/
 

Quite a few of the games in the two September War scenario packs involve motorised Polish infantry, and although I had the basic troops, I didn’t have any of the vehicles necessary to represent either the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade or the Warsaw Armoured Motorised Brigade.

I’d thought about motorising my basic troops before, but couldn’t find anyone who did any of the FIAT 508 and FIAT 508/518 cars/jeeps/pick ups that they used, or produced an affordable FIAT 621 truck of the right type. If there’s one thing to remember when starting to collect a motorised formation, it’s the fact that they have a lot of trucks on their roster!

Then I was at Warfare 2021 at Ascot Racecourse, and got talking to Simon Ryan, who runs Syborg 3D Printing. As I was buying some tankers and bowsers (I love the wide range of “tail” vehicles that he does), I mentioned that no-one, not even him, did any of the Polish transport vehicles mentioned above. We swapped e-mail addresses, and a few days later I got a message to say that he could now print me as many of the various different Polish transport vehicles as I wanted, and sent me pictures of the CAD versions so that I could see what I would be getting.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as the 508s and 508/518s were only £2 each, and the 621s only £4 each. A short while later…

Motorised Infantry Company

Regiment Support Units

Brigade Support Units

12th Light Tank Company

Division Support Units

 
 
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Once I’d started building the US Parachute Rifle Company (c.f.) creating a US Glider Rifle Company is the next natural step.

Core Troops

Battalion Support Platoons

Division Support Troops

 
 
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It was watching Band of Brothers again that finally decided me that it was time I got myself a company of US Paras. Up to now I had been using my standard US troops as proxies, but if something is worth doing, then it's worth doing right...and, anyway, I can always get the early war Poles I'm planning another time!

The force is a mixture of figures from various manufacturers. The 1st Platoon and LMG Section are all Forged in Battle, 2nd Platoon and all Bazooka teams will be from Battlefront, and I haven't decided about 3rd Platoon and the support weapons yet.

Core Troops

Battalion Support Platoons

Divisional Support Platoons

 
 
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This force represents an infantry company from 48th Division, 14th Army, that took part in the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. It is a motorised “triangle” infantry division raised in Formosa (Taiwan) in 1940.

Company HQ & Specialists

Core Troops

Battalion Support

Regiment Support

Division Support

Army Support

Light Tank Company

Medium Tank Company

Other Army Troops

Air Support

 
 
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My late war German panzerkompanie is not, perhaps appropriately, homogenous in terms of camouflage and colour schemes. Collected bit by bit over a number of years, and from a variety of manufacturers, it is as far from a parade ground formation as you can get.

It does, however, pack a powerful punch. The Panthers that form the core of the armour are damn good tanks:  a good gun, good mobility and good armour. Provided they are not crippled by the inclusion of a Fuel Shortage or Vehicle Breakdown card, there's not a lot of Allied tanks they are afraid of. Add in the Panzer IIIs and IVs for the numbers, the Tigers of the Schwerer Zug, the numerous tank-hunters and anti-tank guns, and you have a force that can stop anything. It's just a pity they are usually outnumbered five to one and keep breaking down!

The Panthers and Panzer IVs are from Plastic Soldier Company, except for the command Panther, which is Battlefront. The Elefants and Jagdtigers are from Zvezda. All of the other vehicles are Battlefront.

Main Company Option One:  1943

Main Company Option Two:  1944-5

Divisional Support: Panzerjaegerzug Options

Other Divisional Support

Panzerspah Zug (Halftracks)

Panzerspah Zug (Armoured Cars)

Aufklarungs Zug

Attached PanzerGrenadier (Geb) Company

 
 
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This force represents an infantry company from 55th Division, 15th Army that took part in the invasion of Thailand & Burma in January 1942. The Division is a “Triangular” infantry division.

