8th Army: 11th Sikh Regiment

Something a little different to my normal Sci-fi or Fantasy fare with the first of the troops for our planned venture into North Africa for the desert campaign.

We plan to play the new V for Victory rules by Studio Tomahawk which pits platoon sized forces against each other in a mainly infantry skirmish. The rules contain lists for Europe 44-45 so we will need to do a little bit of adaptation, but not much.

For my forces I've gone with Perry and their excellent range of plastic and metal WW2 miniatures. Part of that range is some rather nice metal Sikh heads to fit on their plastic box set and Sikh crewed heavy weapons. Given the active part the Indian Army played in the desert battles then it seemed like an excellent chance to paint something a little different and get the men of the 4th Infantry Division on the table. These will represent men of the 4th Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment.

The rules need you to keep a track of team leaders with most sections being split into two Teams each with a leader who you do all the measuring and LOS determining from. So first up is the HQ section which consists of a 2nd Lieutenant on his own (it's lonely at the top) and a second team of a Sergeant and two men.

In this case my C/O is actually from the mortar set but with his commanding presence and binoculars he looks just the man to carry the Indians to victory.

I've also painted up no.1 section which again is split into two teams. The first team is lead by a Corporal and contains the Bren gun and two riflemen with the second team being lead by a Lance Corporal accompanied by three riflemen. All the team leaders have (or are counted as having) Thompson SMG's which give extra close range firepower in the rules.

I'll go into the force building another time but you can reinforce your sections and also add more Thompson's is you want to build a more close assault orientated force.

I've also been working on some terrain for the troops to hide behind and as well as buying some of the new desert hills from S&A Scenics I've also repurposed some of the old green ones I had to make into wadi sides. I did this by cutting them in half and repairing the sides with some Polyfila. This gives a reasonable effect with minimal effort, always a good result.