For King and Country, Pocoloco goes VBCW!

[pocoloco]

So while waiting for my Old West 'Dos Cruces' project's granarys basecoat to dry I decided it was time to start/continue my VBCW project as well, inspired receiving the new Went the day well rules . I had slapped paint on the Quonsen huts and tanks week or so ago, now put on some transfers and some wear and tear on them.

My VBCW force is going to be Edwardian force, compromising of regular army elements, loyal Gurkhas and small tank element. Fluffwise I will explain the somewhat not-historically accurate tanks as an element of tanks that HM Goverment ordered for tests from Poland just some time before the hostilities broke out and now the tanks have been put in use for the King and his forces.

Here's first an aerial photo, taken by an Anglican league plane:



next, same angle with colours:



Next pic of the huts:



And a pic showing the numbering, I have actually two huts numbered 3, two huts with 4 and two with 5, so each sections (3,4 and 5) can have their huts separately per half section or then huts can be arranged two in a row (one long hut per section), effective I say. I think these huts will be the barracks for the Gurkhas.



And last pic shows no 5 tank with the Polish liaison officer, who used to be a cavalry officer before being transferred 8despite his height) to the new armoured forces and later being sent to the UK with the tanks.



I have written a bit of background story for the force, it's on the VBCW forum but I will post it here soonish as well.

[pocoloco]

Hmm... the pics above don't show that much the wear that I tried to apply on the tanks and huts, need to remedy that on later images hopefully.

Here's a longish background story, bear with me gentle folk of LAF. Some of you might recognise the village/town that my force has ended up in. But I use it only as an inspiration, not going to fashion the real thing but will take some elements from it, like the location, old church with graveyard next to it, one-arch bridge, surrounding hilly countryside, milk factory located nearby etc.

But here's the story so far...

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Like a proper HM's officer, Major Blewe-White had not questioned his orders although there had been a slight feeling of bafflement nevertheless as he had been ordered to move rapidly with the hastily formed force in a “crucial move against Our enemies’ plans” that had turned into a - so far - two week long standstill in a Welsh village called Llanddewi Brefi.

The ride - his force was fully mechanised - to the village had been a peaceful one, no resistance met whatsoever but that was probably due to the way his forces moved protected by a section of light tanks and it was a force to be reckoned with any counterpart of this conflict that had turned into a Very British Civil War. But even if the ride had been a nice and jolly, like a ride in a park, things had taken a much worse turn after their arrival to Llanddewi Brefi.

First of all, it appeared that they were sent here because the local Royalist militia, that consisted only of so called cadets - young wee lads from the local country school turned into a Royalist military academy by the schools headmaster and veteran officer of the Great War - was in desperate trouble keeping the local populace in the grace of God and as part of His Royal Highness’ Realm as the headmaster and self-proclaimed Protector-Major Thurncout had put it as the two majors had met first time for a cup of tea.

According to Major Thurncout, the rebels and revoltees had not managed, so far, to cause any major damage in the village proper but they had burned down one farmhouse over the hills to the east. Actually Major Blewe-White had heard from the locals in the pub that farmhouse had been abandoned for quite some time before the conflict had even started and the fire had been most likely caused by the local kids playing with matches but this version of the story was strongly denied by Major Thurncout who insisted the fire to have been an act of Welsh rebels, trying to deny the Royalist forces their powerbase by turning down possible strategic points and zones of control around the village.

So Major Blewe-White had taken two lights tanks and led this “reconnaissance in force” by himself with his Carden-Lloyd tankette - Major Thurncout riding along with him, naturally. As it turned out, there were actually two burned down buildings in the area and Major Thurncout had stated he believed that the fire and damage was actually caused by the rebels who had access to the dynamite used in the nearby mines. Major Thurncout had gotten more excited as he discovered that a fallen tree was blocking one of the paths towards the eastern hills from the site of the second farmstead. “An obvious attempt to block our patrols from going that direction and a clear act of vandalism for that matter against HM loyal subjects!” he had exclaimed, face glowing full of mirth as this assessment of his about the over-all situation would be thus verified with this finding.

Major Blewe-White had not been as sure about it all as the small armoured patrol had clankered back to the village, but to appease the enthusiasm of his fellow officer he had agreed to position permanent sentries on the leading roads to and from the village and also in the church tower, except on Sundays just before and after the bells were tolled to inform the flocks about beginning and endings of the Sunday sermons.

One week had gone quite peacefully but then no relief force appeared nor new commands were brought by messengers and Major Blewe-White learned through gossip that his small force was actually cut away from the Royalist lines by joint forces of Welsh workers and Welsh nationalists. Quite a number of local people managed to leave their homes in the cover of the night during following days and there were even potshots fired towards the sentry in the church tower in the dusk light from the hills during two evenings. Much to the delight of Major Thurncout, Major Blewe-White had ordered few tracer bursts from Vickers machine-gun to be fired on the crest lines of the hills and no more potshots had been taken afterwards.

A dispatch rider from the HQ had managed to pass the enemy controlled area to the west safely and the news brought by him made the situation worse for the Royalist forces of Llanddewi Brefi. The Royalist military intelligence had learned that Anglican forces controlling northern Wales were more than eager to extend their area of influence up to the village of Llanddewi Brefi - the place named after St. David, the patron saint of all Wales! Besides this possible show of force from the Anglican side, the Welsh nationalists would be more than keen on having the village for themselves - just for the same obvious reason of boosting their sides moral. And besides this, the local workers and miners would be more than happy to drive away the Royalist occupiers from the Welsh soil.

And if this all would not have been enough already, Major Blewe-White learned that he was not to be expect any extra support nor supplies from his side, as a matter of fact his tanks would be desperately needed elsewhere if they were not under siege in Llanddewi Brefi, unsupplied. He was ordered to hold his position and to make the best of the situation - extra forces would be send as soon as possible. First thing he ordered was to dig down three of his tanks - one along each major road - to be able to use them as strongpoints in the defense of the village proper. Next he started to plan a daring raid, supported by two remaining tanks. against the nearby milk factory that was, allegedly, held by the rebellious force of factory workers... one couldn't risk running out of milk for tea!

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[Tym]

Excellent fluff.  Nice work

[pocoloco]

Thank you Tym. Writing fluff is almost as fun as modelling