As previously posted I have been inspired by Big Lee's 6mm Desert War project using Flames of War, not only is 6mm a lot cheaper than 15mm, but also the board will look less like a car park than games of FoW usually look like.
I've started with the Israelis as I already had some Centurions sitting in Lead Mountain, but will be going with M48's for my main tank company. The plan is to raise both a tank company and mechanised infantry company with support elements for the Israelis.
Regarding my basing dilemma I have gone with 40 x 25mm for vehicles and will use 20 x 25mm for smaller elements. Any concerns I had around commercial availability of bases this size was quashed by visting Warbases who did exactly what I wanted in 2mm MDF.
The only fly in the ointment has been the decals. I decided as I near my dotage that I am no longer up to painting small unit markings so bought GHQ's white chevron decals. What sort of numpty produces white decals on white paper?!! Also they are one solid sheet rather than individual decals so require careful trimming which is not easy when you can barely see the buggers. Let's say there was a bit of swearing and 15mm did look a better idea at one point yesterday! I will see how they work on the M48's and M3 half-tracks, but I may be investing in a high quality detail brush soon...
I have been using Daniel McCoy's Six-Day War FoW guides from his Broke Low blog and those on the NDC blog for this project, but it was interesting to see what will be coming with October's Wargames Illustrated...
Gromit of the Day:
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| Paisley |
Steve,
ReplyDeleteA pedantic note but what you appear to have are Sh'ot Meteor not Sh'ot Kal. That is Centurions with Meteor petrol engines & 20pdr. The Sh'ot Kal were Centurions with US diesel engines & British 105mm. They even lack the Israeli mods of 2x jerrycans & a pentagonal storage box on turret rear. The Kals had a stowage basket & prominent engine deck.
As is you could use them for 1967 but IIRC all had been re-armed if not re-engined by 1973 so the gun should have an extra bit on the barrel.
Neil
Damn, someone spotted! :-)
DeleteI had realised the models were not quite right Neil but was hoping they would do.
The GHQ M48's I have are even more baffling as they look like Magach 3's with the 105mm but have the small mg turret on the top of the earlier A1's and A2's (which had a T shaped muzzle brake).
As I am looking to use the models for both 67 and 73 I may have to be a little fast and loose with 100% accuracy to start with otherwise I think I will go mad! :-)
The M48s are the 90mm version. Fine for Jordanians, mostly.
DeleteJust an FYI, GHQ has just released proper Magach 3, perfect for the Sinai in '73 ...
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/is16.html
.... Or you could not be so pedantic and play toy soldiers.
DeleteNice stuff I'm pretty excited about the Arab-Israeli Stuff. The only problem is that poor Dan's Stuff is being relegated and he had done such beautiful stuff. Luckily he's helping me out by re-doing my rules to look as nice as his.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI only noticed as I am doing 1967 (& hopefully YK) in 1/87 using Roco, EKO & Roskopf stuff as I already had a lot of stuff in this scale.
As the models are much larger it has resulted in some "proper" modelling (to be honest much is of the "looks right" approach) to produce accurate halftracks, M48s, Centurions, M50 & M51 Shermans, let alone the SP artillery!
As such I have become a bit of an anorak (more?) on Israeli armour; I agree however it can become too much when you start agonizing over whether to put the spare track on an M51 on the hull (1967) or turret (1973), especially when it is an out-of-scale 50 year old model...... (at least it has a cast hull & HVSS!)
Very inspirational so keep posting!
Must try & put some of my stuff on my moribund blog.
Neil
Great job on these; a tip on the decals: use a black sharpie marker on your x-acto blade. The non-shiny sharp edge now makes seeing the decals much easier!
ReplyDeleteI am one step behind . I have checked my old figure box and already have 13 m48's and my Heroics and ross order arrived yesterday so I will also be doing this in 6mm once the analogue painting challenge begins.
ReplyDelete6mm is so easy to transport and store it really does make more sense than 15mm As far as My situation is concerned