Company HQ & Specialists

Core Troops

Battalion Support

Regiment Support

Division Support

Army Troops/Reinforcements Received

A Light Tank Company

A Medium Tank Company

Air Support

 
 
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I think it has something to do with watching Where Eagles Dare as a kid, but as soon as Battlefront produced their Gebirgsjaeger, I knew I had to have some. It was also another excuse to put off buying a panzer grenadier company with all that that implies in terms of painting camouflage smocks! So below you have most of a company of German mountain troops, with all but the skiers coming from Battlefront (the skiers are from Peter Pig). The panzerschreck crew are Peter Pig German late war infantry bodies with a Gebirgsjaeger head-swap, and need some more Big Men, but I can proxy just about all the gaps. The Opel Maultiers are from Waugh Games.

The Battlefront figures are a weird mixture of exquisite and awful. Some of the figures, the Big Men or infantry gun crews, are literally the best I have ever seen, and take paint beautifully in the slightly cartoon-y way I like, but others are nothing but blocky manikins that, if I didn't need them to make up the numbers, I would seriously have considered throwing away. It makes me think that there must have been two sculptors on the range. Still, in all a lovely set of miniatures.    

Company HQ & Schwerer Gruppe

Core Troops

Battalion Support Troops

Regimental Support Troops

Divisional Support Troops

 
 
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This force represents an infantry company from 5th Division, 25th Army that took part in the invasion of Malaya and Singapore in December 1941. The Division is a motorised “Square” infantry division.

Company HQ & Specialists

Core Troops

Battalion Support

Regiment Support

Division Support

Army Troops

A Light Tank Company

A Medium Tank Company

Other Army Troops

Air Support

 
 
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Originally bought for the TFL Crete Day in 2004, I seem to have an awful lot of Fallschirmjaegers! Technically, the infantry platoons should show two LMGs per squad as opposed to the one per squad shown, but if I do that, I have only two full platoons and an awful lot of spare infantrymen running around!

The figures are mostly Peter Pig, but with a smattering of Battlefront to make up the numbers. The slightly fanciful Mercedes "staff car" is from a model railway shop. Confession time:  almost none of the figures are painted by me as I just couldn't face painting all that camouflage! In fact, looking down the page, only the Panzerschreks, Leichtgeshultz 40s and Leichter Flakzug are mine.   

 

Company A

Company B

Battalion Support

Regimental & Divisional Support

Air & Air Transport Assets

 
 
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The TwoFatLardies D-Day Airborne Games day in 2008 (God, was it really that long ago?!) provided an excuse to buy a British parachute force. Unlike my German Fallschirmjaeger, I painted all these myself:  driving myself almost barmy trying to get them all done in time for the event! As it happens, they took the field without their MMGs but, I'm pleased to say, did themselves proud! 

Here is the basic parachute company, without much of the support that would actually come from an Air Landing group (c.f.). Limited to what can be dropped out of an aeroplane as opposed to being landed by glider, they suffer from a lack of transport, decent artillery, and decent anti-tank weaponry. This is the force you drop in first, to secure the landing grounds, and then reinforce as soon as possible.

Core Troops

Battalion Support

 
 
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I've mentioned before how the new plastic models in 15mm make collecting large numbers of tanks very affordable. Here's the proof of the pudding: a whole squadron of Churchill British Infantry Tanks from Plastic Soldier Company that cost me just £75, with a box of US half-tracks thrown in as a freebie.

Painting the tanks was a bit of a nightmare: not because of the tanks themselves, but because I accidentally sprayed them with leaf green rather than a proper, darker shade. That meant that I had to ink them, then drybrush, then wash them, then drybrush again etc just to get them down to a green I could look at without sunglasses. As it happens, the process gave the colour a depth and shading that I'm very happy with: makes them look more real.

I had decided to field the tanks as C Squadron of 4th Coldstream Guards and, thanks to the excellent Dom's Decals, could actually individually name every single tank with its correct name. Each troop's names begin with the same letter, and all are listed at the bottom of the page. DD also provided the bridging weight (40 for a Churchill) and the various divisional markings (153 and the Guards' shield). I've used a bit of poetic license with where the markings are placed for aesthetic reasons!

The squadron is built as Mk IV Churchills. Perhaps not strictly accurately, the tanks are mostly armed with the 75mm gun, with only 15 Troop having converted back to 6pdrs. 

