Israeli and Jordanian Armored Cars, Six-Day War (FOW)

The Six-Day War saw four very different armies fight it out over very different terrain with very different equipment. The Israeli's used a mismatched force of French, British and American equipment, some decades old, the Egyptian with the newest and best Soviet equipment, the Jordanians with top of the line British and American vehicles and the Syrians with even old German WWII vehicles. Most of this can be found in the Fate of a Nation booklet for Flames of War, however many vehicles were left out of the book. I just can't help but add the odd vehicles that BF decided to leave out. You can find rules for these vehicles in my previous lists or check out the Flames of War forums where someone has posted rules for the overlooked options!

Two of the vehicles Battlefront has left out are the AML-90 and Saladin armored cars, I just couldn't miss out on these interesting vehicles.

This is a Libyan Saldin, not a Jordanian one.

The Alvis Saladin Armored Car was a British designed, six wheeled heavy armored car that was used by the Jordanians, whether or not any saw action in the Six-Day War is another matter. It had a powerful 76mm gun and a co-ax MG. The Israeli Armored Corps Museum at Latrun has a Saladin on display there that is listed as captured from Jordan in the Six-Day War. Also in several accounts, Jordanian armored cars are listed as being used by the armored brigades against PLO forces during Black September in 1970.

Anyway, for miniatures the only 15mm option I could find was by QRF, and after looking at the few pictures online I could find, I decided to modify them. The original turret seemed to look to short, almost squished down. Luckily Battlefront offer the same turret used on the Saladin on their M113 FSV, so I added that turret to the QRF hulls, and Voila! There was some work required to fit the turret to the hull, but nothing some cutting and magnets couldn't solve.

I currently have two Saladin's finished and will add one more Saladin and two Ferret Armored Cars based on and old TO&E I found of the Jordanian Armored Brigades in 1967.

Work In Progress.

QRF Saladin hull with BF turret.

It is a big AFV.

They look great on the table!

The next up is the Saladin's Israeli counterpart, the French made, Panhard AML-90. This armored car  had a very powerful, for an armored car, 90mm main gun and co-ax MG.

AML-90's and Israeli halftracks in the Six-Day War.

The armored cars however did see combat in the Six-Day War as part of the 41st Reconnaissance Company. These vehicles were crewed by paratroopers but fought north of Jerusalem with armored and mechanized forces. They also saw action following the war during the Battle of Karameh in 1968, where a couple were lost to the Jordanians, and were soon taken out of service. The Jordanian 60th Armored Brigade was at Karameh, so who knows, the AML-90's and Saladins may have meet in combat... I know I am stretching things there. :)

For the miniatures I went with Peter Pig AML-90's and they look great without any modification.

These just look neat.

Ready for Ramallah.

A little punch with your recon.

These minis scale well with BF.

Here are some comparisons between the two, they seem to scale very well together, with the Saladin's being bigger and beefier. 

AML-90's and Saladins.

Top down look.

So next up on the painting table is the last Saladin, two Ferret armored cars, and M52 Self Propelled Artillery for the Jordanians. I would love M47 Patton's but I don't know of a company that makes 15mm versions that would be the scale anywhere close to BF's M48's... :(

Somewhere in the Sinai 1967 (FOW)

Warning this post is picture heavy!

This is mainly so that I could get some of my recently painted and finished Israeli miniatures on the table, even if it was to just take some pictures of them and not to play a game.

I reveal to you a sideshow of cause and effect in the desert of the Sinai Peninsula in 1967.

A Sayur Patrol moving into a village in the Sinai.

It is quiet, too quiet.

Luckily they brought along some AT jeeps for support.

Plenty of places for the enemy to hide.

My love of jeeps should be evident through these first pictures.

A few halftracks to back up the jeeps.

Wait! What is that?

Enemy armor spotted!

Bring up the recoilless rifles.

90mm AT halftracks push up in support.

Targets spotted.

Hold until support arrives.

Egyptian armor advances.

M50 155mm Artillery fires in support.

I absolutely love these miniatures!

My staff team halftack with the compartment covered.

AMX's rushing the flanks.

While the big guns turn up!

These are my first Centurions.

They are great miniatures!

M50 Shermans moving up cautiously.

I used markings from the units fighting in the Golan Heights.

Flanked!

Infantry moving up the consolidate the gains.

This is now my car!

FOW M51 Isherman Variants!

When battlefront announced that they were moving into the Six Days War time period I was ecstatic. Mainly because I wanted them to make great new models for the time period, and the one I was most excited about was the M51 Isherman!

Sure enough, the miniatures were great, bbbbuuuuttttt... I am a fool for variety and the BF model was only a single variant of the M51 with the M1A1 hull, and there are several variations of both the M50 and M51, mostly in the hull. So why not just well enough alone, and be happy that I now have great M51 models? The simple answer is I have a problem, and so I began to customize my M51's.

Just to tell on myself, these are only half of my M51's, I have twelve...

These are six of my modified shermans.

Some are minor modifications.

Some are more intensive.

My company commander on the right front.

I have painted most of my Sherman's with air recognition strips.

As with all my tanks, I've added lots of extra stowage.

 The simplest and easiest modification is removing the tracks on the side of the turret. Not all of the M51 Isherman's had the tracks stowed on the side of the turret. Below is an image of the historical version and then the custom miniature.

A M51 on the right with no, tracks on the side of the turret.

I just sanded off the tracks from two of my M51's.

Then placed the marking there, as from the picture.

The other, which takes a little more time is replacing the M4A1 Sherman hull with the M4A3 Hull from the Easy Eight miniature. This required  removing the travel lock on the front of the tank and adding a larger travel lock for the barrel on the back deck. I also added stowage boxes and fuel cans on the side of the tank. The engine decks were also slightly different, but I just cover the easy eight decks with stowage, the lazy way out.

A M51 with the M4A1 hull on right, and an M51 with the M4A3 hull on left.

An M51 with the sloped M4A3 style front plate.

I re-purposed two of my old Easy Eights on the right as variant in the pictures above.

I then added stowage boxes and fuel cans on the side.

These models just add variety, and that is my jam!

The last is covering the individual tracks on the side of the turret, with a cloth square that has the numbers and markings on it. I have read tank commanders would use these in case their command tank was disabled or knocked out, they could easily move their markings to a new vehicle.

A M51 with cloth markings on the turret sides, and the flat front hull.

A simple one, I just sanded the tracks a little and added a greenstuff square.

These are just a few things I've done to better represent the mis-matched nature of most Israeli vehicles of the time and to add some differences to my dozen M51 Shermans!

My commander is not modified, but I really like how it turned out.