Just Deserts - Allies end of July

Dr Alex here with fresh news from the front.

Those of you who are keen will recall that my plan for the 'collect and paint up an EW army in 3 months challenge' was to do a Crusader Squadron.

Those of you who are really keen will recall that I had supply problems and my 1st months' contribution to this army was a Dystopian Wars Chinese fleet, which is of limited use in Flames of War, in a desert.

Fortunately my supply chain problems resolved themselves (I even now have the Panzer II's I had ordered for Ben which was holding everything up, I haven't given them to him yet though, Mwuhahahaha.)


I painted and glued and decaled and varnished and I have now caught up, I have now managed all the Crusaders, that's 2 Crusaders in the HQ plus 2 Crusader CS and 2 squads of 3 Crusaders.

Somewhat annoyingly, after I painted up everything, I realised that the 3 Crusaders Ben had given me were in fact Crusader III's and therefore too modern. By this point however I no longer cared.

Without further rambling -

1IC, 2IC and Crusader CS'

1IC, nonchalantly leaning on turret rim

2IC also leaning over side, looking for Jerry in the desert.

Crusader CS, ready to lay down smoke. (also with one of the only straight barrels in the army)

1st Squad

The eagle eyed will note this is a Crusader III. You can tell by the unbent barrels

Squad 2

The army so far, 1000pts(ish)

As a review of the Crusader models, the Crusader I/II really suffers from a pathetically weak barrel to it's gun. The 2pdr just bends if you look at it, or turn the turret, or spray it with undercoat. This is one of the main reasons I didn't get too fussed by using 3 Crusader III's. The added strength of the 6pdr barrel is worth the historical inaccuracy.

Next month is what's left of the 1500 pt army. That's a motor platoon with transports and 4 37/42 portees. I have some already and the rest are hopefully on a boat from blighty, so hopefully I won't have the same problems again...

Thanks