20mm British Corps Assets

 My 20mm British stuff based for Megablitz has three core formations, all covered in previous blog posts:

1st Infantry Division

1st Armoured Div

6th Armoured Div

I've also got some Corps assets and some other bits and pieces so the core formations can be modified for different theatres and periods of the war, or even converted into completely different divisions.

Here is one box load.

And here is another! Allied armies have quite a lot of kit....

First up is Corps HQ. In this case the excellent 'Montys Caravan' set. I picked this up at Triples years ago. A nice clean kit to put together, and surprisingly large. Monty is busy pointing at the map.

The rest of the HQ staff.

This is a Frontline Humber LRC. In this case it will be used for an air liaison officer type.

Staff officer and jeep. The jeep is a dodgy resin Frontline one, and I think the standing officer is from the Monty set. The driver is cut down from an SHQ German horse cart driver wearing a side cap.

This fine MP has a (BMW!) motorcycle. Readers of a certain age will recognise him from the old Airfix 'Bloodhound' set. I've no idea where his dog has gone. I've used this in a couple of games as an asset to boost road capacity. 

The Royal Artillery element. This is my AGRA (Army Group Royal Artillery). Typically one of these was allocated to each Corps in Northwest Europe. The 25pdr can supplement the artillery in one of the infantry or armoured divisions if required. 

The Medium Regiments are the good old Airfix 5.5" gun and Matador truck. The bareheaded gunners are from SHQ. I wish someone made these in 15mm, heavy gun crews wearing helmets just look silly. I did actually research the correct tac numbers and serials etc for AGRAs, so the numbers and the colours painted on the truck are correct. My eyesight isn't really up to that these days.

The Royal Engineers contingent.

A motorised engineer regiment in a Frontline truck. I think the engineer figure is SHQ but it might be FAA.

The other Regiment is armoured in this very grand Revell (?) AVRE. I picked this up second hand. What a lovely model. I have a section of bridge I place on top of this should armoured bridging capability be required, so the turret comes off.

The service elements put in an appearance too, always very important in operational games and a nice bit of clutter on the table.

A pair of Royal Army Service Corps trucks. As these are Austin 6 wheelers, I thought they'd be best as Corps assets. These are both resin Frontline models, although Gerald Scarborough does have a guide on how to convert these from the Airfix recovery set. 

The good old Airfix Austin ambulance. 

This is a Corgi diecast I've had since I was a kid. The lorry chassis is a little bit 1950s, but as a heavy Corps level REME element I think it works fine.

An independent Armoured Brigade, for when you haven't got any Tank Brigades. It is also handy for upgrading one of the existing divisions too.

Two of the Shermans are Frontline 1/72nd scale models. Nice and easy to assemble, but like all 1/72nd scale stuff, a bit big for my tastes. I didn't bother with tactical markings on these.

The third Sherman is a 1/72nd scale kit I bought pre-assembled second hand. Not sure of the manufacturer, Fujimi maybe? The commander is from a matchbox Daimler armoured car.

A Corps level Recce Regiment. This can also be assigned to divisions as required. The models are all Frontline resin ones, a pair of Daimlers and a Humber LRC. These have the right tac numbers etc for a Corps recce regiment, I can't remember which specific one it is now.

There is also a Corps level Royal Artillery SP Anti-tank regiment. Like its pal in 1st AD, this an Armorfast M10, with turret crew from cut up Airfix 25pdr gunners.

A Tank Brigade with Churchills, a fairly common attachment to infantry divisions later in the war (like the independant armoured brigades). These are all Airfix Churchills, the weird mark IV/VII hybrid kit, and yes, I did stick them all together myself. I'm quite good at assembling Airfix Churchills.

They also have my Churchill Mark 1, converted from the standard Airfix kit. This has made an appearance in Tunisia games where a handful of Mark I and II served. The conversion is covered in an earlier blog post.

Another Armoured Brigade! This is modelled as the armoured element of 7th Armoured Div, so have 7th AD tactical symbols etc and is predominantly composed of Cromwells. When I finally get around to that Operation Perch scenario, I'm all sorted.

Two of the Cromwells are Armorfast kits. One of their more complex models but they look pretty good assembled.

The third is a Frontline resin one, which looks a bit small compared to its Armorfast pals, so I use it as the Armoured Recce Regiment.

The last element is another Matchbox Firefly to complete the brigade.

A couple more random logistic elements.

Another one of my old Airfix bendy plastic trucks.

And my Airifx bendy plastic DUKW! Just what you need for those river crossings.

Finally there are two brigades of infantry, which can be used to turn one of the Armoured Divisions into an Infantry Division if required, or just used as independent brigades.

I really like these figures, they are the ESCI 'Scottish Infantry' set so they are all wearing Tams, and like all plastic figures have elegant slim proportions. A particular favourite figure is the Bren on the AA mount.

So there you have it, a whistlestop tour of my 20mm British stuff. Next up, Ze Germans.