16th/5th Lancers Sherman III Platoon

During our FoW campaign the Axis pushes forward and the Allies need some hard hitting troops to counterattack. I hope this Platoon and Company command will help me in the upcoming games.

The lancers used an individual numbering style in their squadron markings in this case the number two as found in Mike Starmers book.

Very important for me was dirt and stowage.

The stowage really comes out nice if you paint it with high contrasts.

Unfortunately the Sherman III are very expensive considering points.

Two pennants show the platoon´s leader Major Riggs and his 2nd in Comand.

Ever since I played the Commonwealth in FoW I was looking for informations on painting schemes of the Sherman tanks. Meanwhile I bought 6 books on this topic, the most of them were written by Mike Starmer who did a lot of research on british troops in Africa and Italy.

His recently published book "The new Breed - Part 1, North Africa colour and markings series." helped me a lot to decide which camouflage to decide. The illustrations in that book were made by a very skilled illustrator Dennis Oliver who provides excellent references for any modeler or wargamer.

However I have chosen a Unit which saw action both in Tunisia and Italy since I painted my whole british force for these Theatres.

The Paintjob was done with an airbrush using Tamiya Buff with a little bit Khaki Drab in it. The black blotches were painted with German grey. The whole tank received a wash with Sepia and Black ink. A careful drybrushing brought back some details.

Since the most pictures showing british tanks in Africa an Italy showed them really I mean really dirty and packed with equipment I added stowage a lot and weathered the models a lot.

This time I used pigments in combination with terpentine to show the african or sicilian earth. It came out quite nice, I think.

Vital for good looking models are details like the hull MG and radio antenna with pennants I added.

However I really hope that they will not just look good while dying. I hope they win me a game or two...