Grants

More desert tanks for the British, this time five Grants (GHQ pack UK-7). An ugly tank, very high in profile and with the odd sponson mount, but it was popular with the troops when it arrived, as it gave them a 75mm gun for the first time. I gave the Caunter a break and used a different camoflage pattern I found on a couple of photo - Desert Pink base with a pattern of Dark Olive, outlined in white. I think it looks rather good, and certainly distinctive.

Matilda, Queen of the Desert

The painting continues on the British Western Desert tanks; this time it is the Matilda, a tank which was in its time dominant and indeed almost invulnerable to many of the guns it faced. Eventually, of course, it was outclassed, though it was still in service in the Far East at the end of the war. These are GHQ pack UK-4.

Valentine's Day

Another batch for the desert, though it's fairly marginal. Five Valentines from GHQ - pack UK-25, which is listed as Valentine III and XI. The turrets supplied were five of the 75mm versions plus just two of the 6pdr type for the Valentine III, so I made them all as XIs. I gave them a version of the Caunter paint scheme, which is certainly dubious for the Valentine XI - by the time they arrived the Caunter scheme had been superseded. But if I need Valentines of any mark for my desert battles these will be wheeled out - they're not going to get a lot of use in Europe.

More new lead

I finished the other GHQ models I bought at Fiasco - five Panzer IIs. Along with the 2 pdr anti tank guns they were the only thing I could find for my new Desert venture. However when I got home and did a little bit of research I realised that these (pack G-113) are the earliest version, A/B/C, which did not fight in Russia or the desert. So I painted them in Panzergrau and they will get an outing if I run any Blitzkrieg battles.

Call of the desert

First of what will be a substantial number of models for the Western Desert, WW2 - these are British 2 pdr Anti Tank guns, GHQ models in 6mm (well they insist 1/285 but the difference is less than the margin of tooling error). As always they are on 1" square steel bases - at least the deployed ones - for the towed versions I found some old rectangular steel bases from the same source. I bought those years ago, destined for 15mm Ancients I think.

 

New stuff - Flak and bridging tanks

I have been nibbling away at the pile of unpainted GHQ stuff. Often I am painting up the main fighting troops for a particular force or battle, but in the last few days I have been tidying around the edges with some units that usually tag along at the rear of the battalion, only coming into their own when the moment arrives. The first is a set of three Sdkfz 7/1 Quad 20mm Flak (GHQ Pack G-95).

And the other new items are two Churchill Bridgelayers (GHQ UK-85)

As always with GHQ, very nice models which take a paint job well. Most of the paints are Lifecolor - base coats airbrushed on and the rest with a brush - some of the detail colours are Coat D'Arms, Foundry or Vallejo - I have a fair collection by now and I grab whatever colour looks good for the little bits. Based as usual on 1" square metal, with Bastex paint to give a bit of landscaping.

FIASCO

Over the Pennines to Leeds, and the Fiasco show. Not a fiasco, but a bit of a disappointment - Wargames Emporium were there, but they only had a very small selection of GHQ. I am planning to move my WW2 back in time a little from Western Europe 1944 and do some Desert fighting - I had planned to get some of the earlier UK tanks - Matilda, Crusader, Valentine, that sort of thing, and something for them to fight. In the end all I got in that line was a pack of 2pdr Anti Tank guns and a pack of Panzer IIs. I did pick up a large felt cloth in sand colour and some suitable hills from S&A scenics. Other than that my visit was the usual struggle not to buy too much stuff for new periods - I got some new Wild West rules by Chris Peers (the Law of the Gun) but that's OK because I already have plenty of figures and a town to fight in. I did succumb to Crossed Lances jousting rules, mostly because I fancied some knights by Curteys. At least I managed to resist the new pirates rules from Osprey, with accompanying North Star figures, though I suspect that these will be in my future at some point. Every time I go to a show I wind up buying far more than I will have time to paint and use - I still have bags of figures I bought at shows in the eighties.

As for the show itself I'd say it was an OK middle-sized show, nothing special but a good opportunity to browse a large number of vendors and see what's new. No huge theme today - maybe more Bolt Action and less FoW in the WW2 space, and I saw little Saga, by contrast with other previous shows. The hall felt very dark, mainly because the roof and walls above head height were hung with black cloth - presumably for when the hall is used for shows. In fact the lighting was fine, but the overall impression was gloomy. Worth the trip, in my opinion - it isn't Salute, but then what is?