British paratroops in 20mm

My interest in gaming world war 2 in 20mm (with my fave Spearhead rules by Arty Conliffe, of course) has been rekindled after I gave Murray a game to show the difference between gaming in 6mm vs 20mm. He enjoyed the game, and bein g of th4e same age as me we share a 'heritage', a tradition if you like, of gaming in 20mm. Now, don't get me wrong, in my opinion 6mm is still the best scale in which to game using the WW2 Spearhead rules, and will continue to be my preferred 'go to' rules set. It's just that a bit of me still hankers for that 20mm aesthetic that takes me back to my teens when I first began in this hobby (although I would never willing return to the sorts of rules we used at that time.. we remain scarred for life by that experience).

In the '90's I painted a large number of 20mm British Paras and Commandos for use with the WRG 2nd Edition WW2 rules, and then for the Rapid Fire rules. The latter were widely used in the group of which I was a part at the time, until being overtaken by other period interests (especially Ancients with the DBM rules etc).

I did rebase enough paras for a SH battalion, or a Crossfire company, 12 ish years ago, but they have been largely unused, and there were still many more figures, all painted with the Denison smock, sitting in a box untouched.

Righto.. I have now based almost all of them, giving a para regiment. I also had quite a few of the support elements for the regiment. So, here is the lot!! There are some elements missing, the m/c SMG element for example. I already have a typical para scenario in mind for a game next week. Watch this space.

The assembled partroop force

These were Britannia miniatures released for the Arnhem anniversary, as I recall. I based them complete with ruined brick wall, because of course every paratrooper goes in to battle with his own bespoke ruined brick wall (ahem)

Recon squadron in jeeps

Regimental command stand

Two Tetrarch tanks, scratch built by an old school mate 50+ years ago, and gifted to me when he abandoned the hobby. Phil was a gifted modeller.

Two batteries of air dropped 75mm pack howitzers, with jeep tows. The jeeps were gifted by friend Gerard (who sadly passed away several years ago, one of the world's wonderful humans who we still we miss)

Two batteries of the airborne 6pdr AT guns

While these won't get a massive amount of use compared with my 6mm collections, expect to see them fighting it out in the future. I look forward to it.