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

Initial 15mm Sdkfz 251/1D platoon

Hi folks,

A bit of time has been spent over the last two weeks trying to get my first unit of German half-tracks to a state I was happy with. Unfortunately, this turned out to be more of a chore than I was expecting. I'm still not 100% happy, but seeing them based up tonight they actually look ok. Painting British stuff is a lot easier!

These are older Battlefront 15mm resin kits, with plastic tracks and wheels. 

I've still to add crew to them, which will come much later. Two will have machine gunners and passengers, while the other two will have passengers. 

I've based in my standard style, and added some foliage to the vehicles in the form of seafoam sprigs and leaf scatter. Not hugely keen on how this looks, but it helps break up the camo pattern a little. It also fits in with by SS tank units.  

Decals have been applies as usual, a mix of Skytrex, Doms Decals and PSC. 

Looking at them now, I've forgotten to add my usual dust weathering powder on the wheels and tracks, so will have to sort that. 

I really struggled with these, mainly I think because I went too bold with the camo colours, used the wrong brown, had to work to bring up the yellow more and to make the camo more subtle. My earlier attempts looked much more like the very late war hard edged stripes, rather than the more subtle Normandy camo. Still, the images I used as reference showed that this unit used a lot of brown and green on their vehicles, with only small amounts of base yellow showing. This is very different from the common schemes people use with a yellow base and small splotches of green and brown. I eventually tried multiple times, before resorting to using thinned down yellow and a stippling effect to tone down the camo pattern.

They look much better on bases, and I will use these as templates for the next lot. Thankfully, there isn't a lot of painting on them, if you know what you're doing!

 

Finished: 15mm Canadian Ram OP tank

Hi folks,

Busy times of late, leaving little time for painting. I did, however, manage to finish off a couple of units which had been work in progress after Christmas. 

First up is a Ram OP tank for my planned future Sexton battery from 23rd Field Regiment (Self Propelled), Royal Canadian Artillery. Intrigued by a period photograph of one of these vehicles waiting on the start of Operation Totalize, a few years ago (2017!) I set in motion a plan to have a suitable turret made by Butlers Printed Models. You can find the earlier blog article about this here. 

Suffice to say, this project has gone untouched for a while, as I focussed on other units. 

With the AHPC challenge coming up in December, and knowing that I might be a bit stuck for time over the first few months of the year, I decided to bump this model up the painting queue and had it prepped to work on along with the Polish Cromwells. 

Just to show the reference picture I was using:

I do have a further image, taken at around the same time and showing the same vehicle from a different angle (it's the 3rd vehicle in the column). While I can't spot any unit marking on the Shermans, there is a geometric diamond shape on the side hull of the lead tank, which would make it part of an HQ squadron. The Stowage and attempts at added armour indicate that this is not a picture taken in the UK:

This model consists of the hull of a Battlefront Ram Kangeroo, which was modified via green stuff to change it from the early mk.1 hull with the mini turret, to the later solid mk.II hull. Onto this, the BPM turret was mounted. I also added stowage and some bits of plastic offcuts to build some shape under the camo netting on the rear deck. The camo netting is a 1/72 scale product that I think works well at 15mm. The print quality of the turret is not great, so I added some additional stowage to the hull, and the camo netting thankfully covered up some of the rougher bits (print lines). 

I tried to paint the camo netting to show the strips of brown/khaki and green cloth interwoven through it. Aerials were added using fishing line. Decals were also added, marking this tank out as an OP vehicle from the above mentioned unit. I have 4 Canadian Sextons to go with this at some point, but not any time soon. The turret and hull were also magnetised. 

This tank, along with some Stuart Vs and Sherman DDs painted a while back, are currently my only Canadian armour for Normandy, but I have plans/models for more... here is the painting plan for the list including the Ram tank. 

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.

Finished!: 15mm German SS Radio Truck + The Other Partisan

Hi folks,

As promised last week, I managed to finish off my SS radio truck this week. This is a 15mm Battlefront vehicle, with a selection of 15mm Battlefront figures to make the base into a little diorama. Useful for table decoration, an objective marker or something more complex for when playing the Battlegroup rules!

As with my other SS figures, I've gone for a mix of camo patterns and standard uniform on the figures. I added a double radio to the table I had, as well as a figure with what appears to be a field telephone (painted with yellow shoulder tabs to mark him out as signals).

I imagined the scene as being a busy temporary command post 'somewhere in Normandy', with orders being passed on to a runner while signallers try and get through to other units.

