6DW: Egyptian Army SP Tank Destroyer Platoon

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Those of you who follow this blog regularly will know that when I bought Battlefront 15mm plastic SU-100s for my WW2 Soviet army, I also bought another box to use for the Six Day War Egyptians.

The WW2 models turned out pretty well, so I was looking forward to a similar result with the Soviet-cast-offs-now-in-Egyptian-service versions.

Building them was easy: just the same as before but with the additional of an extra storage bin on the right front wing. An undercoat in sprayed on desert yellow was followed by a dark brown wash followed by two highlights: desert yellow again then what I would call a Bleached Bone colour. Tracks painted black with a light dry brush of dark grey, a few other details done, and Bob's your uncle.

Well, that's what I thought.

One thing about metal-and-resin tanks is that you rarely get a totally smooth finish on the model. The very nature of the stuff that they are made of makes them a bit rough: a roughness that comes up during the wash and dry brush process and makes them look a bit less like a toy.

Plastic, on the other hand, has a very smooth finish:  the 'finished' tank destroyers looked way, way too clean, even for me, who likes a car-wash finish to his vehicles. These, however, were supposed to represent old vehicles: old vehicles that had spent plenty of time in the desert as well...and with an army not known, even today, for its high standards of maintenance.

They needed weathering in a big way, so it was off down to GW to see whether I could find anything there to help. The very helpful store manager not only sold me a pot of what they call Typhus Corrosion, but even showed me how to use it.

This stuff, TP we'll call it, is like a dark brown wash, but has a sediment in it that sticks to the model as well, nicely roughening it up. It's a bit like the stuff I'm now using on the bases - from the GW Technical range - which is like paint with little mini, mini ball bearings in it.

I painted the TP on just like any other wash, and practically had a heart attack. My lovely, pristine tank destroyers now looked like horrible, crusty brown blobs!

This was only the first stage, however, so once they had dried, I dry brushed in Bleached Bone again, and suddenly the detail came back up again...and came back up again very nicely. I particularly like the effect on the roadwheels.

So, here they are: Soviet cast-off WW2 tank destroyers in Egyptian service: looking every inch of how old they must have been. They'll be a nice contrast to the Israelis (when I get around to painting them) who I'm aiming to do in a showroom finish!

Sarissa's 15mm Factory

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Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days:  been horribly distracted with real world affairs.

Anyhoo, to get back into the swing of things, here's a quick post showing my latest 15mm building for anything from WW2 right up to sci-fi: Sarissa Precision's factory.

The factory is mainly a single building with a nice roomy inside. There is a walkway halfway up one wall, and the windows and doors are made from heavy card stuck to the inner walls: nicely robust. There a small powerhouse plus chimney on one side, and the kit comes with a steps-and-gantry walkway that leads to one of the doors portrayed on the upper floor.

Now this is quite a challenging kit to build, but the instructions are excellent and easy to follow. It's just a bit fiddly in places, and I don't really do fiddly! The result, however, is definitely worth the time and effort. The outside looks brilliant, even with my rather crude paint job, the gantry is a very nice touch, and the inside is amazing. That walkway is surprisingly easy to build, and will provide a nice little fire step.

On the whole, highly recommended.

Another Ruined Building from Commission Figurines

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Here's the second of the three buildings I purchased from Commission Figurines at Warfare.

This one is Potsdammer Platz, and very nice it is too. Goes together very easily - literally the work of minutes - and then simple to paint as well. This one I undercoated in dark grey, then added a heavy wash with black ink, then dry-brushed with dark grey, then light grey, then bleached bone to bring out the relief. Again I painted the inside dark grey.

Looks good to me and I can't wait to get them onto the tabletop.

You can find Commission Figurines by clicking here.

Dustclouds

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I must have been feeling very flush one day, as apparently I've had the 'Dustclouds' terrain pieces on back-order from Battlefront for some time.

Now just why anyone would need a marker for dust in the desert I don't know...but then again, they do look good and I obviously felt the need at some point! Whatever the reason, and whether I really need them or not, they were a nice surprise. Some people, eh: more money than sense!

One of my as yet unused T-55s with dustcloud!

Ruined Buildings from Commission Figurines

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One of my purchases at Warfare were some of Commission Figurines 15mm ruined buildings in laser-cut wood.

I was quite excited by these, so let one of them jump to the head of the painting queue, and knocked it up in a few hours late on Sunday.

This particular building, Konig Strasse, is easy to put together: four walls slot together and then mount onto the four pavement pieces if pavement is required.

Painting was pretty simple too: I painted the whole thing orange, then put a very heavy black ink wash over the top. Once that was dry, I dry-brushed very lightly in orange again, and then in a bone colour to bring up the relief. The doors I did in brown, the pavement in three shades of grey. The interior I just painted all grey, with no washing or dry-brushing.

I'm very pleased with the result, and can't wait to build the others. I think they'll do for any big city: Berlin, Stalingrad and even sci-fi...and at £13 for the one below, quite good value too.

