Kangeroo Company! 15mm Defrocked M7 Priests - Finished!

This is my last post in this little series I've had this weekend.

Again, some of the models I finished last week were the last remaining part of a larger force. In this case the last two Defrocked Priests for my infantry company to ride to battle in.

The Defrocked Priests were field modifications of American M7 Priest Self Propelled Artillery guns.

M7 Priest - Picture from Wiki (linked without permission)

As the Allied forces fought in Normandy (especially in the more open Canadian and British sectors of the front) they began encountering massive problems overcoming German machine gun and mortar fire. Tanks can't advance without infantry support, and infantry can't advance when their every move brings down accurate mortar fire and they are having to advance into the teeth of machine gun fire from the likes of the German MG-42.

Neither could tanks operate well with infantry at night - and yet it became apparent that the only way to avoid the long range/high powered anti tank guns used by the Germans - as well as the withering machine gun and mortar fire - was to advance at night. A solution was needed that would allow mounted infantry to move accross country at the same rate as the tanks, while protecting them from MG fire and shell splinters.

Famously, this coincided with a American issue with supply of the 105mm shells used by the M7. M7's had been in use by various Canadian and British units from D-day, but with the ammo supply becoming difficult the American requested that the other allies cease using the M7. The British and Canadians rapidly switched (mainly to towed 25 pdr guns) and the 'spare' M7's were made ready to return to the Americans. From Wiki:

"The order to convert 72 Priests into carriers by the commencement of Operation Totalize on August 9 was given on July 31 by Brigadier C.M. Grant, the Deputy Director of Mechanical Engineering at Headquarters.^[5] Ultimately, 78 would be converted prior to the first engagement, in spite of the fact that the Operation's start date had been advanced to August 7 – an impressive feat, as just one part of the conversion process was generally a seven-day operation.^[6]The drivers for the new vehicles were swiftly and secretly recruited from the Armoured Corps reinforcements, Artillery Units, and the Elgin Regiment, and were rushed into service with almost no training..."

Some of the sources mention that conversion had begun before the Americans had agreed!

My six Defrocked Priests are done up with the markings of the three Artillery Regiments of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division - two from each regiment just to be fair! However, I have since realised that the decals are actually for the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. Ooops! Correction will be forthcoming once I find someone that sells the correct decals.

Notice the slight changes in size between these models. They all came from Battlefront and all from 3 separate blisters - no 2 seem to be the same size or exact shape.

The markings in white on the front came from seeing this picture:

Linked from 51st HD website - used without permission

And this one:

Linked from 51st HD website - used without permission

Paint Table Saturday #26

This week I spent a bit of time taking paint off old Full Thrust miniatures. Last Saturday I purchased some Fairy Power washing up spray. This stuff is pretty effective at removing paint from both metal and plastic miniatures. I found the best way of removing the paint was to place the mini's in a tub (I used an old butter tub) and spray the foam all over them liberally. I then left the tub for 12 hours, returning to shake it from time to time. After that, I picked the mini's out, rinsed them off and then scrubbed them with a cheap hard bristle toothbrush. I left the build up of gunk in the bottom of the tub and just dropped the next lot of minis in before spraying again.

Rinsing the mini's first was important, as the first batch I worked on I did not rinse and ended up with very dry skin on my hands.  Like, 'I've dipped my hands in PVA and it needs peeled off' style of dryness.

The only paint left on the minis at the end of this process was the paint that had been applied over areas that had been super glued. But that superglue it removable by a modelling knife.

So yeah, a effective method of paint removal that won't kill you with fumes or need specialist disposal.

Anyway, onto this weeks painting. I did manage to apply highlights to the FoW models I have been working on for weeks, and a primer to a FT mini I wanted to mess with. This weekend has mainly been taken up by the EVE Online Fanfest feed. Next weekend will involve a visit to Carronade over in Falkirk.

So that's it for this Saturday. I will point out that I have come to the point of over highlighting on my 15mm stuff, as from tabletop distances it looks good - not so great close up though! Next up will be matt varnish and then decals.

Paint Table Saturday - three days late...

Slightly late with this week's attempt at a Paint Table Saturday post! Mainly due to the fact that on Saturday I only had Army Painter (Strong Tone) varnished vehicles staring back at me. No Salute for me, I'm afraid. One day... Trying to convince the better half that there might be a show on in London that weekend...

