Finished!: 15mm Sherman Crab Flail tanks

Hi folks,

My various bases and magnets arrived following my State of the Collection video's, which has allowed me to finish off the Sherman Crab's I had been working on:

I had previously 2 of these tanks painted, along with the command vehicle. I actually painted these quite a while ago (2014), so there was a bit of a difference in painting style over my recent vehicles. I decided, while painting the three new additions, to re-work the old models. This included re-visiting my basing.

I was really taken by Dave's slightly smaller bases, so picked up some narrower 2mm thick mdf bases from Warbases. These included holes cut in them for 5mm x 2mm magnets, which will save me adding magnetic sheeting to the underside of the bases. These also more securely attach the bases to the sheeting in the boxes. These tanks are on 90mm by 40mm bases, while the command tank is on a 60mm by 40mm base (as opposed to 63mm by 50mm Battlefront large bases I previously used). The extra 13mm's shaved off the sides just looks a bit neater. This also means the vehicles are a little easier to store.

Markings are for the 22nd Dragoons, although I think the turret numbers were a bit of a guess. I can't find anything substantial regarding the use of the numbers.

Dust effects have been applied over the front hull and tracks. Old vehicles were updated and brought to a similar standard, all the bases were updated. The canvas gun mantlet was added by me. Chain are from cheap costume jewellery. Fishing line aerials.

So five flails done, which will help with our large scenario games. The command tank I'm also not sure about, I think the structure of the squadron was several troops of 5 flails, with an HQ of three Shermans for each squadron.

Big thanks go to DaveD, who contributed to the upgraded troop!

AAR - Late war Highlanders vs Fusilier Company 16/8/14

A rare Saturday to myself (due to A having a day out in Edinburgh), so Davey and YD picked me up for a day out at the Carluke and Law wargames club.

Myself and YD had agreed to play a 1000pt game of Flames of War, using our respective late war lists. As usual I decided to go with my Highland Division list from the Overlord book. YD went for a Fusilier list from one of his books (I think from Atlantik Wall).

His list consisted of (roughly):

Füsilierkompanie HQ (352.)  p.33	2 1	Cmd SMG team Panzerschreck team	70
Combat Platoons
352. Füsilier Platoon  p.34	1 6	Cmd Panzerknacker SMG team MG team	185
352. Füsilier Platoon  p.34	1 4	Cmd MG team MG team	130
352. Füsilier Platoon  p.34	1 4	Cmd MG team MG team	130
Weapons Platoons
Füsilier Machine-gun Platoon (352.)  p.35	1 2	Cmd SMG team MG42 HMG	70
Regimental Support
Füsilier Regimental Anti-tank Gun Platoon (352.)  p.37	1 2 2	Cmd SMG team 7.5cm PaK40 gun 3-ton truck	110
Support Platoons
StuG Platoon (352.)  p.39	3	StuG G	285
Luftwaffe Anti-aircraft Assault Platoon  Reluctant  Trained Allied Platoon  p.229	1 2	Cmd SMG team Luftwaffe 8.8cm FlaK36 gun	95
Company Points:			1075

We decided to play a defensive mission (No Retreat) as my army included a Breaching Group - meaning I had 'Always Attacks'. On the picture above (I forgot to take a 1st turn picture, so this one is 2nd or 3rd turn) YD is deployed on the right with his 2 Fusilier platoons and the MG platoon dug in and defending the road line and his 88's on the hill.

My army consisted of:

Rifle Company HQ (51st)  p.143	1 1 1	Cmd Rifle team Cmd Rifle Bagpiper team Troop Carrier	40
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon (51st)  p.144	1 1 1 6 2	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Light Mortar team Rifle/MG team Defrocked Priest APC	160
Rifle Platoon (51st)  p.144	1 1 1 6 2	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Light Mortar team Rifle/MG team Defrocked Priest APC	160
Support Platoons
Breaching Group  Confident  Trained   p.70	1 2 2	Sherman V Sherman Crab AVRE	155
Infantry Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Artillery (51st)  p.154	1 2	Cmd Rifle team OQF 17 pdr gun	115
Recce Platoon (51st)  p.152	3 2	Humber IV Humber LRC III	170
Infantry Field Battery, Royal Artillery (51st)  p.156	2 1 1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Observer Rifle team OP Carrier OQF 25 pdr gun	165
Infantry Light Anti-aircraft Platoon, RA (51st)  p.155	1 2	Cmd Rifle team 40mm Bofors gun	55
Company Points:			1020

This was a bit of a strange army for me - it was mainly designed to include things I had just painted, had still to paint or just had not used. Built around the backbone of the 2 infantry platoons in Kangeroos and the breaching group. I figured YD might include some big cats, so took the 17 pounders. The Artillery I took for a change over the mortars, Bofors because they have just been painted and never used. Recce because I had the Humbers to paint (now started) and breaching group because I like my flail models and wanted to encourage myself to start the Churchills (now started). I also added M5 Halftracks on a whim, taking me up to 1025 points - but YD was fine with this as he had re-jigged his infantry platoons to give himself 3 platoons rather than 2 he had on his original list.

