Late last year, S&S Models sent me some examples of their flat bed payloads for the Plastic Soldier Company 15cwt Truck. Thankfully I had several boxes of these trucks (an ill advised kick-starter purchase for a Jock Colum project in the last few months of v3; before v4 slayed the humble soft skin truck) and was also in the midst of painting LW British! Huzzah!
As probably doesn’t require explaining, logistics were a big factor in winning the war. the side that was best able to ensure that its fighting arm was kept fed and fuelled over vast distances would inevitably win out. The war in the desert was characterised by these long supply columns, both sides inevitably reaching their limit and allowing the enemy to regroup and launch their own sweeping attack before hitting their own limit.
Even after the allies proved that they had the logistics upper hand over the DAK, the war on mainland Europe would see its own logistics challenges, especially as the allies broke out of Normandy without a functioning port in hand. The sweeping advances such as 11th Armoured’s “grand swan” to Antwerp had to be balanced by the pressures this placed on fuel and ammo supplies being landed over the beaches of Normandy then ferried by truck along damaged roads. The 15cwt, as a light truck in use with British and Commonwealth troops, bore this burden in both theatres.
The Payloads
The payloads supplied by S&S models come in two designs and both are single piece resin castings.
One body comes crates, fuel cans and drums and some tarps whilst the other has a variety of crates, bed rolls, camo nets and Jerry cans. Both are cleanly cast, although one had a couple small bubble indents in, though these were largely ignorable once painted.
The inserts dropped into the flat bed of the PSC 15cwt truck with no issues. They were a little undersized but, again, not noticeably so.
The payloads obviously don’t have any in-game impact but they make a great way of using spare 15cwt trucks as objective markers or as scatter terrain. If you are playing some sort of road ambush (say Auto-Saharan units hitting a desert column) then they could also be useful as the “baggage train” for such a game.
The payloads painted up very well, with no issues with paint adherence. The level of detail on the payloads really aid the painter in getting the most out of them.
The payloads come two for £5 so don’t have much of a cost burden, especially if you already have the trucks to hand.
In conclusion, if you want to find a use for the PSC 15cwt and want some objective fodder, then these are well worth your time. Head over to https://sandsmodels.com/ to get yours!
Good to see you never did Jock Columns. The cabin is incorrect for most of the desert period. Look at piccies.