Finished: Limbered 40mm Bofors

Hi folks,

I've gotten myself into that odd situation (for me at least) where I have multiple units being painted together. This has led to a break in things getting finished, followed by a load of units completed simultaneously. 

This weekend I finished off another oddball unit - one that I've thought about for a while but only recently had cause to build. Anyone who regularly follows will know I like to have limbered versions of my various guns (with 6-pdrs, 17-pdrs and Pak40s all having limbered models in my collection). During our recent Gold Beach game, some of the arriving reinforcements consisted of 40mm Bofors armed Crusader AA tanks towing limbered 40mm Bofors guns. 

I managed to jury rig tanks for this purpose (and have since converted some, which should be finished soon), but I could only proxy the limbered 40mm with a limbered 17-pdr. I had a load of spare 40mm Bofors parts in my bits box and a blister of two guns in my lead pile. I managed to find another two of the metal blisters online - giving me enough parts to build six guns in the limbered configuration. Which was lucky, as the online bought packs were old, partially unsealed and missing a lot of bits.

The old metal Battlefront kits came with axles and wheels. I'm not sure about the placement of the axles as the guns sit a bit higher than I think they should - but these were supposed to be more base decoration that use I think. 

I found some parts to make gun cradles (handles from German drop canister trolley parts), tow bars (cut down 75mm gun barrels), seats (upturned Sherman tank bogeys) and seat backs (bits of plastic cut from a blister pack). If I'd had more skill I'd have boxed in the ammo feed, as per historical photos. Instead, I went with just painting the ammo black. 

The result is something that's 'close enough' for me. At 15mm scale, my skills wouldn't stretch much further. And these are models which are unlikely to see the table often - they were just a cool idea bodged together. Something I don't think many others will have in their collections.  

These sit nicely behind my previously completed transports for this unit. 

Finished: 15mm SP Bofors

Hi folks,

Yet another allied anti-aircraft unit for my collection. This time some 40mm self-propelled Bofors guns. 

These rapid-firing AA guns were mounted on a Morris C9/B truck and used for mobile air protection of armoured divisions. I had previously painted four of these, but this left me short of the full unit strength of six so I've added the missing two. Decals have been applied for the AA regiment of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. 

These are both older 15mm resin and metal Battlefront kits. 

I chose a more subdued highlighting colour for these, to match them into the older models. 

I'm quite happy that this pair match in well enough to not immediately stand out as having been painted years later. 

I've still allied AA units in the painting pile, so expect more of the same shortly. And another 6 of these in the painting pile for the Canadians...

Finished: 15mm Battlefront command teams (with piper)

Hi folks,

Just a small post for my own documentation really. While my son J was visiting, I gave him some painting lessons and he worked on a couple of figures to add to a command team I'd planned. Specifically another piper for my Scottish infantry battalion. Ideally, I'd like one of these per company, not sure if this is my 3rd or 4th. 

J did most of the base colours on the two other models, while I did the highlighting. Excuse the poor quality of the image. We used a lot of Vallejo Xpress paints on these, specifically the new British Uniform and Khaki colours. 

The other team was a random character set I'd had in my spares pile - something from the old Italian Infantry Aces pack, I think.