Lionheart 84 - 1/300 British Modern Forces, 25 years in the making

Another Army from my early gaming years finished and ticked off the bucket list. This time a 1/300 6mm scale Modern British Force.  Originally started in 1991and over time it was expanded upon.

The entire army.

My Moderns bug was kicked off by a friend who played Challenger and had a good Middle east conflict collection. I soon looked to buying my own armies. My first purchase was an large Israeli army bought off the Bring and Buy stall for £10. This actually gave me two armies, A decent size Israeli army equipped with Merkava 1's and M113's and a Danish army Equipped with Centurions and M113's. So my first foray into moderns was with my Danish against a French army, needless to say I was Milan'ed to death. ATGW's from that day was the bane of my life. In those days we used to buy lots of second hand mini's as they were 15p or 20p each, so we used to buy lots and lots of stuff.
The army lists inspired me to expand my armies, my friend even gave me a small British force of about a dozen mixed vehicles which are still in my collection today. I have owned over the years quite sizeable armies. Danish, Swedish, Dutch and Belgium, Gulf War American, British and Russian in various forms. My original Danish and Swedish armies were sold off in the late 90's. My Gulf war Americans also went on Ebay. Left was my NATO army, British and Russian. My British had expanded drastically. Firstly due to one of the competitions and secondly as I was making up three different army List.
So I actually ended up with 4 Armies. 2 Main Force (one pre 1990's and one post 1991 Gulf War), a Covering Force and a Rear Infantry Force.
My post 1991 force consisted of 3 Challenger 1 up-armoured Squadrons and 2 MCV80 up-armoured companies, all Scotia models. This was disposed off, on Ebay about a year ago. So that left my mid eighties Main Force, Covering Force, and Rear list.

Rear Infantry Force
Lets start with the Rear List. This originally consisted of 3 Lorried Infantry Companies and a Saxon Company, along with a Recce Squadron and an Assault Engineer Company. This has now been scaled back to 1 Lorried Infantry Company and 1 Saxon Company, along with a few Recce Troops of CVRW Fox Armoured Cars and Transports for the Pioneers. This is now just a few re-enforcements for the Covering Force and Main Force.

Forces HQ

Medium (CVRT Scorpion) Recce Troop

Saxon Company (3 platoons plus 2 Milan Sections)

Lorried Company (3 Platoons, plus 2 Milan Sections and 2 Mortar Sections)

CVRW Fox A/Cars and Saracen APC (Transports for Pioneers)

FH-70 Artillery Battery.

Covering Force
My Second Force to undergo a scaling back and re-organisation (Just like the real army due to cut backs) was the Covering Force. This originally was at full strength with 3 Medium RECCE Squadrons and supports.  Each Squadron consisted of 4 Mixed CVRT (Scorpion and Scimitar) Troops, 1 CVRT (Spartan) Observation Platoon and 1 CVRT (Striker) ATTroop.

This has now been reduced in strength to 2 Medium RECCE Squadrons each consisting off 3 mixed CVRT troops, 1 CVRT Observation Platoon and 1 CVRT AT Trrop. These can be bought up to full Strength or 4 troops each, by using the CVRT Scoprions and Scimitars from the Rear and Main Force lists.
It can also be re-enforced with a Company from the Main Force (2 inf platoons and 2 Tank Platoons) or 1 of the companies from the Rear Force.

CVRT Spartans from the Observation platoon with Scimitars in front.

RECCE Squadron HQ CVRT Sultan and Ferret.

Main Force
The Main Force is actually made up of two Battlegroups. The First Battlegroup is the Original Challenger 2 army, which consists off 2 Chieftain Squadrons and 3 Mechanised FV432 Companies plus supports. The Second Battlegroup is much smaller and consists off a Challenger Squadron and a Armoured Infantry MCV80 Squadron (A nod to the Lion-heart 84 Exercise where these vehicles were trialled).  Supports for these units consist of Milan Platoons in FV432's, Blowpipe units in Spartans, CVRT Scimitars RECCE troops, Track Rapier, with further AT support from a troop of FV438 Swingfire or the CVRT Spartan MCT.