6DW: Egyptian Tanks

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Some of you will remember that I got all excited by the Six Day War sale from Battlefront, and bought a whole load of figures and wrote army lists etc (army lists available here).

Now some six months later, the first of the figures have rolled off the painting table: a company of ten Egyptian T-55 tanks.

I've tried a few new things with these tanks. Firstly, I have used the new Texture basing system from Games Workshop. This is a fancy way of saying a pot of sand-coloured paint with lots of tiny silicon balls in it so that you paint it on and have an immediately, well, textured base. This is obviously a lot faster than my usual 'dipping into ballast' system, and has actually turned out quite well. I'll definitely use it for the rest of my 6DW armies.

The second thing was to use pre-made clumps of desert plants to dress the bases. These are also new from Games Workshop (called Mordenheim Turf or something!) and have also worked out quite well. Ditto as regards using them for the other figures I'll be painting.

Being GW, of course, they are a lot more expensive than you can get this material elsewhere: but then it is so convenient just to be able to pop in and buy what you need. You takes your choice...

Incidentally, I also had to learn how to count in Arabic in order to get the numbering right on the ten tanks. For those who might need to know, here's one to ten:

IABSM Basing: Problem Solved!

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Those of you who have gamed with me or seen my AAR will know that most of my infantry figures are based individually: a typical eight-man squad being made up of six figures on 5p pieces and the LSW team of two figures on a 2p piece.

This means that I can remove casualties without the dread "rings of death" ruining the look of the tabletop, and also position them along uneven terrain features as well.

Those are the positives.

The main negative, however, is that it takes an awful lot of time to move individual figures around the tabletop.

I have got around that in the past by using rectangular movement trays as shown in the picture below:

Functional...but not pretty!

These are fine: very functional...but they are not at all pretty.

Now, however, I have the solution, thanks to Warbases.

I contacted them a couple of weeks ago asking if they would do some custom bases for me: movement trays that would take my unique squad basing regimen both for 8-man squads and for 10-man squads. Needless to say, they came up trumps.

Here, for the first time, are my patent Avery-bases for IABSM:

Well, this is one of them after I've painted it a simple green and then flocked its upper surface. 

You can immediately see that in addition to the holes for the figures, there's even a hole for a mini-dice which, in IABSM, I'll use to note Shock. Other systems could use mini-dice of different colours to differentiate units.

Here's how they look full of figures:

The new bases allow me to move figures around the tabletop quickly and easily, to remove casualties, and to make sure I don't get Shock dice lost or mixed up as well.

Well done, Warbases. I am one very happy customer!

Fate of a Nation: The Cold Shower

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Regular readers will remember that I had sorted what armour I needed to buy in order to take advantage of the Battlefront Six Day War 40% off sale. It was therefore now time to look at the infantry contingent.

My intention was not to go too crazy here: probably only looking at a single company of Arab troops and a single company of Israeli troops. So I thought I'd start with the Egyptians.

The Egyptian Infantry Contingent

The immediate problem here is matching the Battlefront boxes with the standard TOE for a UAR infantry platoon.

Battlefront’s breakdown, if you follow the way the box sets are put together is as follows:

Lovely figures, but where are all the LMGs? (Both pics from the Battlefront website)

  • a company headquarters (CHQ) that includes a command element of three, two three-man LMG teams and two three-man recoilless rifle (RCL) teams
  • plus three platoons each of three squads of eight and a bazooka team of two

That’s 93 men in all.

However, as far as I can tell from my reading, the UAR were organised on Soviet lines i.e. squads of ten, each with an LMG. That makes three platoons of thirty-one strong plus the CHQ of eight or 101 in all.

Looking at the TOE for a 1973 Yom Kippur war platoon, for example, they had squads of ten comprising NCO, eight men with AK-47s, one with an RPG and one with an LMG. The CHQ would also add an HQ/Weapons squad of eight men.

Now, if we follow the logic, and assume a Soviet breakdown, that means the Battlefront TOE assumes the heavier weapons have been moved to the CHQ (very reasonable) but is still very, very short on LMGs. Weird!

What I would like to model is:

  • a CHQ of Big Man and two four-man RCL teams
  • three platoons, each of a Big Man, three squads of six AK-47-ers (some models might feature RPG-2s, but I understand they weren’t used in this campaign) and a two-man LMG team, and a two-man bazooka team.

That gives me a company of four Big Men, nine 8-man LMG squads in three platoons, three 2-man bazooka teams, and two 4-man RCL teams: a total of 90 men.

The problem is, of course, that although the numbers are just about the same, the distribution and weapons doesn’t match the BF offering: I’m short loads of LMGs.

Loads.

It must be something to do with modelling game mechanics, in the same way that IABSM doesn't necessarily represent every man in a squad.

missing!

missing!

Well this has sort of put a kibosh on the whole affair. If I want to model the company effectively, then I'd have to buy so many sets of the Company HQ that the 40% off is negated.

