Unit Spotlight - 15mm Plastic Soldier British Sherman Platoon

Since I have not been able to do much wargaming wise in recent weeks, I thought I would share a unit of Shermans that I painted a while back. The tanks are all from Plastic Soldier Company, M4A4s for the 75mm armed ones and an M4A1 for the Firefly respectively.

The models themselves went together quite well, the only issue I had was the two piece tracks not fitting together properly. However this is not too noticeable on the vehicles (You can see a small Gap at the front of the tracks on the far right Sherman), so I am not concerned as they are far easier to build than 1/72 scale models. As many allied tanks were covered in stowage during the North West Europe campaign I tried to recreate this using a mixture of stowage pieces from Plastic Soldier and Skytrex. The crew figures on the centre and left tanks are from  Flames of War, the other being the crew figure supplied with the models themselves.

The sharp detailing of the models made them very easy to paint, a simple procedure of spray basecoat, wash and then a drybrush gave the desired effect, and after the transfers were applied the tanks were weathered using a brown drybrush on the lower part of the tank. The transfers are for the Irish Guards, Guards Armoured division during Market Garden.

In the ruleset Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier Deluxe Shermans unsurprisingly form the backbone of any British armoured company or battalion. The size of the club games we play means we have fielded as many as 15 Shermans at one time! Sadly their armour value is not great and will easily be knocked out or forced back by German anti tank fire, and in recent games one 88 scored three kills on them! However they can usually force their way through by weight of numbers, with casualties being acceptable. Since the Firefly has the longer range and the more potent cannon I usually put it at the back of the column, hoping for it to avoid and German ambush fire.

Overall I am very happy with the outcome of this unit, and thankfully so since there will be several more Sherman platoons before the British armour is finished!