BKC Reboot - 30 December & 20 January

Andy and I finally got round to trying to get back into Blitzkrieg Commander in the Christmas break.  We thought we'd ease ourselves into it gently using the BKC Lite ruleset.  This was a mistake.  We got quite confused about the rules we remembered, and what we could find in the Lite ruleset and in the main rules.  We compiled a set of questions as we played which I posted later on the BKC forum and they were promptly answered by the author of the rules.  The key thing we learned was that the Lite ruleset was based on version 1 of the rules not the revised 2nd version we had been using.  So ditch the Lite ruleset if you have one.

In the first game, Andy's Italians were defending a town from James' British.

James' schoolboy error was putting his fastest tanks ahead of his slowest tanks, so they didn't get held up.  But the slowest tanks were also the strongest, so they took a while to get into the action.

They eventually arrived and the engineers started very very slowly to clear a path through the minefield, given the suppressing fire laid down by the Italians.

We were trying the standard rules where hits are removed at the end of each round, so there was little destruction although lots of suppression.  As time wore on, the British tanks on the left flank made a mad rush through the minefield.  Only a couple made it... but then discovered Andy had secreted a flamethrowing tank inside one of the buildings.  But by that time, most of the Italian infantry had been destroyed or chased out of most of the town.  We decided on a draw in the end - the Italians would lose the town, but not within the number of turns to achieve even a minor victory.

The scenario for the second game was that the British had occupied the fortified area of the town but the Italians had been reinforced and were about to counter-attack.  James made full use of the 25% allowed for fortifications...

Andy kicked off with some air sorties (the RAF gamely lending him a plane to replace the one left at home) but the close concentration of command bases shooting at the aeroplane meant it was often scared off and eventually shot down.

Andy's tactic was a delayed flank attack with a stronger force after softening up the British with a frontal attack.  This was met (and decimated) by mortar fire - although we realised afterwards the mortars should not have been so effective, causing hits only on rolls of a 6.

The Italians kept up the bombardment from a distance, striking at any British tank that dared to leave the safety of its pit.

Eventually, the flank march was brought on and, much to James' surprise, the Italians appeared to have been reinforced by a few German tanks.

There was a fierce firefight across the minefield.  With this game we were using the optional rule where hits remain on units, so there were many more losses across both forces.  Andy again caused devastation with his flamethrower units which James will try to recognise earlier next time.  But the Italians failed to evict the British from the town and their losses were such that this game resulted in a minor British victory.

With the clarifications from the forum and the accumulation of hits across rounds, the second game played more swiftly and it was a lot of fun.  Continuing the campaign approach, the next scenario planned is for the Italians to intercept a small British force coming to reinforce the town.

BKC on the move

After many many months of designing and woodworking, Andy presented me this week with my 40th birthday present - a spectacular bespoke box for my BKC British in North Africa army.

Unlocking the three catches and pushing back the lid reveals measuring sticks, wire mounts for the aeroplanes, dice box and dice tray...

Lifting this tray out reveals the armour tray...

Underneath the tanks is a tray with aeroplanes and transport...

Pulling out the black knob on the front left of the box allows a flap to open on the side and the rulebook can be slid out...

...followed by a quick tug on a tassle to reveal the final tray with the infantry and command bases.

A unique and very personal present - thanks Andy!

Blitzkrieg Commander: Counter-Attack - 30 April 2011

A counter-attack desert scenario with 3000 points (plus 10% thanks to the die roll) of British (commanded by James and Kieron) vs 2000 points (less 10%) of Germans (commanded by Andy).

Despite the scenario, Andy engineered himself a strong defensive position by placing a town on his right flank, some great scratch-built salt marshes on the left, and an oasis to stick his troops in.

Even more surprising was that the German attacking force I was counter-attacking turned out to be all infantry and guns!  The British tanks pushed through the small dry paths in the marshes, and the infantry in their trucks pressed on forwards in the centre, but were no match for the range and effectiveness of the German guns.

However, the British had significant off-table artillery assets and rained down successive barrages on the German positions around the oasis...

...and the scrub around the commands and guns...

British reserve tanks slowly entered the table but again got beaten up by German guns.  But after three turns, the Germans had taken so much damage from the artillery barrages that the battlegroup broke.  The British had achieved their major objective (earning them 3 Victory Points) but the Germans had achieved their minor objective of inflicting >25% casualties (earning them 2 VPs).  But the large difference in size of the armies meant that British casualties were still more than that of the Germans, earning the Germans a further Victory Point.  With the same number of Victory Points, the scenario was a draw - the British had broken the Germans but at too great a loss to their own troops and armour.

