Friday, 24 May 2024

Decals for 11th Armoured Division - 15mm


In the course of making my 4 KSLI Carrier Platoon vehicles, I had to order some more decals and ended up ordering from both Plastic Soldier Co. and Skytrex so I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to do a mini-review and comparison. Battlefront Miniatures also make decals for 11th Armoured Div. but, as far as I can see, these are only available bundled with their own models so not a general-purpose solution and I have no experience of them.

Soon after I started with 15mm Second World War models, Skytex launched their 'Command Decision' range of vehicles with complimentary transfers. The latter were of a type that were placed direct on the model and dampened on the reverse to release them. Later they released some more conventional waterslide decals. I ordered some of these and have been using them ever since.

Second World War British vehicle markings is a complex area. Given that I just wanted to give a reasonably plausible appearance to Wargames pieces, I've not made a great study of it, referring to online sources and 'D-Day to Berlin' by Terence Wise. 


Skytrex offer individual sheets for different divisional emblems, arms of service signs, allied stars and the squadron symbols for armoured units, giving the great advantage of flexibility. The detail and print resolution is good and I've had no problems with adhesion or getting them to conform to the model surface, albeit I have always used Microset and Microsol to help with these.




Plastic Soldier, by contrast, offer a pack containing "4 sheets with divisional insignia, arm of service markings, bridge signs and tactical markings.  Enough decals for at least 50 vehicles". 50 seems a bit optimistic to me - for a start there are 77 divisional symbols and with two per vehicle... 

Again the print quality was very good. A few significant differences to Skytrex were apparent. 
  • The divisional signs are somewhat larger and, I think, oversize, to the extent that they are larger than the mudguards on their Universal Carriers.
  • The arm of service markers don't include the infantry brigade - green background with a white 60, 61, 62, 63 or the engineers.
  • The armoured squadron markings  are somewhat smaller than Skytrex - I don't know if one is correct or they just varied in real life.
  • Obviously with smaller multi-purpose sheets there are fewer duplicates. For example there are only enough armoured squadron symbols for 5 vehicles from the same squadron and 10 from the same regiment - if you are playing a set of rules at a higher formation level with just a few vehicles per sub-unit that is great but would be a problem as you get closer to 1:1 representations.
  • The set includes bridge classification signs - Skytrex don't offer these and, as far as I can see, nobody else does separately to buying a pack of vehicles. They aren't easy to paint freehand with acceptable results so this is a big plus. Unfortunately the weight options don't include all the necessary options, for example: 5 for Lloyd Carriers. Again there are quite small numbers - only enough for five Shermans and M10s, for example.


This last image shows the size difference between Skytex and PSC squadron markings. It also shows Skytrex's Allied Stars - something missing from the PSC pack.



It is disappointing that there are no vehicle numbers or names available at this scale from either source. 

I think there are plusses and minuses for both suppliers and, to depict all vehicle markings you would need to use both makes and/or do some hand painting. 

One last point: Skytrex currently charge £5 to ship decals so make sure you work out all the different sheets you might need and order them in one go - and don't do as I did and keep thinking of additional ones!



Monday, 13 May 2024

4 KSLI Carrier Platoon - Part 1


The British Army in the Normandy Campaign 1944. © IWM (B 5990)

The Carrier Platoon was a unique feature of British infantry battalions of the Second World War, combining high mobility and firepower. Although classed as a platoon, everything about it was more generously specified than for a regular rifle platoon. By the time of the Normandy landings, it comprised more than sixty people and was commanded by a Captain with four sections, each led by a Sergeant. Equipment included thirteen Bren Guns, four 2" Mortars, four PIATs, a No.18 Radio and, most importantly, thirteen Universal Carriers. That's more machine guns and support weapons than a contemporary infantry company.

Quartermaster Section - Carrier Platoon 1944

Bayonet Strength - British Infantry Battalion from 19 May 1943

Although these references state one No. 18 Radio for the Platoon HQ, there are multiple occasions in an account of carrier platoon operations 'From Normandy to Holland' under the BBC's People's War archive where a section leader recalls using the radio, including one where he writes: "I radioed my Platoon HQ", so it isn't just that he happened to have the platoons sole radio. That each section would have been equipped with a radio, by this stage of the war, makes a lot of sense as it would have permitted more dispersed operations whilst maintaining communication. Interestingly the same account often describes the section operating independently or being attached to an infantry company to provide extra fire support.

