The Paras Have Landed! And About Time Too!

I have finally finished painting and basing my 20mm Airborne platoon[1], and support units for Chain of Command (CoC).  This has dragged on far longer than I hoped, and as usual the obligatory photo session shows up the faults like nothing else; albeit some are helped out by the poor focus in some of the photos.

So, with no more ado, here they are, in their new magnetised storage box.

The platoon commander and his platoon sergeant ...

... have at their disposal three sections like this one, consisting of a superior junior leader (Sgt), a 3-man Bren team, 5 riflemen, and a corporal with a Sten gun.

They also have a sniper in the platoon (I have painted 2 more as support options).

When it comes to support, they have the option to reorganise one section with two Bren teams, and they can also call on an additional section.  As the platoon lacks any integral anti-armour capability (other than Gammon bombs) I have four PIAT teams they can call on, all slightly different.

There are also three 2" mortar teams in the support pool.

Heavier support can be supplied, courtesy of a 5-man Vickers MMG team ...

... an Airborne 6-pounder anti-tank gun with a junior leader and 5-man crew ...

... a slightly blurry 75mm Pack howitzer, with junior leader and 5-man crew ...

... perhaps called up by their forward observer (FO).

And if I want to get really nasty, I have a 3-man flamethrower team.

Unfortunately, the opposition will also get nasty, with the inevitable consequences, 7 men hors de combat, 1 walking wounded and another being carried in for the medic to treat while two others rummage through supplies looking for more meds.

Finally bringing up the tail, are some bailed-out tankers (that got included in the painting batch).

The Jeep crews are also finished, but their mounts are not, so they will have to await them before they get a photo-shoot.  I also have the discarded parachute canopies, supply containers and wrecked Airspeed Horsa to complete before I can move on to something different.

Notes:

[1.] The vast majority of these figures are by Figures, Armour, Artillery (FAA), now in the States.  A few, such as the Vickers gunners are by Adler, and some figures used the Adler separate heads.