Sunday 23 September 2018

Gnuston Heights - part 2 - Skyhawk down!

As the Syrian onrush rushed on, Israeli tanks took up their prepared positions (both photos by Ian Drury)

 The Israeli Air Force - recipient of much of the pre-war defence budget - was expected to save the day...

 ...but still the MiGs and Sukhois roared in.
Israeli mechanised infantry moving up
Each Purple Line strongpoint was garrisoned by a platoon of infantry and a tank platoon.  Here an additional platoon of Centurions has arrived.  Cynical readers may suspect that the strongpoint is not in fact a meticulously researched and finely detailed hand crafted bespoke replica but merely an Airfix Coastal Defence fort with the guns removed.  As if.

The Syrian forces amounted to two tank brigades and two mechanised brigades, with plenty of artillery support...

...and - crucially - three bridgelayers.
Soon the Syrians armour reached the anti-tank ditch and engineers were deployed.
Accompanying Shilkas saw off some of the Israeli airstrikes...
...and shot down this Skyhawk.  At this point the Syrian steamroller appeared unstoppable.

12 comments:

Peter Douglas said...

Looks great Tim. Love that you got the bridge layers involved!

Pete. said...

Wonderful Tim.

The Skyhawk is a quite literal lawn dart now.

Cheers,

Pete.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Despite all my mutterings of "this is crazy"
I am suitably impressed with the effect
Far better than my sensible modern 1/300 scale

My apologies for mistaking 1/48 for 1/35
Obviously should have went to SpecSavers

Mad Padre said...

It is brilliant. I hope the anti-tank ditch can be turned into a gardening feature when all is said and done?

Don M said...

Looks great so far, lets see if the Israelis hold this time around.....

Ken H said...

Excellent - I wonder how many alterations have been made, and alternative uses found, for the airfix buildings range: my Fort Sahara has doubled as a 15mm Fort Capuzzo - hugely unconvincingly; and Fort Apache has been used for a 15mm Pony Wars excapade - more convincing that time!
Goodness knows how many times the pontoon bridge set has been deployed, ditto my now "sawn off" la Haye Sainte!

happy days - very nice aircraft by the way - very effective models.

Ken

Tim Gow said...

Peter Douglas
As with the real deal, the bridgelayers were high value assets/targets.

Tim Gow said...

Pete
A Skyhawk was brought down early on in the real battle, and seen by so many witnesses that heavy IAF losses were reported.

Tim Gow said...

Geordie
Really, it is crazy. And yes, 1/300 (which Ian and I also have) is indeed more sensible but they do get lost easily in the grass....

Tim Gow said...

Michael Peterson
The ‘ditch’ is merely the contents of a £1.50 bag of compost. Very eco-friendly!

Tim Gow said...

Don M
You’d best have your people prepare an airlift of artillery shells and TOW rounds just in case....

Tim Gow said...

Ken H
You may even recognise the Israeli strongpoints from their recent outing at the Somme.. My own Airfix LHS (alas, long departed) was used for pretty well everything from Ancient Greece to Cold War Africa. Everything that is, except Napoleonic.....