I had gone with camo netting and foliage on the truck, but messed it up and ended up removing it all last minute. I may revisit the concept, but basically I normally add the netting before painting, and I didn't this time - which resulted in the varnish messing it all up.

I've put aside the rest of my German painting queue for now, and have instead switched to finishing off my 10mm scale ACW limbers. More on that soon (I hope!).

In other news, myself, Dave, Martin and Scottie will be at 'the Other Partisan' on Sunday. Dave's putting on his Sudan game. We'll be at table 21 (over by the toilets, handily...) should anyone want to stop and say hello!

Finished: 12th SS Panzer IV's

Hi folks,

It feels like these have been work in progress for quite a while, but this week I managed to get the final bits and bobs done! I normally give myself between a week and two weeks to finish a platoon off, but between waiting on decals and health issues (and time sunk into playing the new Battletech PC game) I spent more than 6 weeks on these. 

There are a total of ten 15mm scale Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV (PzKpfw IV Ausf H) models in this batch, painted to represent tanks from the 1st and 2nd 'zug's' of 7. Kompanie, II./SS-Panzer Regiment 12, 12th SS Panzer Division. As per roughly 8 August 1944. Turret numbers for the two platoons are 715 to 719 and 725 to 729, as per the details in 'Waffen-SS Armour in Normandy - The combat history of SS-Panzer Regiment 12 and SS-Panzerjager Abteilung 12, Normday 1944'. 

I've organised a force to paint, although I recently picked up another pack of 5 of these which will give me a full company once painted. Two resin and metal Battlefront models provide the HQ unit. 

The force is based on the following diary entry:

8th August 1944, II./SS-Panzer Regiment 12:

"0630 hours: departure of the 5.Kompanie (with 5 Panzerkampfwagon IVs), the 7.Kompanie (with 12 Panzerkampfwagon IV's) and the assigned Tigers of the "Wittmann" Abteilung via Grainville and Hautmesnil towards Cintheaux."

Of note is the fact that 8 Tigers set out with them - within 6 hours, 1 had broken down before reaching the combat area and 5 were destroyed by allied forces within a few minutes - including Wittmann's Tiger. Three of these Tigers were likely destroyed by a single Firefly from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry (33rd Armoured Brigade) firing at around 800 meters, with the two others (probably including Wittmann) likely falling to the guns of The Sherbrooke Fusiliers (2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade) firing from a concealed position 450 meters away on the flank. Although tanks from B Squadron, 144 RAC also claimed one Tiger kill firing from the North of the Tigers position, while two other Canadian Fireflies fired from the North West... And at no point in the various versions of Wittmann's demise are the presence of so many Panzer IV's mentioned...

Also of note is the fact that the diary entry mentions no inclusion of Jadgpanzer IV's from SS-Panzerjaeger Abteilung 12, although that units diary entry states it was involved and eyewitness Canadian testimony states that two Jagdpanzers were knocked out on the Caen-Falaise road itself by the Sherbrookes. 

Anyway, some better shots of each Zug:

And some individual shots:

I'm not too pleased with the decals, but there are limited options for turret numbers in these ranges. My Doms Decals are for lower numbered Kompanies and the individual tank numbers don't include any 7's. I had thought about overpainting to make them a bit darker, but my hand painting it not neat enough. I may revisit in the future if I get round to printing my own decals properly!

As usual, I went for a bold edge highlight, which looks a bit odd close up on the camo, but I think the group shots at a bit of a distance show off the effect of this style at a bit of a distance. 

Next up the two HQ tanks (giving me the 12 7. Kompanie tanks) and a couple of Flakpanzer's. Hopefully these will be a bit quicker to finish!

Operation Totalize: Footage

Hi folks,

In keeping with my blog being a repository for info I've found on Operation Totalize, I wanted to post this link. It's from a Canadian Army Newsreel and it shows what I believe is one of the training columns for Totalize in action:

It's interesting to see how closely packed the vehicles are, and there is a good shot of towed 6pdrs and SP M10 (which appear to have the armoured roofs!). Some of the earlier footage shows infantry boarding De-frocked priests - including one shot that appears to have a 144RAC Sherman in the background (going by the light coloured turret number).

Interesting find, and great to see all this Canadian stuff for free on YouTube, while in the UK historic footage has been removed and requires substantial outlay for minutes long videos with no preview of what you are getting for your money.

Finished - German 5cm Pak38's and 7.5cm IG 18 guns

Hi folks,

I had hoped to get this posted over the weekend, but only managed to finish the models last night.

