With the advent of Duel in the Sun, Carl Titterington, Andy Singleton and Sam Phillips have donned their sun cream and goggles to begin ‘Operation Sand Dune’ in earnest!
Sam Phillips – Sneaky Beaky SAS
To expand my British armies into desert warfare, I have chosen to collect the deadly SAS. The army will not feature any tanks, and will be taken from the Behind Enemy Lines Theatre selector from the Armies of Great Britain book.
Due to the new SAS unit option in the Duel in the Sun book, this now means I will be using them within the army list. One key thing with this list is that everything has to be mounted in some form of transport, so I will be taking the maximum amount of options available. To combat any tanks or anything else that may cause a problem, I will be fielding a couple of LRDG trucks with light anti-tank guns, and everyone will be armed with anti-tank grenades!
My force will feature conversion work here and there, with miniatures taken from the Desert Rats plastic boxed set produced by Perry Miniatures, with the rest from Warlord Games. Utilising some of their Chindit range, I aim to convert a number of miniatures to give the army a bit more flavour on the table top.
Feel free to join us in the coming weeks, where we shall be keeping everyone updated on our progress, with videos, painting guides and articles galore, we may even get some battle reports done!
Andy Singleton – The Dastardly DAK
The desert campaigns of WW2 have always fascinated me, from seeing my grandfather’s photos as a child to watching the countless war films (Sahara and Ice Cold in Alex being my favourites), however between one thing and another I never went so far as building an actual force for myself. Crank forwards to painting for food and I’ve now done hundreds upon hundreds of desert theatre models for everyone but myself, so with the release of Duel in the Sun I decided it was time to change that.
Initially I had thought to do a small, say 750 point, armoured recce platoon of Afrika Korp vehicles, however between receiving Duel in the Sun and carrying out some wider research into the desert campaign, as well as a bit more family research, my overall plan now is to do a Panzer platoon, a panzer grenadier platoon and a German recce platoon, and have this paired up against British Armoured, infantry and LRDG/SAS platoons. As if that’s not enough I’m also wanting to do a very early war American force themed around Kasserine Pass.
You can follow my progress through my blog at volleyfirepainting.blogspot.com as well as through Carl’s video chats and I’ll share some of the painting and gaming tricks I learn right here in the newsletter too.
Carl Titterington – The British Regulars
I am sure most of us have seen some of the classic war films set in the deserts of North Africa. Films such as The Desert Rats, Raid on Rommel, Tobruk and even the opening sequence of Tom Cruise’s Valkyre. For me the desert war fits beautifully into my favoured part of the war, 1939-1941. The war in North Africa has the quantity of armour of the mid to late war period but with the quality of armour of the early war period. With the release of Duels in the Sun, I just couldn’t help but get drawn towards a North Africa project.
For this project my plan is to create two platoons of roughly 650 points each. The first of my platoons will be an 8th Army Desert Rats force from the Operation Compass list supported by a Vickers Light Tank and some transports in the way of the classic Bedford 3-ton trucks. I am hoping that this will make my force mobile and flexible. My second platoon is going to be based on an Indian force. I plan on using the Operation Lightfoot list and they will again be mobile with the use of the Bedfords and will be supported by none other than the Crusader tank.
If all goes well this force should hopefully provide a solid defence against the might of the Afrika Korps I’m planning to build for my friend Dan. I’m also very excited to use these forces and develop them into forces that will work for Tank Wars, which I have not played before. We plan on having several live web chats via my YouTube channel and I shall be posting update videos, reviews and battle reports on my channel too. If you wish to check these out or any of my other videos check out my channel at this link or search YouTube for T’s Creative Ramblings.
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon