2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, 51st highland Division - Daimler I's and Humber LRC's - Finished!

And the next set of completed models....

The Humber LRC's I made a bit of a mess of with pigment, but they will do for now. These models were part of a squadron based on the old Highland Division .pdf - however this changed with me getting the newer Overlord book. This means that these guys will be getting mixed and matched a bit in the future. The Humber LRC's to go with the Humber Armoured Cars, while the Daimler I's will be going with the Daimler Dingos.

The 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry were the 51st Highland Divisions Recce Regiment. the Highland Divisions own integral Recce Regiment was the 51st Recce, which was switched over to a motorised infantry battallion in the desert prior to the invasion of Sicily. The Derbyshire Yeomanry were not part of the Recce Corps - instead they were part of the Royal Armoured Corps. The Recce Corps eventually became part of the Royal Armoured Corps itself, and the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry became honorary members!

These are all Battlefront miniatures and again were fun to paint. 

First up the Daimler I's:

The 2DY were one of the few armoured car regiments in the NWE campaign to be equipped with the Daimler I armoured cars. This happened in September 1944, so strictly speaking after Operation Totalize. However as I was following the .pdf this was the correct option for FoW at the time. My plan now is to have one squadron of these guys and the rest Humbers.

Now the Humber Light Recce Cars:

These guys are light, with only Brens and a Boys A/T rifle. But they are recce units.

Anyway, thats them all based, varnished and made as pretty as I can currently do - apart from the mucked up dust effect on the Humber LRC's!

Paint Table Saturday

As usual, not actually on a Saturday. However I spent the day moving these guys forward, and I'm quite chuffed with them. Still got to finish them off with crew figures, basing and a Matt coat of varnish.

Excuse the Yes badge!

First up my two Churchill AVsRE of 5th Assault Squadron, RE (79th Armoured Division). 

Then we have some Daimlers from 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry:

15mm Daimler Armoured Cars 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, 51st Highland Division - with Army Painter varnish and highlights.

Just to compare these now to how they were prior to the Army painter:

 
Then some random trucks... One for my pioneer platoon, the other currently unallocated.

And lastly, not as far along, is my converted Sherman ARV mk.1 from 144 RAC.

Paint Table (almost) Saturday!

One of the objectives I had from playing YD last weekend was to use the game as a boost to my painting mojo - as such for the first time in a long time I broke my own rule about fielding unpainted models. The plan was to move the models from the gaming table to the painting table.

The targets for this little operation were the Daimlers and Churchill AVsRE. Work started on Saturday night and continued through the week. As of today, they are ready for their Army Painter coat.

I also took on board Dai's comments about the Humber LRC's dust coating being a little over the top. So I gave them a quick wash of Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo Model Color 70924).

I might need to do something about the wheels, but they are a little toned down over how they were previously.

One of the things I changed with the Churchills and the Daimlers was to start using Vallejo Model Color German Grey (70.995) instead of the usual black coat for the tracks and tyres. Other than that, these models could have been painted a lot faster than they were, but my busy weeknight schedule meant it was today before I would apply the gunmetal.

There is no shading or highlighting on these models as that is done post Army Painter coat.

Turret hatches are all open as with these being recce vehicles I feel it's fitting that they all have crew figures. The command vehicle may have 2 - space dependent.

Unlike the Bofors guns I finished recently, I have really enjoyed painting these. The models are all from Battlefront so are a mix of resin and metal. Stowage on the models has been added and is mainly from the Skytrex range of vehicle stowage. Radio aerials will be added post AP varnish.

Basing wise I'm thinking the Daimlers will fit on medium bases and the Churchills large bases. However, if they are too big I will be putting in an order from warbases again. Another couple of Churchills are planned as I would love to try a conversion with fascine bundles... I'm not quite up to trying the bridge carrier option, however!

Carronade 2014 haul!

With finances being as they are just now, I was limiting myself to what I would spend today. Thankfully, the joys of a decent bring and buy is that you end up with far more for your £££'s.

So, some pictures of the haul. First up, one of my best buys:

Daimler Dingo's I've been looking at for months. Another Sherman Firefly... handy - although I had wanted a Hybrid Firefly it's no biggie. The Sherman V - not really something I need, but I am sure I'll find a use for it.

