Buck
Greg and I have run a couple of Sea Lion based skirmish games using Combat Patrol™. I really like the early war periods, like Finland 1939, Poland 1939, and France 1940. I have recently gotten excited about Sea Lion based hypothetical scenarios. In the Sea Lion and Fall of France games we ran at Historicon, Greg provided all the British Regulars, and I provided the Home Guard. I wanted to flesh out our force with some additional figures.
The Smith Gun is quite interesting. I had never heard of it until a year or so ago, and during our recent trip to Tank Fest, I saw one in person at the Imperial War Museum. It is a 6-lb gun. You rolled it into position and then tipped it up on its side. The axel then became the traverse mechanism. The “top” wheel provided limited overhead protection. This was the Home Guard’s only viable anti-tank capability in 1940.
Some months ago, I purchased several packs of Warlord and Footsore Home Guard figures. I don’t know which are from which manufacturer.
Another early war weapon of the Home Guard was the Northover Projector. It fired hand grenades, rifle grenades, and special incendiary bombs to be used against tanks.
The weapon was fired using black powder and percussion cap. The anti-tank bombs were glass bottles. When the bottle broke (presumably near the vision ports of a German tank) the phosphorus inside the bottle burst into flame and filled the crew compartment with noxious fumes. The weapon cost less than ten pounds to build.
Warlord makes nice 28mm figures but 1:56 scale vehicles. I used 1:48 scale vehicles. I was able to find 1:48 Bren carriers from Butler’s Printed Models, but they didn’t come with crews. Warlord used to break up their sets as special orders, but no longer. I had to order a set of four 1:56 Bren carriers to get the crews and some dismounts. The 28mm figures fit nicely in the 1:48 scale vehicles. There are additional Brens on pintles to mount on the Bren carriers, but I am waiting for some very, very small rare-earth magnets to come in the mail to mount them. I think I will also use them to put the figures into the Bren carriers if they are thin enough.
These are the dismounted figures that came with the set. There are enough to make two squads / sections.
Finally, I ordered a set of Boys AT Rifle crews from Crusader Miniatures. Together, I am starting to formulate a pretty good early war British force.
from Buck’s Blog http://bucksurdu.com/blog/?p=8091
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from Tumblr http://tumblr.hawks-club.org/post/176627564928
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Nice bunch of Brits Buck, I agree the 1:48 scale works much better. Love the history on the projector, never heard of that, unlike the Smith gun. Just curious, what was the “W” on the helmets for?
Nice looking minis, and interesting history on those weapons. I can’t help but think that the Smith Gun was a brainstorm from someone with no combat experience.
The Smith Gun worked pretty well in our game on Saturday. I think I would rather have a Smith Gun in 1940 that nothing. 🙂