Normandy - Loyd Carriers with 6 Pounders

As so often seen on this blog, I go in cycles with my interest in wargaming history.  I am glad at least that I always return back to favourite periods and nothing 'drops off' permanently.  I do find that it is also seasonal.  

For some reason, in the summer I tend to paint and read up either about the English Civil War or the Normandy campaign.  Perhaps it is because for over a decade, I spent weekends re-enacting the Civil War and it was almost always in the summer.  In the summer the high overgrown hedges in the country lanes do often bear similarities to the newsreel footage of the bocage in 1944.

So my attentions have been in Normandy again as we can see here.  This particular Loyd Carrier is something I started in the evenings whilst being away from home on a course for 2 weeks in 2016.  My friend Dave, also on the course, followed my grim (and possible insane) determination to build kits and paint after a hard day staring at computer screens rather than go out and do something more interesting.  For some reason I never finished this Loyd Carrier until I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago.  It is from the Loyd Carrier and 6 Pounder set by Plastic Soldier Company.  It is in 15mm Scale (1:100) so the model of the carrier is only a few centimetres long.  It always amazes me how much detail that can be seen and painted in something so small.

I have long been interested by the battle for Hill 112 in Normandy.  This was prompted by a book I bought as a teenager.  The book was 'Hill 112' by Major JJ Howe MC. It is a book I take down from my book case very often.  I discovered in 2004 at my Great Grandmother's funeral that one of her brothers was there in the battle for Hill 112 with 5th Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.  I was told this by my Great Great Uncle (another brother of my Great Grandmother), who himself had been in the DCLI and then the Kings Regiments (and had been at Dunkirk and the whole of the siege of Malta).  So for this reason also, I wanted the unit to be part of 5 DCLI, 43 Wessex Division.

Once the unit decision was made, it was a case of researching badges and finding photos on-line.  I learned a lot about the unit markings.  Unfortunately I couldn't find a company who made 15mm decals for the Wessex Division or the appropriate numbering so I hand painted these on the carriers. This didn't turn out too badly.  I noticed from photos that the numbering was sometimes applied quite crudely without stencilling.

The Universal Carrier above has the '68' of 1st Worcesters painted on quite crudely.

With a bit of Normandy dust and weathering the badges were toned down a bit and seem quite passable.

I always used to think that the British uniforms and vehicles were very dull, but, just like British uniforms in 1918, there is a multitude of badges and coloured flashes on the uniforms and it was fun representing these on the sleeves with a single haired brush!

With the anti-tank 6 pounder's I found myself going to the length of finding out how the armour piercing shells were marked up and painted these too.  The Plastic Soldier Company kits always assemble really well and very crisply.  The kits pleasingly come with lots of ammunition boxes and loose shells ready for use and these add to the scene nicely, giving a sense of urgency.  I'm sure the ammunition boxes are not secured to Larkhill standards, however, one can feel that a counter-attack of Panthers is expected and all are ready to receive them!

I like to make the units unique and fit into my formations.  Once I finished this one model (after it's patient 2 year wait!)  I decided I would make and paint the remaining 3 models in the box!   I was quite enthusiastic after completing my first one.  The Loyd carrier had always struck me as appearing rather old fashioned and somewhat dull, but once built and painted with crew in place it looked more like a very practical and powerful tracked beast with an appearance that made me wish I could drive one.  How much fun would that be!

Building and painting the remainder took about a week of evenings.  These 3 carriers and guns will suffice as the Anti-Tank Platoon for the Battalion.  I use 'Panzergrenadier Deluxe' rules and units are scaled down.  So in reality there would have been 6 guns.   I must admit that Panzergrenadier Deluxe are my rules of choice for WW2.  I have tried many and for me these rules give the period the best feel.  The importance of reconnaissance, cohesive orders, and the tension of advancing onto an apparently empty battlefield whilst trying to pre-empt what is bound to follow when the first shot whistles across the battlefield really does make it a great and quite tense game.

There were 4 vehicles in the box and so this one was the remainder.  Rather than leave it in the box as an odd one out, I painted it also. This one is now part of 4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment of 43 Wessex Division.

The Loyd Carrier above is painted with the '64' of the Machine Gun battalion of the 43rd Wessex Division.

