Early War French Infantry Company

With the break over Christmas I have not managed to finish quite as many things as I was hoping, however I did get the first 20 stands of my Early War French Infantry finished, with another 6 just needing the AT guns painted and they will join the ranks! Of course I still need to paint up a pair of artillery batteries (although only 1 is needed for Battlecry 2012) and another platoon of AT guns.... and a massive pile of vehicles. Buts lets celebrate knocking off one milestone, at least now if I don't get the Lorraine 38L Carriers done (the infantry armoured personal carriers) I can at least use the force as an infantry company and not feel like I have wasted any painting time!

Company HQ and 2iC

First Platoon

Second Platoon

More Magach = More Fun?

The Christmas holidays have not proven to be quite as sucessful as I had hoped due to some unplanned things popping up, however over the last few days I have been able to get a few things moved along the Work in Progress track.

First up... I managed to get the rest of my 1967 Israeli vehicles base coated. Based on the points costings from Flames of War Vietnam, this is way too many points for the average game, but he who dies with the most toys wins right! (?) There is of course one missing (my test model). I've also noticed a mould line that I thought I managed to take care of on the left tracks, but despite a fair amount of work the light colour scheme has made it come back like good Rodney Dangerfield movie. I figure I'll need to come up with some cunning stowage to hide it!

M48A3 Magach

M113 Armoured Personal Carriers

I've also started putting together a 1956 based Israeli force using M4A1 Sherman 76mm tanks. Still need to do a little re-reading but assuming they are Confident Trained this force would blow past 1750 points pretty quickly - of course I'd also need a list where I can take mutiple 76mm Sherman platoons. Maybe this is my chance to start playing with inDesign and make up my own one - how hard can it be... maybe I should stick with Microsoft Excel....

In '56 the Israeli's were using a mixture of Shermans that they managed to beg, borrow and steal, as well as a small number of AMX-13 light tanks. Just prior to the '56 war they received 100 M4A1 Sherman 76's from the French, a number of which actually made it into fighting units. I'd like to paint up a platoon of 75mm Shermans, however the majority of the ones they were using were either M4 105's, re-gunned to have 75mm guns (which Battlefront does not currently make a model of) or a surprising number of M4A4Ts (these were standard M4A4 Shermans where the French replaced the engines which resulted in them having engine decks like an M4A1) but I am not keen to convert these up just yet - maybe that would be an interesting project for later in the year?

M1 Super Shermans

These were not repainted and remained Olive Drab (along with the rest of the Shermans during this period), however they will get a damn good dusting to make them like nice and sandy, the OD colour should make them quick to paint up though.

Israeli M48 Magach WIP

After spending a little time today mulling over Israeli tank colours, I ended up deciding to go with option two (Buff and Medium Grey). I am not 100% convinced I have the colour right, but I think it will look the part, quite grey, yet still quite warm. I've done a little more work tonight since these photos, hit the test vehicle with a heavy drybrush to even out the magic wash, finished the tracks and road wheels etc. I still need to do a little work trying to track down some decals. Dave over at I-94 has some, but I am not 100% convinced that he has what I need - of course an email or two will sort that out.I also need to do a little research on the markings and specifically if there are any air recognition symbols I should be painting on.

M48 Magach basecoated

I've still go to hit it with 2 or 3 layers of sand coloured drybrushes but I'll wait till I have the decals I think. When deployed out in the field tanks very very dirty, very quickly, especially out in the Golan Heights or Sinai desert. But I am pretty happy with where it is so far. Just need to knock out the other 7 (and some M113s).

With a bit of luck I'll have some more photos tomorrow, along with some WIP photos of my French infantry.

AIW Colour Theory

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in the Arab-Israeli Wars (AIW). Even as a young adult I recall reading about the fighting over the Golan Heights (The Valley of Tears) and the image of destroyed T-55s, blown up as they crossed a defensive ditch sticks in my head.

Over the past twelve months or so I have been slowly amassing a selection of books on the conflict, the protagonists, and the hardware. The hardest part has been trying to pin down the actual colour of Israeli Sinai Grey. Due to a variety of reasons the official make up of the colour has never been properly released, add in the issues with local units conducting touch ups, seasonal variations, degradation, an officially changing tone over the years and there seems to be a lot of debate and even the experts have their own recipes. This makes it both frustrating (and impossible) to find the correct colour, but also very liberating as it means you can pick something along the lines of what you like - its the Middle East version of the German Dunklegelb...

So, some time over the next two weeks (between painting French EW infantry) I am going to have a go at painting up some of the M48A3 Pattons and M113s that Battlefront released as part of the Vietnam range. Once I have some work done I'll post up some images...

Israeli tanks - 1967
50/50 mix of
XF 60 Dark Yellow - 988 Khaki
XF 57 Buff - 821 German Camo Beige

50/50 mix of
XF 57 Buff - 821 German Camo Beige
XF 20 Medium grey - 987 Medium Grey

M48 at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation