October War: Egyptian ZSU-57-2 Anti-Aircraft Company

Remembering I had the four original bases that I previously used on my rebased Sho't Meteors I was able to finish four more AFV's for the October War project today - a battery of GHQ ZSU-57-2's.

Although somewhat out-dated by 1973 the ZSU-57-2 was still in service with the Egyptian army during the conflict (indeed some upgraded models were still in use in 2003).

I decided to paint these models in the basic overall sand style rather than the three-colour camo. The logic behind this was that the ZSU-57-2's were the primary AA vehicle in the 1967 war, so with a future eye on the Six Day War, I went with the '67 look. The rationale here being that these ZSU's were in a second line unit in 1973 that had not been repainted in one of the new schemes (the Egyptians did have a variety of schemes in 1973 so for me this is not beyond the realm of possibility).

I also added crew figures to the vehicles by chopping up some Heroics & Ross Soviets. I appreciate they are sitting (standing?) a bit high in the turrets but I like the end effect.

Painting Target: 311/1000

October War: Egyptian Mechanised Infantry Battalion BMP's

Now being the proud owner of 35 1/285th GHQ BMP-1's, I decided my Egyptian mechanised infantry could ride into battle in style (even if historically the Egyptian infantry found them unbearably hot when buttoned up so rode into bottle with the rear hatches open!)

I've painted three companies each comprising of two 3 vehicle platoons and a 2 vehicle battalion HQ. Again the scheme is the Egyptian three colour one, though I must confess to struggling to find a photograph of an Egyptian BMP in this (or any other scheme). I did find photos of Syrian BMP's in the Soviet sand/green scheme but decided to stick with the three colour look (especially as I still have 15 BMP's left for the Syrians to misuse).

Ps. last Thursday Clint asked how long my Heroics & Ros order took to arrive, well I'd only ordered it that day but it arrived yesterday so the answer is one week! Unfortunately these BMP's have used up my stock of laser cut MDF bases so an order went into Warbases yesterday.

Painting Target: 307/1000

October War: Jordanian Centurion Armoured Squadron

After some prevaricating I decided that I didn't like the Jordanian M113's I posted yesterday as the final (diluted) ink wash had made the main sand colour (Vallejo Green Ochre) too dark. So I repainted them...

This time I did not put a second wash on after the Reflective Green camouflage pattern was added but added a lightened Green to the pattern to provide some highlights. With a bit of Buff weathering I am much happier with them and the Jordanian Centurions I also painted.

As stated yesterday the 40th Armoured Brigade's Centurions saw action on the Golan Front in 1973, impressing the Israelis in the fighting but failing to co-ordinate well with their Syrian and Iraqi allies. The unit is also suitable for the 1967 Six Day War and the 1970-71 Jordanian Civil War when the 40th Armoured fought the Syrian 5th Division which invaded Jordan to support the PLO.

I'm happy with the look of the Jordanians and the Centurion company, they make a nice change for the Israeli sand grey! :-)

Painting Target: 287/1000

October War: Jordanian Mechanised Infantry Platoon

The masses of Arab-Israeli white metal I bought last week contained rather a lot of Centurions with 20 pounders (the Sho't Meteor in Israeli parlance), more than I really needed when added to the few I already had in Lead Mountain. I painted one company's worth up for the IDF having identified the 205th and 679th Armoured Brigades used this variant in 1973 but what to do with the rest?

The obvious answer was to paint them up as Jordanians for 1967 (given the amount of M51 Shermans I have the IDF will not need any more Sho't Meteors for the Six Day War when I around to it!). However I then remembered that the Jordanians had engaged in a limited fashion in 1973 on the Golan front, sending the 40th Armoured Brigade into Syria a week after hostilities commenced.

So I've decided to raise a small Jordanian force using the spare Centurions, some 25 pounders and these GHQ M113's I bought last week, all I need to complete the unit for Flames of War is a pack of Saladin armoured cars and M42 SPAAG Dusters (and the good thing is that this unit is perfect for the 1967 war as well as 1973 and the fighting with the Syrians in 1970).

The M113's were a straight forward paint job to test the paint scheme before embarking on the eleven Centurions. I do need to decide on the infantry though, in 1967 they wore British WW2 helmets but by 1973 had switched to the US helmet, a distinctive difference even in 6mm...

Painting Target: 276/1000

October War: Egyptian ZSU-23-4 Anti-Aircraft Company

Folllowing an-Naksah (The Setback) of 1967, the Egyptian armed forces received many upgraded weapons systems from the Soviet Union including the ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" SP AAG. As the Egyptian plan for the October War relied heavily on its ground forces operating under a SAM and AAA umbrella, I had to have some Shilka's in my Egyptian arsenal.

These GHQ models have been sat in Lead Mountain for a long time (they were part of the licenced Minifigs range from nearly thirty years ago) and have been rescued from a half painted Cold War Soviet army I started way back when.

I did consider painting them in the standard Soviet desert two colour camouflage of sand and green so they could see service with the Soviets in Afghanistan as well as the Arab armies in the October War but decided to with the three colour Egyptian pattern as I really like it.

 Painting Target: 272/1000

October War: Egyptian T-62 Tank Company

I love 6mm, it's so much quicker to paint! :-)

Following on from the Israeli tank company finished yesterday, I painted up nine T-62's to add to one of those I painted on Friday to complete the first Egyptian tank company (as those three have aerials, I have decided to use them as company command tanks).

The models are old GHQ, some with external fuel tanks, some without, painted up in the three colour Egyptian camouflage of the 1973 war.

Here is the complete ten tank unit with the company command tank added.

Painting Target: 268/1000

October War: Israeli Sho't Meteor Tank Company

Despite being dragged into the garden by SWMBO today and getting mud on my hands (the horror) I managed to finish painting the first of the reinforcements I bought - seven Sho't Meteor's to finish off my first IDF tank company.

I had thought that whilst the Sho't Meteor saw service in the 1967 Six Day War, that all the Centurions had been upgraded to Sho't Kal status by 1973. Fortunately, whilst the majority of Centurions had been upgraded, the Israeli 205th and 679th Armoured Brigades were still equipped with the Sho't Meteor at the time of the October War, albeit on the Golan front (so I will need to tackle the Syrians at some stage).

One of the unpainted models had been fitted with a nylon (fishing line?) aerial, which not only helps identify the company HQ tank but also is less prone to damage than the 5 amp fuse wire I had been using (as seen on the T-62's).

Unlike the original three models I painted on the markings, whilst not as neat as the GHQ transfers, this took far less time. I rebased the original three to make sure the unit tied together as you can see below...

Painting Target: 259/1000

October War: Reinforcements Arrive!

My October War project received a big boost yesterday when David Manley sold me his 1/285th Arab-Israeli Wars collection. The vast majority of models are GHQ (including some useful old ones that are OOP) and having sorted them out whilst watching Mexico v Cameroon, I am a very happy bunny...

The Egyptians now have an additional 46 T62's, 10 JS3's, 9 T34-85's, 35 BMP1's, 27 BTR60's, 11 BRDM-1's 28 BRDM-2's, 2 ZSU 57/2's, 4 BTR152's, plus a number of trucks, cars and planes.

The Israelis have 16 Sho't Meteors, 14 Sho't Kals, 5 AMX13's, 7 M48A3 (90mm), 9 M48A5 (105mm), 30 M51 Shermans, 10 M113's, 20 M113 Zeldas, 10 M106's, 5 M577, 5 M7's, 25 M3 half-tracks, 4 jeeps, 4 jeeps with recoilless rifles, 4 25 pounders plus a lot of self propelled artillery, engineering vehicles and planes.

There were also four landing craft and a Bergtiger! :-)

Now I need to sort this out into units and get painting...

