Well, at least September’s models were quick to get through – and now we’re doing October. So with a table-functional set of Panzers for my DAK force set up, my choices when planning to add those Panzers was to paint those models, then shove the whole lot back into a figure case and forget about them again for several years, or spend the time to build up an opposing force for the Afrika Korps to battle. As you can see, I went with the latter. The tanks I started with were two platoons (well, A Company HQ and one platoon) of the ubiquitous Sherman tanks that saw extensive use across many updates and variants with the Allies throughout the second half of the war.
After painting the Shermans with the camouflage pattern I chose for them, I was in no mood to continue that particular scheme across an entire force. So I went a-googling to see what I could find. I found several variations on the pre-painted display model kit above, and I really liked how it came across so I eventually chose to base my Priests on it.
Later on, I actually found this colourised photo, which I can only assume was the basis (in some form) for the model kit. Photographs from The Desert War being what they are, I can see how the shading on a black and white photo like this could end up being interpreted as either shadows or a different colour in the camouflage. I did assign my unit to the 7th Amroured (Desert Rats) rather than the (UK) 1st Armoured Division as in the photo and reference model.
Again, a pic to show the four sides of the camouflage pattern applied…
…and an “aerial” shot.
Oh, and I’ll be counting these four Priests as 12 models for this month. Why? The crew. Even though I don’t tend to count commanders sticking out of a hatch, or spare/additional/turrets. as you can see from the pic above, these crew were painted as distinct individual 15mm models. With not counting commanders and turrets, etc, I figure it evens out – and besides, it’s all about personal motivation, so it’s not like anyone else should give too much of a shit either way! 😉
And here are the completed Priests on the “Desert” flats.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Nice work
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Thank you!
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Great additions mate, and you do your model count however you want to, no one will judge you
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Good point Dave – from now on I’ll count each goddamned road wheel I have to paint!
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Crikey, those are really nice! 🙂 Very busy models!
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Thanks John – yeah there’s a lot happening on Priests even without the crew or the camo!
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Excellent work mate ❤️
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Cheers, Alex – thank you! 🙂
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Very nice- an interesting camo pattern for sure.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Cheers Pete. Turns out there’s way more interesting options for the Brits that I never realised before starting to research them!
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Count ’em all. These are excellent. I just painted three priests too, but they are the human kind…
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Haha thanks Mark. All things being equal, I’d put my money on these ones in a dust-up! 😉
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Amen!
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Very nicely done! I go with counting the crew as individuals – each is a complete separate figure in any case.
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Cheers and yep – that’s why I decided to go that way for these!
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You are back to hammering them out again! For some reason these remind me of the Bren gun carriers (probably just because they are open topped) and then I went on a tangent thinking about a comic strip called Charlie’s War that was in the Battle Action Force comic (mainly as they rode around in one for a good chunk of it). About my earliest introduction to WW2.
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Thanks mate! They’ve certainly got a passing similarity to the Bren carriers – those will (probably) be the last armoured component of this force that I assemble and paint before moving to the infantry and artillery.
Just did some googling – Charley’s war looks interesting – and created by Pat Mills from 2000AD/Dredd!
When I was a kid we had lots of Army stuff around ther house from my Grandfather who may have still in the service when I was very young (or not all that long out, I guess). I used army towels, slept on army pillows, had uniform jackets and berets and whatnot around that I’d wear and play in… Didn’t think anything of it at the time!
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If I’m being honest it was my least favourite of the stories. It was bought for the action force story but I also loved the Johnny Red story (about a British Hurricane pilot flying with a Russian Squadron). No idea how well any of those would hold up today!
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When I get back to reading some comics, I’ve got a full partworks collection of Dredd to catch up on long before I get to anything else. I was going to read The Boys, but I want to avoid potential spoilers for the TV series….
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Very, VERY nice mate
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Cheers IRO. You’ll have to see them in person looking down on a tiny battlefield one day! 🙂
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I’m in 👌🏽
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It’s a play date!
At a future, unspecified date. 😉
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Very nice work, mate! I really like the crew as I think it adds a bit of life to what is otherwise a soulless machine.
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Thanks Kuribo. That’s the positive of open-topped vehicles, as opposed to the negative of painting crew and hull interior being a lot more work than a top plate with a closed hatch! 😉
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Fantastic Azazel. There’s a lot of detail on these for 15mm and I’m well impressed.
I’ve been looking at getting back into WWII wargaming and considered Flames of War, but I think I’m edging towards Bolt Action, maybe at 20 rather than 28mm. I keep looking at what you’ve been doing and wondering if I’m making the right choice, lol🧐
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Thank you!
I’d at one point planned to use my FoW and PSC models for Bolt Action at 15mm, and really the only thing that can’t be easily cross-used would be infantry, needing to be single-based for BA. I may (or may not) just paint a single platoon for each side and use those for BA while using a larger number of multibased infantry for FoW. A smaller scale certainly makes a lot of it cheaper to build and offers a larger scope for the battlefield! (Though I will also get some more 28mm BA stuff painted one day, and perhaps even get to play it before I eventually die!)
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Yeah, it was the infantry side of things that put me off FOW, that and the I go you go activations. I prefer the BA system, pulling a die from a bag.
I’m still unsure what scale to go for and am once again gravitating back to 28mm – I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure!
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I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually, and if not, you can always roll a die!
I imagine that with a willing opponent, you could always house-rule the die-activation method for FoW (or any other game). I might actually give that a go in one of our FoW games here between Marouda and myself, now that you mention it… 🙂
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