A little while back I reviewed the Monty’s Desert Rats book. Today, I have the first of the models painted up.
Assembly
After clipping off the pieces, I went about cleaning up the guns and crew. By in large, this was simple. There were some mould lines on the guns and crew but this was sorted out with a scalpel.
I started by gluing the two wheels to the axle. This was straight forward and the wheels fit really snugly. I then put the gun onto the carriage. There are 2 small nubs that match the slots in the carriage. Finally the gun shield is attached. Again, there are 4 aligning points to make sure this is correctly aligned.
With the gun assembled, I glued the turntable to the base. This will allow me to paint the base and the turntable prior to gluing on the completed gun. I also glued the crew to the base. The pack comes with 6 crew per gun, including crew carrying the 25pdr rounds and the, longer, 17pdr round. I only used 3 crew per gun. Eagle eyed readers might note that I have accidentally used one of the wrong crewman.
I found that the base was going to look too crowded with a limber on the base so decided to leave them off. They are great little models though and BF have included the option to model them with open doors which I find a nice touch. I have got a plan to use them on an objective so watch out for that in the future.
Painting
After a spray of white primer, I followed the old North Africa painting guide using the old Vajello colours. After a quick wash with strong tone, I highlighted the raised areas with the basecoat colour. The base is finished with Selly’s No more Gaps and painted with Desert Yellow, a wash and then dry brushed with desert Yellow.
In the Game
These guns pack a big punch, but you pay the points for them too. They are AT 12 and can destroy a Tiger at long range. When that long range is 36 inches, there isn’t much of the table that these guns cannot dominate. However, aside from the points, they are large guns so have 2 real disadvantages over the smaller 6pdr; They cannot ambush inside 16 inches of the enemy, and only have a 4+ save. Like the 6pdr, the 17/25pdr suffers from the “no HE” rule.
I have found them to be useful addition to the British arsenal and whilst I am yet to tame a tiger, I have been able to set them up and pepper the enemy from distance. They are also a great area denial unit. Given that desert boards are often pretty open, this has proved to be a very useful.
I am happy with how this unit has performed and will be taking them from now on as a standard part of the unit.
Conclusion
All up, I am impressed with these two guns. They were easy to put together, they are flexible (included the option of making them up as 25pdr) and contained little flash. What impressed me the most though is how good they look on the table – they look great! These new plastics, especially the hard plastic tanks and guns, are extremely crisp and clean models. This means that all the focus is where it needs to be – on trying to paint them as well as the Battlefront studio models from the Desert Rats book.