LRDG & SAS Platoon finished

 

Although the second section made for a legitimate Behind Enemy Lines force it was rather small and some support options were needed to fill it out: an MMG team, a sniper team, and a forward air observer join the two sections and armed trucks.

While the British get a free artillery observer it didn't feel right to use one with this list as they're likely miles behind the lines blowing up an airbase or an ammo dump.  I'd picked up the Warlord figure of Flying Officer CFC Lee, and decided to give him the Company B Blitz Buggy as a "counts-as" Jeep for transport. The buggy model had a few problems; the wheels attach directly to the body without axles, which is OK on the rear, but difficult at the front, and the resin had a fair bit of pitting on the surface.  I built a couple of axles out of pipe, and coated the surface in thinned PVA which helped with the worst of the effect.

The machine gun team was interesting as I hadn't built a team weapon before. I'd seen some examples with removable extra crew magnetized to a larger base and wanted to try that out. I attached two of the crew to small round (Perry) bases drilled for magnets and matched these up to the base. Bits of another base were used to lift the gunner to the same height. The coolant pipe is a piece of paperclip wire.

The base was puttied up with some Green Stuff, and I built a bit of stowage for the rear of the buggy, using some foam board to lift some Rubicon bits and pieces.

The figures were painted in the same way as the other SAS and LRDG troops, though I'd refined things a little this time by base coating VMC Dark Sand with the air brush. It's the majority colour on all of the figures - I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. I also stopped fussing around with adding green to khaki for some pieces and just used VMA US Olive Drab.

The Blitz Buggy was painted in a simple single colour of UK Light Stone and weathered like the previous vehicles.

Sniper in a tropal coat, with his spotter.

Vickers Medium Machine Gun team with the extra crew magnetized for removal as casualties.

Forward Air Observer and his assistant with their transport.

Army List

 Built using the excellent EasyArmy.com, a 1000 point Behind Enemy Lines list.

Officer
Second Lieutenant		Veteran	78
1	Second Lieutenant
1	Infantry
Infantry Squads
SAS Infantry Section		Veteran	195
1	NCO with Submachine gun
2	Infantry with Rifle
4	Infantry with Submachine gun
1	Vickers K LMG (requires loader)
	Entire squad equipped with anti-tank grenades
	Who Dares Wins!
	Behind enemy lines
SAS Infantry Section		Veteran	212
1	NCO with Submachine gun
2	Infantry with Light Machine gun (requires loader)
5	Infantry with Submachine gun
	Entire squad equipped with anti-tank grenades
	Who Dares Wins!
	Behind enemy lines
Forward Observer
Forward Observer (Air)		Regular	85
1	Air Force Forward Observer
1	Infantry
Machine Gun
Machine Gun team		Regular	50
1	Medium Machine gun team
Sniper
Sniper team		Veteran	50
1	Sniper team
Armoured Cars
LRDG Armed Truck		Veteran	54
1	LRDG Armed truck
	Forward facing MMG
	Rear facing MMG
LRDG Armed Truck		Veteran	54
1	LRDG Armed truck
	Forward facing MMG
	Rear facing MMG
LRDG Armed Truck with 20mm light autocannon		Veteran	89
1	LRDG Armed Truck
	Forward facing MMG
	20mm light autocannon
	Pintle-mounted HMG
Transports
30 CWT Truck		Regular	35
15 CWT Truck		Regular	31
15 CWT Truck		Regular	31
Jeep (Blitz Buggy)		Regular	21
		Points	1000

And that's that.

So... another platoon, or a new project.  It might be time to pull a few half-finished Ogres out of storage, or there's British Airborne... or 2nd NZ Div in the desert, or in Italy, or the Home Guard, or Plague Marines... oh dear.

LRDG & SAS second section

SAS Section #2 completed, and with them a legitimate Bolt Action Behind Enemy Lines force... albeit a small one.

The troops were painted in very much the same way as the first section, though as I go I'm refining and streamlining the process.

Primed with Stynylrez yellow, basecoated in Sand, English Uniform, Khaki, and the rest - almost all Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) or Model Air (VMA) - and then washed with diluted Army Painter inks.

I thought I'd list the paints and washes used... this way I have a reminder for the next set of figures.