I've a whole host of German artillery in the painting queue currently - a load of AA to help fend off the Tiffies I painted a few weeks ago. But at the moment I've focused on the infantry guns and lighter A/T guns.

A small amount of foliage added to the guns - these are Battlefront plastic Pak38's from their mid war plastic boxed set. I've only used a couple of the new plastic figures, and replaced most of the crew with spare metal ones I picked up. That new plastic holds detail OK and were fine to paint, but the facial details were terrible and getting the mould lines off them was a real nuisance.

I applied the camo with  a sponge, but ended up toning it all down with the highlights. Again, this is a technique that looks much better in person at a bit of a distance. The camo does come through...

The infantry guns are much more likely to be used in more of a support role, so I've not added foliage. I did complete the spotter team for these, but no command teams for either (yet). I might paint some, I might not. I'm pretty sold on 4th Ed at this point, and I'm unlikely to be playing 3rd any time soon. If I did, I'm sure I can steal a command squad from somewhere!

Again, a mix of crew figures, but mainly those that came with the pack. The 89. Infanterie Division apparently had Russian infantry guns in Normandy, so these are not quite correct. But as I've already got a load of spare French gun crew due to this project, I didn't want to add random Russians as well!

I've got a lot on with work currently, having started a new job and doing training. I had planned to get my ACW Limbers done before the show on the 25th, but can't make that now so the motivation has fled. I've also got a book to edit for my sister, which I've not looked at in months. So not sure what I'll move on to next!

Plans and random Ebay purchases

Hi folks,

I'm making a conscious effort to post a blog this week, as I've been a little lax of late.

Unusually, I've not finished anything painting wise since the start of October. I spent a lot of time this month preparing for the winter. I'm hoping to do the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge again this year, and I plan on focusing on German artillery for 'Gunuary' this year as well as trying to get some German armour painted.

In the shorter term, I have been working on some 5cm A/T guns and 7.5cm Infantry guns for the Germans. While the guns are mostly done, the crew are taking a bit more time than I had planned. I'm unused to painting Germans and the enthusiasm just isn't there. I'm getting there though, just a few final bits to do and the main colours are blocked in.

I've had a couple of lucky purchases this week. The first was a painted unit of HUGE Pak43/41's. These are really massive guns, much larger than the 5cm A/T guns I have - 89. Infanterie-Division apparently had some of these in it's artillery units, and there is photographic evidence of Polish tanks advancing past a knocked out one. I got 4 of these guns for a very reasonable price. While they need stripping and a bit of work, and didn't have the full crew compliment, they will do!

I also got this:

Which is a map printed by the Royal Engineers in 1948 and covers the Operation Totalize battle area. Again, I got this for a decent price. No units or anything marked on it, but I am tempted to get it framed... The immediate area that effects my Highlanders:

154 Brigades objectives were the Cramesnil, St. Aignan de Cramesnil and Garcelles Secqueville area.

You can also see the main Caen Highway running up and down the map - the Canadians were coming from the top of the map southwards on the left, while the Highlanders were on the right of the road. Near the bottom you can see Cintheaux and Gaumesnil - Michael Wittmann's 'last charge' was up the right side of the road from Cintheaux, with Whittmann himself being killed opposite Gaumesnil (most likely by Canadian Shermans in Gaumesnil, as opposed to the belief that the fire came from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry in the woods south of St. Aignan de Cramesnil). 

A visit to Redcar - and Gaming Figures - got me a load of FoW miniatures with a 30% discount due to their Halloween sail. 2 boxes of 88's (the mid war plastic ones), a box of two Shermans (yeah yeah) and another infantry platoon (plastic this time, for Battlegroup and to mix in with my metals). All for far less than I would normally pay!

So yeah - some cool purchases, and some plans that seem to be settling on getting my German AA and some of the armour done over the winter, along with some of my 6mm stuff. 

Something you don't see every day! (15mm Ram II tank)

Hi folks,

As part of my Totalise Project there are things I come across that are historically accurate but missing from model ranges (or decal ranges). One of those things were Canadian Ram II tanks.

These were created by the Canadians and shipped over to the UK in large numbers. However, it was viewed as obsolete by 1944 so was used mainly for training. From Wiki:

"A prototype Ram was completed in June 1941, and general production of the Ram I began in November of the same year. The Ram I and early Ram IIs were fitted with side doors in the hull and an auxiliary machine gun turret in the front. The former weakened the hull and complicated production, and the doors and the machine gun turret were discarded in later modifications. By February 1942, production had switched to the Ram II model with a 6-pounder gun and continued until July 1943. In March 1942 a decision had been made to change production over to the automotively-similar M4A1 Sherman tank for all British and Canadian units. Ram production continued due to delay in starting the new M4 production lines and a reluctance to let the plant lie idle.^[3] By July 1943 1,948 vehicles, plus 84 artillery observation post (OP) vehicles, had been completed.

