Matchbox British and ANZAC infantry

 

1944 British Infantry Battalion

 As I continue the refurbishment project, I decided to see if I could use the same techniques to bring some units I had gotten off Steve H. back up and running. Steve very generously gave me his WW2 CD armies as he had decided he just wasn't interested in 20mm WW2 any more. Steve's head having been turned by the nice shiney  15mm stuff produced by Battlefront. (N.B. see this link to urban Dictionary, definition three, for my use of shiney)

These figures all had flock similar to that on the left.  I, for one, am glad of the vast range of flocks and tellus we enjoy today.

These armies included some that Steve had based up for CD 1! So this is why their base sizes are somewhat lacking in depth - CD 1 used a stand size  that wasn't as deep and was 1/8 of an inch wider. I am not sure that I will rebase them up to current CD standards - but I may yet do so! These earlier forces are also flocked with a very green flock. When I put the wash on these figures I was hoping it would tone the flock down somewhat.

The Battalion commander is the officer figure from the ANZAC  Infantry set.

The figures used are a combination of the Matchbox British Infantry (PSR link here), and the Matchbox Anzac Infantry (PSR link here) sets. They have been organised as a 1944 British Infantry Battalion, sans the mortar stand and all the vehicles, as per the TOE given in CD 1.

The stand with the two rifle men is the battalion's engineers, while the two  kneeling stands are meant to be the gun crews for the 6pdrs.  I shall probably treat them as an attached infantry company as none of them really look right for their stated role.

The CD 1 TOE gives an additional 6pdr antitank battery, and gives each rifle company a heavy truck to transport the unit. The AotSWW TOE strips the second 6pdr battery and organic company transport, and separates the CD 1 HQ company into a Headquarters company and a Support Company.

A Company - the command infantry stand is the one with the kneeling riflemen.

Fortunately, the organization of the rifle companies stayed the same, with each one consisting of one command infantry stand and two infantry stands.

B Company - the command infantry stand is the one with the Sten and the Bren.

C Company - the command infantry stand is the one with the two  Thompson Gunners. neither is named Roland.

The two sets work quite well together, although to my mind the Lee Enfields of the British infantry set seem to have a little more heft to them, however this is more than made up for by the sword bayonets of the ANZAC set.

D Company - the command Infantry stand is the one on the  right side of the picture.

Right, back to the workbench to do some more work on my shineys before the school holidays come to a close and I have to do some work again.

Airfix Australian Infantry.

Since the AWI figures I refurbished turned out so well, I decided that I could do the same with some of the other figures that I acquired from the same source. As I hunted through my collection of figures, I discovered a number of figures that had been painted by the same painter that I could turn into CD3 units. I also found a number of painted figures from other sources - such as a huge number of  CD units and loose figures that I had been given by Steve H. - to name one such deposit of figures.

The complete batch of refurbished Airfix Australians

So I decided that in order to rapidly expand my pool of available wargaming forces,I would begin the process of refurnishing these figures. First up are some Airfix Australian Infantry (link to PSR here). All I did with these figures was to touch up the paint work, give them a brown wash and then base them up as an under strength CD3 Infantry battalion with some attached elements.

Machete waving Battalion Command stand and two stands suitable for use as attached staff radio, FO, or even FAC stands.Given the brigade only has one staff radio stand - and it's a radio truck - these stands probably won't remain at the battalion level for long. 

No battalion mortar stands - but here are a couple of porter stands with a nice  stand of marching infantry.

 The paint scheme used by the original painter is similar to that on used on the box art. It's quite a nice scheme and the brown wash tones the green down nicely. Fortunately my camera's flash brightens it right back up!

No recon carrier either! How about a recon stand and two patrol stands instead? 

 I've always liked the prone Bren gunner in this set, but like most prone figures not the easiest to use with CD's basing system. I try and use the fact they require a bigger base to my advantage, so that it will symbolise  a special stand like a patrol - as in this case!

Two infantry stands - this could be an understrength infantry company.

The figures that been painted quite some time ago with enamel paint, and had been stored in a draw with a pile of other figures. as this was a rather suboptimal way of storing the figures,  there was surprisingly little paint flaking. Given that they had been stored badly by me since 1996, this is pretty amazing!

The kneeling Bren gunner is also a great pose - it got used in the 1/32 set and has been widely knocked off. 

Interestingly enough the original painter chose not to paint up the full set of figures, or some had been lost before coming into my hands (or even after coming into my hands!) as only 33 of the 48 figures in the packet were available for me to refurbish.

The rifle swinging pose is not quite as useful . Another two infantry stands. I have been considering using the stands  that have the figure that is throwing the grenade as command infantry stands. Doing this would allow me to field four weak companies (per the 1943 TOE)

Two more infantry stands, giving a total of  nine. stands, or three full strength rifle companies.  Useful as the 1941/42 TOE has only three Rifle companies to the battalion. 

I did add two figures that I had first painted back in 1991 into this batch of refurbishment, as I wanted to create a stand of wounded troops. The figures used were one of the sitting wounded figures from the Airfix Australians, and the standing wounded figure from the Matchbox ANZAC set. (PSR link here)  Rather than try and reproduce the paint scheme of the original painter, I opted to just try and produce a stand that work work with the others.

Wounded figures. I have more of the sitting Airfix wounded figure to paint up.