As you can see, the items were all prices £6.50. But two of them have the prices scored out. The chap was in the process of marking the new price having seen my looking at them and putting them down. What is the new price, says I. £1 each says he!!!! I practically threw the money at him. A saving of £16.50!

Next up - something I've been after for ages. I wanted some Battlefleet Gothic Imperial light cruisers, and someone here has cut down some Imperial ships to make them into Ork ships.

However, I am pretty sure I can strip the paint from these and rescue the hulls. These should make some use able light cruisers (albeit conversions). All these models in one box for £10. Again, I practically threw my money at the stallholder before he could change his mind. I'm only interested in the imperial hulls really, and can probably sell the Chaos stuff in it's current condition for the price I paid for the box.

A selection of tiddlywinks, box of FoW bases, some Warbases large FoW bases and some more turret number decals. The tiddlywinks is a cunning plan - part one is some to mark in Full Thrust when a ship has fired and part two is to use to base my planned individual 15mm figures (to supplement my FoW bases for Battlegroup Overlord). Also in this pic are the above mentioned FoW blisters. Also in the picture are my flight peg toppers from Figures in Comfort which I collected at the show and got a refund on my postage for!

Figures in Comfort were also selling these - a heading/weapon facing template for Full Thrust. Given that I've played two games of this in the last month using a tatty paper version I made 7 years ago I thought a new plastic version would be a good purchase.

In this Full Thrust theme:

3 old style ESU Battleships, two Light Carriers, two Heavy Cruisers (?) and an Escort Cruiser (?) and a pack with two ESU scout ships - as well as a load of fighter bases. For £5. Well spotted on these ones by Paul, who picked them up for me when he saw them and figured I would be interested.

Also in this pic is the template from above and a book on the 3rd Infantry Division from D-Day to the Elbe. This cost me £2.

Last two items:

Some Forged in Battle Loyd Carriers (to be transports for my 4.2" Mortar platoon). And some MiniNatur flower tufts. These are in white and yellow, and will spruce up some of my bases as well as the grass tufts I've been using.

A full comparison of the FoW and FiB Loyd Carriers will follow soon(ish).

A fantastic haul for me and I am really really pleased with some of these buys. The FoW models and BFG models especially.

YD picked up some 10mm WW2 Germans for his Rapid Fire army, some Zulus and British troops for 28mm games and some 15mm Vietnam mini's. Davey was happy with his huge box of 28mm Celts and Roman 28mm kits and Paul copied me in getting grass tufts/flowers and paints. He also got some books showing colour photos of Nap re-enactors in full kit (as opposed to no kit (ooo er)). We were all really pleased with our buys - Thanks to the guys for taking me along for the day.

FoW game, Saturday 9/11/13 - 144RAC vs Germans

Finally getting around to posting some of the pictures from my game with YD last weekend. It's been a busy week so I hadn't got round to typing anything up (and nothing to do with the fact I got soundly thumped).

This was my first game playing with a armored list, using a list from Overlord and the 11th armored list as a proxy for my 33 Armored Brigade.

I fielded a lot of unpainted mini's in this game, which is something I have been avoiding whenever possible. But I fancied changing things up a bit and seeing how I got on. The list consisted of (roughly):

Confident Trained Armor:

Command Troop (2 x Sherman I's)

2 x Troops (3 x Sherman I's, 1 x Firefly)

1 x Recce troop (3 x Daimler I's, 2 x Humber LRC's)

2 x Highland Division Infantry Platoons (in De-frocked priests)

1 x A/T platoon (4 x 6 pounder guns)

Priority air support.

Light cruiser artillery support (off table) - this was mainly to make up the points and I had a ground team spotter for them.

YD fielded his Confident Vet infantry, with 2 x 4 Panzer IV's and 1 x Tiger, Neb's and a few other bits and bobs.

Neither of these lists were strictly speaking accurate, but what the hell!

A brief synopsis of the game saw me advancing into contact and getting bogged down due to dug in Pak40's (again!). A few Shermans were lost without much forward movement, then the Tiger got involved and my Shermans started to pop all over the place. The game ended without me killing many units and with my infantry not even dismounting before I decided I would fall back and concede.

YD's 15mm Tiger

YD's German infantry

Result: Allied Defeat!