 

 Aerials are my usual fishing line and the crew figures are all various Battlefront models. 

This unit is unlikely to get a lot of table time - but I love the look of limbered guns moving forward on the table!

Some of the photos I used as references:

Not my picture - Image used without permission for educational purposes

Not my picture - Image used without permission for educational purposes