25-pounder Battery HQ

The HQ lot. Made up from an ad hoc mix of the LW British figures in Mk. IIIs helmets and a piper from the Commando blister. The other lads in berets (strictly GS caps) and the officer in peak cap are from the 7th Armoured Infantry blister. Forgot to take pictures of the OP Carriers, but they're not that exciting anyway.

(click to expand)

I still have a staff team to add with a mix of Highland Div, 6th Airborne and Commando Officers to add to the HQ group. Then the last Commando Section, an Airlanding Platoon, Airlanding 6-pounders and another 4 x 25-pounders.

CdlT

Highland Division 25-pounders

The first 4 of a full battery (that's 8...) for my Commando: Orne Bridgehead army. I had bee resisting this purchase for a while: 60+ figure and eight guns is a fair bit of painting for one unit. But the double-width template is hard to resist when my Commandos won't be far behind...

The pictures aren't too good for the arty: the green does not seem to photograph too well, or perhaps my lighting is too strong (the helmets aren't shiny in real life, so that might be it). Shadow colour also need to be darkened I think, but I like the slightly darker green over straight Russian Uniform.

I'll add the HQ group later

CdlT

PaK 40 Anti-tank Guns

PaK 40s, more from the Panzer Lehr fold. I went with simple dunkelgelb without any camo...much prefer it, especially on things with lots of small details like ATGs.

They have proved to be...completely useless so far. In their last game they missed five out of six shots deploying in ambush at point-blank range. Things can (I hope) only improve.

Off to paint now....

CdlT

Wasps & SCC15

British tanks and most other vehicles in 1944 were painted in an overall scheme of a colour designated SCC15. Most people have difficulty finding the “right” colour for, say, the ubiquitous German Dunkelgelb or US Olive Drab. Not me. SCC15 is my nemesis.

Battlefront, fount of wisdom they are, have long recommended straight 924 Russian Uniform as the correct colour. I always though it too light and mixed dozens of shade searching for something that looked better.

In a discussion of the Flames of War forum Mike Starmer, something of an expert on British paint colours and camouflage schemes of the Second World War, recommended a 50/50 mix of VMC 888 Olive Grey and 924 Russian Uniform. This produces quite an attractive darker green.

For 15mm  I used the mix 50/50 Olive Grey/Russian Uniform. This was applied over a shadow of Olive Grey and black and block-painted Olive Grey. Straight Russian Uniform was used for the highlights, mostly confined to raised details and prominent edges (However, I now much prefer the Vallejo Panzer Aces colour "327 Italian Tankcrew", avoiding the dull Russian Uniform altogether). The Wasps below were the “test piece”.





I'm pretty satisfied with the results and have commenced painting my Cromwell Armoured Squadron using the same colours. They received 50th Div decals (from Doms) because I had no others at the time, even though don't recall 50th Div using Wasps.

CdlT