 

C Squadron of 4th Coldstream Guards of 6th Guards Tank Brigade

 
 

C Squadron of 4th Coldstream Guards of 6th Guards Tank Brigade

HQ Troop

CO: Revenge

2iC: Renown

CS: Resolution

ARV: Resource

11 Troop

11: Bandit

11A: Buccaneer

11B: Bulldog

12 Troop

12: Dreadnaught

12A: Defiant

12B: Dauntless

13 Troop

13: Minotaur

13A: Minerva

13B: Medusa

14 Troop

14: Triumph

14A: Terror

14B: Thunderbolt

15 Troop

15: Vindictive

15A: Valiant

15N: Venomous

 
 

Two Detail Shots of the Churchills and a Shot of the Whole Squadron

 
 
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The start of a later war British force, ideal for Italy, Normandy and beyond. The Armoured Squadrons are all Plastic Soldier Company models, with the Sherman VCs (Fireflys) serving in both the Sherman-based and Cromwell-based versions. Support for the squadron would come from any of the other British Battle for Liberation lists.

The great thing about the increasing ranges of plastic 15mm vehicles is that the cost of fielding larger numbers of tanks has come right down. Take the somewhat understrength Sherman armoured squadron of ten tanks: I paid £14.99 a box for five tanks each i.e. a total of under £30. Four resin and/or metal tanks are currently £28-£31: ten tanks would therefore cost about £75 or well over double!

Armoured Squadron (Shermans)

Armoured Recce Squadron or Armoured Squadron (Cromwells)

 
 
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My Gebirgsjaeger were originally bought to provide a late war German force for the eastern front in order to avoid painting the camouflage smocks that I would need for a contemporaneous company of Heer troops. See the gallery under Vpered Na Berlin  or Battle for Liberation.

Here, that late war force has been adapted and expanded to allow for troops that formed part of the German army that invaded Poland in September 1939. The main changes are really to strip away all the later war equipment (Kettenkrads, Maultiers, StuGs etc) and really go back to basics.

Company HQ & Specialists

Core Troops

Battalion Support Troops

Divisional Support Troops

Air Support

 
 
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My first Polish force for the September War is a cavalry regiment, or at least part of one. Figures are a mix of Battlefront and Flames of War, with the dismounted elements being as important as the mounted ones.

The dismounted cavalry are the ones that I had so much trouble with due to frosting from two bad cans of Games Workshop Purity Seal. They were only saved from the scrapheap by a coating of olive oil (see blog entry) that somehow de-frosted them at least to a level at which they are usable. I'm hoping they improve with use as well.

Mounted Company

Dismounted Company

Support Units from Regiment

Support Units from Brigade

 
 
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The TwoFatLardies D-Day Airborne Games day in 2008 (God, was it really that long ago?!) provided an excuse to buy a British parachute force. Unlike my German Fallschirmjaeger, I painted all these myself:  driving myself almost barmy trying to get them all done in time for the event! As it happens, they took the field without their MMGs but, I'm pleased to say, did themselves proud! 

Here is the Air Landing company: not intended to be dropped out of aeroplanes, but designed to be landed by gliders or transport aircraft. That means that the company actually has some heavy weapons support and, if you want to be slightly cheese-y, some light tanks as well. This is a well-equipped light company whose elite nature makes them a very formidable force either on the attack or in defence.

Core Troops

Battalion Support

Divisional Support

 
 
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Core Troops (Motorised Schutzen Company)

Company HQ

1st Platoon (no transport)

2nd Platoon (no transport)

3rd Platoon (no transport)

Motorised Machine Gun Platoon (no transport)

Support from Battalion

motorised Mortar Platoon (no transport)

motorised Infantry Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Anti-Tank Platoon

Schutzen Motorcycle Platoon (remnants)

motorised Infantry Pioneer Platoon

Support from Brigade

Self-Propelled Gun Platoon (no ammunition trailers)

Support from Division

Panzerjaeger Platoon (no transport)

Light Field Artillery Battery (105mm Howitzers)

Infantry Armoured Car Platoon

Squadron HQ

Radio Car Assets

Light Armoured car platoon

Mixed Armoured Car Platoon (remnants)

