The missing piece

[deephorse]

I’m no Piers Brand, but I’m quite happy with this.

 

Three weeks ago we played the Sword Beach scenario from the Rapid Fire D-Day scenario book.  Unfortunately I didn’t realise until it was too late that I didn’t have a Royal Marines’ Centaur.  95% of my ‘stuff’ is German and I rely on friends to supply the opposition, but they came with a Cromwell!

So after a bit of internet shopping I put the model below together.

Base – by Warbases

Basing material – by Bacchus for a nice beach effect

Cromwell – by Armourfast

Centaur conversion – by SandS

Decals – by Star

Antennae – by Asda

Everything went well until it came to the turret decals.  As intended, there are seven decals to be placed around the turret.  Unfortunately three of them decided to separate into several tiny bits when being removed from the backing paper.  Under magnification it looked as though someone had taken a multi-blade razor to them.  Several straight parallel cuts had chopped them up somehow.  Manufacturing fault, careless storage or handling before I got them, I don’t know.  Anyway, applying them was a nightmare, not helped by the massive turret bolts that they had to form around.  Many applications of Microset and Microsoft later they more or less looked the part.  Result – gap in the invasion forces filled.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[ian pillay]

Despite the turret decal nightmare , it has turned out rather nice! Well done on the perseverance.

 

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Darkest Star Games]

Spiffy!

What in the world did they use those numbered markings for?  Looks like they’re supposed to bearings, but how would you use them with something that doesn’t’ have a fixed POR?  Perhaps I should google…

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Hayes Wauford]

Lovely!

[Cerdic]

Lovely job!

The markings are a special D-Day feature. They show how deeply your tank has sunk after it falls off the front of your landing craft…

http://28mmreview.blogspot.co.uk

[deephorse]

Cerdic wrote:

Lovely job! The markings are a special D-Day feature. They show how deeply your tank has sunk after it falls off the front of your landing craft…

Close!

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[deephorse]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

Spiffy! What in the world did they use those numbered markings for? Looks like they’re supposed to bearings, but how would you use them with something that doesn’t’ have a fixed POR? Perhaps I should google…

As I understand it the purpose of the compass markings was to enable external observers to direct the fire of the tank onto targets on shore.  The original intention, I believe, was that the Centaurs would never leave their landing craft, and to this end they initially had no engines.  They would support the landings without ever landing themselves.  When Montgomery learned of this he had the engines put back in.  The plan then was that the Centaurs would go no further inland than a few hundred yards, and be withdrawn within days.  In the end they ventured quite far inland and fought for between two and three weeks crewed by Royal Marines.  Or so I’ve read!

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Jemima Fawr]

Beautiful job!  I once did nine of the buggers in 15mm, plus two Sherman OPs with the same markings.  I NEVER want to do one again… In fact, I don’t think they’ve ever seen a game!

The markings were for the vessel’s gunnery officer (who would be standing to the rear) to enable him to calculate the difference between the vessel’s bearing and the turrets’ bearing, if that makes any sense… It was also a feature of some warships.

The RMASG Centaurs were handed in on 15th June, but eight of them, plus a Sherman or two then went to a new unit called ‘X’ Bty RA, which was assigned to I Corps AGRA, with the mission of beefing up 6th Airborne Division’s artillery component (6th Airborne also had the two Commando Brigades, plus the Dutch and Belgian Groups under command, so there was a lot of frontage to cover and only one Airborne Light Regiment (75mm Pack).  The 150th Field Regt was also assigned from AGRA).  For reasons I forget, the RA gunners were eventually replaced by RCA and the unit became 1st Composite Centaur Battery RCA.  During Operation PADDLE (the breakout to the Seine) the Canadian gunners worked very closely with 6th Airborne Armoured Recce Regt.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[deephorse]

Thanks for the extra information R Mark.  I can’t imagine making more than one of these, especially in a smaller size.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Darkest Star Games]

Thank you Deep and JF, really great info!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Jemima Fawr]

deephorse wrote:

Thanks for the extra information R Mark. I can’t imagine making more than one of these, especially in a smaller size.

I’ll have to dig them out to show you… 🙂

And perhaps do a game!  I was going to finally use them in a refight of the Battle of Rots at Bovington last year, but then couldn’t get time off work to go, so they had to sub CS Cromwells instead. 🙁

I’ve always fancied doing a game based on the race to the bridge at Pont Audemer during Operation Paddle, which featured converging columns of Canadian Centaurs, Dutch Recce, Belgian Recce, Airborne Recce, Commandos and Paras riding on Churchills – a chance to get EVERYTHING on the table… 😉

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[piers brand]

Love that Centaur!!!

[deephorse]

piers brand wrote:

Love that Centaur!!!

High Praise indeed coming from you Piers.  Thanks.

The detail on Armourfast kits is quite soft and I found that washes don’t bring out the detail as well as they do on other manufacturer’s product.  I also found that there is still a slight shine coming through the turret decals.  I gloss varnished all areas that would have decals, so that meant the entire turret was glossed.  Afterwards I applied two coats of matt, but I think that because most of the turret decal is transparent the matt doesn’t completely remove the underlying shine of the gloss coming through the decal.  Looks OK on the table top though.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

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