We had some extreme command rolls in this game.  In turn 2, the British CO rolled a double-6, a command blunder, and in turn 3, this feat was repeated by another British HQ commander.  The Germans had much better luck, with Andy managing to roll two double-1s on the trot during turn 2, giving him an extra two rounds of shelling that turn.

Main lesson: we need more terrain to break up the lines of sight or else every game is going to be German guns take out the Brits before they get close enough to fire back!  I helped myself to some roof insulation out of a skip last week so I'll shape that up to give us some dunes.

Show and Tell: More 8th Army aircraft

I found a cheap 1/144 plastic model of a P40N Warhawk on eBay that came pre-painted as the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force.

The Warhawk was also used by the British and known as a Kittyhawk, so I repainted it in North Africa camo and used some of the left over transfers from my Hurricane set.

Attack Tabrooken (the German perspective) - 2 April 2011

Somewhere in the desert December 1942 again my fox cubs have tracked down those English Tommies. They have decided to hideaway in a small hillside town of Tabrukan.They think they are safe in their little hideaway but we have ways to make them runaway.

We quickly make a recce of their positions, this should be quite easy, I will attack their strongest position, then when they weaken their other flank I will strike there.

As you can see the centre is very strong, with Mine fields to the centre and this backed up by tank pits. So the strongest position is the left hand side. Here I will attack first.

At the start of the game I call in my 150mm guns and target the biggest gun position, this has no effect so I now decide to bring my troops on, I have 4 commands. 51units in all.

• My first move was to see me attempt to bring all 4 commands on but one failed, this was because their briefing took a little longer as they were stock piling shells. Anyway Command 1 just came on and held their ground apart from the IG shelling one of the pommies gun emplacements. The second command came on but were very slow as they didn’t have trucks for the infantry. The 3^rd command cam on and immediately started to charge down the left flank, moving twice until their dice role failed. The Tiger moved just once then started blasting the 2Ider. Just the one hit, remember you need a 6 to hit in an emplacement & 6 to stagger. 4^th command failed to come on. FAO decided to bring the air strike in with both Stukas with 5 commands & air defence firing, both Stukas were shot down, how lucky can James be!!!!!!

• Move 2 Next I decided to use the FOA from command 2 to rain shells down on the Tommies, after 3 salvoes the dice failed, this left the 2Ider and the 6Ilder with both having 2 hits each, The 2nd command moved forward very slowly as they hadn’t the trucks. Command 1 raced forward with trucks and half tracks while the IG 150mm started firing on the infantry on the left. Command 3 again succeeded in moving 3 times and is now racing down the left flank and the Tiger has started taking a liking to the Grant in its pit, Twice the Tiger has 2 hits, which takes care of the Grant. But James decides to Bring his FAO into the action but with very little success, the first go misses all the vehicles but the second salvo manes to destroy 1 half track and the engineers and also inflicts 2 casualties on the FOA & the command unit.

This was the high point in the game for the FAO as after this he failed time after time to achieve anything, actually he was bloody useless on that motorcycle. By now the 4^th Command had arrived, moved once and then started opening up on the 2 pdr pit, creating 2 more casualties.

• Move 3 James uses his FAO to no effect but opens up on my infantry in command 4, which leaves 2 casualties, gaining good shooting practice from this he then bounced a shell off one of the half tracks in Command one before destroying a truck full of infantry. Mindful of the need to keep my infantry fresh I decided to reek revenge after firstly calling back the trucks and infantry. Command 1 the IG 150mm carried shelling the infantry, the FAO from command 4 moved forward to get a better sighting of the Tommies position and then brought the rain, salvo after salvo now came their way, actually 4 salvos from this FAO, Command 3 FAO brought another 2 salvos and the Brits lost both the 2dr & the 6pdr. The trucks and halftracks of this command were getting ever closer to the Brits flank.

• Move 4 Corporal James again request his FAO do something and again this failed, the only option was to get the HQ to order the barrage and for the last time my Foxes took some damage 2 hits to a half track, 1 of which was saved, 2 hits to both the command and the FAO and 1 hit to Captain Henchels Panzer III. This action has stalled the attack on the left flank. So again the FAO now only 80yards from the Tommy infantry, brings more rain, being so close you can select with some impunity.
• and this he does and the infantry of Pom land start to take casualties including killing one Tank commander. Command 4 has now moved up onto a small plato, then succeeds in firing as the next move, they open fire with 3 mortars which means they roll 9 dice and again the Tommys take more casualties.

