A bit more 6mm desert stuff

 We've played a fair few WW2 desert games in the last few years, and I've been toying with going with 15mm instead of 6mm. I enjoyed the Tunisia game in 15mm a lot, and I had two quite large 1941 15mm desert armies some years ago which I later sold off (back in the days when SDD were still making things!).

I had another look though, and while the infantry may be OK in 15mm, I can't really face doing all the armour variations and soft transport needed for North Africa.

I have a fair bit in 6mm already.

And a bit more. And I still haven't really got El Alamein era stuff yet.

So, I decided to stick with the 6mm for now and fill in a few gaps.  One of the complications is that I like to game at three different levels - brigade level using company stands, Corps level using battalion stands and Army level using brigade sized stands. That means I need stuff to fill in gaps pitched at different command levels. I'm generally OK for Army level as I have all the kit needed for  Compass, Crusader and Gazala with brigade elements. I'm a bit light at Corps level, and the more recent Brigade level games have shown up some distinct holes.  

I dug out a few books to look at some OBs and have a think. Beghazi Handicap is just fabulous, but stops in late 1941. I can't recommend Green and Massignanis 'Rommels North African Campaign' enough, an excellent single volume treatment of the Italian and German armies, with far more detail on the Italians than you normally get.

My main shortfalls are in Italian infantry divisions and the dismounted version of 90th Light Div. I did the latter in its fully motorised version, but for Crusader you need it as Zvb Afrika on foot. The original plan was to strip and rebase all the existing Italian infantry bases as they are very generously populated with figures. But when I opened the box (see above), I just couldn't face it.

However, rummaging about in my 6mm spares pile I found a few strips of Heroics & Ros 6mm desert figures I'd already painted and were presumably left over from earlier projects. With a bit of mixing and matching they were quite enough for what I actually needed. Result!

Here is the massively underwhelming result. Here they are stuck on the bases with sand and bits of magnabase on the rear edges but need finishing off. Another ten stands will come in very handy though, and  no painting required.

The bases just need finishing off with a light drybrush of Magnolia emulsion, and the edges doing black. I probably need to lighten up the magnabase strips so they blend in a bit more, as they are too dark.

First up are these four stands, all made up from one lonely Italian infantry strip and the ends of some support weapons strip. The prone figures have Solothurn ATRs, but from a distance they just look like more infantry. At Corps level these will do nicely as the core for another four battalion Italian division, or as IR 361 Afrika and the two independant battalions Zvb Afrika had during Crusader. At Brigade level, you can't have too much infantry.

These guys are what was left of a strip of Afrika Korps figures, fleshed out with some kneeling figures from redundant 50mm mortar teams. With a weapons stand added they will make another infantry battalion for Brigade level games, and at Corps level they can be IR 155, another component of Zvb Afrika.

Finally I made up an HQ stand and a couple of engineer stands. Two of the figures are actual engineers (one with a flamethrower, the other a mine detector) but the rest are bodged up from gun crews and infantry figures. I need a dismounted version of Engineer Bn 200 for a couple of Tobruk scenarios at Brigade level and they will be useful as divisional assets at Corps level. HQs are always handy, and if I want to do another Italian Infantry Division at Corps level, they just need an artillery regiment adding and I've got loads of Italian artillery. 

I'm pleased with those. They didn't end up being much work to do and will be very useful. Hmm, I really need to do something about those old Italian units, but not today.