Although I have bought multiple Universal Carriers of different makes, I have held off from making a table-top version until now because I was unable to find satisfactory figures for the crew. Most of my Second World War figures are from Peter Pig but, although I bought a few of their vehicles, I never found them satisfactory - a bit too bulky and lacking in detail - so I have mostly used Skytrex and latterly Plastic Soldier Co. I actually bought eight Skytrex Universal Carriers and a pack of crew. Unfortunately the Carriers are huge and the crew figures are just normal infantry snipped off just below the waist. They have considerable flash and are lacking in detail as well as legs. I tried several times to put them together but the results just never looked right. Peter Pig offer Universal Carriers with integral crew moulded in but these look extremely blobby and soft on detail. There would also be a problem getting variety in the platoon.

I was pleased then to get a box of Plastic Soldier Co. Universal Carriers. The box has no fewer than nine carriers, each with eleven potential crew figures. The box picture even has an encouraging picture of an 11 Armoured Division, Motor Battalion carrier with the crew wearing camouflaged helmets and armed with rifles and a Bren gun. Problem solved! Sadly not - the crew figures bore no relationship to the box art. Apart from those firing the 50 cal, Vickers machine gun or mortar, they are unarmed and look very relaxed - more like they are going for a ride in the country than into battle. There are no rifles or Sten guns included and the helmets are early war and free of netting and scrim. Most peculiarly the provided Bren gun bipod is too wide to fit through the firing port and there isn't enough space lengthways between the gunner and port. So they languished in the stash for a long time as I painted other things. Now however, I have all the other elements that I need for an 'O' Group British Infantry Battalion, I can't put this off any longer.

In 'O' Group, the Carrier Platoon is represented by a normal 3-section infantry platoon plus a PIAT section with three carriers provided as transport. This seems to me to be selling the unit rather short in terms of strength and firepower but I will use this as a start and see how we get on. I can imagine adding a fourth section and applying the close range firepower bonus that is used for German Panzer Grenadiers - three Brens and 2" mortar v two MG42s seems reasonable - and close combat disadvantage to reflect the smaller number of riflemen.

For the dismounted platoon, I will be using Peter Pig figures but with prone and kneeling poses to distinguish it from the normal platoons. I will also include a 2" Mortar or PIAT on the section bases.

For the mounted platoon, I'm mostly using the Plastic Soldier Co. figures but with Peter Pig late war British heads and some heavy modifications to the poses, including cutting and re-attaching hands and arms. In one case I've swapped the upper body for a Skytrex figure with a Sten and also using a Peter Pig seated figure and one of their light order riflemen. 


As I mentioned there are no rifles or Sten guns included. Scratch building SMLEs seemed a bit too ambitious so I made a couple of rather basic looking Stens from brass tube and wire and a bit of plastic. This is easier than it sounds and only requires five pieces and two soldiered joints - the magazine at right angles to a length of tube and the shoulder rest at right angles to a length of 0.5 mm rod to represent the barrel and butt. 

I also made some stowage with blocks of plastic under superglue-soaked tissue then a jerry can or wooden crate or ammo box glued on top. On the right is a spare No.18 radio set from making my battalion HQ.

In the interest of getting an 'O' Group Carrier Platoon on the table as soon as possible, I decided to just complete three carriers as a priority then get the dismounted troops done with empty carriers and a fourth mounted one to follow later.


One thing that caused me some delay was the decals for the arm of service signs. I belatedly realised that the sheets I had from Skytrex didn't include the infantry brigade signs. Rather than doing the obvious and ordering the sheet that did, I ordered the full 11th Armoured Division decal pack from Plastic Soldier, only to find that this also lacked the arm of service signs for the infantry brigade so I ordered again from Skytrex. 

Skytrex don't offer bridge signs, so these are done by hand. After a bit of trial and error, I cut the tip off a cocktail stick and used that to dab a bit of white paint on at a time to make a circle of the correct diameter then repeated the process with yellow over the top - yellow just doesn't cover well enough on its own. The numbers were added with a 0.1mm Staedtler pigment ink pen.

So far the models are free-standing. I generally don't like bases for vehicles but I'm undecided on these - they are very small and magnetic bases would solve the problem of transporting them without risking damage and they could also go in the same box as the rest of the battalion.





Despite what I wrote earlier about these definitely not being little proto-IFVs, the chap with the 50 cal doesn't seem to have got the memo. One question this picture raises is how the bullets are supposed to get from the closed ammunition box into the gun - must do something about that!


This shows one of the scratch-built Sten guns, carefully positioned so you can't see that it has no trigger. Even so, from what I've read about their tendency for accidental discharge when knocked, if I was the chap sitting opposite, I would be nervous.