The Grave Guard musician is creeping towards completion. He just needs to be based and varnished. I seem to have really slowed down on painting these guys for some reason. Hope to have the Champion painted by this weekend as well. Then it’s the Standard Bearer and I’ll have a front rank!
After reading from various sources I’ve finally figured out a reasonable colour scheme for my FOW North African New Zealand Rifle Company. Khaki helmet and uniform, faded white webbing (apparently the NZers were ordered to regularly scrub their webbing to keep it clean), brown boots (meant to be polished black of course but in the desert boots were invariably dusty and scuffed). The only question left is socks as their uniform left a lot of sock exposed above the boot. Think I’ll just do a slightly greenish khaki for them. It’s a real bugger that all the archival photographs and black and white! In the desert NZers had access to Stuart ‘Honey’ light tanks (up to 15 of them at one point) as well as quite a few Universal Carriers so that fits in nicely. There’s also some photographic evidence they had Mk II Humber armored cars at one point so I’ll chuck in a few of them to bolster a Universal Carrier Recce unit I think. So my 1500pts FOW force will be
Infantry:
1 18th Battalion Company HQ (Company HQ) @ 40 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [40] Pts
1 1st Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts
1 2nd Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts
1 3rd Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts
Recce:
1 Carrier Platoon @ 145 Pts
5 Recon Carrier @ [145] Pts
1 Armoured Car Platoon @ 70 Pts
2 Humber Mk I, II or III @ [70] Pts
Anti-Tank:
1 Anti-tank Platoon @ 150 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [30] Pts
1 Universal Carrier @ [10] Pts
3 6-pdr Portee @ [120] Pts
1 Towed Anti-tank Platoon @ 160 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [30] Pts
1 Universal Carrier @ [10] Pts
2 17/25-pdr @ [130] Pts
2 Quad Gun Tractor @ [10] Pts
Artillery Support:
1 4ht NZA 1st Battery (Towed Artillery Battery) @ 275 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [35] Pts
2 15cwt Truck @ [10] Pts
1 Observer Team @ [20] Pts
1 White Scout Car @ [10] Pts
4 25-pdr @ [220] Pts
4 Quad and Limber @ [20] Pts
Armored Support:
1 NZ Div Cav (Armoured Platoon) @ 120 Pts
3 Honey @ [120] Pts
It’s a pretty ‘light’ company but is fairly historically accurate and has a fairly good anti-tank component hopefully. There’s no real anti-aircraft nor air support but again that’s historically accurate. I’m really looking forward to busting out the green stuff and sculpting all kinds of stowage on those Universal Carriers as well. In terms of painting I’ve almost got a two man Boyes team (from a Rifle platoon) painted and ready to experiment with basing.
I have a few questions regarding the above post:
- What is FOW?
- Why are you investing in yet another army?*
- Does your wife know?
*I must confess that true-life modelling does have a bit of appeal to me. Harks back to my days of building little Revell plane and boat models. B17, F15, …. the F4 Phantom was always my favourite – the most hideously overpowered fighter/bomber of its day (2 engines with 17,000lb thrust each!)
Haven’t you been reading the Journal regularly then Bennum :). http://www.flamesofwar.com. It’s a 15mm scale company level World War II wargame made by a bunch of New Zealanders no less! Their factory is out in Glenfield I think. Initially they were a 15mm WWII figures company only but they’ve published quite a slick and streamlined game system ‘Flames of War’ for use with their (or other 15mm WWII) figures.
I admit the last thing I need is ANOTHER game system but I couldn’t resist and their figures are very nice. It’s really just an excuse to read more about WWII. In particular the North African Desert campaign where the NZ 2nd Expeditionary Force made quite an impression.
I shall post some photos once I have something painted.
Good job.