761st Tank Battalion - Part 1 - Stuart Conversions

So one Flames of War army I've been dying to do for ages is the 761st Tank Battalion, and while there is no perfect list for them at this point, the Tank Company list from Blood, Guts, & Glory (FW220) is a reasonable approximation - as long as you don't take a bunch of mechanized support.  At this point I'm working to assemble enough 76mm M4A3 tanks to form the core of the force.  However, as an aside I wanted to have a few of Dog Company's "Mosquito Fleet" of M5A1 Stuart tanks as well.  Part 1 of my 761st Tank Battalion coverage will detail the Light Tank Platoon.

Unfortunately the 761st didn't get the photographic coverage many other units received, so any picture has to be poured over for as many details as one can glean out of it.  It's clear that the unit had both mid and late production M5A1 Stuarts.  The Battlefront US005 Stuart tank is an excellent representation of a mid-production M5A1, but lacks the characteristic turret machine gun shield seen in the late production models.  So, as seems to be normal with my armies, "some conversion" would be required to accurately represent the unit.

Since at this point I'm only planning one platoon of M5A1s, I decided to go with two "mid" and three "late" versions.  Photographs show a fair amount of stowage on several of the vehicles, so I'm adding some to many of the vehicles.  The first Stuart (shown below) is pretty much "out of the box" with only some extra stowage added. The shovel was slightly mis-cast, but as I wanted at least one vehicle with some extra bags, this one became it.

 

As the 761st was the first African-American armored unit to see combat in the US Army, I want to have more hatches open than I'd typically have to show off the crew.  The next Stuart is another "mid" variant, but this one will have a crewman in the open hatch.  I've substantially thinned the hatch and added detail for the other side of the periscope and hinges to it.

 

The next Stuart is the first of the "late" variants with the gun shield added.  The complex curvature of the shield was a pain in the butt to get right the first time, but the end effect is fairly solid.  The conversion also required sanding off the details on the right side of the turret.  I'm waiting until after priming to add the machine gun to ensure the front puttied area doesn't require additional fill or sanding (which would be complicated by the machine gun).  I'll likely add some stowage to this vehicle, but that's on the "to do" list.

 

Next is another late variant - this one has one turret hatch open - I had trouble getting the hatch to thin properly, so I simply replaced it with styrene and added hinge detail.

 

Last, but not least, is my command vehicle.  I've already started to add some stowage to this vehicle.  As with the vehicle above, the commander's hatch is detailed with hinges and periscope detail. 

 

So what started out as a quick set of conversions, quickly absorbed several hours.  Overall I'm pleased with how well the construction went on the miniatures.  For an older cast, the quality is good, though I did need to sand some of the rough texture off of some of the flat areas.

Next - Shermans!

Musings on Sherman Variants

So I've been building a metric crapton of Shermans lately as a part of several armies (US and Soviet) and see several gaps in the existing Battlefront range - most of which I think would be easy for them to close at this point.  I like the fact that we have the M4A3, M4A3 (late), and M4A3E8 variants as discrete offerings.  Unfortunately we don't have quite the same options for the M4A2 or the other Sherman variants.  Fortunately, Battlefront already produces most of the required components, so it should be easy for them to fill the gaps if they have the will to do it.

You could, for example, create a late 75mm M4A2 by combining the M4A2 76mm hull with an M4A3 (late) 75mm turret.  You could also create the late 76mm M4A2 by combining the current M4A2 76mm miniature with the M4A3E8 76mm gun with muzzle brake.  Given that there are already multiple track systems available in the online store it seems like it should be easy for Battlefront to offer the hulls, turrets, and guns separately or simply create "package deal" for specific models only available through Special Order.

I don't hold out a lot of hope that I'm ever going to see any direct vision slot hulls, so I'm resorting to conversion and casting to go that route for my Kasserine Pass army.  However, I'm working on an emcha army and want to model some of the very late M4A2 76mm with the muzzle brake, and would love to just be able to pick up the guns separately from Battlefront.

The 761st Tank Battalion

If you look carefully at the US941 American Decals set from Battlefront,  among all of the various generic names, there are a few in a very unique script.  One of them is "Counter Attack" the other is "Cool Studs Inc."  Given how unique these decals are, one would rightly assume that they belong to specific vehicles.  In this case, both vehicles belong to the historic 761st Tank Battalion - the first African American tank unit to see combat.  While a few other African-American units from World War II, such as the Tuskegee Airmen, have gained great fame, fewer know about the exploits of the 761st, or Black Panthers as they called themselves.

Part of the problem is the dearth of really solid reference works on the Battalion.  Probably the best book is Wilson's The 761st Black Panther Tank Battalion in World War II.  His account doesn't diminish any of the prejudice or bigotry encountered by the battalion, but at the same time it doesn't minimize the positive contributions of others in the command chain.  Overall I found his account perhaps the most refreshingly honest and balanced of any modern work I've read on the Battalion.

Unfortunately as with most books on the Battalion, there are several instances where many technical details provided in the text are incorrect.  For example, Wilson incorrectly identifies M4A3(76)W tanks as M4A3E8 tanks (which had a different suspension than the earlier model, but the same gun).  Granted, the layman would view this as a nit-picky error, but for historians, war gamers, model builders, and the like the error is significant.  This gaffe isn't isolated as errors like this crop up frequently throughout the entire work detracting from an otherwise excellent history.  With a little additional research into the actual equipment used by the battalion, Wilson could have authored perhaps the ultimate work on this Battalion.  Maybe he'll release a revised edition at some point, but I doubt it.

I'm hoping to do a 761st Army at some point, but none of the current Battlefront lists are perfect fits for it.  As an armored battalion, the unit was frequently parceled out as infantry support.  Given the current lists one could probably build up an infantry list and use the 761st in support (in either 76mm Sherman or Stuart tanks). 

