French Escadron De Combat Somua S-35s

So due to some deals on ebay I have found myself collecting some early war french. It all start with picking up twelve Somua S-35s cheaply.  I have since managed to get some Panhard armoured cars as well and with some British Infantry should be enough to make this list.

 
The Somuas have now been painted up, and I just need to pick the Panhards up from the mail.  The Somuas were fun to paint and surprisingly I didn't even mind black lining the camo.  I also painted on unit markings and national markings which turned out ok I think.

The 12 tanks together.

Little bit closer.

A close up, and view of the unit markings.

I also figured I would include a couple pictures of a day at the "office" from a couple days before since it was on the camera as well.

70th Anniversary of Dieppe

Today was the 70^th Anniversary of the raid on Dieppe by the Second Canadian Division in 1942.  A good overview of the raid can be found here. Dieppe Raid at Flames of War  The raid is not very well remembered  in Canada although it does get the odd mention in the media around anniversaries.  I was lucky enough to visit there this last winter with my dad and brother. 

The most noticeable thing on visiting Dieppe is how difficult the task would have been for the attacking force.  The beach is steep and rocky and fronted fully by the town.  In turn the town is surrounded by high impassable cliffs with a very limit number of egress points.  All in all it seems to even the untrained eye like a ridiculous place to mount an attack but regardless thousands of young Canadians were sent there to attempt it.  In a personal connection my mother’s uncle served with the Essex Scottish regiment who were badly mauled at Dieppe although he had not yet joined the regiment at the time of the raid.

Castle overlooking the beach.

My brother walking on the pebble beach.

Gun ports cut into the castle.

More gun ports.

Essex Scottish Regiment memorial.

View from bunker overlooking the town.

Beach

I think this is Green Beach at Pourville.

Italian Medium Tanks

After purchasing some Italian Medium Tanks off ebay I decided to paint them up.  They came partially painted with a basecoat and a bit of detail.  Basically I tried to touch them up and add some camo and then give them a wash with Devlan Mud.  They came out ok although some of the basecoats were a bit lighter than others.  I was hoping the wash would even them all out but that didn't really happen.  I was going for a scheme like this tank on display at the Bovington Museum (not my picture although I have been there).  I need to but some decals for these guys to finish them off and then look at picking up some support options, hopefully ones that can be used in both early and mid war.

As a group they look good

But here you can see the one on the right is a lighter shade