Trawler

Trawler

Now I don`t do naval wargaming, but have included a naval aspect to my games with landing scenarios. This type of model can often be found in Spanish tourist souvenir type shops, I have been tempted, but was not prepared to pay tourist prices for one! So I always keep my eyes open at markets and fairs, eventually my patience paid off and I came upon a guy with a stall full of them (ex-stock maybe?), brand new still in their boxes, he only wanted 3 Euro so I snapped one up.

A quick butcher job with my trusty tenon saw and a simple re-paint and she now looks like this:

A couple of shots with figures and other boats just to show scale

Goumiers

 Goumiers

Again part of the care package sent by Bill Krieg, three Goumiers from Ian Clunie`s Shellhole Scenics range.

Now i don`t actually have a dedicated Goumier force, I have Moroccan Rif warriors (no sub-machine guns or helmets, etc) and I have Moroccan 7th Division cerca 1943 - mostly French 1940 kit, some of whom wear Djellaba. I was therefore forced to do simple conversions on two of these, I removed the 2" mortar off one and replacing it with a rifle and then I pruned away the Sten gun off the grenade thrower and grafted a rifle in its place - not too bad I think. All three can now happily join either group.

 

Yet another Sherman

 Sherman Conversion

Bill Krieg was kind enough to send me yet another care package back in August, but the weather was so damned hot I couldn`t think of venturing into the cellar and we have various visitors plus two weddings to attend back in the UK and that trip to Belgium..... But now the weather has cooled somewhat and I now have a little time, so back to the grind.

This model started off looking like this, except a bit more knocked about and missing one set of wheels - I forgot to take a before shot of the original - D`oh!!.

Now i have no NWE Poles and in fact only own three British tanks for NWE also and one of them is a Firefly, so I decided to roughly convert it into yet another M4(75) for my Yanks/Free French.

I was lucky and found a complete bogie wheel set in the spares box, I cut down the 17pdr barrel, removed the box/counter weight, then added various stowage. A quick paint job and she now looks like this:

  

US Battalion Commander`s Ride

 GMC CCKW 6x6 Radio Truck

My US regular infantry battalion needed a command vehicle (just for fun really) so I bought this which will do the job.

Raventhorpe from their Ready to Roll range (just too easy), a few pin holes to fill, add a couple of aerials, then a spray with cheap undercoat and then a coat of GW Castellan Green and a wash and she`s ready for the tabletop. Ta da.......

Sherman Dozer

 Sherman Dozer 

I`m not your regular WW2 gamer (as you may have guessed). So I don`t do Normandy or Arnhem, those campaigns just don`t grab my attention, but the bloody fighting along the West Wall in the Autumn and Winter of 1944 and into 1945 have always struck me as fruitful ground for tabletop battles, the lack of Allied air support due to the poor weather and the shear variety of German forces pitted against the advancing US forces has given me hours of tabletop action.

I`m planning a biggish West Wall bash with a mainly infantry US force supported by the usual armour, artillery and maybe airpower (weather permitting) trying to break through a bunker line.

One vehicle I needed was a Sherman Dozer, so I bought this one from Raventhorpe`s Ready to Roll line, the tank body and dozer blade come as a one-piece resin casting and you only have to glue the gun mantlet and turret hatch in place to complete your model - just so simple.

A little cleaning, some pin holes to fill and then undercoat and paint - done dusted, ready to play.

40L56 anti-aircraft gun

 40L56 Anti Aircraft Gun

Basically your bog standard 40mm Bofors AA gun in US service. 

These guns were used to equip the US Anti Aircraft Auto Weapon (mobile) battalions. such battalions unlike their armoured counter parts were used in semi static roles, deployed to protect vital bridges and instalations, HQs and field artillery batteries, etc.

The gun is another gift from Bill Krieg, a 3D print, it did require a little tinkering and the extended crucifix arms actually came from a Zvezda Russian 37mm AA carriage out of the spares box.

The two seated gunners are an SHQ Jeep passenger and an Esci hard plastic driver. The rest of the crew are two modified Esci soft plastic US infantrymen and a Hat Industrie tank rider, the 40mm shells are resin from Milicast

All together

More WW2 Yanks

 Clearing the Decks

Among the various bits Bill Krieg sent me were a few odd WW2 Yanks, as I was doing the vehicles I sorted those out, cleaned and based them and now painted and washed to match the rest.

Six infantry which look to me like Dave Allsop`s old Hotspur range

A single officer in leather jacket, I`m pretty sure he is Force20

Soldier helping a wounded mate

I have no idea who made these and I`m pretty sure the kit is Vietnam era, but at 4ft across a table whos ever going to notice.

All together

During the couple of WW2 games I ran earlier this year I noticed I didn`t have any deployed .50cal HMGs so whilst I was doing these I made up a team. The gunner is from Raventhorpe, he is a one-piece casting firing a water-cooled .30cal, I removed the gun and replaced it with a Britannia .50, the No2 is i think from Sojors Miniatures?