In preparation for next years "Market Garden" campaign I have been working on a British airborne force which is now finally finished (can an army every be finished?). The army is an infantry heavy British Airborne list with Operation Market Garden in mind but could easily be used for D-Day 6th Airborne in a pinch.
British 1st Airborne:
Let's have a look at the units!
Lieutenant and man:
A simple two man squad with Sten guns and minor arm swap from the SS kit on the leutenant. I wanted to capture an '
Urquhart-esque' character so the mustache was a must.
Infantry Squad 1:
The three infantry squads are run as 8 man veteran squads with Bren LMG and loader. The sergeant is equip with SMG and there are many subtle conversions throughout such as arm swaps, head swaps and captured German weapons.
Infantry Squad 2:
Squad 2 is set up identical to the above.
Infantry Squad 3:
As is Squad 3!
Sniper Team:
One of my goals with this army was to replace all metal figures with plastic conversions and this sniper team is an example of that. The spotter is a simple conversion of plastic airborne bits pointing out his target while the Sniper is the prone body from the US airborne kit with a head-swap, gun-swap and British webbing. I think they really look the part of a deadly sniper team!
PIAT Team:
The PIAT team was put together using British Airborne sprue with no major conversions or changes. They do the job nicely!
Mortar Team:
This mortar team + spotter are completely converted from plastic bits with the Mortar being the only metal piece I kept from the original kit. I feel like they capture the frantic team very well and I have a detailed description of each model
here.Medium Machine gun Team:
Again this MMG team has been made from plastic conversion with the original metal gunner from the warlord starter army. I decided to go with a 'scenic' base showing the MMG positioned in some bombed out ruins with the two loaders bringing up ammo for the gunner. The gunners Lee Enfield rifle can be seen resting on the broken brick wall to the right. This was a fun build and each figure is removable from the base to depict casualties suffered by the team.
Medium Machine gun Team:
The infamous 'Free British Observer'! This was a simple kit bash using
airborne parts and a radio made from paper-clips, a plastic ammo box and
milliput. I like to imagine he's screaming co-ordinates to repel a German
attack on the airborne pocket in Oosterbeek!
6 pdr Gun:
This 6pdr gun will provide some much needed
anti-tank support for the force! Once again all the metal crew replaced with
plastic conversions. I also opted for a scenic base and all of the crew are
removable. I have a detailed description on how this was made here.
Airborne Jeep:
The only vehicle in the entire list - the
trusty Airborne Jeep! This is a rubicon 1/4 ton 4 x 4 utility truck kit and
while Rubicon make absolutely stunning vehicles (the best 56mm kits by far in
my opinion) I feel like the model is slightly too small for the bolt
action scale and the crew definitely leave something to be desired. I tried a
head-swap with airborne bolt action heads but the scale difference made it look
ridiculous. In any case when they are all out there on the table they
look the part well enough!
That's
it for the airborne army and I believe the whole thing comes out to ~1000pts with all the veteran infantry. It's been a treat to put this
force together and the small conversions and making of the plastic crews was an
excellent hobby experience. I really put a lot of effort into these
guys and I hope that comes across. Things to add in the future would
be a howitzer and maybe a Tetrarch tank!
Next up will be my SS army who will be fighting these guys in the 'Market Garden Campaign!'
Signing out,
Chewie.