Basecoats and ink washes

Item	Colour	Paint	Wash
SAS Beret	Beige	VMC German Camo Beige 70.821	Light
Cap Comforter	Khaki	VMC Khaki 70.988 + green tint	Soft
Helmet	Sand	VMC Dark Sand 70.847	Light
Keffiyeh/Shemagh	Off-white	Reaper Bone shades	Light
Khaki Drill Uniform	Sand	VMC Dark Sand 70.847	Light
Serge Wool Uniform	Khaki	VMC English Uniform 70.921	Soft
Leather Jerkin	Brown	VMC Flat Brown 70.984	Strong
Webbing and pouches	Beige	VMC German Camo Beige 70.821	Light
Socks	Khaki	VMC English Uniform 70.921	Soft
Anklets / Gaiters	Beige	VMC German Camo Beige 70.821	Light
Boots - Officers	Brown		Soft
Boots - Soldiers	Black	VMA Black Grey 71.056	Dark
Gun stocks and handles	Brown	VMC Flat Brown 70.984	Mid-Brown
Gun Metal	Black/Metal	VMA Black Grey 71.056 dry-brushed with VMC Oily Steel 70.865	Dark / Nuln Oil
Skin	Flesh	Reaper Tanned Flesh	Reaper Flesh Wash

Notes

• I wanted the Cap Comforter a slightly greener Khaki for better contrast, and added a small amount of VMA Russian Green 4BO to the mix.
• For hair and beards a variety of browns to hands were used.
• The post wash highlight on both the KD and webbing was Dark Sand lightened with Reaper Yellowed bone.

Sealed with AK Interactive Ultra Matte, and based simply using Citadel sand.

 

Trooper in Arab shemagh, and section NCO with Sten and original white SAS beret

Trooper with standard beige SAS beret, and one who's retained his Scot's tam o' shanter.

Bren gunner #1 and loader.

Bren gunner #2 and loader. This Bren gunner is the only figure in the group not from Artizan, being the Warlord figure given away with the Duel in the Sun campaign book.

Rear shot of the two. This loader is actually getting traded with the loader from 1st section. I'd noted previously that the 1st section loader was carrying Bren ammo despite his gunner having a Vickers K.  This chap has a bag of ammo and I added a Vickers drum to his belt to sort out the mismatch.

With 1st section, an Officer and assistant, two transport trucks (one each 30cwt and 15cwt), and three LRDG armed trucks the forces comes in around 800 points, so I think they're going to need a little support... probably a Vickers MMG is next.

British CMP 15cwt trucks

Two Rubicon Models British CMP 15cwt trucks for use with both my 2nd NZ Division and LRDG / SAS forces.

There's not much new here from a perspective of painting techniques as these models have been prepared to fit in with the Marmon-Herrington and M3 "Honey" Stuart for the New Zealanders, and the LRDG trucks for my Behind Enemy Lines force.

The Rubicon model has options for an open or enclosed tray, and if the canvas tilt is used then its back panel can be flipped open or tied shut. There can also be either one or two crew; a driver and an optional Bren gunner, positioned through a hatch in the roof. I decided on just the drivers as under the Bolt Action rules 15cwt trucks don't get an option for a gun.

The trucks were undercoated with Stynylrez yellow primer...

...and then base coated in VMA UK BSC 64 Portland Stone. The canvas tilt was painted with VMA Sand Yellow.

I created a simple hard-edged camouflage pattern by masking the vehicles and then spraying areas with VMC Light Green Blue.

The masking removed to show the light blue-grey colour that once weathered will end up a slivery-grey.

Air recognition RAF decals added to the roof and unit markings added to the front bumpers. The NZ Division silver fern was added on the left, and a red "52" for the 20th Battalion to the right.
 
There wasn't anywhere convenient to add the unit markings, so after having a look at some historical examples showing the location of markings I decided to affix a small plate to each side of the bumpers. I ended up making these from scrap sprue (specifically some of the parts numbers from the Rubicon kits), and then painting them to match.

After attaching the wheels and sealing the acrylic paint, AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand was used as a filter coat.

First truck fully finished with AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and areas where dust would build up, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment dusted on and another sealing coat applied.

 And second truck done.

Next up the second section for the LRDG / SAS force.

LRDG & SAS troops

Some disreputable lads and their "borrowed" truck.

The first infantry finished for my Bolt Action Behind Enemy Lines force.

I decided I could tackle 10 without feeling overwhelmed and settled on a dismounted LRDG officer and his #2 along with a full strength SAS section, to ride in my captured Opel Blitz (which will be a "counts as" 30 cwt truck with a transport capacity of 10, rather than its original size).

All of the figures used are from Artizan, mostly from their SAS and LRDG range, though the chap with the Vickers K snuck in from the Commandos.