October War: Egyptian T-62's

I found some more useful models in 'Lead Mountain', three old GHQ T-62's. The Egyptian Army received approximately 200 T-62's from the Soviet Union between 1971 and 1973. They were organised into two Armoured Brigades, the 15th and the 25th, and they spearheaded the Egyptian advance once the Bar Lev line had been breached.

I painted the models up in the same three colour camouflage as the T54/55's the only difference being the "rattleskin" pattern on the gun barrel (this would look nicer on a larger scale model).

I've also corrected the recognition symbols on the T54/55's painted on as in 1973 the IDF was also using T54/55's it had captured in the Six Day War...

Painting Target: 252/1000

October War: Israeli Mechanised Infantry Platoons

I managed to finish another ten GHQ M3 half tracks yesterday which will form two platoons, the bulk of my IDF mechanised infantry company.

Identical paint scheme to the Recon Platoon I finished last weekend, the infantry to accompany them have been ordered from Heroics & Ros - my first H&R order in, I suspect, thirty years!  Last time I had to hand write the order, write a cheque, find an envelope and stamp then post it! Thank God for PayPal! :-)

Painting Target: 249/1000

Ps. the World Cup starts today so I'm going to have to re-learn painting with one eye on the telly! :-) To get you in the mood, have a listen to this...

October War: Egyptian T54/55 Tank Company

Rummaging through 'Lead Mountain' a little while back I came across six old GHQ T54/55's (so old they don't make this particular model anymore) and decided to slap some paint on them yesterday, finishing them this morning.

Whereas in 1967 the Egyptians painted their AFV's overall sand, by 1973 they had started applying a camouflage scheme. Researching this has been difficult with lots of contradictory information. The old Osprey Armour of the Middle East Wars states that the Egyptians applied a brown disruptive pattern over the sand, other sources state that this was green (the same as the Syrians), others have a three colour sand, green, brown pattern (and I have found photos of this)

In the end I settled on the three colour scheme using Vallejo Iraquian Sand, Reflective Green, Flat Brown and an Army Painter Strong Tone ink wash and am pleased with the end result.

Ideally I'd like to bring this company up to full strength with an additional four models, but it is useable as is.

Edit: Sight SNAFU! Just realised the white identification markings on the front mud flaps should be white-green-white not as painted. That'll teach me to paint stuff at 11pm without double checking the source photo!

Painting Target: 239/1000

Flames of (Great) War

Rumours have been confirmed, Battlefront will be expanding their Flames of War game into WWI by releasing Great War in August as a supplement with Wargames Illustrated 322.

The following miniatures will be released:

British:

Mark IV Tank (x2)
Mark A Whippet Tank
OQF 18 pdr (x2) HQ & Rifle Platoon
Machine-gun Platoon
Trench Mortar Platoon

German: 

A7V Tank (x2)
7.62cm Krupp IG (x2)
7.7cm FK gun (x2)
Infanteriekompanie HQ
Infanterie Platoon
Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon
Regimental Support Platoons
Stoss Platoon

Should be interesting to see how well the rules convert to WWI...

Holding Patton?

Last year I realised that I had rather stupidly bought a load of GHQ M48's only to discover they were A5 models and not usable as IDF or Jordanian. I did convert one and this was reasonably successful but I must confess I am not too keen to do this to the remainder of the models, especially as GHQ has released an IDF Magach-3 version now.

Of course if I buy the Magach's the question remains what to do with the M48A5's? They were not a cheap purchase...

M48A5 as modelled by GHQ (photo Neil Baumgardner)

One idea is to use them for a 6mm eighties Cold War project. I have a number of GHQ Soviet models sat around but I am struggling to find out which NATO countries (aside from the US) used the M48A5 with the large commander's cupola as modelled on the GHQ model (many other - all? - nations seem to used the Israeli inspired low design).

Help anyone?

October War: Israeli Recon Platoon

For a change of pace I decided to paint up some more of my 6mm Arab-Israeli project but came to a grinding halt when I ran out of Middlestone paint for the bases. However I did just have enough in the bottle to finish the four bases for this IDF Recon Platoon.

