10mm WW2 German Support from Red3

I'm always happy to have the chance to pick up some stuff from Redders at Red3 when I go down to the PAW show in Plymouth, and this January with the show returning after a Covid hiatus that meant a small but perfectly formed purchase of half track support options for my existing German Panzergrenadier force.

Having managed to remember what paints I'd used to do the last lot I managed to get these three done fairly quickly - it's always motivating when the casts are so crisp and go together so well.

Here you have two late-war 251's (the single sloped back to the body apparently gives it away) with the 251/9 75mm short support gun and the longer barrelled 251/22 with Pak 40 options, along with a 250/7 with mortar team included.

As is usual with Red3, the guns and crew are a separate, one-piece casting that just slots straight into the back of the vehicle really neatly, so you can paint it before dropping it into place.

And now all three are ready to support my Panzergrenadiers as they roll into combat on a 10mm tabletop in the near future !

 

Valencia Military Museum

 On our recent club expedition to an ADLG competition in Alicante we managed to spend a couple of days (and nights) in Valencia, including a trip to it's surprisingly good Military (aka Army) Museum.

I've now uploaded all of the photos from that trip to a Gallery in the Museums section of this website, which you can access here 

There is also a YouTube video of the photos posted on my YouTube Channel 

A few festive bits and pieces

Over the festive break I managed to do a bit of painting whilst avoiding getting myself any more wargaming stuff (there are 3 armies in the paint queue already...), and also fit in a trip to Guernsey.

The end result is a rather random mix of WW2-themed photos for your delight and delectation! 

First up is a pair of Sdkfz 251/9 engineer vehicles in 10/12mm scale from Redders at Red3. These complement the rest of the German force I painted up last year, and give me some guys to jump out and blast their way through any field defences I might encounter in BKC or O Group.

Next up was a dog-walking excursion to Batterie Dollmann in Guernsey - strangely enough the first time I've managed to get to it on many trips. The restored French 10 tonne, 22cm gun sits overlooking the coast in the nicely restored open bunker

There is also of course also the nearby Pleimont Observation Tower, which I think is open for visitors during the summer months,

The battery is defended from the landward side by a load of refurbished trenches, and what looks to me like it could be a Somua turret (although I've since had it suggested that it's more likely to be from an FT17) dug in as a bunker.

You can get into the turret from the adjacent trench, but as it was about 6 inches deep in water when I visited, there was no "Madaxeman in a Bunker" photo opportunity this time around!

More bunkers make up the complex, overlooking some seriously impressive cliffs. 

The biggest risk now however is not the big guns, it's falling into the well-camoflaged trenches!

Back on the small scale stuff, these M3 half tracks with British crew from Red3 again were a joy to put together - this shows all of the bits, as vehicle is pretty much cast as a single piece, with the turret gunner and cupola all cast as a single drop-in item. 

Using Vallejo Bronze Green as a base coat is pretty simple - and here you can see the cute strips of crew as well all painted up in British Khaki ready to be glued in. 

 

Some weathering and a few stars that I have accumulated over the years - most of these are spares from the Victrix Shermans I did last year I think

And this is the full set of 6, ready to take the Tommies into battle.

  

Airfix Time for the LVT

 Having just realised that it's been quite a while since I posted anything on my site, here's some shots of (gasps!) an Airfix kit build (!!) and some other WW2 bits and pieces. 

Yes, a classic Airfix kit picked up at the IPMS Avon show a couple of months ago which I bought and built for a bit of Chain of Command action with the USMC/Japanese island hopping campaign which I've just started playing with a clubmate. 

After a mildly taxing build (I suspect I'm better at building kits than when I was in my teens, but this is a pretty old kit, quite fiddly and also needed a bit of filling... which I'm blaming on the kit rather than my skills!), a spray with Army Painter Army Green, and a heavy dip with Army Painter Soft Tone finished with some drybrushing, this is the result:

Even the stapled together rubber tracks aren’t as obvious as they were last time I think I made this kit back when I was a teenager.!

I was particularly pleased with the Microsol/Microset finished transfers which have ended up with no visible transfer edging at all. 

Here's a shot of the LVT with some 20mm infantry from Plastic Soldier Comany, on "1p" multi-bases from Warbases.

I also bought (on eBay) a sort of tank-like LVT. This is a die-cast pre-paint model which was actually cheaper than the Airfix kit - and didn't need building!  

I again hit this with the Army Painter and then matt varnished it to finish. 

Finally, this is also a die-cast Stuart, resprayed with Army Painter green again, and with some bits-box transfers including the "SQUIRREL" name from the Victrix 1/144th scale Sherman tank set. 

Of course, as soon as it got on table the Airfix kit got shot at once, and then my opponent rolled enough hits to force it to fall back off table immediately! 

  

The only upside was that the Chain of Command rules are so (ahem) randomly organised that we weren't able to find the section that explained what happens in that situation, so I managed to get away without rolling a morale test for losing it!

Chain of Command 20mm Yanks

 Having languished in a drawer for many years since being bought and painted on a whim way back in 2013 with no real plan as to how they might be used, I've recently liberated a load of 20mm mostly-PSC WW2 Americans from deep storage and used them in some initial forays into Chain of Command.

The first couple of games quickly taught me that my single-based figures really needed to be deployed in teams, and also that I definately needed to make sure I had enough Garand teams (of 3), scout teams (of 2) and support weapons (5-6 guys). 

With a load of 3mm rare earth magnets already in hand, and the figures based on new 1p pieces, Warbases ended up getting a decent little order from me for their "1p" small group bases. With a few metal 20mm figures and a gun added from SHQ, the end result are these teams.

The 6pdr/57mm gun is also on a penny so it can be taken out of the tray, and the tray can be used for other weapons teams.

Some of the PSC HMG teams are too close to put each man on a separate penny, so a couple of the teams have 4 slots, and 3 guys on one slot. By the time the team is reduced to 2 guys it's dead anyway so it doesn't matter than much that they can't all be taken out individually. 

Likewise with this mortar team, where the mortar is attached to one of the team

And the same with this HMG - 5 people, one of whom has the gun. 

This is a 4-slot, 5 man team base

Bazooka team with PSC Sherman

The officer is from a Matchbox 1/76th range of GIs. Great little figure for a leader.

Flames of War eBay listings for Clive

One of our club members, Clive McLeod sadly passed away a little while ago, and I'm now one of the people helping his family sort through and dispose of his wargaming collection. 

He had a number of rather nice Flames of War armies, but with not all that much FoW being played at CLWC at the moment I'm now listing a couple of them on eBay now, and will be posting another one later, with all proceeded going back to Clive's family. 

The armies listed at the moment include a rather stunning Free Polish Armoured Division and a large  many-options Hungarian force. In a couple of weeks (possibly after the new FoW book comes out on June 13th) I'll also be listing a brilliantly customized Hungarian Student Defence Brigade army complete with custom-made "comedy" booby-traps - although if you remember seeing it on-table somewhere before and are keen on it please get in touch directly.

The listings can be found here : My eBay Listings 

Here's some photos of the armies:

Hungarian Artillery

Hungarian Hetzers

StuG & Hungarian Infantry

Free Polish Armour

Free Polish Recce

Free Polish Commando's and Recce

Free Polish Shermans

Free Polsih Cromwells

Free Polish Armour

Hungarian Students

Hungarian Student's Booby Traps 

Hungarian Student Armour Support

Hungarian Student Recce / Armoured Cars

The listings can be found here : My eBay Listings