#8th army

[tzekkaz]

Unboxing: Tobruk starter set

I made a promise to a friend and fellow wargamer at the end of last year and that was in the New Year I would buy something for Flames of War and give it a try. Flames of War is a 15mm scale World War II wargame played at divisional level. I had largely put my promise to the back of my mind as Bolt Action and Barons War took over my thoughts. I happened to be browsing a copy of Wargames Illustrated and saw an advert for limited edition D-day divisions, the British 7th Armoured Division caught my eye and reminded me of my promise.

Long story short I ordered a number of things for Flames of War the first to arrive was the Tobruk starter set which I ordered through Amazon and it arrived better packaged than Lion Rampant did.

The boxset contains the following:

6x crusader tanks

3x Grant tanks

3x M4 Sherman tanks

4x M14/41 tanks

5x Semovente assault gund

2x 88mm guns

1x complete A5 rulebook

1x quick start guide

12x unit cards

1x 8 million bayonets dice

20x dice

The box was in perfect condition and literally said on the cover what it contains. British and Italian forces for recreating the siege of Tobruk. I have heard it said that that some of the tanks were not at Tobruk. I am a lover of historical accuracy with things but this time I did not care as it is a nice set with some beautiful models and some of my favourite tanks (the Grants, I love how ugly they look)

on opening the box I was confronted with so many sprues and resin parts making up the two forces. The models look fairly easy to assemble but the sheer number of sprues is intimidating. This is the point when normally I would take photos of each sprue and give some of the history behind the tank or artillery. I am trying to shorten my articles so I will not this time, I shall do that in a different entry.

Under the sprues was an A3 soft back edition of the Flames of war rulebook, a leaflet detailing the core rules allowing players to get started rather quickly. The set includes full instruction manuals on how to build the models. There were cards with all the statlines for the different units in the box. The set also includes 20 coloured dice and one 8 million bayonets dice.

That's all for now

Until next time,

Happy hobbying

[tzekkaz]

WIP Wednesday: 8th Army infantry

Currently on my desk is the first infantry squad for my Western Desert 8th Army force. I have undercoated them with The Army Painter Desert Yellow primer and have basecoated the uniforms with Vallejo Iraqi Sand

[tzekkaz]

Unboxing: 8th Army vehicles

 Here are the latest models to join my pile of shame an M7 Priest SPG geared up for the Western Desert and an M3 Grant Medium Tank also geared up for the Western Desert 

M7 Priest SPG (Western Desert)

The M7 priest was a US design that was sent to the British and Commonwealth forces in Africa. The Priest first saw active service at the second Battle of El Alamein.

The kit is a resin and metal hybrid kit and, much to my iritation lacks instructions, detailed or other wise. The kit contains:

Resin M3 Priest

Metal crew and 25-pounder artillery gun

Vehicle damage markers

Stat card

I am not looking forward to the 'fun' I am going to have assembling the kit

M3 Grant Medium Tank (Western Desert)

The Grant was another US Tank utilised by the British in the Western Desert against Rommel's Afrika korps.

The kit contains:

Resin M3 Grant Medium Tank 

Metal Tank commander and gubbins

Order dice

Vehicle damage markers 

Stat card

The kit has instructions on the rear of the box and it looks fairly simple to assemble, the hard part is going to be filing the resin turret to get it to fit.

Both kits look wonderful and I feel they're going to make great additions to my eighth army force.

[tzekkaz]

unboxing: 8th Army vehicles

Today's unboxing is a number of vehicles I got for Christmas, they are all part of one of two 8th Army projects I am working on, these are for the 1942 British armoured brigade from Campaign: the Western Desert book, a copy of Tank Wars is also needed. I am unboxing the following:

Crusader Mk I/II tank

Flying Standard Tilly

Chevrolet CMP 15CWT truck

Bedford OY 3-ton lorry 

Crusader Mk I/II tank

The Crusader tank primarily saw action with British and Commonwealth forces in the Western Desert. They were particularly suited for the kind of mobile warfare that became prevalent in the desert, thanks to their speed and agility. It had a 2-pdr gun in the turret and co-axial machine gun in the hull. The 2-pdr was eventually replaced by a 6-pdr gun.

The kit is a metal/resin hybrid kit and includes damage markers, an order dice and stat cards

The kit looks nice and, assuming none of the resin parts are warped at all, relatively easy to assemble.

Flying standard Tilly

The Flying Standard Tilly or to give it its correct name, the Flying Standard 10 was used by British and Commonwealth troops in the Western Desert.

Another resin and metal hybrid kit, this kit did not come with an additional stuff and looks like the resin will need a little cleaning up. The kit will have to be painted in sub assemblies as the driver needs to be placed in the cab.