My army on the day - I'm afraid I didn't get a picture of all of YD's stuff - mainly because he already had it deployed on the table!

I decided to make use of the Night Attack special rule the Bits have - mainly because those 88's terrify me. Plus we always forget about the national rules and the Night Attack rule fits with my Totalise Highlanders theme.

Given the layout of the table I deployed my AA platoon in the centre (where it did nothing the whole game - facing off against dug in, concealed and gone to ground Veteran troops...), with my breaching group on the left flank. My infantry, the recce and the A/T guns on the right planning to use the forest for cover to get into assault range of the 88's hill. Behind them sat the 25 pounders. The Churchill AVsRE went up the centre.

 

My main attack was going to be with the infantry in their Kangeroos supported by the Recce to help remove Gone to Ground and provide pinning fire. The 17 pounders were to follow up and deploy where they could cover the infantry from the StuG's I suspected would be wandering about.

You'll note the two Kangeroos at the edge of the forest. I had debated sending them via the forest, but decided to send them left around it. A conversation with YD made me doubt my choice, so I decided 'bugger it, they can cut through those trees!'. The Kangeroos spent the whole game bogging their way slowly through this tiny forest, only contributing by one of them laying down 50 cal fire that supported a later assault. I could have deployed the infantry from them, but kept them buttoned up as a ready reserve.

In the center my Churchills moved slowly closer.

The aim was to use the Petard Mortar on those dug in infantry - but I only used the MG's as moving and shooting at dug in, GtG, Concealed Vets with a RoF 1 gun made moving and shooting impossible!

By my turn 3 I had moved up my assault troops close enough to be ready to disembark, so out they popped.

In YD's turn 3 the sun failed to rise, but in the improving light his 88's managed to get enough of a bead on my Recce platoon (perhaps drawn by the tracer from their MG's shooting up the infantry to their front) and take out the two Humber LRC's. His infantry also managed to take a couple of squads of my Highlanders out as they moved up to the start line for their assault.

YD also managed to bring on his StuG's at this point, choosing to place them on the table edge where they were facing my infantry and recce.

The StuG's opening volley (again, a good roll on the vision distance chart made my troops visible) took out one of my Humber A/C's - however, the platoon passed it's motivation check to remain on the table. 

The darkness proved to be a hindrance for both of us, as it seemed to take until daylight (at the start of my turn 4) for my FOO to realise he was looking at a brick wall rather than out a window, and call down fire on those nasty 88's - killing one and pinning the platoon.

The other notable thing that happened on my turn 4 was the 17 pounders disembarked and swung into action. Only one gun had LoS to the StuG's, and managed to knock one of the predatory little Jerry blighters out.

Lots of shooting at the German Infantry at the base of the 88's hill (including from the Churchills, which I brought over from the center) preceded an assault, which failed to connect due to the only close enough highlander team falling to defensive fire. YD decided to counter attack, but his troops were put off by the skirl of pipes and failed to cause any damage. The Highlanders counter attack was not so gentle, wiping out the majority of the Fusilier platoon and causing it to fail motivation and vanish from the table. The HMG platoon also broke off, leaving the highlanders on the base of the hill.

In YD's turn he got his Pak 40's on, and had them deploy facing my Sherman Flails. His 88's unpinned and destroyed one Churchill and bailed the other - Petard Mortars unfired!

His StuG's moved up and killed one infantry team but missed the 17 pounders.  His remaining Fusilier platoon and the company HQ arrived from reserve alongside the PaK 40's, but were concealed by a wood and moved forward to protect the hill objective (and counter my marauding Highlanders).

Fire this turn from the Pak 40's destroyed one flail tank and bailed the troop command tank. These Shermans had so far spent the game shooting with no effect at the dug in, GtG, Concealed Veteran infantry... YD's HMG platoon had unpinned and killed one of my infantry teams.

However, in my turn revenge was swift. While the FOO called down arty on the remaining 88, finishing it off, the 17 pounders put three shots into the two remaining StuG's, knocking out the platoon. My bailed Sherman crew sorted themselves out and the two tanks left in the troop knocked out both the PaK 40's. My highlanders at the base of the hill moved forward and took out the remaining HMG platoon, causing the HQ unit to fail motivation and run.

My Humbers moved forward to a position behind the dug in Fusiliers - to try and remove GtG on them in a later turn and dash for the cornfield objective.