Heavy Armoured car Platoon

Light Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

Missing in Action

Medium Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

Other Support

Ambulance, Radio Truck and Workshop

Field Kitchen

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”

 
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Core Troops (Motorised Schutzen Company)

Company HQ

1st Platoon (no transport)

2nd Platoon (no transport)

3rd Platoon (no transport)

Motorised Machine Gun Platoon (no transport)

Support from Battalion

motorised Mortar Platoon (no transport)

motorised Infantry Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Anti-Tank Platoon

Schutzen Motorcycle Platoon (remnants)

motorised Infantry Pioneer Platoon

Support from Division

Panzerjaeger Platoon (no transport)

Light Field Artillery Battery (105mm Howitzers)

Infantry Armoured Car Platoon

Squadron HQ

Radio Car Assets

Light Armoured car platoon

Mixed Armoured Car Platoon (remnants)

Heavy Armoured car Platoon

Light Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon (remnants)

3rd Platoon

Medium Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon (remnants)

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

Other Support

Ambulance, Radio Truck and Workshop

Field Kitchen

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”

 
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Core Troops (Motorised Schutzen Company)

Company HQ (no transport)

1st Platoon (no transport)

2nd Platoon (no transport)

3rd Platoon (no transport)

Support from Battalion

motorised Machine Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Mortar Platoon (no transport)

motorised Infantry Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Anti-Tank Platoon (no transport)

Schutzen Motorcycle Platoon (remnants)

motorised Infantry Pioneer Platoon

Support from Division

Panzerjaeger Platoon (remnants)

Light Field Artillery Battery (105mm Howitzers)

Infantry Armoured Car Platoon

Squadron HQ

Radio Car Assets

Light Armoured car platoon

Mixed Armoured Car Platoon (remnants)

Heavy Armoured car Platoon

Light Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon (remnants)

3rd Platoon

Medium Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon (remnants)

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

Other Support

Ambulance, Radio Truck and Workshop

Field Kitchen

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”

 
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Core Troops (Motorised Schutzen Company)

Company HQ (no transport)

1st Platoon (no transport)

2nd Platoon (no transport)

3rd Platoon (no transport)

Support from Battalion

motorised Machine Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Mortar Platoon (no transport)

motorised Infantry Gun Platoon (no transport)

motorised Anti-Tank Platoon (no transport)

Schutzen Motorcycle Platoon (remnants)

motorised Infantry Pioneer Platoon

Support from Brigade

Self-Propelled Gun Platoon

Support from Division

Panzerjaeger Platoon (remnants)

Light Field Artillery Battery (105mm Howitzers)

Heavy Field Artillery Battery

Infantry Armoured Car Platoon

Squadron HQ

Radio Car Assets

Light Armoured car platoon

Mixed Armoured Car Platoon (remnants)

Heavy Armoured car Platoon

Light Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

4th Platoon

Medium Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon (remnants)

3rd Platoon

Other Support

Ambulance, Radio Truck and Workshop

Field Kitchen

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”

 
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Core Troops (Armoured Schutzen Company)

Company HQ (no transport)

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon (no transport)

3rd Platoon (no transport)

Support from Battalion

Armoured Machine Gun Platoon (no transport)

Armoured Mortar Platoon (no transport)

Armoured Infantry Gun Platoon (no transport)

Armoured Anti-Tank Platoon (no transport)

Schutzen Motorcycle Platoon (remnants)

Armoured Infantry Pioneer Platoon (no transport)

Support from Brigade

Self-Propelled Gun Platoon

Support from Division

Panzerjaeger Platoon (remnants)

Light Field Artillery Battery (105mm Howitzers)

Heavy Field Artillery Battery

Infantry Armoured Car Platoon

Squadron HQ

Radio Car Assets

Light armoured car platoon

Mixed Armoured Car Platoon (remnants)

Heavy Armoured car Platoon

Light Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon

3rd Platoon

4th Platoon

Medium Tank Company

Company HQ

1st Platoon

2nd Platoon (remnants)

3rd Platoon

Other Support

Ambulance, Radio Truck and Workshop

Field Kitchen

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”