Chris sends in this interesting group of various New Zealand armour from World War Two.
First up is a pair of Shermans. The one with the '17' on the hull is the squadron HQ tank, while the other serves as an artillery spotter with a suitable observer jonesing' out of the cupola.
The three above are 'Jalopy' conversions that Chris made, based from M5 'Stuarts'.
'The Jalopy was essentially an M5 Stuart light tank, with it's turret removed. The allies found the 37mm gun woefully inadequate against enemy tanks, and given the muddy terrain they removed the turret to make the whole vehicle lighter, improving it's cross country performance. In place of the turret, a 50 calibre Browning HMG was added, offering good infantry support firepower. The Kiwis not to be totally without protection added armoured plates around the gun itself, to give the gunner some measure of protection.
The Jalopies are converted Battlefront Stuart tanks, with plastic 50 cals spare from the Sherman tanks, gun shields from spare M113 ACAV vehicles (more BF stuff!) and crewmen from universal carriers. Then done up in the khaki/black camo scheme, with the regimental symbol (diamond) and the tank number in the same style as the Shermans.'
Finally we have a T2 recovery tank.
'The story goes that the 4th armoured had only wheeled recovery vehicles on their Order of Battle, but the terrain in Italy demanded the need for something more capable! The 20th Armoured Regiment came upon a suspicious looking haystack in their advance in Italy, lo and behold an armoured recovery vehicle was inside, bogged down! So once the kiwis had pulled it out under sporadic mortar fire, they painted over the allied star and then it was theirs! Eventually the Americans wanted it back, but the 20th managed to keep it. Once the 20th had gotten theirs, the other armoured regiments got one through far more legitimate means!'
Great models and great little bit of history - thanks Chris!
These six tanks will give Chris a base of 48 points but I'm giving him an extra 12 points for the 'Jalopy' conversions. So, 60 points total. Nicely done.
Ummmmm, very interesting. I thought, the armour units for Nz and Australian were Valentine units. Very nice!!!
ReplyDeleteMore nice paint jobs, love the conversion work
ReplyDeleteIan
Kiwis did get valentines, but only used them for the Pacific theatre. In Italy, we got Shermans! The only valentines in Italy were bridgelayers. The 4th armored fought the whole way through Italy with Shermans.
ReplyDeleteAustralians had some crusaders in the desert before getting Valentines for the pacific war.
Glad you like em!
They are very nice models, Chris. I like a lot the painting.
ReplyDeleteRegards.
love the Jalopies , nicely done.
ReplyDeleteNice work!
ReplyDelete...and I've NEVER been a "rules lawyer" but Curt DID put a pic of Judge Dredd in the painting competition rules - where it says, "...In order to be scored the figures have to be based and any groundwork completed..."
The TRUE "rules lawyers" out there might have an issue with these guys... (just sayin'...)
Yes, but these are tanks which do not require basing unless desired (My impression is that bases are not mandatory for vehicles above 1:285 in most systems). Besides, I've made it clear that all dissenters and rules lawyers will be summarily shot...
ReplyDelete