• Move 5 Corporal James requests more artillery barrages but again the FAO fails he is now being chased down by Captain Henchel in the Panzer III, The Tommys take the decision to move the infantry on their left flank but they seem to scared to move and refuse the order. To further support their right flank the Tommys move some of the tanks out of their pits and bring then round to the right. One Grant actually fires on more trucks and this fails .Command 4 Fao brings more rain twice, this takes out the Bofors, 1 Valentine tank & also kills and infantry commander. Command 1 now decides to race forward and succeeds in moving 4 moves which takes it to 400 meters before the barbed wire. Command 3 keeps shelling the Tommys with Mortars and now the infantry are all on 3 kills. The 88 now opens up on the other Valentine which has just shown too much metal and this receives 2 damage. Command 4 dismounts their trucks and are moving into contact with the Brits who open up with opportunity fire, this brings 2 casualties but doesn’t stop them. The Tiger now opens up on the Valentine and blasts it to kingdom come.

• Move 6 The Brits FAO has now been caught by Captain Henchel, a new commander has just arrived but his CV is down to 6. The have very little left and are just hanging on. My brave boys now use their FAO again and he has never failed, and again brings the rain on the brits, who incidentally their CO positioned them selves in the town, a cowards way of fighting. Now the brits were down to just one infantry unit fighting in hand to hand with Obenstropendfurers troops.

• Move 7 The Brits have very little left on their right, one infantry unit and 2 command units are still alive, their left is still untouched and they haven’t moved to support their own, they are such cowards. Obenstropendfurers men are now in hand to hand fighting with the remaining Tommy infantry and 3^rd commands tanks are now going through the wire, command 1 has again triple moved and are now over the barbed wire and right at the end of the round the last Brit infantry is finally destroyed, this breaks the British shambles of a force.

Foxes lost just

• 2 trucks
• 2 infantry
• 1 engineer group
• 1 half track
• 2 Stukas

Tommy scum.

• 5 Tanks
• 5 Infantry
• 2 commanders
• 1 AA Artillery
• 2 Anti tank guns

• First command is made up of 4 Regular infantry and their trucks. 1 PanzerII ig 150mm 2 engineers and their half tracks.
• 2^nd Command 1 FAO 4 Regular Infantry no trucks 1 Panzer ig 150mm 1 engineer & truck.
• 3^rd Command, This I made as my strike force. 1 FAO 4 veteran infantry 2 PanzerIIIs 1 Tiger 1 engineer + half track.
• 4^th Command 1 FAO 1 88 Flak 3 81mm Mortars 1 Panzer IG 150mm + 1 truck.

This was a great game, we both found that having an objective worked very well and there are really good tactics to take away from this.

Blitzkrieg Commander: third rules test - 2 April 2011

Having now played a few Encounter scenarios, Andy and I thought we should try an Assault scenario.  Here the attacker has 50% more points than the defender, but the defender can spend up to 10% of his points on hasty defences.  Given my recent spate of model-making, I was keen to be in defence.  This was a fictitious scenario: the attacking Germans had 3300 points (having got +10% on the modifier roll) against my British with 2000 points.  So here's what 200 points of hasty defences look like wrapped around 1800 worth of army on a hilltop:

You can just about make out that I've rebased all my Command stands on to discs - 60mm diameter for CO, 40mm for HQ - which I think helps them to stand out better against the other rectangular based units.

Andy's deployment was mobile and all but one command arrived on the first turn.

Andy had a good mixture of infantry (in trucks), infantry guns, tanks, engineers, artillery and aircraft, and put the artillery to immediate use.  One of my Grants destroyed a truck which led to the German infantry advance going into reverse gear.  Andy's fourth command came on the table but immediately blundered, resulting in a half move backwards.  Andy then sent his Stukas to bomb the British.

We then discovered that Command units have anti-aircraft capability as well as the formal anti-aircraft units, and Andy's Stuka was coming into bomb near one Bofors, the CO and 4 HQs - so they all rolled to shoot it down.  And they did... right into the minefield:

Very quickly joined by the second, and final, Stuka...

As Andy closed in, firing regularly with his Tiger 1, 88 and Infantry Guns, we also exchanged artillery fire - with limited damage on the German troops but with increasing pounding of the British trenches.  The British FAO failed his command roll again and again but the Germans were ruthless, enhanced by Andy's cunning tactic of having two FAOs.  The COs view was looking pretty grim...

