15mm WW2 Desert Project

 Regular readers may recall that I have finally sold the bulk of my 20mm WW2 collection, after one last outing to the Sicily Megablitz game a few months ago. There are a still a few bits left which I'll punt on eBay as the fancy takes me.

This has freed up twelve boxfiles worth of storage space for a new project! I actually feel like a weight has lifted seeing all that empty shelving, so I don't intend to fill it all up right away. I have had a hankering to do the desert war in a larger scale for a while though. 

I've actually got a moderate 6mm WW2 desert collection of long standing which has featured in various games including Megablitz, Panzergruppe, Rommel, KISS Rommel, Memoir 44, and most recently, WW2 NBC as we waded through all the scenarios in 'Benghazi Stampede' remotely during lockdown. 

There is enough stuff here to do the whole of both Operation Crusader and the battle of Gazala at 1 base = 1 battalion, and I've done both those battles using Panzergruppe.

Anyway, I've often said that if starting WW2 from scratch, I do it in 15mm. I just prefer the character of the larger figures and vehicles, and they satisfy my desire to recreate the look of Charles Grants 'Battle', with the much smaller original Airfix figures and Roco vehicles. 15mm also avoids the "they all look the same" problem of 6mm armies which are all painted sand colour. 

I seem to actually have a core of of an Italian force already, having steadily accumulated various Italian vehicles over the years, and more recently some lorry donations from Tim. They have apparently been supplemented with some BPM resin 3D prints in this box, as well as a BF 109 in need of a repaint. 

Ooer missus. This lot look a bit Germanic.

I've not done a multi-army 15mm project for a while, the last being the British and Germans in 15mm for early WW1 some years ago. Even though I was younger, I thought my eyes would fall out of my head if I had to paint one more pair of boots.  I had much the same feeling when I did the 15mm Russians and US. How many more T34s do I have to paint? Why do US infantry insist on wearing leggings a different colour to their trousers? 

Anyway, this time I decided to just do 'pocket armies' for the British, Germans and Italians to get started, then add more bits over the years to come. Each army would have enough infantry, vehicles and guns for a basic Neil Thomas One Hour type army, and ideally to do many of the scenarios in Benghazi Handicap or at least a Corps for Megablitz. Essentially, a couple of artillery pieces, a couple of anti tank guns, a handful of MGs and mortars, a dozen bases of infantry, some engineers, HQs plus some transport and some tanks. 

Each army was a bit different, as in the case of the Italians and Germans I had some stuff  I could use already - the Germans in particular had a ton of late war stuff in dunkelgelb which could be used for DAK.

Mmm. It transpired that I'd over ordered a  bit even for my initial pocket armies. A big box of unopened Peter Pig stuff. I'm sure it will all come in handy. 

And some things from QRF I haven't apparently had time to stick together either. 

Never mind all these blurry boxes of Zvezda kits. Whatever happened to Zvezda prices? Six quid each?? I remember when they were all 3.99.

I was genuinely shocked how expensive stuff has got, particularly plastics. I'd planned on buying a load of PSC stuff as well as Zvezda, but it has just become crazily expensive compared to other options. The great delight was QRF however, who remain dirt cheap, even cheaper than BPM in some cases. Who can argue with a troop pack of 3 x Crusaders for 11.50? With the 15% summer discount, the whole bag works out about the same as a single vehicle from Skytrex.

I did get a few Zvezda items as they are such lovely models, but only to supplement some stuff I had in stock. Basically some more Pz III to go with my existing unbuilt Pz IIs and IVs. 

Most of the new stuff was BPM or QRF with figures from Peter Pig. 

Ah, something looks a bit more finished. 

I'll be posting updates as things progress.