For the love of the Pizza Box

Greetings! Today I will talk about a fun piece of kit in the FOW Canadian lists (from the Market Garden book) - the Land Mattress. 

Originally a Rocket Launcher fired from Naval vessels (The Sea Mattress), the Canadian army was so impressed with it's results, they decided a land version was required (The British army decided to stick with their standard artillery - yawn.) and so the Land Mattress with it's battery of up to 30 x 60lb rockets was developed and sent at the German defenders in Later War.

In Flames of War rules, these guys are an all too affordable (Points-wise) Rocket artillery piece that outshines it's German counterparts easily. With each team counting as 4 rockets (Nebelwerfers count one for one.), a platoon of four Mattresses offers it's controlling player a 16-"gun" devastating bombardment, using the super fun 12"x12" bombardment template, lovingly known as the "Pizza Box" in gaming circles. That's a lot of rockets (And hopefully a lot of targets to try to hit!) Shame it's only Anti-tank 3, but if it hits, any firepower rolls are made on a 4+ and I'll not sneeze at that.At around 245 points for a Confident Veteran platoon, I feel it's a steal.

So, without further ado, I present my own platoon (Minus the command team, because muggins here in typical fashion completely got carried away and forgot to put one together..... *facepalm* Soon, soon.) that I finished last night. 

The models themselves went together quite easily, with only a small amount of shaving and filing to make them fit correctly. Painting-wise, it all was simple, until I got to the rockets themselves.... all those dots and rings.... Why the Canadian armourers couldn't sort out a different method of rocket identification, I'll never know - what a pain! (But it's done now, so calm down.)

As you’ll see on the bases, I tried to make it look like these rockets had been fired a few times already, blackening and scouring the ground behind. Maybe not enough, but I think I got the effect I was after. I got the idea after looking up a vid or two of Nebelwerfers firing and noting just how much as each rocket shot off, the turf directly behind the launcher was flying in all directions. Sadly, when I made my own markings into the ground, I was somewhat enjoying my second bottle of wine, so they are not quite as accurate as they could have been (Should be more “golf divot-ish”.) but this will do. I also used some Tamiya Soot weathering powder on the launcher itself and the ground, over black wash to try to make the effect all the better. Let me know what you think.

Tried to show the observer team as a "Deep in no-man's land" with the rifle chap nervously swinging behind after hearing a sound from that copse of trees...

A closeup.

The pink on the back of the bases is so I can tell which stand belongs to which platoon. Pink was the only easily identifiable colour I had left!