Andy's troops eventually reached the wire and the tracked vehicles breached it.  German Elite troops sneaked through the gap at the edge of the table I'd left, and attacked the Brits in the trenches.  At this point, the breakpoint of the British battlegroup was reached but one turn later than that required for a Major Victory, but still a Minor Victory for Andy and the Huns, who only lost a lorry and two half-tracks (and two Stukas!).

Learning points:

• multiple FAOs are a great idea
• FAOs and FACs are Command units, so they are not part of a formation, they can move virtually e.g. across barbed wire, and (apparently) cannot be directly targeted so can't be chased away if (for example!) you happen to have all your units behind minefields and barbed wire
• the minefield would have been better deployed to one side rather than the middle, and then I could have deployed to the front and the other side, and got much of my units into the conflict
• be careful with airstrikes where lots of commands are close together

We had a few queries which I'll post on the BKC forum to try and get some clarification.

Show and Tell: Field Defences Part 3

More scratchbuilt items from the block of styrofoam - a command bunker and couple of pillboxes.

Show and Tell: Field Defences Part 2

BKC lists Field Defences that make troops and vehicles harder to hit and improve their save values.  For hasty defences, in addition to minefields and barbed wire, players can deploy trenches, gun pits and AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicle) pits.  Clearly it's difficult to create pits and trenches on your dining room table but they can represented by sloping the ground up.  Several companies sell resin versions but again, I thought I'd make my own.

I bought a couple of sheets of 25mm thick styrofoam from eBay for a few quid.  This is a high-density blue polystyrene which is easily cut and filed, and doesn't break up into little bits like packing polystyrene.

For the gun pits, I cut the foam into blocks, then cut them into two thinner halves.  After marking out where the 40x40mm base would need to go, I cut and filed the edges, and then cut out the pit.

I then rounded off the corners and painted them.  As well as gun pits, I made AFV pits and trenches for the infantry.  Here's what they look like finished.

Each piece ends up costing just a few pence.  And I've plenty of foam left for carving pill boxes and bunkers for scenarios allowing fixed defences (the subject of a future posting...).

Show and Tell: North African village

My Christmas present from Adrian - a set of buildings from Hovel's 10mm Arab range - all now painted, and occupied by the liberators of North Africa who are ready to defend against the evil Boche.

Show and Tell: Field Defences

Preparing for the Siege of Tobruk, I've made some field defences.  BKC rules allows for a range of field defences - from fixed prepared bunkers and command posts to hasty defences like barbed wire and minefields.

Barbed wire comes in 20cm lengths.  I've made a dozen in 10cm lengths so I've got more flexibility in deployment.  The posts are made from 2mm walnut dowel and entwined with scale barbed wire.

Minefields are 20cm by 10cm.  They can be unmarked (apart from on the player's map), marked but dummy, or marked and genuine.

Although they should be hidden, I've made mines visible on the scenery (as I've found others have done) because it looks more interesting.  The mines are made from deadly orange lentils, as you can see from one of the minefields before painting.

Blitzkrieg Commander: second rules test - 1 March 2011

Andy and I had another session testing out the Blitzkreig Commander rules.  We played another Encounter scenario (i.e. two battlegroups bumping into each other) but this time with 2000 points each.  I put together a combined arms battlegroup with infantry, armour, guns and aircraft.  I was up against a dozen German tanks plus a few guns.  Gulp.

Turn 1 is the mobile deployment as the various formations entered the table.  In Turn 2, the plucky Brits damaged a couple of advancing German tanks and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves - until the Germans destroyed 4 of the 6 British tanks in their turn!  In Turn 3, the British Forward Aircraft Controller (FAC) was finally successful in radioing through an order to one of the Hurricanes, who promptly flew over the battlefield and created some new holes in the centre of the table but caused no damage to the Germans.  Another British command blunder (a double-six) led to the suppression of their 2-pounder gun.  The Germans gleefully destroyed the remaining British tanks and overran my Commanding Officer, who raced off the table.

In turn 4, the re-energized 2-pounder took out a Panzer III and the FAC, who had moved closer to his target - thus reducing the inaccuracy rolls, called in two strikes from my Hurricane tankbusters.  Bang on target, the first destroyed two Panzer IVs, and the second destroyed another and forced a suppressed Tiger 1 to fall back so far it was also destroyed.

Shells from about 5 German tanks promptly fell on the FAC obliterating him.

