LRDG at Flemcon

The first weekend of December saw the group at Flemcon, one of the local cons that we have been with from its start. This time we had two games, LRDG and Winter War, both played with Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command.

The Miniatures Man of Arabia (it was cold, bloody Winter War)

I spent all my time at the desert table, I was far too lightly dressed for the sub-zero temperatures on our Finnish board. There we had our own Finnish hero, Ville, who had flown in from Finland for the occasion. Way to go!

Both tables got in two games each during the Saturday, and I really have no idea what happened in Finland.

 The setup. Notice the sabotaged fence.

In North Africa both games had three British commanders each, and each commander had three vehicles to game with. The rules were somewhat modified Chain of Command, and it was very much Hollywood feel, with jeeps and trucks zapping around shooting the hell out of the poor Italians. The longer the attack took, the more initiative the Italians got - speed was essential.

Who goes there?

A big plus was that 50% of the attendees were female, who had never played anything like this before and seemed to enjoy themselves.

No wonder the Italians fougt badly, they are not properly painted!

Sneaky LRDG going through the fence. Not fair at all!

 Planting bombs

Going up in flames

 A pilot making a run for it...

...and he escapes with his plane!! Hotly pursued.

 First reinforcement, sort of...

The heroic tricycle-troops score a minor victory

 A more substancial reinforecement, this time a LRDG-trooper tries to plant a bomb on it, a failure by the way...

And another one bites the dust. Planting a bomb on a cistern and having the car stall when you try to get away is not a good thing. LRDG-barbecue.

The Italian soldiers celebrating that one of the cisterns were not blown up! In their mind the most important one.

That was the end of the first battle. LRDG had had lost both men and vehicles, so it was a minor victory.

 The next bunch of players goes all out to cover the airfield with troops in a very short time. 

Some vehicles just drives through the italians to reach the most distant targets, while others takes care of what's closest to the gates. Those two girls were born generals!

 They are everywhere, and the italians don't have time to man the guns or do much of anything.

Reinforcement, that pesky tankette again. It retreated off the table in a hail of bullets.

Everything ablaze, no LRDG-losses and vehicles filled with prisoners. Time for an ice-cold in Alex. A total victory!

All in all a couple of very nice games, each taking around two hours. And another Flemcon done, a very nice small con, well worth a visit. We have already promised to be there next year.

LRDG-crew

At long last I have finished the crew to my Chevy, and also two improvised LRDG-soldiers on foot.

The driver is original as base and has had his right arm switched to one that could hold the steering wheel. The arm I used had short sleeve, so I had to build a new sleeve and also shoulder with green-stuff.

The Boys ATR is metal and from SHQ. The crew-member manning it is also based on the original, but I switched the right arm and the head to suitable pieces from the box of little toy soldiers and shoulder and scarf from green-stuff.

The standing crew-member comes from Revell Scottish Infantry, 8^th Army, and I removed his Thompson machine gun and pinned him to a suitable thin base, and got a figure that had perfect height to man the Vickers.

The wounded man on foot comes from Caesar WWII Underground Resisters. I removed his Sten gun and remodelled his left arm slightly to remove the armband. Also a helmet from the bits-box.

The last man comes from Caesar WWII Partisan in Europe and is straight from the box.

All figures painted with an assortment of sand-colours and browns. Washed with Citadel Devlan Mud.

50K hits! Yep, reached it in record time, so a give-away is coming. I just have to have a bit more time to prepare. 

LRDG test-game

We had a test-game of our LRDG-participation-con-game two weekends ago.

An Italian airfield attacked by a couple of LRDG vehicles with a mission to make as much mayhem as possible. You get the idea from the pictures. 

Lots of fun, and we got a lot of good ideas to incorporate in the scenario. Apologies for the unpainted stuff in the pictures, it will hopefully be finished before Flemcon in early December. There's also a couple of buildings missing.

This is the game we planned to have ready two years ago (a little project, should be finished in no time... yeah, sure...) but it has dragged on, and on. Now it looks as if it might actually make to the table. Me, Laffe and Thomas are the painters and organizers on this.

Anyway, as you can see, there is a very unfinished plane on the table, and there is another un-built plane in my plastics-and-tin-mountain. More on that in a later post.

Alternate set-up for the airfield.

Welcome new follower Sun of York. I haven’t found out if you have a blog or not. If you have, then make a comment below and I’ll update the post.

LRDG Chevy in 1/76 from Revell - WIP

Been working on this for a while, and it starts to look fit for fight. I still have to finish the crew-members, add a Boys ATR for the man riding shotgun and a magazine for the Vickers. Also some pigments here and there. But you get the feeling for how it will look.

A big welcome to follower Paul Smith. I couldn’t see if you have a blog of your own. If you have, then write a note below and I’ll put in a link to it.

