PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MINOR) BRIGADE (2) - HEAVY WEAPONS

It was - this is typical- only after the Great Ebay Joblot purchase that thoughts turned to the provision of heavy weaponry for the (minor) Public Schoolboys. The "Went the Day Well" rules allow for the provision of either a Mortar or a Heavy Machine Gun, together with some kind of Anti-Tank weaponry, whether an "AT Team" with sticky bombs or the like, or an Anti-Tank rifle - see the WTDW Platoon Generator HERE.

As it turned out, Skybirds had produced a Vickers Machine Gun (with 2 crew), but this was no longer readily available, and the figures were in any event modelled wearing gas masks - not very VBCW. If Skybirds ever did produce a mortar with crew, or an Anti Tank Rifle, both were clearly as rare as hens teeth....so a solution had to be found.

Mortar and HMG with Skybirds artillery crewmen.

The solution for the mortar and HMG originated in a quite different manufacturer from a different era - plastic 1/72 scale equipment from the 1970s Italian manufacturer, "Atlantic". The ever useful "Plastic Soldier Review" provided fully detailed (and helpfully illustrated) reviews of Atlantic's varied products, and had noted (from the point of view of the dedicated 1/72 scale enthusiast):

(1). of the HMG in the WW2 "Red Army" set - "...the heavy machine gun is a complete mystery. It is the size of a small artillery piece, and looks like an enormous version of the 1910 Maxim gun. If it is indeed meant to be this weapon then apart from the size it is incorrect in many respects. The gunner has been well done and actually holds the weapon's trigger, but because of its size he cannot possibly see what he is firing at.....This set is designed as a toy and that is all it is...."

The Atlantic Red Army HMG. [Photo from Plastic Soldier Review].

(2). of the modern-era "Machine Gunners and Mortar Men" set - "The mortar is enormous - much larger than most infantry mortars, but it is actually quite well detailed. Again, we could not match it up to any real mortar in existence, though in size and baseplate it has a little resemblance to the contemporary US M2 4.2 inch. It comes in three parts (base, barrel and tripod support) and remarkably it is a much better representation of a mortar than many others to be found in sets of far higher quality (Matchbox and Esci, for example).......

Atlantic "Machine Gunners and Mortar Men" box set. Another set, titled "Heavy Mortars"
has a number of the same type of mortar.

Reverse of the box showing the mortar.

"Larger" or "much larger" in 1/72 terms generally means that "it will probably fit in quite well with 28mm figures". It would, of course, have been easy enough to "bodge-up" a mortar from a short piece of tube, some plasticard and a suitably bent paperclip, but - by serendipity - another cheap Ebay lot of "Atlantic machine guns and mortars" provided all that was necessary : not only for the (minor) public schoolboys, but also for other factions then in the making, such as the Nuns of St. Mary Magdalene .

Which leaves the Anti Tank weaponry. A Boys AT Rifle could be liberated from the Perry 8th Army box, or one scratchbuilt (in the style of John Sandars) by inserting a suitable pin in the butt and stock of a Perry Bren Gun. Alternatively, the usual "spherical AT shell" could be placed next to a suitable figure, as per the Herefordshire Police AT units:

Herefordshire Police in the VBCW. The figure to the left, with spherical shell, is
 a part of an AT Team. The fence graffiti illustrates the problems
encountered in keeping law and order. 

Yet sometimes it is worth pausing for inspiration to strike. The Public Schoolboys (Minor) Brigade therefore lacks AT capability at present, waiting upon the time when a decision just has to be made (normally about a week before a Big Game). Something is sure to turn up for an interesting "bodge":

An "interesting bodge". Hinchcliffe 20mm figures with scratchbuilt AT capability -
1/35 or 1/48 Panzerfausts mounted on a home made wheeled chassis.
Should the Public Schoolboys (Minor) be similarly equipped ?