'S' Range Egyptian army Review

About four years ago I posted the slightly unfinished version of this army but didn't officially list it as a Review. As wargames activities seem to be suspended at the moment I thought it might be a good idea to redress that omission.

The army in full - Royal Division, Division I Amun, Division II Pre, Division III Sutekh and Division IV Ptah.

The Royal Division. This started out as just a chariot squadron but expanded slightly as I acquired more figures.

Division I Amun. Theoretical 'Standard' organisation of my Egyptian Divisions. 1 heavy infantry regiment, 1 medium/light infantry regiment, 1 heavy archer regiment, 1 light archer regiment, 1 scout cavalry squadron and a chariot squadron.

Division II Pre. Heavy infantry regiment slightly depleted (ie, person I bought them off used a 20 rather than 24 figure unit), light archers replaced by a unit of light javelins.

Division III Sutekh. Heavy infantry regiment replaced by another light/medium regiment, heavy archers replaced by an LMI unit of light archers, LI archers replaced by a slinger unit. However, does have an 'extra' unit of LMI javelins. For some reason never got round to giving this division a general.

Division IV Ptah. The 'Foreign' or 'Nubian' Division. Reduced emphasis on spears, lots of Sudanese archers, one fewer chariot in the chariot squadron.

Retired for the third time...

 Just finished my last session of the year, and the last session ever as I am now officially retired for the third time. Number 1 was the enforced early retirement when the money for out of school tuition was devolved to schools and the County provision ended. Number 2 was was when I retired Garrison 7 years ago. Number 3 is now when I've ended my time as a sessional teacher working for one of the private companies providing provision for those same kids...

I've sorted through all the resources I've collected over the years - offered them to the people I worked for to provide things for other tutors, they'll be collected some time this week.

So more time for wargames? No way - more time for garden. This pond had been filled in over the years and the area around it was just a mass of brambles and nettles. Ground cleared, digging out the pond and I'll take to opportunity to make it bigger and deeper when I replace the old liner.

This is another cleared area that was part of my seed planting initiative. There are a couple of other similar areas dotted around.

So, even though no longer 'working' I should still be keeping busy!

Recon and artillery

 Painting/finishing various German vehicles:

Range of figures from 'unknown manufacturer' and Rapid Fire. Wheels on the half tracks best described as 'wonky'.

This lot make a nice little recon group. The Schwimmwagen was a freebie in an order from Rapid Fire. Don't know who made the  Sdkfz 250s - they had been given their undercoats years ago, just finished them off. They seem to have lost their mgs!

Father's Day Wespes from Frontline. Bases just painted a plain olive green. No crews yet - may not get any.

Grill M sdkfz 138/1 150mm SPG -  no idea who made this.

At the moment I've got a load of stuff to repair/finish, so this job will alternate with painting figures. Updating the WW2 stuff is a bigger job than I had intended.

Well, it was an opportunity to set something up...

... Even if it isn't a game.

Put simply, thought it was too good an opportunity to just set up a load of stuff. 

So here's a load of random pictures of what I set up - bearing in mind a lot of thevehicles and figures are either unfinished, need mending, cover several manufacturers and paint schemes from a lot of years, and every scale from 1/76th/20mm up to 28mm (1/56th?).

 

Which means this should be the second last one... but there's no story anyway so it doesn't matter.

Age wise this picture takes in every era from the 60s to a couple of years ago! Or, in the case of the bridge, a couple of months ago.

When you take it all in I think it's fair to say that if this was an actual landing it wouldn't work!

The Americans...

My Rose 20mm British from the pulp army.

One of the views of the whole setup that you should have seen first.

And the view of the whole setup you should have seen first...

 As a purchase update I've just ordered the remaining few Japanese infantry I want, together with some British and a couple of Russian Maxims...

Atlantic Wall fortifications painted

It gives me a roughly 4' defence line.

 

Nothing special about the paint job - sprayed it sand, then camo pattern sprayed on with green and brown.

I haven't done anything about the missing/damaged guns either, just leaving them as they were.

Of the pieces I suspect this one may actually prove to be most useful - not as 'powerful' as the others so probably able to be used in more types of scenario.

I suppose the ground below the emplacements should separately painted as grass or cliff or something, just didn't feel the need to do that - looks fine as it is.

Just being silly

 Cleared the table of Japanese and most other things, decided to be a little bit silly so set up what could be the basis of at least two scenarios.

So I set up the table for a beach invasion. Landing craft and Buffaloes are either from long ago or came with other stuff bought off ebay. None of them are fit for use yet.

Both sets of my recent Atlantic Wall purchases. If I did an actual D Day scenario it would use the length of the table - think this setup would be a bit hard on the Allies!

Wespes from Father's Day, Panther is a couple of years old, building one of the large number of HO buildings I've acquired over the last year or so.

The bridge is from Frontline, still only partially painted. A river crossing or Bridge too far type would use the length of the table but at the moment I simply don't have the forces to do it. Could do something like Japanese attacking a British bridge somewhere though (literally thought of that while I was typing this!)

Japanese WW2 army Review

I've finally reached a natural point to stop and take stock of progress:

Basically got 2 full infantry platoons of 3 x 13 man rifle squads, 1 x 3 grenade discharger squad, plus command. So 1 platoon short of a full 1:1 company.Plus assorted tanks, guns and mortars.

One platoon all plastic, mainly (possibly all!) Airfix and Matchbox.

The other platoon has 2 metal squads, 1 plastic with a metal grenade discharger squad. A few of the figures are still plastic ones though.

I finished up doing 8 70mm barrage mortars - HMGs seem to be in 8 gun groups so it seemed reasonable.

Nominal company HQ - few figures missing but they are available if needed.

 So that's it so far. There are still a few omissions - need more HMGs and no field artillery - artillery is all battalion level - plus I like the idea of a couple of officers on horseback and a mule train. Possibly some on bicycles.  However, think this should do for the moment.