I managed this evening to get a dry brush with the base Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo Model Colour 70924) over them. I had tried a new type of highlighting (for me) on my Sherman Hybrids and I intend to replicate that on these models. I'll also do a lighter shade of the Russian Uniform as a quick dry brush later as well.

Since I had some Russian Uniform Green left (I seem to be really bad and putting too much paint on my palette) I also gave the Sherman mk.1 ARV a rough base coat.

This is also my 101st post - please check out my Competition in post #100!

PSC M5 Half Tracks

Loyd Carriers and 6 pdr A/T guns

De-frocked Priests and M5 Ambulance on the left

Side view of M5 Ambulance conversion and De-frocked Priest

Side view of Sherman ARV mk.1 and another shot of the A/T guns

Closeup of Sherman ARV mk.1

Just a quick comment on the Sherman Armoured Recovery Vehicle and why I wanted to convert one. The ARV's are not too much use in Flames of War. However, in Battlegroup Overlord, they have a much wider range of abilities. Some examples: They can attempt to repair destroyed vehicles (6 on a D6, max of 2 attempts) or repair immobilised vehicles (4+ on D6). Recovery vehicles can also tow destroyed vehicles from the table, allowing you to recover some of your lost morale points.

The reason I wanted to convert a mk.1 is that the model Battlefront do for FoW is just plain wrong! I understand it's not as interesting a model as the mk.2, but I think it deserves the attention!

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!

Defrocked Priest Decals (Strike again)

So after painting my defrocked priests with formation badges from the British 3rd Infantry Division and the 11th Armored Division... I realised these were wrong!

"The first Kangaroos were converted from 102 M7 Priest self-propelled guns of three field artillery regiments of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division who were involved in the initial assault on 6 June 1944. These were no longer needed, as these regiments were re-equipped with towed 25 pounder guns in late July. At a field workshop (codenamed Kangaroo, hence the name) they were stripped of their 105mm guns, the front aperture welded over, then sent into service carrying twelve troops. They were first used on 8 August 1944 during Operation Totalize south of Caen to supplement the half-tracks available." - Wiki

And

"Four Canadian artillery units - the 12th, 13th and 14th Field Regiments of the 3rd Division and the 19th Army Field Regiment - had exchanged their 25-pounders for Priests in the fall of 1943 as part of their equipment for Overlord. The time was now ripe, with the 3rd Division withdrawn from the line for a well deserved rest, for the three divisional regiments to exchange their borrowed guns for towed 25-pounders as part of a program to re-equip the field regiments of 21st Army Group. (The 12th and 13th Field Regiments began to turn in their Priests on 1 August, followed by the 14th Field Regiment on 3 August...."

"On 31 July Crerar had anticipated that the Americans would agree and had directed Brigadier Grant to be prepared to convert the SP guns to armoured infantry carriers by 9 August, although this date was later moved forward to 6 August." - No Holding Back

So my vehicles should have the markings of 12th, 13th and 14th Field Regiments of the Canadian army - part of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. I found the formation sign here.

Using a scalpel I carefully removed the formation signs from last night and attempted to match the color of the Divisional sign above.

Not a great picture, but I tried to match the color and used German camo beige to do the maple leaf shape.

The sad bit is my realization that the Canadian's used differed WD numbers than the British army. Basically the same numbers, but with the letter C in front of them. So....

Yeah. I may need help....

Decals on defrocked priests

Waiting for a meeting to start at work (huzzah for being somewhere with a 3G phone signal!) so I thought I would post a few wee pics of my work in progress defrocked priests.

These vehicles had been self propelled artillery just prior to totalise, but were converted over a period of only hours in the days prior to their use. As such I wanted to do two things with them. The first was replicated from pictures I had seen, where units from 154 Brigade of the Highland Division had painted or chalked the HD sign and their Brigade tactical sign of 69 on the front of the APC's. 

The second thing was to show that these vehicles were so hastily converted they still had the original artillery units tac markings on them! 

So far, this is where I am at:

These four are all from different units - 3rd Infantry Division and 11th Armoured Division (although this may change as the tac signs for the artillery of the 11th Armoured would be a white 72 on a red and blue square...). I've also made an effort to use different stars on different locations to show them being different batteries. 

So some markings are subject to change. I'm fighting the urge to buy actual decals for the divisions rather relying on my poor free hand skills! Still got another Matt varnish to do and then the static grass and the infantry to be glued inside...