I’ve passed 40K hits on the blog, and when I reach 50K and/or 100 followers there will be a blog give-away. Lots of stuff waiting for new owners.

Sea of Sand - movie about the LRDG

I found this movie, Sea of Sand, about the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) from 1958.

Lots of very nice details of the trucks and equipment of the LRDG. The tactics used, German vehicles, how the vehicles were camouflaged etc had some room for improvement, to say the least.

Anyway, could be worth an hour and a half of your time if you’re into LRDG.

Willys Jeep - a 20 mm comparison

I’ve built two different Jeeps, one Revell/Matchbox in 1/76 scale and one from Skytrex sold as 20 mm.

The Revell one is specified as a CJ-2A on the box, meaning Civilian Jeep, and that one was produced from 1945 according to Wikipedia.

I assume that is a mistake, and classify it as a Willys MB.

Revell vs Skytrex - they do look different…

Let’s look at the dimensions (according to Wikipedia):

The real thing: length 3327mm (I assume that includes the bumper), width 1575 mm

The real thing in 1/76 scale: length 44 mm, width 21 mm

Revell: 41 x 19 (approximately scale 1/82)

Skytrex: 46 x 23 (approximately scale 1/70)

One far to small, and the other one approximately right for 1/72

As to the looks, the Skytrex one does have a strange hood.

Better details on the plastic Revell compared to the metal Skytrex

Finally, a big welcome to two new Followers:

Carl with the blog Hitting on a double 1. This and that on gaming and modelling. Nice!

Mauther with Papermau, a blog on paper models. Good!

LRDG-jeep in 1/76 by Revell

The Revell (old Matchbox) set ”L.R.D.G. 30cwt Chevrolet & Jeep CJ-2A” has been on my painting table the last year. I’ve been fiddling with it now and then, adding some stowage, painting a crew-member etc.

The Jeep has been nearly finished for a long time, and I made a rush the other day. Here it is, with original crew and weapons from the kit. I have added stowage from my bits box, some plastic, some metal.

It is a very nice little kit, fully recommended if you’re into LRDG.

Welcome follower Shaun. Blogger doesn’t show if he has a blog of his own. Make a comment below if you do, Shaun, and I’ll add it in the post.

LRDG-crew

I've paintet the crew for the LRDG truck and jeep. Rather clunky figures, but they look OK from half a meter away, i.e., normal viewing distance during play.

The truck needs a dusting of pigments, but that will have to wait until the weather is a bit warmer, so I can spray-paint a fixative outdoors.

Book Review - Desert Raiders

Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940-43, Andrea Molinari, Osprey Battle Orders no 23, 96 pages.

I continue to read more on LRDG and British Special Forces, and this book covers the raiding forces of both sides of the desert war.

On the British side there is quite a lot on LRDG, and the most interesting for me was the information on unit organization. Tables on vehicles, crews and armament of different patrols at different times. Very useful information

There is also organization data on Free French forces similar to LRDG, Italian Sahariana and other forces and a couple of German special units.

Some info on doctrine and training and a big chunk on tactics, especially of some LRDG raids. A couple of pages on command, control, communications and intelligence, the same on weapons and equipment . The book end with a couple of pages on lessons learned, a nice chronology and a useful bibliography.

All in all a very useful book and a very good companion to the Osprey Long Range Desert Group Patrolman. I fully recommend it and give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

Long Range Desert Group 30cwt Ford in 20mm

Another metal-vehicle from Skytrex range of 20mm, or 1/76 scale, vehicles, 20/149 “L.R.D.G. 30cwt Truck + 20mm cannon & crew".

This truck comes armed with a Breda 20mm auto-cannon. It will be the heavy arm of the LRDG-group.

As with the jeep this comes with a driver with integral steering wheel, so we’ll have to wait for the crew until it can be steered. I painted the Ford in the same way as the jeep, that is, with Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow, a wash of Devlan Mud and another coat of Sand Yellow leaving darkness in all crevices.

The stowage was in one piece, and I painted it with a variety of colours, and gave it a coating of Army Painter Strong Tone varnish, followed with a matte varnish. I added a piece of chain, to hide the rather bad fit of the stowage, and also a box on the floor.

A nice little kit, easy to assemble and with reasonable details. It also had three crew-members that are on the painting table now.

Book review – In Rommel’s backyard

In Rommel’s backyard – A memoir of the Long Range Desert Group, by Alastair Timpson with Andrew Gibson-Wait, 2000, close to 200 pages.

Alastair Timpson was the second-in-command, and later commander, of “G” (Guards) Patrol of the Long Range Desert Group during September 1941 to December 1942. He kept records during the war and didn’t think them very interesting for anyone but himself and his family. He died in 1997 leaving a lot of materials for a book, but it was unfortunately not very readable for the public. His son offered it for publication, and Andrew Gibson-Watt edited the material down to this book.