The official Canadian history of the war compares the Ram to the Ross rifle as examples of unsuccessful Canadian weapon designs. It states that given the Sherman's superiority, in retrospect it would probably have been better for the United States to produce more tanks, and for Canada to have focused on manufacturing more transport vehicles such as the successful Canadian Military Pattern truck designs. The Sexton self-propelled gun based on the Ram chassis, however, was very successful.

As built, the Ram was never used in combat as a tank, but was used for crew training in Great Britain up to mid 1944. The observation post vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carrier, gun tractor, and munitions carrier versions of the Ram saw considerable active service in North West Europe. These tanks were mainly rebuilt by Canadian Army workshops in the United Kingdom. Conversions of Ram tanks with the Wasp II flamethrower gear were used by the 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade in the Netherlands in 1945."

It is the artillery OP and Artillery Tow version which interested me. I've had an interest in getting some of these for my planned Canadian forces for a while. Last year, prior to embarking on this 'all nations' Totalise Project, I had bought 3 packs of Ram Kangeroos, in order to do a later war version of my Highlanders. However, the planned use of these vehicles had changed with the change in focus onto Totalise, with 4 of them being used as 17 Pounder Tows for my Canadians, and 2 of them getting turrets to act as OP tanks.

Ram OP tank in Normandy - the full version of this picture shows 2 Canadian 4th Armoured Division Shermans behind, 

But as I had the hulls, where could I get the turrets?

I searched about, and found someone who had scratch built turrets. They looked great, but I didn't think I could replicate what they had done - and didn't want to spend a lot of time working on something I would end up unhappy with. I checked Shapeways, where the full tank is available to buy at 1/100ths scale, but for £25 each. A lot of month to spend on 2 tanks! No one, it seems, made turrets for this tank.

Eventually, months later, I approached Butlers Printed Models with a query about them designing and building a turret for me. Peter was very very helpful, and for a small fee - well, smaller than the cost of two tanks off Shapeways - Peter agreed to do the design work, send me a prototype and get some turrets done!

Less than two weeks later:

Ram II Turret in 15mm, for use in Flames of War

The Butlers Printed Models turret on the Battlefront Kangeroo hull.

Now it is 3D printed, so there is a little roughness to the turret, but not a huge amount compared to other 3D printed then cast models I have worked with in the past. Very little clean up was required. The turret fits perfectly on the Battlefront Kangeroo hull, although some of the turret ring details have to be removed (mainly the mounting for the .50cal). I think with a coat of paint on these guys they will be a fantastic addition to my army. Peter also modelled the Early, Late and Close Support versions of the turret - mines is the Late version.

The best bit is that the model I 'commissioned' is available for purchase on the Butlers Printed Model webstore - here!

Hopefully, I've have these painted 'soon'!

AHPC - 2nd entry, British 5.5" Medium Guns Finished!

Hi Folks,

Apologies to those of you who have already seen this unit over on the AHPC blog, but I feel like I should post here as well. Just to keep everything together! I've also taken some better pictures.

This weeks entry was 6 x BL 5.5" Medium Guns. These heavy hitters were introduced into service in 1941, replacing some of the 6" 26 cwt Howitzers which had been used in British Medium Artillery Regiments prior to that date (also in use was the 4.5" Medium Gun - a very similar looking artillery gun). They first saw action in North Africa in 1942, and continued in service with British Territorial Army units until the 1980's. The last known firing of one of these guns 'in anger' was in 1999 during the fighting in Kashmir.

These 6 guns bring my unit up to a strength of 8, with me having finished the other two last year.

In my army, they will be representing a battery of the 79th (The Scottish Horse) Medium Regiment , Royal Artillery. This battery represents the guns of 4 AGRA (Army Group, Royal Artillery) in my Operation Totalise project - supporting the Canadian II Corps. I've had a bit of a wobble about this, as one reference mentions the unit having 5.5" guns, while another mentions 4.5" guns. I've since found another source which gives the unit 5.5" guns, so I'm 'sticking to my guns' and going with 79th Medium Regiment

Now to worry about the various command teams and vehicles for this unit! I know V4 will do away with a lot of those, but I have the figures so may as well do them!