15mm British WW2 Paras from Peter Pig

15mm WW2 British Paras from Peter Pig

Well, another Labour Day, and another merciless pounding of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers by our next-door provincial rivals (although with nine straight labour day losses, I'm not sure how much of a "rivalry" it is anymore - like saying a pre-school and a panzer division are "rivals" - and the Bombers are no panzer division).   On the plus side, painting while watching football let me finish off another random batch of figures - this time some 15mm British WW2 paras from Peter Pig.

These Peter Pig castings are top-notch

Is there a single WW2 buff who has not read about, or watched the movie about, Operation Market-Garden and the doomed British paras?  I know all the paras paid a terrible price, but at least XXX Corps managed to connect with the first two airborne divisions...

There is a liberal dose of chaps with berets...just enough to look cool, and get the point across

It's an amazing tale of stupid planning, military intelligence being an oxymoron, bravery, tragedy, desperation, gallantry, sacrifice and amazing drama, really just incredible, with the fate of the British 1st Airborne Division lying at the heart of the story.  Dropping "a bridge too far" on top of heavy duty German troops that were never supposed to be at Arnhem, the Red Devils made a gallant go of it, waiting in vain for a relief column that would never arrive.

Light mortar team

All of this went through my mind when I was cruising around Peter Pig's website earlier in the year, and I purchased a platoon of the British paras for...well, whatever.  I'd figure it out.

PIAT team - they'll be busy when the time comes

The Market-Garden story is a rich background for gaming, and indeed Dallas has staged several great 28mm games with his excellent British and German collections in that scale.  As I dip my toe into WW2 skirmish gaming, individually-based 15mm is the way I am going to try it.  It's how I've done my Golan Heights stuff - although I'm not sure it will stick here with the local group, what could it hurt to try?  Besides, I can always re-base these without too much trouble into a FOW-style collection.

Fellow on a Welbike...kind of pointlessly neat

The Peter Pig platoon pack is excellent - you get some command, three squads, a light mortar team and a PIAT team.  There is even one fellow riding one of those absurd Welbikes. When based individually, this is quite a lot of troops - 37 or so.  That would be a very busy Bolt Action game.

A couple of Bren guns per squad

I started painting a couple of test models earlier in the summer, and finished the lot over the Labour Day weekend.  I am working on some individual German and Russian infantry too - hope to have a game with them in the not too distant future.

Group photo...ready for their first game

Of course, these guys will need a little extra support...a couple of more PIAT teams, a HMG, maybe some mortars or even a 6-pounder AT gun.  One thing at a time...