Wednesday, July 8, 2015

France 1940 .. gathering the 6mm forces

I've been plotting and scheming a new project for some time: France 1940 in 20mm (inspired By Adrian's 15mm forces). While plans for this slowly advance, I realised that with the judicious purchase of just a few more 6mm vehicles I could actually complete the forces required to play France 1940, British vs German, with my extant forces.

Way way way back in 1974 good friend Pete and I planned to play this period in 6mm using the original WRG 1st edition W2 rules. While we never did, I certainly purchased some of the vehicles required, some of the original Skytrex vehicles. They have sat unused for .. oo let me see, no.. that must be .. um .. OMG .. 41 years. They were painted way back then too. So I got on line and ordered the vehicles necessary to fill out the Spearhead TOEs for the British (I have the German forces already).

With that done I sat down to base up the vehicles I have: 6 x A13 Cruisers, 2 x A9 Mediums, and 2 x Matilda MkIIs (I have quite a few more of the Mk IIs but in the SH TOE an armoured regiment is likely to have two Mk II stands and 6 x Mk I stands). Yep, the Mk Is are in that Heroics and Ros order placed yesterday, good for very little on the table top, but so enigmatic of the BEF in France. They'll provide that target rich environment that the Germans love while the Mk IIs get stuck in with their .. oh wait, they have 2pdrs.. oh well, certainly still capable of giving the German army a nasty fright.


The A9 Cruiser tanks

The A13 cruisers. I ordered one more of these, but fear that the new one will look out of place against these classic 1974 models

The Matilda IIs

I also had 9 x M4 Shermans which I'd bought as a part of a larger collection some years back too (the 1990s somewhere). I hadn't based them because I use the Cromwell MkVIIs when I field an armoured division force (and Churchills when using an armoured brigade in support of an infantry regiment), but they would make a nice visual change on the table top, so .. they got based up too.

Oh and I had this sitting in the pile - an M4 equipped with mine rollers. It's one of those things I'd probably never use, but .. well I felt morally obliged to base it up anyway.




They all received a wash with Citadel Nuln Oil, and then a very light dry brush with white, and... that's 20 more vehicles based for WW2 Spearhead, including the core of that British force in France in 1940.

Now for something completely different .. back to those Chaos bikers ...

5 comments:

  1. Very nice. I just did a bunch of WW2 Germans and Canadians that may eventually make it to the tabletop one of these days... too many games and not enough time for everything.

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    Replies
    1. Ski
      I am desperately short of game time myself at the moment. Need to get some storage solutions organised so that I can use the new games room...I haven't played Spearhead (in any of its period sub sets) for a long time now.
      R

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  2. They look great Robin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Keith. They'd look even better in action on the table, although I suspect they would have a relatively short table life??
      R

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  3. Excellent work Robin. That scale frightens me painting wise.

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