The Universal Carrier above marked with '56' is one of 4 Wiltshire's vehicles

So what's next...well I have painted a few more vehicles recently (or completed should I say as these too have been sat undercoated for two years!).  I will post these up shortly.  But my painting desk is currently empty with a choice of troops from 2000 years of history to choose from.  More dark greens and khaki or perhaps some scarlet coats?  We will see!

WW2 British Infantry 15mm - DCLI

Seeing as I posted a WW2 Hawker Typhoon in my last blog entry, I thought I would follow up on the same theme.  These are probably the first WW2 British Infantry I have painted since splodging paint onto Airfix 20mm figures in my teenage years.

These figures are 15mm Flames of War figures produced in plastic.  I have to say that I was a lot more impressed with them than I thought I would be.  There is a lot of detail and character to the figures, without the figures being too 'cartoony' as seems to be the case with some 28mm figs.  They look purposeful and usable on the field.

WW2 Normandy is something that I have been wanting to do for 20 years. I bought a lot of 15mm Skytrex troops and tanks back in 1996, and in the boxes they sadly remained.  That dormant interest finally rekindled when I recently purchased a set of the PanzerGrenadier rules (2nd Edition).  All it took was driving down summer country roads, high hedgerows and seeing stone farmhouses and my imagination put everything together.

Things have changed of course in 20 years in our hobby as you will be well aware! We are so well catered for in WW2 figures and vehicles it is simply amazing.  One cannot help but admire the Flames of War range with this period.

Now for some odd reason, when I took these fellows out of the box and decided to paint them, I thought it would be a quick job. A splash of khaki, a few strokes of mid-stone on the webbing, flash tone, boots rifle and voila!   But it just didn't work out like that.  I ended up putting as much time in as I would have done had they been from a more colourful uniformed era.

For one thing, getting the light contrasts on the uniforms so that they looked right and did justice to the guys who wore them, became an interesting and enjoyable challenge.  I found myself really wanting to get the detail right.  Owning and shooting original Lee Enfields also meant that I found it impossible to scrimp on time and detail on the rifles. It became more a labour of love.....not something that I had intended!

I also drew on inspiration on a book that I have owned for 30 years 'Hill 112' by Major JJ How. This book written by an officer in the Monmouths who fought through the Normandy campaign is a remarkable insight into the ferocious battle for that Hill and it's box-shaped wood.  I remember in the early 1990's meeting my Great Great Uncle Charlie Savage from Cornwall for the first time.  He recounted to me his days in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.  His brother was at Hill 112 though he himself had been transferred to the Kings Regiment mid-war and found himself fighting throughout the siege of Malta.

As I painted these I couldn't help but think of Charlie and his brother and so I painted these figures up to represent the DCLI. On the upper sleeve of these 15mm figures is the Wyvern of the 43rd Wessex Division of which the DCLI were part. It is more of a representation of the Wyvern at this scale I should add...my skills are not that good!

Paints used were mostly from the Flames of War ranges but also Vallejo and Foundry.

Bases are MDF from Warbases.  I wanted something with slight curve instead of straight corners so that it wouldn't look as if I was forming Napoleonic line when my sections were alongside each other

A few more pics below..I'll stop my narrating for a bit....

I had a bit of dilemma in how best to represent the formations which make up the battalion.  For me it was all about accuracy and also knowing where I was up to as I built the Battalion up.  I really do want to know which Platoon is where and where the relevant commanders are on the field so they can keep in communications and lead the right sections.  I knew I had to label them up but the question was how.  I'm not a big fan of visible labels on bases but with MDF bases and very small print, I found that a small strip of info could be placed on the very rear edge of the base.  Because my playing mat has raised grass, it makes the label less obvious, a small push down of the grass and I can see exactly which unit is where.

On the underside of the bases (beneath the magnetic sheet) is more detailed information which I can pick up and look at should I really need to.

Handy for being accurate in what exactly is contained on support weapon bases when I can't remember my 2" mortar from my 3" (not a euphemism!).

Well, that might be all of my WW2 stuff for the time being. More colourful things will follow as I have been playing with colourful paint palettes after all that khaki!