At the beginning of Turn 5, I failed (again) to bring on my third formation.  But since they were all infantry and my tanks were all destroyed, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retreated my remaining forces, conceding a Minor Defeat, but avoiding an inevitable Major one had I waited for the Germans to finish off my infantry.

I think we've got the hang of the rules now (they are jolly good) but next we need to try a more interesting scenario and break up the line-of-sight with some terrain.

Major Garibaldi's battle report

Major Andrea "Andy" Garibaldi writes:

I had stationed my small elite force of Italians at El Minchinhampton, just south of Cheltenham, it’s a very cold morning but already the sun is very bright with a light breeze coming from the south west. My forces are a little light on the ground with:

Italian Forces

· 4 infantry regiments. all conscripts

· 3 Medium Machine guns.

· 1 Mortar.

· 2 ATG 47mm

· 4 Lorries

· 1 Semovente 47/32

· 2 Semovente 75/18

· 2 M11/39 Medium Tanks

Attached 1 x 88mm Flak. This has been only added as we were commanded by our beloved allies to train this battery as they have only just arrived from Holland, they are very raw.

Anyway already we can see the glint of those silly English trundling towards my brave boys, I can hear their noisy Morris engines rattling along, I have already realized that most of my command staff are now away on a 12 day furlong, I don’t need them, I will handle this myself.

On the right. The English have already moved with in 1000meters of my position, I have already asked Oberleutnant Fritz Frankfurter to open fire and he has refused twice as he wasn’t quite ready yet, he promises that he will fire when I really need him. Now the English are 800 metres away and eventually the 88 opens up on the lead Tank, this just slows the Tank a little but still keeps coming. To my left I can make out some infantry but they just seem to be on a picnic.

Now on my right the English are at about 600 meters away so I open up with my medium tanks, I have just 3 the English will be no match for these. The lead tank again slows as the shells start to rain down on the English, it’s a fantastico sight, with a little help from my German cousins with the 88, the lead English tank is bludgeoned into retreating, they are no match for me.

The foolish English are not daunted by this, they are crazy fools. Again they push on and now apart from the tank that had been pushed back there are 3 English tanks starting to fire on my poor light tank, Corporal Vitorial he is amazing this little tank has already been hit twice by these English but we decide to just use the 88 as they need the practice, again they hit the 2^nd tank as the English lead tank has just caught up with the others. The English have by now destroyed Corporal Vitorial's Tank and they have started to open up on my next tank, with this I have all my forces open up. These English are no match for my boys and soon there are only 2 English tanks still operational. I only have 2 operational tanks left on my left as I have one tank knocked out and one being repaired, they are still holding of the puny English. The English are now attacking my left with mortar fire, some of my troops have taken casualties so I have sent 2 tanks to my left to Recce and possibly engage these forces.

Now these foolish English have stood in front of my position to trade fire and again they have opened up with their last 2 tanks, they are useless. We return fire and finally destroy the English, these English are no match for my brave boys, this war will not last long. I look forward to smashing the puny English.

Blitzkrieg Commander: first rules test

Andy and I put a small (1000 points each) eight-turn Encounter scenario together to have an initial test of the Blitzkreig Commander rules.  1000 points doesn't go far: CO, 2xHQ, 4 tanks, 6 infantry, plus one each of MMG, mortar, field gun and artillery piece for the British; for Andy's Italians this was CO, 5 tanks, handful of infantry, an MMG and mortar, with a special guest star of a German 88.

As this was an Encounter, we followed the mobile deployment rules: the HQs are lined up on the table edge and the player makes a Command Roll (CR) to see whether they move on, or are delayed.  As with every CR a double-six is a Command Blunder - and that was what James managed to throw on the very first roll of the first play of BKC!  The worst case with a Command Blunder is losing units but fortunately James' armour was just delayed a turn.  His infantry also failed to enter, and his CO with the guns slowly entered the table.  Here's how the game turned out over the 8 turns:

1. British initial deployment delayed; Italians fail CR so no actions
2. British proceed but infantry still delayed (see photo above); Italians fail CR again
3. British tanks stall, infantry enter, first mortar attack misses enemy tank; Italians finally make a CR and fire off the German 88 suppressing one of the Crusaders
4. British tanks press on, all other CRs failed; Italian tanks fire on approaching British tanks but all shells fall short (we agreed not to measure distances before issuing orders)
5. British tanks mostly fall short, one hits but Italians save; Italian 88 gives 3 hits to a Crusader and counter-mortar fire inflicts one hit (see fifth bullet below) 
6. British Armoured HQ fails CR but CO exerts control and orders them to fire on Italian tanks; Italians destroy first Crusader
7. British armour takes out their first Italian tank and damages a second, but loses one of their own to a barrage of Opportunity fire (see sixth bullet below); Italian 88 destroys one more British tank
8. British fail all CRs; Italian 88 takes out the last British tank, and fires on British mortar and anti-tank positions

The British had lost 4 tanks and destroyed just one.  This was more than 25% of the British forces so the Italians achieved their minor objective as set under the scenario.  This gave them 2 Victory Points plus a further 2 VPs for inflicting more than double the casualties received.  4 VPs is more than double the British zero VPs, so Andy and his Italians achieved a Major Victory.  As the Hurricanes flew over the battle field, this is how it looked: British armour pushed up the left but all destroyed.  British infanty very slowly moving up the centre.  British guns moving up the right against advancing Italian tanks.  The rest of the Italian force in defensive positions at top of photo - after two CR failures at the beginning of the game, the British tanks were already in range so Andy felt no need to move when he could just fire away.

Here are the lessons we identified from our first battle:

• you need multiple commanders in order to maximise your flexibility (just like DBM)
• slow moving units are at a disadvantage when entering the table (-1 on CR) so having a better commander with the infantry might be useful
• in an Encounter scenario, the infantry needs to be in trucks or carriers to start with or it will never get anywhere near the battle
• although destroyed Commanders come back to life (once, and with -1 on Command Value) firing on them to suppress them is valuable because it means they can't issue commands the next turn
• if units are not destroyed in a turn, the "hits" they take are removed at the end of the turn; an Optional Rule (which we started using in turn 5) allows those hits to be retained and so accumulate making it easier to destroy things (need to research a bit more to see whether this is really a Good Thing or not)
• Opportunity Fire is very useful (and we overlooked it until most of the way through the game); it allows you to shoot in your opponent's turn at the expense of a -1 CR modifier in your own next turn
• measuring distances from vehicle to vehicle is simplest; the rules (which say basing is irrelevant and not necessary) also say distances are from base to base, but this makes no sense where vehicles are not based, or on large bases
• lastly, the "guest" 88 was devastating - it pretty much won the battle on its own; so it needs to be taken out early on

The game was very enjoyable.  The rules are clear with not too much cross-referencing.  There are some great mechanisms which make the game so good: the CR concept is really clever - it allows you to keep ordering the same unit again and again but with the die roll getting harder to meet each time - if you fail, that's the end of that commanders turn, but you can turn to another unit and start again at the original Command Value but you can't switch back to a unit you've already ordered - this makes for some interesting decisions and risk-taking.  The other good mechanism is the combat - everything is on D6 and although there are modifiers applied, it all seems quite straightforward and without lots of exceptions to worry about.  We played pretty slowly since it was our first game, around 3 hours in total, but that will be significantly quicker next time.  Certainly this has scope for larger games to be played in an evening.

Show and Tell: 8th Army commanders

Now finished the Commanding Officer and 2 HQ bases.  Left HQ with jeep has new orders arriving over the radio.  Right HQ has new orders arriving by BSA motorcycle combination.

In the centre with Dorchester Command Vehicle and support staff, is Monty himself.

Show and Tell: 8th Army aircraft

In the seemingly never-ending escalation between Andy's Afrika Korps and my 8th Army, we're now into aircraft.  Andy started it with some metal Stukas, so I started looking for some Hurricanes.  Although there are metal versions available, the blogs were talking about Sweet Aviation Models as the most detailed aircraft available.  This is a Japanese company and most of the boxes have traditional Airfix-like covers, but this is what the Hurricane looks like...

If I hadn't already read reviews of the model, this would definitely have put me off!  However, inside the box you get instructions, two plastic kits and lots of transfers.

On the flip side of the instructions are the camouflage markings for four different tropical Hurricane Mk1s, with a fifth on back of the box.

Resisting the temptation to use the Malta (!) markings, I painted up V7544 from No 73 Squadron, North Africa (left, below) and V2643 flown by Squadron Leader P H Dunne of No 274 Squadron, North Africa.

Note the difference in insignia - different size roundels and tailplane graphics.  I made 7 inch high stands for the aircraft which gives a good height above the table.

I hadn't made a plastic kit for a long time but I enjoyed doing these.  The kit was a bit dearer than buying cast metal but worth it for all the transfers and painting scheme information.  Just to have to paint my CO and HQ bases and then I'm finished.  Until I buy some more tanks to keep up with Andy...