STUART M3 TANK

Three divided by six equals six ???????

Lets see

So I purchased some Stuart tanks from PSC and I must say it was a pleasure to find the usual amount of care and planning that went into the design of the sprues, with minimum visible production lines etc. On opening the box what I immediately noticed was the choice of 3 upper hulls and 2 sets of tracks on each sprue. This set me thinking, can I get more than 3 vehicles from the box?

Well after a little scratch building from stiff card the lower hulls were created and with a little bit of care full sculpting I easily reproduced the front gearbox housings and rear hull panels. This gives me three fully built Stuarts and three more complete hulls and still yet three upper hulls spare. Now as these were destined to be added to my Battle group British Armour, one of the hulls is easily left as is and with a rummage in the bit box for a heavy MG the Kangaroo RECCE vehicle was born.

Two more hulls left…. well silliput and resin should help there and voila two more turrets.

So yes 3 divided by 6 equals 6.

And got them painted just in time for a Wednesday night game of WWII at AlumwellWargames Society. For this game there was a second outing of my Panzer army along with the British making their debut. The Germans this time however did not fair well.

The game was based around capturing and holding two vital bridges or if unable the British could destroy them. I was on the side of the British this time along with two other members, three more controlled the German forces, a seventh member played the role of umpire overseeing the game. We split our forces into three, a recce group of Stuarts and Bren gun carriers supported later by Shermans and an Achilles TD went for the one bridge. The second bridge was taken by armoured infantry in their half tracks and the engineers prepped ready for destruction.

 

The RECCE group advanced quickly but were hit by off board screaming mee mees the Crews in the Bren carriers suffering casualties, while the later Stuarts began to take a pounding from a concealed PAK 40 and advancing armour.

The Germans suffered equally on the opposite side of the board, losing three half tracks and their crews from a barrage of 105’s off board, and the over watch from a towed 17pdr along with the second Achilles and a Firefly which we chose to position on a hill (commanded by yours truly), in effect creating a barrage of 17pdrs which dominated the battlefield.

The Germans did have the Firepower of the formidable Panther and Stug, later reinforced by a second Panther. These however came in to late and thankfully a church prevented these attacking our overwatch with no line of sight. Two Panzer IV’s advanced on the first bridge to mix it up with the Reinforced RECCE unit but one was destroyed outright from our overwatch position with a second shot from the Firefly at near maximum distance. (The clubs rules allow the chance of hitting to increase if targeted consecutively, this imitates the crew’s ability to adjust fire).

We were able to hold the bridges even though both sides suffered losses, the Germans were unable to recover from the initial pounding. The Alumwell Wargames Society will be hosting their annual show The West Midlands Military Show on Sunday the 13^th March click on the link for details and directions. Hope to see you there : )