Once I have refurnished all of the suitable figures, I will start painting up stuff needed to fill in the TOE gaps of the recycled and refurbished units. Work will also continue on the Pucaras and the 1/1800 scale navy. Plus I might even do some gaming!

Stuff from Shapeways.

One of the CP scenarios that I have wanted to run for a number of years now, has been the Battle of Goose Green. I have been quietly acquiring the bits and pieces needed to run it. So far I have the British forces - bar the Harrier air support - all painted (bar the final basing), and with the Matchbox NATO Paratroopers set being reissued this year I should be able to produce the Argentinean forces by using these and figures from other sets.

But the most elusive item has been finding Pucara ground attack aircraft. Originally I was going to try and find a 1/72 scale model, but since I have moved to 1/144 scale for modern fixed wing aircraft I have opted to use a model produced by 3D printing.

This is how it shipped  from the Netherlands to NZ. Of course it was in a bag surrounded by bubblewrap!

 I ordered them here from Shapeways - a site that contains quite a great deal of interesting items for gamers. I am sure that i will be purchasing more items from them in the future.

I ordered two as I figured it was a useful number. One suffered a minor breakage  of a broken prop blade. 

I also decided to purchase some ships to add into my existing 1/1800 scale fleet. I decided that this time I would get ships and boats that would increase the amphibious capability of my US fleet.

Two Bayfield class APAs. Both models still have runners attached that are  not part of the finished model.

I don't think my photos give justice to the detail of these models, nor how hardy the material they are printed out of actually is.

12 LCIs still attached to their runner.

Once I get these painted up I will post pictures of my current USN fleet.

The view underneath showing the runner frame.

Of course, if I am getting LCIs, I had to get some LCVPs too. These are also a very nice clean and crisp model. In fact, none of the Shapeways products had any imperfections as a result of manufacture that I noticed. I guess 3D printing eliminates flash and  lines!

LCVPs - four bases of two craft. APAs included to give a sense of scale.

The various models - all 1:1800 scale with a 20mm square GW base to  give an idea of  actual model size.

I am very happy with my purchases from Shapeways and will be looking to put them up on the tabletop soon.

Gun Trucks, Technicals, and Humvees.

Since I have finally managed to finish a technical that I started some time ago in the distant past, I figured I should post the finished product here, along with some other bits and pieces that I have been working on.

As you last saw it.

And now with added paint and wash! The crew is quite the mixed bag  - Esci driver, with the figure with the M16 being a Mars  kitbash clone of Esci figures, while the Arab is of unknown make.

The view from the other side. Is it wrong that I like the Mars Mujahideen figures?

I also gave the finishing touches - a driver and a brown wash - to another diecast. This time it was a Matchbox Field Car that had survived from my childhood - although it had taken a few hard knocks in the process.

The folded down canopy at the back is a bit from a Battlefront 15mm  model. I think it works well  here!

I am rather tempted to put a passenger in the back. I am also  tempted to put  in a nice recoiless  rifle

The next diecast repaint was a Jada Toys Battle Rig from their Battle Machines line. I bought this in a Walmart sometime in 2008 thinking that I could use it in a game of Dark Future, but I am tempted to use it as technical gun truck in either AK-47 or CD 3. Of course, I would have to field a force that matches it in all its silliness glory....

Behold the beast in its original paint job! Big boomer is a very shiny  Battle Rig!

 I gave it the usual treatment of disassembly, undercoating with primer, repainting, assembly and then a wash. However I did add a gunner to the main armament as it looked somewhat empty.

I added a gunner using the driver from the Airfix Matador.

The truck is labelled as 1/87 but i think it can fudge as being 1/76.

Of course I gave it the usual brown wash.

And last of all some Johnny Lightning Humvees that I purchased second hand in around 2007. One was from the Military Muscle range of vehicles, while the other was a civilian Hummer H1. They were badly painted so I disassembled them, put them in Simple Green, and finally many years later have undercoated them with grey spray primer.

Disassembled and ready to be sprayed.

And now sprayed in Dulux grey primer!

The Johnny Lightning Humvees are meant to be 1/64 scale, but they size up fairly well to both my 1/72 scale Dragon premades, and my Matchbox diecasts, so I think this could be another example of the stated scale not always being correct. I should probably do a post comparing diecast Humvees at some stage....

Northern Khand 1997 Part 2.

As promised in the last post here are some more pictures from the game Frank and I had the other day.

GDI M113s run afoul of some Noddist T-55 fire from the woods.

GDI infantry move to clear out the woods.

A Noddist TOW takes out a GDI Abrams with a flank shot.

GDI Hammerhead is taken out by Noddist fire.

GDI infantry deal to a Noddist Sagger team.

Noddist troops are eliminated by GDI troops while T-55s burn in the background.

Noddist Su-22s arrive.

Noddist armour knocked out by GDI helicopters.

GDI F-18 on CAP.

Another GDI F-18 arrives.

GDI had CAP on table for the entire game.

Noddist forces are caught in the open by a GDI airstrike.

Noddist BMP-2 is pinned after another GDI airstrike.

yet more Noddist armour pinned due to GDI airstrikes.

GDI F-14s bounce a Su-22.

A Noddist Su-22 makes another attempt at an airstrike on GDI forces. This attempt is also a failure.

Noddist armour and infantry swarm into the woods to counterattack GDI forces.

And that's all Folks!