Regardless, I plan to build up miniatures detailing this amazing unit.  The hurdles they had to overcome to even reach combat were overwhelming, and their performance in the field was nothing short of amazing.  Kudos to Battlefront for remembering to include decals for the vehicles in their standard decal set.

Confessions of a Compulsive Modeler

Anyone who's seen my 653rd Schwere Panzerjäger conversions knows I'm a sucker for visually unique armies.  Part of the reason I play German forces so frequently is the wide range of crazy vehicles they fielded during World War II.  Truth be told, the sickness started long before I found Flames of War because you see I'm also a model builder.  I brought that world over with me to miniatures wargaming.  The net effect is I finish fewer armies than I'd like, and most are never "out of the box."  That also means I probably don't have the best "tournament winning" army - but dang it I look GOOD losing. 

As Battlefront enters the "home stretch" in World War II, I'm lining up the list of "stuff I'd like to do" in 15mm using Battlefront miniatures as a starting point.  Right now the list is fairly extensive and will likely take me years to complete, but the end result should be very satisfying.

Given the release of the Jagdtiger list, I really want to convert a couple to the Porsche suspension version to add character to the 653rd list.  The miniature as depicted works great for the 512th, but the 653rd had more variety.  This is at the top of my list, but the conversion is non-trivial as the Porsche suspension version needs not only new running gear, but zimmerit on the hull as well.

With the re-release of the mid-war monsters, there are several minis I'd like to build from the Tiger (P) - including an updated Tiger (P) late, another Bergetiger (P), and both versions of the VK 4502 which I could run as a proxy for Tiger II's.

With the release of the non-zimmerited Tiger II, I'd also like to do an E-50 and E-75.  Yes, I know Heer 46 has them - they're not accurate based on my drawings.  The Forged in Battle ones are better, but still have some issues on the front hull.  Of course, once those are done - I'd like to do an E-10 and E-25, but those would be far more hard core scratchbuilds.

On a less exotic front, Battlefront has provided a very nice final production Panther G without zimmerit.  They have also given us a very nice initial production Panther G with zimmerit.  Unfortunately there are a lot of units that fielded vehicles without zimmerit, but lacking many of the "final production" features.  I'm hoping to make up a few of these as well which will involve some mantlet sculpting, rear deck changes, and exhaust modifications.  Once I have that together, I'll likely make an F with Schmalturm as well.

... and somewhere in all of this I'm going to finish up my Flakpanzer T34 and 39H OP.

So that's my "vision" - anyone else have "big plans" they want to share???  Confession is good for the soul, I'm told.

Market Garden Compilations for Flames of War

So I don't have my grubby hands on the final product yet, but unless you've been under a rock you know that Battlefront is in the process of releasing their new Market Garden Compilation.  Given that the original releases were a bit Spartan; these new books really flesh out the force lists and provide a much greater variety for both Allied and German commanders.  I didn't work on play-testing this particular project, but I did actually do some research and writing for the German compilation, Bridge by Bridge.  Big thanks to Mike Haught for the shout out in the design notes!

One thing that this project taught me is no matter how big my library is, and no matter how much I think I know about German operations in World War II, there is always more to learn!  I had to scour my library and the web to find the background for several unit histories, and then I had to try and work out contradictions in those references.  Overall it was an incredibly enjoyable project and I really look forward to playing some new armies out of the book.

I'll probably try and field the 559. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung list (and not just because I wrote the history).  I've always loved the Jagdpanther, and this list has some interesting flexibility with the inclusion of the Stug III.  Panzer Brigade 107 is also an interesting choice, and would certainly make a nice "bad guy" to play against a 101st Airborne force.

New Battlefront Bases in General Release

Battlefront will soon be releasing their new plastic bases with figure holes into general release.  One of the more useful sets for me looks to be the Mixed Bases with Figure Holes (XX108).  These bases are appearing in newer plastic and some metal figure sets.  For the plastic sets they work perfectly, but some work is required to make them work for metal figures.

Thus far I've used these on a few metal miniatures, and while it took a little extra work to prepare the miniature before painting (so it would fit in the hole) it saved me time on the back end in basing the miniatures.  The one issue I see is miniatures that are cast prone or otherwise on a large non-circular base.  For those, you'll likely still need a few of the old style bases.  However, given the end product is similar in thickness to a built up thin flat base the two should work well in combination.

Fallschirmkommano for 150. Panzerbrigade

As mentioned last time - next up is the Fallschirmkommando platoon.  This one took a while because of the 3 tone camouflage patterns on the tunics.  The painting is based on photos and plates in the Osprey Ardennes 1944 Peiper & Skorzeny reference.  Unfortunately the color plates for the vehicles in this particular work have a lot of errors.  The uniforms for the infantry seem to better agree with other reference works.  I used Luftwaffe blue trousers and helmets for the unit.  For the tunics, I used the standard Flames of War recommended procedure for Fallschrimjäger cammo tunics. 

The group shot above is pretty decent, but no photographs really seem to do justice to the paint schemes at this point.  As with the mortars, I've added a light dusting of snow to represent conditions early on in the fighting when 150. Panzerbrigade was first employed.  For the unit I used the Fallschirmjäger Platoon (GE762).  Overall I found the miniatures pretty good, though some of the faces could be a bit more detailed.

 

Above are some detail shots.  Unfortunately I'm still struggling a bit with the macro lens on my Nikon and I'm just not getting the depth of field I'd like to get on these.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with how the miniatures came out.  I learned a lot about different shading techniques and think I'm closing in on a new technique that will let me be more consistent going forward.