BlackHawkHet: French, Indians, Brits, Aussies, Americans, Italians, and Germans for North Africa

All,

Massive additions to my massive forces for WWII North Africa:

A whole bunch of tanks, guns, and infantry, representing forces from seven nations! From far left, down, to right, up to far right, we have Yanks, Brits, Australians, Indians, Italians, Germans, and French.

A slew of British (perhaps Commonwealth, too) vehicles.

Some Matilda Is; not sure of the manufacturer, they're some sort of plastic or resin, almost look homemade, and I threw a Battlefront tank commander atop a couple of them.

Another look.

Some Battlefront Vickers Mk VI light tanks, which I bought painted. All I did was re-paint the TCs (they needed a little work, plus they were wearing red berets?) and put a wash on them. I love the camo.

Some 2-pdr Portees. The vehicles and guns are from Gaming Models, the drivers are Battlefront, and the gun crews are Peter Pig.

A horribly fuzzy pic of some Valentines from Battlefront I picked up painted. You'll see another pic of one of them down below.

Some Quad prime movers from Battlefront that I picked up painted.

Some Battlefront Churchills painted by my buddy AJ.

Then I did up a 3" mortar, a command stand, and two platoons' worth of Aussie Diggers, all from Battlefront. Turned out a bit too dark (of which I have a very bad habit of causing)...

A closeup, love the hats.

3" Mortar.

The command stand, or FO maybe.

And since I got some Aussies I figured, why not get some Indians, too? Four rifle platoons, a CO, a Vickers MG Platoon, a 3" Mortar Platoon, and 1 6-pdr ATG Platoon.

A closeup of the commanding officer.

A look at some of the rifle and platoon commander stands.

More.

Machine guns.

Mortars.

And guns.

Then I figured I should add to my American forces for the desert. A stand for the CO, a platoon of engineers, a platoon of scouts, and a couple water-cooled .30-cal MGs.

I am quite proud of my command stand for the Yanks, which will carry them from Morocco to Tunisia, through Sicily, and up the boot of Italy.

Another look. You've got a Zero (far right) pretending to be in charge, an RTO to his left, a bazooka assistant gunner behind him, and an NCO actually running things (bottom center). If you look at the standing gentleman in the M-3 Scout Car you can see the pearl handled .45s ;)

A look at the other side, where a young lad is toting a bazooka strapped to his back.

A closeup of gentleman in the scout car; pretty cool ;)

The two .30-cal MGs; I did them at different times, which is why one has static grass on it and the other has clump foliage (to match the entire rest of my Med/North Africa forces)...

I picked up a platoon of engineers from Eureka, put a couple flamethrowers on each stand, pretty cool sculpts.

The Engineer Platoon command stand.

And a platoon of scouts. Not sure why I did these up; well, yeah I am, but you'll laugh. Back in the mid- to late-90s I used to play a TON of the video game "Close Combat," particularly the second, third, and fifth versions ("A Bridge Too Far," "East Front," and "Normandy," respectively), and in those games each country had units of scouts, which were small, quick, and armed with SMGs. Simply put, I wanted some ;)

You may not be able to tell in the previous photo, but I actually cammied these guys up in 'Duckhunter,' like 2nd Armored Division in Normandy. The figures are old Battlefront metal paratroopers.

And then I was like, "hey, the French were involved in North Africa (both Vichy and Free), I should have some of them, too!" So I did... They're kinda half-assed; that is to say, they're not Foreign Legion, or Goums (and it really pisses me off that Joe has Goums and I don't), they're just 'regular' old French infantry that I painted and based for the desert, but they'll do. On a side note, these guys came from Forged in Battle, and I must say I'm a fan. FiB was reasonably priced, very quick, very helpful (I customized some items in my order), and the castings themselves are really nice.

A look at the French command stand; an officer with a drawn pistol, an NCO with short carbine, and a rifleman. Again, they're meant for the Fall of France, but with some desert yellow thrown on for uniform colors and dirt, they look alright, I hope.

A look at the French rifle stands.

The French 81mm mortars.

The French Hotchkiss machine guns.

A pair of French 75mm field guns.

And then an outlier: FiB doesn't make the French 25mm ATGs, I had to buy them from Battlefront. I only painted up one, plan to use the other two (and a bunch of other FiB French) for some 'regular' Fall of France forces.

I bought some already painted French armored cars, but then re-did them myself. I don't claim to be a great painter, particularly of vehicles... Not sure of the manufacturer here, just know that they're metal.

Then I bought some resin R35s that were 3D printed, very happy with their quality, none of the striations you have with FDM (or whatever it's called).

Then I made some additions to my desert Italians, with Bersaglieri on the left, paratroopers (Folgore?) on the right, and a pair of 'normal' Italian infantry ATGs at top center right.

The Bersaglieri command stand.

A look at some of the rifle platoon stands.

Even got some of those 45mm Brixia light mortars. Not sure where they're supposed to fit in TO&E, so I just threw a stand in with each of the rifle platoons.

Bersaglieri 81mm mortar teams.

And machine gun teams.

The two 'normal' (i.e., not Bersaglieri or paratrooper) ATGs.

I picked up a Battlefront platoon pack of Italian paratroopers, not really because I wanted Italian paratroopers, but because I wanted Italian engineers and the paratrooper pack had flamethrowers in it, so, I have Italian paratroopers.

The paratrooper engineer command stand.

A look at two of the engineer stands, each with an NCO, flamethrower, and a couple riflemen.

Another command stand. I dig the honcho there, he's cool, but I'm not sure I'm happy with how I did the camouflage on the Italian para helmet covers.

A look at some of the Italian paratroopers.

Then I added to my Afrika Korps!

A couple more rifle platoons (for a total of six).

Another MG-34, another 80mm mortar, and a couple engineers lying around, laying mines (they were just extras I had sitting around).

A 7.5cm Infantry Gun from Plastic Soldier Company.

A couple 'heavy trucks' from Battlefront that I bought painted.

Then I decided my Afrika Korps should have some engineers, so I went and got some, put a flamethrower on each stand, everyone else has MP-40s.

A closeup.

They're commander is soooooo cute. This is what I wish all my Afrika Korps troops look like, I used too pale of a green on all the other infantry...

And then, back to Close Combat, a platoon of Aufklarer (or however you spell that), German scouts, nothing but MP-40s. I put them in camouflage smocks to help differentiate them from the 'regular' Afrika Korps infantry.

And then I was thinking, "I've got a bunch of Fallschirmjaeger, but no Fallschirmjaeger engineers," so I had to rectify that.

You see? This is a sickness, I just can't stop! And then it got a whole lot worse...

And my FJ needed some panzerschrecks, too.

A closeup of one of my 'regular' Afrika Korps rifle stands. They're handsome, but I'm just not happy with the pale green I used on their uniforms. Actually, I don't mind it for the battles in the Western Desert, but they just don't sit right with me for use in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy, and I have big plans for Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy. I'm not about to re-paint all six rifle platoons, plus support weapons and command stands, of my Afrika Korps troops. I started looking around the internet...

And I found this! I immediately knew what I had to do, no matter how stupid it was...

I painted up ANOTHER desert force for the Germans, this one more suited to Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy, at least in my mind...

The new desert German force's commanding officer.

A closeup of one of the rifle stands.

Again. I basically just copied the four dudes on the box cover, over and over.

How 'bout one more? Yeah, three more rifle platoons, another MG platoon, and another mortar platoon. Didn't do any new ATGs, though. Probably need to do that ;)