10mm First Indochina War Project Plans

LVT Alligators with four platoons bussed up

I've been re-thinking the focus of my First Indochina War 10mm project, which is slated for later this year, from a Groupement Amphibie Company to a standard Far East Infantry Company with attached support elements. The problem with the first approach is that I'd need to transport the units around in LVT Alligators, which though lovely models in their own right, are really expensive. I do have four of these with crew blocks but I'd need to have empty ones too for when the platoons dismount, costing me quite a bit more on top. I'd also need some M-29 Weasels, which are only available as crewless 3D printed models as far as I'm aware? 

Fire Section

Shock Section

MMG, Mortar, RCL 

The revised approach will be to just do an infantry company of four platoons of two sections each, one 'shock' section with SMG's and one 'fire' section with rifles and an LMG, plus three heavy weapons bases, one MMG, one mortar and one RCL, topped off with a company command stand. This I can do quite easily and perhaps even add further companies to build something close to a full battalion. There isn't a great deal of variety in the Pendraken French range but I can add some WW2 US paratrooper figures into the mix, in order to make the section bases a bit more interesting. The idea will be to then add additional 'ad hoc' support units on top of this basic orbat including AFV's, armoured cars, transport, FOO's and so on.

CEFEO Convoy

One thing I would like to do is to run some typical road security and convoy scenarios, for which I already have quite a lot of vehicles. I need to do some more research on the composition of typical convoys but I've set out what I think looks about right. At the front there's a Bren carrier to trigger any ambushes, followed by an M8 Armoured Car and M8 Motor Howitzer for fire support. This is followed by two sections of infantry in M3 half tracks or armoured trucks and the CO in an M3 scout car, The convoy of trucks is in the middle of the sandwich, followed by two more sections in M3 half tracks or armoured trucks and an M5 light tank, with another M8 armoured car bringing up the rear.

I need to convert some trucks into armoured ones including one or two with 40mm Bofors mountings, as well as vary the other trucks a bit by using some WW2 French Citroen or Renault vehicles. I might also get hold of a couple of Panhard 175 armoured cars or even try to convert a Daimler armoured car into a Coventry armoured car, which were used for convoy escort early in the war. I think this would be a really good basis for some ambush scenarios, both using the full convoy set up but also with just the armoured vehicles and infantry for road security patrols, as well as having the basic infantry company to use for other types of games using the Fivecore Company Command rules.