Next Big Wargame Project – Sword Beach D-Day 6th June 1944 – Update

The fine weather has spurred me to on to prime as many troops and vehicles as possible to paint over the winter. I have also decided to scale up the first couple of waves to match the scaled up defences on the beach. The secondary waves are scaled back down so are in the inner German defences. – I hope that will work on the day! This has resulted in a few purchases.

So far the landing craft have all been made and primed along with the crew figures. The 13th/18th Hussars of 27th Armoured Brigade are primed which is wave 1 (DD tanks) and about wave 5 the remainder of the battalion. I thought all 3 squadrons and HQ were converted into DD tanks. However only A & B squadrons were converted which has given me 7 spare DD tanks – useful for Gold or Juno beaches where 2 battalions were landed as opposed to one on Sword! The 77th and 79th Assault squadrons are made (scale 1 model represents 2 tanks!) and I have made up the follow up beach clearing vehicles. I am pleased with my conversions of 2 Airfix Churchills into 2 AVRE versions with Bullshorn ploughs. Next up are the Commandos and their Centaur support tanks. The biggest gap in my collection is landing all 3 artillery regiments – 27 priests! I have one in my collection. 26 to buy with supporting vehicles..

At this stage I only plan to land two thirds of the Division as I think we will struggle to get it on the table. Once I have done the commandos, Beach Troops and Assault troops I will post more pictures!