Punjabi Carrier Platoon

Punjabi Carrier Platoon

Some of you may remember I began this addition to my Punjab Battalion way back in July:

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2026/07/punjabi.html

Well as with other side projects this one was shelved whilst was doing other stuff and I waited an order from Raventhorpe to wing its way to me via my lads. Anyway things went sideways as they sometimes do and I ended up with the wrong heads, my fault I`m sure - D`oh! 😕 So I decided to proceed anyway using what I had to hand and some Sikh heads which I`d removed from those Britannia figures earlier! My rational being, it is my table and I`m not sure I can tell the difference between a Sikh turban and a Punjabi one on a figure in a vehicle at 4ft across the table anyway!! 😁As always I apologise if this offends any readers, but hey ho.....

First off as Britannia vehicles come with stowage, I bought three different models, so they would at least look different: RVM017 British Universal Carrier; RVM113 British Machine Gun Carrier and RVM112 British OP Carrier with 8th Army crew. I did have to add stowage to RVM017 as it was a little plain for my liking; I also covered the Vickers on RVM113 with a tarp out of plasterscene as I didn`t need it as a machine gun carrier. 

Britannia resin vehicles are suffering a bit through mould wear and age and these days I only buy off Andy`s trade stand, so I can inspect them. There were some bubbles, holes and resin flash, sometimes only visible after undercoating, the crew figures were fine.

So that completes the unit: 3 carriers and a 12-man recce platoon

British Engineers & mechanics

British Engineers & mechanics

I found myself needing some British engineers for mine clearance, etc for an upcoming group of games set in Italy. As it happens those stalwart guys at S&S Models released a 6-figure set.

 Always enjoy creating rear echelon and non-combat units for my wargames forces and S&S also produced this 8-figure set of mechanics

The set also comes with these tools and supplies

British Commonwealth Additions

 British Commonwealth Additions

First figures of 2026. 

This year I`ve decided to expand my games into Italy, but I have no intention of creating a whole new British/Commonwealth force! I`m just going to re-use my Mediterranean theatre British and Indians including those in shorts - frankly fuck it it is my table 😁

But I do need to upgrade some elements to that later theatre, particularly PIAT teams, so I quickly messaged Tony at Raventhorpe who was happy to provide what I needed plus separate Punjabi turban heads also.

Ten Raventhorpe desert British/Commonweal in helmet plus 2 Airfix mine detector guys, because my Commonwealth troops don`t have any! (though I have already ordered a new set of Mine detector/engineers from S&S Models)  

Raventhorpe moving PIAT team

Raventhorpe prone firing PIAT team

Moving PIAT team (as above) but with Punjabi heads (all Raventhorpe)

Raventhorpe British medic with a Punjabi head conversion

All 19 figures together

British vehicles

British vehicles

Just pottering about, so decided to build a few plastic kits from my rather small stash.

First up an Airfix Jeep & trailer from gift pack set A68217 sold by Lidl in the UK last Christmas (2024), I didn`t need, so didn`t build the 75mm pack howitzer. I gave the Jeep a driver from the bits box (from the Airfix Bofors gun set) and painted both up for my Mediterranean/Middle East Brits.

Canadian Pattern Quad Tractor

A venerable Esci model 8024 that has been in the stash since before we moved my collection out here to Spain (so at least 12 yrs). Not that I need another British tow, but I was in a building mood 😁 Not a bad model, I didn`t bother with any of the internal detail, again painted up for North Africa.

M3A1 Scout Car

Another venerable Esci kit 8038 which has been in the stash for years (bought at the same time as the Quad above). I wanted a command vehicle for my British/Indian/Aussie battalions and thought this make a nice addition. A really nice kit, I added a bit of stowage, then messed about with the crew - the driver is another Airfix Bofors gunner (with an SHQ head), the seated guy in the back as a RTO is from EWM with a Britannia tanker head with headphones and the standing guy is EWM with a Raventhorpe head - sometimes I can`t help myself 😂

Punjabi

 Reinforcements for Syria/Lebanon

Some additional Punjabi for my Syria/Lebanon project

All figures by Early War Miniatures

A 10-fig rifle platoon

Bren Team

All together

Vickers team

Now I`m not sure if Indian battalions had Vickers platoons or whether they had separate Machine gun battalions like British formations at the time??