In YD's turn his newly arrived infantry assaulted my Highlanders on the hill top, pushing them back. (Damn reluctant rating). However, time was getting on, so we decided to end with a draw. As a little experiment YD's SMG Panzerknacker team tried an assault on my Shermans - mainly as we had never really used tank assault teams before. The final layout of the battle (lacking some smoke puffs):

And some of YD's lovely infantry:

My most useful unit award probably would be a close run thing between the one infantry platoon I had in action, the 17-pounders or - to my surprise - the 25-pounders. Although the Night Fight rules meant the 25-pounders were silent for most of the game.

my 17 pounders following the assault troops

my 25 pounders waiting patiently for a fire mission!

My most useless unit was....

The Bofors AA guns, which didn't fire a shot the whole game!

As games go it was quite quick, although we did bog down a few times (mainly on the assaults). It was also as good natured and fun as ever. It also seems to have given me the kick up the bum I needed to start working on the unpainted units I had taken along for the day, so hopefully I can post some progress updates on them soon.

Finished! Sherman Crab Flails in 15mm

After far too many weeks of little progress I finally got the final touches done to my 15mm Flames of War British Sherman Crab Flail tanks!



Battlefront BR132 Sherman Crab - with alternative chains

I'm quite pleased with how the two of them have turned out, although I do really need to work on my weathering techniques.
Just to recap, when I first set out I used a 20mm (1:72) scale model as a base for how I thought a flail should look. I then tried to put this into 15mm scale. Here's a comparison with a 20mm model.

15mm Sherman Crab alongside 20mm Sherman I Hybrid Firefly

Sooo... the model I started looking at was this one:

Picture from http://rctlittlesoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/sherman-flail-on-d-day.html - a fantastic blog and I only wish I could get my models to this standard! - I claim no ownership of the picture!

Alterations I have made to the basic FoW model (which looks like this):

Picture from the Flames of War website - again, I claim no ownership of the photo.

First I added the canvas cover around the gun mantlet (the cover between the turret and the main gun). I also added the storage box onto the back of the turret as it was missing from both the models. This came from some metal sprue parts I had laying around.

I added my own stowage, a mix of mine and Skytrex. I also was unhappy with the scale of the chains that came with the model (as seen above). So I purchased some costume jewellery with thinner chains and cut that up.

I did try weathering effect with pigments but failed miserably. I think I might use one of my as yet unused StuG models just to try out different effects.

Decals were care of Doms Decals.

Large (elongated) base came from Warbases who did a custom order for me for very little cash and with no issues.

Radio aerial is some 0.3mm fishing line painted black. I decided to do both of these tanks 'buttoned up' with no crew figures, as I guess sitting outside the tank might not be a good place to be when those drums start spinning!

I tried the yellow turret decals before realising they should have been red. Also these are pre basing.

Again, sorry for the poor lighting. One of the things still on my 'to be fixed' list. I still have the 'gun tank' Sherman for this platoon to do, and then it will be all done. Hopefully it doesn't take anywhere near as long.

The bases for these tanks were special orders from Warbases that were cheap and easy to order.

Sherman Crab Flail Work In Progress (Part III)

Onto part 3 of the series of Sherman Crab progress posts... At this stage, I have no idea how long the series will be!

Getting the basecoat on, blocking in the main colours and then using Army Painter Strong Tone on them left me with highlights to do and the dusty effect I have been aiming for.

I picked up some Vallejo pigments and set about making a mess of both models. Stupidly I was confident I would get the effect I wanted (or close to it) first time round. What a fool I am!

Next day, with a hot tap and a old toothbrush, I found myself scrubbing away.

Another few attempts with pigments, and I defaulted to using a drybrush. Another possible mistake at this point is that I've not applied decals yet. This may come back to be an issue later.

Still having issues with lighting for pictures. I also toned down the paint on the mantlet end of the gun barrel after looking at these pics.

Sherman Crab Flail Work In Progress (Part II)

Another quick update on my ongoing work on the Flail, specifically the section along the front boom.

I had previously painted the drum and chains black, so my first step was to tear up some of the foam used in the FoW blisters, dip one of the torn parts in black and dab along the front of the boom arms (where debris and explosions would damage the paint). I then repeated this with Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo Model Color 70924) over the drum and chains - making sure the black on the booms was also nice and patchy. 

This gave a suitably mottled appearance - the sections I couldn't get with the sponge I used a brush on, which also worked fine.

I then repeated the process with a small amount of Hull Red (Vallejo Model Color 70985) over the bottom of the boom arms and lightly over the chains.

Next up came some Model Air Metallic Black (Vallejo 71073) which I had picked up by accident years ago. Then some Game Color Gunmetal Metal (Vallejo 72054). All applied using the sponge method.

This is pre any washes, army painter or highlights.