From ChrisP: 15mm Kiwi Shermans (72 points)

Mr. Pooch has sent in this great set of eight Shermans for use with 'Flames of War'.

These are 15mm Battlefront castings which Chris has modeled as A Squadron, 19th Armoured Regiment of the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade. Chris has some great background information that I'll on this unit:

'The story goes that the Kiwi's had a pretty bad run with tank support in the desert; on more than one occasion they were to be relieved by British tanks, only to have them shell them instead. So when the opportunity came for the Kiwi's to get their own Armoured Regiment, it was done without any haste! The Regiment was equipped with Sherman M4A2 tanks, but had a tendency to "acquire" tanks from other sources, it was noted by one historian that there were no less than 3 Shermans with the same serial number listed with the official establishments! The 2iC has one such "acquisition", having a .50cal Brownings HMG which has been borrowed from some unlucky American unit. The unit I have painted up is representing A Squadron in their battle at Orsogna- where they were acting as infantry support for the NZ infantry but also as trying to make armoured thrusts themselves, they were repeatedly beaten back by Panzer IV's and were unable to capture Orsogna before being reassigned into the Cassino campaign. 

The most novel thing that happened around Orsogna was the German use of Flammpanzers- Kiwis had taken their objective and withdrawn, deeming that it would be too hard to hold over night. They were proved to be right when a platoon of Flammpanzers appeared and began to flame thrower the buildings, setting fire to any likely sites that the Kiwi's would have been hiding in- had they not withdrawn. The Shermans supporting the Kiwi's simply used the flames as a targeting aid, destroying all of the Panzers, for not a single casualty!

The models themselves are painted in the blue-black two tone disruptive pattern. The large yellow numbers on the sides were hand painted by the crew; and the pictures of the tanks makes them look pretty rough! Thankfully they were better tankers than they were painters! This is why I have gone for hand painted numbers; hence their deliberate (or semi at least) roughness. The Yellow triangle means they are from A squadron, they still followed most standard british conventions.'

Excellent work, Chris. These vehicles will give you 72 points to add to  your total (including a few added for the cammo and numbering).