More 5th Indian Division Desert Rats

46 more Desert Rats

I received a box of Perry Desert Rats, a pack of small packs and two each of Vickers Machine Gun and 3" Mortar for Christmas (thanks to mum & dad) and I've been happily painting away at them since.

I managed to finish eight of these in December so they go towards last years total, but here's my first painting update of 2014.

I did a lot more conversion than usual, especially adding small packs and swapping heads around.

All are painted in my tried and tested method.

So here is what I got painted so far:

Officer and Radio Operator

I gave the officer some binoculars by using the arm off of the officer holding binoculars in the AfrikaKorps set.

Another Officer

 This is just a 'standard' infantry body holding a Thompson SMG wearing the hat from the command sprue.

2" Mortar team

 The loader is a head swap to be wearing a woollen hat and the guy with the mortar has a backpack added.

Boyes anti-tank rifle team

 This is a standard couple of figures with the small packs added.

Sniper team

Sniper team

I quite like this one, it's the prone chap usually found using a Bren / Boyes / Mortar with a set of rifle arms instead. The scope is made from a Boyes barrel. His spotter his holding binoculars taken from the command sprue in the AfrikaKorps set.

23 Infantrymen

23 infantrymen

There are also 23 more infantry painted. I added small packs to most of them and did quite a few head swaps so a lot of them are wearing woollen hats. I quite like this kneeling Bren team that I converted.

I used two kneeling figures but added the firing Bren gunner arms. The No.2 is holding a magazine ready for a quick change. The sangar is built from cork pieces.

There are a couple more 3" mortar teams, I did quite a few grey and brown woolly jumpers when I did them.

3" Mortar teams

3" Mortar teams

Also added are a couple of Vickers machine-guns, again quite a lot of woollen jumpers on these.

Vickers machine-gun teams

Vickers machine-gun teams

I also made myself a bunch of matching dice holders using left over 20mm bases and Mini-bits 7mm dice frames. These are used as pin markers for Bolt Action or a shock markers for Chain of Command / I Ain't Been Shot Mum.

Pin / Shock dice holders

This takes me up to quite a bit of stuff painted for my Desert Rats, I've got three full platoons of infantry, a platoon of Vickers machine guns, a platoon of 3" Mortars, a couple of Matilda II and a 'Honey' Stuart.

I've just bought another box of Desert Rats to use up in making conversions for our Keren Game, but I reckon that I likely have enough infantry for now. I do plan to add at least another Matilda II and a troop of Vickers MkVI light tanks though.

So, it's only the 11th of January and I have 46 figures painted this year already.

Here are a few more close ups.

Rifleman with small pack

2" Mortar

British officer with SMG

Boyes anti-tank rifle

British officer with binoculars

Advancing pioneer

Throwing grenade with a natty scarft

Advancing with another natty scarf

Running in woollen hat

Ponting with small pack