Unless anyone can come up with a solution, it's going to be an armour only purchase, leaving the infantry to another time...particularly as I've now started to look at Khurasan's Yom Kippur range!  Maybe  it's time to turn the clock forward a few years...

The Siren Call of "Fate of a Nation"

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My regular opponent, Neil, pointed out that Battlefront were having a 40%-off sale on their Six Day War Arab & Israeli range, asking "so what we doing, then?"

Jon Snow and I know nothing about the Six Day War

Jon Snow and I know nothing about the Six Day War

Well "nothing" was my immediate answer, as my lead mountain has scaled new heights and I have lots of other things to be getting on with.

But my eyes kept getting drawn to his e-mail, until at last I could avoid the truth no longer. No matter that it was a new period for me, no matter that I know nothing about said period, no matter what, in fact: it was a 40%-off sale and I was going to spend lots of money!

That decided, the problem became one of what to buy. As I said, I know less than Jon Snow when it comes to the Six Day War, so a bit of rapid reading was called for. First up, what happened. As far as I can tell, the chronology is something like:

  • Israel launches surprise air attack on Egypt (known as the United Arab Republic) and destroys the UAR's airforce
  • Israeli ground attack to the north towards El Arish succeeds after hard fighting
  • A UAR counter-attack is ambushed at Bir Lahfan
  • Israeli ground attack to the south towards Abu Ageila succeeds after hard fighting
  • UAR troops withdraw for the Suez Canal, allowing the Israelis to capture Sinai
  • Jordanians are tricked by the Egyptians and prepare to join the attack on Israel. Israeli's pre-empt and launch an attack of their own. Israelis take Jerusalem and attackl towards Nablus. Hard fighting, then the Jordanians retreat behind the Jordan river, leaving Israel to capture the West Bank.
  • Israelis then attack the Syrians on the Golan Heights, which they capture after hard fighting.
  • The Israelis also fight the Palestinians and capture the Gaza Strip

Excellent: all I need to know for the moment!

Now to look at what troops I need to buy. Today I'll look at tanks, as I'm too tired after work to get into the minutiae of infantry!

The Israeli Forces

I'm looking at using the IABSM variant for the 6DW, so company level. According to the lists kindly sent to me by Lardy Nick Overland, a tank company consisted of an HQ of two tanks, and then three platoons of three tanks each.

As its the Israelis, I'll be fielding small numbers of good quality tanks, so I reckon I need four tanks of each of the main types. Looking at the FoW website, and consulting my lists, these seem to be as follows:

  • Sherman-types. Either the M50 or the M51 Isherman: so we'll go for four Ishermans as they'll do for both but look nicer than the simple M50.
  • Centurion-types. Either the Mk5 or the Sho't ('whip/scourge'): so, again, we'll go for four Sho't's as they'll do for both but were used in greater numbers.
  • M48-types. Lots to choose from here, but we'll go for four of the Magach ('battering ram') as they'll do for all but have a cool name
  • French AMX thingies. Also used with reserve forces, so although I was going to get just two, will get four just in case.
An israeli sho't (picture from the Battlefront website)

An israeli sho't (picture from the Battlefront website)

That's the Israelis sorted. Now for the Arabs.

The Arab Forces

I'm going to need lots of these, as I want a company-sized force to fight a platoon of Israeli tanks to make it a fair fight.

An Egyptian or Syrian tank company seems to have been an HQ of a single tank, then three platoons of three tanks each. A Jordanian tank company has two HQ tanks then four platoons of three vehicles each. That's 10 or 14 tanks. 

Now which tanks to get?

  • T-34 types. The Egyptians fielded T-34/85 as infantry support. The Syrians also used them.
  • I'm going to ignore the Syrian Panzer IVs: I have enough of them with balkenkreuses on them!
  • Sherman types. The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fielded an upgunned version called the M4/FL-10.
  • SU-100 types. The Egyptians seemed to have fielded lots of these as infantry support.
  • IS-3 types. The old Joe Stalin itself. Again seems to have been a back-up tank for the Egyptians.
  • T-54 or T-55 types. An absolute must: fielded by the Egyptians and the Syrians. We'll go for the T-55.
  • M48 types. The mainstay of the Jordanian armoured force.
  • Centurians. Also used by the Jordanians.

It's a tricky one, as getting more than  one tank company is going to be expensive.

UAR T-55 (picture from the Battlefront website)

UAR T-55 (picture from the Battlefront website)

Okay, let's go for the iconic Soviet tank: the T-55. I'm going to need ten of them, but Battlefront are selling them in three's, so I'll get twelve. I'll also get a single platoon of IS-3s. 

Decided, particularly as any T-34/85s I might want can come from PSC.

So, the tank shopping list is as follows:

  • 4 boxes of T-55s
  • 1 box of IS-3s
  • 2 boxes of Ishermans
  • 2 boxes of Sho't
  • 2 boxes of Magrach
  • 2 boxes of AMX

Gulp! Better start working out which of the children to sell first!