Y ddraig goch: The 53rd Welsh Division, part 1

I sort of teased my latest project in my previous post by showing an unfinished Sherman Firefly. I have since blacklined the details to make them stand out a bit more and also added some more weathering.

The Firefly, together with a second Sherman armed with a 75 mm cannon and a Ram Kangaroo armoured personnel carrier, will be part of a late-war British army themed around the liberation of 's-Hertogenbosch by the 53rd Welsh Division in October 1944.

Sherman IC Firefly (Rubicon Models)

The Sherman IC Firefly is made by Rubicon Models, while the Sherman V is by Warlord Games. The dimensions of both vehicles are very similar and both kits can be used alongside each other without any problems. The Sherman V is slightly longer than the IC, but that is accurate considering that the hull of the Sherman V was lengthened to fit the Chrystler multibank engine.

There are some stylistic differences between both kits, however. For one, the crew figures of the Rubicon kit are considerably smaller. And secondly, the details on the Warlord Games Sherman are definitely a bit more exaggerated and cartoony than on the Rubicon one. I had a similar experience with my two German Sd.Kfz. 251 halftracks, so perhaps this is true across the board.

Sherman V (Warlord Games)

Like the 1/35 scale Firefly that I built earlier, the two Shermans once again have the markings of the 2nd Armoured Regiment (white 52 on red square) of 33rd Armoured Brigade (‘hour glass’ of green and black triangle).

The 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Squadron, founded just prior to the liberation of 's-Hertogenbosch, provided Ram Kangaroo transports for the Welsh troops. Warlord Games has a nice resin and metal kit of a Ram Kangaroo, which comes with a single British infantry sprue. To get the chaps to fit into the hull simply cut off their legs at the knee!

When the Kangaroo arrived, I found that Warlord Games had very kindly sent me an extra sprue free of charge. This actually came in very handy, because together with the late-war British and Commonwealth infantry box I now have enough minis to assemble an officer, three 10-man squads and a two-man PIAT team.

Ram Kangaroo (Warlord Games)

Just so you know, I did not accidentally misalign the allied star on the side. This is actually based on a historical photograph of a Kangaroo transporting Welsh troops just outside of 's-Hertogenbosch. I read somewhere that this was apparently fairly common and was done by the Canadian troops, who did not enjoy having to paint 'American' symbols onto their vehicles.

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Little Tanks & Tiny People

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