It is about G patrol, and more in detail on what happened to Alastair’s half-patrol, “G1” or “G2”.

This is a very good read, and will give you a real feeling for what happened, both during the desert trips, road-watch, attacks on and by the enemy and much more. A couple of good maps in the front of the book made it possible to follow the movements of his patrol and that is so important in a book like this. Good maps really makes a difference, and here they are just right. Maps have unfortunately been rather bad in the other LRDG books I’ve read or is reading. Now I have this book on the side to be able to follow what is happening in the other stories.

Lots of interesting details, like when in March -42 “G” Patrol painted their new vehicles in “the most glorious pink, yellow and green” with the comment “if they did not elude detection from enemy aircraft they would at least dazzle them”. One of the drivers said he would not be seen driving in Cairo in such a thing, but he grudgingly obeyed orders.

Also details on how the patrols were organized, life and difficulties in the field, in-depth about some of the rather scary action they went through, and much more. In the end there is a real good list of books about the LRDG.

This book seems to be the book to read if you would like to get a feeling on what the LRDG did. Highly recommended! I give it a rating of 4,5 of 5. 

Long Range Desert Group Jeep in 20mm

This metal LRDG jeep comes from the Skytrex range of 20mm, or 1/76 scale, vehicles, number 20/146" LRDG jeep with twin Vickers and crew". What I got seems to be the Jeep from that set, and the crew from 20/147, that is the SAS jeep, and also included was a .50 cal machine gun. Not bad at all actually, as I prefer that crew.

So this is the jeep minus crew. As the steering wheel is cast with the driver it is obviously missing from this picture. I painted the jeep with Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow, a wash of Devlan Mud and another coat of Sand Yellow as a wet drybrush.

A really nice little jeep, but…. Well, we’ll see about little, when I compare this to the jeep from the Revell/Matchbox jeep from their LRDG-set. Coming soon to a blog near you...

Book review – Sting of the Scorpion

Sting of the Scorpion – The inside story of the Long range Desert Group, by Mike Morgan. Approximately 250 pages and 32 pages of photos.

This book covers the LRDG from its start in the desert of North Africa and the well-known action there, through training in Lebanon, disaster in the Greek archipelago and final action in the Balkans.

The book is essentially a collection of short stories, or snippets, collected from veterans. Mostly a short introduction, a couple of lines, on what’s to come, and then a page or two of story. The stories are in the veterans own words, on everything from daily life to battle.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it does give you a feeling of how life in the LRDG was, it is well written and quite a few interesting pictures, on the other hand it is just a lot of anecdotes. The latter makes it hard to get a feeling of the whole picture.

As I’m in the process of reading a handful of books about LRDG I believe this will give me an extra dimension to the history of the unit. But if you want to read just one book about LRDG, and get a chronological account of the action, then this is not the book for you.

I give it a rating of a weak 3 out of 5.

Book Review – Long Range Desert Group Patrolman

Long Range Desert Group Patrolman – The Western Desert 1940-43, Osprey Warrior no 148, Tim Moreman with illustrations by Raffaele Ruggeri.

I continue to read up on British special forces in general, and LRDG specifically. A book I’ve had a couple of years, and I reread it for the coming project.

So, it’s an Osprey, and it gives what it promises, a short (64 pages) and rather informative description of the unit, its roles, men, equipment, life in the field and descriptions on road watches and the raid on Barse.

The Barse raid was a large attack behind enemy lines on an Italian-held airfield and town in northern Cyrenaica. We plan to make a game of something similar, so this was of course interesting. Rather in-depth, 7 pages, about the raid.

Informative pictures, mainly of the cars and crews, and some not so interesting colour prints.

The usefulness of this book? It is a good primer for LRDG, just like an Osprey is intended to be. I rate it a 3 out of 5.

Book review – The SAS in World War II

The SAS in World War II – An illustrated history by Gavin Mortimer, published by Osprey in 2011, is a 250 page hardcover book.

As we’re planning to stage a LRDG-attack on an Italian airfield as our convention game this year I’m reading up on British Special Forces.

The book gives a in depth history of the SAS; how they formed and detailed descriptions about the action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and North-West Europe. I found the very interesting and well written. Of special interest for me was description of the battles the SAS was involved in, and as these are very detailed there is a lot of wargaming potential here. Some of the jeep-borne action in NW Europe does really lend itself to gaming.

Other information is just very interesting, for example the way the men trained for parachuting in the early day. No plane? No problem, just jump from the back of a speeding truck. The downside was rather obvious, broken wrists etc.

Some is just reminds you how awful real war is, for example the description of the men led into the woods to be executed as saboteurs – a couple of them made a run for it, and a few survived.

The photos are first-rate, and are very informative if you’re to model one of their jeeps for example.

All in all a beautiful book and a good read. I give it a rating of 4.