Battle-group HQ

Bulk of the 3 mechanised Companies mounted in FV432's (Mainly H&R)

Milan Support Platoons in FV432 (Davco)

Supports - upper left: FV438, Top Right: CVRT Spartan MCT, Lower Left: FV432M, Lower Right: FV432 Wombat AT

Armoured Infantry Platoon equipped with MCV80's (Davco)

The Teeth of the Army, 2 Squadrons of Chieftain MBT (H&R)

Trials Company of Challenger MBT (GHQ)

Chieftain MBTs

SUPPORTS
The main force is supported by numerous other units. AA Cover is provided by the Royal Artillery in the form of Blow pipe equipped units mounted in CVRT Spartan APC's and Tracked Rappier,
Recce is provided by CVRT Scimitars,  AT support is further increased by the Army Air Corps Lynx Attack Helicopters armed with TOW ATGW. Artillery is in Challenger 2 off-table support so miniatures are normally not needed; I did say Normally. The Royal Artillery is well represented by 9 Batteries. Also not in the lists are the Engineer assets and REME recovery vehicles, but like I said They are not Normally needed, and finally the RAF.

Logistics

Royal Engineers also equipped with Chieftain Bridge Layers.

REME Units

My Forces are also supported by 2 batteries of Rapier AAGW

2 Batteries of Abbots SPG, with a counter battery of M110A2s in the background (Note Cyberline radar)

Battery of M109A1 SPG

Battery of M110 SPG

Battery of M107 SPG

Counter battery support is supplied by a battery of M110A2 SPG.

MRLS SP Rocket Battery

Army Air Corps

The Army Air Corps provides additional Teeth in the shape of TOW armed Lynx AH1's along with a Gazelle for an AOP.

Middle Wallop Lynx AH1 TOW ATGW

RAF
Not to be out done, the RAF are also supplying Ground Attack and CAP patrols in the form of Harriers, Tornados and Jaguars.

RAF Harriers GR and Tornado

RAF Tornados GR

RAF Jaguar GR Aircraft

 Lets Go Nuclear
And if it all goes tits up, there is always the Nuclear Option. Battlefield Nuclear support provided by 2 Lance Launchers.

Lance Missile Launchers and Loaders.

 Berlin Brigade
As a nod to the Berlin Brigade I painted some time ago from memory a few Chieftains and Spartans in the unique Berlin Brigade camouflage.

Berlin Brigade

Basing
I started basing my armies after seeing pictures of games played with Cold War Commander, now I got to do the rest of my armies in the same manner. I actualy now like my army based but the downside is that it has quadrupled the space used for storage.
I have been using Premium MDF Bases from Warbases with the following sizes: 4x2cm for tanks and larger APCs,  3x2cm for smaller vehicles, although I will be using in future a 3x1cm base for Jeeps and landrovers ect.
I also have several commands based for CwC.

Cold War Commander Command Elements.

I will not be expanding my force any time soon as I need to finish off several other projects, so that's all my 6mm British Modern lead painted, I need more infantry buy to be honest I will never field the entire force in one go so I should have enough elements to make what ever formation I want to use.

Miniatures
The models I have used vary in manufacturers, as I have bought them from numerous sources over the years, here is a breakdown of the models.

Heroics & Ross - Spartan, Scorpion, Scimitar, Spartan MCT, Sultan, Chieftain, CET, Ferrets, Land rovers, FOX A/C, Tracked Rapier, Rapier Batteries, Abbots, M110A2, M107, FV432, FV438, FV434,FH 70, Infantry, MK Signals, BV202, Land Rover Trailer, Lance, Gazelle, Lynx, Jaguar, Tornado, Harrier, Stalwarts, Chieftain AVLB, Centurion AVRE, Foden Limber, FV432 Mortar, FV432 Cyberline, FV432 signals, Challenger 1 (Command Base)

GHQ - Challenger MBT, M578 ARV

Scotia - Saxon APC - Centurion ARV, Bedford MK

Irregular Miniatures - Saracens

DAVCO/SKYTREX - FV432 Mk2, FV432m, FV432 with Mobat, M109A2, M110, Foden 6x6, MRLS, MCV80

Thanks
J.