My forces for Operation Torch - or what have I been doing during COVID?

 Greetings all, I hope you are still coping with the unusual times we’re currently experiencing. Previously I’ve mentioned that my actual progress in my hobby is not very well represented by my blog posts - a mixture of frustration at computers (blogger is very hard to use on iPad recently - as I type this I cannot actually see what I’m writing and when I try and put pictures in a minute there will be swearing) and a feeling that it just isn’t that interesting. Well recently I’ve decided to give in and bore any poor reader who found their way here because if nothing else it’s a small distraction from the real world. 

Since just before Christmas I’ve been taking random boxes of 15mm tanks and vehicles I have stockpiled and trying to at least move them forward by sticking them together and basing them. I haven’t progressed to painting partly as I’ve lost my painting mojo and I was also stuck trying to match my basing colours with my chosen gaming mat (Cigar Box battle mats Arid region - it has a ground colour of a beige and pink flesh tone in it and sparse foliage scattered across it) but I think I’ve solved that problem.

For Operation Torch I wanted to collect Italians and Germans with British and Americans opposing them. My American platoon is already based along with a few vehicles like an M8 Scott, M1 Scout car as they were originally for Normandy but I decided to repurpose them and build a new platoon for Overlord at some point in the future. Not everything is finished and in some cases there a few more waiting to be built but this gives a good example of what I’m intending to have as a final force. So we have M3 Lees, early M4 Shermans, halftracks (only 1 but more to come), trucks, T30 halftracks (75mm howitzer), M1 scout car, various jeeps (spotters and a radio version) and Beeps, Portee’d anti tank guns and M3 Stuart’s. So still a number of vehicles to finish or tart up with sculpted details and crew but definite progress.

The British are the least completed (maybe started is a better term) force but if you look carefully at the pictures of the drawers I keep my WIP models in you can see 6 pounders and a couple of scout cars (you can also see some of my limited armour for VBCW including a T1 cavalry tank and some Konflikt ‘47 walkers in their original, and honestly much better, scale). I will get back to the Brits but as I had my American infantry re-headed and based it seemed sensible to focus on them to get a working allied force done.

For the Axis I have Germans and Italians. The Italians are represented by a Bersaglieri platoon (half done and charming in their pith style sun helmets and ostrich feathers) and a range of vehicles from M41 tanks and semoventes, dovunque 35 lorries and Lancia 3RO 6-ton trucks including two (one pictured) with 90mm guns mounted on them, TL-37 artillery tractors and a section of motor cycle based rifleman for a bit of mobile reserve. I could still do with some Sahariana vehicles to act as a mobile elite force but there’s easily enough for Chain of command, Bolt Action or small games of Battlegroup (the Germans will bolster their forces in bigger games). I also made a Carro commando M41 command vehicle out of one of the FoW plastic M41s. Ive also got a number of infantry guns and support weapons to base up to help give the troops a bit more punch.

For the Germans I have a good range of vehicles to support my intended two platoons of infantry. I’ve based and re-headed one platoon in trench coats (Tunisia was cold at night and very different to the sweltering deserts of ‘41)  and they will have a kradschutzen platoon added to them soon (I have the bikes but not the chaps yet) as I felt they would be very different to the other forces and give a highly mobile but fragile fighting force. The vehicles for the Germans range from Panzer III (mainly J’s) and Panzer IV’s (newly arrived in the desert and a dangerous foe), a Bison (daft and pretty unique but cheap from eBay), sdkfz 6 Diana SPG, various artillery tows (sdkfz 7 and 10’s) and scout cars and the utterly weird SdKfz 254 (minus its aerial frame at the moment as it’s thick and clunky and I think I can do better). There is also  some captured and converted Lorraine schleppers and a Tiger. For command vehicles or particular individuals I’ve sculpted crew members using Peter Pig heads to make them a little bit more ‘mine’ (the panzer commander has a cigarette if you squint at my awful photos). Where turrets aren’t attached that is because on taking them out of storage one of the magnets has become detached and they’re waiting for the glue to dry.

So that’s a pretty good overview of some of what I’ve actually done recently. There are quite a few more vehicles to build, base and in a lot of cases add some sculpted details to in order to make them a bit different. I’ve also got to finish the infantry (and buy my kradschutzen troops on foot) but I feel like I’m actually making some progress and hopefully by the time the COVID problem has become more manageable and I’m allowed to mingle again I should be able to start playing some Chain of Command, Bolt Action and Battlegroup in Tunisia. Hopefully I can also use some of the scenery and as much of the forces as possible to play the conflict in Italy (with some key scenic additions like olive groves and Italian style houses) in the future. Apologies for the picture quality and the lack of captions on the pictures but writing this up has probably taken longer than it does to build most of the forces and as I may have mentioned blogger is very hard to use at the moment (I know it’s not just me and that many other bloggers are struggling as well).

Thank you for taking the time to read this, please get in touch and ask any questions or tell me about your own forces for this theatre.

Stay safe and well

BALM