Chevrolet CMP 15cwt truck

The Canadian Military Pattern Chevrolet truck saw service extensively with British and Commonwealth troops in the Western Desert and beyond. The cab has a sloping windscreen to reduce glare and the chance of it giving away the trucks position.

The kit is yet another hybrid kit, resin and metal components. The comes with Vehicle damage markers and stat cards.

This kit is probably my favourite of all of them, I love the atheistics of the Chevrolet.

Bedford OY 3 ton lorry

The Bedford was quite ubiquitous covering numerous roles in the British and Commonwealth forces, it saw service throughout the second World War in many different theatres.

Yet another hybrid kit. Looks fairly easy to assemble. The kit was missing two wheels but an email to Warlord Games quickly rectified this and they, rather quickly, sent me the missing wheels.

The kits all look good and I am looking forward to assembling them and painting them. They will all make welcome additions to my 1942 armoured brigade. 

[tzekkaz]

Unboxing: 8th Army and Jock Lewes

This post is the unboxing of a few items I bought from Warlord Games for my 8th Army project for Bolt Action and jock Lewes for my SAS/LRDG force.

The parcel arrived well packed and secure with a free sprue of Italian Bersaglieri (I hope I spelt that right) as a gift from Warlord Games 

The first model in the package was Warlord's soldier of fortune for September, Jock Lewes. Jock Lewes was one of the founding members of the SAS and inventor of the Lewes bomb which they used to great effect in the Western Desert against German and Italian planes. 

The blister pack contained the following:

SAS hero Jock Lewes (metal)

Base (plastic)

The second item I unpacked was an 8th Army HQ blister. I rather like these models, they're fun and full of character, particularly the officer who is standing there with his mug of tea and pipe, the other model I like is the radio operator who is feeding a monkey, this model I shall use as a forward observer. The remaining two models in the set are a soldier with an smg in a tin helmet, I shall use him as a second lieutenant and a medic carrying a stretcher.

The blister pack contained the following:

Officer (metal)

Radio operator (metal

Medic (metal)

Soldier with smg (metal)

Bases (plastic)

The final thing that I received was the 8th Army starter set. At the time of ordering the starter set was in a sale thus resulting in me purchasing it before I really planned too. I struggled to work out how to fit the boxset into a standard reinforced platoon, it also didn't fit into any of the theatre selectors in the Armies of Great Britain book, I scoured the Western Desert campaign book and found the armies of the commonwealth selector, this allowed for everything in the box to be used. The contents of the box and the 8th Army HQ set gave me a solid 1000pt Army. 

The plastic infantry sprues contain a wealth of options for the modeler. There are a variety of head options, Punjabi Mussalman/Yusufzai, Scottish Tam O'Shanter, Sikh and finally heads with tin helmets. There are options for smgs, rifles, Boys anti-tank rifles, Bren guns, 2"mortar and options to build officers as well, along with the commonwealth sprue (not included in this box set) every head option for the British and commonwealth forces is available. The commonwealth sprue has the same options as the 8th army sprue except it has heads for South Africans, Canadians, Australians and SAS/SBS/LRDG, a sprue I used extensively for my SAS project...I digress, back to the 8th Army Starter set. 

The Starter set contains a number of metal artillery and support weapons these are 6-pdr anti-tank gun, 25-pdr light artillery, Vickers MMG team and finally a 3" mortar team, these are all produced in 8th Army uniforms in tin helmets.

The set comes with two plastic Bren carriers and metal 8th Army crew to go in them. The Bren carriers are, in my opinion fantastically useful in this Army as they can transport five infantry around or tow the artillery. 

There is a number of other things also included these are assembly instructions, decals, vehicle damage markers, stat cards for the bren carriers and plastic bases

The boxset contains the following:

36x British 8th Army infantry (plastic)

1x 8th Army 6-pdr anti-tank gun (metal)

1x 8th Army 25-pdr light artillery (metal)

1x 8th Army Vickers MMG team (metal)

1x 8th Army 3" medium mortar (metal)

2x Bren carriers and 8th army passengers (plastic and metal)

Assembly instructions 

Stat cards

Vehicle damage markers

Plastic bases

I am looking forward to painting these models, building them not so much. They're a nice set at a decent price (even better getting them in a sale) and overall I am pleased with it all. I hope this unboxing may be of some help to someone looking to get into the 8th Army for Bolt Action or any other game. I will soon post the armylist up for the box set but that is a post for another day.

[redarmyscreaming]

Crusader tank of 4th Light Armoured Brigade

[if68]

A captured German SdKfz 7 artillery tractor in the Western desert, 22 February 1943.

[redarmyscreaming]

BRITISH M3 LEE TANKS - NORTH AFRICA