The miniatures are GHQ, yes they are a little on the pricey side, but compared to the costs of other scales and other periods the damage is not too bad and the detail on the models fantastic.

Painting techniques was straight forward, Vallejo Medium Grey over a black undercoat, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink, then drybrushed Medium Grey, wheels, tracks, markings done and a very light Buff drybrush (the same colour used to highlight the base). Simple, but effective.

Painting Target: 233/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry V

The last two Poles for the infantry section are now painted. The Sergeant was a straight forward paint job, although the collar mounted rank badge is not as fine as I would have liked.

The section support weapon is the wz. 28 HMG. The one Warlord supplied in the box was prone and I'm not keen on prone figures for skirmish games so I decided to convert one of the duplicate riflemen. Luckily the wz. 28 is a licensed copy of the Browning Automatic Rifle so I borrowed a plastic one off the US infantry sprues I bought for the Tunisian project.

That's the Poles done for now, here is a picture of the completed section off to hunt some Fritzies!

Painting Target: 229/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry IV

I finished the last batch of Polish infantry riflemen yesterday evening, bringing the total painted to sixteen...

Just the section commander and support weapon left to finish today.

Painting Target: 227/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry III

I had hoped to finish all eight remaining Polish riflemen today but no plan survives contact with HR! So here are the next group of four Warlord Poles, hopefully I finish the last details on the remaining four this evening.

It struck me painting these, how much more modern the Poles looked to their 1939 friends and foes, the whole look is very similar to the later war US army.

Painting Target: 223/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry II

The Poles are progressing nicely now with the second group of four finished last night...

Painting wise I painted the base coat before washing the figures with an Army Painter brown ink, then drybrushed with a loaded brush over the uniform and webbing and adding some highlights on the rifles and flesh. Quite straightforward, but a nice end effect that provides effective shading very simply.

Painting Target: 219/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry I

First off thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - I have performed an outflanking manoeuvre 2014 on SWMBO and bought some of North Star's 1672 range to use with Donnybrook from some money I was given! :-)

I have managed to finish the first of the Warlord Games Polish infantry, which, despite the amount of duplicates, were really enjoyable to paint. The 1939 Polish infantry section is much larger than those of other countries such as Germany, Britain and France and having got all eighteen to a basic stage I have now split them into smaller groups to finish off with the detail work. Here are the first four...

Painting Target: 215/1000

Another Year Older...

21 again today but sadly no wargames presents* (boo!).  I did, however, get some new music CD's and Saul bought me the latest Macro and Cato book so I'll no doubt be back into Ancients mode soon and digging the box of plastic Early Imperial Romans out of the loft with plans to do something involving Caratacus.

Not my cake but I thought it too cool not to share...

I have managed some more work on the Polish infantry section and the first of these should be finished later this evening (or tomorrow morning if I am made to be social by the family!)

* SWMBO has said she will just raid Lead Mountain for presents as she is convinced I wouldn't know if it was new or not - she may have a point!

Edit: this was my cake... :-)

Blitzkrieg: First to Fight!

I made considerable progress with my Poles yesterday and today, but have been forced to break off as it is my Mum's 75th birthday so the family is all off to a party this afternoon. Hopefully the first should be finished tomorrow or Tuesday. Despite the duplication of certain miniatures (and my picture was wrong I have five infantry running with rifle not three!), they are lovely figures to paint.

Of course, as usual, researching the infantry uniforms has led me down distracting paths and I now want to raise sections of the Polish 10th Mechanised Brigade in their black leather coats and German helmets, and the Highland Division with their feathered felt hats as part of this project.

I have found 28mm figures for the 10th from Gorgon Studios in the States (I might have to bite the bullet on postage as they do some lovely Norwegian campaign figures too) but have only found the Highlanders in 15mm. If anyone knows of a 28mm source please let me know...

Polish 10th Mechanised Division (photo Gorgon Studios)