The figures were all primed with Stynylrez yellow and then basecoated largely following Artizan's 8th Army North Africa Colour Guide (PDF). Most of the paints used were the listed Vallejo colours, the flesh is Reaper MSP tanned flesh and flesh wash.

Army Painter Light tone was then used on the KD uniform, beige webbing, berets, and keffiyeh, while Soft tone was used on the darker woolen uniform. Military shader was used on the officer's khaki jersey and the khaki knitted hats.

After the washes highlights were applied in lightened tones of the base colours, and the figures based with fairly simple sand.

LRDG officer and his rather rough looking assistant.

These two could be SAS but just felt like LRDG to me, so the officer has a little brass badge on his hat for a scorpion.

SAS NCO, Vickers K gunner and loader

The NCO of the SAS section got a small plant on his base (like the officer) to make him easy to identify. The section only has a single LMG but it's been upgraded to a Vickers K, though the eagle-eyed will notice that his loader is rather unhelpfully carrying extra Bren clips. I'll have to add some round drums to another loader and swap this chap to a Bren team later.

SAS lads up to no good

The fellow on the left has a large pair of bolt cutters and is rather suspiciously clutching a satchel that's likely to contain something dangerous.

Rest of the section

Two riflemen and another Thompson wielding keffiyeh wearer round out the eight man SAS section.

So, that's HQ and one section, one more section and it'll be a legitimate (albeit, small) force ready to accompany my two LRDG trucks, and truck with Breda.

The second section will however also need transport, but fortunately for them the nice people at Rubicon recently released a CMP 15 cwt, which may be next up on the table.
 

LRDG truck with captured Breda gun

Finally it's off the bench. This addition to the LRDG patrol has taken far too long to finish, and I'm not completely sold on the outcome unfortunately.

My painting got put on enforced hiatus as we were getting the house painted - so at least some painting was going on - but my table was covered up to prevent dust and paint getting everywhere and modelling just wasn't an option for a while.

Afterwards it was a matter of trying (and failing) to get back in to the habit of getting even a little painting done each night, rather than just putting things off.

Offensive Miniatures Chevy, Company B Chevy, Company B Blitz Buggy

Unlike the previous LRDG trucks this one isn't a Warlord model, instead coming from the Offensive Miniatures 8th Army range. At about the same time I picked up a couple of vehicles and some crew from Company B; the crew in the front seat of this Breda armed truck are from Company B.

Size-wise the OM truck is a pretty good fit with Warlord - a bit shorter and a bit wider - but the figures I'm using for infantry are from Artizan and the OM figures are somewhat smaller. While that's not too noticeable on the Breda crew I wanted the front seat crew to match more closely. The Company B crew (sculpted by Paul Hicks) are quite similar in size and style to the other figures I'm using. The stowage is also a mix of the two.

The truck went together very easily, the Breda... not so much.  I ended up looking at as many reference photos as I could find, and concluded that the assembled example on the OM site doesn't actually quite mach the historical images around the sighting bar placement.

The truck, gun, and crew were all primed with Stynylrez yellow primer, and then the truck and gun were basecoated with an overall spray of VMA UK Light Stone, while the crew got VMC Iraqi Sand.

Freehand camouflage was added in VMA Hellblau (RLM65) for the blue, and a 1:1 mix of VGA Pale Flesh and VMA US Desert Sand for the pink.  I should have gone back and checked my own notes and used the 3:1 ratio as the Pink has almost disappeared after the weathering. (Mistake #1.)

Company B LRDG decals were added and sealed, crew, stowage, and accessories finished, and the components assembled.

The whole model was given a sealing coat and allowed to dry before weathering. For some reason I used Italeri Flat Acrylic for the sealant where previously I've been using AK Interactive Ultra Matte. Whether this was the cause, or the hot and humid weather we'd been having I don't know, but the enamels seemed to react a little with the sealant and ended up a bit sticky. (Mistake #2.)

 The truck was weathered in much the same manner as the Marmon-Herrington armoured car using AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand as a filter coat, with AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and areas were dust would build up, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment was added, mostly to the tires...and into some of the sticky areas.  The crew got a half-strength filter coat so they too would have the dusty desert look.

The end result is... OK?  I'm just not as happy with the outcome as with the two previous LRDG trucks, but at least the three are now done, which I suppose means I should get onto the infantry and the other transport vehicles.

Here's all three (with the captured Opel Blitz in the background), and a final size comparison photo.

Left to Right: Warlord LRDG Chevy, Offensive Miniatures LRDG Chevy with Breda, Rubicon Models Opel Blitz.