Fallschirmjäger re-base

Some old Fallschirmjäger paint jobs, now re-based to work with Battlegroup and Chain of Command. I went with (what I hope will be) a generic Mediterranean theme, fairly arid but not too much which should hopefully work for Tunisia, Sicily and Italy...and Crete, though the uniforms are mostly later camouflage, etc.

For Chain of Command I've added a few extra figure to make the platoon work with the new Early War books as well (even if the figures are not really suitable for EW operations). I've also marked the leaders with a small coloured patch on the rear of the base and then a decal: a Balkan cross outline for Junior Leaders and a black-filled cross for the Senior leaders. It;s not to everyone's liking, but it works for me and is easily seen.

There are three squads each of a leader and ten men, in two groups of five each. I still want to add a second platoon and several support weapons when time permits.

CdlT

Op Battleaxe - Game 6: British Attack on Musaid

The last game for Turn 2 of the campaign would see the British launch an attack on Musaid...however, thanks to the fog of war element (as I am mostly playing as umpire), the British campaign commander found his attack heading straight into the advancing 15. Panzer Division...not good.

Right-most attack: 4 RTR (now with 'B' Squadron) and the Cameron Highlanders...stumble into
15. Panzer taking the scenic coastal route. Oops.

The British would be attacking here with 350 Pts against 500 pts of Germans & Italians. A tough ask; the only bright spot being that (thanks to schedules) I would be commanding the British force...

The British force.

Germans, with Italian infantry proxied by Germans (the shame!)

The Battlefield: the outskirts of Musaid on the right. Little else of interest.

Italian infantry infest the buildings... with an 88 in support!

British advance guard...three Matildas. They trade long-range shots with the Panzers, to no effect.

More reserves slowly come on (very sloooowly). The 88 is however KO'd by a 25-pounder firing over open sights!

Matildas move toward the village: the Italian infantry take possession of a perfectly good gun-pit (found unoccupied, owner deceased!). More Panzers arrive in the distance.

British infantry arrive....reserves still glacial. Rear most Matilda break-downs and is lost.

German armour decides to commit...time to be brave. Italians get shot at a lot by British infantry: they would eventually lose half the platoon, but retained the position.

Flank hits all bounce off the Matildas side armour, though a frontal hit gets through and a Matilda burns...typical!
An unlucky Panzer III G then rolls over an unmarked Italian mine!

Matildas claim a Panzer IV D in return...quite disappointing return fire mostly.

Another Matilda is subsequently lost, though in return another Panzer IV D is KO'd, as well a a Panzer III G.

The 25-pounder shifts position and... mostly misses things.

Panzers shoot back, eventually destroying it.

The close-range duel in the town ends when the Panzer III bounces rounds off the thick frontal armour of the British tank while the Matilda makes the return shot count.

German tank losses are mounting...but the British are running out of time.

With twelve turns complete, darkness falls and the British attack is called off.
Though it failed to take the position, the attack did inflict considerable German losses.

Bloody slow reserves meant I could't really win the game, but it was still pretty close despite the force imbalance. The Axis forces took a beating with 34/41 BR while the British losses were lighter and they suffered just 15/34 BR loss.


CdlT

Terrain Hacks: Gun Pits

Required for the desert, I recently had to build some 15mm gun pits and took a few pictures to illustrate the process.

Materials above: cardboard/mounting board/matte board/some bloody board, craft knife, pencil, ruler, super glue, 3mm MDF base I cut to size for the gun, bamboo skewer for moving glue. Also, wood glue.

Above on the MDF base you can see I have marked out the centre of the base, this will be where the gun fits with an entrance to the rear.

To build the pit, I start by cutting a piece of mounting board to the same length as the circumference of the circle, less a bit for the entrance, then I score lines across the board and bend the card along each one until it forms a circle.

The above strip of cardboard is about 10mm high, you will need to vary that depending on the scale in which you're building and the thickness of the model base you're using. My PaK38s are on 2mm MDF bases here.

Using super glue, start gluing the cardboard to the base, leaving about 1-1.5mm around the circle that marks the base size of the gun. I start by gluing from one side of the "entrance", working my way around as the glue sets. Super glue sets faster, hence the use here.

 Once the entire length of cardboard is glued, I add a couple of angled scrap pieces to define the entrance.

The guns fit snugly: make sure of your fit at each step. The gun bases above are 60mm diameter and a gun-pit base of 75mm as I did not want the footprint to become too large.

With the sizes set, the cardboard surround is reinforced with a bead of wood glue all around the *outside* of the base. Only the outside, leave the inside clean.

Pic to show height.

I built a few pits of vary sizes to hold 40mm, 60mm and 90mm bases (will hold PaK36s, PaK38s and 8.8cm Flak gun teams).

From here I cut scraps of high-density polystyrene (you could use foamcard, etc.) and build a rough bank up to the cardboard. I then cover that in acrylic silicon/caulk to create a smooth bank. You could use wall filler or similar here too, but it is best to use scrap polystyrene or similar to build up the bank and then filler of some sort to cover it. Just using filler to fill the entire thing will take ages to dry and may case things to warp.

When dry, I cover in wood glue and apply a few rocks (small stones) to look like desert pits/sangars, before applying fine sand to cover the rest. Make sure to remove any rocks too high up on the bank as they will interfere with the gun model and make storage more difficult. For Europe you might not want many rocks, or even any. You could add logs, sandbags, etc. instead.

When dry, I applied an overall coat of VMC Green Brown (not Vallejo, a colour I had mixed to match), but any paint colour you use will do.

After that I painted the sand, dry-brushing a 1:1 mix of Green Brown and Iraqi Sand (again, mixed colours, not Vallejo) before a final highlight of Iraqi Sand (now actual Vallejo as it covers far better). The rocks were picked-out with VMC 988 Khaki, then VMC 884 Stone Grey and finally dry brushed with VMC 918 Ivory for a sun-bleached look and to provide contrast. You can vary the colours to suit of course.

The end result looks something like this:

CdlT

Op Battleaxe - Game 5: Second British Attack on Point 208

Game 5 of the Operation Battleaxe campaign saw the second British attack on Point 208/The Hafid Ridge.

*spoilers* It went even worse than the first attack.

This time the British force would be a mixed Cruiser tank squadron from 2 RTR, mixed A10s and A13s with an A9 CS tank. The German defenders would be much the same as last time, with the added reinforcement of armour arriving from reserve.

German position, from the flank the British would attack.

British deployment: subtle, isn't it?

A10s and an A13 move forward, the latter is KO'd almost immediately by the PaK38.

British fire on the PaK38 causes a couple of crew casualties, the 88 returns the fire and KO's the A9 CS tank.

The British finally eliminate the PaK38, but lose an A10, and then suffer heavy casualties as the 88 destroys two more A10s. The first wave has been decimated.

British reinforcement arrive to a poor situation: A13s and more infantry.

The Germans too revive reserves, though they are hardly be needed.

A13s advance into the cauldron only to slowly be picked off one by one for little result. The 88 takes a few crew casualties, but the crew holds firm and keeps firing.

The Germans are even cheeky enough to launch a flanking attack with just one Panzer III...which works.

The British morale breaks as their tanks losses are almost complete for very few gains.

A very one-sided game, but one which does illustrate the futility of attacking a prepared position without sufficient fire support or anything remotely resembling a "plan". Poor dice rolling simply added salt to the wound.

CdlT